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THE

Jewish Encyclopedia

A DESCRIPTIVE RECORD OF

THE HISTORY, RELIGION, LITERATURE, AND CUS-
TOMS OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE FROM THE
EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY

Prepared by More than Four Hundred Scholars and Specialists

UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE FOLLOWING EDITORIAL BOARD

Cyrus Adler, Ph.D. ( Departments of Post - Morris Jastrow, Jr . Ph.IJ. (Department of the
Biblical Antiquities and the Jews of America). Bible).

Gotthard Deutsch, Ph.D. (Department of Kaufmann Kohler, Ph.D. (Departments of
History from 1492 to 1902) . Theology and Philosophy) .

Louis Ginzberg, Ph.D. (Department of Bab- Frederick i>e Sola Mf.ndes, Ph.D. (Chief of
binical Literature) . the Bureau of Translation ; Revising Editor).

Richard Gottheii., Ph.D. (Departments of „ .. „ „ . . , .. .1 T

... . , ,, ’ Jr/. n . Herman Rosenthal (Department of the Jews of

History from Ezra to 1492 and History of Post- Russ a anti Poland )

Talmudic Literature).

Joseph Jacobs, B.A. (Departments of the Jews ISIDORE Singer, Ph.D. (Department of Modern
of England and Anthropology ; Revising Editor). Biography from /jyo to 1902).

Marcus Jastrow, Ph.D. (Department of the Crawford H. Toy, D.D., LL.D. (Departments
Talmud). of Hebrew Philology and Hellenistic Literature).

ISAAC K. FUNK, D.D., LL.D. FRANK H. VIZETELLV

Chairman of the Board Secretary 0/ the Board

ISIDORE SINGER. Ph.D.

Projector and Managing Editor

ASSISTED BY AMERICAN AND FOREIGN BOARDS OF CONSULTING EDITORS

COMPLETE IN TWELVE VOLUMES

EMBELLISHED WITH MORE THAN TWO THOUSAND ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

FUNK AND WAG NALLS COMPANY

MDCCCCIII

(From “The World’s Work.” Copyright, 1901, Doubleday, Page & Co.)

BAR MIZWAH RECITING HIS PORTION OF THE LAW.

The Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. II.

Photograph by Mandelkern.

THE

Jewish Encyclopedia

A DESCRIPTIVE RECORD OF

THE HISTORY, RELIGION, LITERATURE, AND CUS-
TOMS OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE FROM THE
EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY

Prepared by More than Four Hundred Scholars and Specialists

UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE FOLLOWING EDITORIAL BOARD

Cyrus Adler, Ph.D. ( Departments of Post-
Biblical Antiquities and the Jews of America) .

Gotthard Deutsch, Ph.D. ( Department of
History from 1492 to 1902) .

Louis Ginzberg, Ph.D. (Department of Rab-
binical Literature ) .

Richard Gottheil, Ph.D. (Departments of
History from Ezra to 1 492 and History of Post-
Talmudic Literature ) .

Joseph Jacobs, B.A. (Departments of the Jews
of England and Anthropology ; Revising Editor).

Marcus Jastrow, Ph.D. (Department of the
Talmud) .

Morris Jastrow, Jr., Ph.D. (Department of the
Bible).

Kaufmann Kohler, Ph.D. (Departments of
Theology and Philosophy ) .

Frederick de Sola Mendes, Ph.D. (Chief of
the Bureau of Translation ; Revising Editor).

Herman Rosenthal (Department of the Jews of
Russia and Poland).

Isidore Singer, Ph.D. (Department of Modern
Biography from 1750 to 1902) .

Crawford H. Toy, D.D., LL.D. (Departments
of Hebrew Philology and Hellenistic Literature).

ISAAC K. FUNK, D.D., LL.D.

Chairman of the Board

FRANK H. VIZETELLY

Secretary of the Board

ISIDORE SINGER, Ph.D.

Protector and Managing Editor

ASSISTED BY AMERICAN AND FOREIGN BOARDS OF CONSULTING EDITORS

VOLUME II

APOCRYPHA— BENASH

NEW YORK AND LONDON

FUNK AND WAGNALLS COMPANY

M DCCCCIII

&fH jSxN

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY

A ll rights of translation reserved

Registered at Stationers’ Hall, London, England
[ Printed in the United States of A merica ]

LITERARY DIRECTORATE

EDITORIAL BOARD

CYRUS ADLER, Ph.D.

( Departments of Post-Biblical Antiquities and the Jews of
America.)

President of the American Jewish Historical Society; Libra-
rian, Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D. C.

GOTTHARD DEUTSCH, Ph.D.

(Department of History from 11*92 to 1902.)

Professor of Jewish History, Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati,
Ohio ; Editor of " Deborah.”

LOUIS GINZBERG, Ph.D.

( Department of Rabbinical Literature.)

New York; Author of “Die Haggada bei den Kirchenviitem.”

RICHARD GOTTHEIL, Ph.D.

(Departments of History from Ezra to 11*92 and History of
Post-Talmudic Literature.)

Professorof Semitic Languages, Columbia University, New York;
Chief of the Oriental Department, New York Public Library ;
President of the Federation of American Zionists.

JOSEPH JACOBS, B.A.

(Departments of the Jews of England and Anthropology ;
Revising Editor.)

Formerly President of the Jewish Historical Society of England ;
Author of “Jews of Angevin England,” etc.

MARCUS JASTROW, Ph.D.

( Department of the Talmud.)

Rabbi Emeritus of the Congregation Rodef Shalom, Philadel-
phia, Pa.; Author of “ Dictionary of the Talmud.”

MORRIS JASTROW, Jr., Ph.D.

(Department of the Bible.)

Professor of Semitic Languages and Librarian in the University
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.; Author of “ Relig-
ion of the Babylonians and Assyrians,” etc.

AMERICAN BOARD OF

BERNARD DRACHM AN, Ph.D.,

Rabbi of the Congregation Zichron Ephraim, Dean of the Jewish
Theological Seminary, New York.

B. FELSENTHAL, Ph.D.,

Rabbi Emeritus of Zion Congregation, Chicago ; Author of “ A
Practical Grammar of the Hebrew Language.”

GUSTAV GOTTHEIL, Ph.D.,

Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Emanu-El, New York.

EMIL G. HIRSCH, Ph.D., LL.D.,

Rabbi of Chicago Sinai Congregation, Chicago, 111.; Professor of
Rabbinical Literature and Philosophy, University of
Chicago ; Editor of the “ Reform Advocate.”

KAUFMANN KOHLER, Ph.D.

(Departments of Theology and Philosophy.)

Rabbi of Temple Beth-El, New York ; President of the Board
of Jewish Ministers, New York.

FREDERICK DE SOLA MENDES, Ph.D.

( Chief of the Bureau of Translation ; Revising Editor .)
Rabbi of the West End Synagogue, New York ; Author of “Out-
lines of Bible History',” “ Child’s First Bible,” etc.

HERMAN ROSENTHAL.

(Department of the Jews of Russia anil Poland.)

Chief of the Slavonic Department, New York Library.

ISIDORE SINGER, Ph.D.

Managing Editor.

(Department of Modern Biography from 1790 to 190!.)

CRAWFORD HOWELL TOY, D.D., LL.D.

(Departments of Hebrew Philology and Hellenistic
Literature.)

Professorof Hebrew in Harvard University, Cambridge. Mass.;
Author of “ The Religion of Israel,” “Judaism and
Christianity,” etc.

I. K. FUNK, D.D., LL.D.

(Chairman of the Board.)

Editor-in-Chief of the Standard Dictionary of the English
Language, etc.

FRAtfK H. VIZETELLY.

(Secretary of the Board.)

Associate Editor of “The Columbian Encyclopedia,” and on the
Standard Dictionary Editorial Staff, etc.

0 «

CONSULTING EDITORS

HENRY HYVERNAT, D.D.,

Head of the Department of Semitic and Egyptian Literatures,
Catholic University of America, Washington, D. C.

J. FREDERIC McCURDY, Ph.D., LL.D.,

Professor of Oriental Languages, University College, Toronto,
Canada ; Author of “ History, Prophecy, and
the Monuments.”

H. PEREIRA MENDES, M.D.,

Rabbi of the Shearith Israel Congregation (Spanish and Portu-
guese), New York ; President of the Board of Jewish
Ministers, New York.

MOSES MIELZINER, Ph.D., D.D.,

President of the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio: Au-
thor of “ Introduction to the Talmud.”

LITERARY DIRECTORATE

GEORGE F. MOORE, M.A., D.D.,

Professor of Biblical Literature and tbe History of Religions in
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; Author of “A
Commentary on the Book of Judges,” etc.
DAVID PHILIPSON, D.D.,

Rabbi of the Congregation Bene Israel ; Professor of Homiletics,
Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio ; President of
Hebrew Sabbath School Union of America.

IRA MAURICE PRICE, B.D., Ph.D.,
Professor of Semitic Languages and Literatures, University of
Chicago, 111.; Author of “The Monuments and
the Old Testament,” etc.

JOSEPH SILVERMAN, D.D.,

President of Central Conference of American Rabbis; Rabbi of
Temple Emanu-El, New York.

JACOB VOORSANGER, D.D.,

Rabbi of the Congregation Emanu-El, San Francisco, Cal.; Pro-
fessor of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Uni-
versity of California, Berkeley, Cal.

EDWARD J. WHEELER, M.A.,

Editor of “ The Literary Digest,” New York ; Author of “ Stories
in Rhyme,” etc.

FOREIGN BOARD OF CONSULTING EDITORS

ISRAEL ABRAHAMS, M.A.,

Coeditor of the “Jewish Quarterly Review ” ; Author of “Jew-
ish Life in the Middle Ages,” etc.; Reader of Rabbinic,
Cambridge University, England.

ANATOLE LEROY-BEAULIEU,

Member of the French Institute ; Professor at the Free School
of Political Science, Paris, France; Author of
“ Israel chez les Nations.”

W. BACHER, Ph.D.,

Professor in the Jewish Theological Seminary. Budapest,
Hungary.

M. BRANN, Ph.D.,

Professor in the Jewish Theological Seminary, Breslau, Ger-
many ; Editor of " Monatsschrift fur Geschichte und
Wissenschaft des Judenthums.”

ISRAEL LEVI,

Professor in the Jewish Theological Seminary ; Editor of
“Revue des Etudes Juives,” Paris, France.

EUDE LOLLI, D.D.,

Chief Rabbi of Padua ; Professor of Hebrew at the University,
Padua, Italy.

H. BRODY, Ph.D.,

Rabbi, Naehod, Bohemia. Austria ; Coeditor of “ Zeitschrift fur
Hebraische Bibliographie.”

IMMANUEL LOW, Ph.D.,

Chief Rabbi of Szegedin, Hungary; Author of “ Die Aramaischeu
Pflanzennamen.”

ABRAHAM DANON,

Principal of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Constantinople,
Turkey.

HARTWIG DERENBOURG, Ph.D.,

Professor of Literary Arabic at the Special School of Oriental
Languages, Paris ; Member of the Institut de France.

S. M. DUBNOW,

Author of “ Istoriya Yevreyev,” Odessa, Russia.

MICHAEL FRIEDLANDER, Ph.D.,

Principal of Jews’ College, London, England; Author of “The
Jewish Religion,” etc.

IGNAZ GOLDZIHER, Ph.D.,

Professor of Semitic Philology, University of Budapest,
Hungary.

M. GUDEMANN, Ph.D.,

Chief Rabbi of Vienna, Austria.

BARON DAVID GUNZBURG,

St. Petersburg, Russia.

A. HARKAVY, Ph.D.,

Chief of the Hebrew Department of the Imperial Public Library,
St. Petersburg, Russia.

ZADOC KAHN,

Chief Rabbi of France; Honorary President of the Alliance
Israelite Universelle ; Officer of the Legion
of Honor, Paris, France.

M. KAYSERLING, Ph.D.,

Rabbi, Budapest, Hungary; Corresponding Member of the
Royal Academy of History, Madrid, Spain.

MORITZ LAZARUS, Ph.D.,

Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Berlin ; Meran,
Austria.

S. H. MARGULIES, Ph.D.,

Principal of the Jewish Theological Seminary ; Chief Rabbi of
Florence, Italy.

H. OORT, D.D.,

Professor of Hebrew Language and Archeology at the State
University, Leyden, Holland.

ABBE PIETRO PERREAU,

Formerly Librarian of the Reale Biblioteca Palatina, Parma,
Italy.

MARTIN PHILIPPSON, Ph.D.,

Formerly Professor of History at the Universities of Bonn and
Brussels; President of the Deutsch-Jiidiscbe
Gemeindebund, Berlin, Germany.

SAMUEL POZNANSKI, Ph.D.,

Rabbi in Warsaw, Russia.

SOLOMON SCHECHTER M.A., Litt.D.,

President of the Faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary of
America, New York; Author of ‘ Studies in Judaism.”

E. SCHWARZFELD, Ph.D.,

Secretary-General of the Jewish Colonization Association, Paris,
France.

LUDWIG STEIN, Ph.D.,

Professor of Philosophy, University of Bern, Switzerland ; Editor
of “ Archiv fur Geschichte der Philosophie,” etc.

HERMANN L. STRACK, Ph.D.,

Professor of Old Testament Exegesis and Semitic Languages,
. University of Berlin, Germany.

CHARLES TAYLOR, D.D., LL.D.,

Master of St. John’s College, Cambridge, England ; Editor of
“ Sayings of the Jewish Fathers,” etc.

PREFATORY NOTE

THE present volume of The Jewish Encyclopedia lias been carried out on the
principles explained at length in the general preface in the first volume. Only
in one particular has a deviation been made from the plan there adopted. The
delimitation of the various departments in some instances having proved extremely diffi-
cult, it has been found desirable to indicate, in the case of each article, the department
editor who is responsible for its appearance in the volume, by printing the initial of
the editor on the left-hand side and the initials of the contributor or contributors in
larger type on the right. When articles have been passed by the Executive Committee
of the Editorial Board, instead of by the department editor, the initials “ E. c.” appear
at the left.

New York, June 20, 1902, FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY.

SYSTEMS OF TRANSLITERATION AND OF CITATION

OF PROPER NAMES*

A.— Rules for the Transliteration of Hebrew and Aramaic.

1. AH important names which occur in the Bible are cited as found in the authorized King James
version; e.g., Moses, not Mosheh ; Isaac, not Yizhak ; Saul, not Sha'ul or Shaiil; Solomon, not
Shelomoh, etc.

2. Names that have gained currency in English books on Jewish subjects, or that have become
familiar to English readers, are always retained and cross-references given, though the topic
be treated under the form transliterated according to the system tabulated below.

3. Hebrew subject-headings are transcribed according to the scheme of transliteration ; cross-refer-
ences are made as in the case of personal names.

The following system of transliteration has been used for Hebrew and Aramaic :

X Not noted at the beginning or the end of a word ; otherwise ' or by dieresis; e.g., Ze'eb or Meir.

2 b

r 2

b i

Q with dagesh, p

i g

n h

D m

Q without dagesh, f

t s

2 d

D t

: n

V ?

n t

n h

' y

D s

P H

1 w

2 k

V ‘

*1 r

Note : The presence of dagesh lene is not noted except in the case of pe. Dagesh forte is indi-
cated by doubling the letter.

The vowels have been transcribed as follows :

— a — w —a — e jo

-rr a — e — o i

-r- i , e a n u

Kamez hatuf is represented by o.

The so-called “ Continental ” pronunciation of the English vowels is implied.

6. The Hebrew article is transcribed as ha, followed by a hyphen, without doubling the following
letter. [Not liak-Kohen or hak-Cohen, nor Rosh ha-shslianah .]

B. — Rules for the Transliteration of Arabic.

1. All Arabic names and words except such as have become familiar to English readers in another
form, as Mohammed, Koran, mosque, are transliterated according to the following system :

1 “

t kh

£ 9h

u 71

‘-r’b

J d

U°s

Ljf

jC h

C -Jit

j dli

J k

) w

J r

CJ k

Z.J

) z

1 0 Z

J 1

XL *

t‘

f m

the three

vowels — a, i, u — are

represented :

— a or a

— i or i

— u or u

No account has been taken of the imalah; i has not been written e, nor u written o.

* In all other matters of orthography the spelling preferred by the Standard Dictionary has usually been followed. Typo-
graphical exigencies have rendered occasional deviations from these systems necessary.

SYSTEMS OF TRANSLITERATION AND OF CITATION OF PROPER NAMES

3. The Arabic article is invariably written al; no account being taken of the assimilation of the l to
the following letter; e.g., Abu al-Salt, not Abu-l-Salt; Nafls al-Daulah, not Nafls ad-Daulah.
The article is joined by a hyphen to the following word.

4. At the end of words the feminine termination is written ah ; but, when followed by a genitive,
at ; e.g., Risalah dhat al-Kursiyy, but Hi’at al-Aflak.

•5. No account is taken of the overhanging vowels which distinguish the cases ; e.g., ‘Amr, not ‘Amru
or lAmrun; Ya'akub, not Ya'akubun; or in a title, Kitab al-amanat wal-'itikadat.

C. — Rules for the Transliteration of Russian.

All Russian names and words, except such as have become familiar to English readers in another
iform, as Czar, Alexander, deciatine, Moscow, are transliterated according to the following system :

A a

U Jm

shell

B 6

0 o

'Ll,

mute

n n

LI H

r r

h, v, or g

L h

half mute

X a

e and ye

at the
beginning.

9 3

}K JK

K> K)

3 3

JI H

H H

0 e

I; It

y r

JI ji

fin

M M

Rules for the Citation of Proper Names, Personal and Otherwise.

1. Whenever possible, an author is cited under his most specific name; e.g., Moses Nigrin under
Nigrin ; Moses Zacuto under Zacuto ; Moses Rieti under Rieti; all the Kimhis (or Kamhis)
under Kimhi ; Israel ben Joseph Drohobiczer under Drohobiczer. Cross-references are freely
made from any other form to the most specific one ; e.g., to Moses Vidal from Moses Narboni ; to
Solomon Nathan Vidal from Menahem Meiri ; to Samuel Kansi from Samuel Astruc Dascola ;
to Jedaiah Penini, from both Bedersi and En Bonet ; to John of Avignon from Moses de
Roquemaure.

2. When a person is not referred to as above, he is cited under his own personal name followed
by his official or other title ; or, where he has borne no such title, by “of” followed by the place
of his birth or residence ; e.g., Johanan ha-Sandlar ; Samuel ha-Nagid ; Judah ha-Hasid ; Ger shorn
of Metz, Isaac of Corbeil.

3. Names containing the word d’, de, da, di, or van, von, y, are arranged under the letter of

the name following this word; e.g., de Pomis under Pomis, de Barrios under Barrios, Jacob
d’lllescas under Illescas.

4. In arranging the alphabetical order of personal names ben, da, de, di, ha-, ibn*, of have not been
taken into account. These names thus follow the order of the next succeeding capital letter :

Abraham of Augsburg Abraham de Balmes Abraham ben Benjamin Aaron

Abraham of Avila Abraham ben Baruch Abraham ben Benjamin Ze’eb

Abraham ben Azriel Abraham of Beja Abraham Benveniste

5. In order to facilitate reference, complete groups of all persons bearing such common names as

Aaron, Abraham, Jacob, are given in small type in a group immediately under the first key-word.

* Wherf Ibn has come to be a specific part of a name, as Ibn Ezra, such name is treated in its alphabetical place under “I.”

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

[Self-evident abbreviations, particularly those used in the bibliography, are not included here.]

Ab Abot, Pirke

Ab. R. N Abot de- Rabbi Nathan

‘Ab. Zarah ‘Abodah Zarah

adloc at the place

a. h in the year of the Hegira

Allg. Zeit. des Jud..Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums
Am. Jew. Hist. Soc. American Jewish Historical Society

A LangUr Semit' \ American Journal of Semitic Languages
Anglo-Jew. Assoc... Anglo-Jewish Association

Apoc Apocalypse

Apocr Apocrypha

Apost. Const Apostolical Constitutions

‘Ar ‘Arakin (Talmud)

Arch. Isr Archives Israelites

art article

A. T Das Alte Testament

A. V Authorized Version

b ben or bar nr born

Bab Babli (Babylonian Talmud)

B Aunor AK B lb f Bacher, Agada der Babylonischen Amoriler
Bacher, Ag. Pal. ( Bacher, Agada der Palastinensischen Amo-
Amor ( raer

Bacher, Ag. Tan. ...Bacher, Agada derTannaiten
Bar Baruch

B. B Baba Batra (Talmud)

b. c before the Christian era

Bek Bekorot (Talmud)

Benzinger, Arch. . .Benzinger, Hebriiisehe Archiiologie
Ber Berakot (Talmud)

Berliner’s I Berliner’s Magazin fur die Wissenschaft des

Magazin ) Judenthums

Bik Bikkurim ( Talmud)

B. K Baba Kamma (Talmud)

B. M Baba Me?i‘a (Talmud)

BoletinAead.Hist. ] Bo(j^d d^ Ia Real Academiade ia Historia

i Briill’s Jahrbiicher fur Jiidische Geschichte
Bruii s Jahrb ^ Und Litteratur

Bulletin All. Isr Bulletin of the Alliance Israelite Universelle

c about

Cant Canticles (Song of Solomon)

Cant. R Canticles Rabbah

Cat. Anglo-Jew. (Catalogue of Anglo-Jewish Historical Ex-
Hist. Exh ) hibition

c. e common era

Cbtext.bib!!0g: and [ chapter or chapters

b * E n eye"1 11 B i b ! 3 l k ’ \ cheyne and Black, Encyclopaedia Biblica

I Chron I Chronicles

II Chron II Chronicles

C. I. A Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum

C. I. G Corpus Inscriptionum Grmearum

C. I. H Corpus Inscriptionum Hebraicarum

C. I. L Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum

C. I. S Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum

Col Colossians

Cor Corinthians

d died

D Deuteronomist

Dan Daniel

De Gubernatis, ( De Gubernatis, Dizionario Biograflco degli

Diz. Biog ) Scrittori Con tern poranei

Bern Demai (Talmud)

noror,hn,mr I,,.., 1 Derenbourg, Essai sur l’Histoire et la G&>-
werenDourg, Hist. ^ grapl)ie de la Palestine, etc.

Deut Deuteronomy

Deut. R Deuteronomy Rabbah

E Elohist

Eccl Ecclesiastes

Eccl. R Ecclesiastes Rabbah

Eeclus. (Sirach) Eeelesiasticus

ed edition

‘Eduy ‘Eduyyot (Talmud)

Encyc. Brit Encyclopaedia Britannica

Eng English

Eph Ephesians

Epipbanius, Haeres. Epiphanius, Adversus Haereses
‘Er ‘Erubin (Talmud)

Ersch and I Ersch and Gruber. Allg. Encyklopadie der

Gruber, Encyc.. ( Wissenschaft und Kiinste

Esd Esdras

Esth Esther

Esther R Esther Rabbah

et seq and following

Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastics

Ex Exodus

Ex. R Exodus Rabbah

Ezek Ezekiel

Frankel, Mebo Franke), Mebo Yerushalmi

Fiirst, Bibl. Jud Fiirst, Bibliotheca Judaica

FbKarawt'< '* d6* \ Fiirst, Geschichte des Kariierthums
Gal Galatians

° BevisMarks1 l Gastel ’ Bevis Marks Memorial Volume

( Geiger, Urschrift und Debersetzungen der
Geiger, Urschrift. < Bibel in Hirer Abhiingigkeit von der In-
t neren Entwicklung des Judenthums

c«imr’= ir.fl 1 Geiger’s Jiidische Zeitschrift fiir Wissen-
Geiger sjud.zeit. schaft und Lebf,n

Geiger’s Wiss. (Geiger’s Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift fiir
Zeit. J iid. Theol. f J iidische Theologie

Gem Gernara

Gen Genesis

Gen. R Genesis Rabbah

Gesch Geschichte

Gesenius, Gr Gesenius, Grammar

Gesenius, Th Gesenius, Thesaurus

Gibbon, Decline (Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of

and Fall ) the Roman Empire

cinchurir'c mum ) Glnsburg’s Masorelieo-Critical Edition of
uinsuurg s uioie.. ^ tbe Hebrew Bible

Git Gittin (Talmud)

Graetz, Hist Graetz, History of the Jews

Griitz, Gesch Griitz. Geschichte der Juden

Hab Habakkuk

Hag Haggai

Hag Hagigah (Talmud)

Hal Hallah (Talmud)

Hamburger, ( Hamburger, Kealeneyclopftdie fiir Bibel
R. B. T f und Talmud

H« D'ct‘ [ Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible

Heb Epistle to the Hebrews

Hebr Masoretlc Text

Herzog- Pint or / Real-Encyklopiidie fiir Protestantische The-

Herzog- Hauck, > ologie und Klrche CM und 3d editions re-

Real-Encyc ) spectively)

ni,„io, j'Hirsch, Biographisches Lexikon Hervorra-
mrstn, Biog. i-ex. ( gender Aerzle Aller Zeiten und Vi)lker

Horn Homiletics or Homily

Hor Horayot (Talmud)

Hul Hullin (Talmud)

ib same place

idem same author

Isa Isaiah

Isr. Letterbode Israelitlsche Letterbode

J lahvist

Jaarboeken laarboeken voor de Israellten in Nederland

lncnhs Cnurces ) Jacobs, Inquiry into the Sources of Spanish-

jacoos, bounes. . ( Jewlsh History

JlB?blSAnglo-Jud’ fJacobs a,ltl 'Volf, Bibliotheca Anglo-Jmlaica
Jahrb. Gesch. der ( Jahrbuch fiir die Geschichte der Juden und

Jud ) des Judenthums

, I J as trow. Dictionary of the Targumim, Tal-
j astro n. Diet ^ mudim< and Midrashim

Jellinek. B. H Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrash

Jer leremiah

Jew. Chron Jewish Chronicle, London

Jew. Hist. Soc. Eng. Jewish Historical Society of Englaud

Jew. Quart. Rev Jewish Quarterly Review

Jew. World Jewish World, London

Josephus, Ant Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews

Josephus. B. J Josephus, De Bello Judaico

JOAp)h.US.’.Cbntra. [ Josephus, Contra Apionem

Josh Joshua

Jost’s Annalen lost’s Israelitlsche Annalcn

Jour. Bib. Lit Journal of Biblical Literature

JUTryphDlal‘ CUm j- Justin, Dialogus cum Tryphone Judaeo
K a uf in a n n Ge- ( Gedenkbuch zur Erinnerung an David Kauf-
denkbuch f matin

Kavserling, Bibl. ( Kayserling.Biblioteca Espaiiola-Portugueza-
Esp.-Poft.-Jud.. f Judaica

Ker Keritot (Talmud)

Ket, Ketubot (Talmud)

Kid Kiddushin (Talmud)

Kil Kilayatti (Talmud)

Kin Kinnim (Talmud)

xii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Kil Kilayim (Talmud)

Kin Kinnim (Talmud)

K<Volumeem0rial ! Seraitic Studies in Memory of A. Kohut
Krauss, Lehn- i Krauss, Griechische und Lateinische Lehn-

wdrter.. t wiirter, etc.

Lam Lamentations

Lam. R Lamentations Rabbali

■l.c in the place cited

Lev Leviticus

Lev. R Leviticus Rabbah

^Wiirterb. [ Levy< Chaldaisches VVbrterbuch, etc.

Levy, Neuhebr. I Levy, Neuhebriiisches und Cbaldaisches

Worterb 1 Worterbueh, etc.

LXX Septuagint

in married

Ma'as Ma'aserot (Talmud)

Ma'as. Sb Ma'aser Sbeni (Talmud)

Macc Maccabees

Mat Makkot (Talmud)

Maksli Makshirin (Talmud)

Mai Malachi

Mas Masorak

Massek Masseket

Matt Matthew

I McC'iintock and Strong, Cyclopaedia of Bib-
Strong, Cyc ' Heal, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Liter-

Meg Megillah (Talmud)

Me‘i Me'ilah (Talmud)

Mek Mekilta

Men Menahot (Talmud)

Mid .. Middo’t (Talmud)

Midr Midrash

Midr. R Midrash Rabbah

Midr. Teh Midrash Tebillim (Psalms)

Mik Mikwaot (Talmud)

M. K Mo'ed Katan (Talmud)

m . i ft 1 Monatssclirift fiir Geschichte und Wissen-
juonatssem in -j gchaft des judenthums

Mortara, Indice Mortara, Indice Alfabetico

MS Manuscript

Miiller, Frag.Hist. I Miiller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graeco-

Graje 1 rum

Naz Nazir (Talmud)

n. d no date

Ned Nedarim (Talmud)

Neg Nega'im

Neh Nehemiah

N. T New Testament

Neubauer, Cat. ( Neubauer, Catalogue of the Hebrew MSS.
Bodl.Helir.MSS. f in the Bodleian Library

Neubauer, G. T Neubauer, Geographic du Talmud

Num Numbers

Num. R Numbers Rabbah

Obad Obadiah

Oest. Wochenschrift.Oesterreichische Wochenschrift

Oh Ohalot (Talmud)

Onk Onkelos

Orient, Lit I.iteraturblatt des Orients

O. T Old Testament

P Priestly code

\ Pagel, Biographisches Lexikon Hervorra-
Pagel, Biog. I,ex. gender Aerzte des Neunzehnten Jahrhun-
I derts

Pal. F.xplor. Fund . . Palestine Exploration Fund

Pauly- Wissowa, ( Pauly-Wissowa, Real- Encyclopedic der Clas-

Real-Encyc f sischen Altertumswissenschaft

Pent Pentateuch

Pes Pesahim (Talmud)

Pesh Peshito, Peshitta

Pesik. R Pesikta Rabbati

Pesik Pesikta de-Rab Kahana

Phil Philippians

Pirke R. El Pirke Rabbi Eliezer

Prov Proverbs

Ps Psalms

R Rabbi or Rab (before names)

R I*i't -lllatt iHi f Rabmer’s Judisches Litteratur-Blatt

Regesty Regesty i Nadpisi

Rev. As Revue Asiatique

Rev. Bib Revue Biblique

Rev. Et. Jmves Revue des Etudes Juives

Rev. Sdm Revue Sdmitique

R. H Rosh ha-Shanah (Talmud)

nittor ) Ritter, Die Erdkunde im Verhaltms zur

muei, truKunue. -j Natur und 2ur Geschichte des Menschen
Rom Romans

Roest, Cat. I Roest, Catalog der Hebraica und .ludaica aus

Rosenthal. Bibl. f der L. Rosenthal'scheu Bibliothek
R. V Revised Version

Salfeld, Martyro- / Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Niirnberger
logium f Memorbuches

I Sam I Samuel

II Sam II Samuel

Sanh Sanhedrin (Talmud)

S B n T \ (Sacrect Books of the Old Testament) Poly-

I chrome Bible, ed. Paul Haupt

Encyc.erZ° V . . . i Sohaff-Herzog, A Religious Encyclopaedia
Schrader. ( Schrader, Cuneiform Inscriptions and the

C. I. O. T i Old Testament, Eng. trails.

spiinrter t,' i t f Schrader, Keilinschriften und das Alte Tes-
’ ' L' l lament

Schrader, K. B Schrader, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek

Schrader K (i F I Schrader, Keilinschriften und Geschichts-

’ ' ' ' I forschung

Schurer, Gesch Schurer, Geschichte des Jiidischen Volkes

Sem Semahot (Talmud)

Shab Shabbat (Talmud)

Sheb Shebi'it (Talmud)

Shebu Shebu'ot (Talmud)

Shek Shekalim (Talmud)

Sibyllines Sibylline Books

Smith, Rel. of Sem. .Smith, Religion of the Semites

stade’s 7eitschrift I Stade’s Zeitschrift fur die Alttestament-
staae s zeitscbi ift -j ,i(.he Wissenschaft

Steinschneider, I Steinschneider, Catalogue of the Hebrew
Cat, Bodl f Books in the Bodleian Library

Sttlebr!'BU)ieI.’... [ Steinschneider, Hebraische Bibliographie

Hebr ' ifebers S' Steinschneider, Hebraische Uebersetzungen

Suk Sukkah (Talmud)

s.v under the word

Sym Symmachus

Ta‘an Ta'anit (Talmud)

Tan Tanhuma

Targ Targumim

Targ. O Targum Onkelos

Targ. Yer Targum Yerushalmi or Targum Jonathan

Tem Temurah (Talmud)

Ter Terumot (Talmud)

Tbess Thessalonians

Tim Timothy

Toh Toharot

Tos Tosafot

Tosef Tosefta

transl translation

Tr. Soc. Bibl. I Transactions of the Society of Biblical Ar-

Arch f chaeology

T. Y Tebul Yom (Talmud)

‘Uk ‘Ukzin (Talmud)

Univ. Isr Dnivers Israelite

Urkundenli Urkundenbuch

Vess. Isr Vessillo Israelltico

Vos Voskhod (Russian magazine)

Vulg . .Vulgate

Weiss, Dor Weiss, Dor Dor we-Dorshaw

Wellkausen, (_ Wellhausen, Israelitische und Judische

I. J. G 1 Geschichte

Winer. B. R Winer, Biblisches Realworterbuch

Wisd. Sol Wisdom of Solomon

Wolf, Bibl. Hebr.. .Wolf, Bibliotheca Hebraea

,r r, M 1 Wiener Zeitschrift fiir die Kunde des

• 'i Morgenlandes

Yad Yadayiin (Talmud)

" Yad ” Yad lia-Hazakah

Yalk Yalkut

Yeb’. Yebauiot (Talmud)

Yer Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud)

Yhwh Jehovah

Zab Zabim (Talmud)

r n r- ) Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenliind-

L. u. M. G ■) iscben Gesellschaft

Zeb Zebahim (Talmud)

Zech Zechariah

Zedner. Cat. Hebr. / Zedner, Catalogue of the Hebrew Books in
Books Brit. Mils. I the British Museum

Zeit. fiir Assyr Zeitschrift fiir Assyriologie

ZepaiastUVer !' Zeits<'lirift des Deutschen Palastina-Vereins

Zeit. fiir Hebr. Bibl. Zeitschrift fiir Hebraische Bibliographie
Zeitlin.Bibl. Post- / Zeitlin, Bibliotheca Hebraica Post-Mendels-

Mendels f. sohniana

Zeph Zephaniah

Zunz, G. S Zunz, Gesammelte Schriften

Zunz, G. V Zunz, Gottesdienstliche Vortrage

Zunz, Literatnr- ( Zunz, l.iteraturgeschichte der Synagogalen

gesch 1 Poesie

T, ,,110 1 Zunz. Die Ritus des Synagogalen Gottes-

zunz, Rttus -j dienstes

Zunz, S. P Zunz, Synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters

Zunz, Z. G Zunz, Zur Geschichte und Literatnr

Note to the Reader.

Subjects on which further information is afforded elsewhere in this work are indicated by the
use of capitals and small capitals in the text ; as, Abba Arika; Pu.mbedita; Vocalization.

CONTRIBUTORS TO VOLUME II

A Cyrus Adler, Ph.D.,

President of the American Jewish Historical
Society ; Librarian Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D. C.

A. Bm A. Blum,

Rabbi in New York.

A. Bu Adolf Btichler, Ph.D.,

Professor Jewish Theological Seminary,
Vienna, Austria.

A. D Abraham Danon,

Principal Jewish Theological Seminary, Con-
stantinople, Turkey.

A. E A. Eckstein, Ph.D.,

Rabbi in Bamberg, Germany ; Member of the
Central Committee of the Alliance Israelite
Universelle.

A. F A. Freimann, Ph.D.,

Librarian of the Hebrew Department, Stadt-
bibliothek, Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany.

A. Fe Alfred Feilchenfeld, Ph.D.,

Principal of the Realschule, Fiirth, Germany.

A. FI A. Fleischmann,

New York.

A. Ha Alexander Harkavy,

New York.

A. H. N A. H. Newman, D.D., LL.D.,

Professor of Hebrew and Cognate Languages
and Old Testament Exegesis, McMaster Uni-
versity, Toronto, Can.

A. Kai Alois Kaiser,

Cantor of Temple Oheb Shalom, Baltimore,
Md.

A. B. L Albert li. Leubuscher,

New York.

A. Lo A. Loewenthal, Ph.D.,

Rabbi, Tarnowitz, Germany.

A. P Albert Porter,

Associate Editor of “ The Forum,” New York ;
Revising Editor “ Standard Cyclopedia.”

A. R A. Rhine,

Rabbi, Hot Springs, Ark.

A. S. C Alexander S. Chessin,

Professor of Mathematics, Washington Uni-
versity, St. Louis, Mo.

A. S. I Abram S. Isaacs,

Professor of German Literature, University
of the City of New York ; Editor of “ The
Jewish Messenger,” New York City.

A.V.W.J...A. V. W. Jackson, Ph.D., L.H.D.,

Professor of Indo-Iranian Languages, Colum-
bia University, New York.

A. W. B.. .A. W. Brunner,

Architect, New York.

B Mrs. Bolaffio,

Milan, Italy.

B. B Benuel H. Brumberg,

Contributor to “ National Cyclopedia of Amer-
ican Biography,” New York.

B. D Bernard Drachman, Ph.D.,

Rabbi of the Congregation Zichron Ephraim,
Dean of the Jewish Theological Seminary,
New York.

C. F. K Charles Foster Kent, Ph.D.,

Professor of Biblical Literature and History,
Yale University, New Haven, Conn. ; Author
of “ A History of the Hebrew People.”

C. J. M Charles J. Mendelsohn,

Philadelphia, Pa.

C. L Caspar Levias, M.A.,

Instructor in Exegesis and Talmudic Aramaic,
Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio.

C. R. C Lieut. -Col. Claude R. Conder, LL.D.,

Formerly Superintendent of the Survey of
Palestine by Palestine Exploration Fund.

D Gotthard Deutsch, Ph.D.,

Professor of Jewish History, Hebrew Union
College, Cincinnati, Ohio.

D. B. M Duncan B. MacDonald, B.D.,

Hartford Theological Seminary, Hartford,
Conn.

D. G Baron David von Giinzburg,

St. Petersburg, Russia.

D. I. F D. I. Freedman, B.A.,

Rabbi in Perth, Western Australia.

D. W. A — David Werner Amram, LL.B.,

Attorney at Law. Philadelphia, Pa. ; Author
of “ The Jewish Law of Divorce.”

E. Ba Emanuel Baumgarten,

Translator of “Hobot ba-Lebabot,” Vienna,
Austria.

E. Ban Eduard Baneth, Ph.D.,

Professor in the Hochschule, Berlin, Germany.
E. C Executive Committee of the Editorial Board.

E. G. H — Emil G. Hirsch, Ph.D., LL.D.,

Rabbi of Chicago Sinai Congregation, Chicago,
III. ; Professor of Rabbinical Literature and
Philosophy in the University of Chicago.

E. L5 Emile L4vy,

Chief Rabbi of Bayonne, France.

E. Me Eduard Meyer, Ph.D.,

Professor of Ancient History, University of
Halle, Germany.

E. Ms E. Mels,

New York.

E. N Eduard Neumann, Ph.D.,

Chief Rabbi of Nagy-Kanisza, Hungary.

xiv

CONTRIBUTORS TO VOLUME II

E. Sch Emil Schtirer, Ph.D.,

Professor of New Testament Exegesis at the
University of Gottingen, Germany ; Author
of “Geschichte des Volkes Israel im Zeitalter
Jesu Christi.”

E. Sd E. Schwarzfeld, LL.D.,

Secretary of Jewish Colonization Associar
tion, Paris, France.

F. Bu Frants Buhl, Ph.D.,

Professor of Semitic Philology at Copenhagen
University, Copenhagen, Denmark ; Author
of “ Geographie des Alten Paliistina.”

F. C. B F. C. Burkitt, M.A.,

Editor of “ The Fragments of Aquila,” Cam-
bridge, England.

F. H. K Frank H. KnoWlton, M.S., Ph.D.,

Assistant Curator of Botany, U. S. National
Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washing-
ton, D. C.

F. H. V. . . .Frank H. Vizetelly,

Associate Editor of the “ Columbian Cyclope-
dia,” and on Standard Dictionary Edito-
rial Staff.

F. L. C Francis L. Cohen,

Rabbi, Borough New Synagogue London,
England. Coeditor of “ Voice of Prayer and
Praise.”

F. S Flaminio Servi,

Chief Rabbi of Casale-Monferrato, Italy ; Edi-
tor of “ II Vessillo Israelitico.”

F. de S.M. Frederick de Sola Mendes, Ph.D.,

Rabbi of the West End Synagogue, New York.

F. T. H F. T. Hannemann, M.D.,

New York.

G Richard Gottheil, Ph.D.,

Professor of Semitic Languages, Columbia
University, New York ; Chief of the Oriental
Department, New York Public Library ; Presi-
dent of the Federation of American Zionists.

G. A. B George A. Barton, Ph.D.,

Associate Professor in Biblical Literature and
Semitic Languages at Bryn Mawr College,
Bryn Mawr, Pa.

G. A. D G. A. Danziger,

New York.

H. F Herbert Friedenwald, Ph.D.,

Formerly Superintendent of Department of
Manuscripts, Library of Congress, Washing-
ton, D. C. ; Secretary American Jewish His-
torical Society, Philadelphia, Pa.

H. G. E....H. G. Endow, D.D.,

Rabbi of the Congregation Adath Israel, Louis-
ville, Ky.

H. Hir Hartwig Hirschfeld, Ph.D.,

Professor in Jews’ College, London, England.

H. I H. Illiowizi,

Formerly Rabbi in Philadelphia, Pa.

H. M Henry Malter, Ph.D.,

Assistant Professor Hebrew Union College,
Cincinnati, Ohio.

H. M. S.. H. M. Speaker,

Gratz College, Philadelphia, Pa.

H. R Herman Rosenthal,

Chief of the Slavonic Department of the New
York Public Library.

H. S Henrietta Szold,

Secretary of the Publication Committee of the
Jewish Publication Society of America.

H. Ve H. Veld,

Rabbi in Amsterdam, N. Y.

I. B Isaac Bloch,

Chief Rabbi of Nancy, France.

I. Be Immanuel Benzinger, Ph.D.,

Professor of Old Testament Exegesis at the
Berlin University, Berlin.

I. Ber Israel Berlin,

Chemist, New York.

I. Br I. Broyd6,

Diploma of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes;
Late Librarian of Alliance Israelite Univer-
selle, Paris, France.

I. D Israel Davidson, Ph.D.,

New York.

I. Hu Isaac Husik,

Tutor, Gratz College, Philadelphia, Pa.

I. L Israel Levi,

Professor in the Jewish Theological Seminary,
Paris, France ; Editor of “ Revue des Etudes
Juives.”

G. A. K ....George Alexander Kohut, Ph.D.,

Formerly Rabbi in Dallas, Texas.

G. B. L Gerson B. Levi,

Philadelphia, Pa.

, G. F. M George F. Moore, M.A., D.D.,

Professor of Biblical Literature and the His-
tory of Religions in Harvard University, Cam-
bridge, Mass. Author of a Commentary on
the Book of Judges, etc.

G. J Giuseppe Jare,

Chief Rabbi of Ferrara, Italy.

G. L Goodman Lipkind, B. A.,

Rabbi in London, England.

H. B H. Brody, Ph.D.,

Rabbi, Nachod, Bohemia, Austria; Coeditor of
“ Zeitschrift fur Hebraische Bibliographie.”

H. Ba H. Baar,

Formerly Rabbi in New Orleans and Superin-
tendent of Hebrew Orphan Asylum, New
York.

I. Lo Immanuel Low,

Chief Rabbi of Szegedin, Hungary.

I. Ly Isidore L6vy,

Paris, France.

I. M. P Ira Maurice Price, B.D., Ph.D.,

Professor of Semitic Languages and Literature
in the University of Chicago, 111.; Author of
“ The Monuments and the Old Testament.”

J Joseph Jacobs, B.A.,

Formerly President of the Jewish Historical
Society of England; Corresponding Member
of the Royal Academy of History, Madrid ;
Author of " Jews of Angevin England,” etc.

J. Ba Jules Bauer,

Rabbi in Avignon, France.

J. Ch J. Chotzner, Ph.D.,

Rabbinical Lecturer at Monteflore College,
Ramsgate, England.

J. D. E J. D. E. Eisenstein,

New York.

CONTRIBUTORS TO VOLUME II

J. D. P John Dyneley Prince, Ph.D.,

Professor of Semitic Languages, New York
University.

J. F. McC.J. Frederic McCurdy, Ph.D., LL.D.,

Professor of Oriental Languages in the Uni-
versity College, Toronto, Canada; Author of
“ History, Prophecy, and the Monuments.”

IJ. Fr J. Friedlander, Ph.D.,

Rabbi in Beaumont, Texas.

J. G. L J. G. Lipman,

(Assistant Agriculturist, New Jersey State
Agricultural Experiment Station, New Bruns-
wick, N. J.

J. Hy J. Hyams,

Bombay, India.

J. Jr Morris Jastrow, Jr., Ph.D.,

Professor of Semitic Languages, University
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.; Author
of “Religion of the Babylonians and As-
syrians,” etc.

J. Xi. S Joseph L. Sossnitz,

New York.

J. M. C J. M. Casanowicz, Ph.D.,

U. S. National Museum, Washington, D. C. ;
Author of “ Paranomasia in the Old Testa-
ment.”

J. M. H. . J. M. Hillesum,

Librarian of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana,
University of Amsterdam, Holland.

J. P. P John P. Peters, D.D.,

Rector of St. Michael’s Church, New York ;
Author of “ Nippur, or Exploration and Ad-
ventures on the Euphrates.”

J. So Joseph Sohn,

Formerly of “ The Forum,” New York.

J. Sr Marcus Jastrow, Ph.D.,

Rabbi Emeritus of the Congregation Rodef
Shalom, Philadelphia, Pa.; Author of “Dic-
tionary of the Talmud.”

J. T J. Theodor, Ph.D.,

Rabbi in Bojanowo, Posen, Germany.

J. Vr J. Vredenbui-g, M.A.,

Rabbi in Amsterdam, Holland.

J. W Julien Weill,

Rabbi in Paris, France.

K Kaufmann Kohler, Ph.D.,

Rabbi of Temple Beth-El, New York.

K. H. C Karl Heinrich Cornill,

Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Ex-
egesis, Breslau University, Breslau, Germany.

L. B Ludwig Blau, Ph.D.,

Professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary,
Budapest, Hungary ; Editor of “ Magyar
Zsidd Szdmle ” ; Author of “ Das Alt-Jiidisehe
Zauberwesen.”

L. G Louis Ginzberg, Ph.D.,

New York ; Author of “ Die Haggada bei den
Kirchenvatern.”

L. Grii Lazarus Griinhut,

Director of Orphan Asylum, Jerusalem.

L. Hii L. Hiihner, A.M., LL.B.,

New York.

L. L L. Lowenstein,

Rabbi in Mosbach, Germany.

L. N L. Nathensen,

Copenhagen, Denmark.

L. N. D Lewis N. Dembitz,

Attorney at Law, Louisville, Ky. ; Author of
“ Jewish Services in Synagogue and Home.”

L. S Ludwig Stein, Ph.D.,

Professor of Philosophy at the University of
Bern, Switzerland ; Editor of “ Archiv fur Ge-
schiehte der Philosophic.”

L. V Ludwig Venetianer,

Rabbi in Neupest, Hungary.

M Dr. S. Miihsam,

Chief Rabbi of Gratz, Austria.

M. B Moses Beer,

London.

M. C M. Caimi,

Corfu, Greece.

M. C. C M. C. Currick, A.B.,

Rabbi Anshe Chesed Congregation, Erie, Pa.

M. Co Max Cohen,

Counselor at Law, New York.

M. F Michael Friedlander, Ph.D.,

Principal, Jews’ College, London, England ;
Translator of Maimonides' “Guide of the
Perplexed.”

M. Fi Maurice Fishberg, M.D.,

Surgeon to the Beth Israel Hospital Dispen-
sary ; Medical Examiner to the United He-
brew Charities, New York.

M. Fr M. Franco,

Principal of the Alliance Israelite Universelle
School, Shumla, Bulgaria.

M. Ga Moses Gtester, Ph.D.,

Haham of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews,
London, England.

M. J. K ...Max J. Kohler, M.A., LL.B.,

Attorney at Law ; Recording Secretary of the
American Jewish Historical Society, New
York.

M. K Moritz Kayserling, Ph.D.,

Rabbi, Budapest, Hungary; Author of “Ge-
schichte der Juden in Portugal,” etc.

M. L. B — Moses Lob Bamberger, Ph.D.,

Karlsruhe, Germany.

M. L. M....Max L. Margolis, Ph.D.,

Associate Professor of Semitic Languages in
the University of California, Berkeley, Cal.

M. M. K....M. M. Kaplan,

New York City.

M Ro [••• Max Rosenthal, M.D.,

Secretary of the German Dispensary, New
York.

M. Ra Max Raisin,

Cincinnati, Ohio.

M. S Moise Schwab, Ph.D.,

Librarian of the Hebrew Department at the
Biblioth{“que Nationale, Paris, France ; Trans-
lator of the Jerusalem Talmud.

M. Sehw...M. Schwarzfeld,

Rabbi in Bucharest, Rumania.

M. W Max Weisz, Ph.D.,

Rabbi in Budapest, Hungary.

M. W. L.. .Martha Washington Levy, B.A.,

Late of “ The International Cyclopedia.”

N. R N. Rashkovski,

Odessa, Russia.

XVI

CONTRIBUTORS TO VOLUME II

O. F Oscar Friedlander,

Vienna, Austria.

P. B Philipp Bloch, Ph.D.,

Rabbi in Posen, Germany.

P. J Peter Jensen,

Professor of Semitic Philology, University of
Marburg, Germany.

P. W Paul Wendland, Ph.D.,

Berlin, Germany, Coeditor of “Philonis
Opera.”

P. Wi Peter Wiernik,

New York.

R. W. R Robert W. Rogers, D.D., Ph.D.,

Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Exe-
gesis, Drew Theological Sem., Madison, N. J.
S Isidor Singer, Ph.D., Managing Editor.

S. B Samuel Baeck, Ph.D.,

Rabbi in Lissa, Germany.

S. Ba Solomon Bamberger,

Strasburg, Germany.

S. J S. Janovsky,

Attorney at Law, St. Petersburg, Russia.

S. K S. Kahn,

Rabbi in Nimes, France.

S. Kr S. Krauss, Ph.D.,

Professor Normal College, Budapest, Hun-
gary ; Author of “ Griechische und Lateinische
Lehnworter.”

S. M S. Mendelsohn, Ph.D.,

Rabbi in Wilmington, N. C.

S. Man S. Mannheimer, B.L.,

instructor, Hebrew Union College, Cincin-
nati, 0.

S. M. D S. M. Dubnow,

Odessa, Russia ; Author of “ A History of the
Jews.”

S. R S. Roubin,

Rabbi, Woodbine, N. J.

S. Si S. Spiel vogel,

Geelong, Victoria, Australia.

T Crawford Howell Toy, D.D., LL.D.,

Professor of Hebrew in Harvard University,
Cambridge, Mass.; Author of “The Religion
of Israel,” “Judaism and Christianity.”

T. H Theodor Herzl, Ph.D.,

President of the International Zionist Con-

gress, Vienna, Austria; Author of “Der Jii-
dische Staat.”

T. S Tobias Shanfarber, Ph.D.,

Rabbi of Ansche Ma'arab Congregation, Chi-
cago, 111.

V- B Victor Basch,

Professor at Rennes, France.

V. C Victor Castiglioni,

Professor, Triest, Austria.

V. R Vasili Rosenthal,

Kremenchug, Russia.

W. B W. Bacher, Ph.D.,

Professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary,
Budapest, Hungary; Author of "Die Agada
der Tannaim,” etc.

W. M William Milwitzky,

Late of Harvard University Library, Cam-
bridge, Mass.

W. M. M . . . W. Max Muller, Ph.D.,

Professor of Bible Exegesis in the Reformed
Episcopal Theological Seminary, Philadel-
phia, Pa.

W. Rei W. Reich,

Rabbi in Vienna, Austria.

W. S William Salant, M.D.,

New York.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME II

N. B. — In the following list subjects likely to besought for under various headings are repeated under
each. Traditional ascriptions are denoted by quotation-marks.

PAGE

“Alexamenos prays to His God.” From a graffito in the Collegio Romano 222

Alliance Israelite Universelle Girls’ School at Bagdad 437

Altar of Ba‘al at Petra, Idumaea 378

Plienician, with Bust of Ba'al as a Sun-God 379

Amsterdam, Ark of the Law of the Sephardic Synagogue at 108

Apamea, Coin of, with Supposed Representation of Noah’s Ark Ill

Apple of Sodom 2.1

Aqueduct, Track of Siloam 32

Aqueducts Leading to Jerusalem, Plan of 32

Aquila, Fragment of Ilis Greek Translation of II Kings xxiii. 15-19 plate facing 34

Ar Moab, View of the Ruins of 40

Arad, Hungary, Interior of Synagogue at 00

Ararat, Near Niagara, Foundation-Stone of Proposed City of 74

View of Mount, from the Russian Frontier 73

Arba‘ Kanfot 70

Arch, Robinson’s, at Jerusalem 141

Arclielaus, Herod, Copper Coin of 78

Archeology: see Arch, Robinson’s; Ashkelon; Ass; Bowl; Coins; Pottery; Seal; Vase.

Archers, Company of Egyptian, at Deir el-Bahari 85

Persian, as Body-Guard of Darius 80

Architecture: see Aiik of the Law; Robinson’s Arch; Synagogues.

Aretas IV. Philodeme of Nabathaea, Bronze Coin of, with Hebrew Inscription 89

Aristobulus, Judas, Copper Coins of, with Two Cornua-Copiai 95

■“Ark of the Covenant.” After Calmet 103

Ark of the Law, Earliest Representation of, Now in the Museo Borgiano at Rome 107

from the Synagogue at Modena, 1505 c.e Ill

of the Sephardic Synagogue at Amsterdam 108

of the Synagogue at Bayonne, France 60(5

of the Synagogue at Gibraltar 109

of the Synagogue at Pogrebishclie, Russia 110

Symbolic Representation of, Now in the Museo Borgiano at Rome 108

“Ark of Noah.” From the Sarajevo Haggadah 112

Ark of Noah, Resting on Mt. Ararat 112

■ Supposed Representation of, on Coin of Apamea Ill

Arkansas, Synagogue at Little Rock 113

Army: Assyrian Soldiers on the March 121

Company of Egyptian Soldiers 122

Persian Foot-Soldiers 123

see also Badge.

Hebrew: see Inscriptions; Script.

Herod Archelaus, Copper Coin of 78

“Hobot lia-Lebabot,” Page from Editio Princeps of Baliya’s 449

Holland : see Amsterdam.

Idumaea : see Petra.

Imprint of Joseph Athias 268

Inquisition: see Auto da Fit

Inscriptions, Hebrew: see Bowl; Coins; Seal.

Italy : see Modena.

Jerusalem: see Aqueducts; Beard; Robinson’s Arch.

“Jew Mount”: see Mon.iuich.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME II

xx»

TAGE

Jewry : see London.

Judas Aristobulus, Copper Coins of 95

“ Kapparah.” : see Atonement, Day of.

“ LSmlein Medal Attributed to Benjamin ben Elijah Beer 632

Lions, Representations of, on 107, 108

Little Rock, Ark., Synagogue at 113

London, Ralph Aggas’ Map of, Showing the Location of “Old Jewry” and “Bakewell Hall” 461

Maccabeus, Simon, Shekel of 138

Madrid : see Auto da Fe.

Magic : see Bowl.

“ Malkut ” : see Atonement, Day of.

Manuscript : see Aquila ; Badge.

Maps: see Aqueducts; Ashkelon; Asia; Asia Minor; London.

Medals: see Basel; “Lamlein Medal.”

Metz, Day of Atonement, as Observed by the Jewish Soldiers in the German Army in 1870, Before 287

Moab : see Ar Moab.

Modena, Ark of the Law from the Synagogue at Ill

Money, Egyptian Method of Weighing 470

Monjuich, “Jew Mount,” Supposed Site of the Jewish Cemetery at Barcelona 527

Mount Ararat, from the Russian Frontier 73

Music, “ Ashamnu ” 176

“Ashirah” 188, 189

“ Aslire ” 204

“Aslire lia-‘Am” 205

“ Attah Hore’ta ” 289

“Az Shesli Me’ot” 361

“ Bemoza’e ” 671

Nabathaea : see Aretas IV.

New York Jews in an East Side Synagogue Confessing Their Sins in the Prayer “Ashamnu ” 288

Noah : see Ark of Noah.

Oheb Shalom Temple, Baltimore 478

Orphan Asylum, Baruch Auerbach, at Berlin 299

Oven, Modern, as Used in Syria 462

Palestine: see Aqueducts ; Ar Moab; Ashdod; Ashkelon; Asia, Map of ; Jerusalem.

Persia: see Archers.

Petra, Idumaea, Altar of Ba'al at 378

Phenicia: see Ass; Astarte; Ba'al, Altar of; Ba'al Hamon.

Plants: see Apple of Sodom; Balsam Plant.

Pogrebisliche, Russia, Ark of the Law of the Synagogue at 110

Portraits: see

Arnstein, Fanny von.

Aron, Arnaod.

Artom, Haiiam Benjamin.
Artom, Isaac.

Ascoli, Graziadio Isaiah.
Asher, Asher.

Ashkenazi, Hakam Zebi Hirsch.
Asknazi, Isaac Lvovich.
Astruc, Elie-Aristide.

Astruc, Jean.

Auerbach, Berthold.

Auspitz, Heinrich.

Ayllon, Solomon ben Jacob.
Bacher, Wilhelm.

Baer, Seligman (Sekel).
Bamberger, Ludwig.

Barit, Jacob (Jankele Kovner).
Barnay, Ludwig.

Barnett (Beer), John.
Bartolocci, Giulio.

Basnage, Jacob.

Beck, Karl.

Beer, Bernhard.

Beer, Michael.

Beer, Peter.

Belais, Abraham ben Shalom.
Belasco, David.

Ben-Ze’eb, Judah LOb.
Benamozegh, Elijah.

Pottery, Hebrew, Bottles Found Near Jerusalem 140

Printer’s Mark : see Imprint.

Rameses II. Besieging Ashkelon 192

Robinson’s Arch, Jerusalem 141

Russia : see Pogrebishche.

Scale : see Balance.

Script : see Aquila.

xxii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME II

PAGE

Scrolls of the Law : see Ark of the Law.

Seal of Elishegib bat Elisharaa 140

of the Jews of Augsburg, 1298 306

Sephardic Synagogue at Amsterdam, Ark of the Law of 108

Shekel of Simon Maccabeus 138

Shields: see Archers; Army; Ashkelon, Siege of.

Siege of Ashkelon by Rameses II 192

Signatures: see Autographs.

Siloarn, Track of Aqueduct of 32

Simon Maccabeus, Shekel of 138

Sodom, Apple of 25

Soldiers: see Archers; Army.

Spain : see Auto da Fe ; Barcelona.

Sphynx, Goddess Astarte as a 239

Sun-God, Ba‘al as a 379

Symbolic Representation of the Ark of the Law 108

Synagogues : see Amsterdam; Arad; Arkansas; Atonement, Day of; Augusta; Avignon; “Bake-
well Hall ” ; Baltimore ; Bayonne.

Syria, Modern Baking-Oven Used in 462

“ Tallit Katon,” Small Tallit or Arba‘ Kanfot 76

Temple Oheb Shalom, Baltimore 478

Temple, Representation of, on Bottom of Glass Vase 140

“ Teshubah ” : see Atonement, Day of.

“ Tower of Babel.” From the Sarajevo Haggadah 396

Types, Jewish: see Bagdad; Bar Mizwah; Beard; New York.

United States: see Arkansas; Augusta; Baltimore; New York.

Vase, Bottom of, with Representation of the Temple and Golden Candlestick 140

Weights Used by Egyptians in Weighing Money 470

Wells of Beer-sheba 637

“Zedakah” : see Atonement, Day of.
Zionism : see Basel.

“Zizit,” Fringes of the Arba‘ Kanfot

. 76

THE

Jewish Encyclopedia

APOCRYPHA : § I. The most general defini-
tion of Apocrypha is, Writings having some preten-
sion to the character of sacred scripture, or received
as such by certain sects, but excluded from the
canon (see Canon).

The history of the earlier usage of the word is ob-
scure. It is probable that the adjective an6iipv<pog,
“ hidden away, kept secret,” as applied to books, was
first used of writings which were kept from the pub-
lic by their possessors because they contained a mys-
terious or esoteric wisdom too profound or too sacred
to be communicated to any but the initiated. Thus a
Leyden magical papyrus bears the title, Muvoeuc iepa
ftifiAoc (nroKpvpoQ eTTina/.ovpevp oydor/ ?/ ayia, “ The Secret
Sacred Book of Moses, Entitled the Eighth or the
Holy Book” (Dietrich, “Abraxas,” 169). Plierecydes
of Syros is said to have learned his wisdom from ra
<t>oivin uv anoKpvipa f3i[3/.ia, “The Secret Books of the
Phenicians ” (Suidas, s.v. ^epeKvbr/g). In the early cen-
turies of our era many religious and philosophical
sects had such scriptures; thus the followers of the
Gnostic Prodicus boasted the possession of secret
books (anoKpv<pov^) of Zoroaster (Clemens Alexandri-
nus, “Stromata,” i. 15 [357 Potter]). IV Esdras is
avowedly such a work : Ezra is bidden to write all the
things which he has seen in a book and lay it up in a
hidden place, and to teach the contents to the wise
among his people, whose intelligence he knows to be
sufficient to receive and preserve these secrets (xii.
36 et seq.). (see Dan. xii. 4, 9; Enoch, i. 2, cviii. 1;
Assumptio Mosis, x. 1 et seq.) In another passage
such writings are expressly distinguished from the
twenty-four canonical books; the latter are to be pub-
lished that they may be read by the worthy and
unworthy alike; the former (seventy in number) are
to be preserved and transmitted to the wise, because
they contain a profounder teaching (xiv. 44-47). In
this sense Gregory of Nyssa quotes words of John in
the Apocalypse as kv an-oKpvfoig (“ Oratio in Suam Or-
dinationem,” iii. 549, ed. Migne; compare Epiplianius,
“ Adversus Hsereses,” li. 3). The book contains reve-
lations not to be comprehended by the masses, nor
rashly published among them.

Inasmuch, however, as this kind of literature flour-
ished most among heretical sects, and as many of
the writings themselves were falsely attributed to the
famous men of ancient times, the word “Apocry-
pha ” acquired in ecclesiastical use an unfavorable
II.— 1

connotation; the private scriptures treasured by the
sects were repudiated by the Church as heretical and
often spurious. Lists were made of the books which
the Church received as sacred scripture and of those
which it rejected; the former were “canonical ” (see
Canon); to the latter the name “ Apocrypha " was
given. The canon of the Church included the books
which are contained in the Greek Bible but not in
the Hebrew (see the list below, § III.); hence the term
“Apocrypha” was not applied to these books, but
to such writings as Enoch, the Testaments of the
Twelve Patriarchs, etc. (see below, § III.). Jerome
alone applies the word to all books which are not
found in the Jewish canon (see “ Prologus Galeatus ”).
At the Reformation, Protestants adopted the Jewish
canon, and designated by the name “Apocrypha”
the books of the Latin and Greek Bibles which they
thus rejected; while the Catholic Church in the Coun-
cil of Trent formally declared these books canonical,
and continued to use the word “ Apocrypha ” for the
class of writings to which it had generally been ap-
propriated in the ancient Church; for the latter, Prot-
estants introduced the name “ Pseudepigrapha. ”

$ II. Apocryphal Books among the Jews.
Judaism also had sects which possessed esoteric or
recondite scriptures, such as the Essenes (Josephus,
“B. J.” ii. 8, §7), and the Therapeutffi (Philo, “ De
Vita Contemplativa,” ed. Mangey, ii. 475). Their
occurrence among these particular sects is explic-
itly attested, but doubtless there were others. In-
deed, many of the books which the Church branded
as apocryphal were of Jewish (sometimes heretical
Jewish) origin. The Jewish authorities, therefore,
were constrained to form a canon, that is, a list of
sacred scriptures; and in some cases to specify par-
ticular writings claiming this character which were
rejected and forbidden. The former — so the distinc-
tion is expressed in a ceremonial rule (Yad. iii. 5;
Tosef., Yad. ii. 13) — make the hands which touch
them unclean — D'TH DX I'XDOD tnpn ’3n3 ; the

latter do not (see Canon). Another term used in the
discussion of certain books is fjy properly “to lay
up, store away for safekeeping,” also “withdraw
from use.” Tims, Shab. 306, “The sages intended
to withdraw Ecclesiastes”; “they also intended to
withdraw Proverbs”; ib. 136,“ Hananiah b. Hezekiah
prevented Ezekiel from being withdrawn ” ; Sanh.
1006 (Codex Carlsruhe), “although our masters with-

Apocrypha

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

drew this book ” (Sirack), etc. It lias frequently
been asserted that the idea and the name of the Greek
“ Apocrypha ” were derived from this Hebrew ter-
minology. (See Zalin, “Gesch. des Neutestament-
lichen Kanons,” i. 1,123 et seq.; Schiirer, in "Protest-
antische Realencyclopiidie,” 3d ed., i. 623, and many
others; compare Hamburger, “ Realencyklopadie,” ii.
68, n. 4.) “Apocrypha” (aTOKpvya /h/LUa) is, it is
said, a literal translation of D'lSD. “concealed,
hidden books.” Closer examination shows, however,
that the alleged identity of phraseology is a mistake.
Talmudic literature knows nothing of aclassof D'IDD
DTOJ — neither this phrase nor an equivalent occurs
— not even in “ Ab. R. N.” i. 1, though the error ap-
pears to have originated in the words vn DTOJ used
there. Nor is the usage identical : TJ1 does not mean
“ conceal ” (anoKprirTuv translates not but IHD and
its synonyms), but “store away ”; it is used only of
things intrinsically precious or sacred. As applied to
books, it is used only of books which are, after all,
included in the Jewish canon, never of the kind of
literature to which the Church Fathers give the name
“ Apocrypha ”; these are rather D'JIV'nn DnSD (Yer.
Sanh. x. 1, 28«), or DTOH 'IDD- The only excep-
tion is a reference to Sirach. The Book of (magical)
Cures which Hezekiah put away (Pes. iv. 9) was
doubtless attributed to Solomon. This being the
state of the facts, it is doubtful whether there is
any connection between the use of UJ and that of
an6npv<po<;.

§ III. Lists of Apocrypha ; Classification.

The following is a brief descriptive catalogue of
writings which have been at some time or in some
quarters regarded as sacred scripture, but are not in-
cluded in the Jewish (and Protestant) canon. For
more particular information about these works, and
for the literature, the reader is referred to the special
articles on the books severally.

First, then, there are the books which are com-
monly found in the Greek and Latin Bibles, but are
not included in the Hebrew canon, and are hence
rejected by Protestants; to these, as has already
been said, Protestants give the name “ Apocrypha ”
specifically. These are (following the order and
with the titles of the English translation): I Esdras;
II Esdras; Tobit; Judith; The Rest of the Chapters
of the Book of Esther; Wisdom of Solomon; Wis-
dom of Jesus, the Son of Sirach, or Ecclesiasticus;
Baruch, with the Epistle of Jeremiah; Song of the
Three Holy Children; History of Susanna; Destruc-
tion of Bel and the Dragon; Prayer of Manasses; I
Maccabees; II Maccabees. These, with the excep-
tion of I, II (III, IV) Esdras and the Prayer of Ma-
nasses, are canonical in the Roman Church.

Secondly, books which were pronounced apocry-
phal by the ancient Church. Of these we possess sev-
eral catalogues, the most important of which are the
Stichometry of Nicephorus; the Atlianasian Synop-
sis; and an anonymous list extant in several manu-
scripts, first edited by Montfaucon (see Schiirer,
“Gesch.” 3d ed., iii. 262 et seq.); further a passage in
the “Apostolical Constitutions ”(vi. 16), and the so-
called Decree of Pope Gelasius (“ Corpus Juris Ca-
nonici,” iii. Distinctio 15). References in the Fathers
add some titles, and various Oriental versions give
us a knowledge of other writings of the same kind.

A considerable part of this literature has been pre-
served, and fresh discoveries almost every year prove
how extensive and how popular it once was.

A satisfactory classification of these writings is
hardly possible; probably the most convenient
scheme is to group them under the chief types of
Biblical literature to which they are severally re-
lated— viz. :

1. Historical, including history proper, story
books, and haggadic narrative.

2. Prophetic, including apocalypses.

3. Lyric ; psalms.

4. Didactic; proverbs and other forms of “wis-
dom.”

The assignment of a book to one or another of
these divisions must often be understood as only a
potion; a writing which is chiefly narrative may
contain prophecy or apocalypse; one which is pri-
marily prophetic may exhibit in parts affinity to the
didactic literature.

§ IV. Historical Apocrypha. 1. First Mac-
cabees. A history of the rising of the Jews under
the leadership of Mattathias and his sons against
Antiochus Epiphanes, and of the progress of the
struggle down to the death of Simon, covering thus
the period from 175-135 b.c. The book was written
in Hebrew, but is extant only in Greek and in trans-
lations made from the Greek.

2. Second Maccabees. Professedly an abridgment
of a larger work in five books by Jason of Cyrene.
It begins with the antecedents of the conflict with
Syria, and closes with the recovery of Jerusalem
by Judas after his victory over Nicanor. The work
was written in Greek, and is much inferior in his-
torical value to I Macc. Prefixed to the book are
two letters addressed to the Jews in Egypt on the
observance of the Feast of Dedication (rODri).

3. First Esdras. In the Latin Bible, Third Esdras.
A fragment of the oldest Greek version (used by
Josephus) of Chronicles (including Ezra and Nehe-
miah), containing I Clrron. xxxv.-Neli. viii. 13, in a
different, and in part more original, order than the
Hebrew text and with one considerable addition, the
story of the pages of King Darius (iii. 1-v. 6). The
book is printed in an appendix to the official editions
of the Vulgate (after the New Testament), but is not
recognized by the Roman Church as canonical.

4. Additions to Daniel, a. The story of Susanna
and the elders, prefixed to the book, illustrating
Daniel’s discernment in judgment.

b. The destruction of Bel and the Dragon, ap-
pended after ch. xii., showing how Daniel proved to
Cyrus that the Babylonian gods were no gods.

c. The Song of the three Jewish Youths in the
fiery furnace, inserted in Dan. iii. between verses 23
and 24.

These additions are found in both Greek transla-
tions of Daniel (Septuagint and Theodotion); for the
original language and for the Hebrew and Aramaic
versions of the stories, see Daniel.

5. Additions to Esther. In the Greek Bible, enlarge-
ment on motives suggested by the original story:
a. The dream of Mordecai and his discovery of the
conspiracy, prefixed to the book; the interpretation
follows x. 3; b. Edict for the destruction of the Jews,
after iii. 13; c., d. Prayers of Mordecai and Esther,

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Apocrypha

after iv. 17; e. Esther’s reception by the king, taking
the place of v. 1 in the Hebrew ; /. Edict permitting
the Jews to defend themselves, after viii. 12. In the
Vulgate these additions are detached'from their con-
nection and brought together in an appendix to the
book, with a note remarking that they are not found
in the Hebrew.

6. Prayer of Manasses. Purports to be the words
of the prayer spoken of in II Cliron. xxxiii. 18 etseq. ;
probably designed to stand in that place. In many
manuscripts of the Greek Bible it is found among
the pieces appended to the Psalms; in the Vulgate
it is printed after the New Testament with III and
IV Esd., and like them is not canonical.

7. Judith. Story of the deliverance of the city
of Betliulia by a beautiful widow, who by a ruse
deceives and kills Holophernes, the commander of
the besieging army. The book was written in He-
brew, but is preserved only in Greek or translations
from the Greek; an Aramaic Targum was known
to Jerome.

8. Tobit. The scene of this tale, with its attract-
ive pictures of Jewish piety and its interesting
glimpses of popular superstitions, is laid in the East
(Nineveh, Ecbatana); the hero is an Israelite of the
tribe of Naphtali, who was carried away in the
deportation by Shalmaneser (“ Enemessar ”). The
story is related in some way to that of Ahikak.

9. Third Maccabees. (See Maccabees, Books of.)
A story of the persecution of the Egyptian Jews by
Ptolemy Philopator after the defeat of Antiochus at
Raphia in 217 b.c. ; their steadfastness in their relig-
ion, and the miraculous deliverance God wrought
for them. The book, which may be regarded as an
Alexandrian counterpart of Esther, is found in manu-
scripts of the Septuagint, but is not canonical in any
branch of the Christian Church.

§ V. Historical Pseudepigrapha. The books
named above are all found in the Greek and Latin
Bibles and in the Apocrypha of the Protestant
versions. We proceed now to other writings of
the same general class, commonly called “ Pseud-
epigraph a.”

10. The Book of Jubilees, called also Leptogenesis
(“The Little Genesis”), probably KBIT JVtWQ, in
distinction, not from the canonical Genesis, but from
a larger Midrash, a rQ"i 3- It contains a haggadic
treatment of the history of the Patriarchs as well as
of the history of Israel in Egypt, ending with the
institution of the Passover, based on Gen. and Ex.
i.-xii. It is a free reproduction of the Biblical nar-
rative, with extensive additions of an edifying char-
acter, exhortations, predictions, and the like. It gets
the name “ Book of Jubilees ” from the elaborate chro-
nology, in which every event is minutely reckoned
out in months, days, and years of the Jubilee period.
The whole is in the form of a revelation made through
an angel to Moses on Mt. Sinai, from which some
writers were led to call the book the “ Apocalypse of
Moses.” (See Apocalypse, § V. 10.) It was written
in Hebrew, probably in the first century b.c., but is
now extant only in Ethiopic and in fragments of an
old Latin translation, both made from an intermedi-
ate Greek version.

Brief mention may be made here of several similar works
containing Haggadah of early Hebrew history.

a. “ Liber Antiquitatum Biblacarum,” attributed to Philo.
This was first published, with some other works of Philo, at
Basel in 1527 (see Cohn, in " Jew. Quart. Rev.” 1898, x. 277 et seq.;
Schurer, “ Gescb.” 3d ed., iii. 541 ct seq., additional literature).
Extends from Adam to the death of Saul, with omissions and
additions — genealogical, legendary, and rhetorical — speeches,
prophecies, prayers, etc. The patriarchal age is despatched
very briefly ; the Exodus, on the contrary, and the stories of the
Judges, are much expanded. The author deals more freely
with the Biblical narrative than Jubilees, and departs from it
much more widely. The work is preserved in a Latin transla-
tion made from Greek ; but it is highly probable that the orig-
inal language was Hebrew, and that it was written at a time
not very remote from the common era. Considerable portions
of it are incorporated— under the name of Philo— in the Hebrew
beok, of which Gaster has published a translation under the
title “ Chronicles of Jerahmeel ” (see Gaster, l.c., Introduction,
pp. xxx. et seq., and below, d).

b. Later works which may be compared with this of Philo
are the riB>D Sip D'O'n nr, -\!S”n -\ed, and the iyD'1 mt,
on which see the respective articles.

e. To a different type of legendary history belongs the He-
brew Yosippon (q. v.).

d. The “Chronicles of Jerahmeel,” translated by Gaster from
a unique manuscript in the Bodleian (1899), are professedly
compiled from various sources ; they contain large portions ex-
cerpted from the Greek Bible, Philo (see above), and “Yo-
sippon,” as well as writings like the Pirke de R. Eliezer, etc.

e. Any complete study of this material must include also the
cognate Hellenistic writings, such as the fragments of Eupole-
musand Artapanus (see Freudenthal, "HellenistischeStudien")
and the legends of the same kind in Josephus.

§ VI. Books of the Antediluvians. The Book
of J ubilees makes repeated mention of books contain-
ing the wisdom of the antediluvians (e.ff., Enoch,
iv. 17 et seq.-, Noah, x. 12 et seq.) which were in the
possession of Abraham and his descendants; also of
books in which was preserved the family law of the
Patriarchs (compare xli. 28) or their prophecies
(xxxii. 24 et seq., xlv. 16). These are all in the literal
sense “apocryphal,” that is, esoteric, scriptures. A
considerable number of writings of this sort have
been preserved or are known to us from ancient lists
and references; others contain entertaining or edify-
ing embellishments of the Biblical narratives about
these heroes. Those which are primarily prophetic or
apocalyptic are enumerated elsewhere (x., xi.); the
following are chiefly haggadic:

11. Life of Adam and Eve. This is essentially a
Jewish work, preserved — in varying recensions — in
Greek, Latin, Slavonic, and Armenian. It resembles
the Testament literature (see below) in being chiefly
occupied with the end of Adam’s life and the burial
of Adam and Eve. According to an introductory
note in the manuscripts, the story was revealed to
Moses, whence the inappropriate title “Apocalypse
of Moses.” On the apocryphal Adam books see
Adam, Book of.

Other apocryphal books bearing the name of Adam
are: The Book of Adam and Eve, or the Conflict
of Adam and Eve with Satan, extant in Arabic
and Ethiopic; and The Testament of Adam, in
Syriac and Arabic. Both these are Christian off-
shoots of the Adam romance. Apocalypses of
Adam are mentioned by Epiphanius; the Gelasian
Decree names a book on the Daughters of Adam,
and one called the Penitence of Adam.

Seven Books of Seth are said by Epiphanius
(“Adversus Haereses,” xxxix. 5; compare xxvi. 8;
also Hippolytus, “Refutatio,” v. 22; see also Jo-
sephus, “Ant.”i. 2, § 3) to have been among the
scriptures of the Gnostic sect of Setliians.

Apocrypha

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ou the apocryphal books of Enoch see Apoca-
lypse, § Y. , and Enoch, Book of.

The Samaritan author, a fragment of whose writing
has been preserved by Eusebius (“ Praep. Ev.” ix. 17)
under the name of Eupolemus, speaks of revelations
by angels to Methuselah, which had been preserved
to his time. A Book of Lamech is named in one of
our lists of Apocrypha.

Books of Noah are mentioned in Jubilees (x. 12,
xxi. 10). Fragments of an Apocalypse of Noah
are incorporated in different places in Enoch (which
see). A book bearing the name of Noria, the wife
of Noah, was current among certain Gnostics (Epi-
phanius, “Adv. Hiereses,” xxvi. 1). Shem transmits
the books of his father, Noah (Jubilees, x. 14); other
writings are ascribed to him by late authors. Ham
was the author of a prophecy cited by Isidore, the
son of Basilides (Clemens Alexandrinus, “ Stromata,”
vi. 6); according to others he was the inventor of
magic (identified with Zoroaster; Clementine, “Rec-
ognitiones,” iv. 27).

§ VII. Testaments. A special class of apocry-
phal literature is made up of the so-called “ Testa-
ments ” of prominent figures in Bible history. Sug-
gested, doubtless, by such passages as the Blessing
of Jacob (Gen. xlix.), the Blessing of Moses (Deut.
xxxiii.), the parting speeches of Moses (Deut. iv.,
xxix. et seq.) and Joshua (Josh, xxiii., xxiv.), etc.,
the Testaments narrate the close of the hero’s life,
sometimes with a retrospect of his history, last coun-
sels and admonitions to his children, and disclosures
of the future. These elements are present in varying
proportions, but the general type is well marked.

12. Testament of Abraham. Edited in Greek (two
recensions) by M. Ii. James, “Texts and Studies,”
ii. 2; in Rumanian by Gaster, in “Proc. of Society of
Biblical Archeology,” 1887, ix. 195 et seq.\ see also
Kohler, in “Jew. Quart. Rev.” 1895, vii. 581 et seq.
(See Abraham, Testament of, called also Apocalypse
of Abraham). Narrative of the end of Abraham’s life ;
his refusal to follow Michael, who is sent to him; his
long negotiations with the Angel of Death. At his
request, Michael shows him, while still in the body,
this world and all its doings, and conducts him to the
gate of heaven. The book is thus mainly Haggadali,
with a little apocalypse in the middle.

The Slavonic Apocalypse of Abraham (ed. by
Bonwetsch, “Studien zur Geschichte der Theologie
und Kirche,” 1897), translated from the Greek, gives
the story of Abraham’s conversion; the second part
enlarges on the vision of Abraham in Gen. xv.

13. Testaments of Isaac and Jacob. Preserved in
Arabic and Ethiopic. They are upon the same pat-
tern as the Testament of Abraham; each includes an
apocalypse in which the punishment of the wicked
and the abode of the blessed are exhibited. The
moral exhortation which properly belongs to the
type is lacking in the Testament of Abraham, but
is found in the other two.

14. Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. The part-
ing admonitions of the twelve sons of Jacob to their
children. Each warns against certain particular sins
and commends the contrary' virtues, illustrating and
enforcing the moral by the example or experience
of the speaker. Thus, Gad warns against hatred,
Issachar shows the beauty of simple-mindedness,

Joseph teaches the lesson of chastity. In some (e.ff.,
in the Testament of Joseph) the legendary narrative
of the patriarch’s life fills a larger space, in others
( e.g ., Benjamin) direct ethical teaching predominates.

The eschatological element is also present in vary-
ing proportions — predictions of the falling away in
the last days and the evils that will prevail ; the judg-
ment of God on the speaker’s posterity for their sins
(e.g., Levi, xiv. et seq. ; Judah, xviii. 22 et seq. ; Zeb-
ulun, ix.); and the succeeding Messianic age (Levi,
xviii. ; Judah, xxiv. et seq. ; Simeon, vi. ; Zebulun, ix.
et seq.). A true apocalypse is found in the Test, of
Levi, ii. et seq. (see Apocalypse). This eschato-
logical element is professedly derived from a book
written by Enoch (e.g., Levi, x., xiv., xvi. ; Judah,
viii. ; Simeon, v., etc.). The work is substantially
J ewish ; the Christian interpolations, though numer-
ous, are not very extensive, and in general are easily
recognizable.

A Hebrew Testament of Naphtali has been pub-
lished by Gaster (“ Proceedings of Society' of Biblical
Archeology,” December, 1893; February', 1894; see
also “Chron. of Jeralimeel,” pp. 87 et seq.), and is
regarded by' the editor and byr Resell (“ Studien und
Kritiken,”1899,pp. 206 etseq.) as the original of which
the Greek Testament is a Christian recension.

15. Testament of Job. When the end of his life is
at hand, Job narrates to his children the history of
his trials, beginning with the cause of Satan’s ani-
mosity' toward him. After parting admonitions (45),
he divides his possessions among his sons, and gives to
his three daughters girdles of wonderful properties(46
etseq.). The book is a Haggadali of the story of Job,
exaggerating his wealth and power, his good works,
and his calamities, through all of which he maintains
unshaken his confidence in God. There are no long
arguments, as in the poem ; the friends do not appear
as defenders of God’s justice — the problem of the-
odicy' is not mooted — they' try Job with questions
(see 36 et seq.). Eliliu is inspired by' Satan, and is not
forgiven with the others. See Kohler, in “Semitic
Studies in Memory of Alexander Koliut, ” pp. 264-338
and 611, 612, and Janies, in “Apocrypha Anecdota,”
ii. 104 et seq.).

16. Testament of Moses. The patristic lists of Apoc-
rypha contain, in close proximity, the Testament of
Moses and the Assumption of Moses. It is probable
that the two were internally connected, and that the
former has been preserved in our Assumption of
Moses, the extant part of which is really a Testa-
ment— a prophetic-apocalyptic discourse of Moses
to Joshua. See below, § x. 2.

17. Testament of Solomon. Last words of Solomon,
closing with a confession of the sins of his old age un-
der the influence of the Jebusite, Shulamite. It is
in the main a magical book in narrative form, telling
how Solomon got the magic seal ; by' it learned the
names and powers of the demons and the names of
the angels by whom they are constrained, and put
them to his service in building the Temple; besides
other wonderful things which he accomplished
through his power over the demons. (See Fleck,
“ Wissenschaftliche Reise,” ii. 3, 111 et seq.) A
translation into English by' Conybeare was given
in “Jewish Quart. Rev.” 1899, xi. 1-45.

The Gelasian Decree names also a “ Contradictio

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Apocrypha

Salomonis,” whicli may liave described his contest
in wisdom with Hiram, a frequent theme of later
writers.

A Testament of Hezekiah is cited by Cedrenus; but
the passage quoted is found in the Ascension of
Isaiah.

§ VIII. Relating to Joseph, Isaiah, and Ba-
ruch. Other Apocrypha are the following:

18. Story of Aseneth. A romantic tale, narrating
how Aseneth, the beautiful daughter of Potiphar,
priest of On, became the wife of Joseph; how the
king’s son, who had desired her for himself, tried to
destroy Joseph, and how he was foiled. The romance
exists in various languages and recensions. The
Greek text was published by Batiffol, Paris, 1889.

A Prayer of Joseph is named in the anonymous list
of Apocrypha, and is quoted by Origen and Proco-
pius. In these fragments Jacob is the speaker.

19. Ascension of Isaiah, or Vision of Isaiah. Origen
speaks of a Jewish apocryphal work describing the
death of Isaiah. Such a martyrium is preserved in
the Ethiopic Ascension of Isaiah, the first part of
which tells how Manasseh, at the instigation of a
Samaritan, had Isaiah sawn asunder. The second
part, the Ascension of Isaiah to heaven in the 20th
year of Hezekiah, and what he saw and heard there,
is Christian, though perhaps based on a Jewish vi-
sion. Extensive Christian interpolations occur in the
first part also. A fragment of the Greek text is
reproduced in Grenfell and Hunt, “The Amherst
Papyri,” London, 1900.

20. The Rest of the Words of Baruch, or Paralipomena
of Jeremiah. (Ceriani, “ Monumenta, ” v. 1, 9 et seq. ;
J. Rendel Harris, “Rest of the Words of Baruch,”
1889; Dillmann, “ Chrestomathia HSthiopica,” pp. I
et seq. ; Greek and Ethiopic.) Narrates what befell
Baruch and Abimelecli (Ebed-melech) at the fall of
Jerusalem. Sixty-six years after, they sent a letter
by an eagle to Jeremiah in Babylon. He leads a com-
pany of Jews back from Babylonia; only those who
are willing to put away their Babylonian wives are
allowed to cross the Jordan; the others eventually
become the founders of Samaria. Jeremiah is spir-
ited away. After three days, returning to the body,
he prophesies the coming of Christ and is stoned to
death by his countrymen.

§ IX. Lost Books. Other haggadic works named
in the Gelasian Decree are : the Book of Og, the Giant,
“whom the heretics pretend to have fought with
a dragon after the Hood”; perhaps the same as the
Manichean T lyavretoc jiijiTiog (Pliotius, “Cod.” 85), or
Tlpayyareta ruv Yijavruv ; The Penitence of Jannes and
Jambres. (See Iselin, in “Zeitschrift fur Wissensch.
Tlieologie,” 1894, pp. 321 et seq.) Both of these may
well have been ultimately of Jewish origin.

§ X. Prophetical Apocrypha. 1. Baruch.
Purporting to be written by Baruch, son of Neriah,
the disciple of Jeremiah, after the deportation to
Babylon. The book is not original, drawing its
motives chiefly from Jeremiah and Isaiah xl. et seq. ;
affinity to the Wisdom literature is also marked in
some passages, especially in ch. iii.

The Epistle of Jeremiah to the captives in Babylon,
which is appended to Baruch, and counts as the sixth
chapter of that book, is a keen satire on idolatry.

2. Assumption of Moses. See above, Testament of

Moses (£ VII. 16). What now remains of this work,
in an old Latin version, is prophetic in character, con-
sisting of predictions delivered by Moses to Joshua
when he had installed him as his successor. Moses
foretells in brief outline the history of the people to
the end of the kingdom of Judah; then, more fully,
the succeeding times down to the successors of Herod
the Great, and the Messianic age which ensues. It
is probable that the lost sequel contained the As-
sumption of Moses, in which occurred the conflict —
referred to in Jude 9 — between Michael and Satan
for the possession of Moses’ body.

3. Eldad and Medad. Under this name an apocry-
phal book is mentioned in our lists, and quoted twice
in the “Shepherd of Hennas” (ii. 34). It contained
the prophecy of the two elders named in Num. xi. 26.

§ XI. Apocalypses. 5 lost of the prophetical
Apocrypha are apocalyptic in form. To this class
belong; Enoch, The Secrets of Enoch, IV Esd., the
Apocalypses of Baruch (Greek and Syriac), Apoca-
lypse of Zcphaniah, Apocalypse of Elijah, and others
(see Apocalyfsk, and the special articles). Apoca-
lyptic elements have been noted above in the As-
sumption of Moses, the Ascension of Isaiah, the Tes-
taments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and others.

§ XII. Lyrical Apocrypha. 1. Psalm cli., in
the Greek Bible; attributed to David, “when he had
fought in single combat with Goliath.”

2. Psalms of Solomon. Eighteen in number; included
in some manuscripts of the Greek Bible, but noted in
the catalogues as disputed or apocryphal. Though
ascribed to Solomon in the titles, there is no internal
evidence that the author, or authors, designed them
to be so attributed. They were written in Hebrew —
though preserved only in Greek — in Palestine about
the middle of the first century n.c., and give most
important testimony to the inner character of the
religious belief of the time and to the vitality of the
Messianic hope, as well as to the strength of party
or sectarian animosity. The five Odes of Solomon
in “Pistis Sophia” are of Christian (Gnostic) origin.

3. Five apocryphal psalms in Syriac, edited by
Wright (“ Proceedings of Society of Biblical Archeol-
ogy,” 1887, ix. 257-266). The first, is Ps. cli. (supra,
§ 1); it is followed by (2) a prayer of Hezekiah;
(3) a prayer when the people obtain leave from Cyrus
to return ; and (4, 5) a prayer of David during his con-
flict with the lion and the wolf, and thanksgiving
after his victory.

§ XIII. Didactic Apocrypha. 1. The Wisdom
of Jesus, the Son of Sirach (in the Latin Bible entitled
Ecclesiasticus). Proverbs and aphorisms for men’s
guidance in various stations and circumstances; a
counterpart to the Proverbs of Solomon. The author
was a native of Jerusalem, and wrote in Hebrew ; his
work was translated into Greek by his grandson soon
after 132 b.c. The Syriac translation was also made
from the Hebrew, and recently considerable parts of
the Hebrew text itself have been recovered. The
book is included in the Christian Bible — Greek, Latin,
Syriac, etc. — but was excluded from the Jewish
Canon (Tosef., Yad. ii. 13 et seq.). Many quotations
in Jewish literature prove, however, its continued
popularity.

2. Wisdom of Solomon, 2n<pta lo/nuuvn^. Written in
Greek, probably in Alexandria; a representative of

Apocrypha

Apollos

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Hellenistic “Wisdom.” Solomon, addressing the ru-
lers of the earth, exhorts them to seek wisdom, and
warns them of the wickedness and folly of idolatry.
Noteworthy is the warm defense of the immortality
of the soul, in which the influence of Greek philo-
sophical ideas is manifest, as, indeed, it is through-
out the book.

3. Fourth Maccabees. The title is a misnomer; and
the attribution of the work to Flavius Josephus is
equally erroneous. The true title is Ilepi avroiepd-
ropoc /.oyiapov, “On the Autonomy of Reason.” It is
an anonymous discourse on the supremacy of relig-
ious intelligence over the feelings. This supremacy
is proved, among other things, by examples of con-
stancy in persecution, especially by the fortitude of
Eleazar and the seven brothers (II Macc. vi. 18, vii.
41). The work was written in Greek; it is found
in some manuscripts of the Septuagiut, but is not
canonical.

§ XIV. Apocrypha in the Talmud. There are
no Jewish catalogues of Apocrypha corresponding to
the Christian lists cited above; but we know that
the canonicity of certain writings was disputed in
the first and second centuries, and that others were
expressly and authoritatively declared not to be sa-
cred scripture, while some are more vehemently inter-
dicted— to read them is to incur perdition. The con-
troversies about Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon
will be discussed in the article Canon, where also the
proposed “ withdrawal ” of Proverbs, Ezekiel, and
some other books will be considered. Here it is suf-
ficient to say that the school of Shammai favored ex-
cluding Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon from
the list of inspired scriptures, but the final decision
included them in the canon.

Sirach, on the other hand, was excluded, appar-
ently as a recent work by a known author; and a
general rule was added that no books more modern
than Sirach were sacred scripture.

The same decision excluded the Gospels and other
heretical (Christian) scriptures (Tosef., Yad. ii. 13).
These books, therefore, stand in the relation of Apoc-
rypha to the Jewish canon.

In Mislmah Sanli. x. 1, R. Akiba adds to the cat-
alogue of those Israelites who have no part in the
world to come, “the man who reads in the extraneous
books” (D'JIVTin D’lSD^), that is, books outside the
canon of holy scripture, just as e$u, extnnsecvs, extra,
are used by Christian writers (Zalin, “ Gesch. des Neu-
testamentliclien Kanons,” i. 1, 126 et serj.). Among
these are included the “ books of the heretics” (DTQ),
i.e., as in Tosef., Yad. quoted above, the Christians
(Bab. Sanli. 100&). Sirach is also named in both Tal-
muds, hut the text in the Jerusalem Talmud (Sanli.
28c) is obviously corrupt.

Further, the writings of Ben La'anali (njy^ p) fall
under the same condemnation (Yer. Sanli. l.c.)\ the
Midrash on Ecclesiastes xii. 12 (Eccl. R.) couples
the writings of Ben Tigla (K^iri p) with those of
Sirach, as bringing mischief into the house of him
who owns them. What these books were is much
disputed (see the respective articles). Another title
which has given rise to much discussion is nSD
DTton or DITDH ( sifre ha-meram or ha-merom), early
and often emended by conjecture to DlVDrt (Home-
ros; so Hai Gaon, and others). See Homek in Tai,-

mud. The books of “ Be Abidau, ” about which there
is a question in Sliab. 116«, are also obscure.

Bibliography: Texts: The Apocrypha (in the Protestant
sense) are found in editions of the Greek Bible ; see espe-
cially Swete, The Old Testament in Greek , 2d ed.; sepa-
rately, Fritzsche, Libri Apocryphi Veteris Testamenti
Gi'ceci , 1871. Of the Pseudepigrapha no comprehensive cor-
pus exists ; some of the books are included in the editions of
Swete and Fritzsche, above ; and in Hilgenfeld, Memos Ju-
dceorum , 1889. see also Fabricius, Codex Pseudepigraphus
Veteris Testamenti , 2 vols., 2d ed., Hamburg, 1722, 1723,
which is not replaced by any more recent work. For editions
(and translations) of most of these writings the literature of the
respective articles must be consulted. Translations : The Au-
thorized Version may best be used in the edition of C. J. Ball,
Variorum Apocrypha , which contains a useful apparatus of
various l eadings and renderings ; the Revised Version, Apo-
crypha, 1895; Churton, Uncanonical and Apocryphal
Scriptures, 1884 ; a revised translation is given also in Bis-
sell’s Commentary (see below). Of the highest value is the
German translation, with introductions and notes, in Kautzsch,
Die Apokryphen und Pseud epigraph en des Altai Testa-
ments, 2 vols., 1899. Commentaries: Fritzsche and Grimm,
Kurzgefasstes Exegetisches Handhuch zu den Apokryphen
des Alten Bundes, 6 vols., 1851-80 ; Wace (and others), Apoc-
rypha, 2 vols.. 1888 (Speaker’s Bible); Bissell, The Apoc-
rypha of the Old Testament, 1890 (Lange series).

The most important recent work on this whole literature is
Schttrer's Geschichte des Jlldischen Vo Ikes, 3d ed., vol. iii.
(Eng. tr. of 2d ed.: Jew. People in the Time of Jesus Christ),
where also very full references to the literature will be found.
T. G. F. M

APOLANT, EDUARD : Ge rman physician ;
born at Jastrow, city in Westpreussen, Prussia, Aug.
21, 1847. He was educated at the gymnasium at
Deutsch-Krone and at the University of Berlin,
where he received the degree of doctor of medicine
in 1870. He was an assistant surgeon in the Franco-
Prussian war (1870-71), and, on returning to Berlin,
engaged in practise in that city. In 1896 he re-
ceived the title of “ Sanitatsrath. ”

Apolant has contributed numerous papers to Vir-
chow’s “Archiv flir Pathologische Auatomie und
Physiologic und fur Klinische Medizin ” (“ Ueber
das Verhaltniss der Weissen und Roteu Blutkorper-
clien bei Eiterungeu,” etc.); the “Berliner Klinische
Wochenschrift " (“Ueber Applikation von Karbol-
saureutnschlage bei Pocken,” etc.), and other medical
journals.

Bibliography: Wrede, Das Geistige Berlin, iii. 3, Berlin,
1898.

s. F. T. H.

APOLLINARIS or APOLLIN ARIUS,
CLAUDIUS : Bishop of Hierapolis, Phrygia, in
170 ; author of an “ Apology for the Christian Faith,”
which he addressed to Emperor Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus. He wrote also two books “ Pros Ioudai-
ous” (Against the Jews) and other works against
the pagans, and opposing the Moutanist and the
Encratite heresies, besides other books, all of which
are now lost.

Bibliography : Eusebius. Hist. Eccl. iv. 27, v. 19; Jerome, De
Viris I Ihlst f ilms, etc., p. 28 ; Epistolce, p.84; Fabricius, Bib-
Hath. Grceca, vii. 180; Tillemout, Memoires, t. i., pt. ii.

T. F. H. V.

APOLLONIUS : One of the Judeans who, about
130 b.c., went to Rome to make a covenant or league
of friendship with the Romans. He was called by
Josephus “the son of Alexander.” See John Hyr-
canus.

Bibliography : Josephus, Ant. xiii. 9, § 2, xiv. 10, § 22.

G. L. G.

APOLLONIUS or APOLLONIUS MOLON :

Greek rhetorician and auti-Jewish writer; flourished

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Apocrypha

Apollos

in the first century b.c. He is usually, but not
always, designated by the name of his father, Molon.
He was called by his patronymic mainly to distin-
guish him from his somewhat older contemporary
Apollonius Malachos. Apollonius Molon was still
praised as a distinguished master of the art of speech
about the year 75 b.c. Josephus, however, concerns
himself with him simply as one of the most promi-
nent and most pernicious anti-Jewish writers.

Born at Alabanda, in Caria, Apollonius afterward
emigrated to Rhodes, wherefore Cicero styles him
“Molon Rhodius ” (“Brutus,” ch. lxxxix.). He soon
eclipsed his contemporaries both as a master of ora-
tory and as a practical advocate, and had as pupils
both Cicero and Julius Caesar.

It was at Rhodes, no doubt, that Apollonius ap-
propriated the Judaeophobic ideas of the Syrian stoic
Posidonius (135-51 b.c.), who lived in that city, and
thence circulated throughout the Greek and Roman
world several wild calumnies concerning the Jews,
such as the charges that they worshiped
Follower an ass in their temple, that they sacri-
of ficed annually on their altar a specially
Posidonius, fattened Greek, and that they were
filled with hatred toward eveiy other
nationality, particularly the Greeks. These and sim-
ilar malevolent fictions regarding the Jews were
adopted by Apollonius, who, induced by the fact that
the Jews in Rhodes and in Caria were very numerous
(compare I Macc. xv. 16-24), composed an anti-Jew-
ish treatise, in which all these accusations found em-
bodiment. While Posidonius had confined himself
to incidental allusions to the Jews in the course of his
history of the Seleucidae (compare C. Muller, “ Frag.
Hist. Gnec.” iii. 245 et seq.), Apollonius outdid his
master by undertaking a separate book on the sub-
ject. Such appears to have been the character of his
treatise, which, according to Alexander Polyhistor,
was a avaKEvt/ (Eusebius, “ Pneparatio E vangelica, ” ix .
19), a polemic treatise — as Schi'irer renders the phrase
— against the Jews. The polemic passages, however,
must have been interwoven with a general presenta-
tion of a Jewish theme — probably a history of the
origin of the Jewish people. For it is the complaint
of Josephus that Apollonius, unlike Apion, far from
massing all his anti-Jewish charges in one passage,
had preferred to insult the Jews in various manners
and in numerous places throughout his work ( l.c . ii.
14). The assumption that Apollonius’ book was of a
historic character is confirmed by the fragment in
Alexander Polyhistor, which gives the genealogy of
the Jews from the Deluge to Moses, and by an allu-
sion of Josephus which indicates that the exodus from
Egypt was also dealt with therein (l.c. ii. 2). In con-
nection with the exodus, Apollonius gave circulation
to the malicious fable that the Jews had been expelled
from Egypt owing to a shameful malady from which
they suffered, while he took occasion to blacken the
character of Moses also and to belittle his law, char-
acterizing the lawgiver of the Jews as a sorcerer and
his work as devoid of all moral worth. Besides, lie
heaped many unjust charges upon the Jews, re-
proaching them for not worshiping the same gods as
the other peoples (l.c. ii. 7) and for disinclination to as-
sociate with the followers of other faiths (ii. 36). He
thus represented them as atheists and misanthropes,

and depicted them withal as men who were either
cowards or fanatics, the most untalented among all
barbarians, who had done nothing in furtherance of
the common welfare of the human race (ii. 14). No
wonder these groundless charges excited the anger
of Josephus, who believed that they corrupted and
misled the judgment of Apion (l.c. ii. 7, 15 et seq.),
and who therefore zealously devoted the entire second
part of his treatise against Apion to a refutation of
Apollonius. The latter was thus paid back in his own
coin. Josephus does not hesitate to accuse him of
crass stupidity, vaingloriousness, and an immoral life
(l.c. ii. 36, 37). See Apion.

Bibliography: C. Muller. Fragmenta Historicorum G-rceco-
rum , iii. 208 et seq.; J.G.Muller, Des Flavins Josephus Schrift-
gegen den Apion, p. 230, Basel, 1877 ; Paulv-Wissowa, Real-
Encyc. ii. s.v. ; Gratz, Gesch. dec Juden, 3d ed., iii. 347 et seq. ;
Schtirer, Gesch . 3d ed.. iii. 400-403; Vogelstein and Rieger,
Gesch. dev Juden in Horn, i. 83; Th. Reinach, Textes d' Au-
teurs Grecx et Romains Relatifs au Judaimne, pp. 80 et
seq.

G. II G. E.

APOLLONIUS OF TYANA : Pythagorean
philosopher and necromancer; born about the year
3 b.c. ; died, according to some sources, in the thirty-
eighth year of his age. In Arabic literature his
name is cited in the form “ Balinas ” or “ Belenus,”
which has often been mistaken for “Pliny.” He is
mentioned in connection with magical writings, and
is called by the Arabs Sahib al-Talismat (“The Au-
thor of Talismans”). They attribute to Apollonius
“ Risalah fi Tathir al-Ruhamiyat ti al-Markabat,” a
work that treats of the influence of pneumatic agen-
cies in the world of sense, and which also deals with
talismans. An introduction (“ Mebo ”) to this treatise
on talismans, “Iggeret al-Talasm,” was composed
by au anonymous writer ; it is found in Steinschueider
MS., No. 29. It is full of Arabic words, and contains
a few Romance ones also. The translator saysat the
end that the whole book is of no value, and that
he has translated (or copied) it merely as a warning
against “serving strange gods.” It is probable that
a copy of this translation existed in the library of
Leon Mosconi (Majorca, 14th century), where it
seems to occur under the title “Bel Enus” — No. 37
of the catalogue (“Rev. Et. Juives,” xxxix. 256. xl
65). It is also cited by Joseph Nasi (16th century)
and perhaps by Abba Mari. According to Johanan
Allemanno (died 1500), Solomon ben Nathan Orgueiri
(of Aix, Provence, about 1390) translated from the
Latin another work on magic by Apollonius. The
Hebrew title of this second work wasnioE'lO n3N^D
(“ Intellectual Art ”) ; fragments of it are found in
Schonblum MS., No. 79.

Bibliography : For Apollonius and his supposed writings see
J. Miller, in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopitdie dev t’lassi-
schen AUerthumswissenschaft, iii. 148 et seq.’, and Got-
tbeil, in Z. D. M. G. xlvi. 466; on the Arabic and Hebrew
translations see Steinschneider, Hebr. Uebers. § 320 ( = Z.
D. M. G. xlv. 439 et seq.) ; Fiirst, Canon ties A. T. p. 99, at-
tempted to identify Apollonius with Ben I.a'anali, whose wri-
tings were condemned (Yer. Sanh. xi. 28 a).

APOLLOS : A learned Jew of Alexandria, and
colaborer of Paul. Of him the following is told
(Acts xviii. 24-28): He came (about 56) to Ephesus,
as “an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures,”
to preach and to teach in the synagogue; and his
fervor of spirit and boldness of speech attracted the

Apollos

Apologists

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

attention of Aquila and Priscilla — Jews who had
espoused the cause of the new Christian faith iu
Corinth. They found him not sufficiently informed
in the new doctrine; for he knew “only the baptism
of John ” when he spoke to the people of “ the way
of the Lord.” So they expounded the way of God
to him more fully; and, turned into a firmer be-
liever in Jesus as the Messiah, he went to Acliaia,
where he converted the Jews to his new faith by
his arguments from Scriptures. This is illustrated
by another story which immediately follows: While
Apollos was still at Corinth, Paul found in Ephesus
about twelve disciples of John the Baptist who had
never heard of the Holy Ghost, but had undergone
baptism for the sake of repentance. Paul succeeded
in baptizing them anew in the name of Jesus; and
then, after “Paul had laid his hands upon them, the
Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with
tongues, and prophesied ” (Acts xix. 1-6).

The sect, then, to which Apollos, as well as these
twelve men of Ephesus, belonged, were simply Bap-
tists, like John; preaching the doctrine of the “Two
Ways ” — the Way of Life and of Death — as taught
in the “Didache,” the propaganda literature of the
Jews before the rise of Christianity. They were
thenceforward won over to the new Christian sect
probably under the influence of such ecstatic states
of mind as are described here and in the writings of
Paul.

Whether Apollos belonged to the class of thinkers
like Philo or not is, of course, a matter of con-
jecture. But it is learned from Paul’s own words
(I Cor. i. 10) that while working on the same lines as
Paul, Apollos differed essentially from him in his
teachings. Four different parties had arisen there :
one adhering to Paul, another to Apollos, a third
to Peter, and the fourth calling itself simply “of
the Christ.” “Who, then,” says he, “is Paul, and
who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed,
even as the Lord gave to every man? I have
planted, Apollos watered . . . we are laborers to-
gether. . . . Let no man deceive himself. If any
man among you seemeth to be wise in this world,
let him become a fool that he may be wise. . . .
Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world,
or life, or death, or things present, or things to
come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ
is God’s” (I Cor. iii. 5-23). Evidently Apollos be-
trayed more of that wisdom which Alexandrian
philosophers gloried in. Wherefore, Paul contends
that “not with wisdom of words” (I Cor. i. 17) was
he sent to preach the gospel. . . . “The world by
wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the fool-
ishness of preaching to save them that believe. For
the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after
wisdom” (ib. 21, 22). Originally the people of Cor-
inth were, according to I Cor. xii. 2, not Jews, but
Gentiles. It is, therefore, easy to understand why
Apollos’ preaching appealed to them far more than
Paul’s. Still, the difference between the two “apos-
tles” (I Cor. iv. 9) was not of a nature to keep them
apart ; for Paul, toward the close of his letter to the
Corinthians, says : “ As touching our brother Apollos,
I greatly desired him to come unto you : ... he will
come when he shall have convenient time” (I Cor.
xvi. 12). We have reason to ascribe to Apollos some

influence in the direction which led to a blending of
the Philonic Logos with the Jewish idea of the Mes-
siah— a Hellenization of the Christian belief in the
sense of John’s Gospel; though many critics since
Luther are disposed to attribute to him the Epistle to
the Hebrews.

Bibliography: Weizsacker, Das Apostolische Zeitaltcr, p.
268; Blass, Commentary on Acts, pp. 201, 203; Friedlander,
Der Vorchristliche Judusche Gnosticismus, 1898, p. 37.

T. K.

APOLOGISTS : Men of pious zeal who de-
fended both the Jewish religion and the Jewish race
against the attacks and accusations of their enemies
by writing, either in the form of dissertations or of
dialogues, works in defense of the spirit and doc-
trines of Judaism, so that its essentials might be
placed in the proper light. It was iu the nature of
things, therefore, that they were impelled to expose
the general weakness of the positions of their antag-
onists, and to attack those positions rigorously ; hence
the apologies are, at the same time, polemical ar-
raignments. So long as the Jewish state was inde-
pendent and respected by neighboring peoples, and
so long as religious reverence retained its hold upon
the heathen nations with whom the Jews came into
contact, it was unnecessary to ward off attacks
on their nationality, on their religious teachings,
or on their manners and customs. They dwelt in
harmony with Persians when Cyrus established the
Persian empire, and later with Greeks; they dwelt
alongside of Partliians and New Persians, and their
Judaism received no manner of offense. But when
the Jewish state fell into internal decay, and the
Greeks, with whom the Jews held the closest rela-
tions, lost their reverence for their own deities ; when,
furthermore, with the translation of the Bible into
Greek, the Hellenes were introduced to a literature
that claimed at least equality with their own ; and,
finally, when the Egyptians were by that translation
informed of the pitiful role their ancestors had played
at the birth of the Jewish nation, these peoples felt
themselves severely wounded in their national van-
ity. It was, accordingly, in Alexandria that anti-
Jewish literature originated, to withstand which
the Jewish Apologists resident there devoted their
energies.

Manetho, an Egyptian temple scribe at Thebes,
was the first to assail the Jewish nationality with all
manner of fables invented by himself.
The First Opportunity to disseminate misinfor-
Attacks in mation concerning the Jews had been
Egypt by afforded by the Syrian king Antiochus
Heathens. Epiphanes, whose wonderful stories
concerning his experiences in the Tem-
ple of Jerusalem were seized upon and elaborated by
the anti-Jewish writers of Alexandria. In this city,
the capital of Egypt, dwelt numerous Jews who
Avere distinguished for their intellectual activity and
moral life, and many Greeks detested the Jews for
their difference in moral ideals, founded as they were
upon religious codes quite different from their oavii.
Alexandria was accordingly the market where un-
scrupulous Avriters were certain of finding sale for
their multifarious calumnies against the Jewish peo
pie. In Alexandria, consequently, the earliest Jew-
ish Apologists made their appearance.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Apollos

Apologists

The first generation of Jewish Apologists flour-
ished from the beginning of the first century b.c. to
the middle of the second century of the
The common era. In this period are in-
First Apol- eluded those Apologists who encoun-
ogists. tered the attacks of the ancient hea-
thens. The early Greek fashion of
writing under a pseudonym had been transplanted
to Alexandria; works were issued purporting to be
productions of the great men of antiquity. The first
Jewish Apologists were, therefore, strictly in the
fashion when they used pseudonyms in their replies
to the ceaseless libels with which the anti-Jewish wri-
ters assailed the religious literature, the manners, and
the customs of the Jews. These Apologists drew a
picture of the grandeur and moral elevation of Juda-
ism, and, in accordance with the prevailing custom,
ascribed their writings to heathen poets and prophets.
The most important of these apologetic writings are
the “ Sibylline Books ” and “ The Wisdom of Solo-
mon.” The “Sibylline Books,” composed partly in
the middle of the second, partly in the first, century
b.c., contrasted the lofty ethics of monotheism and
the righteousness and morality of Ju-
“ Sibylline daism with the follies of idol-worship,
Books” and and with the selfishness and sensual-
“ The Wis- ity of heathendom. “The Wisdom of
dom of Solomon ” uses still darker colors to
Solomon.” paint the immorality and viciousness,
the utter corruption and shamelessness
of the heathen world, and portrays, in contrast there-
with, the moral atmosphere emanating from Jewish
religious writings. The author of this book lived
probably about the time of the Roman emperor Calig-
ula (37-41). Among the Apologists in Alexandria
mention must also be made of Philo, one of the most
eminent philosophical thinkers of Judaism, who
flourished about 40. Philo sought to illustrate to the
heathen world the beauty of the Jewish Scriptures by
endeavoring to prove that both Judaism and the bet-
ter Hellenic thought in the writings of Greek philos-
ophers aimed at one and the same mark; that the
Jewish prophets and the Greek speculative thinkers
strove after one and the same truth, and that, there-
fore, the difference between Judaism and Greek phi-
losophy was one merely of external appearance or
expression.

The best apologetic work of this period, and indeed
of any period, is that written in Rome by Flavius
Josephus (born about 37), which he entitled “ Against
Apion, or Concerning the Ancient State of the Jew-
ish Nation.” Apion, who was a contemporary of
Philo, had, at the request of several Alexandrians,
handed to the emperor Caligula a calumnious memo-
rial full of the worst accusations and
Josephus, slanders against the Jews. He had
simply compiled everything to be
found in previous writings of this character, and
added to it whatever he could devise in the way of
malicious invention. This slanderous petition, no
doubt, made its influence felt at the time Josephus
was writing his history in Rome, and impelled him
to publish his “Apology” (vindication), which con-
sisted of two books. He controverts the allegation
that the Jews have no history and are a new nation.
The sting of the charge came from the circumstance

that, according to the view then prevailing, the re-
spectability and dignity of a nation were in direct
proportion to its antiquity. He exposes the falsity
of the calumnies circulated against Judaism, and
illustrates the mental incapacity of his opponents to
grasp historical truths. Through the whole work
there breathes a spirit of warm admiration for Moses
and his civil and religious legislation; it acknowl-
edges appreciatively whatever is great and good
among all ancient peoples. This “ Apology ” of Jose-
phus furnished the model after which the Church
fathers patterned all their apologetic treatises, the
writing of which they were frequently called upon
to undertake in defense of Christianity.

No further apologetics of this period have been
preserved, although the venom that Apion injected
into the minds of his contemporaries continued to
work among Roman writers, who saw in the Jewish
nation a Stubborn enemy of Rome and an opponent
of the national cult. But in the Talmud and Mid-
rash many religious conversations have been pre-
served, in which prominent teachers like Johanan ben
Zakkai, Joshua ben Hananiah, Akiba, and others de-
fend Judaism and its doctrines. Dialogues, such as
these, between cultured representatives of Judaism
and heathenism, were, as a matter of course, quite
free from fanaticism ; they were, in fine, friendly con-
tests of wit and wisdom without the least trace of
animosity or bitterness.

The second series of Jewish Apologists covered the
period from the second to the fifteenth century, and
was concerned in repelling the attacks of Christian-
ity and, to a small extent, of Islam. Christianity,
having received from Judaism its doctrines of pure
morality and of love of one's neighbor, was con-
strained, in order to furnish grounds for its distinc-
tion, to proclaim that it had come into existence to
displace, and to fulfil the mission of, Judaism. It
endeavored to prove the correetnessof
Attacks by this standpoint from t he Bible itself,
Christians the very book upon which .1 udaism was
and founded. Wherefore Judaism had no

Moham- further reason to exist! The Jews,

medans. however, were not yet ready to accept
this decree of self-extinction, nor to
permit Christendom to take possession of the relig-
ious and ethical ground held by the Jews. Here,
then, was an occasion for some very sharp polemics
bet ween the offspring and the parent who declined to
die. The fact that both sides appealed to the same
source of authority — the Scriptures — served also to
narrow and intensify the struggle. So long, how-
ever, as Christianity refrained from throwing the
Brennus-sword of worldly power into the scales, the
discussion partook of the same peaceful nature as
those friendly passages of arms recorded in the Tal-
mud and Midrasliim, and displayed more of the na-
ture of good-humored rallying than of serious debate.
Jewish scholars, referring to Num. xxiii, 19, expressed
their objections to Christianity in the single passage :
“ If a man say that he is God, he is deceiving thee ; if
he say that God is man, he will repent it. If he claim
to ascend to heaven, he may say it, but he shall not
do it ”(Yer. Ta’anit i. 1).

But with the growth of political power in the
Church, the attacks of the bishops upon Jews and

Apologists

Apoplexy

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Judaism took on a harsher animus. The silence of
the Jews for several centuries in the face of such at-
tacks was a deplorable error, especially in view of
the fact that the bitter effects of this anti-Jewisli
literature were felt in the keenest degree. This
silence can be accounted for only by assuming that
the Jews of those days were not afraid of any en-
during consequences from these attacks, or from
the influence of the Christian propa-
Silence of ganda upon their own coreligionists,
the Jews. The fundamental principles of Chris-
tianity— Trinity, Incarnation, etc. —
were deemed by them to stand in such direct con-
tradiction to both the spirit and the letter of the
Bible that it seemed like a work of supererogation
to point «out the contradiction. Aside from this,
these attacks were written in Latin or in Greek,
familiarity with either of which had been lost by
the Jews. Whenever any vernacular discussions,
founded upon such material, occurred, the crass
ignorance of the Christian clergy of the day reu
dered the victory of the Jews an easy one. And it
was because the Jews felt so sure of their own
ground that they did not think it necessary to de-
fend themselves.

So far as ascertained, the first to venture a defense
in any degree was Saadia ben Joseph (died 942),
who was gaon in Sura and a very prolific writer.
In his translation of the Bible into Arabic, and in his
commentaries upon it, as well as in his philosophical
work, “Ernunot we-De’ot” (written in Arabic and
translated into Hebrew by Judith ibn Tibbon), he at-
tacked the claims of Christianity and Islam ; the
former receiving from his pen greater attention than
the latter, because Islam was not so insistent in its
missionary zeal as Christianity. Saadia maintained
that Judaism would always exist, and that its relig-
ious system, which allowed man to reach perfection
as nearly as possible, would not be displaced by any
other. In any case, Christianity, which transformed
mere abstractions into divine personalities, was not
qualified to supersede it; nor was Islam, which
lacked sufficient proof to displace the undisputed
revelation from God on Sinai.

From the period of Saadia polemical passages are
encountered in Midrashic works and ritual poems
directed against both Christianity and Mohammed-
anism; but although such passages usually close
with some kind of a defense of Judaism, the}- seem to
labor, under a species of reserve and timidity. But
■when at the time of the Crusades fanaticism broke
loose and the might of the Church grew rapidly;
when, furthermore, the Christian clergy had learned
to make use of the services of baptized Jews in aid-
ing schemes for the wholesale Christianization of
their brethren, the leading spirits among the Jews
felt constrained to lay aside all hesitation and reserve,
so that with the twelfth century Jewish polemics
appeared more frequently and more numerously.
In northern France, R. Samuel b. Meir (Rash bam) and
Joseph Bekor Slior demonstrated the weakness of the
foundations sought for Christianity in the Bible; and
Joseph b. Isaac Kimhi wrote the “Sefer ha-Berit,” in
which he applied himself to the discussion of Chris-
tian dogmas and their scientific refutation. Moses
ibn Tibbon, in Montpellier (1240), and Meir b. Simon

wrote polemical works; and the latter in addition
compiled the apologetic book “Milhamot Mizwah.”
In Spain, although prominent Jewish scholars had
embraced Christianity and placed their
French and services at the disposal of the Church
Spanish for public disputations and polemical
Apologists, writings, there were also Jewish Apol-
ogists that published their replies,
either in special books or in the shape of letters ad-
dressed to the apostates. Against Abner of Burgos
(called, as a Christian, Alfonso of Valladolid), Shem-
Tob ibn Shaprut wrote his pamphlet “Eben Bohan”
(The Touchstone). To Maestro Astruc Raimuch
(who, as a Christian, took the name of Francisco
Dios Came) Solomon b. Reuben Bonfed addressed
his epistle, full of sharp points, against Christian-
ity. The philosopher Hasdai Crescas singled out
Solomon lia-Levi (who, as a Christian, bore the names
of Paul de Santa Maria and Paul of Burgos) and re-
plied most vigorously to his attacks upon Jewish doc-
trine. Possibly the most important apologetic wri-
tings of all are those of Profiat Duran, of the fifteenth
century, and of Simon b. Zemah Duran. Around
these arrayed themselves a number of prominent
Apologists, who wrote independently or- quoted
chapters from the works of the Durans. In Italy
Abraham Farrissol (born 1451) wrote an apologetic
book, “Magen Abraham” (Shield of Abraham), in
which he proved that the popes had permitted the
Jews to take usury in order to enable them to pay
the high imposts laid upon them. In Germany, in
the beginning of the fifteenth eentuiy, Lipman of
Muhlhausen wrote his apologetic treatise, “Nizza-
lion ” (Victory), which name was given also to many
other books of similar scope published in Germany.

Much less fanatical were the attacks encountered
by J udaism from the side of Mohammedanism. The
far more favorable political and social position of
the Jews among the Mohammedans of Persia and
Egypt and among the Moors in Spain — the latter of
whom possessed but a scanty knowledge of the
Bible and of Jewish literature — hardly
Moham- gave such scope to aggressive polem-
medan ics as would call out the Jewish de-
Attacks. fense. In addition to Saadia and to the
Karaite writers, the following were the
chief Jewish authors who assailed Islam in defense of
Judaism: Sherira b. Hanina Gaon, Judah ha-Levi (in
his “ Kuzari ”), Abraham ibn Ezra, Moses b. Maimon,
Moses of Coucy , and the author of the “ Zoliar. ” The
whole range of Jewish literature contains but a single
production of any extent (originally a portion of a
larger work) that applies itself to an attack upon Is-
lam. Under the title “ Iyeshet u-Magen ” (Bow and
Shield) it was published in the eighteenth century
at Leghorn as a supplement to Simon Duran’s work,
“Magen Abot” (The Shield of the Fathers). This
supplement was translated into German by Stein-
schneider in 1880 in “ Magazin fur die Wissenscliaft
des Judenthums.”

The invention of printing was the signal for the
outpouring of a veritable flood of anti-Jewisli litera-
ture. Johann Christian Wolf, in the second part of
his “Bibliotheca Hebrrea,” published in 1721, enu-
merates the titles of all publications by Christians
against Jews and Judaism; and these titles alone

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Apologists

Apoplexy

fill fifty quarto pages of his book. Kayserliug in
his “Biblioteca Espanola-Portugueza-Judaica,” pp.
114 et seg., gives a list of anti-Jewish writings in
Spanish. To the earlier common calumnies — and es-
pecially to that so often made by Spanish apostates,
that the Talmudical passages directed against the
heathens were in reality intended against Christians
— there was added after the twelfth
The Blood- century (occasionally at first, but after-
Accusation ward more generally) the accusation
and Other that the Jews used the blood of Chris-
Calumnies. tians for ritual purposes. This is the
identical accusation which the Romans
of the second century made against the Christians.
At the same time the charge is occasionally encoun-
tered that the Jews pierce the consecrated host until
blood flows from it. Sad to say, Catholic churchmen
themselves spread these calumnies in order to fur-
nish collateral proofs of the doctrine of transubstan-
tiation enunciated at the fourth Lateran council in
1215 Jewish Apologists henceforth had to take no-
tice of this accusation as well. An apologetic book
in the spirit of Lipman Muhlhausen’s “ Nizzalion "
was written by the Karaite Isaac of Troki (near
Wilna, died 1593), entitled “ Hizzuk Emunali.” The
blood-accusation was taken up by Isaac Abravanel
in his commentary upon Ezekiel; by Samuel Usque
— who had escaped from the fangs of the Inquisi-
tion— in his “ Consolar;am as Tribuku^oes de Ysrael ”
(1553) ; by J udah Karmi in his “ De Chari tate ” (1643) ;
by Manasseh b. Israel in his “ Yindiciae Judaeorum ”
(1656), translated into German by Marcus Herz, with
a preface by Moses Mendelssohn ; by Isaac Cantarini
in his “Vindex Sanguinis” (1680); by Jacob Emden
in his open letter prefaced to his edition of the “ Seder
‘Olam Rabba we-Zutta” (1757); by I. Tugendhold
in his “ Der Alte Wahn,” etc. (1831); by I. B. Levin-
solm in his “Efes Dammim ” (1837); by L. Zunz in
“ Ein Wort zur Abwelir ” (1840), and by many others.

Apologies of a more extended scope were written
by the above-mentioned Samuel Usque, who treats
historically of the departed glory of Israel and of
the end of the period of Jewish power and wisdom ;
by David d’Ascoli (1559), and by David de Pomis,
who wrote the well-known apology “ De Medico
Hebrteo” (1588), dedicated to Duke Francis II. of
Urbino. Other Apologists were Solomon Zebi Uffen-
hausen, author of “Zeri ha-Yehudim,” published in
1615; the proselyte Abraham Peregrino ("0. prose-
lyte), who wrote “Fortaleza,” translated by Marco
Luzzatto in 1775 into Hebrew; Emmanuel Aboab,
author of “Nomologia,” written in Spanish, 1629;
Simon Luzzatto, with his treatise upon the condition
of the Jews; Jacob Lombroso (1640); Balthasar Oro-
bio de Castro, who wrote apologetic essays in Am-
sterdam ; Cardoso, with his work, “ Excellences de
los Hebreos” (1679); Saul Levi Morteira (died 1660);
Isaac Aboab; Judah Briel(1702); David Nieto, who
wrote “Matteli Dan” (1714); Isaac Pinto (born in
Bordeaux, 1715); and Rodrigues Texeira (died 1780).

With Moses Mendelssohn’s letter to Lavater, Jew-
ish apologetic writings assumed another character:
the question became one of political rights for the
Jews. And it is indeed true that spiteful attacks
upon Jews and Judaism have not yet ceased. Even
the cultured classes among the most enlightened

nations are not yet able to divest themselves of the
ancient prejudices and traditions. Atavistic senti-
ments often show themselves stronger
Modern than the dictates of reason. But the
Polemics, apologetic writings of to-day are al-
most exclusively of a political charac-
ter, and will be rendered wholly unnecessary only
when political and social equality the world over is
an accomplished fact. See Anti-Semitism. Bi.ood-
Accusation, Desecration of Host, Disputa-
tions, Polemical Literature.

Bibliography: Steinsehneider. PoUmixclie unit Apologe-
tische IMeratur, 1877 ; Winter and Wiinsche, JUiI. Lit. iii.
655-670; Hamburger, B. B. T. iii. division, supplement 5
(1900), pp. 16-27 ; Kayserling, Bibl. Kxp.-Port.-Jud. pp. 114
et seq. ; De Rossi, Bibliotheca Judaica Antichrist iana,
Parma, 1800.

k. S. B

APOPHIS : The Egyptian king under whom,
according to some early writers, Joseph came to
Egypt, and who, according to Syncellus, flourished
in the sixteenth century b.c. (“ Chronographia,” c.
115, §7). Josephus names Apophis as the second,
and Julius Africanus enumerates him as the sixth
king of the fifteenth, or Hyksos, dynasty. The mon
uments explain the confusion. They exhibit two
Hyksos kings, called Apopy, with the royal names
‘A-knon and ‘ A-user-re, apparently corresponding
with the second and sixth Hyksos (compare “ Mittei
lungen der Yorderasiatischen Gesellschaft,” iii. 17;
for a different sequence see, for example, Petrie,
“ History of Egypt,” i. 241). Syncellus seems to have
meant the second Apophis, under whom the Hyksos
were expelled from Egypt. This one reigned at
least thirty-three years according to the monuments,
forty -nine according to Manetho, to about 1570 b.c
The identification with Joseph’s Pharaoh seems, how-
ever, only a hypothesis influenced by the erroneous
Hyksos theory of Josephus, so that no reliance can be
placed on the dates given by Syncellus for Joseph’s
arrival and elevation to his office, as corresponding
with the years four and seventeen of Apophis.
j. .ir. ‘ W. M. M.

APOPLEXY : A sudden loss or diminution of
sensation and of the power of motion, caused by
the rupture or plugging up of a blood-vessel in the
cranial cavity and effusion of blood on or within the
brain. Ordinarily it is referred to as a “stroke of
paralysis.” The chief symptoms of this condition
are sudden loss of consciousness, of motion, and of
sensation, the affected person lying as if dead.

According to Dr. John Beddoe, Apoplexy appears
to have no racial preferences. In New Orleans
negroes and whites are said to die of
Proportion Apoplexy in the proportions of 103
Between and 91 respectively. England, Scot
Whites and land, Prussia, and Italy give each al-
Blacks. most exactly the same figures, vary-
ing between 10 and 11 per 10,000 of
inhabitants. Switzerland and Holland yield 8.5
and 7.9 respectively, but Ireland gives only 5.9 per
10.000. The rate of mortality from Apoplexy is cer-
tainly lower in quiet, rural districts than amid the
hurry and worry, or excesses, of towns.

Lombroso, on analyzing the vital statistics of Ital-
ian Jews, found that deaths due to Apoplexy are

Apoplexy

Apostasy

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

twice as frequent among them as among the general
population of that country. He attributes it to the
emotional temperament of the Jew, to
Predis- his reputed avarice, his constant strug-
position of gle with adverse conditions of life, and
Italian the ceaseless persecution of the race.

Jews. Lombroso further intimates that the
frequent marriages of near kin among
Jews, and the greater development and use of their
brains, are also predisposing causes.

The writer has compiled some statistics of Ameri-
can Jews, and finds that, in New York at least, the
Jew is no 'more liable to Apoplexy than is the non-
Jew. Thus, from Dr. John S. Billings’ report on
“The Vital Statistics of the Jews in the United
States” it is seen that among a Jewish population
of 10,618 families, comprising 60,630 persons, there
occurred 68 deaths from Apoplexy during the five
years from 1885 to Dec. 15, 1889; which means that
the death-rate from Apoplexy among the Jews was
1.12 per 1,000 population during five years, or an
annual death-rate of .224 per 1,000. On consulting
the “Annual Report of the Board of Health” of
New York city for 1898 it is found that during that
year 1,059 persons died of Apoplexy in the Borough
of Manhattan. The estimated population of Man-
hattan in that year was about 1,900,000, which gives
a death-rate from Apoplexy of .55 per 1,000 of the
general population ; and, according to the census of
1900, the mortality from this disease in the United
States was .666 per 1,000. These figures show that
among Jews the death-rate from Apoplexy is less
than one-half that among the general population of
Manhattan.

From the “Report on Vital Statistics in New York
City ” of the Eleventh Census (1890) in the United
States it appears that the death-rate from Apoplexy
in New York city during the six years ending May
31, 1890, was as shown in t lie following table:

Deaths per 100, (Xto, of Persons Whose Mothers Were
Born in

France 78.56

Ireland 78.11

Scotland 71.38

England and Wales 69.15

Germany 58.67

United States 49.15

Canada 46.21

Bohemia 36.08

Scandinavia 32.83

Hungary (mostly Jews). 19.10

Italy 16.59

Russia and Poland (al-
most all Jews) 14.22

For the whole city the death-rate from Apoplexy
was 59.37 per 100,000. From the above figures it is
evident that the Russian and Polish Jews are far less
frequently attacked by Apoplexy than are the peo-
ples of other nations.

Further statistics collected by the writer from the
annual reports of two Jewish hospitals, in compari-
son with two non-Jewish hospitals in New York
city, give the following table:

This gives about an equal rate for Jews and non-
Jews, as might have been expected to be the case
when the chief etiological factors in
Three the production of Apoplexy are con-
infrequent sidered. Syphilis, prolonged muscu-
Factors. Jar exertion, and the abuse of alcohol
are found to be important antecedents
in a large number of cases of Apoplexy. These
three factors are infrequent among the Jews, who
might, therefore, rather be expected to be less liable
to the aifection. But the busy, anxious life of the
Jew, his constant and hard struggle against adverse
conditions, have been operative in producing among
Jews a number of apoplectics equal in relative pro-
portion to that of non-Jews.

Bibliography: John P. Beddoe, Anthropology and Medi-
cine, in Allbutt, System of Medicine , i., London, 1895; C.
Lombroso, II Antisemitismn e i Giudei , German transl.,
Leipsic, 1894 : John S. Billings, Vital Statistics of the Jews
in the United States (Census Bulletin, So. 19), 1890; An-
nual Reports of the Mount Sinai, Beth Israel, New York, and
St. Luke’s Hospitals, New York.

J. M. Fl.

APOSTASY AND APOSTATES FROM
JUDAISM : Terms derived from the Greek anoara-
ala (“defection, revolt ”) and airoa-arr]^ (“ rebel in a
political sense”) (I Macc. xi. 14, xiii. 16; Josephus,
“Contra Ap.” i. 19, § 4), applied in a religious sense
to signify rebellion and rebels against God and the
Law, desertion and deserters of the faith of Israel.
The words are used in the Septuagint for YiD:
Num. xiv. 9; Josh. xxii. 19, 22; for ^>yo: II Chron.
xxviii. 19, xxxiii. 19; for "n)D : Isa. xxx. 1; and
for fcria: I Kings, xxi. 13; Aquilas to Judges xix.
22; 1 Sam. xxv. 17. Accordingly it is stated in

I Macc. ii. 15 that “ the officers of the king compelled
the people to apostatize,” that is, to revolt against
the God of Israel; and Jason, the faithless high
priest, is “ pursued by all and hated as a deserter of
the law” (roii vo/iov enrooTaTTig ; II Macc. V. 8). As
the incarnation of rebellion against God and the
Law, the serpent is called apostate (LXX., Job
xxvi. 13; and Symmachus, Job xxiv. 13; compare

II Thess. ii. 3; Revelation of John xiv. 6; Gen. R.
xix., DVTip'DN).

The rabbinical language uses the following expres-
sions for apostate: (a) “IE1D, from TOil : Jer. ii. 11;
and rn YDH (Suk. 565; ‘Ab. Zarah 265; ‘Er. 69a),
(b) TtDIC'G, from IDtJf (“ to persecute or force abandon-
ment of the faith ”) (Yer. Suk. v. 55 d;
Hebrew Gen. R. lxxxii. ; Yer. ‘Er. vi. 1 [235];
Expres- Sifra, Wayikra, ii. ;. Targ. Onkelos to
sions. Ex. xii. 43). The Apostates during the
Syrian persecution are caUed “ Me-
shummedaya ” in Megillat Ta’anit vi. (ed. Mantua ; in
later editions the word “Reslia‘im” is substituted

Table Showing Number of Patients Suffering from Apoplexy in New York City.

Jewish Patients.

Hospital.

Number

Patients.

Number
of Cases of
Apoplexy.

Apoplexy

per

1,000 Sick.

Beth Israel, 1897-1901

3,633

9.30

Mount Sinai, 1898, 1899, and 1900.

9,497

2.73

Total

13,130

.56

4.26

Patients from the General Population.

Hospital.

Number

Patients.

Number
of Cases of
Apoplexy.

Apoplexy

per

1,000 Sick.

New York, 1899-1 000

11,951

7,700

4.18

St. Luke’s, Oct. 1, 1897-Sept. 30, 1900.

5.58

Total

19,651

4.73

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Apoplexy

Apostasy

[Griitz, “Gesch. der Juden," 3d ed., iii. 600]). This
is equivalent to “ Hellenists ” ; according to Cassel,
avofioi { see “Revue des Etudes Juives,” xli. 268).
(c) 1313 (“a denier”), in Sanli. 39a, of the Law, ib.
106a, of the God of Israel (B. M. 71a); of the funda-
mentals (B. B. 166). (d) yens (“a rebellious

transgressor in Israel”), (e) TOX 'DUD CHDtl’ (“one
who has separated from the ways of the Jewish com-
munity”) (Seder ‘Olam R. iii.; R. H. 17a; Tosef.,
Sanli. xiii. 5). “No sacrifice is accepted from the
apostate” (Sifra, l.c. ; Lev. R. ii. ; Hul. 5a; Yer.
Shek.i. 1[466] ; “nor have they any respite from eter-
nal doom in Gehenna” (R. H. 17a; see especially
Sifre, Bemidbar 112 to Num. xv. 31). These expres-
sions all probably date from the Maccabean time,
when to such men as Jason and Menelaus the words
of Ezek. xxxii. 23, 24, were applied: “they who
caused terror in the laud of the living, and they have
borne their shame with them to go down to the pit.”

The Apostasy of these two men (II Macc. v. 8, 15)
being a desertion of both their national and religious
cause, filled the people with horror and hatred, and
their fate served as a warning for others. The out-
spoken hostility to the law of the God of Israel on the
part of the Syrians involved less danger for the ker-
nel of the Jewish people than the allurements offered
in Alexandria by Greek philosophy on the one hand
and Roman pomp and power on the other. Here
the tendency was manifested to break away from
ancient Jewish custom and to seek a wider view of
life (Philo, “De Migratione Abraliami,” xvi.), while
the tyranny of a Roman prefect like Flaccus, who
forced the people to transgress the Law, seems to
have had.no lasting effect (Philo, “De
Alex- Somnis,” ii., § 18). Comparing the

andrian proselytes with the Apostates, Philo
Apostates, says (“On Repentance,” ii.): “Those
who join Israel’s faith become at once
temperate and merciful, lovers of truth and superior
to considerations of money and pleasure ; but those
who forsake the holy laws of God, the apostates, are
intemperate, shameless, unjust, friends of falsehood
and perjury, ready to sell their freedom for pleas-
ures of the belly, bringing ruin upon body and
soul.” Philo’s own nephew, Tiberius Julius Alexan-
der, son of Alexander the Alabarch, became an
apostate, and to this fact he owed his high rank as
procurator, first of Judea, then of Alexandria; be-
coming afterward general and friend of Titus at the
siege of Jerusalem (Schiirer, “Gesch.” i. 473-474).

Against the many Apostates in the time of Calig-
ula the third book of the Maccabees loudly protests;
for Griitz (“Gesch. der Juden,” 2d ed., iii. 358, 631)
has almost convincingly shown that it was written
for that very purpose. While the faithful Jews
who denied the royal command and refused to apos-
tatize from their ancestral faith were rescued from
peril and reinstated as citizens of Alexandria, the
Apostates were punished and ignomiuiously put to
death by their fellow-countrymen (III Macc. ii. 32,
vi. 19-57, vii. 10-15); and the declaration was made
that “those of the Jewish race who voluntarily
apostatized from the holy God and from the law of
God, transgressing the divine commandments for
the belly’s sake, would also never be well disposed
toward the affairs of the king.”

The “Pastor of Hernias” (“Similitude,” viii. 6,
§ 4; ix. 19, § 1), which is based on a Jewish work,
says that “repentance is not open to apostates and
blasphemers of the Lord and those who betray the
servants of the Lord.” The same idea is expressed
in Tosef., Sanli. xiii. 5: “The doors of Gehenna are
forever closed behind heretics, apostates, and in-
formers”; with which compare Epistle to Heb. iii.
12, and Apocalypse of Peter 34.

It is a remarkable fact in the history of Chris-
tianity that, according to Acts xxi. 21, Paul was
accused before the council of James and the elders
of having taught the Jews Apostasy from the law
of Moses; for which reason the early Christians,
the Ebionites, “repudiated the Apostle Paul, main-
taining he was an apostate from the law ” (Irenaeus,
“Against Heresies.” i. xxvi.). It was probably due
to the influence of Pauline Christian-
Paul Called ity that “many of the Grecians,” as
an Josephus (“Contra Ap.” ii., § 11) tells.
Apostate, “had joined the Jews, and while some
continued in their observance of the
laws, others, not having the courage to persevere,
departed from them again.” The destruction of the
Temple, which put an end to the entire sacrificial
worship, was the critical period of Judaism, which,
while greatly increasing the numbers of Pauline
Christianity, gave other Gnostic sects an opportunity
of winning adherents. In the Maccabean period the
blasphemer that stretched out his hands toward the
Temple announcing its doom (II Macc. xiv. 33 el seq. ;
compare I Macc. vii. 34 et seq. ) was sure to meet the
divine wrath. Now many sectaries or Gnostics
{Minim) had arisen “ who stretched out their hands
against the Temple ” (Tosef. , Sanli. xiii. 5; R. II. 17a;
compare II Macc. xiv. 33). Moreover, when the
last efforts at rebuilding Temple and state ended in
disastrous failure and in the persecu-
Christian tion of the law-observing Jews, many
Apostates of the new Christian converts became
from informers against their brethren in
Judaism, order to insinuate themselves into the
favor (if the Romans. This naturally
increased their mutual hostility, and widened the
gulf between the Synagogue and the Church. The
prayer that the power of wickedness as embodied
in heathenism might be destroyed (which destruction
was believed to be one of the signs of the coming of
the Messiah) wasat this time transformed into an ex-
ecration of the Apostates and slanderers “(Birkat ha-
Minim,” Ber. 286; Yer. Ber. iv. 3, p. 8a ; Justin,” Dial,
cum Tryphone,” xxxviii.). As a typical apostate,
who, from being a great expounder of the Law, had
become an open transgressor, a teacher of false doc-
trines, and a seducer or betrayer of his coreligionists,
the Talmud singles out Elisha ben Abuyali. known
as Aher, “changed into another one.” The many
traditions about his life, which became an object of
popular legend, agree in the one fact that his Gnos-
ticism made him a determined antagonist of the Law
at the very time when Roman perse-
Aher the cutiou tested Jewish loyalty to the
Apostate, utmost; and consequently he is rep-
resented as having heard a divine voice
(“batkol”) issue from heaven, saying: “‘Return,
ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backsli-

Apostasy and Apostates
from Judaism

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

dings ’ (Jer. iii. 22) — all except Aher ! ” Still the rela-
tions between the Apostatesand the faithful observ-
ers of the Law remained tolerably good, as may be
inferred from R. Me'ir’s continual intercourse with
Aher, who honored the apostate as a man of learn-
ing, even after his death. However, from the time
when the Church rose to power and directed the
zeal of her aonverts against their former brethren,
these conditions changed. This majr be learned
from the decree of Constantine in 315, to the effect
that “all that dare assail the apostates with stones,
or in any other manner, shall be consigned to the
flames.” While the Synagogue was prohibited from
admitting proselytes, all possible honors were con-
ferred by the Roman empire upon Jews that joined
the Church. The rabbis refer the verse, “ My moth-
er’s children are angry with me ” (Song of Songs,
i. 6), to the Christians, complaining that “those that
emanate from my own midst hurt me most ” (Midr.
R. and Zutta ad loc. ; also Tobiah b. Eliezer quoted
by Zunz, “ S. P. ” p. 13, and “Tanna debe Eliyahu
R.” xxix.).

An apostate, Joseph by name, a former member
of the Sanhedrin of Tiberias, raised to the dignity
of a comes by Constantine the emperor, in reward
for his Apostasy, is described by Epiphanius in his
“Panarium,” xxx. 4-11 (ed. Dindorf, pp. 93-105).
He claimed, while an envoy of the Sanhedrin, to
have been cast into the river by the Jews of Cilicia for
having been caught reading New Testament books,
and to have escaped drowning only by a miracle.

He must have done much harm to the

Joseph of Jews of Palestine, since the emperor

Tiberias, had, in the year 336, to issue, on the one
hand, a decree prohibiting Christian
converts from insulting the patriarchs, destroying
the synagogues, and disturbing the worship of the
Jews; and, on the other hand, a decree protecting
the Apostates against the wrath of the Jews (Cassel,
in Ersch and Gruber, “ Allg. Encyklopadie,” iv. 23
and 49, note 59; Gratz, “Gesch. der Juden,” iv. 335,
485). The very fact that he built the first churches
in Galilee at Tiberias, Sepplioris, Nazareth, and
Capernaum — towns richly populated by Jews and
soon afterward the centers of a Jewish revolt against
Rome — justifies Gratz in assuming that the dignity
of comes conferred upon Joseph covered a multitude
of sins committed against his former coreligionists
in those critical times. The rabbinical sources al-
lude only to the fact that Christian Rome, in accord-
ance with Deut. xiii. 6 — “ the son of thy mother
shall entice thee ” — said to the Jews, “ Come to us
and we will make you dukes, governors, and gen-
erals” (Pesik. R. 15a, 21 [ed. Friedmann], pp. 715,
1065]). A decree of the emperor Theodosius shows
that up to 380 the patriarchs exercised the right of
excommunicating those that had espoused the Chris-
tian religion ; which right, disputed by the Christian
Church, was recognized by the emperor as a matter
of internal synagogue discipline (Graetz, “History
of the Jews,” ii. 612, iv. 385).

That many joined the Church only to escape the
penalty of the Jewish law is evidenced by a decree
of the emperor Arcadius demanding an investiga-
tion of each applicant for admission into the Church,
as to his moral and social standing, and by the story

of a typical Jewish impostor told by the Church
historian Socrates (Jost, “Gesch. der Israeliten,” iv.
225).

The great persecution by Cyril, in 415, of the Jews
of Alexandria induced only one Jew to accept
baptism as a means of safety : Adamantius, teacher
of medicine ; the rest left the city (Gratz, “ Gesch.
der Juden,” iv. 392).

The stronger the power of the Church became,
the more systematic were her efforts at winning the
Jews over to her creed, whether by promises, threats,
or actual force. As a rule but few yielded to per-
suasion or to worldly considerations, but more
numerous were those that embraced Christianity
through the threats and violence of enraged mobs.

Such was the case with the Jews in
In southern France and in the Spanish
Christian peninsula. Here a new term wTas
Spain. coined for the Jews that allowed them-
selves to be baptized through fear —
Aausim. It is interesting to observe that the Coun-
cil of Agde was compelled to take measures against
the Jews “whose faithlessness often returneth to its
vomit” (compare Prov. xxvi. 11, and the rabbinical
expression niD^ "ITHI: Kid. 175; Gen. R. lxxiv. ; Jost,
“ Gesch. der Israeliten, ” v. 64 et seq. ). The same
measures were taken by the Council of Toledo in the
year 633. Every single case of Apostasy under the
influence of the powerful Church provoked the in-
dignation of the Jewish community, where some
inconsiderate act of a Jewish fanatic often led to
riots, which always ended disastrously for the Jews,
either in baptism or expulsion. A number of such
instances are recorded by Gregory of Tours (Jost,
“Neuere Gesch. der Israeliten,” v. 66
In France, et seq., 87 etseq. ; Cassel, lx. pp. 57-62;

Gratz, “Gesch. der Juden,” v. 60 etseq. ;
compare also the edicts against the baptized Jews, in
Gratz, “Die Westgothische Gesetzgebung, 1858”).
In the Byzantine empire, also, forced conversion of
the Jews took place under Leo the Isaurian in 723;
many Jews becoming outwardly Christians while se-
cretly observing the Jewish rites (Gratz, “ Gesch. der
Juden,” iii. 123, v. 188; Cassel, l.c. p. 52). Tononeof
these is the term “apostate,” in its strict sense, appli-
cable. When, at the first persecution of the Jews in
Germany under Henry II., in 1012, many had been
baptized and afterward returned to the fold, R. Ger-
shom of Mayence insisted on their being treated with
brotherly kindliness and sympathy; and when his
own son, who had become a convert to Christianity,
died, he mourned him as his son, just as if he had
not apostatized (Gratz, “Gesch. der Juden,” v. 410).
Again, after the first Crusade, when many Jews,
yielding to the threats of the mob, had been bap-
tized, but with the permission of the emperor, Henry
IV., had returned to their ancestral faith despite
the protests of Pope Clement III., Rashi in his re-
sponsa (“ Pardes,” p. 23) protested against their being
shunned as Apostates by their brethren, and declared
them to be full Jews (Gratz, “Gesch. der Juden,1'
vi. 111-114; Berliner, in “ Kaufmann-Gedenkbuch,”
pp. 271 et seq.). Nor is it correct to enumerate in
the list of Apostates those Jews of Spain, France,
and other countries, who, under the influence of the
teaching of the pseudo-Messiah Serene (or Soria?),

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Apostasy and Apostates
from Judaism

had dropped the many Talmudic statutes and later
on returned to the fold, having in the meanwhile
remained followers of the law of Moses. Natronai
Gaon expressly declared them to have been Jews
(Griitz, “Gesch. der Juden,” v., note 14, p. 482).

The name “apostate,” however, assumed a new
meaning and character — that of bitter reproach —
when a large number of baptized Jews of promi-
nence used their knowledge and power as means of
maligning their former brethren and the faith in
which they had themselves been raised.
Famous Many of the Inquisitors were deseend-
Apostates. ants of converted Jews; for example,
Don Francisco, archbishop of Qoria,
Don Juan de Torquemada.

The first apostate that is known to have writ-
ten against the Jewish creed was Moses Sephardi,
known by the name of Petrus Alfonsi (physician
to Alfonso VI.), baptized in 1106, and author of the
well-known collection of fables, “ Disciplina Cleri-
calis.” He wrote a work against Jewish and Mo-
hammedan doctrines, entitled “Dialogi in Quibus
Impiae Judaeoruin et Saracenorum Opiniones Con-
futantur.” This book, however, seems to have had
little influence. The harm which Petrus Alfonsi did
to his former coreligionists can not be compared
with that done by some other Apostates. Donin of
Rochelle, France, in revenge for his having been
excommunicated by the French rabbis because of
doubts he had expressed concerning the validity of
the Talmudic tradition, embraced Christianity, as-
suming the name of Nicholas. He then went to
Pope Gregory IX., bringing thirty -five charges
against the Talmud, stating that it contained gross
errors, blasphemous representations of God, and in-
sulting expressions regarding Jesus and the Virgin
Mary. Moreover, he was the first to allege — what
afterward became a standing accusation — that the
Talmud allows all kinds of dishonest dealings with
the Christian — nay, declares the killing of one a
meritorious act. This led to a general rigorous
prosecution of the Talmud. A public dispute of the
apostate with R. Jehiel of Paris, and
Maligners other rabbis of France, was held in
of Latin in the presence of the queen-
Judaism. mother Blanche and many Church
prelates; but, notwithstanding the
favorable opinion created by R. Jehiel and the in-
tercession of the archbishop of Sens, twenty-four
cartloads of the Talmud were consigned to the flames
in 1442 (see Disputations). Pablo Christiani or Fra
Paolo, of Montpellier, was another apostate, who,
having in a public dispute with Nahmanidesin Bar-
celona, before James I. of Aragon, in 1268, failed to
win laurels, denounced the Talmud before Pope
Clement IV. In consequence of this a Christian
censorship of the Talmud was introduced for the
purpose of striking out all the passages that seemed
offensive to the Church, Pablo being chosen one of
the censors.

Still greater evil was wrought when Abner of
Burgos, known also by the Christian name Alfonso
Burgensis, a Talmudic scholar, philosopher, and
practising physician, adopted Christianity to become
sacristan of a wealthy church of Valladolid, and
then wrote — partly in Spanish and partly in Hebrew

— works full of venom against Jews and Judaism.
Especially successful was he in charging Jews with
reciting among their daily prayers one directed
against the Christians, the “Birkat ha-Minim and
King Alfonso XI., after having convoked the repre-
sentatives of Judaism to a public dispute, issued an
edict in 1336 forbidding the Jews of Castile to recite
that prayer. This calumny of the Jews bore its poi-
sonous fruit for generations to come (see Abner of
Burgos).

There were, however, some Apostates who were
inspired by the Church to follow in her footsteps
and to attempt the conversion of their former core-
ligionists. To this class belonged John of Valla-
dolid, author of two works against the Jewish
creed. In 1375, in a public debate with Moses
Coiien of Tordesillas, held at the church of Avila
in the presence of the entire Jewish community and
many Christians and Mohammedans, he endeavored
to prove the truth of the Christian dogma from the
Old Testament; but he was no match for his learned
antagonist, nor did his successor in the debate, a
pupil of Abner of Burgos, fare any better in his at-
tacks on the Talmud. Still more harmless were the
following rather frivolous satirists: Peter Ferrus,
who ridiculed his former coreligionists, the worship-
ers at the synagogue of his native town, Alcala, but
evoked a pointed reply which alone
Minor has caused his name to survive; and
Apostates, his compeers Diego de Valensia; Juan
d’Espana, surnamed “el Viejo” (the
Old); Juan Alfonso de Baena, the compiler of the
“ Cancionero, ” and Francisco de Baena, of the fif-
teenth century, a brother of the former (Kayserling,
“ Sephardim,” pp. 74 et seq.). To the same category
belongs Astruc Raimuch, physician of Traga, Spain,
who from a pious Jew became a fervent Christian,
assuming the name of Francesco Dios Carne (God-
flesh). In a clever Hebrew epistle he tried to win a
former friend over to his new faith, and not only met
with a mild protest on the part of the latter, but also
evoked a vigorous ironical reply from the sharp pen
of Solomon b. Reuben Bon fed.

Of all the Apostates of the twelfth century none
displayed such delight in hurting his former brethren
as did Solomon Levi of Burgos, known as Paul de
Santa Maria. A former rabbi and a pillar of ortho-
doxy, on intimate terms with the great Talmudists
of the age, he joined the Church together with his
aged mother, his brother, and his sons — only his
wife refused to renounce her faith — studied Chris-
tian theology, and quickly rose to the high position
of archbishop of Carthagena, and then to that of
privy councilor of King Henry III. of

Solomon Castile and tutor of the infant Juan
Levi II. He devoted his great literary
of Burgos, talents and mighty intellect only to
calumniate Jews and Judaism, and he
used his influence only to exclude his former core-
ligionists from every political office and position.
His open letters and satirical poems, addressed to the-
most prominent rabbis in Spain, evoked many a re-
ply, even from his pupils (see Crescas and Efodi).
Strange to relate, however, one of these, Joshua ben
Joseph ibn Vives of Lorca (Allorqui), although he
had composed an epistle filled with reproof for the

Apostasy and Apostates
from Judaism

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

apostate, seems to have come under his influence
and to have deserted the faith he at one time had so
warmly espoused. Under the name of Geronimo de
Santa Fe, he was body -physician and councilor of
Pope Benedict XIII., and became the terror of the
Jews of Spain. He induced the pope to summon
the most learned rabbis of Aragon singled out by
him to a religious disputation at Tortosa, for which
he had prepared a treatise proving Jesus’ Messianic
character from Scripture and Talmud. The debate
lasted over twenty-one months, from February, 1413,
to November, 1414. A little later Geronimo pub-
lished a treatise accusing the Talmud of teaching
blasphemy, of counseling the Jews to break their
oath by the Kol Nidke declaration, and of every
kind of hostility toward the Christians, every ref-
erence to the heathen being by him interpreted as
being directed against the Christians. From the in-
itials of his name, Maestro Geronimo De Fe, he was
called “ MeGaDeF.” (Heb. the Blasphemer). To the
same class belong Levi ben Shem-Tob, called, as a
Christian, Pedro de la Caballeria, who advised King
Manuel of Portugal, in 1497, to take Jewish children
by force and have them baptized ; Astruc Sibili (of
Seville), who testified to the slanderous charge of
murder brought against the Jews of Majorca in 1435;
and Henrique Nunes (de Firma Fe), who served as
spy against the unfortunate Maranos, and was about
to help Charles V. to introduce the Inquisition into
Portugal when he was assassinated by some Maranos,
and then canonized by the Church as a martyr.
Sixtus of Sienna and Philip (Joseph) Moro incensed
their Jewish kinsmen by traveling about in the
Papal State preaching, at the bidding of Paul IV.,
sermons for their conversion ; the former inciting
the mob to burn every copy of the Talmud they
could lay hands on after he himself had erected a
pile for this purpose ; the other forcing his way into
the synagogue while the people were assembled for
worship on the Day of Atonement, and placing the
crucifix in the holy Ark, where the scrolls of the
Law were kept, in order thus to provoke a riot.

This desire to calumniate the Jews and the Tal-
mud seems to have become contagious among the
Apostates of the time; for there are mentioned five
others that instigated throughout Italy and in the
city of Prague the burning of thousands of Tal-
mudic and other rabbinic books. Two of these were
grandsons of Elias Levita, Vittorio
The Eliano, and his brother Solomon Ro-
Burning mano, afterward called John Baptista.

of the The former, together with Joshua dei
Talmud. Cantori (ben Hazan), testified in Cre-
mona against the Talmud, corrobora-
ting the testimony of Sixtus of Sienna ; in conse-
quence of which 10,000 to 12,000 Hebrew books were
consigned to the flames in 1559. The latter, together
with Joseph Moro, went before Pope Julius III. as
a defamer of the Talmud, and these, with Ananel
di Foligno, caused thousands upon thousands of
copies of Hebrew books to be burned. A similar
accusation, made by Asher of Udine in the same
year, resulted in the confiscation of every Hebrew
book in the city of Prague. Alexander, a baptized
Jew, drew up for the tyrannical Pope Pius V. the
points of accusation against the Jews, their faith,

and their liturgy, upon which their expulsion was
decreed in 1596.

In Germany the first that became an accuser of his
former coreligionists was Pesach, who, as a Chris-
tian, assumed the name of Peter in 1399. He
charged the Jews with uttering blasphemous words
against Jesus in the prayer ‘Alenu, the letters of
pm (“and vanity”), he said, being identical in nu-
merical value with the name it?' (“Jesus”). The
Jews of Prague were cast into prison, and many
were killed because of the accusation.

In the calamity that befell the Jews of Trent and
Ratisbon three Apostates took a leading part: Wolf-
kan, who brought against the Jews the charge of slay-
ing children for the ritual use of their blood ; Hans
Vayol, who had the effrontery to accuse the aged
rabbi of Ratisbon of this crime, and Peter Schwartz,
who published slanderous accusations against his
former coreligionists, and had the Jews of Ratisbon
brought to the church to listen to his insulting
harangues. As regards another apostate, Victor von
Karben, a man of little Talmudic knowledge, he was
merely a willing tool in the hand of the fanatical
Dominicans of Cologne in their attacks upon the
Talmud and the Jews, as is seen by the material he
furnished for Ortuin de Graes’s book, “De Vita et
Moribus Judseorum,” Cologne, 1504.

The climax, however, was reached by Joseph
Pfefferkorn, of Bohemia. A butcher by trade, a
man of little learning and of immoral
Joseph, conduct, convicted of burglary and
Pfeffer- condemned to imprisonment, but re-
korn. leased upon payment of a tine, he was
admitted to baptism about 1505, and,
under the name of “ John ” Pfefferkorn, lent his name
to a large number of anti-Jewish writings published
by the Dominicans of Cologne. His first book,
“ Judenspiegel, oder Speculum Hortationis,” written
in 1507, contained charges, in somewhat milder
form, against the Jews and the Talmud, though he re-
buked them for their usury, and urged them to join
Christianity, and at the same time admonished the
people and princes to check the usury and burn the
Talmudic books of the Jews. But this was soon
followed by books each more violent than the other.
These were: “ Die Judenbeichte,” 1508; “ Das Oster-
buch,” 1509; “Der Judenfeind,” 1509. He insisted
that all Jews should be either expelled from Ger-
many or employed as street-cleaners and chimney-
sweeps; that every copy of the Talmud and rabbin-
ical books should be taken away from the Jews, and
that every Jewish house be ransacked for this pur-
pose. But though Reuchlin was called upon to
participate in this warfare against the Talmud, he
exposed the Dominicans and the character of Pfeffer-
korn, their tool. Entire Christendom was drawn into
the great battle between the Talmud detainers and
the Talmud defenders, the friends of enlightenment
siding with the Jews.

Nor were Von Karben and Pfefferkorn the only
ones of their kind. The monks were only too will-
ing to use others as their tools. One of these was
Pfaff Rapp — by some said also to have been called
Pfefferkorn — in Halle, for whom even John Pfeffer-
korn felt disgust. He was burned at the stake, hav-
ing committed sacrilegious theft.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Apostasy and Apostates
from Judaism

Antonius Margaritiia, son of the rabbi of Ratis-
bou, published a German work : “ Der Ganz Jiidische
Glaub,” Augsburg, 1530, wherein he repeated the
charge that blasphemy against Jesus

Luther’s existed in the liturgy of the Jews,

Source. especially in the “ ‘Alenu.” Luther ac-
knowledges having derived from this
source the arguments in his polemical work against
the Jews.

In 1614 Samuel Frederic Brenz of Osterberg,
Swabia, who had been baptized in 1610 at Feuclit-
wang, Bavaria, published a book full of venom
against the Jews under the title “ Jiidischer Abge-
streifter Schlangenbalg,” an “exposition of the blas-
phemies the Jewish serpents and vipers utter against
the guileless Jesus Christ ” — a work in seven chap-
ters, wherein the prayer “ ‘Alenu ” was made an espe-
cial object of attack. This attack was refuted by
Solomon Zebi Uffenhausen in a work entitled “ Der
Jiidische Theriak,” Hanover, 1615, and translated
into Latin, together with Brenz ’s book and com-
ments defending the Jews, by Johann Wiilfer, Nu-
remberg, 1681.

As a rule the Apostates delighted in tormenting
their former brethren, and this seems to have been
the chief recommendation for their employment as
censors of the Talmudic works. Wolf in his “ Bibli-
otheca Hebraea” (ii. 1003-1013) has a list of 80 names
of converted Jews that wrote against Judaism be-
fore 1720. It would be unfair, however, to bring
all these under the category of such Apostates as
were imbued with a spirit hostile to their ancestral
faith. A number of them perhaps felt called upon
to denounce Judaism and the Talmud in view of
the lucrative positions as teachers and missionaries
offered them, and not because of their zeal for their
new faith. From the Jewish writings they could
deduce arguments in favor of the Christian faith.
Among these was Christian Gersou, baptized in 1600,
at Halberstadt. He was prominent as
Other Emi- a defamer of the Talmud, and was
nentApos- criticized for his unfairness by the
tates. great French Bible critic Richard
Simon. He wrote a German work,
frequently published and translated into other lan-
guages, “Jiidischer Talmud,” published in 1607;
and “Der Talmudische Judenschatz,” published in
1610 — being a translation of chapter xi. of Sanhedrin
— as a specimen of Jewish superstition.

Paulus Ricio, who was professor of Hebrew in
Pavia, and physician of the emperor Maximilian,
prepared a translation of part of Joseph Gikatilla’s
cabalistic work “ Slia'are Orali” in 1516, and thus
awakened Reuchlin’s interest in the Cabala. He
commenced a translation of the Talmud in order to
prove from it the Messianic character of Jesus.
Moses Gerslion Cohen of Mitau assumed the name
of Carl Anton, professor of Hebrew in Helmstadt,
and wrote on Shabbethai Zebi in 1753. He took a
prominent part in the Jonathan Eibensclnitz contro-
versy, and published a number of books in the serv-
ice of the Church. Aaron Margarita was another
apostate who attacked the Talmud. By his charges
against the Haggadah he caused Frederick of Prussia
to put a ban upon an edition of the Midrasli in 1705.

Many Jews, disappointed in the hopes raised by
II.— 2

Asher Lamlein’s Messianic predictions for the year
1502, took refuge in the haven of Christianity.

A number of Jews were, owing to their high
social standing, so closely affiliated with the Chris-
tian world that, in critical times, they
Christian lacked sufficient self-abnegation to
Affiliation, wear the badge of suffering along
with their humbler brethren. Among
these — and at the same time one of the victims of
the great Spanish persecution of 1391 — was, singu-
larly enough, the ancestor of the Abravanel family,
Samuel Abravanel, who, as a Christian, adopted the
name of Juan de Sevilla. In the year of the expul-
sion, 1492, it was Abraham Benveniste Senior, chief
rabbi and tax-collector of Seville, who with his
son and son-in-law — also rabbis — went over to the
Church, assuming the name of Coronel. King Fer-
dinand, Queen Isabella, and Cardinal Torqueniada
are said to have stood sponsors at their baptism.

The tide of the anti-Talmudical mysticism in
Poland and the East, in the seventeenth and eight-
eenth centuries, which formed the undercurrent of
the Shabbethai Zebi and Frankist movements, end-
ed in a state of wild confusion and despair, and
the consequence was the conversion of hundreds
to Christianity. Chief among these Apostates were
Wolf Levi of Lublin, a nephew of
Anti- Judah Hasid, who assumed the name
Talmudical of Francis Lothair Philippi and ln-
Mysticism. came surgeon; and the son of Nelie-
miah Hayyun, the Shubbethaian. who
became an opponent of liis former brethren, and de-
nounced, before the Inquisition at Rome, Talmudic
and rabbinical works as inimical to the Church. Jacob
ben Lob Frank of Galicia, the leader of the Podoliau
Shabbethaians, and the Frankists who took their
name from him, became likewise public accusers of
the Talmud in the very center of Talmudic study.
After a disputation with the chief rabbis of Poland,
they accepted baptism in Lemberg, 1759. A few
weeks later Frank himself followed them, and as
sumed the name of Joseph. For those that aposta-
tized in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, see
Conversion to Christianity.

Islam, from the very outset, has emphasized
the absolute monotheistic character of the faith
of Abraham, in sharp distinction from the Trini-
tarian dogma and the divinity of Jesus (sura iv.
169; v. 76-77, 116; ix. 30; xix. 36, 91-95; ii. 110;
vi. 101; lxxii. 3; cxii. 2. “He is God alone; He
begets not; is not begotten. Nor is there like unto
Him any one!”). Quite naturally, therefore, the
Jews took a somewhat different attitude toward
Islam than toward Christianity. They rejected Mo-
hammed’s claim to prophecy, but
Apostates agreed with him in the fundamentals
to of his faith. It is doubtful how far
Islam. those Jews of Medina who were num-
bered among the “Ansar” (Helpers)
really apostatized to the new faith. The most im-
portant of those who went over to Mohammed’s side
was undoubtedly ‘Abd Allah ibu Salam, the most
learned of all the Jews. With him were associated
Ka‘b al-Ahbarand Wahb. When the Jews who still
desired to remain true to their faith retired to Kliai-
bar, Yamin ibn ‘Umair and Abu Sa‘d ibn Wahb

Apostasy and Apostates
Apostle and Apostleship

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

remained at Medina and became Mohammedans.
Later on Tlia'labah ibn Saya, ‘Usaid ibn Saya, and
Asad ibn ‘Ubaid yielded, fearing attack on the
part of the prophet’s men. A large number fol-
lowed the example which had thus been set, and,
when Khaibar was definitely taken, went over to the
new faith. Among them was a woman, Raihanah,
whom Mohammed at one time desired to marry.
Most of these apostasies were due to force, very
few to conviction (see Hirschfeld, “ Revue des Etudes
Juives,” x. 10 et seq. ). Arabic tradition knows also
of an apostate Jew in Palmyra, Abu Ya’kub, who
provided fictitious genealogies, and connected the
Arabs with Biblical personages (Goldziher, “Muliam-
medanische Studien,” i. 178). In the ninth century
mention is made of Sind ibn ‘Ali al-Yaliudi, court
astrologer of the calif Al-Ma'mun. In the same
century lived Ali ibn Rabban al-Tabari, author of a
work on medicine ; as his name implies, the son of
a rabbi, which fact, however, did not prevent him
from joining the dominant church. Another Jew,
however, Isma’il ibn Fadad (Spain?, eleventh cen-
tury), was more steadfast. Ibn Hazm, author of the
“Kitab al-Milal wal-Nihal,” had, indeed, persuaded
him of the truth of Islam, but he refused to apos-
tatize since “ apostasy was a disgraceful thing ” (“Z.
D. M. G.” xlii. 617).

In the twelfth century many enlightened Jews
joined Islam, partly owing, asGriitz thinks (“ Gesch.
der Juden,” vi. 303 ; English ed. , iii. 441), to the de-
generacy that had taken hold of Eastern Judaism,
manifesting itself in the most superstitious practises,
and partly moved by the wonderful success of the
Arabs in becoming a world-power. Among these
Apostates that occupied a prominent position was
Nathaniel Abu al-Barakat Hibat Allah ibn ‘Ali of
Bagdad, physician, philosopher, and philologist.
Among his many admirers was Isaac, the son of
Abraham ibn Ezra, who dedicated to
En- him, in 1143, a poem expressing the
lightened wish that he might live to see the
Apostates Messianic redemption in the risen Jeru-
to Islam, salem. Both Isaac ibn Ezra and
Hibat Allah, his wealthy benefac-
tor, became Moslems twenty years later.

Another apostate of this time was Abu Nasr
Samuel ibn Judah ibn Abbas (Samuel of Morocco),
the rabbi and liturgical poet of Fez, author of Che
“ Ifham al-Yahud. ” Samuel makes the curious state-
ment (“Monatsschrift,” xlii. 260) that most of the
Karaites had gone over to Islam, because their sys-
tem is free from all the absurdities of the Rabbinites,
and their theology not so different from that of the
Mohammedans. The statement is, however, un-
grounded. Some of the Jewish sects, however, that
arose in the Mohammedan East went perilously near
, to the point where all distinction between them and
Islam would be wiped out. Shahrastani, at least,
speaks of one such sect, the ‘Isawiyyali, that ac-
knowledged the prophecy of Mohammed, but held
that it referred only to the Arabs; and this is cor-
roborated by other authorities (Shahrastani, trans-
lated by Haarbriicker, i. 254, ii. 421; “Monats-
schrift,” 1885, p. 139; “Z. D. M. G.” xlii. 619).

The year 1142 brought a great crisis to the Jews in
southwestern Europe. The rise of the Almohades

(Almuwahhidin = Unitarians) in northern Africa
and the great wave of religious reform, mixed with
religious fanaticism, which swept over Fez and into
southern Spain, left them in most cases no choice but
the adoption of Islam or death. Many submitted to
outward conversion ; and in a touching communica-
tion to his unfortunate brethren, sent in 1160 by
Maimun ben Joseph, the father of Maimonides, he
exhorts his brethren to remain firm in

Outward their faith, and advises those that have
Con- yielded to encourage one another as
versions to far as possible in the observance of the
Islam. Jewish rites. The letter is directed
especially to the Jews in Fez (Sim-
mons, “Jew. Quart. Rev.” ii. 62 et seq.). Then the
controversy arose whether such as had publicly pro-
fessed belief in Mohammed were any longer Jews or
not. One rabbi denied it, insisting that since death
was preferable to Apostasy, the prayer and religious
observance of the forced convert had no merit what-
soever. This view is sharply criticized in a treatise
ascribed to Moses Maimonides, the genuineness of
which, though maintained by Geiger, Munk, and
Griitz, has been convincingly refuted by M. Fried-
liinder (“Guide of the Perplexed,” i., xvii., xxxiii.,
et seq.), in which Islam is declared to be simply a
belief in Mohammed, and that Islam is not idolatry,
to avoid which only the Law demands the sacrifice
of life.

Abraham ibn Sahl, a Spanish poet of the thir-
teenth century, was, however, distrusted by his new
coreligionists, who did not believe that his conver-
sion was sincere.

Among the Apostates that followed in the foot-
steps of Samuel ibn Abbas, denouncing their ances-
tral religion while pleading for the Islamic faith,
are mentioned: ‘Abd al-Hakk alTslami, in Mauri-
tania, in the fourteenth century, who published a
work proving the validity of Mohammed’s prophecy
from passages of the Bible which he quotes in the
Hebrew language (Steinsclineider, “Polem. Lit.” p.
125): Abu Zakkariyah Yahya ibn Ibrahim b. Omar
al-Rakili, who wrote, about 1405, “Tayit al-Millah,”
a work against the Jews, wherein passages from the
Pentateuch, the Prophets, the Psalms, and the Koran
are quoted (id. pp. 34, 83).

The frenzy of the Shabbetliaian movement ended
in many Jews assuming the turban, the symbol of
Islamism. To these belonged as leaders: Shab-
betliai Zebi; Nehemiah Cohen; Guidon, the sultan’s
physician ; Daniel Israel Bonafoux, and finally Be-
rakyah, son of Jacob Zebi Querido, regarded as suc-
cessor of Shabbetliai Zebi, who with his hundreds
of followers founded a Jewish-Turkish sect still
existing under the name of Donmeii.

The bloody persecution of the Jews during the
Damascus affair in 1840 caused Moses Abulafia to
yield and assume the turban in order to escape fur-
ther torture.

In general it may be said that the Apostates to
Islam exhibited no great animosity toward their
former brethren. Those that went over to the side
of Ishmael never forgot that he and Isaac were both
sons of Abraham ; and the reason for this is probably
to be found in the tolerance which Mohammedans
almost universally showed to the Jews. K. — G.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Apostasy and Apostates
Apostle and Apostlesbip

APOSTLE AND APOSTLESHIP : Apostle
(Greek anonroloQ, from anoaTeX/ieiv, “ to send ”), a
person delegated for a certain purpose; the same as
xheliah or shelnah in Hebrew, one invested with
representative power. “Apostoloi” was the official
name given to the men sent by the rulers of Jerusalem
to collect the half-shekel tax for the Temple, the tax
itself being called “apostole.” SeeTheod. Reinach,
“Textes Grecs et Romains, etc.,” 1893, p. 208, and
also Grittz, “Gesch. der Juden,” iv. 476, note 21,
where Eusebius is quoted as saying; “ It is even yet
a custom among the Jews to call those who carry
about circular letters from their rulers by the name
of apostles ” ; Epiphanius, “Haerescs,” i. 128: “The
so-called apostoloi are next in rank to the patri-
archs, with whom they sit in the Sanhedrin, deci-
ding questions of the Law with them.” The em-
peror Honorius, in his edict of 399, mentions “the
archisynagogues, the elders and those whom the
Jews call apostoloi, who are sent forth by the pa-
triarch at a certain season of the year to collect silver
and gold from the various synagogues ” (“ Cod.
Theodos.” xvi. 8, 14, 29. Compare Mommsen, “Cor-
pus Inscr. Lat.” ix. 648. See Apostole).

Griltz, looking for parallels in Talmudical litera-
ture, refers to Tosef., Sanh. ii. 6; Bab. 113, wherein
it is stated that the regulation of the calendar or the
intercalation of the month, the exclusive privilege
of the patriarch, was delegated by him only to rep-
resentative men such as R. Akiba and R. Meir, to
act for him in various Jewish districts. (Compare
also R. II. 25rt and elsewhere.) Such delegates in
ancient times were also appointed by the communal
authority, sheluhe bet din (delegates of the court
of justice), to superintend the produce of the seventh
year of release, so that no owner of fruit, tig, and
olive trees, or of vineyards, should keep more than
was needful for his immediate use— for three meals;
the rest was to be brought to the city storehouse
for common distribution every Friday (Tosef.,
Sheb. viii.). The name “delegate of the commu-
nity ” (“ slieliah zibbur ”), given to him who offers
the prayers on behalf of the congregation (Ber. v.
5), rests on the principle of representation as it is ex-
pressed in the Mekilta on Exodus, xii. 6 : “ The whole
assembly of Israel shall slaughter it.” How can a
whole congregation do the slaughtering ? “ Through
the delegate who represents it.” Accordingly, the
elders of the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem addressed the
high priest “ sheluhenu usheluah bet din ” (our dele-
gate and the delegate of the tribunal) (Yoma 183).
(The “angels of the churches,” Rev. ii. 1, 12,
18; iii. 1, 7, 14, are probably also the “delegates of
the churches,” not angels, as is the general opinion.)
Other delegates — “sheluhim” — are mentioned in the
Talmud; “Those sent forth to accomplish philan-
thropic tasks [“ sheluhe mizwah ”] need fear no dis-
aster on the road” (Pes. 83). “Those delegated to
collect charity [“ gabbac zedakali ”] were always ap-
pointed in pairs, and not allowed to separate in order
to avoid suspicion ” (B. B. 83). As a rule two promi-
nent men are spoken of as being engaged together
in such benevolences as ransoming captives, and simi-
lar acts of charity (Abot R. Nathan [A], viii. ; Lev.
R. v. Compare the “ Haburot ” of Jerusalem, Tosef. ,
Megillah, iv. 15). Hama bar Adda was called “she-

lia.li Zion ” (delegate of Zion), as being regularly sent
by the authorities of Babylonia to Palestine charged
with official matters (Bezah 253; Rashi and ‘Aruk).

The apostles, known as such from the New Tes-
tament, are declared to have derived name and
authority from Jesus, who sent them forth as his
witnesses (see Luke, vi. 13; Herzog and Hastings,
s.e. “Apostles”). But they were also originally dele-
gated by the holy spirit and by the laying on of
hands (Acts xiii. 3) to do charity work for the
community (see II Cor. viii. 23). “At the feet of
the apostles” were laid the contributions of the
early Christians to their common treasury, exactly
as was done in the year of release in every city
(Tos. Shebiit, viii. 1) and in every Essene community
(Josephus, “B. J.” ii. 8, § 3). “Two and two” the
apostles were enjoined to travel (Mark vi 7; Luke
x. 2), exactly as was the rule among the charity-work-
ers (B. B. 83), and exactly as the Essene delegates
are described as traveling, carrying neither money
nor change of shoes with them (Josephus, “B. J.” ii.
3, § 4; comp. Matt. x. 9, 10; Luke ix. 3, x. 4,
xxii. 35; bennikkel tre-tarmil, Yeb. 122a). Thus Paul
always traveled in the company of either Barnabas
or Silas (Acts xi. 30; xii. 25; xv. 25, 30), and was
entrusted with the charitable gifts collected for
the brethren in Jerusalem (see also I Cor. xvi. 1;
II Cor. viii. 4, ix. 5: Rom. xv. 25; Gal. ii. 10);
while Barnabas traveled also with Mark (Acts xv.
39, 40). Paul even mentions as “noted apostles
who joined the Church of Christ before him his
kinsmen and fellow-prisoners, Andronicus and Ju-
nia ” (Rom. xvi. 7). persons otherwise unknown to
us, but who in all likelihood had received no other
mission or Apostleship than that of working in the
field of philanthropy among the Jewish community
of Rome.

The meaning of the term “Apostle,” still used in
its old sense (Phil. ii. 25) of “ Epapliroditus, your
apostle [delegate] who ministers to my wants,”
was, however, already changed in the Christian
Church during Paul's time. It became the specific
term for the one sent forth “ to preach the kingdom
of God ” either to the Jews, or, as Paul and his dis-
ciples, to the heathen world (Mark iii. 14, vi. 7;
Luke vi. 13; Rom. xi. 13). “The gospel of the cir-
cumcision gave Peter the chief-apostleship of the
Jews, the gospel of the uncircumcision gave Paul
the apostleship of the Gentiles,” according to Gal.
ii. 7, 8; and so Paul calls himself an Apostle not of
men but of Jesus Christ (Gal. i. 1). So the term
“apostles of Christ” became a standing designation
(I Thess. ii. 6), and it was confined to those who
“saw Christ” (I Cor. ix. 1).

Finally, the number twelve, corresponding with
the twelve tribes of Israel, was fixed in the Gospel
records (Matt. x. 2; Mark iii. 14; Luke ix. 1; Acts
i. 25) in opposition to the apostles of the heathen,
who rose in number from one, in the case of Paul,
to seventy (Luke x. 1). Even the act of preaching
the good tidings concerning the coming Messiah on
the part of the wandering delegates of the commu-
nity (Luke iv. 18; because of which Jesus himself is
once called the Apostle [Heb. iii. 1]) was not with-
out precedent in Jewish life, as may be learned
from the prayer for good tidings recited every new

Apostles Teaching-
Apostomus

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

moon (“ Seder Rab Amram,” 33, Warsaw, 1865; com-
pare R. H. 25a and Targ. Yer. to Gen. xlix. 21).

APOSTLES' TEACHING. See Didache.

APOSTOL, DANIIL PAVLOVICH ; Hetman
of the Cossacks on both sides of the Dnieper; born
in South Russia in 1658; died Dec. 15, 1734. When
Catherine I. expelled the Jews from the Ukraine
(Little Russia) and from other parts of the Rus-
sian empire, May 7, 1727, Apostol was the first one
to apply to the senate to modify the harsh law.
The Cossacks, who eighty- years before had mas-
sacred in the most cruel manner many hundred
thousands of Jews in the Ukraine, Volhynia, Podo-
lia, Poland, and Lithuania, and who under the lead-
ership of Chmielnitzky had used their best endeav-
ors to keep the Jews out of their country-, had found
out by this time that they could not get along very-
well without Jewish merchants, who were indis-
pensable for the mediation of commerce between the
Ukraine and the Polish and Lithuanian provinces.
In response to Apostol's application, which was ac-
companied by his sworn statement, Jews were per-
mitted by the edict of Sept. 2, 1728, to attend the
fairs of Little Russia, provided they carried on
wholesale business only. Three y-ears later, Sept.
21, 1731, they were granted the same privilege under
the same conditions in the government of Smolensk ;
and six years later they- were also permitted, “ for the
benefit of the inhabitants,” to carry on trade at fairs
in retail.

Bibliography: Pnlnne mhrnnie zakonov, vii. 5063, viii. 5324,

5852, ix. 0610, 6621 ; Kiitziklopeclicheski Slovar , i., s.v., St.

Petersburg, 1891.

H. R.

APOSTOLE, APOSTOLI : These two words,
while similar in appearance, differ in signification.
“Apostole” was a term given to certain moneyrs or
taxes for Palestine ; “Apostoli,” the designation of
the men or apostles sent forth to collect it. The
first record of them is in a joint edict of the emper-
ors Arcadius and Honorius in the year 399 (“Codex
Theodosianus, ” xvi. 8, 14) ordering the discontinu-
ance of the custom of the patriarch of the Jews in
Palestine to send out learned men, called Apostoli,
to collect and hand to the patriarch money levied
by the various synagogues for Palestine; that the
sums already received be confiscated to the impe-
rial treasury, and that the collectors be brought
to trial and punished as transgressors of the Roman
law. Five years later Honorius revoked the edict
(“Cod. Tlieod.” xvi. 8, 17). At about the same time
Jerome (Comm, on Gal. i. 1) mentions the Apos-
toli (called in Hebrew aheliah), showing that in his
day- they were still sent out by- the patriarch ; and
in the first half of the fourth century- Eusebius
(Commentary on Isa. xviii. 1) writes of them as
vested with authority- by- the patriarch.

In the letter— the genuineness of which is not un-
impeaclied — written by Emperor Julian to the Jews
in 362-63, he orders the patriarch J ulos to discontinue
the so-called airoaro^Tj. The matter is most fully-
treated by- the church father Epiplianius (“Ad-
versus Ibereses,” i. xxx. 4-11). He describes an
anostolos, Joseph of Tiberias, of the first half of

the fourth century-, with whom he had associated
and who later embraced Christianity. According
to Epiplianius, the Apostoli were Jews
Apostoli of the highest rank, that took part in
were Jews the councils of the patriarch which
of Highest convened to decide questions of re-
Rank. ligious law. The aforesaid Joseph,
provided with letters from the patri-
arch, went to Cilicia, collected the taxes of the Jews
in every- city-, and removed a number of teachers and
precentors from their positions. Thus the direction
of affairs in the Jewish communities apparently- fell
under the authority of the Apostoli.

From Talmudic accounts (Yer. Hor. iii. 48a; Pes.
iv. 3 16; Git. i. 43d; Meg. iii. 74a) it appears that
the Apostole was used to support teachers and dis-
ciples in Palestine. Another evidence that it was
so used is that a similar sy-stem, doubtless tracing its
origin to Palestinian examples, obtained in the Baby-
lonian schools during the gaonic period (“Seder
‘Olam Zutta,” ed. Neubauer, in “Medieval Jewish
Chron.” ii. 87). The same point is made clear by-
an edict of the emperors Theodosius II. and Valen-
tinian, of the year 429 (“Cod. Tlieod.” xvi. 8, 29).
It ordered that the annual contributions, which, since
the extinction of the patriarchate, had been delivered
to the heads of the Palestinian academies, should in
future be collected for the imperial treasury, each
congregation to be taxed to the amouut formerly-
paid to the patriarch as coronarium aurum. The
moneys paid by- western provinces to the patriarchs
were also to be handed over to the emperor.

The exact date of the Apostole is not known; but
the account in the Talmud of the money--collections
by- teachers in the first century gives
Relation rise to the conjecture that the Apos-
to the tole was instituted upon the establisli-
Temple ment of the school at Jabneh, in the

Tax. year 70, though its organization may

not at once have been fully- developed.
It probably grew out of the former Temple tax,
with which it possesses several features in common.
The Temple tax, however, was brought from the
congregations to Jerusalem by- messengers of high
rank ; while the Apostole, in consequence of condi-
tions due to the fall of the Temple, was collected by-
teachers sent to the various countries. See Apostle

AND APOSTLESHIP.

These teachers may- at the same time have con-
veyed to the Jews outside of Palestine the arrange-
ment of the calendar decided upon by the council
of the patriarch. As the insertion of an extra month
for the leap-year had to be determined upon, at the
latest, in Adar (‘Eduy. vii. 7), the messengers com-
municating the order of the calendar possibly found
ready the contributions that were collected in Adar
as the Temple tax of former days had been. The
institution of the Apostoli continued after the intro-
duction of the fixed calendar (359) until Emperor
Theodosius II., in 429, forbade it in the Roman
empire. The messengers probably- journeyed to
lands not belonging to Rome, even to South Arabia,
if the account (525) of the Syrian bishop, Simon
of Bet-Arsliam, may- be trusted (compare Halevy
in “Rev. Et. Juives,” xviii. 36, and “Rev. Sem.,”
1900, p. i.).

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Apostles’ Teaching
Apostomus

Bibliography : Gratz, Geseh. der Jud ., iv. 304 and note ‘41 ;
compare Schiirer, GescJi. des Jthl. Volkes im Zeitalter Jem,
iil. 77 ; Gans, in Zxinz' Zeitsclirift /fir die Wissemchaft
des Judenthums , i. 260-270.

G. A. Bii.

APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS. See Didas-

CALIA.

APOSTOMUS: Among five catastrophes said
to have overtaken the Jews on the seventeentli of
Tammuz, the Mishnali (Ta'anit iv. 6) includes “the
burning of the Torah by Apostomus ” (written also
Postemus and Apostemus). Owing to this very
vague mention, there is much difference of opinion
as to the identity of Apostomus. At a first glance
he may be associated with one of the following two
incidents: (1) Josephus (“Ant.” xx. 5, §4; “B. J.”
ii. 12, § 2) relates that about the year 50 a Roman
soldier seized a Torah-scroll and, with abusive and
mocking language, burned it in public. This inci-
dent almost brought on a revolution ; but the Roman
procurator Cumanus appeased the Jewish populace
by beheading the culprit. (2) The other incident of
the burning of the Torah, which took place at the
time of the Hadrianic persecutions, is
The Tal- recounted by the rabbis. Hanina b.

mudic Teradyon, one of the most distin-
Account. guished men of the time, was wrapped
in a Torali-scroll and burned (Sifre,
Deut. 307; ‘Ab. Zarah 18a; Sem. viii.). In con-
nection with this a certain “ philosopher, ” DISIDI^Q,
is mentioned as the executioner of Hanina. It is
quite possible that DlSIDl^D is a corruption of
DWIDD12, and there are circumstances which lend
plausibility to this assumption. According to the
Jerusalem Talmud (Ta'anit iv. 68c et seq.), Apos-
tomus burned the Torah at the narrow pass of Lydda
(or, as another report has it, at Tariosa, which was
probably not far from Lydda); and it is known that
Hanina was one of “the martyrs of Lydda.” Fur-
thermore, a somewhat later authority (Addenda to
Meg. Ta'anit, ed Neubauer, in “Medieval Jew.
Chron.” ii. 24) gives the date of Hanina’s death as
the twenty -seventh of Tammuz, which is only a
difference of a few days from the date assigned to
the crime of Apostomus. The Mishnali referred to
adds the following statement to its account of the
burning of the Law : “ And he put up an idol in the
sanctuary.” Here it is first necessary to determine
that the reading Tnyn'l (“ and he put up ”) is correct,
and that it should not be “iDyim (“ and there was put
up”), which the Jerusalem Talmud (Ta'anit iv. 68d)
gives as a variant of the TDyiTI iu the accepted text,
interpreting the fact mentioned in the Mishnali as re-
ferring to the idols put up in the sanctuary by Manas-
seh (II Kings xxi. 7). But the incorrectness of this
interpretation is proved by the passage in the Mish-
nali on the five calamities of the Ninth of Ab, which
are enumerated in strictly chronological order ; so that
it is quite impossible that any reference to the Tem-
ple desecration by Manasseh should be registered
after the burning of the Torah by Apostomus. The
Babylonian Talmud knows only the reading TftyiTl
(“and he put up”) in the Mishnali, as the remark of
the Gemara (Ta'anit 285) proves, where the “abomi-
nation of desolation,” of which Daniel (xii. 11) speaks,
is connected with the image of the idol in the Tem-
ple. By this expression can only be meant the statue

of Zeus Olympius set up by Antiochus Epiplianes
(see Abomination op Desolation; and compare
Griitz, “Dauer der Hellenesirung,” in “Jahresbe-
richt ” of the Breslau Seminary, 1864, pp. 9, 10).

The reading ‘TOinni, found in Rashi and in the
Munich manuscript, has been simply diawn from
the Jerusalem Talmud ; and, indeed, in the Gemara
the Munich manuscript has VOynV But the state-
ment in the Babylonian Talmud, that the Mishnah
source concerning Apostomus is a Gemara (tradi-
tion), shows that, according to the Babylonian au-
thorities, the date of Apostomus can not be placed
later than the Maccabean period. For

Another Gemaia is a technical term employed
Name for by the Talmud to designate tannaitic
Antiochus sayings connected with Biblical events
Epiphanes. or laws which are neither mentioned
nor alluded to in the Scriptures, in con-
tradistinction to those which can be derived from
the Biblical text. Hence Apostomus must belong to
a time in reference to which there existed also writ-
ten sources that were known to the Talmudic au-
thorities, the latest limit being the Maccabean period ;
and as it has been shown that the pre-Maccabean,
the Biblical, epoch must be excluded, it follows that
Apostomus was no other than Antiochus Epiphanes,
of whom, moreover, it is known, also from other
sources, that he set tip an idol in the Temple. Apos-
tomus, then, must be considered as a nickname for
Antiochus Epiphanes. In fact, his name was trans-
formed even by pagan authors into “Epimanes” =
“the Insane” (see Antiochus Epiphanes, and, as
told in I Macc. i. 56, Torah-scrolls were burned dur-
ing the persecutions by Antiochus Epiphanes).

The meaning of the name “Apostomus” is not
clear. Ewald (in his “ History ”), alluding to certain
passages in the Bible and the Apocrypha (Dan.vii. 8,
20; viii. 23; and xi. 36; I Macc. i. 24), where reference
is had to the boastful mouth of Antiochus Epiphanes,
derives “Apostomus” from anrve (“big”) and ardua
(“mouth”). The appellation “big-mouth” is cer-
tainly very appropriate. Still this explanation can
scarcely be accounted as correct; for aixvc is a rare
word, used only in poetry. More probable perhaps
is Jastrow’s derivation (verbally con-
Meaning of veyed) of “Apostomus” from kiucro-
the Name. to stop or stuff up the mouth”)

and emoTi/ios (“ anything that stops up
the mouth”), which may be connected with the
Talmudic phrase iTDlD^ NtEy (“May his mouth be
stuffed full with earth! ”), applied in the Talmud to
the name of a man who had spoken boldly against
the Deity (B. B. 16a).

The following are other explanations of the word:
Jastrow (“ Dictionary of the Talmud ”) offers a sug-
gestion that it may be a corruption of a-6aro/.o(
(“ambassador”), and makes it refer to the envoy
spoken of in II Macc. vi. 1, 2 as having desecrated
the Temple. Hochstadter sees in “ Apostomus ” a
corrupted form of cnroaraTr/c (“apostate ”) and iden-
tifies him with the high priest Alcimus. Schwarz
and Derenbourg consider “ Apostomus ” the name of
the Roman soldier referred to by Josephus. Brull
connects him with Cornelius Faustus, who under
Pompey was the first to climb the wall of Jerusalem.
Halberstamm is of opinion that “ Apostomus ” is the

Apothecaries

Apple

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Hebrew transcription for the Latin “ Faustinus.” and
that the name, furthermore, is to be connected with
Julius Severus, whose surname was Faustinus, and
who perpetrated the crime described in the Mishnah
when he was sent by Hadrian to put down the Bar
Kokba rebellion, in which case the setting up of an
idol in the sanctuary would have to be taken to refer
to the dedication of a temple of Zeus upon the con-
secrated ground of the Temple.

[The name of the soldier that burned the Torah
scroll, mentioned in Josephus, was Stephanos, which,
written in Hebrew DlJ2t3DX. may have been cor-
rupted into D1DL2D12N K. j

Bibliography: Briill’s Jahrb. viii. 9; Derenbourg, Essai ,
p. 58 ; Ewald, Histor u of Israel, v. 293, note 1, and 299, note 2 ;
Halberstamm, in Rev. Et. Juives, ii. 127 et seq. ; Hochstiidter,
in Itahmer's Literatur-Blatt, vii. No. 20; Rapoport, Ereh
Millin, p. 181; id. in Kobak’s Jeschurun, i. 45 (Hebrew sec-
tion); Schwarz, Das Heilige Land, p. 279 ; Jastrow, Diet. s.v.
J. SR. L. G.

APOTHECARIES, JEWISH. See Medi-
cine, Physicians.

APOTHEKER, ABRAHAM ASHKENAZI :

An apothecary (“aptheker,” according to the cus-
tomary Polish- Jewish syncopated pronunciation) and
writer, whose name betokens both his nationality and
his profession. He lived at Vladimir in Volhynia in
the second half of the sixteenth century. He was
the author of D'TI DD ("The Elixir of Life”), a
work, written in Hebrew and in Judaeo-German, on
the duties of Jews of both sexes and of all conditions,
or as the author expresses it: “ ‘ Elixir of Life ’ is
this book’s name, to preserve every one against sin
and shame.” Through the efforts of his compatriot
Moses ben Shabbetliai, a native of Lokaczy (not far
from Vladimir), it was printed in Prague (1590), un-
der the direction of the son of Mordecai ben Gerson
Cohen. Like most books printed in Prague for the
edification of women, it has become rare. Jehiel
Heilprin possessed a cop}- of it, as it is included in
the list of works which he used in compiling his
“ ‘ Erke lia-Kinnuyim,” and also in his “Seder ha-
Dorot,” written about 1725. Another copy was
owned by Rabbi David Oppenlieim, a contemporary
of Heilprin. This copy is at present in Oxford. A
third copy, now in the British Museum, came from
the Michael Library ; a fourth is at Wilna, in Stras-
liun’s Library. It is not known whether a rare little
work in Judaeo-German, containing penitential pray-
ers (“ tehinnot ”), and printed at Prague at the same
press as the “Elixir,” is to be attributed to this au-
thor (“Cat. Bodl.” col. 508).

Bibliography : Zunz, Z. G„ p. 277 ; Steinschneider, Serapeum,
1849, p. 26, idem. Cat. Bodl. col. 666. Cat. Strashun, Lik-
kute Shoshanim.

G.' D. G.

APOTHEKER, DAVID: Judaeo-German writer
and printerat Philadelphia, Pa. ; borninPonievyezli,
gov. Kovno, Russia, Aug. 28, 1855. In 1868 he
went to Vilkomir, where he studied under the guid-
ance of Moses Loeb Lilienblum ; in 1877 he became
involved in the nihilistic movement and was ar-
rested at Kiev. Having escaped to Czernowitz.
Austria, he wrote for Hebrew and Judaeo-German
papers, and published his first book, “ Ha-Nebel ”
(The Harp), containing Hebrew and Judaeo-German
poems (1882). In 1888 he emigrated to the United
States, joined the anarchistic movement in New

York, and became a prolific contributor to the Judaeo-
German press. In 1895 he edited “ Die Gegenwart,”
a short-lived Judaeo-German weekly. In his wri-
tings the influence of K. J. Weber's “ Demokritos ”
is often discernible.

Bibliography: Wiener, Yiddish Literature, p. 81.

G. M. B.

APPEAL : “ The carrying of a cause from a
lower to a higher tribunal for a rehearing on the
merits ” is practically unknown to Jewish law. In
the statute constituting courts of justice and setting
forth the duty of the judges (Deut. xvi. 18-xvii. 13)
is found a paragraph that has given rise to the be-
lief that processes of Appeal were known in Biblical
times (see Deut. xvii. 8-13). But this paragraph is
simply an instruction to the judges, directing them,
in case they have doubts as to the law in the case,
to refer the matter to the High Court at Jerusalem,
submitting to it a statement of the case, and taking
its opinion. This course is also taken in cases where
a judge dissents (Sanli. xi. 2, 886). The opinion thus
rendered by the High Court is binding upon the
court that submitted the case, and judgment must be
rendered in accordance with it. This is not strictly
an Appeal, by either of the parties to the litigation,
from the judgment of the court before which the
case was heard in the first instance.

Indeed, the principle of the Biblical law is op-
posed to the idea of appealing from a judgment of
a lawfully constituted court, because the judgment
is of God; hence every final judgment pronounced
in court is conclusive.

Courts were not subordinated to each other, as
might be supposed from the use of the terms “ higher
and lower courts ” or “ great and lesser Sanhedrins.”
The rank of the court was not determined by its
power to review the judgment of another court, but
by the nature and character of the subject-matter
falling within its jurisdiction.

The most important matters could be tried only
by the Great Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, consisting of
seventy -one judges; matters of less importance by
the lesser Sanhedrin (provincial court) in the vari-
ous towns of Palestine, consisting of twenty -three
judges; and petty matters by local tribunals of three
judges, or, in some cases, by a single judge.

According to the Talmudic civil law, the court of
the domicil of the plaintiff had jurisdiction of the
case, but the plaintiff was entitled to commence his
action in the High Court at Jerusalem, whereas the
defendant had no right to remove the cause against
the will of the plaintiff (Sanh. 316).

According to the later law, the parties were en-
titled to an opinion from the judge, giving his find-
ings of fact and decision. An execution could issue
immediately upon the judgment; and the losing
party was obliged to satisfy it at once, without,
however, losing his right to have the judgment re-
viewed thereafter, before the same court, on the
ground of new evidence (Sliulhan ‘Aruk, Hoslien
Mishpat, 14. 4, gloss). If, however, the judgment
was that of the Great Sanhedrin, it was not neces-
sary for the judges to give a written opinion, for
such decision could not be set aside.

J. SR.

D. W. A.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Apothecaries

Apple

APPELLANTEN : A German word used to
designate the assistants of the chief rabbi of Prague ;
called also “ Oberjuristen ” ; generally three in num-
ber (see Prague).

g. S.

APPLE.— Biblical Data : The word “ apple ’’ is
the commonly accepted translation of tappuah,
from the root napah (to exhale = the sweet-scented).
It is of pleasant smell (“ the smell of thy nose like
apples,” Cant. vii. 9 [A. Y. 8]), and is used to re-
vive the sick (“comfort me with apples, for I am
sick of love,” Cant. ii. 5). The tree offers a pleasant
shade (“As the apple-tree among the trees of the
wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down
under its shadow with great delight,” Cant. ii. 3,
Hebr. ; “ I raised thee up under the apple-tree :
there thy mother brought thee forth,” Cant. viii.
5). It is mentioned also in Joel i. 12, together with
the pomegranate ; and it gave the name “ tappuah”
to a number of towns (Josh. xv. 34, 53; xvi. 8; xvii.
7). “Apples of gold in pictures [“baskets,” R. V.]
of silver ” are mentioned in Prov. xxv. 11. Whether
so called because of their red color, or whether
oranges are here meant, is uncertain. The Septua-
gint renders it yffkov, a fruit “ sweet to the taste ”
(Cant. ii. 3).

In the time of the Mishnah the “ tappuah ” was cul-
tivated in large quantities and many varieties (Kil. i.
4; Ter. xi. 3; Ma'as. i. 4; Tappuliim of Crete, Men.
28b). Apple-wine is spoken of in Tos. Ber. iv. 1
and Ab. v. 12. About the correctness of the transla-
tion of “ tappuah ” there is a wide difference of opin-
ion among botanists and linguists, especially as the
Greek pffkov , Latin malum , originally comprised the
pomegranate, the quince, and other fruits similar to
the Apple— all more or less symbolical of love, and
therefore sacred to Aphrodite (see Helm. “ Ivultur-
pflanzen,”' 1874, ii. 203-207). The Arabic name
tuffah is probably derived from the Syriac (see
Frankel, “ Aramaische Fremdworter, ” p. 140). The
tappuah — distinguished in the Mishnah from the
quince, which is called parish (Ma'as. i. 3), and from
the hazur (the crab-apple), (Kil. i. 4, Yer. Ter. ii. 3)
— is declared by most authorities to be none other
than the Apple that, if not as delicious as the Euro-
pean or the American Apple, is planted in orchards
and near the houses in Palestine and Syria, and is
especially prized for its aroma (see Credner, Com-
mentary on Joel, pp. 135 et seq., who refers to Ovid’s
“Metamorphoses,” viii. 676; Winer, “B. R.” — fol-
lowing Robinson’s “Researches,” ii. 355, iii. 1295;
and with reference to Josephus, “Ant.” xvii. 7,
[where its use in case of sickness is testified to by
the story of King Herod] and to Avicenna, quoted in
“Harmar,” i. 369; Immanuel Low, “Aramaische
Pflanzennamen,” pp. 155 et seq. ; W. R. Smith, in
“Journal of Philology,” xiii. 65). The Apple is
handed to the sick or faint to revive them by its
aroma. Rosenmuller ( “ Handbuch der Biblischen
Alterthumskunde,” iv. 308) and Houghton (in “Pro-
ceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, ” xii.
42-48), however, seek to identify it with the quince,
which, according to Post," has a sour, acrid taste, and
is never sweet.” Others identify it with the citron
(see Delitzsch’s Commentary to Cant.) and the arti-

cle “Apfel” in Riehm’s “Diet.”); but the citron (a
Persian fruit) was not transplanted to the Mediterra-
nean shores before the common era (according to
Pliny, “Naturalis Historia,” xii. 3; Theophrastus,
“Historia Plantarum,” iv. 4). The same objections
hold good against the identification of the Apple
with the apricot, as proposed by Tristram, “Fauna
and Flora of Palestine,” p. 294.

.J. jr. K.

In Rabbinical Literature; The Apple men-
tioned in Cant. ii. 3 is taken symbolically ; see the
following examples from Cant. R. ad he. : “ ‘As the
apple-tree among the trees of the wood ’ offers no
shade in the heat like other trees, so would the na-
tions not seek the shade of Sinai’s God; Israel only
would sit under His shadow with delight. Or, ‘ as
the apple-tree unfolds blossoms before leaves, so did
the Israelites show their faith in God before they
heard the message’ [Ex. iv. 31: “And the people
believed; and when they heard ”]. The same applies
when on Sinai they said: ‘All that the Lord said we
will do and hearken ’ [Ex. xxiv. 7, Hebr. ; compare
with Cant. R. ii. 3, Shah. 88«, where the erroneous
word piryo (its fruit), instead of nizzo (its blos-
soms), puzzled the Tosafists]. Or, ‘ as the apple-tree
ripens its fruit in the month of Siwan, so did Israel
display its fragrance at Mount Sinai in Siwan ’ [Ex.
xix. 1,2], Again, ‘ as for the apple-tree the time from
the first blossoming until the ripening of the fruit is
fifty days, so was the time from the Exodus to the
giving of the Law on Sinai fifty days.’ Or, ‘ as for
a small coin you may get an apple and derive en-
joyment even from its sweet odor, so may you obtain
your redemption easily with the help of the Law.’
Or, ‘as the apple excels in fragrance all trees, so
does Israel excel the nations in good works. ’” As
the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so even
those that are void of merit are still full of good
deeds, as the pomegranate is of seeds. The heathen
are the trees in the wood without fruit, and Israel
among them is as the apple-tree” (Yalk. Cant. 986).
Ex. R. xvii. : “ Why has God been likened to the
apple-tree? Just as the apple offers its beauty to
the eye without any cost, and has a delicious taste
and perfume, so God’s law (His mouth) is most
sweet. He is altogether lovely.” God had appeared
to all the nations, but they would not accept the
Torah, not realizing what is said in Ps. xxxiv. 9
[A. Y. 8],“ O taste and see that the Lord is good.” and
in Prov. viii. 19, “My fruit is better than gold, yea,
than fine gold.” But Israel said : “ I sat down under
his shadow with great delight and his
Symbolical fruit is sweet to my taste ” (Cant. ii. 3).
Meaning. Also the words “Comfort me with
apples ” (Cant. ii. 5) are referred to the
words of the Law, especially the Haggadot, which
have delicious taste and fragrance combined like
apples (Pesik. R. Iv. xii. 1015; Cant. R. adloc.).

The Targ. translates “ tappuah ” in Cant. ii. 3
“ ethrog ” (orange or citron); in ii. 5 and vii. 9 “tap-
puah di yintha di Eden ” (paradise-apple). In Cant,
viii. 5 tappuah is taken symbolically for Mount Oli-
vet as giving forth all the dead at the time of the res-
urrection, or is taken for Sinai as in Cant. R. Aquila
seems to take Cant. viii. 5 as referring to the fruit
of the tree of knowledge; as lie translates “ shammah

Apple

Appraisement

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

liibbelatkaimmeka'" — “there wast thou corrupted.”
Thus also Jerome (see Delitzsch, Commentary, p.
127). Here is probably the source of the common
view that the forbidden fruit was an Apple (accord-
ing to R. Abba of Acre [Acco],Gen. R. xv., an etlirog,
the so-called “ paradise-apple ”). In church symbo-
lism the story of Hercules with the apples of the Hes-
perides and the dragon wound around the tree served
as the representation of Adam’s fall, and Hercules
as that of Jesus as deliverer, the Apple being often
used as a symbol of the first sin (Piper, “Symbolik
der Christliclien Kirche,” i. 67, 128; Nork, “Mytholo-
gisches Lexikon,” s.v. “Apfel”).

Apples dipped into honey are eaten on the eve of
the Jewish New-Year while the following words are
spoken : “May it be Thy will, O Lord, that the year
just begun be as good and sweet a year!” (Tur
Orah Hayyim, 583). In cabalistic literature tap-
puah is an attribute of God, synonymous with tiferet
(beauty), because, says the Zohar (Lev. xvi.), “ti-
feret diffuses itself into the world as an apple.”

Botanical View : There is perhaps no Biblical

plant-name that has given rise to more discussion
than has the identification of the niDlT
Identified Four distinct fruit-bearing trees, the
with Four Apple (Pyrus malus), the citron {Citrus

Trees. medico), the apricot (Prunus Armeni-
aca), and the quince ( Cydonia vulgaris),
have been suggested as its equivalent. Of these, two
may be dismissed at once — the Apple and the citron.
The Apple, far from being a native of Palestine, is, on
account of the tropical climate, but rarely cultivated
there, and with no success. The fruit is small, woody,
and of very inferior quality.

The citron is beyond doubt a native of India,
where it has been known and cultivated, even under
different forms, from prehistoric times. At an early
date its cultivation spread into western Asia, whence
it was obtained by the Greeks, possibly as early as
the time of Alexander’s Asiatic campaign. It was
cultivated in Italy in the third and fourth centuries,
and by the fifth century had become well estab-
lished ; but it was not until the tenth century of the
common era, according to Gallesio, that its cultiva-
tion was extended by the Arabs into Palestine and
Egypt.

If viewed only in the light of present-day distribu-
tion and abundance, the apricot might lay undisputed
claim to being the Hebrew niDn [but see above],
for, according to Canon Tristram, it “is most abun-
dant in the Holy Land. . . . The apricot flourishes
and yields a crop of prodigious abundance; its
branches laden with golden fruit may well be com-
pared (Prov. xxv. 11) to ‘apples of gold,’ and its
pale leaves to ‘ pictures of silver. ’ ” The apricot,
as its specific name ( Prunus Armeninca) would
imply, has been supposed to be a native of Armenia,
and it has been reported in the neighborhood of the
Caucasus mountains in the north, and between the
Caspian and Black seas in the south, but grave
doubt exists as to its being found wild there.

According to De Candolle (“ Origines des Plantes
Cultivees ”), it is now settled beyond reasonable ques-
tion that the apricot is a native of China, where

it has been known for two or three thousand years
before the common era. Its cultivation seems to
have spread very slowly toward the
Difficulty West, as supported by the fact that it
of Identi- has no Sanskrit or Hebrew designa-
fication. tion, but only Persian names, zardalu
(yellow plum) and mishlaus — under
which latter designation, or its corruption mish-
mash, dried apricots are still exported from Syria —
which has passed into Arabic. Among the Greeks
and Romans the apricot appears to have been intro-
duced about the beginning of the common era;
for Pliny, among others, says that its introduction
into Rome took place about thirty years before he
wrote.

It is reasonable to suppose that the spread of the
apricot may have been rapid and effective after its
first introduction to the civilization of the West, for
it is a delicious fruit, of the simplest cultivation and
of great productiveness. The exact time of its in-
troduction into Palestine can not be determined, but
it very probably occurred before it became known to
the Greeks and Romans, as the Hebrews had scant
relations with Armenia, the country through which
the apricot (appanulh) came. It may, therefore, be
reasonably assumed that, although agreeing well with
the description of the Biblical tappuah, the apricot
is not the tree referred to in the Scriptures.

The claims of the quince to represent the tap-
puah of the Hebrew Scriptures have been ably
set forth by the Rev. W. Houghton
Quince. (“Proceedings of Society of Biblical
Archeology,” xii. 42-48). This is the
only one of the four species suggested that is un-
doubtedly indigenous to this general region. Ac-
cording to De Candolle:

“ The quince grows wild in the woods in the north of Persia,
near the Caspian Sea, in the region to the south of the Caucasus,
and in Anatolia. A few botanists have also found’it apparently
wild in the Crimea, and in the north of Greece ; but naturaliza-
tion may be suspected in the east of Europe, and the further ad-
vanced toward Italy, especially toward the southwest of Europe
and Algeria, the more it becomes probable that the species was
naturalized at an early period around villages, in hedges, etc.”

The absence of a Sanskrit name for the quince is
taken to indicate that its distribution did not extend
toward the center of Asia, and, although it is also
without a Hebrew name, it is undoubtedly wild on
Mount Taurus. It is much more difficult to connect
the quince with the Hebrew “ tappuah ” than it is to
identify the latter with the apricot. On this point
Houghton says:

“The tree [quince] is a native of the Mediterranean basin,
and is, when ripe, deliciously fragrant, but, according to our
western tastes, by no means pleasant to the taste when un-
cooked, but on the contrary austere and unpleasant. This
latter fact is regarded generally as destructive of its preten-
sions, but for my part I hesitate to throw over the claims of the
quince to denote the tappuah, on account of its taste. The
flavor and odor of plants or other things is simply a matter of
opinion. Orientals set a high value on flavors and odors which
to European senses are unpleasant moreover, we must seek for
the reason why such and such a fruit was regarded with appro-
bation.”

In seeking a probable reason for this liking for the
tappuah, Houghton calls attention to the mandrake
(Atropa mand/ragora), which, though to most Euro-
peans it has a very fetid and disagreeable odor, is
still Highly regarded by the natives of Palestine as

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Apple

Appraisement

a love-philter to strengthen the affection between the
sexes. The same argument may possibly apply to
the quince, which came to be so esteemed for its flavor
and odor, not as measured by European standards,
but as tinged by Oriental conditions. The Hebrew
word in the expression “its fruit was sweet to my
taste ” does not, it is said, imply either a saccharine
or glucose sweetness; “the bitter waters which were
made sweet ” (Ex. xv. 25) were made pleasant, their
bitterness was destroyed ; “ the worm shall feed sweet-
ly on him ” (Job xxiv. 20) must mean shall feed on
him with pleasure ; and so in Cant. ii. 5, “ his fruit
was sweet to my taste,” meaning probably not only
on account of the acid juice of the fruit, but be-
cause of its associations with friendship and love.

F. II. K.

Bibliography: Hastings, Diet. Bible ; Cheyne, Eney. Bibl.\
Hamburger, if. B. T.\ Winer, B. jR.; Herzog, Real-Encyklo-
ptldie ; Schenkel, ReahoOrterbuch; Hebn, Wanderunyen
der Kultvrpflanzen ; De Candolle, Oriyines des Plantes
Cultivees ; Credner, Commentary on Joel , p. 119.

J. JR.

APPLE OF SODOM (called also Dead Sea
Apple): A fruit described by Josephus (“B. J.”
iv. 8, § 4) and Tacitus
(“ Hist. ” v. 6) as grow-
ing near the site of
Sodom, “externally
of fair appearance,
but turning to smoke
and ashes when
plucked with the
hands. ” It has been
identified by Seetzen,

Irby, Mangles, and
others (see especially
Robinson, “ Biblical
Researches in Pales-
tine,” ii. 235-237)
with the fruit of the
Asclepias gigantea vel
procera, a tree from
ten to fifteen feet
high, of a grayish
cork -like bark, called
‘osher by the Arabs.

It is found also in
upper Egypt and in
Arabia Felix ; in Pal-
estine it is confined
to the borders of the
Dead Sea. The tree
resembles the milk-
weed or silkweed found in the northern part of
America. “The fruit,” says Robinson, “resembles
externally a large, smooth apple, or orange, hang-
ing in clusters of three or four together, and when
ripe is of a yellow color. It was now fair and de-
licious to the eye and soft to the touch: but on
being pressed or struck, it explodes with a puff,
like a bladder or puff-ball, leaving in the hand only
the shreds of the thin rind and a few fibers. It is
indeed filled chiefly with air, which gives it the
round form ; while in the center a small slender pod
runs through it which contains a small quantity of
fine silk, which the Arabs collect and twist into
matches for their guns.” It is difficult to say

whether the passage in the song of Moses, “their
vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of
Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their
clusters are bitter” (Deut. xxxii. 32), refers to a
similar fruit (see Herzog, “ Real-Encyklopildie,” xi.
748, under “ Palestina ”).

A. K.

APPRAISEMENT (DltJ* in the later Hebrew).
The setting of a value by a court of justice either
upon property, or upon damage done to person or
property. It differs from Estimate (Hebrew “py),
the fixing of values by the Law itself.

The Appraisement of damages, or “ measure of
damages ” as it is termed in English law, can best be
treated along with the rules for awarding compensa-
tion under the several heads dealing with wrongs and
remedies, such as Accident or Assault. We have
here to deal with the Appraisement that becomes
necessary when property — principally land — is
taken for debt, or is divided between joint owners.

In some New England States, even now, the land
of the debtor may be turned over to the creditor at a

valuation in satisfac-
tion of his judgment,
instead of being sold
to the highest bid-
der, as elsewhere.
This is called “ex-
tending ” the land :
a course more mer-
ciful to the debtor
than a public sale;
for there is no risk of
the land being sacri-
ficed. In the Tal-
mudic law this was
the only method for
subjecting the land
of adults to the pay-
ment of debts.

The Mishnali, iu
considering w h i c h
part of a debtor’s,
land shall be first ta-
ken to satisfy any de-
mand. lays down this
rule in Git. v. 1 : The
injured are paid from
the best (‘ iddit ); cred-
itors, from the mid-
dling ( benonit ); the
widow’s jointure, from the poorest (zibburit). The
debtor’s lands were deemed the main reliance for
all claimants, movables being too un-
Appraise- certain and fleeting. That the favored

ment of claimant should be paid from the
Land. most available parcels shows that the
debtor’s land was not to be sold, but
turned over in satisfaction ; for otherwise it could
make no difference which part of his lands was
levied upon first.

The instrument by which the court awards to the
creditor the debtor’s land, as valued, is known as
a “letter of appraisement” ( iggeret shum) (Mishnali
B. M. i. 8). In later practise (Hoshen Mishpat,

Tree of Sodom, Showing Shape of Leaf, Flower, and Apple.

(From a photograph by the Palestine Exploration Fund.)

Appraisement

Approbation

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

103), following a baraita (B. B. 107a), we always
find three appraisers mentioned, who are appointed
for that purpose and who act in place of the judges.
In the language of the Mislmah these are said to “ go
down ” to appraise, meaning that they start from the
seat of justice and go to view the field, or parcel, to
be valued. Their valuation is reported to the court,
and, when approved, becomes the act of the court.

The season of the year and the state of the land
market must betaken into consideration ; thus the
Talmud assumes that there is a better market in
Nisan than in Tishri (B. K. 76).

When only two of the three appraisers agree, the
opinion of the third is disregarded ; but -when each
of the three names a different value, the early sages
(B. B. 107a) disagree as to the mode of striking the
mean: whether to add the three estimates together
and divide by three, which would be the most natu-
ral course ; or to give the preference to the two lower
estimates, either at the arithmetical mean, or at two-
thirds of the difference above the lowest. The Tal-
mud decides for one of the latter methods — called by
the early sages that of the judges of the Exile — but
the later authorities (Hoshen Mishpat, l.c.) favor
the average estimate.

The interest of orphans, that is, of infant heirs
whose lands are to be taken for the obligation of their
father, or, speaking generally, their ancestor, is fur-
ther guarded by advertisement ( hakrazah ). The Misli-
nah (‘Arakin vi. 1) says: “Appraisement of orphans’
lands is thirty days; that of consecrated things is
sixty days, and they cry it out every morning and
evening. ” The commentary of Bertinoro — abridging
the discussions of the Talmud on the subject — says:
“The judges that go down to the estate of the or-
phans to sell it for debt appraise it, and cry out for
buyers on thirty continuous days, day after day : in
the morning when workmen go out to the fields —
that any prospective buyer may direct his employees
to look at the field and report ; and in
Advertise- the evening when the workmen come

ment of back, so that he who hears the an-
Sale. uouncement may be reminded of the
business in view and obtain the neces-
sary information.”

The advertisement states the boundaries of the
land and its distinguishing marks, the amount of its
product, and at what sum the court has assessed it ;
and the purpose for which it is sold, as it might in-
terest the buyer to know. For instance, if to satisfy
the jointure of a widow, she might be willing to
take the price in driblets ; if to satisfy a creditor, he
might, if a merchant, be willing to receive part of
his payment in broken or uncurrent coins. Then
the court appoints a guardian ( apotropos , a corrup-
tion of the Greek inlTpo-rrog) for the orphans, and in
due time sells the land according to advertisement
(‘Ar. 216 et seq.). The Mishnali says (Ivet. xi. 5):

“On an appraisement by the judges, when they have gone
too low by a sixth, or too high by a sixth, the sale is void [rather,
voidable]. Rabban Simeon, son of Gamaliel, says the sale
stands ; otherwise, wherein lies the power of a court of justice ?
But if they have made a letter of examination [iygeret bik-
koret] between them — even should they have soid what is worth
a maneh [100 zuz = $15] for two hundred, or what is worth two
hundred for a maneh — the sale stands.” (The iggeret bikkoret
is a written public notice, synonymous with hakrazah.)

After land lias been “appraised” to the creditor, or
(in New England legal language) after it has been
“extended” to him, his title may be lost under the
Talmudic law, upon a subsequent review and annul-
ment of the judgment, under the usual conditions
for such revision.

When slaves, movables, or written obligations were
sold for debt there was no previous advertisement.

Under the older Talmudic law mova-
Appraise- hies of the debtor were not answerable
ment of at all in the hands of his heirs ; but dur-
Slaves and ing the Middle Ages, when, in most
Movables, countries, Jews were not allowed to
own land, a remedy against the chat-
tels and effects of the decedent had to be given as a
matter of necessity. But in the Talmud no definite
directions are found as to how movables or effects
are to be appraised. Movables are supposed to be
nearly akin to money, and to bear something like a
fixed market value. When movables of the living
debtor are turned over to the creditor in satisfac-
tion, no commission of appraisers intervenes to
fix the value; but the court seeks to bring about
an understanding between debtor and creditor.
However, obligations on third persons are ap-
praised, the solvency of the obligor and the time
of maturity entering as elements (Hoshen Mishpat,
101, 2, 3, 5).

As has been said above, when a judicial sale is
made in conformity with all the requirements in the
matter of Appraisement and of advertisement, where
law and custom demand it, it is binding on all
parties. But where proper advertisement has
been neglected, the law of “overreaching” applies,
and the sale may be rescinded for an excess or
shortage in the price of one-sixth over or below the
true value (Ket. 1006); and this though in dealings
between man and man, the law about “overreach-
ing ” applies to movables only.

In the division of an estate Appraisement becomes
necessary ; but, for the most part, a court will have
to intervene only when some of the
Division of heirs are infants and the others are of
Estates, full years. As long as all are under
age no one can ask a division ; when
they are all of full age they can generally arrange
a division among themselves.

In an Appraisement of shares, with a view to di-
vision, the same principle applies as to sale upon Ap-
praisement; that is, a difference of one-sixth either
above or below the true value, resulting from a mis-
take of the judges, is good ground for rescission on
behalf of the infant heirs, within a reasonable time
after coming of age, although the court may have
appointed, as was its duty, a guardian for the infants.
In such a case, there being no advertisement as in
case of a judicial sale, there is nothing to correct
the mistake (Hoshen Mishpat, 289, 1).

In the division among the heirs, the garments they
wear — given them by the dead father — also the Sab-
bath or holiday garments provided by the father,
and worn by the wives and children of the heirs,
are estimated and charged on their shares (ib. 288, 1
et seq.).

The Hebrew term for “appraisement” is also ap-
plied to the valuation of the bride’s dowry in her

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Appraisement

Approbation

marriage contract (ketubah) ; though this valuation
is not made judicially, but by agreement of parties
(see Dowry).

j. sr. L. N. D.

APPROBATION or RECOMMENDATION

(in Hebrew HD3Dn, derived from the Aramaic D3D
“to determine,” “to agree”): Primarily, a favor-
1 able opinion given by rabbis or scholars as recom-
mendation for a book composed wholly or partly
in the Hebrew language. The Approbation is not
of Jewish origin any more than the censorship.
Blau correctly remarks: “Neither the Bible nor the
Talmud nor the medieval Jewish literature knows
: of approbations. No prophet ever asked for the
I consent of any authority to his promulgations, nor
any doctor of the Talmud to his opinion, nor any phi-
losopher to his system. Even in the Middle Ages,
when the Jewish religion, influenced by its sur-
roundings, assumed more than ever the character of
i an authoritative religion, it did not, as far as I know,
ever occur that any author had the excellence of his
halakic work ‘ approved ’ by a recognized author-
ity. Every literary production had to find the rec-
ognition which it merited b}r its own intrinsic worth.
There was no previous approbation, just as little as
there was no previous censure ’’(“Jew. Quart. Rev.,”
1897, p. 175). It was the Christian clergy, anxious
concerning the influence which might be exerted
by certain thoughts and ideas over the multitude,
who called both Approbation and cen-
Of sure into existence. Examples are to
Christian be found as early as the fourth cen-

Origin. tury of certain books designated by
the Church as being forbidden to the
faithful for perusal.

The invention of printing materially helped the
spread of bad books as well as of good ones, and
therefore caused a still closer scrutiny by the Catli-

Iolic Church of all publications. Alexander VI.
(1501) decreed that a license for theological books
appearing in any diocese in Germany must be se-
cured from the respective bishop; and in 1515, at

(the fifth Lateran Synod, Leo X. extended the same
rule to all Catholic countries with the threat of
heavy penalties for non-compliance. But even these
early papal bulls had been preceded by regula-
tions concerning publications in Cologne, Mayence,
and other German cities, also in Spain and in Ven-
ice. In 1480 a “Nosce te ipsum” with four appro-
bations was published in Venice, and a book, with
an Approbation by the patriarch of Venice, at Hei-
delberg (Reusch, “Der Index der Verbotenen Bii
cher,” i. 56, Bonn, 1883-85). It is about this time
that Jewish approbations (haskamot) first appeared.
They are of three classes, embodying (1) Commen-
dation ; (2) Privilege ; (3) License.

(1) Commendation: Commendatory haskamot
are original approbations serving merely to de-
scribe the merits of the work, a purpose frequently
attained by ordinary eulogies. In them it was
sought to direct the attention of Jewish readers to the
book. Of this kind are the haskamot to Jacob Lan-
dau’s “Agur”(ed. Naples, 1487-92), by Judah Mes-
ser Leon, Jacob b. David Frov&nzalo, Ben Zion ben
Raphael Isaac ben Samuel Hayyitn, Solomon

Hayyim ben Jehiel Raphael lia-Kohen, and Nethauel
ben Levi of Jerusalem. Leon's liaskamah is as fol-
lows :

iam suS apj’ I'lna: tpSun -nijru ra voto run
onjnm ovn mny u’n yapi Ua ns'a -ma anpjn 310 non
las’ noa pun non aim nna nVun 73 op nnm moa
eon rpxo 'nc'nn inns' pVi .aininS anp'n o’pDioi O'jnjDO
-tao non anpjn mini jopn ,opu nna

(“I have examined the work submitted to me by the Rever-
end Jacob Landau, who has produced, under the title * Agur,’ a
collection of the laws touching the daily ritual and that of the
festivals and all that is permitted or prohibited thereon, to-
gether with all matters belonging thereunto. It is a work
which ‘giveth pleasant words' concerning the customs and
observances and the decisions upon them by expert scholars ;
and therefore have I set my signature unto * these droppings
of the honeycomb,’ these words of beauty.

“Judah, surnamed Messir Lkox.”)

(De Rossi, “ Annales Hebraeo-Tvpographici,” § xv.
147; Steinsclmeider, in Erscli and Gruber, “Allg.
Encyklopiidie,” xxviii. 31, note 41; idem, “Cat.
Bodl.” No. 5564; Wiener, “ Friedliindiana,” pp.
142,143.) Rosenthal's statement in “ Yodea' Sefer,”
No. 1249, that the liaskamah in “Sefer ha-Mekah
welia-Mimkar,” is the first Approbation, as well as
the suppositions of Perles. “BeitrHge zur Gesch.
der Hebr. und Aram. Studien,” p. 202, note 1. and
Kaufmann, in “Jew. Quart. Rev.” x. 383, “that Eli-
jah Levita’s ‘Bahur,’ the first edition of which ap-
peared at Rome in 1518, contained the first appro-
bation to be found in Jewish books,” is therefore
shown to be erroneous.

These approbations very soon attained consider-
able importance in the internal relations of the
Jews; for they not only served to lay stress upon
the excellencies of the works to which they referred,
but were also the only protection against piracy
which the Jewish printers of that age possessed.
They thus came to be. in the second place, a species
of privilege.

(2) Privilege : Of this class is the liaskamah in
Elijah Levita’s “Bahur.” ed. Rome, 1518, which
Perles (l.c.) has reprinted. “It commences with an
appreciation of the value of these books, dwells on
the expense incurred in the printing, and then threat
ens with excommunication any one who should dare
to reprint them within the next ten years.” From
this time the threat of excommunication became a
standing formula in the haskamot furnished by rep
utable rabbis to literary productions. They strove
to secure to the author or publisher all his rights in
the book, under penalty of either the “greater” or
“lesser” excommunication, for a term of five, ten,
or fifteen years.

(3) License : Approbations of this class have
their origin in the censorship. The outbreaks of
persecution that arose in Venice in the middle of the
sixteenth century, and were directed against the
Talmud and other Jewish books, necessitated a ceu
sorship, which occupied itself not only with manu-
scripts and books about to be printed for the first
time, but also with books which had already been
printed and published. It was in the interest of the
Jews themselves to remove all such anti-Christian
expressions as might fan into flame the continuously
glowing ashes of bigotry. Pope Julius III. decreed
(Aug. 12, 1553), at the suggestion of the inquisitor-
general, the confiscation and burning of all copies of

Approbation

Apulia

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

the Talmud belonging to Jews. On the first day
of the New-Year festival 5314, in order that the
sorrow for their holy books might be made the
keener, these autos da fe of the books began (Perles,
p. 221, note 1 ; Steinsclmeider, in Erseh and Gruber,
“Allg. Encykl. p. 30; Zunz, “S. P.,”p. 336; Gratz,
“Gescli. der Juden,” ix. 336). On June 21, 1554
(Tammuz 21, 5314, as may be calculated from the He-
brew chronogram D'Om DD^> JD' HC a conven-
tion of Italian rabbis was held at Ferrara, presided
over by R. Meir Ivatzenellenbogen of Padua. They
resolved, among other matters, that thereafter no
Hebrew book, not then printed, should be pub-
lished without the written approval of three rabbis
and the president of the congregation, and that
all Jewish purchasers of books printed without
such Approbation should be liable to a fine of 25
gold scudi ($24.25), which was to be turned into
the Jewish poor-box. (These resolutions, accom-
panied by notes by Levi and Halberstamm, were
published in Brody in 1879 as a re-
Pub- print from the journal “Ibri Anokhi.”

lication They were also published in “ Paliad

Without Yizhak,” p. 158, Berlin, 1888, edited
Approba- by the Mekize Nirdamim Society.)

tion From this period the congregational
Forbidden, authorities and rabbis were invested
with the power to grant and to refuse
permission to print in the chief cities where publish-
ing-houses existed (Steinsclmeider, l.c. p. 30; Pop-
per “Censorship of Hebrew Books,” pp. 94 et seg.).

Paragraph 12 of the resolutions of the Frankfort
Rabbinical Synod of 1603 prohibited the publication
of any book in Basel or anywhere in Germany with-
out permission of three rabbis (Horowitz, “Die
Frankfurter Rabbinerversammlung vom Jahre
1603,” Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1897; appended to
the invitation issued by the Israel. Religionsschule).
Paragraph 37 of the regulations of the Portuguese
Talmud Torah community in Amsterdam reads:
“No Jew shall print books in Amsterdam in a for-
eign or in the Hebrew language without permission
of the ‘Mahamad,’ under penalty of the confisca-
tion of the books ” (Castro, “ De Synagoge der Port.
Israel. Gemeente te Amsterdam,” appendix B, p. 40,
The Hague, 1875). The manuscript, in Spanish, of
these regulations is in the Rosenthal Library, Am-
sterdam. In the same way, several governments —
for instance, in the case of books printed in Prague
— decreed that the rabbinate of the country should
be responsible through its Approbation for every
Hebrew book published (Kaufmann, in “ Jew. Quart.
Rev.” x. 384).

That the enemies of the Jews did not approve of
the right to give or withhold haskamot thus con-
ferred upon the rabbis and presidents of the congre-
gations appears from the following passage in
Schudt (“ Jfid. Merkwfirdigkeiten,” iv. 206): “More
harmful yet and more evil is it that the Jewish
rabbis and presidents of their communities not only
censor and approve the books printed or published
for or by them, but also grant prohibitions prevent-
ing others from printing them, and place their has-
kamah or consent in front of the book ; which cer-
tainly is a grievous and illegal encroachment upon
the rights of the magistrates and the privileges of

the sovereign.” Wagenseil in his book “ Prolegom.
ad Tela Ignea Satani,” p. 26, styles it sheer impu-
dence on their part, and says, “ It is an intolerable
and shameful crime,” attempting to show its un-
reasonableness, and the injury it works to the au-
thorities, in most emphatic words.

In spite of all these regulations, the custom of
asking for approbations from rabbis and congrega-
tional authorities did not at first se-
Not cure much foothold among Jews, es-
Welcomed pecially among the Jews of Italy,
by the Regarded as a Christian custom, it
Jews. was never welcomed. Thus, in spite
of the solemn Ferrara resolutions,
Shem-Tob b. Shem-Tob’s “Sefer ha-Emunot” ap-
peared in Ferrara itself in 1557 without any Appro-
bation, and the editio priaceps of Menaliem Zion
ben Mei'r’s commentary on the Pentateuch was pub-
lished in 1559 by Vicenti Conti in Cremona, also
without the requisite liaskamah. But in the second
half of the seventeenth century, owing to the excite-
ment and tension induced by the appearance of the
false Messiah, Shabbethai Zebi, there began to be
quite a lively demand for approbations; and in the
eighteenth century, with the exception of a few
prayer-books and Judaeo-German productions, there
was scarcely a work published without a rabbin-
ical haskamah. Faithful Jews would not read a book
which lacked one. The fact that Moses Mendels-
sohn dared to publish his translation of the Penta-
teuch without a rabbinical Approbation appears to
have been one of the reasons for its proscription by
the rabbis in many places, and for its being pub-
licly burned, as at Posen (Mendelssohn, “ Schriften,”
vi. 447).

The examination of books submitted for Approba-
tion was often a very superficial one. The bitter
results of such carelessness are shown by the his-
tory of that sly rascal, Hayyun (see Gratz, “ Gescli.
der Juden,” x. 315, and Kaufmann, in “Rev. Et.
Juives,” xxxvi. 256). Cautious rabbis, who looked
with disfavor upon the popular mania for writing,
avoided, as far as possible, issuing these licenses for
new works. Thus in Poland the rabbis of “The
Four Lauds ” agreed to grant them formally and
only in exceptional cases, instead of giving them,
as had hitherto been the case, at their casual meet-
ings at fairs and annual markets, where large num-
bers of Jews came together (compare Steinschnei-
der, in Ersch and Gruber, l.c. p. 31 ; and Dembitzer,
“Abhandlung fiber die Synode der Vier Liinder in
Polen und Lithauen,” Cracow, 1891 ; London, “ Abne
Zikkaron,” in “Ha-Modia‘ la-Hodasliim ”).

Since approbations were frequently sought by
traveling scholars, who depended for their liveli-
hood upon the publication of their works, many a
book is found to contain ten, twelve, and even more
approbations by the various rabbis whom the author
visited upon his travels. These liaska-
Of mot, therefore, afford valuable contri-
Historical butions to the history of Jewish con-

Value. gregations and of particular rabbis
Many names of rabbis and presidents
of the seventeenth centurjr may be said to emerge
from obscurity mainly through these printed appro-
bations. Moritz Pinner was the first (Berlin, 1861)

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Approbation

Apulia

to register the names of signers of haskamot in his
uncompleted catalogue of 389 manuscripts and pub-
; lications. Zuckermann followed Pinner with his
catalogue of the Seminary Library in Breslau (Bres-
: lau, 1870), giving the abodes as well as the names
i of signers. Meyer Roest, in his catalogue of the
Rosenthal Library, sets down not only the names
, and abodes, but also the Hebrew day, month, and
year of issue of the approbations, thus contributing
a real service to Jewish literature. It is a pity that
Samuel Wiener, in his description of the Friedland

i Library, felt compelled to limit himself and did
not follow Roest’s example entirely. An index to

! approbations, which would be of great service to
Jewish scholars, can be successfully accomplished
only by the extension in this direction of Wiener’s
1 catalogue.

Specimen of a Haskamah (Permit of the Rabbis).
Whereas, there have appeared before us the wise, the perfect

Ione, etc., Isaac Gershon, and his worthy associate, Menahem
Jacob Ashkenazi, and have testitied that they have gone to much
labor and trouble, have expended great sums, and have spared
no expense, all in order that they may bring to light, in as beau-
tiful and excellent an edition as possible, the secrets of a work

(of great worth, through which the public good will be advanced,
viz., the book called “ Sefer Bedek ha-Bayit,” by that sage, that
wonder of his generation, our master and teacher, Joseph Caro
of blessed memory :

And whereas, the work is to be completed, as a service to
God, with the utmost beauty and perfection ;

And whereas, they fear lest they sow and another reap, do-
ing all their work in vain, and lest they make all their expen-
ditures only “ to leave to others their wealth ” ;

Therefore they have sought and have been granted aid from

(the city through the uttering of a ban, and the publishing of a
rabbinic notice to the effect that no injury or harm shall come
to them through any man.

And whereas, permission has likewise been granted them bv
the nobles, the Cattaveri (may their majesties be exalted !), that
their desire and wish should be fulfilled ;

Now, therefore, we decree, under threat of excommunication,
ban, and anathema through all the curses written in the Bible,
that no Israelite, man or woman, great or small, be he who he
may, shall purpose to publish this work, or to aid any one else
in publishing it, in this or any other city within ten years, ex-
cept it be by the will and permission of the associates above
mentioned ;

And let it be likewise understood that by this decree no Is-
raelite is allowed to receive any copy of the book mentioned
from any man, Jew or Christian, be he who he may, through
any manner of deceit, trickery, or deception, but only from the
above-mentioned Menahem Jacob Ashkenazi. For thus it is
desired by the scholar, etc., mentioned above, that all copies of
the above-mentioned book shall be published and sold by Mena-
hem Jacob.

Upon any one who may transgress against this our decree-
may there come against him “ serpents for whose bite there is
no charm,” and may he be infected " with the bitter venom of
asps ” ; may God not grant peace to him, etc.

But he that obeys -may he dwell in safety and peace like the
green olive-tree and rest at night under the shadow of the Al-
mighty ; may all that he attempts prosper ; may the early rain
shower with blessings his people and the sheep of his pasture.

“ And ye who have clung to the Lord your God are all of you
alive this day.”

Thus sayeth Zion Sarphati,
and thus sayeth Leb Sarvil,
Baruch ben Samuel.

On the 17th day of Nisan, 1600, I published this ban, by com-
mand of the associates mentioned above, in every synagogue in
the community of Venice.

Eliezer Levi,
Beadle of the Community.

G. J. M. II.

APT (t3N): A small town, not far from Avignon,
in tlie department of Vaucluse, France. In the
Middle Ages it was inhabited by Jews, who had a

separate quarter assigned to them. About the end
of the thirteenth century the poet Isaac ben Abra-
ham Gorki visited Apt and wrote afterward a
poem in honor of its Jewish community, which had
given him a very hearty welcome. In the responsa
of Solomon ben Adret several Jews of Apt are men
tioned. In the Bodleian manuscript No. 2550 there
is found a correspondence with a certain R. Samuel
ben Mordecai (Neubauer, in “Rev. Et. Juives,”
xii. 87). In the British Museum manuscript, add.
22,089, there occurs a letter signed by Massif Jacob
of Lunel, Durant del Portal. Nathan Vidal Bedersi,
Mei'r ben Abba Mari, and “us, some of the other
members of the community of Apt.’’ A Don Massif
Jacob is signatory to another responsum. dated 1340.

Apt being a monosyllabic word, t lie common noun
Ty (“town”) was sometimes prefixed to it, thus
forming the compound word ONVy (“ Apt ville ”).

Bibliography : Gross, Gallia Judaica , p. 37.

APTROD, DAVID. See Abterode.

APULIA : A district of southern Italy, the lim-
its of which have varied. It is usually regarded as
the region bounded by the Frentani on the north,
Samnium on the west, Calabria and Lueania on the
south, and the Adriatic on the east. Apulia is now
one of the poorest provinces of Italy, but in the
Middle Ages, by reason of its several excellent sea
ports, it was of considerable commercial importance.
This probably accounts for its early attractiveness
to Jewish immigrants; for in northern Italy com
merce had been monopolized by a number of native
Christian families. It is impossible to determine the
exact date of the settlement of Jews in Apulia,
though it must have been early. In Pozzuoli, in
the neighboring province of Naples, which was the
chief Italian seaport for Oriental commerce, there
were Jewish inhabitants about the year 4 b.c., di-
rectly after the death of Herod (Josephus, “Ant.”
xvii. 12, § 1; “B. J.” ii. 7, £ 1). For such an early
arrival of Jews in other parts of southern Italy all
positive proof is lacking. On the death of Theo
dosius I., and the division of the Roman empire, in
the year 395, Apulia was allotted to Honorius, the
emperor of the West. In his days the Jewish pop-
ulation in Apulia and its adjunct Calabria must
already have been considerable, for he abolished
in those provinces the curial freedom
Early of the Jews and interdicted the ex-
Settlement portation of the patriarchal taxes ; and,
of Jews, besides this, he complained in one of
his edicts (of the year 398) that in nu-
merous cities of Apulia and Calabria the communal
offices could not be regularly filled, because of the
refusal of the Jewish population to accept them —
an attitude toward government appointments char-
acteristic of the medieval Jews.

The catacombs of Venosa, in Apulia, the birth-
place of Horace, have yielded to recent excavators
a great deal of epigraphic material, consisting of
inscriptions in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, dating,
according to the conclusions of Mommsen, from the
sixth century. Seven Hebrew epitaphs of the ninth
century, likewise, have been unearthed at Venosa,
and their contents indicate the existence of a flour-

Apulia

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

isliing communal life among the contemporary Jews
of Apulia, seeing that in one of them a certain R.
Nathan b. Ephraim is eulogized as “an honored
man, master of wisdom, chief of an academy, and
leader of his generation ” (Ascoli, “ Iscrizione,” p. 71).

The commencement of the settlement of Jews in
Apulia is surrounded by legends. Yosippon, for
example, traces them back to the live thousand cap-
tives transplanted by Titus from Palestine to Ta-
ranto, Otranto, and similar places. The most im-
portant contribution, however, to the early annals
of the Apulian Jews has been obtained in recent
years from the unique “ Chronicle ” of Ahimaaz ben
Paltiel. The attention of Ahimaaz, as regards
Apulia, was almost entirely confined to the commu-
nity of Oria, to which his family had belonged, and
the members of which he also regarded as the de-
scendants of the captives of Titus. It
“ Chron- was in Oria that the patriarch of the
icle ” of family, Amittai, became known about
Ahimaaz. the middle of the ninth century, both
as scholar and liturgical poet. In the
age of his two sons, Shephatiah and Hananeel,
the former of whom became particularly distin-
guished for his literary and communal activity, there
appeared on the scene of Italian Jewish life the fig-
ure of Aaron the Babylonian. Under his influ-
ence the academies of Oria are alleged to have
sprouted forth in unprecedented vitality, and the
various branches of Jewish law and life to have
burst into new activity.

Eastern scholars probably were in the habit of
visiting the flourishing communities of the Occident
for the purpose of transplanting thither the tradi-
tions of scholarship and religion. Such a scholar is
reported by Ahimaaz to have come to Venosa. He
made it his practise to deliver public lectures every
Sabbath, basing his expositions on the Midrasliic
interpretations of the weekly Scriptural sections.
His lectures were given in Hebrew probably, as the
services of an interpreter were needed to render them
intelligible to the audience.

Poetic and tliaumaturgic talents were the favorite
attributes bestowed by tradition on the Jews of
medieval Apulia. Both are ascribed
Thau- by Ahimaaz in a great measure to
maturgy R. Shephatiah b. Amittai, whom ill-
and informed commentators had regarded
Poetry. as one of the captives of Titus and
one of the aut hors of “ We-hu Rahum,”
a liturgic piece, but who probably flourished in the
second half of the ninth century in Oria. Accord-
ing to the testimony of Ahimaaz, it was Shephatiah’s
argumentative ability and miracle-working power
that had saved the Jews of Oria from a serious re-
ligious persecution.

Synchronously with this persecution occurred a
disastrous Arabian invasion of Calabria and Apulia.
In the year 872 Saudan, an Arabian conqueror, en-
tered Bari, where he usurped the government and
established a court, in which, as legend has it, Aaron
the Babylonian was accorded boundless honors as
counselor and oracle just prior to his departure for
the East. From Bari, Saudan advanced upon Oria,
to which he made the proposal of a siegeless settle-
ment on condition of a certain voluntary tribute

from the population. Here, again, Shephatiah,
whom legend presents as the disciple of the won-
drous Aaron, and who probably was familiar with
the Arabic language, was delegated to negotiate
with the invader. The Saracen terror, however,
was frustrated by the confederacy of the emperor
Basil I. with Louis II., the emperor of Germany.

That the conversion of the Jews was a prevalent
ambition in Apulia in that age, is inferred, further,
from what Ahimaaz records regarding Hananeel,
the younger brother of Shephatiah. He says that
Hananeel, too, was a noted miracle-worker and litur-
gical poet ; that the archbishop of Oria summoned
him to his palace on one occasion, and forced him
into a religious dispute, in the course of which the
archbishop impeached the correctness of the Jewish
calendar with a view of inducing him to accept
Christianity.

Astrology, also, was cultivated in Apulia. Pal-
tiel, the son of Cassia— the great-granddaughter of
Hananeel b. Amittai — owing to his dis-
Astrology. tinction in astrology, became the inti-
mate friend and counselor of the calif
Abu Tamim Maad (called Muizz lidin-Allali or Al-
muizz), the conqueror of Egypt and builder of Cairo.
The friendship between the two, according to Ahi-
maaz, had begun in Italy on the occasion of one of
the Apulian invasions led by Almuizz when Oria
was besieged and taken. This emigrant from Apulia
had certainly achieved communal distinction among
the Jews of Egypt in the second half of the tenth
century, since the title of “Naggid ” is mentioned in
connection with his name.

A cousin of Paltiel, Samuel b. Hananeel (died
1008), settled in Capua, where both he and his son
Paltiel (988-1043) attained prominence as communal
benefactors and leaders. It was Ahimaaz, the son
of the latter, born in 1017, who not only returned to
the ancestral dwelling-place in Oria, but also left a
number of liturgic pieces, and rescued from oblivion
the memory of his ancestors. His “Chronicle”
mentioned above, being one of the very few literary
monuments of that period, is of assistance in form-
ing an idea of the literary fashions and influences of
his age. Of course, the influence of the Apulian
vernacular shows itself in many peculiarities of ex-
pression characteristic of the “Chronicle.”

Even prior to the discovery of the “ Chronicle ” of
Ahimaaz, however, Apulia had the distinction of
being considered the birthplace of the first Jewish
scholar in Europe whose name had been inscribed
in the history of literature, Siiabbethai Donnolo.
This noted physician and astronomer was born at
Oria, in the district of Otranto, in the year 913.
When he was twelve years old (925) an army of
Fatimite Mohammedans, led by .Ta'far ibn Ubaid,
again invaded Calabria and Apulia, on which occa-
sion, according to Donnolo’s autobiographic note,
the city of Oria was sacked, “ten wise and pious
rabbis,” whose names are given, and
Shabbethai numerous other Jews, were killed,

Donnolo. while a multitude of survivors, in-
cluding himself, were taken captive.
One of the victims was Hasadiah b. Hananeel,
nephew of Shephatiah b. Amittai, to whom Donnolo
refers as a relation of his grandfather (“Hakmoni,”

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Apulia

ed. Castelli, Hebr. part, p. 3). Several details of
Donnolo’s life throw light on the condition of Jew-
ish culture in his time and country. Donnolo, for
example, like his contemporary Paltiel, had become
a devotee of astrology; but in all the surrounding
provinces not a single Jewish scholar could be
found able to interpret the astrological writings
which avowedly had been copied by him from an-
cient Jewish works. It is interesting, however, to
note that Donnolo had no hesitancy in seeking the
instruction of Christian masters in matters of which
the Jews were ignorant. This circumstance attests
the early origin of that intimacy of relations for
which Jewish and Christian scholars have been noted
in Italy, and their frequent interchange of thought.

Donnolo, besides being private physician to the
viceroy of southern Italy, was intimately acquainted
with Nilus the Younger, the abbot of Rossana and
Grotta Ferrata, to whom, on a certain occasion, he
appears to have introduced another Jewish scholar.
The latter attempted to draw the abbot into a relig-
ious controversy, which was, however,
In- adroitly evaded by him. It is one of
tellectual the first discussions of this character
Relations recorded in the European history of
with. the Jews; and its significance lies in
Christians, the aggressive part taken in it by the
Jew, in contradistinction to the one
into which, as stated above, Hananeel had been
forced. Donnolo’s allegorical method of exegesis
adopted in his commentary on the mystic “Sefer
Yezirah” (Book of Creation), as well as his knowl-
edge of the Greek language displayed in it, also tes-
tifies to his intercourse with Christian scholars,
among whom allegorism was highly popular, and
whose spoken language, according to Mommsen,
was very closely related to the Greek.

That there was an abundance of Jewish scholars
in Apulia toward the end of the tenth century (ac-
cording to Griitz, but in 750 according to Ibn Daud)
is learned, furthermore, from a well-known legend
alluding to that age. Four rabbis, as stated by Ibn
Daud (“Sefer lia-Kabbalah,” ed. Neubauer, in “Me-
dieval Jew. Chronicles,” i. 67 et seq.), were on a sea-
voyage from Bari to Sebasteia, when their ship was
overtaken by an Andalusian pirate (the admiral Ibn
Romahis), and the scholars were made captive, the
latter being in the end sold in several cities of Africa
and Spain, where each rabbi ultimately became the
founder of a Talmudic academy. The real origin
and purpose of these traveling rabbis have been vari-
ously interpreted, but the historicity of the incident
narrated by Ibn Daud can scarcely be doubted. The
legend points distinctly to the fact that toward the
end of the tenth (?) century certain rabbis emigrated
from southern Italy and established schools in vari-
ous Jewish communities in Africa and Spain (com-
pare Hushiel b. Elhanan).

Bari was particularly popular as a center of Jew-
ish learning, as is witnessed by the fact that in the
eleventh century, R. Nathan b. Jehiel,
Centers of the author of the ‘“Aruk,” made a
Learning, pilgrimage thitherto hear the lectures
of R. Moses Kalfo (compare Ivohut,
“ Aruch Completion, ” Introduction, p. 15), and that
in the twelfth century the religious authority of the

Apulian rabbis had been so firmly established even
abroad, that in France the proverb came into vogue,
in allusion to Isa. ii. 3: “Out of Bari goeth forth the
law, and the word of God from Otranto ” (Jacob
Tam, “ Sefer ha-Yashar, ” 74 a). Benjamin of Tudela,
who in the latter part of the same century traveled
through Apulia, found flourishing Jewish commu-
nities throughout the province, Trani possessing 200,
Taranto 300, and Otranto 500 Jewish families, while
in the port of Brindisi ten Jews were engaged in t he
trade of dyeing.

During the renaissance of Talmudic learning in
the thirteenth century, Apulia still had the good
fortune of bringing forth one of the most noted
Jewish savants of the age, in the person of Ii. Isaiah
b. Mali di Trani, who not only became one of the
most prolific and weighty rabbis of the Middle Ages,
but also maintained the Italian tradition of friendly
intercourse with Christian scholars, in favor of whose
astronomic learning he at times even, made bold to
discard traditional rabbinic views. Di Trani’s fam-
ily produced several other noted men, among whom
Isaiah’s grandson and namesake attained to consid-
erable distinction. Moses di Trani, in the sixteenth
century, was one of the most distinguished disciples
of Jacob Berab.

Fra Giordano da Rivalto, in one of his sermons
preached in the year 1304, alludes to a general con-
version of Apulian Jews that, it was alleged, had
taken place about the year 1290, in consequence of
a ritual murder with the commission of which they
had been charged. The king, Charles I. (1284-1309),
is alleged to have left them the choice between bap-
tism and death, whereupon, it is said,

Alleged about eight thousand embraced Chris-
Wholesale tianity, while the rest fled from the
Con- country. The proportion of truth in

version, this statement is not ascertainable.

Giidemann denies the assertion alto-
gether on the ground of the friendly disposition
toward the Jews manifested by Charles I., though
he admits that, in the year 1302, certain property
in Trani that had formerly been used as a Jewish
cemetery was usurped by the Dominican Order, and
that about that time several Jewish synagogues in
the same city were converted into churches. Cer-
tain, however, it is that in the thirteenth and four-
teenth centuries there were Jewish inhabitants in
Trani as well as in the rest of Apulia; wherefore
Giordano’s statement concerning their wholesale
apostasy or emigration must be regarded at least as
exaggerated, unless, indeed, under improved circum-
stances, a return of the Jews had occurred.

In the sermons of another preacher from southern
Italy, Roberto da Lecce, who flourished in the first
half of the fifteenth century, there are allusions
to friendly relations between Jews and Christians.
That Apulia, however, had gradually lost its prom-
inence as a center of Jewish learning, can not be
gainsaid. In the early part of the sixteenth century,
for example, there was in Constantinople a whole
congregation consisting of Apulian immigrants,
who exhibited, however, little of the Italian enlight-
enment, in that they were the leaders in an abortive
attempt to exclude the children of the Karaites
from the Rabbinite schools, and to build up a wall

Aqueducts in Palestine

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

of separation between the two Jewish sects — a stroke
of fanaticism thwarted by R. Elijah Mizrahi (com-
pare Italy).

Bibliography : Abimaaz, Sefer Yutyasln (“The Book of Gen-
ealogy ”), in Neubauer’s Mediev. Jew. Chron. ii. Ill ; Ascoli,
Iscrizione Inedite di Antichi Sepolcri Giudaici del Na-
politano , etc.; Lenormant, La Catacombe Juice de Venosa ,
in Rev. Et. Juives , vi. 200-207 ; Neubauer, TheEarhj Settle-
ment of the Jews in Southern Italy , in Jew. Quart. Rev..
1892, iv. 000-025; Gudemann, Gesch. des Erziehungswesens
und der Cultur der Juden in Italien, pp. 2, 10 et seq., 184 et
sea., 200, 205 et seq.; Gratz, Gesch. der Juden , 3d ed., iv. 359, v.
292 et seq., vi. 239. ix. 30 et seq.; Schiirer, Gesch. 3d ed., iii.
37 ; Scheehter, A Letter of Chushiel, in Jew. Quart. Rev. xi.
043 et seq.; Zunz, G.V. 2d ed., pp. 375 et seq.; Kaufmann, Die
Chronih de s Ahimaaz von Oria, in Monatsschrift, 1890, xl.
402-473, 490-509, 529-554.

G. H. G. E.

AQUEDUCTS IN PALESTINE : Palestine,
in contradistinction to Egypt, was a laud of natural
waters rather than of irrigation (Deut. xi. 10, 11),
and there can be little doubt that the aqueducts, like
the roads of the country, were constructed mainly
by the Romans after the fall of Jerusalem. In four
instances, however — at Tyre, Jericho, Caesarea, and
Jerusalem — earlier aqueducts seem to have been

Environs of Jerusalem, Showing Aqueducts Leading to the
City.

(After Vigouroux, “ Dictionnaire de la Bible.”)

constructed to increase and improve the water-sup-
ply of the cities, and. in the case of Jericho, to ex-
tend the cultivation of the palm-groves.

Tyre is mentioned (“Travels of a Mohar”), even
in the times of Rameses II. . as an island city to which
water was brought in boats. Slial-
Remains of maueser IV. (II Kings xvii. 3-5) is said
Stone by Menander (Josephus, “ Ant. ” ix. 14,
Aqueduct § 2) to have cut off the water-supply
at Tyre, of Tyre, which was brought near the
island from the line spring of Ras-al-
‘Aiu (Palce Tyrus), on the mainland to the south.
The remains of an aqueduct, nearly four English

miles in length, are still found leading from masonry
reservoirs that dam up the springs to a height of
eighty feet above sea level. Most of this work is of
Roman masonry ; but in one part of the course of the
aqueduct there are “false” arches, which appear to
represent an older structure. Similar false arches are
found in Phenician buildings (with stones marked
with Phenician letters) at Eryx, and this seems to in-
dicate the existence of an aqueduct at Tyre, which
may date from the age of the Assyrian king who
began the siege of Samaria in the time of Aliaz of
Judah.

The aqueducts of Jericho are channels cut in the
rock, and sometimes carried on rubble masonry, at
the foot of the mountains, southward from the spring
of Docus (‘Ain Duk) to the site of the city as it ex-
isted in the time of Herod, near the main road from
Jerusalem, where it reaches the Jordan plain. About
four miles further north there is another system of
channels, carrying water from the springs at the foot

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aqueducts in Palestine

of the mountains eastward into the Jordan plain, with
branches which appear clearly to have been intended
for irrigation. This answers to the system men-
tioned by Josephus (“Ant.” xvii. 13, § 1), near the
village of Neara (the ancient Naaratli, Josh. xvi. 7),
which was constructed by Archelaus to water his
palm-groves, for Eusebius (in the “ Onomasticon”)
places Neara live Roman miles north of Jericho.

Caesarea, the capital of Palestine under Herod the
Great, was built on the seashore north of Joppa, on
a site which had no good water-supply. It is, there-
fore, probable that aqueducts were
Remains in built when the city was first founded.
Caesarea of The two that are still traceable have a
Two length of about four miles to the north,
Aqueducts, and conduct water from the spring of
Mamas (an ancient “ Maiuma, ” or place
■of water), near the Crocodile river. They are on
•different levels, and run on arches, which appear to
be Roman work, across the swamps near the river.
The low-level aqueduct is tunneled through the low
sandy cliffs further south, and rock-cut well-stair-
cases lead down to the channel at intervals. These
aqueducts may have been repaired or rebuilt in the
later Roman age, but the original rock channel is
probably as old as the time of Herod.

At Jerusalem there were several aqueducts in the
time of Herod, but perhaps the oldest was that to
the west of the city. The “conduit of the upper
pool, in the highway of the fuller’s field ” (II Kings
xviii. 17) was the place where the Assyrians appeared
before Jerusalem; and the camp of the Assyrians,
according to Josephus (“B. J.” v. 7, § 2), was to the
northwest of Jerusalem, from which direction they
would naturally approach, coming, as
The Aque- they did, from the plains. An aque-
ducts of duct led later to the tower Hippicus
Jerusalem, on the west (Josephus, ibid.), and still
leads from the Birket Mamilla, outside
the city on this side, to the great interior rock-cut pool
now known as “Hammarn el Batrak” (The Patri-
arch’s Pool), which answers to the Amygdalon pool
of Josephus (“B. J.” v. 7, § 2; xi. 4) or “ Pool of the
Tower ” (Ha-Migdalon).

As Jerusalem was naturally deficient in water-sup-
ply, it is probable that this large reservoir dated from
the earliest times, and was fed through the aqueduct
that collected the rain-water from the rocky ground
west of the town. The pool of Gihon (I Kings i.
33, 38) rose in a cavern, partly natural, but enlarged
artificially, on the west side of the Kidron, south of
the Temple. The stream thence appears to have
flowed at first down the Kidron valley ; and the peri-
odical overflow (due to a natural siphon in the rock)
was a remarkable feature of this supply. Hezekiah
is believed to have dammed up the waters, and to
have cut the famous Siloam aqueduct through the
Ophel hill, southward to the new pool of Siloam (II
Chron. xxxii. 30). This channel, which is nearly a
third of a mile (1,757 feet) in length, although the
air line between the points of beginning and ending
is only 1,104 feet, gives clear evidence of the Hebrew
engineering methods of Hezekiah’s age; and the
ancient rock inscription (see Siloam Inscription),
on the east wall of the tunnel near its mouth, gives
us an account of the method of excavation. Its
II.— 3

height is very irregular, being about 16 feet at its
southern exit, but. only 3f feet at several points in
its interior.

The upper cave pool had, at its farthest recess, a
staircase cut in rock leading up within the city near
the “ water-gate ” (Nell. iii. 26). The tunnel was be-
gun at the foot of these steps, and another tunnel
was driven northward to meet it from Siloam. The
excavators appear to have worked without instru-
ments capable of keeping the direc-
The tion straight, or perhaps they followed
Siloam some softer vein of the rock. They
Tunnel- are said, in the text, to have heard the
Aqueduct, sound of the picks of their fellows,
and to have worked toward each other
until they met, not exactly in a line. The point of
junction is still marked by a sharp turn at right an-
gles in the tunnel, the two channels having been
about a yard apart — center to center of excavation.
The tunnel is much more loft)- at its mouth than
elsewhere, and is very narrow in the middle, where
it is now much silted up, and nearly impassable for
a full-grown man. It was probably found that the
lower end of the tunnel, when cut through, was not
low enough to allow the water to flow into the pool ;
and the height of the excavation was due probably
to subsequent lowering of the floor at this point.
There is only one shaft leading from the surface of
the hill, and in another part a sort of standing-place
is formed by a recess in the roof ; but throughout the
greater part of the work the excavators must have
labored on their knees, or even while lying flat. The
whole of the work suggests very primitive methods,
and it was probably carried out in a hurry on account
of the threatened Assyrian invasion. The Siloam
pool was outside the walls (Josephus, “Ant.” vii. 14,
§5; “B. J.” v. 9, §4), but lay in a reentering angle,
well within bow-shot. The water-supply was thus
controlled by the garrison instead of running to waste
in the valley. Similar cave springs, with rock stairs
to the interior of the fortress, are found at Gibeon
and elsewhere in Palestine, but the Siloam tunnel
is the most important instance known of Hebrew
engineering.

Another short aqueduct, with a system of conver-
ging channels, gathered the rain-water north of the
city, and brought it to the ditch of Antonia, and,
through a lofty rock-cut passage, to
Other the interior of the Temple. On the
Aqueducts : south were two other aqueducts, which
Solomon’s appear to have been made by Pon-
Pools. tins Pilate, the procurator (Josephus,
“Ant.” xviii. 3, § 2). One of them led
from Etam (‘Ain ‘Atan), and from the three Roman
reservoirs called “Solomon’s Pools” (see Yoma 31a;
Josephus, “Ant.” viii. 7, § 3), to the city, probably
entering near Hippicus. The second channel ran
from these reservoirs along the south slopes to the
Temple. The direct distance was about seven Eng-
lish miles. The water was conveyed in stone pipes
laid in cement in parts where the channel is not rock-
cut. The reservoirs were supplied from springs thir-
teen miles south of the city by another aqueduct;
and the windings along the hillsides give a total
length of forty-one miles from the head spring, ‘Ain
Kuei-Ziba.

Aquila

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

These instances will suffice to show that, although
the art of building aqueducts was introduced into
Palestine by the Romans chiefly, yet the rock tun-
nels, providing water for cities, were, in some cases,
constructed in the time of the Hebrew kings.

Bibliography : Memoirs of Survey of Western Palestine, Je-
rusalem Volume ; Schick, Die Wasserversoryung der Stadt
Jerusalem , in Zeitsclirift des Deutsehen PalOstina-Ver-
eins , i. 132 et seq. ; Nowack, Lehrbuch der Hebrdischen Ar-
chdologie, p. 254 ; Buhl, Geographie des Alten Pallistina ,
pp. 92, 138 et seq. ; Benzinger, Hebr. Arehiiologie, pp. 51,
230 et seq. ; Schiirer, Gesch. des Jiid. Vulkes , i. 370, 409 et seq.;
ii. 94, 749.

g. C. R. C.

AQ.UTLA (’A sblaq, Translator of the ca-

nonical Scriptures from Hebrew into Greek. He was
by birth a Gentile from Pontus, and is said by Epi-
phanius to have been a connection by marriage of the
emperor Hadrian and to have been appointed by him
about the year 128 to an office concerned with the
rebuilding of Jerusalem as “iElia Capitolina.” At
some unknown age he joined the Christians, but after-
ward left them and became a proselyte to Judaism.
According to Jerome he was a disciple of Rabbi
Akiba. The Talmud states that he finished his trans-
lations under the influence of R. Akiba and that his
other teachers were Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and Joshua
ben Hananiah. It is certain, however, that Aquila’s
translation had appeared before the publication of
Irenaeus’ “Adversus Hfereses”; i.e., before 177.

The work seems to have been entirely successful
as regards the purpose for which it was intended
(Jerome speaks of a second edition which embodied
corrections by the author), and it was read by the
Greek -speaking Jews even in the time of Justinian
(Novella, 146). It was used intelligently and respect-
fully by great Christian scholars like Origen and Je-
rome, while controversialists of less merit and learn-
ing, such as the author of the “ Dialogue of Timothy
and Aquila” (published in 1898 by F. C. Conybeare),
found it worth their while to accuse Aquila of anti-
Christian bias, and to remind their Jewish adversaries
of the superior antiquity of the Septuagint. But no
manuscript until quite recently was known to have
survived, and our acquaintance with the work came
from the scattered fragments of Origen ’s “ Hexapla.”
The reason of this is to be found in the Mohammedan
conquests; the need of a Greek version for Jews dis-
appeared when Greek ceased to be the lingua franca
of Egypt and the Levant.

The “ Hexapla ” — a colossal undertaking compiled
by Origen (died about 254) with the object of cor-
recting the text of the Septuagint —
Fragments consisted of the Hebrew text of the
in the Old Testament, the Hebrew text in
“Hex- Greek letters, the Septuagint itself as
apla.” revised by Origen, and the Greek ver-
sions of Aquila, Symmachus, and The-
odotion, all arranged in six parallel columns. With
the exception of two recently discovered fragments
of the Psalms, one coming from Milan, the other
from Cairo,* the “Hexapla” itself is no longer ex-
tant, but a considerable number of extracts, inclu-

* The Milan fragments, discovered by Dr. Mercati, are de-
scribed by Ceriani in “ Rendiconti del Real Istituto Lombardo di
Scienze e Letteratura,” 1896, series ii., vol. xxix. The Cairo frag-
ment (now at Cambridge) was edited by Charles Taylor in 1901.

ding many readings from Aquila, are preserved in
the form of marginal notes to certain manuscripts of
the Septuagint. These have been carefully collected
and edited in Field’s great work (“Origenis Hexa-
plorum qiite Supersunt,” Oxford, 1875), which still
remains the chief source of information about
Aquila’s version.

Contrary to expectation, the readings of Aquila de-
rived from the “ Hexapla” can now be supplemented
by fragmentary manuscripts of the translation itself.
These were discovered in 1897, partly by F. C. Bur-
kitt, among the mass of loose documents brought to
Cambridge from the geniza of the Old Synagogue
at Cairo through the enterprise of Dr. S. Schechter
and Dr. C. Taylor, master of St. John’s College, Cam-
bridge. Three of the six leaves already found came
fromacodexof Kings (i.e., they probably formed part
of a codex of the Former Prophets), and three came
from a codex of the Psalms. The portions preserved
are I Kings xx. 7-17; II Kings xxiii. 11-27 (edited
by F. C. Burkitt.,1897); Ps. xc. 17, ciii. 17 with some
breaks (edited by Taylor, 1900). The numbering is
that of the Hebrew Bible, not the Greek. The frag-
ments do not bear the name of the translator, but the
style of Aquila is too peculiar to be mistaken. The
handwriting is a Greek uncial of the sixth century.
Dr. Schechter assigns the later Hebrew writing to the
eleventh century. All six leaves are palimpsests, and
in places are somewhat difficult to decipher.

The special value of the Cairo manuscripts is that
they permit a more just conception of the general
effect of Aquila’s version, where it agrees with the
Septuagint as well as where it differs. It is now pos-
sible to study the rules of syntax followed by Aquila
with far greater precision than before. At the same
time the general result has been to confirm what the
best authorities had already reported.

The main feature of Aquila’s version is its excess-
ive literalness. His chief aim was to render the He-
brew into Greek word for word, without any regard
for Greek idiom. The same Greek word is regularly
used for the same Hebrew, however incongruous the
effect. Thus sal stands for 1 in all its varied signifi-
cations; and, as naiye is used for QJ, wherever DJI
(«.e., “and also”) occurs, Aquila has teal saiye. Simi-
larly the preposition nx means “with,” and is trans-
lated by Aquila avv. Nowr nx is also
Character used before the object of the verb when
of Aquila’s the object is defined, an idiom rendered

Version, by Aquila, where possible, by the Greek
article, SO that oc eS-jj/iaprev tov ’la par/2
stands for flX X'Dnn “IK>X- But this can not

be done where the Hebrew article and J"IX stand to-
gether, or where the object is a detached pronoun.
Aquila follows here Nahum of Gimzo and R. Akiba,
who insisted on the importance of particles, especially
nx. In such cases he translates this DX also by avv;
e.g. , nai avoT/roc ov avvr/an avv ravTiyv corresponds to
DXT OX pT X^> (Ps. xcii. 7). Apparently avv is
here meant for an adverb having the force of “ there-
with,” or some such meaning, as it does not affect
the case of the word that follows. Thus Aquila has
’Ev ne<l>a2.a'uj iKTiaev 6 deoe; avv tov ovpavov Kal avv rr/v yryv
(Gen. i. 1), but after a verb that naturally governs the
dative one finds sal evereiAaTo 6 fiaoi/.evt; avv tt avri tu
2at j (II Kings xxiii. 21). Other characteristic exam-

t'ipi

FrawMf’&f
fcuttr Ws yamyVftp f ^

e 1<B| KJ O K<U

FK tin AtyGt2 i

jw*V aw* **">■

rW^MW.nf'v

wvSJki/W

WW^

v* oet?

I., C>Y I c F£H ^

^4 -Nfeb© H&*>4

jMLi<5?4~A

rtpfWHm:

Md^+5^ Wtf ■•?

/£$&

iiTO0^/\5jAfetH^
,%^^AiBMIi^N6 * pit

77? 4 Jewish Encyclopedia, ■ I6UI

FRAGMENT OF AQ Ul LA’S GREEK TRANSLATION OF II KINGS (•■

A Pa.'impsesi with Hebrew written over the

the Tetra§r<n: mator. is wn.ien
By permission of the 6cun.br

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aquila

pies of Aquila’s methods are ru Aeyecv for and

fif irpoooma for D'J2^ (Ps. cii. 26).*

The general effect of this pedantry may be seen
from the following specimen (II Kings xxiii. 25):

Masoretic Text. Aquila.

i ; l ( kci'i ouoioc avroi ovk kyivriflv

K® l'JD? !Yn JO 1HIDD1 ^ TTpocu-ov avrov fiaci'Ae'vc;

j ^ iirearpeipev npbc 3333

,-,wr, U,, U,, j ™ ^OOT/ Tjivxy avrov ml

litsD 7J31 i&Sj 7Jji j iv n(iCy c<podp6rrjTL\ avrov

ntro mm ^>33 — /card irdvra vopov M uarj

. __ „L ««» /ucr’ avrov ovk aviary

* mD3 Dp N7 1 3TIX1 | oyo/of avrtp.

In both the Cairo manuscripts the Tetragramma-
ton is not translated, but is transcribed in letters sim-
ilar to those used in the Siloam inscription and on
Jewish coins.] This quite unexpected feature is in
full accord with the express statement of Origen who
says in his comments on Ps. ii. 2 (Benedictine ed;
ii. 539 = Lommatzsch, xi. 36): “There is a certain
word of four letters which is not pronounced by them
[the Jews], which also was written on the gold breast-
plate of the high priest; but it is read as Adonai, not
as it is really written in the four letters, while among
Greeks it is pronounced K dp/of [the Lord]. And in
the more accurate copies this Name stands written
in Hebrew characters — not the modern Hebrew, but
the ancient.” There can be little doubt that by “ the
more accurate copies” Origen here refers to manu-
scripts of Aquila’s translation.

It would be a mistake to put down the harshness of
Aquila’s translation to ignorance of Greek. He re-
sorted to mere transliteration less than
Literal any other ancient translator, and had
Trans- command of a large Greek vocabulary,
mitter. Field (introduction, xxiii. et seq.) has
collected a number of expressions that
show Aquila’s acquaintance with Homer and Herod-
otus. It was no doubt from classical Greek litera-
ture that Aquila borrowed the use of the enclitic <h
to express the toneless n of locality; for instance,
vorovde for 7133371 (Gen. xii. 9), ’ibpeipSe for TIVDIX
(I Kings xxii. 49). The depth of his Hebrew knowl-
edge is more open to question, if judged by modern
standards. But it is the special merit of Aquila’s
renderings that they represent with great fidelity
the state of Hebrew learning in his own day. “ Aquila
in a sense was not the sole and independent author
of his version, its uncompromising literalism being
the necessary outcome of his Jewish teacher’s sys-
tem of exegesis” (C. Taylor, in Burkitt’s “Frag-
ments of Aquila,” p. vi.).

Illustrations of Aquila’s dependence on Jewish tradition are
to be found in the Keri readings adopted by him ; e.g., u to
for Gen. xxx. 11, and the euphemism in Isa. xxxvi. 12. The
scrupulous exactness with which Aquila translates the particles
is to he explained by his having been a disciple of Akiha, whose

* It will be noted that Aquila uses the Greek article somewhat
freely to express S in cases where «is can not stand.

+ A derivative of <r<l>6Spa, “ much,” the regular rendering of
the adverb tND.

X See plate, left-hand column, three lines from bottom. It
will be noticed that the same corrupt form is used both for yod
and fortcaw, just as in the Hexaplar form mm, i.e., nirv, writ-
ten in the square character.

method of exegesis was to lay great stress upon the meanings
hidden in the lesser parts of speech. Instances are KartvavTi
avrov for VIJJ3, Gen. ii. 18 ; and airo lyKaruiv <rou for "pipe, Deut.
iv. 3. This scrupulosity may be contrasted with the Targumic
freedom of Aquila’s ^jrATwrevvard pol for Jer. Ii. 34, where
the metaphor that Nebuchadnezzar had “ eaten ” Jerusalem has
been turned into prose.

Aquila as a Witness: 1. Consonantal Text. — The
extreme literalness of Aquila’s methods enables
the reader to restore with confidence the Hebrew
from which he translated. There are a few in-
stances where he preserves old readings found also
in the Septuagint; e.y., DYIX for D7N (Symma-
chus and Masoretic Text) in Ezek. xxvii. 16, and
'171 for VH (Masoretic Text) in Zeph. iff. 18. But
as a rule he supports the ordinary Masoretic Text;
e.y., fj rrpocM/xMtc erbpara in I Sam. xiii. 21 implies
D'D rrvvsn as in the Masoretic Text, and Kare<pepero
sal appa Kal tTTrof in Ps. lxxvi. 7 agrees with the
Masoretic Text against the better reading 10*nj
DID '333 attested by the Septuagint. The numera-
tion of the Psalms agrees with the Hebrew against
the Greek; in this article, therefore, Aquila is uni-
formly quoted by the Hebrew reckonings.

2. Aquila represents a period in Jewish exegesis
anterior to the Masoretic vocalization. Here priority
in time does not invariably mean su-
Vocaliza- periorit.y of reading : where it is a ques-
tion and tion of knowledge of Hebrew rather
Interpreta- than of purity of transmitted text, the
tion. later scholars often do better than their
predecessors. Thus Aquila can hardly
have been right in connecting D^pJV in Ilab. i. Iff
with kMoc, or in taking pvi in II Kings xxiii. 12
as the Hiphil of pi (“ to run ”). Aquila also has an
unfortunate habit of dividing rare Hebrew words,
into their real or imagined component parts; e.y.. in
Isa. xviii. 1 he renders W>Y (“a rustling”) by o/c/a
oKia, and in I Sam. vi. 8 for LnX3 of the Masoretic
Text he has ev b<pet sorpac, as if he had read T3 37N3-
On the other hand, there is much to be said for his
division of 7IYDD’!? (Ex. xxxii. 25) into two words.
N1Y DB9 (“ for a name of filth ”) is read or implied by
the Targum, by the Peshitta, and by Symmachus, us
well as by Aquila (compare Isa. xxviii. 8, 13; xxx.
22). The Samaritan has lYDK^- In Deut. xxxiii. 2
Aquila has nvp 66ypa for m D’X-
It, is interesting to note that Aquila does not agree
with the Masoretic punctuation in pointing the
names of heathen gods (e.y. , 71130 and Jl'3, Amos v.
26) with the vowels of ppp (“abomination ”).

Aquila’s renderings of the Hebrew tenses are often
most inadequate. It is only on grounds of imper-
fect knowledge that the aorists can be defended in
passages like Kal eTri(ft.vopbc five fly e/c ri/y yy$ k at
eironae ~av to npdauKov ri/c; yflovog for r6r ini
TIOINT) "32 ^3 TIN TtpK’Ttl pNTI p in Gen. ii. 6.
Examples of pedantic mistranslation such as this
suggest that Old Hebrew was very imperfectly
understood when Akiba revived philological study
by his allegorizing exegesis of the particles.

The transliterations of Hebrew words into Greek
letters are of some interest as showing the pronun-
ciation current in Palestine about the middle of the
second century. The most noticeable points are the
complete disappearance of all four gutturals and the

Aquila

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

representation of V (in the Cairo fragment of the
Psalms) by r; e.ff., tckjv for JW- This feature reap-
pears in the names of the Hebrew let-
Translit- ters attached to the Book of Lamenta-
erations. tions by the original scribe of “Cod.

Yaticanus (B).” It may be conjec-
tured that the scribe of the Vatican MS. took them
through the “ Hexapla ” from Aquila’s version. In
some points Aquila agrees rather with the New Tes-
tament than with the older forms found in the Sep-
tuagint; e.g., for JV3 he has B?/ft/A, not B aidi/X
(compare B yfiavia in the New Testament). In Ezek.
xxx. 17, where the Septuagint has H/Jnv irokcos, Aquila
has Slv for px. but Symmachus and Theodotion have
Aw. VT

Aquila’s translation occupied one of the columns
of Origen’s “Hexapla,” and so was accessible to
Christian scholars. Very considerable use of it was
made by Jerome in preparing the Latin version now
known as the Vulgate, though (as we might expect)
the more pedantic features are dropped in borrow-
ing. Thus in Ex. xxxii. 25 Jerome’s propter igno-
miniam sordis comes from Aquila’s ovopa pinrov
(riVOC^1), and for “Selah” in the Psalms his semper
follows Aquila’s aei.

More important for modern scholars is the use
made of Aquila’s version in Origen’s revision of the
Septuagint. The literary sources of the Latin Vul-
gate are merely a point of Biblical archeology, but
the recovery of the original text of
Original the Septuagint is the great practical
Text of task which now lies before the textual
the Sep- critic of the Old Testament. Recent
tuagint. investigation has made it clear that
Origen’s efforts to emend the Greek
from the Hebrew were only too successful, and that
every known text and recension of the Septuagint
except the scanty' fragments of the Old Latin have
been influenced by the Hexaplar revision. One
must learn how to detect Origen’s hand and to
collect and restore the original readings, before the
Septuagint is in a fit state to be critically used in
emending the Hebrew. The discussion of this sub-
ject belongs rather to the criticism of the “ Hexapla ”
than to a separate article on Aquila. It will suffice
here to point out that Aquila’s version is one of the
three sources by the aid of which the current texts
of the Septuagint have been irregularly revised into
conformity with a Hebrew text like that of our
printed Bibles. For the association of the Targum
of the Pentateuch with his name see Onkelos. See
also Septuagint.

Bibliography : Field, Origenis He.raplorum q uce Supersunt ,
Oxford, 1875 ; Wellhausen and Bleek. Einleitung in das Alte
Testament , 4th ed., pp. 578-582, Berlin, 1878 ; Burkitt, Frag-
ments of tlic Books of Kings According to the Translation
of Aquila , Cambridge. 1897 ; Taylor, Origeiis Hexapla (part
of Ps. xxii.), Cambridge, 1901 ; S. Krauss, in the Steinschnei-
der-Zeitschrift , 1890, pp. 148-163. [See also Taylor’s Sayings
of the Jewish Fathers, 2d ed., pp. viii. et «eqr.]

t. F. C. B.

In Rabbinical Literature : “ Aquila the ProS-

elyte ” (un D^’py) and his work are familiar to the
Talmudic-Midrashic literature. While “the Sev-
enty ” and their production are almost completely'
ignored by rabbinical sources, Aquila is a favorite
personage in Jewish tradition and legend. As his-

torical, the following may be considered. “ Aquila
the Proselyte translated the Torah (that is, the
whole of Scripture; compare Blau. “Zur Einleitung
in die Heilige Schrift,” pp. 16, 17) in the presence
of R. Eliezer and R. Joshua, who praised him and
said, in the words of Ps. xlv. 3 [A. V. 2], ‘ Thou art
fairer than the children of men : grace is poured into
thy lips; therefore God hath blessed thee forever.’ ”
This contains a play upon the Hebrew word “ Yafya-
fita” (Thou art fairer) and the common designation
of Greek as “ the language of Japhet ” (Yer. Meg. i.
71e). In another place similar mention is made that
Aquila announced his translation of the word naim
in Lev. xix. 20 in the presence of R. Akiba (Yer.
Kid. i. 59«). The parallel passage in the Babylo-
nian Talmud to the first-cited passage (Meg. 3 a)
shows that by' “translated in the presence of” is
to be understood “ under the guidance of ” ; conse-
quently', Eliezer, Joshua, and Akiba must be re-
garded as the three authorities by' whom Aquila
governed himself. This agrees with what Jerome
say's (in his commentary on Isa. viii. 11); viz., that,
according to Jewish tradition, Akiba was Aquila’s
teacher — a statement which was also borne out by
the fact that Aquila carefully rendered the particle
nx every' time by' the Greek avv, the hermeneutical
system first closely' carried out by' Akiba, although
not original with him (B. K. 415). This would place
Aquila’s period at about 100-130, when the three
tannaim in question flourished.

This accords with the date which Epiphanius (“ De
PonderibusetMensuris,”chap. xiii.-xvi. ; ed. Migne,
ii. 259-264) gives when he places the composition of
Aquila’s translation in the twelfth y'ear of Hadrian
(129). A certain Aquila of Pontus is mentioned in
a tannaite source (Sifra, Behar I. 1 [ed. Weiss, 1065;
ed. Warsaw, 102«]). And, seeing that Iremeus(?.c. iii.
21) and Epiphanius (l.c.) agree that Aquila came from
that place, it is quite probable that the reference is
to the celebrated Aquila, although the usual epithet,
“the Prosely'te,” is missing. Aquila of Pontus is
mentioned three times in the New Testament (Acts
xviii. 2; Rom. xvi. 3; II Tim. iv. 19), which is only'
a mere coincidence, as the name “ Aquila ” was no
doubt quite common among the Jews, and a liag-
gadist bearing it is mentioned in Gen. R. i. 12.
Zunz, however, identifies the latter with the Bible
translator. Friedmann’s suggestion that in the Sifra
passage a place in the Lebanon called “Pontus” is
intended has been completely refuted by' Rosenthal
(“Monatsschrift,” xli. 93).

A more difficult question to answer is the relation-
ship of Aquila to the “ proselyte Onkelos,” of whom
the Babylonian Talmud and the Tosefta have much
to relate. There is, of course, no doubt that these
names have been repeatedly' interchanged. The large
majority of modern scholars consider
Relation to the appellation “Targum of Onkelos,”

Onkelos. as applied to the Targum of the Pen-
tateuch, as a confusion (originating
among the Babylonians) of the current Aramaic ver-
sion (attributed by- them to Onkelos) with the Greek
one of Aquila. But it will not do simply to transfer
everything that is narrated of Onkelos to Aquila, see-
ing that in the Tosefta (see index to Zuckermandel’s
edition) mention is made of the relation of Onkelos

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aquila

to Gamaliel, who (if Gamaliel II. is meant) died short-
ly after the accession of Hadrian, while it is particu-
larly with the relations between the pious proselyte
and the emperor Hadrian that the Haggadah delights
to deal. It is said that the emperor once asked the
former to prove that the world depends, as the Jews
maintain, upon spirit. In demonstration Aquila
caused several camels to he brought and made them
kneel and rise repeatedly before the emperor. He
then had them choked, when, of course, they could
not rise. “ How can they rise? ” the emperor asked.
“ They are choked.” “ But they only need a little air,
a little spirit,” was Aquila’s reply, proving that life
is not material (Yer. Hag. ii. Y. beginning 77 a;
Tan., Beresliit, ed. Vienna, 36).

Concerning Aquila’s conversion to Judaism, legend
has the following to say: Aquila was the son of
Hadrian’s sister. Always strongly inclined to Juda-
ism, he yet feared to embrace it openly in the em-
peror’s proximity. He, therefore, obtained permis-
sion from his uncle to undertake commercial journeys
abroad, not so much for the sake of profit as in order
to see men and countries, receiving from him the
parting advice to invest in anything the value of
which was temporarily depreciated, as in all proba-
bility it would rise again. Aquila went to Palestine,
and devoted himself so strenuously to the study of
the Torah that both R. Eliezer audit. Joshua noticed
his worn appearance, and were surprised at the evi-
dent earnestness of the questions he put to them con-
cerning Jewish law. On returning to Hadrian he
confessed his zealous study of Israel’s Torah and his
adoption of the faith, surprising the emperor, how-
ever, by stating that this step had been taken upon
his, the emperor’s, advice. “For, ’’said he, “I have
found nothing so deeply neglected and held in such
depreciation as the Law and Israel ; but both, no
doubt, will rise again as Isaiah has predicted ” (Isa.
xlix. 7, “ Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall
worship”). Upon Hadrian’s inquiry why he em-
braced Judaism, Aquila replied that he desired very
much to learn the Torah, and that he could not do this
without entering the Abrahamic covenant: just as
no soldier could draw his pay without bearing arms,
no one could study the Torah thoroughly without
obeying the Jewish laws (Tan., Mislipatim, V.
ed. Buber, with a few variations, ii. 81, 82; Ex.
R. xxx. 12). The last point of this legend is no
doubt directed against Christianity, which ac-
knowledges the Law, but refuses obedience to
it, and is of all the more interest if taken in
connection with Christian legends concerning
Aquila. Epiphanius, for instance, relates that
Aquila was by birth a Greek from Sinope in
Pontus, and a relation (-rvOepiSi/r) of Hadrian, who
sent him, forty-seven years after the destruction of
the Temple (that is 117, the year of Hadrian’s ac-
cession) to Jerusalem to superintend the rebuilding
of that city under the name of “ riSlia Capitolina, ”
where he became first a Christian and then a Jew
(see Aquila).

A reflection of the alleged adoption of Christianity
by Aquila, as related by Epiphanius, may be dis-
cerned in the following legend of the Babylonian
Talmud in reference to the proselyte Onkelos,
nephew of Titus on his sister’s side. According to

this, Onkelos called up the shade of his uncle, then
that of the prophet Balaam, and asked their counsel
as to whether he should become a Jew. The former
advised against it, as the Jews had so many laws
and ceremonies; the latter, with characteristic spite-
fulness, replied in the words of Scripture, "Thou
shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity ”
(Deut. xxiii. 7 [A. V. 6]). He then conjured up the
founder of the Church, who replied, “Seek their
peace, seek not their harm; he who assails them
touches the apple of God’s eye.” These words in-
duced him to become a Jew (Git. 566, 57«). The
founder of the Church (according to the Jewish
legend) and the mother-church in Jerusalem (accord-
ing to the Christian version) were the means of
Aquila’s becoming a Jew.

The traces of the legend concerning Flavius
Clemens, current alike among Jews and Christians,
seem to have exerted some influence upon this
Onkelos-Aquila tradition ; but Lagarde goes so far
as to explain Sinope in Pontus as being “ Sinuessa
in Pontia,” where Dimitilla, the wife of Flavius
Clemens, lived in exile. I rente us, who wrote be-
fore 177, states that Pontus was Aquila’s home. It
is very questionable whether the account of Aquila
in the Clementine writings (“ Recognitiones, ” vii. 32,
33) — an imperial prince who first embraced Judaism,
and then, after all manner of vagaries, Christianity
— was merely a Christian form of the Aquila legend,
although Lagarde supports the assumption. The
following Midrash deserves notice: Aquila is said
to have asked R. Eliezer why, if circumcision were
so important, it had not been included in the Ten
Commandments (Pesik. R. xxiii. 1166 ct »eq.\ Tan.,
Lek Leka, end ; ed. Vienna, 206, reads quite erroneous-
ly “ Agrippa ” in place of “ Aquila ”), a question fre-
quently encountered in Christian polemic literature.
That Aquila’s conversion to Judaism was a gradual
one appears from the question he addressed to Rabbi
Eliezer: “Is the whole reward of a proselyte to con-
sist in receiving food and raiment?” (see Deut. x.
18). The latter angrily answered that what had been
sufficient for the patriarch Jacob (Gen. xxviii. 20)
should be sufficient for Aquila. When Aquila put
the same question to Rabbi Joshua, the latter reas-
sured him by expounding “food and raiment” as
meaning metaphorically “Torah and tallit.” Had
not Joshua been so gentle, the Midrash adds, Aquila
would have forsaken Judaism (Eccl. R. to vii. 8; Gen.
R. lxx. 5; Ex. R. xix. 4, abbreviated). The purport
of this legend is to show that at the time Aquila had
not been firmly convinced.

His work is less familiar in Rabbinical Literature
than his personality ; for not more than a dozen
quotations from his translation are mentioned. The
following are interesting evidences of
His Work, its general character. He translates
'IE*, the name of God, by tog ml imvdq,
“ worthy and competent,” a haggadic etymology (see
Gen. R. xlvi. 3; compare Hag. 12 a). The Hebrew
word nn in Lev. xxiii. 40 he translates by Mup
(“water”), thus securing a resemblance to the He-
brew original, and at the same time supporting the
Halakah (Yer. Sukkahiii. 53 d\ for parallel passages,
see Friedmann, p. 45; Krauss, p. 153). A haggadic
interpretation, it seems, is at the bottom of his trans-

Aquilino

Aquinas

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

lationof nOpTinEzek. xvi. 10 by plO^pBX-

probably corrupted from <f>vlaKT>ii>tov (phylacteries).

The Midrash expounds the words HDpI "P^Nl
as meaning the heavenly adornments which Israel
received from the angels at Mount Sinai, and which
were designed as amulets (tpv^aKrrjpiov) against all
evils (Pesik. R. xxx. 154a, ed. Friedmann, who gives
many parallel passages).

Aquila’s theology is illustrated by his transla-
tion of (Dan. viii. 13) as “the inward spirit,”

agreeing herewith partially with Polychronius, who
also takes the word for the name of an angel (Tlieo-
doretus on the passage). But that this spirit meant
Adam, as the Midrash further interprets Aquila
(Gen. R. xxi. 1; rightly explained by Jastrow,
“Dictionary,” s.v. 'E'JD). is highly improbable ; the
reference is rather to Michael or Metatron, who
stands in God’s presence (compare Tan., ed. Buber,
i. 17), like the later Hebrew D’JDn nc*-

Whether Greek words found in Talmud and Mid-
rash, other than those specifically stated to have been
introduced by Aquila, really originated with him, as
Ivrauss maintains, is more than doubtful. In Pales-
tine there was little demand for a Greek Bible, in
Babylonia absolutely none at all. Therefore all Greek
expressions found in Jewish writings must have
emanated from popular usage and not from liter-
ary sources. See Flavids Clemens; Clementina;
Onkelos; Targum.

Bibliography: Anger, De Onkelo Chaldaico, 1845; Briill,
Aquila's Bibelllbersetziing, in Ben Chananja, vi. 233 etseq.,
299 et seq.; Friedmann, Onkelos unit Akglas , passim ; S.
Krauss, Akylas, in Festschrift zum SO. Geburtstage Stein-
schneiders, pp. 148-163; Azariah dei Rossi, Metir ' Enayim ,
ed. Benjacob, xlv. 112-121 : Sehiirer. Geschichte des JUdischen
Volkes, 3d ed., iii. 317-321 (the list of literature given by
Sehiirer may be supplemented from Friedmann’s book); P. de
Lagarde, Mittheilungen, i. 33-40.

L. G.

AQUILINO, RAFFAELE: Italian apostate
who renounced his religion in 1545 — eight years be-
fore the public burning of the Talmud in Rome
(1553) — and who was one of those that denounced
Hebrew books, as Steinschneider deduces from a
dedicatory passage in Aquilino’s “Trattato Pio.”
The historian Joseph ha-Kolien, in his “ ‘Emek lia-
Baka” (transl. Wiener, p. 89), says that there were
three of these apostates: Ananel di Foligno, Joseph
Moro, and Solomon Romano. Joseph Moro was
called Filippo, and Solomon Romano took the name
of Giovanni Battista Romano Eliano. It may be con-
jectured that Aquilino was identical with the most
wicked of the three, Ananel di Foligno. There
has been ascribed to Aquilino a work (referred to
above) entitled “Trattato Pio. nel quale si couten-
gono Cinque Articoli pertinenti alia Fede Christiana,
contro l’Hebraica Ostinazione, estratti dalle Sacro-
sante Antiche Scritture.” This was twice printed at
Pesaro — in 1571 and in 1581.

Aquilino seems also to have written a second anti-
Jewish work, called “ Magen David” (MS. Urbin. No.
1138 in the Vatican Library), which some have sup-
posed to be identical with the book of Angelo Gab-
riele Anguisciola, entitled “ Della Hebraica Medag-
lia detta Maghen David et Abraham,” Pesaro, 1621. i
By a decree of the Roman Catholic Church, dated !
March 16, 1621, this book was placed in the Index.
Steinschneider doubts the identity of the two works.

Bibliography : Index Librorum. Prnhihitorum, p. 11, Rome,
1786; Wolf, Bibliotheca Hebrcea , iii. 997 ; Gratz, Gesch. der
Juden , 3d ed., ix. 235-236; Vogelstein and Rieger, Gesch.
der Tuden in Rom, ii. 146: and especially Steinschneider,
Letteratura Antijudaica in Lingua Italiana, in Vessillo
Israelitico. 1881, pp. 231 et seq.

G. G . J ,

AQUIN (called also Aquinas and Aquino),
LOUIS-HENRI D’ : Writer and translator of the
seventeenth century ; son of Philippe d’ Aquin. He
was converted to Christianity at Aquino in the king-
dom of Naples. He left many works relating to the
Hebrew language and literature, among which were
a translation into Latin of the commentary on the
Book of Esther by R. Solomon ben Isaac, with ex-
tracts relating thereto from the Talmud and Yalkut
(Paris, 1622), and a Latin translation of the first four
chapters of Levi ben Gersou’s commentary on the
Book of Job (Paris, 1623).

Bibliography : Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 738.

G. S. K.

AQUIN, PHILIPPE D’: Hebraist; bornatCar-
pentras about 1578; died at Paris in 1650. Early in
life he left his native town and went to Aquino,
where he became converted to Christianity and
changed his name Mordecai or Mardochee to Phi-
lippe d Aquin. In 1610 he went to Paris, and was
appointed by Louis XIII. professor of the Hebrew
language. He is mentioned among the accusers
in the proceedings for“ the crime of Judaism,” insti-
tuted in 1617 against Concini, Marquis d’Ancre, and
his wife Leonora Galigai, in whose household he
had occupied some subordinate position (Leon Kahn,
“Les Juifs a Paris,” p. 40). The following is a list
of his works: (1) “Primigenae Voces, seu Radices
Breves Linguae Sauctae ” (Paris, 1620). (2) “ Pirke

Aboth. Sententiae Rabbinorum, Hebraiee cum Latina
Versione ” (Paris, 1620); a Hebrew-Italian edition,
under the title “Sentenze: Parabole di Rabbini.
Tradotti da Philippo Daquin,” appeared in the
same year in Paris (see Steinschneider, “Monats-
sclirift.” lxiii. 417), and was reprinted in Paris in
1629. (3) “Dissertation du Tabernacle et du Camp

des Israelites ” (Paris, 1623; 2ded., 1624). (4) “In-
terpretatio Arboris Cabbalistic;? ” (Paris, 1625). (5)
“Behinat ‘Olam (L’Examen du Monde)” of Yedaiah
Bedersi, Hebrew and French (Paris, 1629). (6)

“Ma'arik ha-Ma‘areket, Dictionarium Hebralcum,
Chaldaicum. Talmudico Rabbinicum ” (Paris, 1629).
(7) “ Kina, Lacrimae in Obitum Cardinaiis de Berulli,”
Hebrew and Latin (Paris, 1629). (8) “nilB J"’, Vete-
rum Rabbinorum in exponendo Pentateucho Modi
tredecim ” (Paris. 1620).

Bibliography : Zunz, Z. G. p. 448 ; L(?on Kahn, as above ; Stein-
schneider. Cat. Bodl. col. 739: idem, Bibliograpliisches
Handbuch. No. 129.

G. S. K.

AQUINAS, THOMAS : Most eminent of the
Christian theological philosophers of the Middle
Ages; born 1227 at Aquino, kingdom of Naples ; died
1274. Like his teacher Albertus Magnus, Thomas
made philosophy his favorite study, and sought to
harmonize it with religion. “ All knowledge of prin-
ciples, naturally possessed by us,” he said, “comes
from God. since God is the author of our nature.
The divine wisdom possesses these principles in
itself; therefore all that contradicts them is in

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aquilino

Aquinas

contradiction to the divine wisdom and can not pro-
ceed from God” (“Contra Gentiles,” i. 7).

Although, as a Dominican friar, Aquinas was not
animated by kindly feelings toward the Jews (see
Guttmann, “ Das Yerhiiltnissdes Thomas von Aquino
zum Judenthum und zur Jiidischen Literatur,” pp.
3 et seq. ; Geyraud, “L’Antisemitisme et St. Thomas
d’Aquin,” pp. 40 et seq.), he did not disdain to draw
upon Jewish philosophical sources. His main work,
“Sumrna Theologiae,” betrays a profound knowledge
not only of the writings of Avicebron (Ibn Gabirol),
whose name he mentions, but of ail Jewish philo-
sophical works then existing. His theodicy is mod-
eled after that of the Jewish philosophers, and his
arguments can easily be referred to Jewish sources.
Thus he gives five proofs of the existence of God,
three of which are directly taken from Jewish phi-
losophers. The first runs as follows: “It is clear
that there are in this world things which are moved.
Now, every object which is moved receives that
movement from another. If the motor is itself
moved, there must be another motor

Proofs moving it, and after that yet another,

of God’s and so on. But it is impossible to go
Existence, on indefinitely, for then there would be
no first motor at all, and consequently
no movement” (“Contra Gentiles,” ii. 33). This
proof is evidently taken from Maimonides, whose
seventeenth proposition reads: “All that which is
moved has necessarily a motor ” (“Moreh,” ii. 16).

Second proof: “We discern in all sensible things
a certain chain of efficient causes. We find, how-
ever, nothing which is its own efficient cause, for
that cause would then be anterior to itself. On the
other side, it is impossible to ascend from cause to
cause indefinitely in the series of efficient causes.

. . . There must therefore exist one self-sufficient,
efficient cause, and that is God” (“Contra Gent.” i.
22). To this proof two Jewish sources seem to have
contributed: Baliya’s “ Duties of the Heart” (chap-
ter on “Unity,” 5) and Maimonides’ “Moreh” (6tli
proposition, “Moreh,” ii. 16).

The third proof runs: “We find in nature things
which may be and may not be, since there are some
who are born and others who die ; they' consequently
can exist or not exist. But it is impossible that such
things should live forever, for there is nothing which
may be as well as not be at one time. Thus if all
beings need not have existed, there must have been
a time in which nothing existed. But, in that case,
nothing would exist now ; for that which does not
exist can not receive life but from one who exists:

. . . there must therefore be in nature a necessarily
existent being.” This proof is based on Avicenna’s
doctrine of a necessary and possible being, and is
expounded by Maimonides, from whom it is proba-
bly taken (see “Moreh,” ii. 19).

In order to demonstrate God’s creative power,
Thomas says : “ If a being participates, to a certain
degree, in an ‘accident,’ this accidental property
must have been communicated to it by a cause which
possesses it essentially. Thus iron becomes incan-
descent by the action of fire. Now, God is His own
power which subsists by itself. The being which
subsists by itself is necessarily one” (“Summa
Theol.” i. 44, art. 1). The idea is expounded more

clearly by Bahya in his “Duties of the Heart.”
He says: “It is evident that all which exists in a
thing as an accident must be received by the thing
which has the accidental property only from one
which already possesses it essentially, just as we see
that the heat of the boiling water is communicated
to it by the fire, of which this heat is an essential.

. . . And in the same way we may prove the unity
of God. Since the unity which occurs in every
creature is accidental (not essential), as we have de-
monstrated, it must be derived from the essence of
the efficient cause of all creatures ” (“ Duties of the
Heart,” on “Unity,” 9).

Thomas pronounces himself energetically against
the hypothesis of the eternity of the world. But as
this theory is attributed to Aristotle, he seeks to
demonstrate that the latter did not express himself
categorically on this subject. “The argument,”
said he, “which Aristotle presents to support this
thesis is not properly called a demonstration, but is
only a reply to the theories of those ancients who
supposed that this world had a beginning and who
gave only impossible proofs. There are three rea-
sons for believing that Aristotle himself attached
only a relative value to this reasoning. . . .’’(“Sum
ma Theologiae, ” i. 45, art. 1). In this Thomas copies
word for word Maimonides’ “Moreh,” where those
reasons are given (i. 2, 15).

Thomas, as a Christian, thinks it necessary to
admitcertain attributes which Maimonides and other
Jewish peripatetics reject : but in all his reasoning
on this subject the potent influence of Jewish theo-
logical philosophy predominates. His theories on
Providence, God’s omniscience, and the angels can
be referred to Maimonides. and even his so-called
original principle of individuation can easily be
found in Jewish theological philosophy.

Aquinas’ doctrines, because of their close rela-
tionship with those of Jewish philosophy, found
great favor among Jews. Judah Romano (born 1286)
translated Aquinas’ ideas from Latin into Hebrew
under the title “Ma’amar ha-Mamschalim,” together
with other small treatises extracted from the “ Contra
Gentiles ”(“ Neged ha-Umot”). Eli Hobillo (1470)
translated, without Hebrew title, the “Quaestiones
Disputatae,” “Qusestio de Anima,” his “ De Animae
Faeultatibus,” under the title “Ma’amar be Koliot
ha-Nefesh,” (edited by Jellinek) ; his “ De Universali-
bus” as “Be-Inyan ha-Kolel”; “Shaalot Ma’amar
beNimza we-biMehut.” Abraham Nehemiah b.
Joseph (1490) translated Thomas’ “Commentarii iu
Metaphysicam.” According to Moses Almosnino,
Isaac Abravanel desired to translate the “Qusestio
de Spiritualibus Creaturis.” Abravanel indeed
seems to have been well acquainted with the philos-
ophy of Thomas Aquinas, whom he mentions iu his
work “Mif’alot Elohim” (vi. 3). The physician
Jacob Zahalen (d. 1693) translated some extracts
from the “Summa Theologne Contra Gentiles.”

Bibliography : Guttmann, Dus VerliUltniss lies Thomas v.
Aquino zum Judenthum und zur Jiidischen Literatur,
Gottingen, 1891 ; Jellinek, Thomas von Aquino in der Jii-
dischen Literatur, Leipsic, 1858 ; Jourdain, La Philosophic,
de Saint Thomas d'Aquin, Paris, 1858; steinschneider,
Hebr. Uebers.. pp. 483-487, Berlin, 1893 ; Werner, Das Leben
lies Heiligen Thomas-, Michelin, Philosoph. Jahrb. der
OOrres Oesellschaft, 1891, pp. 387-404 ; 1898, pp. 12-25; Sieg-
fried, Thomas v. Aquiim als Austeger lies A. T„ in Hilgen-
feld’s Zeitschrift, 1894; Merx, iu the introduction to his Die

Arabia

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Prophetic ties Joels; Hausbach, Die Stelluny des Thomas
v. Aquina zu Maimonides , in Tlieol. Quartalschrift, lxxxi.
553. The first three hooks of the Summa were translated into
Hebrew by Bishop Joseph Ciantes, Rome, 1657.

T. I. Br.

AR, or AR MOAB : Occurs as follows in the
Old Testament: Num. xxi. 15, 28; Dent. ii. 9, 18,
29; Isa. xv. 1. It is generally identified with the
Hebrew u‘ir” (city), so that “Ar Moab” would be
“city of Moab,” a supposed ancient capital of the
Moabites. But even if this interpretation be admis-
sible in certain of the passages cited above, it would
not be very appropriate in Deut. ii. 9, which reads:
“ Distress not the Moabites, for I will not give thee
of their land for a possession, because I have given
Ar to the children of Lot for a possession ” ; or again,
verse 18, “Thou art to pass over through Ar, the
coast (or the border) of Moab ” ; or, finally, verse
29 : “ The children of Esau which dwell in Seir, and

Ruins of Ar Moab.

(After Luynes, “ Voyage d’Exploration a la Mer Morte.”)

the Moabites which dwell in Ar. ” It is obvious that
“ Ar ” here must stand either for the land of Moab,
or for the principal part of it: if, therefore, “Ar”
were a city, it must here be used as representing
the country. It would be simpler, however, to re-
gard “Ar” as the actual name of a country, and this
is appropriate also in Isa. xv. 1, 2; Num. xxi. 15, 28.
Note also that the Septuagint translates Isa. xv. 1,
“ tj Mwn/h'rfc.” It is perhaps from this country that

the capital of Moab (Rabbat Moab) derives the name
of Areopolis (“Onomastica Sacra,” edited by La-
garde, p. 277).

Bibliography; Buhl, Geographic des Alten PaUlstina , pp.

269, 270.

j. jr. F. Be.

ARABAH : The Hebrew word Arabah (roiyi de-
notes desert, steppe. With the article, it refers espe-
cially to that extensive depression the center of which
is marked by the Dead Sea. In some passages it is
applied to the southern portion of this depression,
namely, that between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of
Akabah (Deut. i. 1, ii. 8); in others to the northern
part (Deut. iii. 17; Josh. xi. 2, 16; II Sam. iv. 7;
II Kings xxv. 4; Ezek. xlvii. 8); again, to the district
east of the Jordan (Josh. xii. 1, 3), and also to the
west (II Sam. ii. 29). The breadth varies from 3 to 14
miles. The whole formation of this depression is one
of the remarkable phenomena of the earth’s surface.
At the northern end, north of the Sea of Galilee, the
ground rises 500 feet above sea-level, then falls, with-
in a distance of 118 miles, to 2,600 feet below it (the
greatest depth of the Dead Sea bed) ; then rises south
of that sea to an altitude of 800 feet, and falls away
gradually to the Gulf of Akabah. On both banks
of the Jordan and in the neighborhood of springs
(as, for instance, near Jericho) the Arabah is covered
with a luxuriant vegetation, otherwise it consists of
blinding white desert without a leaf. South of the
Dead Sea, the Arabah is covered with sand, gravel,
and boulders, and is traversed by ridges of sand-
hills. The intense heat common to the whole de-
pression, and which gives to the vegetation its trop-
ical character, reaches in this section a degree that
makes sojourn almost impossible. The old name
El-Arabah is still applied to the southern portion
between the Gulf of Akabah and the watershed south
of the Dead Sea ; the northern portion is now called
El-Ghor.

Bibliography: G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy
Land, pp. 782-784 ; Buhl, Geographic des Alten PaUistina,
passim.

j. jr. F. Bu.

ARABAH. See Beth- Arabah.

ARABARCH, THE. See Alabarch.

ARABIA : Peninsula lying between the main-
lands of Africa and Asia. It is separated from Africa
on the south by the Red Sea and on the north by the
Sinaitic peninsula and the strip of land which in
modern times has been cut through for the Suez
canal. On the south and southeast its shores are
washed by the Indian Ocean, which has been con-
stantly receding and allowing more of the land to
emerge. On the east it is separated from Persia by
the Persian Gulf, and on the north is bounded by the
Syrian desert, which is but a continuation of the great
desert lying in the heart of Arabia itself. This
desert is relieved by a number of oases, on which
grow palms and tamarisks in abundance, providing
food and shade for the Bedouins. Arabia has no
rivers, but is artificially irrigated. The land outside
the desert is very fertile, especially on the western
side ; it is known on this account as Arabia Felix.
Arabia has an average width of 600 miles and a

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arabia

length of about 1,200. Egress from the countiy is
possible by the two land routes to the east and west ;
the eastern road leads into Babylonia and thence
northward into Syria, the western into Egypt and
thence southward, or directly north along the coast
plain, which at some places furnishes an entrance
into the interior of Palestine.

Biblical Data : Arabia is mentioned in the

Bible in the following passages : Ezek. xxvii. 21;
Jer. xxv. 24 a; Isa. xiii. 20, xxi. 13; Jer. iii. 2; Neh.
ii. 19, iv. 1, vi. 1; II Chron. ix. 14, xvii. 11, xxi.
16, xxii. 1, xxvi. 7. To these might be added the
doubtful passages: Jer. 1. 37; I Kings x. 15; Ezek.

xxx. 5; Jer. xxv. 245. An examina-
In Biblical tion of these, however, proves that
Passages, the terms “ Arabia ” and “ Arabians ”
are used in a number of senses. (1)
In Jer. iii. 2 (“ In the ways hast thou sat for them, as
the Arabian in the wilderness”) and in Isa. xiii. 20
(“Neither shall the Arabian pitch his tent there”)
reference is made to the wandering marauding Be-
douin who looks for opportunities to plunder, or
stops here and there to eat the fat of the land.
.In neither case is this “Arabian,” strictly speaking,
an inhabitant of Arabia. The passage in Isaiah pre-
supposes frequent incursions into Babylonia of the
tent-dwelling Bedouins referred to in the Assyrian
inscriptions. Sometimes, however, the Bedouins
traveled in companies large enough to do serious in-
jury. To such is reference made in II Chron. xvii.
11, of whom Jehosliaphat exacts tribute, which they
pay in rams and goats — the gold and silver of a
nomadic people. The home of these marauding
bands is vaguely indicated by the phrase, “ which
were near the Ethiopians” (II Chron.
Conflicts xxi. 16). They appear again in Jeho-
with. ram’s reign, when, owing to the weak-
Arabs. ness of the kingdom, they are able to
make an incursion and, after plunder-
ing the land, escape with their booty. In Uzziah’s
reign they make a similar attempt, but with no suc-
cess (II Chron. xxvi. 7). It would seem that these
attacks were directed from the west, because the
Arabians are named with the Philistines.

(2) In the strict sense of the word, Arabia is men-
tioned in Jer. xxv. 24«; but the addition, “All the
kings of mingled multitude ” (“ Ereb ”), to the phrase,
“all the kings of Arabia,” appears to be a ditto-
grapliy. From Arabia, gold and silver were sent to
Solomon (II Chron. ix. 4), and, in accordance with this
passage, in its parallel (1 Kings x. 5) “ Ereb ” must be
changed to “ Arab. ” A similar change, suggested by
Cornill, following Aquila, Symmaclius, and the Pesli-
itta, must be made in Ezek. xxx. 5 (Smend, on the pas-
sage), where Arabia is mentioned in connection with
Lud, Put, and Egypt. The classic passage is Ezek.
xxvii. 21, where Arabia is referred to as one of the
contributors to the wealth of Tyre. As in the other
citations, “Arabia” here means only the northern
part. It contributed lambs, rams, and goats; other
districts in Arabia sent their share,
Trade with Kedar, Sheba, and Eden sending lambs,
Arabia. spices, gold, and precious stones. There

is evidence that after and perhaps
even during the Exile, Arabians made their fixed
abode in Palestine. At the rebuilding of the walls

they gave Nehemiali much annoyance (Neh. iv.),
particularly Gesliem, the Arabian (Neh. ii. 1, 19).
Jer. 1. 37 is a doubtful passage, but it can hardly
refer to the Arabians. One other might be men-
tioned. In the Elijah story (I Kings xvii. 4), ravens
(“•‘orebim”) bring food to the prophet. The Talmud
(Hul. 5a) reports an interesting discussion, wherein
it is suggested that ‘“orebim” might be the name
of men (Judges vii. 25), or perhaps men of a certain
locality, this of course implying the reading “ Ara-
bians.” And despite the fact that all the ancient
versions read “ ravens,” the reading “Arabians” or
“ Bedouins ” is still a possibility. The hiding-place
of Elijah lay directly in the path of the bands who,
in the period of drought, would have reason to
remain near a brook (I Kings x. vii. 6).

(3) In later times “ Arabian ” signifies the more
restricted Nabataean. IlMacc. v. 8 mentions Aretas,
prince of the Arabians, who is known from other
sources to have been a Nabataean. The same restric-
tion applies to the New Testament (Gal. i. 17, iv. 25;
II Cor. xi. 32).

The Arabians are mentioned also on the Assyrian
inscriptions with the same ambiguity (Bedouins or
Arabians) as in the Hebrew sources,
Arabs in being variously given as “Aribu,”
Assyrian “Arubu,” “Arabi,” or even “Arbi.”

In- They are first found in the days of
scriptions. Shalmaneser II. In a battle fought
in 854 at Karkar, Gindibi the Arabian,
with his 1,000 camels, took part. Tiglath-pileser
III. makes an invasion into Arabia, and among
others who pay homage and tribute are found the
two queens, Zabibe and Samsi. In Sennacherib’s
reign the “ tent-dwelling ” Arabs have moved north-
ward and, in conjunction with the Arami and the
Kaldi, make trouble for the king. His son and suc-
cessor, Esarhaddon, defeats them at Bazu. They
are by no means destroyed, however, for they are
still found in the empire in the reign of Asurbanipal.

The constant migration of the hordes from central
Arabia into Babylonia, and thence along the Eu-
phrates into Palestine, has been going on at all times,
as appears from the Bible and the inscriptions. The
episode of Abraham's journey is but one stage.
From Arabia the wanderers poured into Babylonia
and settled there. Pressure from Arabia dispersed
them and they wandered north. On the west the
Arabs entered Egypt and went south into Yemen and
Abyssinia. It is quite probable that Semitic cus-
toms, mythology, and national traits were carried in
successive stages from central Arabia to the other
parts where Semites were found. Hom-
Arabia as mel, von Kremer, and Guidi assume
Home that Mesopotamia was the original
of the home of the Semite; but, as has been
Semites, pointed out by De Goje, agriculturists
and inhabitants of mountains never
become nomads. The reverse is often true. Sayce,
Sprenger, and Schrader favor Arabia. Schrader
points out that on mythological, historical, geograph-
ical, and linguistic grounds Arabia must be the
starting-point of Semitic culture. Noldeke suggests
Africa as the original home of the Semites — a view
adopted by Brinton, Jastrow, and Barton; but this
in nowise conflicts with Arabia as the Semitic center

-Arabia

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

in Asia (see Semites, and Barton. “Semitic Origins,”
ch. i., New York, 1901).

J. jr. G. B. L.

Settlement of the Jews : In the history of the

Jews of Arabia three epochs may be noticed: (1)
The pre-Islamic period; (2) Mohammed’s lifetime;
and (3) the period from Mohammed’s death to the ex-
pulsion of Jews from the peninsula.

Pre-Islamic Period: Nothing certain is known as
to the time of Jewish immigration into Arabia;
but from various passages in the Mishnah (Shab. vi.
6; Ohalot xviii. 10) may be inferred the existence of
Jewish settlements in northern Arabia (Hijaz) shortly
after the destruction of the Second Temple. There
is no doubt that whatever civilization existed in
these parts in the first six centuries of the present
era was fostered by the Jews. They evidently
brought some knowledge of the Bible, the Talmud,
and the prayer-book with them ; but it does not ap-
pear that regular study had found a home among
them, nor did they produce any rabbinic authority
beyond those so considered by Mohammedan au-
thors. Yet this sufficed to give them a much higher
moral standing than that of their Arab neighbors.

The Jews not only tilled the soil and reared palm-
groves, but were also skilled armorers and jewelers.
Outwardly they hardly differed from the Arabs,
whose customs they adopted, not only in the matter
of tribal life, but also in other respects. From ex-
tensive lists of names it is seen that typically Jewish
or Biblical names were in the minority. Even tire
names of the tribes are purely Arabic, and offer
hardly any clue to their origin.

Although the settlement of the Jews did not ex-
tend further south than the town of Medina, the
spread of their religion was not con-
Early fined to that district. The accounts
Accounts, of this are rather fantastic and in-
clude the following: When Abu Ka-
Tib, the last of the Tobba kings of Yemen, besieged
Yatlirib (the ancient name of Medina), he was per-
suaded by two rabbis (to whom later sources give
the names of Ka‘ab and Asad) not only to raise the
siege, but also to adopt the Jewish creed. Taking
the two rabbis with him. he converted his army and
subsequently his people: but it was not till the time
of Du Nuwas (sixth century) that Judaism was
more widely spread in Yemen.

Jewish colonies were probably to be found in the
whole northwestern coast-line; but only a few are
known to history. These were at Taima, Fadak,
Khaibar, Wadi al-Kura. and in the immediate vi-
cinity of Medina. It was in the last-named place
that Jews lived in large numbers, forming three
tribes, viz., the powerful Banu Ivaiuuka, in the
north of the town, where they possessed a market
named after them ; the Banu al-Nadhir, who were
their neighbors, and the Banu Kuraiza, who occu-
pied the eastern suburbs. The last two tribes
claimed their descent from the family
Medinian of Aaron, and therefore styled tliem-
Jews. selves Al-Ivahinan (the two Priests).

Besides building villages, all three
tribes constructed a number of forts, which afforded
them protection during the numerous feuds of the |

Arab tribes. Through recent discoveries of inscrip-
tions the names of several “kings” of tribes have
been unearthed, and Glaser has arranged them chron-
ologically in the following order: Talrnay, Hanaus
(Al-Aus), Talrnay, Lawdan, Talrnay.

Such was the position of the Jews in North Ara-
bia, when, about the year 300, two Arab tribes, the
Banu 'al-Khazraj and Al-Aus, moving northward
with the stream of immigrants from the southern
shores, found habitations in the environs of Medina.
Like the Jews, the intruders built a number of cas-
tles for themselves and sought to insure their own
safety by making allies of the former. Peaceful
times had, however, gone forever. The Arab histo-
rians— the sole source regarding these events — con-
sider the acts of violence committed by one of the
Jewish tribes to be the cause of the outbreak of
hostilities; but this is only natural. Following their
report it is learned that part of the Banu al-Kliazraj
had settled in Syria under the sovereignty of the
Ghassanide prince Abu Jubaila. Malik, chief of
the Medinian Khazrajites, invoked his aid against the
Jewish oppressors. Glad of the opportunity, he
marched with an army toward Medina, whereupon
the Jews retired to their castles. Pretending to be
engaged in an expedition against Yemen, he assured
them of his peaceful intentions, and invited them to
a banquet in his camp. Those who availed them-
selves of the invitation were assassinated, and the
murderers seized their wives and children. The
fate of the unhappy victims was bewailed in elegies
by the Jewess Sarah and by another poet, whose
name is not known.

The only revenge taken by the Jews was to man-
ufacture an uncouth effigy of the traitor, which they
are said to have placed in their S3rnagogue — a most
unlikely place — where they showered blows and
curses on it. This, if true, would enable one to
form some idea of their intellectual status, and would
seem to show that, in spite of their religious views,
they shared their neighbors’ belief in magic. That
Arabs regarded such punishment as effective can
lie proved by occurrences which took place even in
Islamic times ; but compare Haman in Rabb. Lit.

After this event, which considerably weakened the
power of the Jewish tribes, nothing is heard of their
affairs for about a century, except that they took
part in the quarrels of the two Arab clans with
whom they intermarried, and that they fought occa-
sionally on both sides.

In the middle of the sixth century there flourished
the Jew Samau’al b. Adiya, who lived in his castle
Al-Ablak in Taima, eight days’ jour-
Samau’al ney north of Medina. “More faithful
b. Adiya. than Ai-Samau’al” became a prover-
bial saying. The following is the
circumstance which gave rise to it: When the fa-
mous poet Imr al-Kais fled from the King Al-Mun-
dhir of Hira, he confided his daughter and his treas-
ures to the care of his friend Samau’al. Al-Mundhir
besieged Al-Ablak, and having captured a son of
Samau’al, threatened to kill him unless his father
gave up the treasures of his friend. This Samau’al
refused to do, allowing his son to be slaughtered
before his eyes in preference. Samau’al alluded to
the incident in verse, thus securing for himself a

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arabia

place among the ancient Arab poets. Of other Jew-
ish contemporaneous poets the best known is Al
Kabi ibn Abu ai.-Hukaik, who competed in poetic
, improvisation with another prominent Arab min-
; strel.

Mohammed’s Lifetime : The second period in the
history of the Jews in Arabia, viz., the rise of
Islam and its effect on their fate, may now be con-
sidered. When the news spread that a Meccan
prophet had arisen who endeavored to replace pa-
ganism by a monotheistic belief, the cureosity of
the Jews was naturally aroused. Their own polit-
ical prestige had by that time declined to such an
extent that they were daily exposed to acts of vio-
lence from their pagan neighbors. They looked
1 forward to the advent of a Messiah; and Moslem
historians, chronicling these hopes, point vaguely to
Mohammed. About this time, ambassadors from
Mecca arrived in order to learn the Medinian Jews’
opinion of the new prophet. The report which
they are supposed to have brought throws very
little light on this subject. On the other hand, the
curiosity of the Jews was so great that they could
not rest, but sent one of their chiefs to Mecca to as-
certain what they had to hope for or to fear. Mo-
hammed was plied, directly or through an inter-
mediary, with questions; but with no satisfactory
results. Probably, as long as he lived in Mecca, the
Jews thought but little of the whole movement ; in-
deed, there was little prospect of Islam ever assum-
ing large proportions in Medina.

Notwithstanding all that is related about Moham-
med’s having used the Medinian Jews as a source of
information, their share in the actual building-up of
Islam was but small. When Mohammed came to
live among them, the essential portions of the faith
had already been created. Such learning as he owed
to Jews he had acquired at a much earlier period,
probably in Syria. It was only natural, however,
that Mohammed should be anxious to win the Jews
over; but, being afraid of their intellectual superior-
ity, he wished to accomplish this by intimidation
rather than by persuasion. His first step was to ad-
vise the Medinians, who invited him to take up his
abode with them, and dissolve their alliances with the
Jews. The seemingly friendly attitude toward the
Jews, that he at first assumed, and to which he gave
expression in the treaty that he concluded with the
Medinians, was but a stratagem. As soon as he per-
ceived that they did not feel inclined to make ad-
vances, he covered them with abuse; this can be
seen in the Medinian portions of the Koran. Observ-
ing that they remained obstinate, he
Mohammed proceeded to crush them as soon as
Crushes his political power had become strong
the Jews, enough to enable him to do so with
impunity. He commenced by expel-
ling the Bauu Kainuka, who retired to Adraat in
the north. Subsequently he ordered the assassina-
tion of the poet, Iva’ab b. al-Asliraf, chief of the
Banu al-Nadhir, who, by his verses, had incited the
Meccans to revenge the defeat t hey' had suffered at
Badr. In the following year, to retrieve the disas-
ter of the Moslem arms at Uhud, the whole tribe
Al-Nadhir was expelled. Their expulsion formed
the burden of an elegy by the Jewish poet Al-Sam-

mak. Finally, the Banu Kuraiza were besieged,
and on their surrender were put to death by Mo-
hammed. They numbered upward of seven hun-
dred, and included the chiefs Iva’ab b. Asad and
Hukaik; their women and children were distributed
among the Moslems.

Mohammedan authors have much to say about
the Jewish apostate, Abdallah ben Salam, who is
supposed to have become a follower of the prophet
soon after the entry of the latter into Medina ; but
from more reliable sources it is gathered that the
apostasy did not take place till shortly before Mo-
hammed’s death. Only a little of what Mohammed
learned from this man appears in the Koran; but
much more is given in the “Hadith,” the traditional
supplement to this book.

Lastly came the turn of the Jews of Khaibar to
be attacked. After an unsuccessful fight they, as
well as those of Fadak, Taima, and Wadi-al-Kura,
surrendered. Being more skilled agriculturists thau
the Arabs, Mohammed permitted them to stay on
the condition that they hand over one-half of their
harvests to the Moslem authorities. But they lived
in dread of ultimate expulsion; and this state lasted
till Mohammed’s death. His successor, Abu Bakr,
also found it well to continue the same policy, from
which the Moslem commonwealth derived consider-
able benefit. Omar, however, fearing that the dan-
ger Islam might undergo through continual contact
with Jews would be greater than their material use-
fulness, drove them out of the country, and they
left for Syria. For the history of the Jews in
Arabia after Mohammed see Aden, San’aa, Yemen.

Bibliography: Hirschfeld, Essai sur VHistoire des Juifs de
Meiline, in Rev. Et. Juives, vii. 107 et seq.; ib. x. 10 et seq.;
idem. New Researches into the Composition and Exegesis
of the Qoran , London, 1902; Wellhausen, Juden und Chris-
ten in Arabien , in Skizzen und Vorarbeiten. iii. 197 etseq.
(compare Noldeke’s criticism, '/.. D. M. G. xli. 720) ; Grimme,
Mohammed, i. Wet sea. ; ib. 90 et seq. ; ib. 109 et seq. ; ib.
118 et seq. See also articles Islam, Mohammed, Himyarites,
Dhu Nr was, etc.

G. II. HlB.

— —In Rabbinical Literature: Both the land
and the people of Arabia were familiar to the Jews
of Palestine and Babylonia; and the notices of the
Arabians, as given in the Talmuds and the Mid-
rashim, are among the most valuable and reliable
data extant concerning the pre-Islamic Arabians.

The Arabians are designated by the Jews
and more rarely the latter name being

used principally to indicate the inhabitants of the
desert (M. K. 24a) to emphasize their kinship to
the Jews (Sliab. 1 1«). In Babylonia the Arabians
were also known by the name of N’y"L2 (“Tayite”),
after the great Arabian tribe of the Tavites ; and the
Hebrew transliteration with y is based upon a popu-
lar etymology which connected this Arabic name
with nytO and nyn (“to wander,” “to wander
about”). By the term “Arabians” the Jewish
sources sometimes also indicate the Nabataeans, the
Aramaized Arabians, although the word “Naba-
taean ” is also found.

It is impossible to tell to what extent the Arabian
peninsula was known to the Jews during the first
five centuries of the common era. With the excep-
tion of a passage in ‘Erubin 19«, the Talmud and
the Midrash speak of Arabia in a general way.

Arabia

Arabic- Jewish Philosophy

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

without mentioning any particular locality. As re-
gards the passage Lam. R. iii. 7, it is doubtful
whether “ Sugar ” (thus in Buber’s
The Land, edition) is the name of a place at all,
although Arabia has towns bearing
the names of “ Sajur ” and “ Sawajir. ” It is evident,
from a remark in the Tosefta (Ber. iv. 16) and the
Midrash (Gen. R. lxxxiv. 16), that the Arabs traded
only in skins and naphtha, and not in spices and
sweet-scented stuffs, and that southern Arabia must
therefore have been altogether unknown to the Jews
of Palestine.

The Arabs are spoken of as typical nomads. A
very ancient source (Ohalot xviii. 10) speaks of
their tents as unstable abodes, because the occu-
pants wandered about from one place to another.
Thus the settled Arameans looked down with con-
tempt upon the Arabs, to whom, about the year 70,
the phrase “ contemptible nation ” (n^SS^ PON) came
to be applied (Ket. 666); and even in later times it
was regarded as most humiliating for a woman to
marry an Arab (Yer. Ned., end). Concerning the
gods of the Arabs, mention is made (‘Ab. Zarah
116) of the idol Naslira (or Nislira), a deity revered
by the tribes of both the south and the north (see
Wellhausen, “ Reste Arabischen Heidenthums, ” 2d
ed., p. .23, and the literature cited there). The pas-
sage states that this god’s temple was open the year
round; and it is further recorded that the “hajj [an-
nual pilgrimage] of the Tayites” ('JT'OT NnUPI) was
not always held upon the same date, or (according
to Rashi) not regularly every year. A peculiar
religious custom is mentioned (Yer. Ta'an. ii. 65 6;
Midrash Jonah, in Jellinek, “B. H.” i. 100, and
Ta’anit 16a). The tribes are also especially char-
acterized as being given to immoral excesses; and
the proverb runs that “the Arabs are guilty of nine-
tenths of all the immorality in the world ” (Kid.
496; Esther R. [i. 3], however, has “Alexandria” in
place of “Arabia,” and assigns to the Ishmaelites
nine measures of “stupidity ” [ntif’DtD]).

In a passage badly mutilated by censors (Shab.
11a) Abba Arika (Rab), who lived about the first
half of the third century, remarks that he would
rather be ruled by an Ishmaelite than by a Roman,
and by a Roman rather than by a Parsee. A cen-
tury later, however, conditions seem
Habits and to have changed for the worse. It is
Customs known that in the first half of the
of the fourth century the Arabs seized the
People. lands of both Jewish and non-Jewish
inhabitants of Pumbedita, and com-
pelled the rich proprietors to make out deeds of sale
to them (B. B. 1686). Similar conditions at that
time prevailed at Nehardea, where it was unsafe to
leave cattle unguarded in the fields because the
Arabs (Bedouins) that frequented the district stole
whatever was within their reach (ib. 36a). Interest-
ing, also, as bearing upon the life of the Arabs, are
the allusions in the Mislinah to “the caldron of the
Arabs,” by which is meant an improvised fireplace
for baking, and which consisted of a cavity, lined
with clay, in the ground (Men. v. 9; Kelim v. 10).
At a much later period, the chief food of the Arabs
seems to have consisted of meat (Hul. 396).

As to the garb of the Arabs, the Mishnah states

(Shab. vi. 6; see Rashi ’s reference to the passage,
p. 65a) that it was already then the custom for
women — even for Jewesses living in Arabia — when
they went out-of-doors, to cover the entire face, ex-
cept the eyes, with a veil. In their journeys in the
desert the men, too, used a face-cloth, about an ell
square, as a protection from the flying sand (M. K.
24a; Mishnah Kelim xxix. 1; compare commentary
of Ilai Gaon). Among the Jews, however, this cov-
ering of the face was customary only as a sign of
mourning (M. K. l.c.). There was, furthermore, a
difference between the sandals of the Arabians and
those of the Arameans, the latter being provided
with an easy lacing arrangement, whereas the for-
mer were bound firmly to the feet with leather
thongs (Shab. 112a; Yeb. 102a; compare Hananeel
on the passage in Shab., which is also cited in ‘Aruk,
s.v. ton, ed. Koliut, iii. 436a). Of the
Weapons, arms of the Arabs little is said in rab-
binical literature. Their usual weapon
on their travels through the desert was the spear
(B. B. 74a) ; and a small shield is mentioned as hav-
ing been also used in mock combats (Kelim xxiv. 1).
Another Arabian custom noted in the Talmud is
that of wrapping meat in the skin of the animal and
carrying it home on the shoulders from the slaugh-
ter houses (Pes. 656). Mention is also made of the
wonderful faculty the Arabs were held to possess,
of ascertaining, by merely smelling the ground, how
far removed they were from a spring or other source
of water (B. B. 736).

The Arabs are represented in Jewish sources as
magicians and idolaters of the lowest type. An au-
thority of the third century relates that he himself
witnessed an Arab slaughter a sheep in order to
make predictions from its liver (Lam. R., introduc-
tion, xxiii.). Another source of about the same pe-
riod notes that the Arabs worshiped the dust that
remained clinging to their feet (B. M.
Religion 866). In regard to the language of
and the Arabs, Jewish sources contain
Language, more than twelve “ Arabic ” words,
expressly designated as such, which
have been collected by Briill, not all of which, how-
ever, are really Arabic. Thus, for instance, for
'awila, “boy” (Gen. R. xxxvi., beginning), is given
the Arabic 'aiyil ; for patia, “youth” (ib. lxxxvii.),
= Arabic, fata n; while the other words adita, “rob-
bery,” sakkaia, “ prophet,” and others, are originally
Aramaic words used by the Nabataeans. Other
words, again, like ynbla , “ ram,” kaban‘ , “ to rob,” can
not be found either in the Arabic or in any dialect
of the Aramaic, and can only refer to the dialect of
Arabian Jews. See Ishmaei, and Rabba bar bar
Han a.

Bibliography : Briill, Fremdsprachliche Redemarten und
Ausdriicklich als Fre m d* pra c h 1 ich Bezeichnete Wiirter in
den Talmuden und Midraschim , 1869, pp. 40-46; Frankel,
Aramaische FremdwOrter , pp. 2, 38, 39; Noldeke, In Z. D.
M. <}.. xxv. 123.

j. sr. L. G.

ARABIAN NIGHTS : Popular name of a col-
lection of tales written in Arabic under the title “ Alf
Lailat wa Lailah” (One Thousand and One Nights),
and rendered familiar to all Europe by Galland’s
French adaptation of 1703-1717. The constituent

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arabia

Arabic- Jewish Philosophy

1 elements of the collection vary in different editions ;

Burton’s edition, which is the completest, contains
; more than 230 stories, man}' of which include other
I stories, making the total not far short of 400.

' Joseph Jacobs, in an introduction to a reprint of
Lane’s edition (London, 1896), suggested that these
stories may be divided into four successive strata:

1 (1) a Persic-Indian nucleus consisting of Indian tales
translated into Pahlavi at the same time as similar
t collections of tales — Baklaam and Bidpai and Sind-
had — was adapted during the reign of Cliosroes I.

' (531-79); this is set in a framework of local Persian
origin ; (2) an Arabic adaptation made at the court
| of Harun-al-Rashid in the ninth century, under
! the patronage of the Barmecides, by Abu Abdallah
Mohammed al-Jalishiyari; (3) additions made in
i Cairo between the twelfth century and the fifteenth,
and final redaction there which gave the whole col-
lection an Egyptian tone; (4) additions found only
in GaHand’s translation, including “Ali Baba,”
“Aladdin,” and “Prince Ahmad,” which have been
traced to the recital of a native Christian of Aleppo,
named Hanna, who visited Paris in 1709. The Jew-
ish interest in the “Arabian Nights” connects itself
with the first and third of these sections.

De Goeje has suggested that the framework story
of the whole collection, in which the queen Shali-
razad averts execution by telling tales for one thou-
sand and one nights, is the same story
Based as that of the Biblical book of Esther,
on Book of Shahrazad, in the Persian tradition, is
Esther. the mother-in-law of Ahasuerus, who
in the Biblical story also beguiles his
nights by having tales read to him; his wives also
hold office only for one night, until Esther obtains
a more secure tenure. M. de Goeje thinks that the
“ Arabian Nights ” preserves a more original form of
the story, as the writer of the Bible narrative has
modified the fate of Esther's co-wives.

F. Perles, in a series of papers contributed to
“ Monatsschrift ” (xxii.), has pointed out that sever-
al of the stories of the “ Arabian Nights ” — mainly
those taken from the Cairene additions — deal with
Jewish topics or are derived from Jewish sources.
V. Cliauvin, in a special treatise on the Egyptian
recension of “ One Thousand and One Nights ”
(Brussels, 1899), has suggested that these Jewish
tales and others were introduced by one of the last
redactors, a converted Jew, probably the author of
the “Story of a Man of Jerusalem.” sometimes at-
tributed to Abraham, son of Maimonides. The Jew-
ish tales themselves are probably extracted from
a work of a Jewish convert to Islam, Wahb ibn
Munabbih (638-738), entitled “Jewish Matters.”

The following are the tales of the “Arabian
Nights” that appear from several investigations to
be from Jewish sources. The numbers
Tales from are those in W. F. Kirby’s compara-
Jewish. tive list given in all forms of Burton’s
Sources, edition; the letters in parentheses re-
fer to the identifications by Perles:

22. Ala Al-Din Abu Al-Sliamat.

41. Ali Shah and Zumurrud.

52. Devout Israelite (F. ).

114. Angel of Death and the Proud King.

115. Angel of Death and the Rich King.

116. Angel of Death and the King of the Children
of Israel.

117. Izkander (Alexander the Great) and the Poor
Folk.

119. The Jewish Cadi and His Pious Wife (A.)

122. Devout Tray -Maker and His Wife (J.).

126. The Moslem Champion.

127. The Christian King's Daughter.

128. Prophet and Providence (C.).

130. Island King and Pious Israelite.

132. Queen of Serpents: (a) Adventures of Bulu-
kuia ; (b) Story of Jamshali.

133 gg. The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad.

136. Judar and His Brethren.

137. Ajib and Gharib.

155. Ilassan of Bassorah.

161 k. The Blind Man and the Cripple (G.).

163. Abdallah the Fisherman.

168. Abdallah ibn Fazil and His Brothers.

183 a. Haruu al-Raschid and Tuhfat al-Kulub.

196. Story of Ali Cogia (K. — one of Galland’s
additions).

203. Sultan of Yemen and His Three Sons.

256. Story of Abdallah (E.).

Besides these stories, there are several others ob-
viously inserted by the same hand. Thus, the whole
collection from 114 to 132 appears to be by the hand
of Wahb ibn Muuabbih, while “ The Blind Man and
the Cripple ” (161 k.) is part of a section of eighteen
stories which are all told together under the title of
“King Jali’ad of Ilind.” Altogether some forty-
five stories — nearly one-ninth of the whole — can be
traced to this Jewish editor of the Cairene edition,
and Cliauvin suggests that fifteen others were in-
serted, though not written, by him.

One of the tales can be traced to the Cairene re-
daction by a reference to Jewish customs. In the
“ Ensorcelled Prince” (2 b) the Peri transforms the fish
of different colors into the former inhabitants of the
city, the yellow fish being turned into Jews because
the Jews of Egypt wore yellow badges, owing to
the pact of Omar (see Badge).

Bibliography : Perles. Rabbinische Ifaggadas in 1,001 Xarht,
in Monatsschrift, xxii.; De Goeje, Thousand and Our
Nights, in Encyc. Brit.; I.ane, Arabian Nights, with an In-
troduction by Joseph Jacobs (I.ondon, 1896) ; V. chauvin. La
Recension Egyptienne de s MiUe et Une Nuits (Brussels,
1899) ; Israel Levi, in Rev. Et. Juives, xxxix. 141-143 (re-
view of Chauvin). For parallel with Testament of Solomon,
see Jew. Quart. Rev. xi. 14. See also Aiiikak.

G. J.

ARABIC- JEWISH PHILOSOPHY, General

View of; 8o thoroughly were the writings of
Arabic-speaking Jews influenced by what may be
termed Mosaism, that it is necessary to bear this
constantly in mind when considering the peculiar
contribution of these Jews to the history of philos-
ophy. Mosaism from its outset could scarcely claim
to be called a philosophy. It was, in the most
pointed sense of the word, a religion of law. If,
as is quite reasonable, the Decalogue be accepted as
the oldest portion of the Biblical canon — as the re-
ligious backbone, so to speak, of Mosaism — it be-
comes evident at once that a moral Will speaks
therein with the “categorical imperative.” The
Mosaic religious system was therefore neither the
product of cold intellect like the Greek religious

Arabic- Jewish Philosophy

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

philosophy, nor an ardent emotional evolution like
Brahmanism or Buddhism; nor was it the result
of over-subtle cogitationlike the teach-
Mosaism ings of Confucius and Zoroaster. It
a System consisted of the imperative commands
of of an Omnipotent Will speaking in
Mandates, mandatory accents. The religions of
intellect addressed their followers in
the subjunctive; emotional religions in the opta-
tive; Mosaism, a Will- or Law-religion, admonished
its believers in terse, unconditional imperatives.

The sacred writings of no other of the great relig-
ions contain so little speculative reflection as the Old
Testament ; and if it be true that all religion is but
imperfect philosophy — that is, philosophy in the
guise of sentiment (Schleiermacher), and never in
the form of the concept (Hegel) — then Mosaism
affords a most imperfect system of metaphysics.
History (Genesis as an attempt at the history of the
world; Exodus as a national history, etc.), poetry
(Deborah’s Song, the Psalms, and the Prophetical
writings), together with jurisprudence (Leviticus) —
these are the vital elements in Mosaism. There is no
room for philosophy. The philosophical tinge in the
two books of the canon. Job and Ecclesiastes, is dis-
tinctly due to foreign influences: the former plunges
immediately into the angelology and demonology
of Parseeism, and the latter is dyed in the somber
hues of the Hellenism of Alexandria.

Still more practical evidence of the aversion of
Mosaism to philosophy is afforded by the fact that,
when Jewish Hellenism in Alexandria evolved not
only such fitful stars of small magnitude as Aristaeus
and Aristobulus, but also a great and enduring lu-
minary like Philo, it was rudimentary Christianity
that blossomed forth in response to the Jewish-IIel-
lenic doctrine of the Logos: Judaism remained en-
tirely uninfluenced by the Philonic
Position philosophy. This accounts for the fact
of thatMaimonides — the sole Jewish phi-

Philo. losopher of the Middle Ages with a full
appreciation of the historical sequence
of his faith — knew as little of the existence of Philo
as of the works of Josephus. Indeed, all medieval
Judaism may be said to have remained in ignorance
of Philo, the only philosopher produced by ancient
Judaism, and the greatest one down to the present
time, Spinoza alone excepted — a circumstance all the
more significant when contrasted with the assiduous
development of the historical sense in other fields.
Even with Philo himself philosophy was not indig-
enous: it was a product imported from other climes;
for Philo was absolutely dependent upon Plato, just
as Maimonides and all Arabic-Jewish philosophers,
with the exception of Ibn Gabirol, were upon Aris-
totle.

The explanation of this remarkable phenomenon —
the cold and almost hostile attitude of Judaism, as a
religion, toward philosophy — may per-
Authori- haps be found in the fact that every
tative religion based upon law is thereby nec-
Nature of essarily authoritative in its utterances.
Mosaism. The Jews did not need to speculate
upon the origin of all things. The Bab-
ylonian legend of the creation was presented to them
in Genesis as a dogma, as an unquestionable article

of faith. All other religious systems had to think out
for themselves a foundation for the world; in Juda-
ism one was ready to hand. Thus, what elsewhere
was the aim and object of all speculative philosophy
— the account of the origin of the universe — was in
Judaism posited at the very beginning of the Bible.

One other fact remains to be mentioned ; namely,
that of all ancient religions Mosaism was the only
optimistic one. All the others glorified death ; Mo-
saism was alone in extolling life: DvrQ mrQV
“Choose life” (Deut. xxx. 19); “keep my statutes
. . . which if a man do, he shall live in them”
(Lev. xviii. 5). While pessimistic religions pro-
claimed as their watchword, “ Choose death, choose
non-existence ” (Nirvana), Mosaism, on the contrary,
never ceased to enjoin, “Choose life.” “Serve the
Lord with gladness, come before His presence with
singing, ” joyously exhorts the Psalmist (Ps. c. 2) ; “I
shall not die, but live,” he exults in the delirium of
happy existence (Ps. cxviii. 17). Buddhism was a
religion of commiseration ; Mosaism, one that shared
the happiness and joy of all living creatures. Such
a religion, whose God surveyed all creation with sat-
isfaction, and emphasized each successive stage with
the exclamation “It is good,” “It is very good,”
needed no philosophy, and therefore produced none.
All philosophy originates either in a puzzled incom-
prehensibility of things («rt to flav/uat^eiv, as Aristotle
says) or in a deep dissatisfaction with the existing
arrangement of the world. Neither of these motives
obtained with the Jews ; for them there
Optimistic was neither theoretical impulse nor
Character practical inducement. For them, ac-
of knowledging revelation as they did,
Mosaism. there existed no mystery as to the or-
igin of the universe; nor was there
anything in its government crying out for improve-
ment. Their faith, on the one hand, and their ex-
emplary fortitude in life, on the other — in short, their
native optimism — sealed for them all the sources of
philosophy. Thus there was never an original Jew-
ish philosophy, but only, as with Philo, a Helleno-
Jewish, or, as in the Middle Ages, an Arabic-Jewish,
philosophical system.

In the Arabic-Jewish philosophy four distinct
types or tendencies may be discerned, all, however,
dependent upon Greek models.

(1) The first of these is the rabbinical KaMm (the-
ology or science of the word), appearing first with
Saadia, attaining its highest point with Maimonides
in literary development, and with Hasdai Crescas in
speculative attainment, and sinking with Joseph
Albo to the level of mere pulpit-rhetoric. The scien-
tific models for this school were, among Arabian
philosophers, the Motazilites (who denied all limiting
attributes of the Deity, and were champions, there-
fore, of His unity and justice); and, among Greeks,
Porphyry and the so-called Aristotelian theology, that
is, Plotinus’ “Enneads.” But as soon as Aristotle’s
actual writings became known, first through the me-
dium of Arabic versions, and later through Hebrew
translations, this Neoplatonic dilution of true Aris-
totelianism began gradually to give way, and ap-
proach was made to a purer form of it. As Boethius
among Christian scholastic philosophers was alluded
to as “the author,” so Aristotle came to be termed

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arabic-Jewish Philosophy

the philosopher par excellence among
Arabic and Jewish thinkers. This tendency to-
ward Aristotle was no less marked in the Byzan-
tine and Latin-Christian scholasticism than in the
Arabian and Jewish systems, the last of which con-
formed to the Arabic. Among the Arabs there was a
continual and gradual ascent through
Tendencies Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, and Ibn
of the Roslid toward an ever purer and ex-
Phi- acter presentation of the genuine Ar-
losophy. istotle; in the last the ascent was
through Saadia, Bahyaben Joseph Ibn
Pakuda, Judah ha-Levi, Abraham ibn Daud, Mai-
monides, Gersonides, and Crescas. Throughout this
school Aristotle remained the model and arbiter.

(2) The second school was that of the Karaite dis-
ciples of the Kalam. An analogous development
is discernible with them. While David ben Merwan
al-Mokammez (about 900), and especially Joseph al-
Basri, found their system exclusively upon the Mo-
tazilite Kalam, the latest straggler of them all, the
philosophizing Karaite, Aaron ben Elijah of Nico-
media (fourteenth century), reverts, in his “ ‘Ez Hay-
yim,” to Aristotle.

(3) A place by himself must be assigned to Avice-
bron (Avicebrol), long venerated as an authority by
Christian scholasticism, but proved by Munk to be
identical with the Jewish poet- philosopher Solomon
ibn Gabirol (died about 1070). Gabirol was influenced
by Plato exactly as Maimonides was by Aristotle. In
Gabirol’s work Plato is the only philosopher re-
ferred to by name; while in Maimonides’ “Moreh
Nebukim,” Plato is quoted only four times in the
whole course of the book — once from the “ Timseus ”
(II. ch. xiii. ; Munk, II. ch. cix.), probably the only
Platonic work with which Maimonides was ac-
quainted. Aristotle, on the contrary, whom Maimon-
ides knows so thoroughly, is named at the outset
(I. ch. v.) as D'SlDl^’Sn E’NT (“The Chief of Philos-
ophers”), and in II. ch. xvii. (Munk, II. ch. xxii.
179) occurs the unqualified declaration that “ every-
thing that Aristotle teaches of sublunary matters is
the unconditioned truth” (see also book II. ch. xix.
and xxiv.).

Ibn Gabirol’s relation to Plato is similar to that
of Philo, and that without his suspecting even the
existence of the Alexandrian thinker. Characteris-
tic of the philosophy of both is the conception of a
Middle Being between God and the world, between
species and individual. Aristotle had already for-
mulated the objection to the Platonic theory of Ideas,
that it lacked an intermediary or third
Gabirol’s being (rpirot; avOpunoc) between God
Conception and the universe, between form and
of Inter- matter. This “ third man,” this link
mediary between incorporeal substances (ideas)
Beings, and idealess bodies (matter, the pv or),
is, with Philo, the “ Logos ” ; with Gabi-
rol it is the divine will. Philo gives the problem
an intellectual aspect ; while Gabirol conceives it as
a matter of volition, approximating thus to such mod-
em thinkers as Schopenhauer and Wundt. For the
rest, Gabirol suffered precisely the same fate as his
predecessor, Philo; his philosophy made not the
slightest impression on Judaism. Among Jews he is
esteemed as a poet; while Christian scholasticism, in

the persons of its two chief representatives, Alber-
tus Magnus and his pupil, Thomas Aquinas, defers
to him quite as frequently and gratefully as in their
time the Gnostics and the Church Fathers — particu-
larly Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Ambrose
— did to the Logos doctrine of Philo.

(4) Cabala, or the Jewish mysticism. This “ secret
lore ” has always claimed descent from ages of hoary
antiquity. There is some slight warrant for this
assertion, since faint traces of cabalistic modes of
thought have been detected by Fran-
Jewish. kel and by Munk among the Essenes.
Mysticism Nor may it be denied that the work
and the that is at the foundation of the Zohar,
Cabala. namely “Sefer Yezirah,” the so-called
“ Book of Creation ” (see article), con-
tains material reaching back to an older tradition.

In sequence of thought, the Cabala is as completely
dominated by Pythagoras — or rather by the Neopy-
thagorean school — as Jewish Hellenism was by Plato,
or the Arabic-Jewish Philosophy by the sage of
Stagira. It matters really little whether the rise of
the Jewish Cabala and of Christian mysticism, the
MvartKT/ OeoTuoyia of Dionysius the Areopagite, be dated
a few centuries back or forward ; its vital elements are
always the Pythagorean number-symbolism on the
one hand, and the Neoplatonic emanation-theory on
the other. Its distinguishing feature is the combina-
tion of both elements. The Cabala also looks for
“middle beings,” exactly as Philo and Gabirol do,
upon whom it may be dependent. But while Philo
found these intermediaries in the di-
The Cabala vine Logos, and Gabirol in the divine
and Num- will, the Cabala sought them in fan-
ber-Sym- tastic arithmetic. TheUnlimited (“ En
bolism. Sof”), or God, is the originally un-
differentiated unity of the cosmos, en-
tirely identical with the Indian Nirvana and the
Udvra 6/iov of the Greeks. Differentiation began with
the archetypal Man (Adam Kadmon) compounded
of ten light-circles, spheres, or intelligences (Sefirot:
to wit, Keter, Hokhmali, Binali, Hesed, Din, Tiferet,
Nezah, Hod, Yesod, Malkut). God dissolves Him-
self into attributes. This feature is peculiar to the
whole of the Middle Ages. Natural forces are
transformed into attributes of God ; and attributive-
thought takes the place of substantive. While in
antiquity every natural force was a divinity, and
while Monotheism condensed all these divinities into-
one personality, recourse was now had to the expe-
dient of degrading the forces of nature into at-
tributes of God. Trinity, Tritheism, Logos-doctrine,
and Sefirot are the stammering utterances of ancient
and medieval thought, endeavoring to explain the
relation of multiplicity to unity, of natural forces
to nature itself, of the attributes of God to God
Himself.

The cabalists, however, occupied a proportionately
small space in the history of Arabic-Jewish Philos-
ophy. They were far more numerous in southern
France or Languedoc than in Moorish Spain. There
are no independent cabalistic works written in
Arabic, though the philosophical works of the Ara-
bic-Jewish philosophers were written in Arabic, the
vernacular of every-day life in Moorish Spain. There
seems to have been a certain system in the employ-

Arabic-Jewish Philosophy
Arabic Language Among Jews

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

meat of Hebrew and Arabic. For halakic decisions
(Saadia Gaon and Maimonides), for religious poetry
(Ha-Levi and Gabirol), and especially
Arabic for Biblical exegesis (Ibn Daud, Ger-
Suited to sonides, Ibn Ezra, and Abravanel) the
Philosoph- Hebrew language was used ; while for
ical Termi- philosophic writings the Arabic idiom
nology. was currently employed. The vulgar
tongue seemed most appropriate for
things profane; possessing as it did the advantage
of a finely developed philosophical vocabulary,
which the Hebrew acquired only after the school
of the Tibbonides had accomplished their labors of
translation.

A fundamental difference between the cabalists
and the exponents of pure philosophy in the con-
ception of the philosophical problem may be found
in the position assigned by either to human Reason.
The former rejected the authority of the conclusions
of Reason, and relied upon tradition, inspiration, and
intuition. Those thinkers, on the other hand, who
based upon Reason considered inspiration and “in-
tellectual intuition” as pertaining to prophets only;
for themselves and ordinary human beings Reason
was the prior requisite for all perception and knowl-
edge.

Saadia (892-942) in his “Emunot we-De‘ot ” (The
Principles of Faith and Knowledge) posits the ra-
tionality of the Jewish faith with the
Reason restriction that Reason must capitu-
and late wherever it contradicts tradition.
Tradition. Dogma must take precedence of Rea-
son. Thus, for example, in the question
concerning the eternity of the world. Reason teaches
since Aristotle, that the world is without beginning ;
that it was not created ; Dogma asserts a creation out
of nothing. Again, Reason insists — also since the
time of Aristotle — upon only a general immortality;
Dogma, on the contrary, maintains the immortality
of the individual. Reason, therefore, must give
way.

While Bahya ben Joseph (eleventh century) in
his“Hobot lia-Lebabot” (Duties of the Heart) — a
book still popular among Eastern Jews — maintained
an almost hostile attitude toward rationalistic
thought aud was satisfied with mere pulpit-morali-
zing, the poet-philosopher Judah ha-Levi (twelfth
century) in his religio-pliilosophical work “ Cuzari ”
took the field with strenuous arguments against all
philosophizing. He became thus the Jewish Alga-
zali, whose “Destructio Pliilosophorum ” was the
model for the “ Cuzari. ” Against Mohammedanism
and Christianity his antagonism is somewhat milder
than against Peripatetic philosophy; he inclines
rather toward Sufi’s skeptical mysticism. Human
reason does not count for much with him; inward il-
lumination, emotional vision, is every -
The thing. The “ Cuzari ” is interesting as
“Cuzari.” a literary type. It describes represent-
atives of the different religions and
of philosophy disputing before the king of the Ivhaz-
ars concerning the respective merits of the systems
they stand for, the palm of course being ultimately
awarded to Judaism. Herein is the germ of those
comparative studies of religion which the French-
man, Jean Bodin (1530-96), developed in his“Hep-

taplomeres” (partially translated into German by
Guhrauer, 1841), and which has been still further
continued in our age as the science of comparative
religion.

But not even a Judah ha-Levi could bar the prog-
ress of Aristotelianism among the Arabic-writing
Jews. As among the Arabs, Ibn Sina and Ibn
Roshd leaned more and more on Aristotle, so among
the Jews did Abraham ibn Daud aud Moses Maimon-
ides, whose “ Moreli Nebukim ” has remained the
text-book for Arabian- Jewish Aristotelianism. The
commentaries on the “Guide for the Perplexed”
are always in Hebrew (by Falaquera, Ibn Caspi,
Moses Narboni, and Isaac Abravanel), and are beyond
the scope of an article dealing with Arabian-Jewish
philosophers; these thinkers do not belong to Moor-
ish Spain, but to Provence or Portugal. For similar
reasons, the Aristotelian, Levi b. Gerslion (RaLBaG)
(1288-1345) who wrote “ Millmmot Adonai ” (Wars
of the Lord), can not be discussed
Gersonides here: he was a denizen of Baguols, in
and southern France, aud wrote in Hebrew.

Hasdai Among scholastics, Levi b. Gershou

Crescas. (Gersonides) was by far the most ad-
vanced ; for he. and he only, had the
courage to place reason above tradition, or, to ex-
press it differently, to oppose the theory of creation
out of nothing. Similarly, Hasdai Crescas (1340-
1410), another writer in Hebrew, combated another
dogma of J udaism, the freedom of the will, so ener-
getically that he may be considered a rara avis
among Jews; and so valiantly did he break a lance
for fatalism that he enjoyed the honor of being ap-
preciatively quoted by Spinoza. His “ Or Adonai ”
(Light of the Lord) is one of the most original and
independent works of scholasticism in general and
not of Jewish scholasticism alone. Apart from its
hardihood in openly and unreservedly attacking
Maimonides’ claims of infallibility for Aristotle in
all matters pertaining to the sublunary world, it has
the merit of projecting the problem of causes into
the very foreground of philosophical thought. The
mental heights of Crescas were by no means main-
tained by his pupil Joseph Albo, the last Jewish
scholastic iu the Spanish peninsula. In his “ ‘Ikka-
rim” (Fundamental Doctrines) he sinks to the level
of an ordinary philosophizing rhetorician and mor-
alist. It is difficult perhaps to penetrate the depth of
thought and deft language of Crescas ; but it is j ust as
difficult to work one’s way through the pitiful shal-
lows of Albo’s unctuous commonplaces. These last-
named philosophers wrote in Hebrew, and therefore
can hardly be reckoned among Arabic-Jewish phi-
losophers. The chief representative of Arabic-Jew-
ish scholasticism, Maimonides, must now receive
attention.

Maimonides holds tenaciously, as against Aristotle,
to the doctrine of creation out of nothing. God is
not only the prime mover, the original form, as
with Aristotle, but is as well the creator of matter.
Herein Maimonides approaches more closely the
Platonic “ Timseus ” than the Stagirite. Of God, the
All-One, no positive attributes can be predicated.
The number of His attributes would seem to preju-
dice the unity of God. In order to preserve this
doctrine undiminished, all anthropomorphic attri-

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arabic-Jewish Philosophy
Arabic Language Among Jews

butes, such as existence, life, power, will, knowledge,
— the usual positive attributes of God in the Kalam
— must be avoided in speaking of
Maimoni- Him. Between the attributes of God

des the and those of man there is no other simi-

Chief larity than one of words (homonymy),
Scholastic, no similarity of essence (“Moreh,” i.

35, 56). The negative attributes imply
that nothing can be known concerning the true be-
ing of God, which is what Maimonides really means.
Just as Kant declares the Thing-in-itself to be un-
knowable, so Maimonides declares that of God it can
only be said that He is, not what He is.

Finally, it may be stated that in the question of
universals — the chief problem of scholasticism —
Maimonides takes strict Aristotelian ground
(“Moreh,” i. 51, iii. 18; treatise on “Logic,” ch.
10), in so far as he denies reality to the human
species, but admits its true essence to exist only in
the individual (according to the formula “ Univer-
salia in re ”). In his “ Ethics ” (as systematized by D.
Rosin, 1876) he follows the Stagirite in consistently
insisting upon the “fitting mean” (peooTris) as well
as in the elevation of the intellectual virtues over
the ethical. Thus, the Arabic-Jewish philosophy
presents the same endeavor as the contemporary
Arabian, Byzantine, and Latin-Christian scholasti-
cism, namely, to bring about from the standpoint
of the knowledge of the day a reconciliation be-
tween religion and science.

However insignificant, compared with the fund of
our present knowledge, this Arabic-Jewish philoso-
phy may appear in its attitude toward the various
problems and their solutions, two things must not
be overlooked. In the first place, modern pride of
culture should not prevent the confession that not
a single step taken since the days of Maimonides
has brought the solution of such problems any
nearer. And, in the second place, it must not be for-
gotten that the scholastics preserved the continuity
of philosophical thought. Without the activity of
these Arabic-Jewish philosophers, especially of those
Jewish translators of whose work Steinsclineider
has treated so exhaustively, the mental culture of
the Western world could scarcely have taken the
direction it has, and certainly not at
Position in the rapid rate which was made pos-
the History sible through the agency of the Hu-
of Thought, manists and of the Renaissance. The
Arabic-Jewish philosophers were the
Humanists, the agents of culture, of the Middle Ages.
They established and maintained the bond of union
between the Arabic philosophers, physicians, and
poets on the one hand, and the Latin-Christian
world on the other. Gabirol, Maimonides, and Cres-
cas are of eminent importance in the continuity of
philosophy, for they not only illumined those giants
of Christian scholasticism. Albertus Magnus and
Thomas Aquinas, but their light has penetrated
deeply into the philosophy of modern times. Leibnitz
speaks with no little respect of Maimonides, as does
Spinoza of Crescas. Moses Mendelssohn and Solo-
mon Maimon, the two Jewish friends of Immanuel
Kant, took their point of departure from the Arabic-
Jewish philosophy, as Baruch Spinoza had done. Suf-
ficiently indicative of the bond of intellectual con-
II —4

tiuuity is the fact that the same Solomon Maimon,
who assumed the name Maimon simply out of rever-
ence for Maimonides, was gratefully described by
Kant in a letter to Marcus Herz as the critic who
understood him best, and who had penetrated most
deeply into his “Critique of Pure Reason.”

Jew's play merely a secondary role in the history
of philosophy: they are transmitters of thought,
apostles of culture, typical representatives of the
intellectual continuity of the human race. The first
Jew who was a real philosopher of prime mag-
nitude, Spinoza, evolved his system not as a Jew;
no more than Descartes framed his as a Frenchman
and Catholic, or Leibnitz his as a Protestant and
German. Philosophy has divested itself, more and
more decisively, of all narrowing restraints of secta-
rianism and nationalism, and, like science itself, has
become more and. more cosmopolitan. The Arabic-
Jew'isli philosophy was the last that could be desig-
nated Jew'ish. To-day there are still Jews who
philosophize; but there are no Jewish philosophers.

Bibliography: There is a mine of information in the annota-
tions to Solomon Munk’s Guide des Entires; as also in Stein-
schneider’s monumental Hehr. Uebers. Berlin, 189:?. General
treatises upon Arabic-Jewish philosophy exist only in the form
of sketches, such as that of Munk, already mentioned, and in
the manuals of the history of medieval philosophy by Ritter
and StOckl ; Lasswitz, Gesch. der Atomtslik ; Prantl, Gesch.
d. Logik ; also in the Encyclopedias of Erseh-G ruber. Her-
zog, and Encyc. Britannica. Useful for the literary history is
the Ueberweg-Heinze Grundriss der Gesch. d. Philosophic,
8th ed., 1898, ii. 217-253. The sketch of I. S. Spiegler, Gesch. d.
Philosophic d. Judenthums, 1881. is of little practical value.
Much that is valuable may be found in the larger historiesof
Jost, (iraetz, and David Cassel. The essay on Jewish-religious
philosophy by Philip Bloch in Winter-Wimsche. Jtld. Lit. 1894,
ii. 699-793, is thoroughly reliable, as is also G. Karpeles. Gesch.
d. Jild. Lit. 1886, pp. 419 ct seq. Of monographs may he men-
tioned : on the Cabala, Ad. Franck, Systems de In Kahbale,
184J1, 2ded., 1889 (German by A. Jellinek, 18441: D. H. Joel. Die
Reliqifmsphil osoph ic des Sohar, 1849. Among works deal-
ing with special problems and individual exponents of Arabic-
Jewish philosophy, the most important are M. Joel, Beitriige
zur Gesch. <1. Philosophic, 1876, and David Kaufmann, Gcsrh.
<1. Attributenlehre in d. Jtld. Religionsph ilosophie . 1877.
See also the studies by Moritz Eisler and A. Schmledl. Optimism
and pessimism in Jewish religious philosophy have been treated
by H. Goitein, 1890; the doctrine of the Freedom of the Will,
by L. Knoller, Das Problem der Willensfreiheit, 1884. and
by L. Stein. Die Freiheit des Widens, 1882. J. Gultmann
has furnished excellent monographs upon Saadia, Ibn Gabirol,
and Ibn Daud. A conclusive monograph upon Maimonides’
philosophy has not yet been written ; but his “ Ethics ” has
been luminously treated by Jaraczewsky, Zeitselirift filr
Philosophic, 1865, and by D. Rosin, 1876.

K. L. S.

ARABIC LANGUAGE AMONG JEWS,

USE OF : The precise period of the first settlement
of Jews in Arabia is unknown, and it is therefore
impossible to say when the Arabic language was
first employed by them. Historical data concern-
ing the Jews of Arabia do not reach further back
than the first century of the common era; but,
judging by the important positions which they oc-
cupied then in parts of Arabia (compare Yakut,
“Geog. Worterbucli,” ed. Wustenfeld. iv. 461 et seq.)
and by the purely Arabic names which they bore,
Jews must have already been settled in the country
for several centuries.

Among the ante-Islamic poets there were a number
of Jews; and a certain Sarah, a Jewess, wrote some
Arabic verses, in which she poured forth her grief
at the massacre of her tribe of Iyoraiza (Noldeke,
“Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Poesie der Alten Ara-
ber,” p. 54). A Jew, named Al-Samau‘al, made him-
self as famous by his loyalty as by his poetry, and

Arabic Language Among Jews
Arabic Literature of the Jews

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

the Arabs to-day still use the phrase, “as loyal as
Al-Samaual,” to express unswerving fidelity (Frey-
tag, “Proverbia Arabum,” ii. 828). The son of Al-
Samau'al, Shoreikh, also occupied an honorable place
among ante-Islamic poets.

In adopting the Arabic language, the Jews in-
troduced into it a number of Hebrew words and
expressions which, in certain portions of Arabia,
where Jews were numerous and influential — as in
the Yemen district, for example — have entered into
the native vocabulary. It is owing to this that the
Himyaritic inscriptions abound in Hebraisms and
words which are altogether unintelligible to Arabs
of other localities.

With the conquests that began immediately after
the death of Mohammed, t lie Arabic language
crossed the frontiers of Arabia and spread rapidly
among the Jews of other countries. In Egypt,
Syria, Palestine, and Persia, which were conquered
by the second calif, Omar, the Jews soon learned to
use the language of the conquerors

Adopted and adopted it as their mother-tongue,
by Eastern As early as the beginning of the eighth
Jews. century, scarcely fifty years after the
conquest, a Babylonian Jew, Jawaih
de Bassora, translated a medical work from Syriac
into Arabic; it is thus evident that at that period
the Babylonian Jews were already familiar with the
Arabic language. As Babylonia then exercised a
religious hegemony over the whole Jewish world,
it became necessary for the Jews of other countries
— at least for Jewish scholars — to understand the
official language of Babylonia. Consequently, when
Africa and Spain were conquered under Walid I.,
the Jews found no difficulty whatever in sustaining
intercourse with the Arabs.

The adoption of the Arabic language by the Jews
residing in Moslem countries had a salutary ef-
fect also upon the Hebrew tongue. The Arabs at-
tached great importance to the correct use of their
language; and thus the Jews, who always cherished
a deep love for the Hebrew tongue, were led to turn
their attention to the deplorable state into which
their own language had fallen. They set about
polishing it, as it were, and created a grammar for
it, modeled after that of the Arabic. Hebrew poetry,
which in the seventh century resembled nothing so
much as a lyre with broken strings — it was without
rime or meter — began, under the influence of the
study of Arabic poetry, to assume elegant rhythmic
forms, and soon surpassed the latter in sonorousness
and polish.

But upon the written or literary Arabic language
the Jews likewise exerted a special influence which
was not so wholesome. Jewish writers, treating of
subjects pertaining to religion and Judaism, were
forced in some degree to conform to the culture of
the people for whom they wrote, the great mass of
whom, though speaking Arabic as
Char- their mother tongue, were not able to
acteristics read it, and were unfamiliar with its
of Jewish.- niceties of style and complicated

Arabic. grammar. Jewish authors were there-
fore compelled to transliterate the
Arabic into Hebrew characters and to simplify the
grammar. The system of transliteration was as

follows; for each Arabic letter the corresponding
Hebrew was given. The letters £ & a o,
which have no equivalents in Hebrew, were repre-
sented by 3 13 VI 3 n , with dots above or below
the letters. The vowel-points were rendered either
by the same signs as used in the Arabic or by the
vowel-letters 'IN. In regard to grammar, the Jews
avoided whatever could embarrass a reader who
was not well versed in Arabic literature. Thus, for
example, the broken-plural forms, so numerous in
literary Arabic, were reduced to a minimum, only
such being retained as were familiar to all. The
purely orthographic signs, like the alif in the third
person of the plural, were generally omitted. Con-
trary to grammatical usage, the second or third rad-
ical letter of a weak verb was generally retained in
the conditional and imperative moods, to indicate to
the reader the three radical letters of which the verb
was composed. The rules of syntax were very much
relaxed ; and the style of what may be conveniently
termed “ Judseo- Arabic ” often presents the same
characteristics of disorder and confusion that are
met with in the Hebrew vernacular literature of the
Middle Ages.

With the overthrow of the dynasty of the Almo-
hades at the close of the thirteenth century, the
Arabic language ceased to be spoken by the western
Jews; but for many centuries it continued to be
cultivated by Jewish scholars of all countries for the
sake of the many beautiful literary relics which
Jewish authors have left in that language. It is
still spoken by the Jews of Algeria, Morocco, Tunis,
Egypt, Tripoli, Yemen, and Syria.

Bibliography : Steinschneider, in Jew. Quart. Rev. xiii.

303-311.

G. I. Br.

ARABIC LITERATURE OF THE JEWS :

From the time that the Arabs commenced to develop
a culture of their own, Jews lived among them and
spoke their language. Gradually they also em-
ployed the latter in the pursuit of their studies, so
that Jewish literature in Arabic extends over all the
branches in which Jews took an interest. Indeed,
the material is so vast that it is impossible to give a
comprehensive survey of it in small compass; and
it is owing to this circumstance that there is no work
on the subject, although one by Steinschneider has
been in preparation for many years (see “Z.D.M.G.”
liii. 418).

1 . Early Literature : The earliest literary pro-
ductions are not of a specifically Jewish character,
but are similar to those of the Arabs. They consist
of poems composed in celebration of public or pri-
vate events, and date from the second half of the
fifth century of the present era. The first was com-
posed by a poetess of Medina named Sarah, who
bewailed the slaughter of a number of her people
by an Arab chief. The same event is alluded to in
some other verses by an unknown
First Poem poet. About the middle of the sixth

Is by a century there flourished in North

Woman. Arabia Al-Samau'al (Samuel) b. Adi-
ya, whose name is often mentioned
and whose verses are to be found in the most no-
table compilations of ancient Arabic poetry. At the

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arabic Lang-uagre Among Jews
Arabic Literature of the Jews

time of Mohammed there lived in Medina the poets
Al-Rabi ibn Abi al-Hukaik, Ka'ab ibn Asad,
Asma (a woman), Ka'ab ibn al-Ashraf (assassinated
by order of Mohammed), Al-Sammak, Atts of Ku-
raiza, Abu al-Diyal, Shuraili, Jabal ibn Jauwal, and
finally Marhab of Khaibar. Toward the end of Mo-
hammed's career the convert Al-Husain, who as-
sumed the name Abd Allah ibn Salam, wrote homi-
lies and sacred legends drawn from Jewish sources,
thus furnishing the first elements of the“Haditli”
(Moslem tradition). He was followed by Yamin ibn
Yamin (Benjamin), Ka'ab ibn Ahbar, and Wahb ibn
Munabbikli (the last two hailing from Yemen), all
of them converts to Islam. Of other literary pro-
ductions by Arab Jews in this early epoch there is
no record, except of the so-called “ Kitab al-Ash-
ma'at,” mentioned by an anonymous author of the
ninth century. This work, which Sprengcr (“ Leben
und Lehre Mohammed,” i. 49) believes to have been
an ancient book of revelation, was not an Arabic
work, but was probably only a compendium of rab-
binical discussions, which its author naturally styled
“ Shema'ata. ” Abd Allah ibn Saba, who is supposed
to have been a Jew, was the first to ascribe divine
honors to the calif Ali. He founded the Shiite sect
of the Sabaiyya. This ends the first period, a spe-
cial feature of which is that all its literary produc-
tions have been transmitted through Mohammedan
channels (see Delitzsch, “Jtid. Arabische Poesien
aus Mohamm. Zeit,” 1874; Noldeke, “Beitriige zur
Kenntniss der Poesie der Alten Araber,” pp. 52-86;
Hirschfeld, “Essai sur l’Histoire des Juifs de Me-
dine,” in “Revue Etudes Juives,” vii. 167-193, x.
10-31).

2. Karaites: It was in the second period that
Arabic began to be used as a scientific language.
The first to employ it for theological works were
the Karaites. The founder and oldest teacher of
this sect, indeed, still employed the rabbinic dialect ;
but later on, when the gulf between the Karaites
and the Rabbinites widened, the former employed
Arabic, not merely on account of the spread of that
language, but apparently out of spite to the Rab-
binites, whom they wished to prevent from reading
their books. It was evidently for the same reason
that the Karaites afterward employed Arabic char-
acters for Hebrew quotations and translations.

There is not much variety in the Arabic writings
of the Karaites, as they nearly all have the same
tendency, and were composed in defense of narrow
religious views. The branches chiefly dealt with
are Biblical Exegesis, Halakah and Theology, Po-
lemics against Rabbinites, and Linguistics. There
is, however, still so much uncertainty as to many
details, that final results can not in many cases be
obtained till further researches shall have been made
among the manuscripts in the various public libraries.

With the beginning of the tenth century Karaite
literature enters its fullest period. The struggle
was reciprocal, and is no doubt largely
Apogee of responsible for the growth of Arabic

Karaite works among Rabbinite Jews. There
Literature, was hardly one prominent Karaite
writer of this period who did not
attack Saadia. The first claiming mention is Su-
laiman ibn Ruhairn (Salomon b. Jeroham), who

wrote commentaries on the Psalms, Lamentations,
and Ecclesiastes (MSS. British Museum, 2515-17,
2520; Hirschfeld, “Arab. Chrestom.” pp. 103-109).
Next to him must be mentioned Yusuf Kirkisani,
whose “Kitab al-Anwar we al-Manakib” (D'TiNn D)
forms an introduction to his commentary on the
Pentateuch (Baclier, “Jew. Quart. Rev.” vii. 687-
710; Harkavy, “Mem. Russ. Arch. Soc. Sect.
Orient.” viii. 247-381; Poznanski, in Steinschneider,
“Festschrift,” pp. 195-218; idem, “Semitic Studies
in Memory of A. Kohut,” pp. 435-456; Hirschfeld,
ib. pp. 116-121). The most fertile of all, however,
is Jefeth ibn ’Ali ha-Levi (Hasan al-Basri) (Commen-
tary on Daniel, ed. D. S. Margolioutli, Oxford, 1891).
Besides his “Sefer ha-Mizwot,” he wrote commen-
taries on all the Biblical books, and paid more atten-
tion to linguistic questions than his contemporaries.
His son Levi (Aim Sa'id) commented on the Pen-
tateuch and on Joshua, and composed a compendium
of the “ Agron ” (dictionary) by David ben Abraham
of Fez. David b. Boaz (993) wrote commentaries
on the Pentateuch and on Ecclesiastes, and also a
“ Kitab al-Usul.”

The beginning of the eleventh century is marked
by Yusuf al-Basir (Ha-Ro’eh), who wrote several
works on theology and halakah: for example, “ A1
Mulitawi” (The Comprehensive One), several re-
sponsa, the “Kitab al-Istibsar,” on the law of in-
heritance, of which some fragments are still extant,
and the “Kitab al-Isti'aua,” of philosophic character
(see P. F. Frankl, “EinMu'tazilit. Kalam,” in“Sit-
zungsber. der Wiener Acad.” 1872, pp. 169 et mq.).
About 1026 Abu al-Faraj Harun ibn al-Faraj com-
pleted his grammatical work “ Al-Muslitamil ” (Poz-
nanski, "Rev. Et. Juives,” xxxiii. 24-39). He was
also the author of a commentary on the Pentateuch.
Ali b. Sulaiman, of the twelfth century, left, be-
sides an exegetieal work on the Pentateuch, an igron
based on that of the above-named David ben Abra-
ham. Karaite literature, after its de-

Karaite cay in Asia, found a new home, in the
Literature thirteenth century, in Egypt; but its
in productions were inferior to those of

Egypt- the preceding epoch. Israel b. Sam-
uel ha-Dayyan of Maghreb composed
a treatise on “Six Articles of Creed,” another on the
ritual slaughter of animals, and, finally, a “Sefer
ha-Mizwot.” A work similar to the last-named was
written by his pupil, the physician Jefeth ibn Saghir
(Al-Hakim al-Safi); and another is known as the
“Siddur of Al-Fadhil ” (Isaiah Cohen ben Uzziyahu)
(Steinschneider, “Cat. Berlin,” ii. 48; other ritual
works, MSS. Brit. Mus. Or., 2531-32, 2536). Ju-
dah ben Mei'r (also called Al-Hakim al-Thafi) wrote a
commentary on Esther. Among commentators on
the Pentateuch mention should be made of Al-
Mu'allim Abu Ali (Sahl ben Mazliah al-Imam),
Abu al Sari, Abu al-Faraj -Furkan, and A1 Mukad-
dasi.

The most important author of the fourteenth cen-
tury is the physician Samuel of Maghreb, whose
chief work was “ Al-Mursliid ” (The Guide). Besides
this, he wrote prolegomena to the Pentateuch. In
1415 Elijah ha-Dayyan wrote a work on the calen-
dar rules, of which a Hebrew translation exists in
St. Petersburg. An important “Chronicle of Kara-

Arabic Literature of the Jews

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

ite Doctors ” was compiled at the beginning of the
fifteenth century by Ibn al-Hiti (G. Margoliouth,
“Jew. Quart. Rev.,” ix. 429-443). As late as the
seventeenth century David b. Moses Feiriiz com-
posed a treatise in imitation of Baliyah ibn Paku-
dah’s “Guide to the Duties of the Heart.” Even at
the present day, Arabic is used, although not largely,
by Karaites in Egypt: in that language they read
the Passover Haggadali (ed. Presburg. 1868).

3. Saadia: The development of Arabic literature
among Rabbinites is indirectly due to the Karaites.
Saadia of Fayum (see Saadia Gaon) was the first
to enter the lists against the latter with various po-
lemical treatises, of which various fragments have
lately come to light. His works not only extend
over every branch of Jewish learning then in exist-
ence, but he even created a new one ; namely, relig-
ious philosophy. It was evidently his intention to
prevent Rabbinite Jews from making use of Karaite
writings of any kind. His translation and commen-
taries on nearly the whole Bible earned for him the
name of “The Commentator”; and his version of
the Pentateuch in particular obtained such popular-
ity that it was looked upon in the light of a Tar-
gum, and is still so considered in Arabic-speaking
countries. It is found in Yemen MSS. side by side
with the Targum Onkelos. Under the title “Ag-
ron,” he also produced a philological work, the only
existing fragment of which has recently been pub-
lished by Harkavy, together with the remains of
his “ Sefer lia-Galuy ” (“ Studieu und Mittheilungen
aus der Kaiserl. Bibl. zu St. Petersburg,” v.). He
also wrote a treatise on “ Ninety [seventy] Unique
or Rare Words in the Bible” (the original is lost,
but the Hebrew version has been edited by A. Jelli-
nek) and a large grammatical work. For liturgical
purposes he provided a prayer-book, which he en-
riched with many compositions of his own, whilst
the directions were written in Arabic. He also
wrote a chronological treatise, and another on the
law of inheritance (H. Derenbourg and Mayer Lam-
bert, ix., “Traitedes Successions, ’’etc., Paris, 1897).
(For Saadia’s philosophical writings see below.) To
the number of pseudonymous writings under his
name, belong a Midrash on the Decalogue (ed. Eisen-
stadter, Vienna, 1868; Joseph Shabbethai Farkhi,
1849) — which is, however, nothing but a paraphrase
made for liturgical purposes — and a description of
man (Steinsclineider, “Cat. Berlin,” i. 48).

4. Bible : Having thus briefly sketched the man-
ner in which Jewish-Arabic literature was brought
into existence among Rabbinites, it will be best
to outline its further development according to
subject-matter. Next to Saadia, Gaou Samuel b.
Hofni of Bagdad (died 1034) wrote commentaries
on various Biblical books, but only part of them
survive (Samuel b. Hofni. “Trium Sectionum Pos-
teriorum Libri Genesis Versio Arabica.” 1886). The
decline of Jewish learning in Irak was followed by
its rise in Spain; and Arabic appears as the favor-
ite language for Jewish writings. Hafz al-Kuti,
the Goth (1000-1050), composed a metrical para-
phrase of the Psalms (A. Neubauer, “Revue Etudes
Juives,” xxx. 65-69). Moses lia-Kohen Gikatilla of
Cordova (1050-1080). stimulated by Abu al-Walid's
grammatical and lexical writings, composed com

mentaries on the Pentateuch, the Prophets, Psalms,
Job, Canticles, and Daniel; but only fragments
of them have been preserved, in the form of
quotations in the works of later authors (S. Poz-
nanski, “Ibn Jiqatilla Nebst. den Fragmenteu Sei-
ner Schriften,” Leipsic, 1895). To the same period
probably belong two anonymous translations of
Ruth. Isaac ben Judah ben Ghayat (1039) left a
version of Ecclesiastes (ed. J. Loewy, Leyden, 1884).
A younger contemporary but very bitter opponent
of Moses Gikatilla was Judah b. Balaam of Toledo
(1070-1090). His commentaries on the Bible have
likewise been but incompletely handed down (see
Neubauer, “ The Fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah,” pp.
384-385; Baclier, Stade’s “ Zeitsclirift, xiii. 129-
155). Fragments of an anonymous commentary on
the Psalms, dating from the twelfth century, are
preserved in the library of St. Petersburg. In 1142
the physician Hibat Allah (Nathanael) commented
on Ecclesiastes. He subsequently embraced Islam.
At the beginning of the thirteenth century Joseph
b. Aknin, Maimonides’ renowned pupil, is supposed
to have written a commentary on Canticles and a
treatise on Biblical measures (Munk, “Notice sur
Joseph b. Jelioudah.” in “Journal Asiatique,” 1842,
xiv. ; Steinsclineider and Neubauer, in “Magazin,”
1888). A commentary of his on the Pentateuch is
mentioned by Al-Muwakkit (MS. Brit. Mus. Add.

27294, p. 166). Somewhat later Tan-
Com- hum of Jerusalem composed commen-
mentaries. taries on the Pentateuch and on many
other parts of the Bible (“Commen-
tary on Joshua,” ed. Th. Haarbriicker, Berlin, 1862;
“Comm, on Judges,” ed. Goldziher). Isaac b. Sam-
uel ha-Sefardi (end of the fourteenth century), who
commented on the Prophets, likewise lived in
Palestine (Steinsclineider, “Hebr. Bibl.,” xix. 135,
xx. 10). A commentary on the second book of Sam-
uel was written by Isaac b. Samuel (Margoliouth,
“Jew. Quart. Rev.,” x. 385-403). Part of this com-
mentary is to be found in the Bodleian Library, Ox-
ford. In the fifteenth century there flourished in
Yemen Abraham b. Solomon, who compiled notes
on the Prophets (Poznanski, l.c. p. 68). A com-
mentary on Esther, regarded as a pseudonymous
work of Maimonides, was edited (Leghorn, 1759)
by Abraham b. Daniel Lumbroso. It probably
dates from the sixteenth century, and is written in
the dialect of Maghreb. The last century has wit-
nessed a new awakening of literary interest among
the Jews of Asia and Africa; and the printing-
presses of Leghorn. Cairo, Algiers, Oran, Jerusalem,
Bombay, Poona, and Calcutta are busy with trans-
lations, chiefly of those books of the Bible that
are used in the liturgy, viz., Pentateuch, Haftarot,
Psalms, the Five Scrolls, and Job (“Hebr. Bibl.”
xiii. 49). A translation of the whole Bible by Eze-
kiel Shem-Tob David was printed in Bombay in
1889. and one of the Apocrypha by Joseph David in
1895.

Following iii the wake of exegesis there sprang
up a literature of Midrashic and homiletic explana-
tion of the Bible. The British Museum possesses
manuscripts (Or. 66-70) of discourses on the Penta-
teuch. which are attributed to David b. Abraham,
Maimonides’ grandson. The bulk of the homiletic

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arabic Literature of the Jews

literature belongs to Yemen. In the middle of the
fourteenth century Nathanael ben Isaiah compiled
a kind of Midrash under the title “ Nur
Mid- al Thulm,” specimens of which are
rashim and still extant (idem, xii. 59; Alexander
Homilies. Kohut, “Light of Shade and Lamp
of Wisdom,” New York, 1894; Hirscli-
feld, “Arab. Chrestom.” pp. 11-14). The phy-
sician Yahya b. Sulaiman (Zakariyya, about 1430)
was the author of the Midrash Hefez, written
in a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic (Steinschneider,
“Cat. Berlin,” i. 64, 71), a commentary on which
exists under the title “Al-Durrah al-Muntakhaba ”
(MS. Brit. Mus. Or. 2746). A few decades later
Sa id b. Da’ud al-Adani wrote homilies on the Pen-
tateuch under the title “Kitab najat al-gharikin”
(ib. 2785). Abu Mansur al-Dhamari was the author
of the “Siraj al-‘Ukul" (see Kohut, “Aboo Manzur
al-Dhamari,” New York, 1892); and, finally, David
al-Lawani composed a Midrashic work, “Al-Wajiz
al-Muglini.” Glosses on the Decalogue were writ-
ten by Moses b. Joseph al-Balidah (MS. Brit. Mus.
Or. 2746). Various anonymous compilations, be-
longing to the same class and written in vulgar
dialect, also exist (Hirschfeld, l.c. pp. 14-19).

5. Linguistics: Jewish philologists modeled
their works on those of the Arabs. It is, therefore,
not surprising that many of them were written in
Arabic. The earliest Jewish grammarian is Judah
b. Koraish, of Tahort, in North Africa (ed. Barges,
Paris, 1859). His “ Risalah ” (Epistle), exhorting the
community of Fez not to neglect the study of the
Targum, embodies the first attempt at a compara-
tive study of Semitic languages. He is, however,
far outranked by Saadia, who was the first to make
philological studies a special science. Saadia’s first
work, styled “ Agron,” of which only
Philology, some fragments have been preserved,
was partly lexicographical, partly
grammatical. More details on the latter subject
were to be found in his chief work, “ Book on the
[Hebrew] Language,” in twelve parts; but unfortu-
nately this is not now in existence. The only two
works of his that have been preserved are his ety-
mological essay on “Ninety [seventy] Unique or
Rare Words in the Bible,” and his commentary on
the “Sefer Yezirah,” which contains grammatical
paragraphs. In the middle of the tenth century
there flourished in Kairwan Dunash ben Tamim.
Soon after Saadia, Abu al-Faraj Harun of Jerusa-
lem, the Karaite, composed a work on grammar and
lexicography under the title “ Al Mushtamil” (Poz-
nanski, “Rev. Et. Juives,” xxx. 24-39, 197-218).

The oldest linguistic studies in Spain were not
written in Arabic, but in Hebrew; and there is
none of real importance till Judah Hayyuj (of Fez),
who, at the beginning of the eleventh century, wit-
nessed the famous struggle between the pupils of
Menahem and Dunash ben Labrat. Hayyuj was
followed by Abu al-Walid Merwan (Jonah) ibn Ja-
nah, whose writings are of a more comprehensive
nature. The latter not only criticized and supple-
mented Hayyuj, but wrote important grammatical
works and a dictionary (“The Book of Hebrew
Roots,” ed. A. Neubauer, Oxford, 1875; Hebrew
version, ed. W. Bacher, Berlin, 1894). Judah b.

Bal’arn wrote on the accents of the first three books
of the Hagiograplia, on homonyms (“Kitab al-Taj-
nis”), and several smaller treatises. Prominent
alike as commentator of the Bible and grammarian
was Moses Gikatilla, who wrote on the “ Masculine
and Feminine ” ; but this work is lost. To the same
century belongs Isaac b. Jasliush, who was the au-
thor of a work on Inflections (“ Kitab al-Tasarif ”).
The twelfth century shows further development.
Abu Ibrahim b. Barun wrote “ Kitab al-Muwazana,”
a treatise on comparative Hebrew and Arabic phi-
losophy (ed. with a Russian introduction and annota-
tions, by P. v. Kokovzow, St. Petersburg, 1893).
Judah ha-Levi’s “Alkliazari” has a grammatical
chapter with interesting features (ed. Hirschfeld, pp.
128-138). After this period Hebrew preponderated
over Arabic for philological pursuits. In the four-
teenth century there is only Tanhum of Jerusalem,
who wrote a dictionary on the Mishnah (“Al Mur-
sliid ”) in connection with Maimonides’ commentary
on the same. In the fifteenth century the African,
Saadia ben Danan, composed a grammatical work
and a Hebrew-Arabic dictionary. Another glossary
on Maimonides’ Mishnah commentary was compiled
by David ben Yesha ha -Lewi of Aden (Steinschnei-
der, “Cat. Berlin,” No. 113). Of anonymous wri-
tings mention may be made of a grammatical com-
pendium attached to a Karaite prayer-book (MS.
Brit. Mus. Or. 25-36), an Arabic- Persian vocabu-
lary (MS. Brit. Mus. Add. 7701), a treatise on diffi-
cult words in Bible and Mishnah (Hirschfeld,
“Arab. Chrestom.,” pp. 31-34), and a chapter on
Biblical Aramaic (ib. pp. 54-60).

6. Talmud and Halakah : It was but natural
that in the Talmud and Halakah Arabic did not be-
come so popular as in other branches of Jewish lit-
erature. The rabbinic dialect for discussions on
Halakah was too firmly established to suffer the in-
trusion of Arabic; and much that has been written
on such subjects in Arabic has either perished, or
has been chiefly studied in Hebrew versions. There
is no sufficient evidence to prove that an Arabic ver-
sion of the Mishnah by Saadia was ever written,
since the short notice given by Pethahiah of Regens-
burg is too scant to admit of any definite conclusions.
Some of his Arabic responsa have been preserved.
The translation made by Saadia’s Spanish contempo-
rary, Joseph ben Abi Thaur, was not made to sup-
ply a want felt by Jews, but at the request of a bib-
liophile ruler. It is therefore not surprising that it
should have been lost, as probably not more than
one copy of it ever existed.

Joseph b. Abraham b. Sheth and Isaac al-Faz
wrote responsa in Arabic. Maimonides, while wri-
ting his commentary on the Mishnah in Arabic, left
the text untranslated ; and it was the Hebrew ver-
sion of this commentary which became popular,
although the original was also fre-
Maimon- quently copied. Many portions of the
ides. same exist in print; and its study is
of the utmost importance in the veri-
fication of the version attached to present-day edi-
tions of the Talmud. Maimonides also wrote a
“Sefer ha-Mizwot” in Arabic, to serve as a kind of
introduction to his Mishnah Torah (introduction and
the first three paragraphs edited, with German trans-

Arabic Literature of the Jews

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

latiou, by M. Peritz, Breslau, 1882; flic whole ed-
ited, with French translation, by M. Bloch, Paris,
1888). Lastly, he used Arabic for numerous re-
sponsa ; and the autographs of a few of these are
fortunately still in existence (Margolioutli, “Re-
sponsa of Maimonides in the Original Arabic,” in
“Jew. Quart. Rev.” xi. 553; Siinousen, “Arabic
Responsa,” ib. xii. 134-137; “Hebr. Bibl.” xix.
113). His son Abraham, though not inheriting his
father’s genius, possessed much Talmudic learning,
and endeavored to supplement the latter’s writings
by a work wherein religious observance was dis-
cussed in a semi-pliilosophical manner (“ Kitab al-
Kifayah ”). In a correspondence with David b.
Hisdai of Bagdad (“Maase Nissim,” edited by B.
Goldberg, Paris, 1867), he defends the theories of his
father. There also exists a collection of Arabic re-
sponsa by him under the title “Megillat Setarim”
(MS. Montefiore [Halberstam] , p. 56). Among the
fragments brought from the Genizah in Egypt, there
are a host of smaller Arabic essays and letters on
matters of Halakah. Ritual commentaries in Arabic
are attached to many prayer-books now in use in
Asiatic and African communities. Samuel b. Jam*
wrote on the slaughter of animals (“Karmel,” iii.
215; Geiger’s “ Jud. Zeit.” 1862). A volume on the
laws to be observed by women was published by
Jacob Aukawa (Algiers, 1855), who translated the
“Sefer Dat Yehudit” (published Leghorn, 1827)
from Spanish into Arabic.

7. Liturgy : The employment of Arabic for li-
turgical purposes commenced with the translation of
such portions of the Bible as held a place in public
worship. It has been stated above that Saadia sup-
plemented his prayer-book with an Arabic text con-
taining ritual regulations — a practise imitated in the
Yemen prayer-books, the oldest of which date from
the fifteenth century (“ Hebr. Bibl.” xxi. 54; “Cat.
Berlin,” i. 69, 117-130; W. II. Greeuburg, “The
Haggadah According to the Rite of Yemen, ” London,
1896). Although in the prayer itself Hebrew was
adhered to, Arabic began to encroach upon the piyyu-
tim in the sixteenth century, and was subsequently
very largely employed. Some of these piyyutim en-
jo)r great popularity, as, for example, the Habdalah
“Song of Elijah” (Hirsclifeld, “Journal Royal Asi-
atic Society,” 1891, pp. 293-310), the

Ritual. tale of Hannah (idem, “Jewish- Arabic
Liturgies,” in “Jew. Quart. Rev.” vi.
119-135, vii. 418-427), other “ kiuot,” the Arabic ver-
sion of Bar Yohai, etc. The prayer-books printed
for use in Oriental and African communities have
many Arabic piyyutim appended ; and a survey
of this neglected field of Jewish literature would
well reward the labor bestowed on it. because it
offers interesting linguistic problems besides. A
special feature of these prayer-books is the (vulgar)
Arabic version of the Aramaic Targums of some
portions of the Pentateuch, such as the blessing of
Jacob, the Song of Moses, and the Decalogue; also
prominent Haftarot, as that of the last day of Pass-
over and the Ninth Day of Ah; finally, of the Five
Scrolls, and the Megillat Antiochus (idem, “Arab.
Chrestom.” pp. 1-6). Favorite subjects for trans-
lation are Ibn Gabirol’s “ Azliarot,” Judah ha-Levi’s
famous piyyut, -pco ’D (Alexandria, 1879), for the j

Sabbath before Purim, and a’legendary paraphrase
of Abot, v, 9 (rims? YK>, Leghorn, 1846). Besides
the last-named, the whole of the Pirke Abot (33n
nmy. ed. Joseph Shabbethai Farhi, Leghorn. 1849)
has in many prayer-books its Arabic version side by
side with the original. The Passover Haggadah has
often been edited with Arabic translation and com-
mentaries. Karaite prayer-books show similar fea-
tures. Arabic directions are already to be found in
Fadhil’s (Isaiah Cohen b. Uzziyahu) “Siddur” (see
above, par. 2), not to speak of later compilations.
Isaac b. Solomon gave an Arabic version of “Ten
Articles of Creed ” imp' nP2. Eupatoria, 1840).

8. Philosophy and Theology: The employ-
ment of Arabic for philosophical discussion grew
out of conditions that differed from those which
affected most of the preceding branches. Jews
would probably never have written on philoso-
phy, had they not been impelled to do so by the
Arabs, whose works formed their sole sources of
information on this subject. These latter provided
them with a terminology, for which the Hebrew
language offered no facilities; and their influence is
so apparent that the Hebrew translations from Ara-
bic, as well as works written originally in Hebrew,
bear a thoroughly Arabic stamp. All Jewish philo-
sophical works that were epoch-making are written
in Arabic, and most of them are evidently meant for
Arab readers also.

Although not exactly the oldest philosophical au-
thor, Saadia was the first to form his ideas on Jewish
theology into a system. He was therefore the father
of Jewish philosophy. His method is that of the
class of Mohammedan philosophers known as Mota-
zilites. Somewhat earlier than Saadia was Abu
Ya'akub Ishak b. Sulaiman (Isaac Israeli the elder,
died about 950), physician to Abu Muhammed ‘Ubaid
Allah al-Mahdi in Kairwan. fie was
Develop- the author of a “ Book of Definitions ”
ment — probably the oldest of its kind —
of Jewish preserved in a Hebrew version only
Thought, (ed. H. Hirsclifeld, pp. 233, 234; Stein-
schneider, “Festschrift,” pp. 131-141).
The first period also includes Baliya b. Josef b.
Pakodali (lived in Spain 1040), the author. of “ Duties
of the Heart” and “ Reflections of the Soul.” His
contemporary, Solomon b. Gabirol, was the first to
introduce Neoplatonic ideas into Jewish philosophy.
His Arabic works are “The Source of Life,” “Im-
provement of Morals.” and the ethical treatise
“Choice of Pearls ” (Mu nk, “Melanges de Philoso-
phic Juive et Arabe,” Paris, 1859). Judah ha-Levi
(1140) treats Jewish theology from quite a different
point of view. In his famous “ Kitab Alkliazari ”
(ed. H. Hirsclifeld, with the revised Hebrew ver-
sion, Leipsic, 1887) he discards the method of the
Kalam as well as Aristotelianism in general, and
takes his stand on tradition. He also vigorously
attacks the doctrines of the Karaites. Joseph b.
Zaddik of Cordova (died 1149), in his “Microcosm,”
discussed ideas fostered by Ibn Gabirol. Abraham
ibn Daud (died 1180) paved the way toward abso-
lute Aristotelianism in his “Emunah Ramah.”

Jewish philosophy reached its apogee in Moses
Maimonides. Maimun (the father) himself was the
author of the “Letter of Consolation” (ed. L. M.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arabic .Literature of the Jews

Simmons, “Jew. Quart, Rev.” ii. 335), in which he
warned Jews not to forget their belief, although
compelled to appear outwardly as Moslems. His
son Moses, the greatest of Jewish thinkers, com-
posed, when still young, a compendium of logic,
and a treatise on the “Unity [of God],” in Arabic.
The introduction to his commentary on Abot is also
of philosophical character, and is known under the
separate title, “Eight Chapters” (Pocock, “Porta
Mosis,” pp. 181 el seq., ed. M. Wolff, with German
translation, Leipsic, 1863). The commentary on
“Helek,” the tenth chapter of Sanhe-
Maimon- drin (ib. pp. 133 et seq.), contains the
ides. “ Thirteen Articles of Creed ” formu-
lated by him. A system of his theol-
ogy is laid down in his chief work, “Guide of the
Perplexed” (ed. S. Munk, with French translation,
Paris, 1856-66; compare LI. Hirschfeld, “Kritische
Bemerkungen zu Munk’s Ausgabe des Dalalat al-
Hairin,” in “ Monatssclirift,” xxxix. 404-413, 460-
473). Another work of his is the “Consolatory
Epistle,” sent to the Jews of Yemen. Maimonides
was so exhaustive that after him not much was com-
posed that could claim originality. Of those who
followed in his steps, mention must first be made
of his son Abraham, whose chief theological work
has already been mentioned. His co-disciple, Joseph
b. Judah b. Aknin (Abu al-Haj jaj Joseph b. Yahyah
al Sabti al Maghrabi), to whom the “Guide” was
dedicated, was himself the author of a work “Medi-
cine of the Soul,” and of another discovered by
Munk. A kind of imitation of the “ Moreli " is to
be found in the anonymous work “Pearls of the
Secrets.” An abstract of Aristotelian philosophy
in the style of Maimonides is given by Musa b.
Tubi in liis poem “ Al-Sab‘iniyyah,” consisting of
seventy verses (the original, with the Hebrew ver-
sion and a commentaiy by Solomon b. Immanuel
da Piera, edited and translated by H. Hirschfeld,
Ramsgate, 1894).

With the decline of Jewish philosophy the em-
ployment of Arabic also diminishes. A commen-
tary on Maimonides’ “ Sefer ha-Madda' ” was written
by ‘Ala al-Din al-Muwakkit (MS. Brit. Mus. Add.
27294). There still remains to be mentioned Judah
b. Nissim b. Malka, whose work “Anas al-Gharib”
contains a commentary on the “Sefer Yezirah ” and
the “ Chapters on R. Eliezer ” (Hirschfeld, “ Arab.
Chrestom.” pp. 19-31), and several anonymous treat-
ises on “Macrocosm and Microcosm” (“Cat. Ber-
lin,” ii. 105), which Steinschneider believes to be an
abstract from Joseph Kirkisani’s work mentioned
above. An ethical treatise exists in manuscript in
the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Neubauer, “ Cat. Bodl.
Hebr. MSS.,” No. 1422).

9. Polemics : Here may be recorded some works
of a polemical character, because they are theological
as well. These comprise not only the conflicts be-
tween Rabbinites and Karaites, but also treatises
written to repel the encroachments of philosophy
and the dogmas of other creeds. Among these
writers is David al-Mekammez, to whom is attributed
a work entitled “Twenty Treatises” (Steinschnei-
der, “Cat. Bodl.” col. 880). The writings of Sulai-
man b. Ruhaim and Jefetli (see above) abound in
attacks upon the Rabbinites; but these were com-

pletely defeated by Saadia. Further attacks were
made by Samuel b. Hofni (ib. col. 1034; “Z. D. M.
G.” viii. 551, ix. 838), by Samuel ha-Nagid (who also
criticized the Koran), and especially by Judah ha-
Levi. Affiliated to the “Alkhazari” of the last-
named, and written in defense of Judaism, wasSa'ad
b. Mansur’s (1280) “Tankih al-Abhath” (L. Hirsch-
feld, “ Sa'adb. Mansur ibn Kammuna,” Leipsic. 1893;
Goldziher, in “Steinschneider Festschrift,” pp. 1 10—
114). Pseudonymously attributed to Sa'ad is a
work dealing with the “ Differences Between the
Rabbinites and the Karaites" (II. Hirschfeld, “Arab.
Chrestom.” pp. 69-103). Another anonymous work
is the “Report of the Discussion with a Bishop.”
Finally, mention must not be omitted of two Jewish
renegades, viz., Ibn Kusin, a physician in Mosul,
and an anonymous writer who pretended to prove
the truth of Mohammed’s prophetliood.

10. Cabala : Arabic commentaries on the “Sefer
Yezirah” were written by Isaac Israeli (Steinschnei-
der, “Cat. Berlin,” i. 55), Saadia (ed. with French
translation by M. Lambert, Paris, 1891), and Judah
b. Nissim b. Malkah (see above). Greater activity
has been displayed in the present age. An Arabic
translation of the “Sefer Yezirah” was made by
Abraham David Ezekiel, in Bombay (Poona, 1888).
He also translated into Arabic portions of the Zohar
(“Idra Zutta ”) (ib. 1887 ; Algiers, 1853), “Joseph
Ergas” (Bombay, 1888), “Shomer Emunim,” and the
sermons of Isaac Lopez of Aleppo (Bombay, 1888).

11. Poetry and Tales: Many productions that

come under this heading have already been noticed
at the commencement of this article and in the
paragraph on Liturgy. Several poems by Karaite
authors have been published by Pinsker. Single
Arabic verses are to be found in many of Ibn
Ezra’s Hebrew poems (Rosin. “Reimeund Gedichte
des Abraham ben Ezra,” Breslau. 1888); and in
one of Al-Harizi’s Makamas (No. xi.) a poem is in-
serted in which each verse is divided into Hebrew,
Aramaic, and Arabic portions. The Makamas are
preceded by an Arabic preface (Steinschneider, “ La
Prefazione Arabica delle Makamat di Giuda Al-Ha-
rizi,” etc., Florence, 1879). Abraham b. Sahl, al-
though born a Jew, ranks among Mohammedan
poets. The philosophical poem of Musa ben Tubi
lias already been mentioned. In the eighteenth cen-
tury there flourished in Aden, Shalom b. Joseph
Shabbezi (CTI }*y 1DD. MS. Brit. Mus. Or. 4114),
who compiled a diwau of Arabic poems, many of
which are of his own composition. Of more recent
works mention may be made of the interesting col-
lection of epigrams, quatrains, and ditties, styled
“Safinali Ma‘luf,” by Solomon b. Hayyim Buuan
(Leghorn, 1877). For prose works on the subject of
belles-lettres the chief place belongs to Moses ibn
Ezra’s “Kitab al-Muhadharah wal-Mudaliarah "
(Schreiner, “Rev. Et. Juives,” xxxi. 98-117. xxxii.
62-81. 236-249; R. K. Kokowzow, “ Kitab al-Muhad-
harah,” St. Petersburg, 1895: portions of Arabic text
with Russian introduction; H. Hirschfeld, “Arab.
Chrestom.” pp. 61-63). A collection of proverbs
was printed in Bombay in 1889. Isaac Crispin’s
ethical treatise was translated by Joseph b. Hasn.
A translation of 1D1D D. by Abu Yusuf

Habib, was printed at Oran in 1889. There also

Arabic Literature of the Jews
Arabic Philosophy

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

exists a rich literature of tales, mostly of sacred
character, both originals and translations, namely,
legendary biographies of the Patriarchs, of Joseph,
of Moses, and of Solomon (Bombay, 1886). Of more
secular character is a volume entitled CytiW HE'JJD
(Leghorn, 1868), which contains a version of Sinda-
bad’s travels. An anonymous historical work was
edited by Ad Neubauer (“Medieval Jewish Chroni-
cles,” ii. 89 et seq.).

12. Medicine: Jews distinguished themselves
early in medicine, partly by translating from Greek
and Syriac, partly by independent works. The old-
est is Meserjawaih (883), to whom Steinsclmeider has
devoted a special article (“Z. D. M. G.” liii. 428-434).
The most prominent Jewish physician of the tenth
century was Isaac Israeli (Wiistenfeld, “Gesch.
d. Arab. Aerzte,” p. 51; Steinsclmeider, “Hebr.
Uebers.” p. 761) of Kairwan, mentioned above, who
made himself famous by his treatise on “ Fevers. ”
Moses b. Eleazer al Israili(“Ibn Abi Oseibia,” ed.
A. Muller, ii. 87), as well as his sons Isaac and Ish-
mael, and Jacob the son of the last-named, were
physicians to the Vizier Muizz al-Din (end of the
century). At the beginning of the twelfth century
Jewish physicians in Spain also began to write in
Arabic. Abu Ja‘far Joseph Ahmad b. Hisdai (a
friend of the philosopher Ibn Baja) (ib. p. 51) trans-
lated the works of Hippocrates for Al-Ma’mun,
vizier to the Eg3rptian calif, Amir bi ahkam Allah.
Likewise in Cairo flourished (1161) the Karaite, Sa-
did b. Abi al-Bayyan (Steinsclmeider, “ Hebr. Bibl.”
xiii. 61-63). Maimonides was distinguished as a med-
ical author ; among other works on medicine he wrote
a commentary on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates
(idem, “Z. D. M. G.” xlviii. 218-234; idem, “Hebr.
Uebers.” p. 769). His son Abraham (Wiistenfeld, ib.
p. Ill), also, wrns a medical authority, and so was
Joseph b. Judah (Munk, “Notice sur Joseph b.
Jehouda,” p. 58). In the middle of the twelfth
century flourished Amram al-Israili (“Ibn Abi
Oseibia,” p. 213; Steinsclmeider, “Zwei Ji'ul. Aerzte
Imran b. Sadaga und Muwaifak b. Sebua,” in “Z. D.
M. G.” 1871), born in 1165 at Damascus; died
1239 at Emesa (Hims). Samuel b. Judah b. Abbas
(see Abbas) wrote a work styled “ Kitab al-Mufid ”
(ib. p. 31). Abu al-Hayyaj Jusuf of Fez (ib. p. 213)
studied under Maimonides. He lived later on in
Aleppo and composed a commentary on Hippoc-
rates, as well as a work on pharmacy. To the
twelfth century belongs also Al'-Asad al-Mahalli (b.
Jacob ben Isaac), who lived in Egypt and afterward
in Damascus (ib. p. 118). In the thirteenth century
Ibn Abi al-Hasan al-Barkamani wrote on hygiene.
A medical encyclopedia was compiled by Abu
Mansur al-Haruni (end of the fourteenth century ;
Steinsclmeider, “Cat. Berlin,” ii. 98, 102; see“Z. D.
M. G.” xlvii. 374) under the title “ Al-Muntakib.”

13. Mathematics : The oldest Jewish mathema-
tician was Mashallah (Steinsclmeider, “Z. D. M. G.”
xlviii. 434-440), who was a prolific writer. An
anonymous work on astronomy by a Yemen Jew is
described by Steinschneider (“ Cat. Berlin, ” p. 80).

Bibliography : Steinschneider. Hebr. Uebers. Berlin, 1893;

idem. An Introduction to the Arabic Literature of the

Jews , in Jewish Quarterly Review , ix.-xiii.

g. H. Hik.

ARABIC PHILOSOPHY — ITS INFLU-
ENCE ON JUDAISM: Arabic philosophy dates
from the appearance of dissenting sects in Islam. A
century had hardly elapsed after Mohammed re-
vealed the Koran, when numerous germs of religious
schism began to arise. Independent minds sought
to investigate the doctrines of the Koran, which
until then had been accepted in blind faith on the
authority of divine revelation. The first independ-
ent protest was that of the Kadar (from the Arabic
kadara, to have power), whose partisans affirmed
the freedom of the will, in contrast with the Jabar-
ites (jabar, force, constraint), who maintained the
belief in fatalism.

In the second century of the Hegira, a schism
arose in the theological schools of Bassora, over
which Hasan al-Basri presided. A pupil, Wasil
ibn Atha, who was expelled from the school because
his answers were contrary to tradition, proclaimed
himself leader of a new school, and systematized all
the radical opinions of preceding sects, particularly
those of the Kadarites. This new school or sect was
called Motazilite (from itazala, to separate oneself,
to dissent). Its principal dogmas were three: (1)
God is an absolute unity, and no attribute can be
ascribed to Him. (2) Man is a free agent. It is on
account of these two principles that the Motazilites
designate themselves the “Ashab al-‘Adl w’al
Tauhid ” (The Partizans of Justice and Unity). (3)
All knowledge necessary for the salva-
Rise tion of man emanates from his reason ;
of First he could acquire knowledge before as
Radical well as after Revelation, by the sole
School. light of reason — a fact which, there-
fore, makes knowledge obligatory
upon all men, at all times, and in all places. The
Motazilites, compelled to defend their principles
against the orthodox religious party, looked for sup-
port to the doctrines of philosophy, and thus founded
a rational theology, which they designated “ ‘Ilm-al-
Kalam” (Science of the Word); and those professing
it were called Motekallamin. This appellation,
originally designating the Motazilites, soon became
the common name for all seeking philosophical dem-
onstration in confirmation of religious principles.
The first Motekallamin had to combat both the ortho-
dox and the infidel parties, between whom they oc-
cupied the middle ground ; but the efforts of subse-
quent generations were entirely concentrated against
the philosophers.

From the ninth century onward, owing to Calif
al-Ma‘mun and his successor, Greek philosophy was
introduced among the Arabs, and the Peripatetic
school began to find able representatives among
them; such were Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, and
Ibn Roshd, all of whose fundamental principles were
considered as heresies by the Motekallamin.

Aristotle, the prince of the philosophers, demon-
strated the unity of God ; but from the view which
he maintained, that matter was eternal, it followed
that God could not be the Creator of the world.
Again, to assert, as the Peripatetics did, that God’s
knowledge extends only to the general laws of the
universe, and not to individual and accidental things,
is tantamount to giving denial to prophecy. One
other point shocked the faith of the Motekallamin —

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arabic Literature of the Jews
Arabic Philosophy

the theory of the intellect. The Peripatetics taught
that the human soul was only an aptitude — a faculty
capable of attaining every variety of passive perfec-
tion— and that through information and virtue it
became qualified for union with the active intellect,
which latter emanates from God. To admit this
theory would be to deny the immortality of the soul
(see Alexander of Aphrodisias). Wherefore the
Motekallamin had, before anything else, to establish
a system of philosophy to demonstrate the creation
of matter, and they adopted to that end the theory
of atoms as enunciated by Democritus. They taught

I that atoms possess neither quantity nor extension.
Originally atoms were created by God, and are
created now as occasion seems to re-
Argument quire. Bodies come into existence or
for die, through the aggregation or the
Creation, sunderance of these atoms. But this
theory did not remove the objections
of philosophy to a creation of matter. For, indeed,
if it be supposed that God commenced His work at
a certain definite time by His “will,” and for a cer-
tain definite object, it must be admitted that He was
imperfect before accomplishing His will, or before
attaining His object. In order to obviate this diffi-
culty, the Motekallamin extended their theory of the
atoms to Time, and claimed that just as Space is con-
stituted of atoms and vacuum, Time, likewise, is con-
stituted of small indivisible moments. The creation
of the world once established, it was an easy matter
for them to demonstrate the existence of a Creator,
and that He is unique, omnipotent, and omniscient.

Toward the middle of the eighth century a dis-
senting sect — still in existence to-day — called Ka-
raites, arose in Judaism. In order to give a philo-
sophical tinge to their polemics with their opponents,
they borrowed the dialectic forms of the Motekal-
lamin, and even adopted their name (Mas'udi, in
“Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Biblio-
th&que Royale,” viii. 349-351) , and thus transplanted
the Kalam gradually to Jewish soil, to undergo the
same transformations there as among the Arabs.

The oldest religio-philosophical work preserved
is that of Saadia (892-942), “Emunot we-De‘ot”
(Book of Beliefs and Opinions). In
Saadia. this work Saadia treats of the ques-
tions that interested the Motekallamin
so deeply — such as the creation of matter, the unity
of God. the divine attributes, the soul, etc. — and he
criticizes the philosophers severely. For to Saadia
there is no problem as to creation : God created the
world ex nihilo, just as Scripture attests; and he con-
tests the theory of the Motekallamin in reference to
atoms, which theory, he declares, is just as contrary
to reason and religion as the theory of the philoso-
phers professing the eternity of matter. To prove
the unity of God, Saadia uses the demonstrations of
the Motekallamin. Only the attributes of essence
( sifat-al-datiat ) can be ascribed to God, but not the
attributes of action ( sifat-al-af ‘ aliyat ). The soul is a
substance more delicate even than that of the celes-
tial spheres. Here Saadia controverts the Motekal-
lamin, who considered the soul an “accident” (com-
pare “Moreh,” i. 74), and employs the following one
of their premises to justify his position: “Only a
substance can be the substratum of an accident ”

(that is, of a non-essential property of things). Saa-
dia argues; “If the soul be an accident only, it can
itself have no such accidents as wisdom, joy, love,”
etc. Saadia was thus in every way a supporter of
the Kalam; and if at times he deviated from its doc-
trines, it was owing to his religious views; just as
the Jewish and Moslem Peripatetics stopped short in
their respective Aristotelianism whenever there was
danger of wounding orthodox religion.

Jewish philosophy entered upon a new period in
the eleventh century. The works of the Peripatetics
— Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) — on the one
side, and the “Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Pu-
rity ” — a transformed Kalam founded on Neoplatonic
theories — on the other side, exercised considerable
influence upon Jewish thinkers of that age. The
two leading philosophers of the pe-
The riod are Ibn Gabirol (Avicebron) and
Neopla- Bahya ben Joseph ibn Pakuda — the
tonic former standing upon a purely philo-
Philoso- sophical platform, the latter upon a
phy. religio-philosophical one; and both
attaining similar results. Both be-
lieve in a universal matter as the substratum of all
(except God) that exists ; but Bahya goes further and
determines what that matter is: it is Darkness
(“Ma'ani al-Nafs,” translated by Broyde, p. 17). But
this matter did not exist from all eternity, as the
Peripatetics claimed. It is easy to perceive here the
growth of the Peripatetie ideas as to substance and
form ; but influenced by religion, these ideas are so
shaped as to admit the non-eternity of matter. In
all that pertains to the soul and its action, Gabi-
rol and Bahya are undoubtedly influenced by the
“Brethren of Purity.” Man (the microcosm) is in
every way like the celestial spheres (the macrocosm).
Just as the heavenly spheres receive their motion
from the universal soul — which is a simple substance
emanating from God — so man receives his motion
from the rational soul — another simple substance
emanating from IIim(?.c., p. 60; Munk, “Melanges
de Philosophic, ” p. 266). In fact, creation came
through emanation, and in the following sequence:
(1) The active intellect; (2) the universal soul —
which moves the heavenly sphere; (3) nature; (4)
darkness — which at the beginning was but a capac-
ity to receive form; (5) the celestial spheres; (6) the
heavenly bodies; (7) fire; (8) air; (9) water; (10)
earth (“ Ma'ani al-Nafs,” 72; compare Munk, l.c., p.
201). But as regards the question of the attributes-
which occupy the Jewish and Moslem theologians
so much, Bahya, in his work on ethics, “Hobot
ha-Lebabot,” written in Arabic under the title
of “Kitab al-Hidayat fi faraidh al Kulub ” (The
Duties of the Heart), is of the same opinion as the-
Motazilites, that the attributes by which one at-
tempts to describe God should be taken in a nega-
tive sense, as excluding the opposite attributes.
With reference to Gabirol, a positive opinion can
not be given on this point, as his “Fons Vitae ” does
not deal with the question ; but there is reason to
believe that he felt the influence of the Asharites,
who admitted attributes. In fact, in his poetical
philosophy, entitled “Keter Malkut” (The Crown
of Royalty), Gabirol uses numerous attributes in
describing God.

Arabic Philosophy
Arabic Poetry

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

By way of a general statement, one may say that
the Neoplatonic philosophy among the Jews of the
eleventh century marks a transitional epoch, leading
either to the pure philosophy of l-lie Peripatetics or
to the mysticism of the Cabala.

The twelfth century saw the apotheosis of pure
philosophy and the decline of the Kalam, which
latter, being attacked by both the philosophers and
the orthodox, perished for lack of champions. This
supreme exaltation of philosophy was due, in great
measure, to Gazzali (1005-1111) among the Arabs,
and to Judah ha-Levi (1140) among the Jews. In
fact, the attacks directed against the philosophers
by Gazzali in his work, “ Tuhfat al-Falasafa ” (The
Destruction of the Philosophers), not
The only produced, by reaction, a current
Apotheosis favorable to philosophy, but induced
of the philosophers themselves to profit
Phi- by his criticism, they thereafter ma-
losophy. king their theories clearer and their
logic closer. The influence of this reac-
tion brought forth the two greatest philosophers that
the Arabic Peripatetic school ever produced, name-
ly. Ibn Baja ( Aven Pace) and Ibn Roshd ( Averroes),
both of whom undertook the defense of philosophy.

Since no idea and no literary or philosophical
movement ever germinated on Arabian soil without
leaving its impress on the Jews, Gazzali found an
imitator in the person of Judah ha-Levi. This illus-
trious poet took upon himself to free religion from
the shackles of speculative philosophy, and to this
end wrote the “Cuzari,” in which he sought to dis-
credit all schools of philosophy alike. He passes
severe censure upon the Motekallamin for seeking
to support religion by philosophy. He says, “I
consider him to have attained the highest degree of
perfection who is convinced of religious truths with-
out having scrutinized them and reasoned over
them” (“Cuzari,” v.). Then he reduced the chief
propositions of the Motekallamin, to prove the unity
of God, to ten in number, describing them at length,
and concluding in these terms: “Does the Kalam
give us more information concerning God and His
attributes than the prophet did?” (Ib. iii. andiv.)
Aristotelianism finds no favor in his eyes, for it is
no less given to details and criticism ; Neoplatonism
alone suited him somewhat, owing to its appeal to
his poetic temperament.

But the Hebrew Gazzali was no more successful
than his Arabian prototype; and his attacks, al-
though they certainly helped to discredit the Kalam —
for which no one cared any longer — were altogether
powerless against Peripatetic philosophy, which
soon found numerous defenders. In fact, soon after
the “Cuzari” made its appearance, Abraham ibn
Daud published his “Emunah Ramah” (The Sub-
lime Faith), wherein he recapitulated the teach-
ings of the Peripatetics, Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina,
upon the physics and metaphysics of Aristotle, and
sought to demonstrate that these theories were in
perfect harmony with the doctrines of Judaism.
“It is an error generally current,” says Ibn Daud in
the preface of his book, “ that the study of specula-
tive philosophy is dangerous to religion. True
philosophy not only does not harm religion, it con-
firms and strengthens it. ”

The authority of Ibn Daud, however, did not
suffice to give permanence to Aristotelianism in
Judaism. This accomplishment was reserved for
Maimonides, who endeavored to harmonize the phi-
losophy of Aristotle with Judaism; and to this end
the author of the “ Yad ha-Hazakah ” composed his
immortal work, “Dalalat al-Hairin”

Maimon- (Guide of the Perplexed) — known bet-
ides. ter under its Hebrew title “Moreh
Nebukim ” — which served for many
centuries as the subject of discussion and comment
by Jewish thinkers. In this work, Maimonides,
after refuting the propositions of the Motekallamin,
considers Creation, the Unity of God, the Attributes
of God, the Soul, etc., and treats them in accordance
with the theories of Aristotle to the extent in which
these latter do not conflict with religion. For ex-
ample, while accepting the teachings of Aristotle
upon matter and form, he pronounces against the
eternity of matter. Nor does he accept Aristotle's
theory that God can have a knowledge of universals
only, and not of particulars. If He had no knowl-
edge of particulars. He would be subject to constant
change. Maimonides argues: “God perceives fu-
ture events before they happen, and this perception
never fails Him. Therefore there are no new ideas
to present themselves to Him. He knows that such
and such an individual does not yet exist, but that
he will be born at such a time, exist for such a
period, and then return into non-existence. When
then this individual comes into being, God does
not learn any new fact ; nothing has happened that
He knew not of, for He knew this individual, such
as he is now, before his birth” (“Moreh,” i. 20).
While seeking thus to avoid the troublesome conse-
quences certain Aristotelian theories would entail
upon religion, Maimonides could not altogether
escape those involved in Aristotle’s ideaof the unity
of souls; and herein he laid himself open to the at-
tacks of the orthodox.

Ibn Roshd (Averroes), the contemporary of Mai-
monides, closes the philosophical era of the Arabs.

The boldness of this great commeuta-
Averroism. tor of Aristotle aroused the full fury
of the orthodox, who, in their zeal,
attacked all philosophers indiscriminately, and had
all philosophical writings committed to the flames.
The theories of Ibn Roshd do not differ fundamen-
tally from those of Ibn Baja and Ibn Tufail, who
only follow the teachings of Ibn Sina and Al-Farabi.
Like all Arabic Peripatetics, Ibn Roshd admits the
hypothesis of the intelligence of the spheres and the
hypothesis of universal emanation, through which
motion is communicated from place to place to all
parts of the universe as far as the supreme world —
hypotheses which, in the mind of the Arabic phi-
losophers, did away with the dualism involved in
Aristotle’s doctrine of pure energy and eternal
matter. But while Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, and other
Arab philosophers hurried, so to speak, over sub-
jects that trenched on religious dogmas, Ibn Roshd
delighted in dwelling upon them with full particu-
larity and stress. Thus he says, “Not only is mat-
ter eternal, but form is potentially inherent in mat-
ter; otherwise, it were a creation ex nihilo (Munk,
“Melanges,” p. 444). According to this theory.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arabic Philosophy
Arabic Poetry

therefore, the existence of this world is not only a
possibility, as Ibn Sina declared — in order to make
concessions to the orthodox— but also a necessity.
Driven from the Arabian schools, Arabic philosophy
found a refuge with the Jews, to whom belongs
the honor of having transmitted it to the Christian
world. A series of eminent men — such as the Tib-
bons, Narboni, Gersonides — joined in translating the
Arabic philosophical works into Hebrew and com-
menting upon them. The works of Ibn Roshd espe-
cially became the subject of their study, due in great
measure to Maimonides, who, in a letter addressed
to his pupil Joseph ibn Aknin, spoke in the highest

I terms of Ibn Roshd’s commentary.

The influence which the Arabic intellect exercised
over Jewish thought was not confined to philosophy ;
it left an indelible impress on the field of Biblical
exegesis also. Saadia’s commentary
Influence on the Bible bears the stamp of the
on Motazilites; and its author, while not
Exegesis, admitting an}' positive attributes of
God, except those of essence, endeav-
ors to interpret Biblical passages in such a way as
to rid them of anthropomorphism. The celebrated
commentator, Abraham ibn Ezra, explains the Bib-
lical account of Creation and other Scriptural pas-
sages in a philosophical sense. Nalimanides, too,
and other commentators, show the influence of the
philosophical ideas current in their respective
epochs. This salutary inspiration, which lasted for
five consecutive centuries, yielded to that other in-
fluence alone that came from the neglected depths
of Jewish and of Neoplatonic mysticism, and which
took the name of Cabala.

Bibliography: For Arabic philosophy, see Ritter, Gesch. der
Philosophic , vii. viii.; Wenrich, De Auctorum Qraeeorum
VersUmibus, Leipsic, 1842; Brucker, Hist. Grit. Philos, viii. ;
Munk, Melanges de Philosophic Jnive et Arabe , 1859 ; Hau-
reau, De la Philosophic Scolastique : Jourdain, Recherches
sur les Traductions d'Aristote ; Renan, Averroes et VAver-
roisme , Paris, 1862 ; Steinschneider, Al-Farabi. For Jewish
philosophy, see Schmiedl, Studien liber JUdische Philoso-
phic, 1869 ; Kautmann.Dte Attributcnlehrein der Jlldischen
Religionsphilosophie, 1877 ; idem. Die Spuren Al-Bat-
layusi's in der Jlldischen Religionsphilosophie, 1880; Joel,
Pin Gabirol's Bedeutung fiir die Gesch ichte der Phi-
losophic, in Beitrdge zur Gesch. der Philosophic fAnhang),
1876; Scheyer, Psychologic des Maimonides: J. Guttmann,
Die Religionsphilosophie des Saadia, 1882; idem. Die Phi-
losophic des Solomon ibn Gahirol, 1889; idem, Die Philoso-
phie des Abraham ibn Daud. The best monograph on
Arabic Philosophy is: Worms, Die Lehre von der Anfangs-
losiakeit der Welt b. d. Arab. Philosophen, in Beitrdge
z. Geschichte der Philosophic des Miltelalters, vol. iii.
Heft iv.

K. I. Bl!.

ARABIC POETRY : The poetic literature of
the Arab Jews, to judge from the specimens handed
down, must be about as old as Arabic Poetry in gen-
eral, and in the main is of the same form and stamp.
Two epochs may be distinguished ; viz. : (1) The
pre-Islamic or lyrical, and (2) that which is coeval
with Mohammed and entirely polemical. Of the
first epoch the oldest verses known are by the poet-
ess Sarah, of the tribe of the Banu Kuraiza, who,
in a short dirge, bewailed the treacherous slaughter
by an Arab chief of many of her compatriots. This
incident, which took place toward the end of the
fifth century, is also alluded to in a verse of an un-
known Jewish poet. The Jewish poetry of this
epoch culminates in the songs of the famous Al-
Samau’al (Samuel) b. Adiya, who inhabited the

castle Al-Ablak in Taima (middle of sixth century).
Among Arab authors of all ages he is the prototype
of fidelity ; having sacrificed his son’s
Pre- life in order to keep a pledge given to
Islamic a friend, who was no other than Imr
Poetry. al-Kais, the most eminent of the old
Arab poets. The poem composed by
Samau’al on the incident has often been printed, both
in the original and in different translations, although
various recensions obscure the true text. Another
poem attributed to him is of doubtful authenticity.
Samau’al’s son Jarid is also said to have been a poet.

At the time of the birth of Mohammed there flour-
ished in Medina the poet Al-Rabi ibn Abu Ai,-
Hukaik, of the Banu ai-Nadhir, of whose poems sev-
eral are still extant. In one of them the sentence
occurs: “There is a remedy for every illness; but
folly is incurable.”

The poet Shuraih, whose epoch is uncertain, is
the author of a fine distich of which the following
is a translation :

“ Associate thyself to the noble, if thou And a way to their
brotherhood ;

And drink from their cup, though thou shouldest drink two-
fold poison.”

To the pre-Islamic period belongs also a poet
named Abu al-Diyal, who was not, however, a Jew
by birth.

A great change is noticeable in Jewish poetry in
the second period, when Mohammed had settled in
Medina. After the expulsion of the Banu Ivainuka,
the poet Ka‘ab ibn al-Ashraf, of the Banu al-Nadliir,
recognized the danger which now threatened all the
Medinian Jews. He traveled to Mecca and incited
the Kuraish in poems to revenge themselves for the
defeat suffered at Badr. It appears that Mohammed
alluded to Ka’ab’s polemic poetry in
Poetry of the simile of “a dog which, if thou
Moham- drive him away, putteth forth his
med’sTime. tongue, or, if thou let him alone, put-
teth forth his tongue also ” (Koran,
vii. 174). The points of the simile are not only the
alliteration of “Ka‘ab” and “kalb” (dog), but also
the putting forth of the tongue, which was regarded
as a symbol of poetic satire. Ka‘ab was soon after-
ward assassinated at the instigation of Mohammed.
His poems have been preserved by Moslem biogra-
phers of Mohammed ; and his death was bewailed in
verse by another Jewish poet, Al-Sammak, whose
effusions are also still in existence.

Shortly before Mohammed attacked the Banu
Kuraiza — the last remaining Jewish tribe in Medina
— a woman of this tribe embraced Islam. Her hus-
band, named Aus, tried to entice her to return, and
addressed a few lines of entreaty to her which are
still extant. The murder of Hujaij, rabbi of the
Banu al-Nadliir, was lamented in a poem by Jabai.
ibn Jauwal, who also bewailed the fate of the ex-
pelled and massacred tribes. The last poet of this
class was Marhab. He was a native of Yemen who
had adopted Judaism, and fought against the Mos-
lems when they attacked Khaibar, the last Jewish
stronghold. In a poem of three verses he challenged
one of Mohammed's heroes to single combat, and
fed in the contest. Tins closes the list of Arabic-
Jewish poets of ancient times. The next centuries

Arabic Script
Aragon

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

did not develop Jewish poetry in Arabia, save a few
lines in one of Hariri’s makamas(xi.) and Ibn Ezra's
poems. At the beginning of the fourteenth century
there lived in Seville Musa b. Tubi, who wrote a
philosophic poem styled “ Al-Sab‘iniyya” (poem of
seventy verses), following the lines of Maimonidean
argumentation.

A number of Jewish poets writing in Arabic lived
in Spain; but, unfortunately, hardly more than their
names have come down. Among them are: Moses
ben Samuel ibn Gikatilla (eleventh century; see Poz-
nanski, “Ibn Gikatilla,” p. 23, Berlin, 1895); Abra-
ham ibn Sahl (Seville, thirteenth century); Nasim
al-Israili (Seville) ; Abraham Alfakar (thirteenth
century, Toledo); Ismail al-Yaliudi and his daugh-
ter Kasmunah. All of these wrote Muwashshali
poetry (Hartmann, “ Das Arabisclie Stroplienge-
dicht,” pp. 45, 63, 73, 74, 225, 244).

A kind of revival took place in Arabic-speaking
countries at the end of the Middle Ages ; but the
poetry of this epoch is almost entirely
Revival at of a liturgical character, and the lan-
Close guage is not classical, but is modeled
of Middle on the dialect of the country in which
Ages. the Jews happened to live. Many of
these are printed among the collections
of piyyutim for Maghrebine and Eastern rites; but a
comprehensive and critical study of them has yet to
be undertaken.

Within the last decades have come to light the
collections of poems of the Yemenian poet Shalom
b. Joseph Siiabbezi, who largely made use of the
later forms of Arabic poetry, notably the “ Muwasli-
shah ” (girdle rime).

Bibliography: Noldeke, Beitrtlge zur Kenntniss tier Poesie
der AUen Araber , pp. 52-86 ; Delitzscb, Jlid Inch- Arab. Poe-
sien aus Vormohamedan ische r Zcit , 1874; Ibn Hisham,
ed. Wiistenfeld, passim ; Hirschfeld, Essai sur VHistoire des
Juifs de Mfrline , in Revue Etudes Juives, vii. 167-198, x. 10-
31 ; idem, AssahHniyya with the Hebrew transl. by Solomon
b. Immanuel Dapiere, edited and translated in Report of Mon-
tefiore College. Ramsgate, 1894: idem. Contribution to the
Study of tltc Jewish- Arabic Dialect of the Maghreb, in
Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, 1891. pp. 293-310 ( Sony
of Elijah) ; idem, Jewish- Arabic Liturgies, in Jewish
Quarterly Review, vi. 119-185, vii. 418-427.

G. H. Hik. — G.

ARABIC SCRIPT. See Arabic Language.

ARABIC VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE.

See Bible Translations.

ARAD : 1. Son of Beriali in the genealogical list
of Benjamin (I Chron. viii. 15).

2. A Canaanite city in the wilderness of Judah
(Judges i. 16), against which the Jews fought suc-
cessfully (Num. xxi. 1, xxxiii. 40). Later it was in-
habited by the Kenites (Judges i. 16). The site has
been identified by Robinson with Tell ‘Arad, south-
east of Hebron.

Bibliography : Buhl, Geographic des Alten Paldstina, pp. 96.
182; G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land,
pp. 277, 278.

J. jr. ' G. B. L.

ARAD (ALT-ARAD) : A royal free city and
market town of Hungary, on the Maros, 145 miles
southeast of Budapest. Among the Jewish com-
munities of Hungary that of Arad holds a prominent
place. Its history begins in the first half of the
eighteenth century. The passport issued by Lieut.

Field-Marshal Baron Cosa, May 1, 1717, to two Jews
residing in the suburbs, is, so far as is known, the
oldest historical document containing information
concerning the Jewish community
Early there. In 1741 there lived in Arad
History, only one Jew, named Mandel, who
purchased the right to sell, at first
groceries, and then liquors, under the protection of
Colonel Horvath of the boundary guard. Other

Interior of the Synagogue at Arad.

(From a photograph,)

Jews soon settled there. A census taken in 1743
showed that six of them lived in their own houses.
The congregation, together with its associated “ He-
brali Kaddishali,” was organized about this time.
In 1754 there were 24 Jewish families residing in
Arad; among them Jacob Isaac, rabbi and teacher,
with an annual salary of 36 florins. The }rear 1789
marks the turning-point in the history of the Arad
community. In May of that year Aron Chorin
entered upon his duties as rabbi of
Aron the congregation. The whole history
Chorin and of the community and its struggles,
Moses its successes, and its renown thence-
Hirschl. forth center in him. With touching
devotion and patriarchal sentiment he
applied himself to its elevation, and organized most
of the benevolent institutions that are its pride to-day.
Another man who, with the rabbi, deserved well of
the congregation was Moses Hirschl, who for sev-
eral decades devoted his attention mainly to its educa-
tional interests. Together with the principal, Lazar
Skreinka, he succeeded in raising the intellectual
grade of the school to the satisfaction of the govern-
mental authorities. Of especial importance, how-
ever, for the true development of the congregation
was the success attending Cliorin’s efforts to induce
the youths in the community to acquire a knowl-

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arabic Script
Aragon

edge of handicrafts. The Arad congregation led
those of Hungary, both in the number of its me-
chanics and in the variety of trades represented.
The inspiration of the movement originated with
Chorin, who in tins matter took his stand upon Tal-
mudic precepts. “From this congregation,” he
wrote in 1831, “seventy -eight young men have gone
forth to follow various handicrafts, and in addition
several have devoted themselves to such professions
as the law permits. Some of these latter already
have large practises as physicians and surgeons.”
In a letter to Gabriel Ullmann, president of the Pesth
congregation, lie names the trades that
Diversity were followed by the Jews of Arad:
of there were goldsmiths, tanners, con-

Trades. fectioners, furriers, coopers, watclicase-
makers, braid-makers, soap-boilers,
horseslioe-makers, smiths, locksmiths, gunsmiths,
bookbinders, painters, tailors, pipe-mounters, gla-
ziers, shoemakers, saddlers, etc.

Philanthropic interests were taken charge of by
the Humanitatsverein, founded in 1830, and en-
larged later by a women’s society with similar aims;
their special charge being the excellent Jewish hos-
pital, a creation of the Hebrah Kaddishah, which was
first organized in 1790 by Chorin. After Chorin’s
death, 1844, the Arad congregation, which in 1839
aggregated 812 souls, called Jacob Steinhardt as
their temporary rabbi and school-superintendent.
A year and a half later he became chief rabbi, and
was followed in 1885 by Alexander Rosenberg, pre-
viously rabbi in Kaposvar. During the whole of
the last half of the nineteenth century the Arad con-
gregation developed and prospered. All branches
of congregational activity kept pace with the nu-
merical growth of the congregation, which in 1860
aggregated 2,700 souls, and which since then has
doubled. The affairs of the congregation are con-
ducted according to well-devised rules; schools have
been reorganized; additional benevolent institutions
have been established, of which the Orphan Home
deserves especial mention ; and a home for pensioned
employees of the congregation has been opened.

Bibliography: Jahrbuch flir die Israelitischen Kultusge-
meinden in Ungarn , i. 114 ; Ben-Chananja , vi. 133 et seq.

D. E. N.

ARADUS (Arados, I Macc. xv. 23): A Pheni-
cian city on the island now called Ruad, eighty miles
north of Sidon. It is the Arvad of Ezek. xxvii. 8,
11, the Armad of Tiglath-pileser III,, and is also
mentioned on the Egyptian monuments. Jews had
migrated thither in Maccabean times (I Macc. xv.
23). See Arvad.

Bibliography: W. Max Muller, Asien und Europa , p. 186;
Pietschmann, Geschiclite der Phonizier, pp. 36 et seq.

J. jr. G. A. B.

ARAG (ARAK) : Village in the district of Ky-
urin, Daghestan, Transcaucasia, Russia. When the
traveler Judah Chorny visited the place in 1868, he
found eighty Jewish families there, who lived in a
separate part of the village. Their chief occupation
was the cultivation of tobacco on land rented from
their Mohammedan neighbors. They had a syna-
gogue, and used the Sephardic rite. Fifty school-
children were instructed in religion and Hebrew by

two teachers. Their language was a mixed dialect
of Tataric and Persian. Under the rule of the Tatar
Ivhans they were burdened with heavy taxes, their
position being almost that of slaves. With the an-
nexation of the province by Russia their condition
improved somewhat. In 1900 the Jewish popula-
tion of Arag was 710.

Polygamy is still practised among the inhabitants.
Up to 1868 the names of the rabbis (who had suc-
ceeded one another) were: Moses, Mattithiah, Bez-
alel, Hanukah, Johai, Moses of Gursi. and Ezekiel,
who was still holding office. Among their names
the following are Caucasian: Valbikah, Vanavsha,
Gulbaliar, Desdeyul, Zaruugul, Momari, Mamali,
Tzaatchair, Kuztaman, Luzergal, Shaeliatav, Taza-
gil, Tavriz.

Bibliography: Judah Chorny, Sefer lia-Massant , pp. 256-
262; Bud/U8hchn08t, 1900, No. 52.

H. R.

ARAGON : An independent medieval kingdom,
later a province of Spain, in the northeastern part
of the Iberian peninsula. Its population included
Jews as early as the ninth century. In Saragossa
(which until 1118 was under the rule of the Moors),
in Jaca, Huesca, Barbastro, Daroca, Tarazona, Calat-
ayud, Monzon, Lerida, and other cities of Aragon,
the Jews in early times lived under special fueros
or laws. Aragon passed through the same phases of
church development and culture as southern France,
until the time of Jaime I. ; and the circumstances of
the Jews there corresponded exactly with those of
their French brethren. Their industry, learning, and
wealth secured for them the protection and favor of
their rulers. Pedro II. of Aragon, who, owing to
his frequent wars, was usually in debt, was often
compelled to borrow money of his Jewish subjects,
and to mortgage the greater portion
Position of his possessions and revenues to
Under them. Under Pedro’s son and suc-
Jaime I. cessor, Jaime I., surnamed “el Batalla-
dor” (the Fighter) and “el Conquista-
dor ” (the Conqueror), the political and legal position
of the Jews wras an enviable one. Jaime I. issued
the following decree : “ All Jews and Saracens dwell-
ing in our domains belong to the king and are, with
all their possessions, under the kiug’s especial pro-
tection. Any one of them who shall place himself
under the protection of a nobleman shall lose his
head; and all his possessions, wherever they be,
shall be forfeited to the king.” As a consequence,
no Jew or Saracen could become a bondman to auy
nobleman; nor could Jews or Saracens be called
prisoners or serfs ( captivi or send) even of the king,
because, according to the law, they had full liberty
of movement.

The Jews of Aragon thus stood in direct relation
with the king and under the jurisdiction of the crown,
as represented by the baile -general, under whose
authority stood the bailee of all the towns and ham-
lets of the country. They were permitted to buy and
sell among themselves; but for trade with Christians
a special permission from the baile was necessary.
Similarly, Christians were prohibited from buying or
taking in pledge the goods of Jews. The Jews lived
in the “ Juderias, ” or Jews’ quarters, outside of which
they could not dwell without royal permission; nor

T1IE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aragon

‘Arakin

were they at liberty to change the city of their abode.
The permission of the king was also necessary to
build synagogues, establish cemeteries, open schools,
purchase or export wheat, and even to bake Passover
bread. Besides the poll-tax, Jews were required to
pay special taxes and to contribute toward the repair
of walls and fortifications, as well as to the equipment
of the fleet and the general expenses of war. When-
ever the king visited a city, the Jews there had to
provide beds for him and his retinue. The assessment
of individual taxes was made by the representatives
of the Jews, chosen by themselves and confirmed by
the king. The division of the taxes among the vari-
ous congregations was determined by the king, upon
consultation with these representatives of the syna-
gogue. Sometimes the king remitted these taxes for
a time, as in the cases of Uncastillo and Montcluz, to
which a respite was given by Jaime I. Some Jews
received special privileges from the king. They were
permitted to take four denarii per pound as weekly
interest (about 86 per cent, per annum). But they
were forbidden to lend to students. Frequently the
king released all debtors of the Jews from their obli-
gations, and declared the Jewish claims void. There
existed for the Jews of Aragon two special forms of
oath : one, upon the law of Moses; the other, much
more formidable, called “the oath of curses.” All
such oaths had to be taken in the synagogue or other
places of worship.

In their social relations a sharp line of demarca-
tion was drawn between Jews and Christians. Jews
were forbidden to keep Christian slaves and servants,
or to have Christian women in their houses in any
capacity whatever. Christians and Jews were not
permitted to dwell together; even Jewish prisoners
were separated from Christians. Jaime I., whose
confessor was the zealous missionary
Enforced Raymuudo de Penaforte, ardently fa-
Social Iso- vored the conversion of the Jews to
lation of Christianity — conversion to Islam was
Jews. prohibited — and gave his assistance to

the work in every way. In 1249 he
repealed an ordinance, then operative in many prov-
inces, to the effect that Jews embracing Christianity
must surrender their property, or most of it, to the
treasury. The law protected those who had embraced
Christianity from insult at the hands of their former
coreligionists; and it was forbidden to call them
renegades, turncoats, or any such disparaging names.
Whenever a prelate, or a brother of one of the orders,
announced a missionary sermon in a place where
Jews resided, the latter were compelled by the king’s
officers to listen to it ; and no excuse for absence was
accepted, save a special royal dispensation, such as
was granted to the Jews of Lerida. Baptized chil-
dren of Jews could not reside with their parents. In
1263, in order further to facilitate the
Religious conversion of the Jews, Jaime I. ar-
Disputa- ranged a public debate at the royal
tion at palace in Barcelona, under the presi-
Barcelona. dency of Penaforte, between the mis-
sionary Fra Paolo (or Pablo Christiani),
a baptized Jew, and the eminent Spanish rabbi, Moses
ben Nahman (Bonastruc de Porta).

Aside from these clerical annoyances, the position
of the Aragonian Jews under Jaime I. was not an

unhappy one. They owned houses and estates, were
permitted to farm the royal grist-mills, and to follow
agriculture and trades, and, though they could not
occupy judicial positions, other honorable posts were
open to them. When Jaime conquered Majorca he
was attended by Don Bahiel as his private secre-
tary ; and when he besieged Murcia he employed Don
Astruc Bonsknyor as his interpreter of Arabic to
negotiate with the inhabitants of the town. Jehu-
dano de Cavalleria, the wealthiest and most influen-
tial Jew of Aragon, was head bailiff and royal treas-
urer; Bondia and a certain Abraham were bailiffs in
Saragossa, and Vidal Solomon was bailiff of Barce-
lona. Maestros David and Solomon were the king’s
body-physicians ; and Maestro Samson was physician
to the queen. Pope Clement IV. in vain requested
Jaime to remove Jews from all public offices; but his
son, Pedro III. , yielding to the stormy demands of the
Cortes in Saragossa, decreed that no

Jews in Jew should thenceforth occupy the
High Pub- position of bailiff. Pedro and his suc-
lic Offices, cessors took the Jews under their pro-
tection, possibly for their own interests.
In the wars of Africa and Sicily the material aid of
the Jews was indispensable, and large sums were
exacted from them for the equipment of the fleet
and the conduct of the war.

Although Jaime II., like his grandfather, earnestly
desired the conversion of the Jews, he showed him-
self tolerant toward them. He permitted a certain
number of Jewish refugees from France to settle in
Barcelona and other places; and, in recognition of
their liberal contributions toward the equipment of
the fleet, he released the Jewish congregations for
several years from all taxes, according at the same
time special privileges to the congregations of Bar-
celona, Saragossa, and Iluesca. The king protected
them, but the populace, repeatedly aroused by the
clergy, continually annoyed them. In Barcelona in
1285, one Berenguer Oiler, supported by several other
ordinary citizens, instigated a serious riot against the
Jews. On a certain day of Passover he announced
that he would kill all the barons and the Jew’s and
plunder their houses; but he w’as prevented from
carrying out his plans through the timely interven-
tion of the king.

The Jews of Aragon proved themselves generous
and self-sacrificing in every emergency. When in
1323 the Infante Alfonso (afterward Alfonso IV.)
embarked upon the conquest of Sardinia, they
placed large sums of money at his disposal ; and the
congregation of Tortosa hired sailors to man the
galleys furnished by the city. Alfonso IV. in re-
turn showed himself favorably inclined toward his
Jewish subjects. He accorded special privileges to
the Jews of Fraga, Barcelona, and Gerona, and put
dowrn the insurrection of the shepherds, which had
extended to parts of Aragon. When a large number
of Jews desired to leave the country, he attempted to
retain them by reducing their taxes. Under his suc-
cessor Don Pedro IV., who was devoted to astrology,
which he studied under his body-physician Don
Rabbi Menahem, the condition of the Jews w'as a very
painful one, owing to the contest between the Ara-
gonian Unionists and the king, and to the war be-
tween Aragon and Castile. The congregations of

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aragon

‘Arakin

Murviedro, Gerona, Tarazona, Daroca, and Calata-
yud were especially ill-treated.

The great persecution of 1391, which began in
Seville, affected the Jews of Aragon and Catalonia
i severely; entire communities, such as those of Valen-
[ cia, Lerida, and Barcelona, were wiped out; thou-
sands of Jews tvere slain; and 100,000 professed to
I1 embrace Christianity. The resulting large number
of pseudo-Christians, or Maranos, was
Massacre materially increased twenty years
of 1391. later by the exertions of the fanatical
preacher Vicente Ferrer. All JeAvs
who remained faithful to their ancestral religion were
ordered by King Martin of Aragon to wear a mark of
identification. Another public disputation took place
between the rabbis of the more important congrega-
tions of Aragon, on the one side, and Joshua ha-Lorki,
named after his conversion Jerome de Santa Fe, as-
I sisted by the converts, Andres Beltran and Garcia
Alvarez de Alarcon, on the other. This discussion,
which had the effect of still further increasing the
number of pseudo-Christians, was held at Tortosa in
1413 in the presence of PopeBenedictXIII. Severer
sufferings were in store for the Jews of Aragon in the
last eighty years of their sojourn in the province.
After the Tortosan disputation, Pope Benedict issued
the bull, “ Etsi Doctoribus Gentium ” (see De los Rios,
ii. 627), Avhich was promulgated throughout Aragon
in 1415. It interdicted the study or the reading of the
Talmud and similar works, every copy
Persecu- of which Avas to be surrendered and
tions Under destroyed. JeAvs Avere not allowed to
Pope possess antichristian literature. They
Benedict were debarred from holding any office
XIII. or from folio Aving the vocations of phy-
sician, surgeon, accoucheur, apothe-
cary, broker, marriage-agent, ormerchant. Christians
were forbidden to live in the same house Avith Jews,
to eat or bathe with them, to rcnderthemaiiy services,
such as the baking of Passover bread, or to buy from
or sell for them meat prescribed by the Jewish laAv.
Each congregation was permitted to have only a
small and scantily furnished synagogue, and neAv
synagogues were not allowed to be built or old ones
repaired. Finally, all Jews of either sex over the
age of t welve years were compelled to listen to three
Christian sermons every year.

To all these sufferings were added the terrible
epidemics of the plague which scourged Aragon in
1429, 1439, 1448, 1450, 1452, and 1457. Commerce and
trade in the formerly flourishing cities of Saragossa,
Huesca, and Daroca came to a standstill; the JeAv-
ish merchants and their trade became impoverished
and could no longer pay taxes. In order to prevent
their emigration, hoAvever, Queen Maria,, consort
of Alfonso V., and queen regent in his absence, re-
duced the royal imposts considerably. For instance,
the Jewish congregation of Barbastro had only 400
sueldos jaqueses to pay; Calatayud and Monzon,
350; Saragossa and Huesca, 300; and Fraga and
Tarazona, 200. The very wealthy Marano families
of Saragossa, Huesca, Calatayud, and Daroca — the
Caballerias, Santangels, Villanovas, Paternoys, Ca-
breros, Zaportas, Rivas, and others — occupied influ-
ential positionsin the Cortes, in public life, and at the
court of Juan II., and often intermarried with aris-

tocratic families, and even Avith the Infantas. After
Juan'sdeath in 1479, the two kingdoms, Aragon and
Castile, were united into one under the rule of Ferdi-
nand and Isabella; and henceforward the history of
the Jews of Aragon becomes one Avith that of all the
other Jews of Spain.

The Aragonian Jews possessed a special ritual-
liturgy (Mahzor Aragon), which Avas preserved
for a long time in several cities of the Orient by
communities of fugitive Jews from Aragon. (See
Mahzor. )

Bibliography : ,1. Amador de los Rios. Histnria de los Judios
de Expana, passim; Erscb and Gruber. En cyklopdd ie, ii.
27,210; Tourtoulon. .Jaime T., leConquerant , Hold' A rayon,
vol. ii. Montpellier, 1867 ; Swift, James I. of Aragon , Oxford.
1894 ; Zunz, Ritux, p. 41. On the many documents relating to
the Jews of Aragon now in the “ Arcbiv. de la Corona de
Aragon” in Barcelona, see Jacobs, Sources of Sjianish-
Jewish History , xv. 9 et scq.

G. M. K.

‘ARAKIN (J’Siy, “estimations”; the German-
Polish Jews use the Aramaic form pronounced
by them ‘Ercliin or ‘Erechin): A treatise of the
Mishnah, the Tosefta, and the Babylonian Talmud
in the order Kodashim.

In the Mishnah the treatise ‘Arakin consists of
nine chapters (perakim), forming in all fifty para-
graphs (mislmayot). It deals chiefly
Analysis with an exact determination of the
of the regulations in Lev. xxvii. 2-29, con-
Mishnah. cerning the redemption, according to
fixed rates (-py. “estimation ”), of per-
sons or things consecrated to the sanctuary by a
vow. It is presupposed by the Halakah that the
above-mentioned Bible passage refers to the conse-
cration not only of persons that belong to the one
who consecrates them, but of any person ; for the
consecration of a person signifies nothing more than
a vow to dedicate to the sanctuary the value which
that person represents. Consequently, the first chap-
ter treats of the persons capable of making such a
voav, as well as of the qualifications of those Avhose
value must be paid by the consecrator.

FolloAving exactly the order of the Bible, the sec-
ond chapter discusses the maximum and the mini-
mum of the amount to be given to the sanctuary,
according to the financial condition of the dedicator.
The mention of this special case of a maximum and
a minimum gives occasion for discussing the maxi-
mum and the minimum for various religious pre-
cepts. Incidentally, many an interesting item of in-
formation is imparted concerning Temple affairs ; as,
for instance, certain details about the Temple music.

In a similar Avay, the third chapter, discussing the
uniformity of assessment of values of dedicated lands
irrespective of their mercantile values, takes occasion
to group together all such cases of indemnity for
which the Biblical Ihav prescribes a fixed amount to
be paid, regardless of attendant conditions.

After this digression, the fourth chapter lays down
detailed rules for the various “estimations” men-
tioned in Lev. xxvii. 2-8, and at the same time inti-
mates wherein these rules differ from those applying
to sacrificial vows and gifts.

The fifth chapter treats of particular instances;
for example, the consideration of cases Avherein the
weight or the value of a limb of a person or a por-
tion of his value is dedicated. This brings to an

‘Arakin

Aram

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

end the Halakot dealing with estimations put upon
persons.

The sixth chapter is to be regarded as an appen-
dix. It gives minute precepts relative to assess-
ments in general, called “shum” (D1B>, in contradis-
tinction to -py), and concerning distraint for debts
incurred by dedication.

After this exhaustive treatment of the estimation
of persons, chapters vii. and viii. give a fuller ex-
planation of the estimation of consecrated land found
in Lev. xxvii. 16, and in addition — as in the Bible —
the Halakot concerning Herem (“devoted thing),”
that is voted to be the irredeemable property of the
sanctuary or of the priests (Lev. xxvii. 28).

The ninth and last chapter consists chiefly of the
regulations concerning the redemption in the jubilee
year of landed property that has been sold (Lev.
xxv. 25-34). These rules are given in this connec-
tion because they have points of contact with the
valuation of a consecrated piece of ground.

The Tosefta to this treatise, comprising five chap-
ters, is of great value for the comprehension of the
single articles of the Mishnali, as well
The as for their composition. Thus To-

Tosefta. sefta i. 1 illustrates the exegetical basis
(Midrash) for the proposition in Misli-
nah i. 2; and, according to the reading of Tosefta
iii. 1, the difficulty in Mishnali v. 1, which provides
the Gemara 19 a with much matter for discussion, is
removed. This treatise of the Tosefta contains also
a number of explanatory amplifications of the Misli-
nah, as well as many points not touched in the latter.

The Tosefta also gives to some extent many a val-
uable intimation for distinguishing the older and the
more recent constituent elements or

Mishnah strata of the Mishnali. Beginning
in the with the first chapter, a comparison of

Light of the Mishnah 1-4 and the Tosefta 1-4

Tosefta. shows that of these paragraphs only
1 and 4 belong to the older Mishnali
compilation, and that 2 and 3 emanate from a school
later than Akiba. Similarly, the second chapter be-
trays the work of two redactors. The compilation
of the maxima and the minima in this section is
probably to be ascribed to Akiba, who was the flrst
to attempt such an arrangement of the lialakic ma-
terial. To the later redaction, however, is to be
attributed the discussion in Mishnah 1, between R.
Mei'r and the Hakamim (sages). Likewise, Mishnah
4 and the second half of Mishnah G must be regarded
as later additions.

The whole of the third chapter must be regarded
as belonging to the older Mishnah compilation, with
the exception, however, of the second half of Mish-
nah 2, where “ Eleazar [ben Sliammua] ” should be
read instead of “Eliezer [ben Hyrcanus].”

It is noteworthy that in this chapter (Mishnah 2)
the gardens of Sebaste (Samaria) are represented as
very fruitful, a characteristic which could apply
only to the time previous to Bar Kokba. For this
reason R. Judah in the Tosefta (ii. 8) speaks of the
gardens of Jericho instead of those of Sebaste.

The fourth chapter of the Mishnah seems to be-
long wholly to the more recent redaction. In the
fifth chapter it is difficult to distinguish old and
new. Here the beginning is derived from the time

before Akiba, possibly even from the period during
the existence of the Temple, or, at all events, not
long after; but the second half of the very same
Mishnah is of a much later date, whereas the Tosefta
(iii. 2) preserves the old form of the Halakali, to which
the Mishnah bears the relation of an explanation and
discussion. Chapters vi.-ix. also contain various
compilations of Halakot, which were so much altered
by the redactor that attempts to trace them back to
their sources have been unsuccessful.

In the present article an analysis of the Gemara,
which comprises thirty-four pages, can be given
only in brief outline. Starting from
The the word (“all ”) , with which the
Gemara. treatise begins, the discussion brings
into array nearly all tannaitic Halakot,
commencing with that word, to prove that this word
is used to intimate that the tanna desires to include
in the rule a class of subjects that otherwise would
have been excluded.

This introduction to the treatise ‘Arakin (pp. 2-4 a)
probably comes from the time of the Saboraim. Of
importance are the elaborations of the Gemara on
Mishnah i. 2, in regard to the sacrifices and gifts
of the heathen (D")3y) (pp. 56-65).

In regard to the second chapter, special reference
must be made to pp. 86-136, in which, along with
explanations of the Mishnah, many details are given
in regard to the construction of the calendar and to
customs in the Temple service.

The third chapter of the Gemara is the only one
in the treatise in which liaggadic material is treated
at length. Pages 15a to 17a contain admonitions and
precepts concerning “the evil tongue,” in which it
is urged that man must be careful of speech.

Chapters iv. and v. contain chiefly elucidations
and explanations of the corresponding Mishnayot.

Basing itself on the Mishnah, chapter vi. gives
many important regulations concerning compulsory
auctions and the legal procedure in regard to them,
and with regard to legal attachments (pp. 216-24a).

Chapter vii. is devoted to the regulations regard-
ing the year of jubilee at a time when this Biblical
institution is enforced (24a-27a).

Chapter viii. treats of the regulations governing
landed estate devoted to the sanctuary, when the
law of the j ubilee year is no longer in force (27a-29a).

The last chapter deals mainly with the laws for
the sale and redemption of land and houses that have
been sold, on which subject the Mishnah in the cor-
responding chapter contains only a few particulars.

Bibliography : Mordecai Eliezer b. David Weber. K rek Dal
(commentary). Jerusalem, 1885; I.atin translation of the
treatise ‘ Arakin by Magnus Ronnow, Utrecht, 1690 (only a
part printed).

j. sr. L. G.

ARAM. — Biblical Data : The name of a group
of kindred tribes scattered over portions of Syria,
Mesopotamia, and Arabia. It is not the name of a
country or of a politically independent people ; for
the Aramaic peoples were never all independent
at the same period; neither did they
Location, form a large independent state. They
are mentioned by Tiglatli-pileser I.,
about 1110 b.c. (Schrader “K. B." i. 33), as dwell-
ing east of the Euphrates ; also by Shalmaneser II.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

‘ Arakin
Aram

(ib. i. 165). Tiglath-pileser III. describes them as
extending from the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the
Surappi to the River Ukni at the shore of the Persian
Gulf (ib. ii. 11). Sargon and Sennacherib attest this
in part by stating that on their return from Baby-
lon to Assyria they conquered various Aramaic tribes
(compare Schrader, “K. G. F.” pp. 109 etseq.)-, and
the, presence of Aramaic inscriptions in Assyria and
Babylonia from the eighth to the third century n.c.
confirms these statements (compare “C. I. S.” ii.).
The inscriptions found at Zenjirli and Nerab prove
that Aramaic was spoken in the northern part of
Syria as early as the seventh century b.c., though
this region was largely occupied by Hittites. Ara-
maic tribes appear to have extended as far as the
Taurus valleys, including Armenia and Cilicia (com-
pare Dillmann, on Gen. x. 22). Aramaic inscriptions
have been found in Arabia as far south as Teima.
which date from about 500 b.c. These tribes had
therefore penetrated Arabia at that date.

The part of this territory known in the Old Testa-
ment as Aram is the portion west of the Euphrates,
to various parts of which were given different names,
as described below (Aram-Zobah, Aram-Maachah,
etc.). Greek writers applied to the people of this
region the term “Syrians” — perhaps a corruption of
Assyrians; hence the name “Syria.”

In Gen. x. 22 Aram is described as a son of Shem.
Gen. xxii. 21 makes him a grandson of Nahor, Abra-
ham’s brother. The Aramaic dialects
Aramaic form a well-defined group of the lan-
and guages classed as Semitic, and thusat-
Hebrew. test the fact, for which these traditions
stand, that the Arameans were akin to
the Hebrews. From II Kings xviii. 26 and Isa.
xxx vi. 11 it would seem that by the end of the eighth
century b.c. Aramaic had become the language of
international communication between the nations of
western Asia. Its influence on Hebrew diction may
be detected in some of the books composed before the
Exile, while in Esther, Ecclesiastes, and some of the
Psalms the form of expression is largely Aramaic.
Parts of Daniel and Ezra are extant only in this
tongue, which before the beginning of the common
era had quite displaced Hebrew in popular usage.
The Aramaic peoples of northern Arabia introduced
writing into that Country some centuries before the
Arabs of the region had their own system of wri-
ting; and the Aramaic inscriptions found by Euting
in the Sinaitic peninsula, and shown to have been
the work of Arabs, prove that for a time it was the
language used for written communication in north
Arabia. The Nabataeans, who were in reality Ara-
bians, have also left in the neighborhood of Palmyra
many Aramaic inscriptions dating back to about the
beginning of the common era.

Josephus calls Aram the grandson of Nahor, Abra-
ham’s brother (Gen. xxii. 21), and afterward defines
his locality as Aram Naharaim (Gen.
Aram in xxiv. 10). Gen. xxviii. 10 says that
the Penta- Jacob fled to Haran, where he went
teuch. to his mother’s kindred, thus making
Aram Naharaim a region beyond the
Euphrates. In the Pentateuch the country about
Haran is no doubt the region designated. That Abra-
ham resided in Haran is definitely stated in the Peu-
II— 5

tateucli (Gen. xii. 4, 5). The place to which Jacob fled
is called Padan-Aram (Gen. xxviii. 6, R. V.). “ Pa-

daua ” in Aramaic signifies “yoke,” or “plow,” and
may also havemeaut, asin some othertongues, “ culti-
vated land. ” Some find in this meaning the origin of
the name “Padan” in Genesis, and have supposed
that “the field of Aram” (Hosea xii. 13 [A.V. 12]) is
a Hebrew translation. It is tempting to identify it
with the Aramaic “Paddana” (Wright, “Catalogue
Syriac Manuscripts,” 1127«), called in Greek t/mdava
(Sozomen, vi. 33), and in Arabic “ Faddain ” (Yakut) ;
but this town was situated in the Haurau, and can
not have been the Padan of the Bible, unless it was
there intended to say that Laban, like Abraham, had
migrated far from Haran. It may be, as Noldeke
suggests, that this name arose from a localization of
the patriarchal tradition by tlieearly Christians. That
a place in the neighborhood of Haran, or in that
region, was intended, there can be little doubt. All
the sources place the Aram of the patriarchs in the
direction of Haran. Deuteronomy mentions Aram
only when Jacob is called an Aramean (Deut. xx vi 5).

By far the most important part of Aram, so far as
the Hebrews were concerned, was Damascus. Amos
(i. 5) and Isaiah (vii. 8) indicate this;
Damascus, the one by equating Aram with Da-
mascus, the other by declaring that
Damascus is the head of Aram. The name occurs
in a list of cities conquered by Thothmes III. (W.
Max Muller, “ Asien und Europa,” p. 227), and in two
of the El-Amarna letters (139, 63 and 142, 21) of the
fifteenth century b.c. David, some centuries later,
made it tributary to himself (II Sam. viii. 6), and its
kings, Rezin, Ben-hadad I . Ben-hadad II.. Hazael,
and Ben-hadad III., were at various times in conflict
with the kings of Israel and Judah. Compare
Damascus, David, Bex-iiadad, IIazael, and Rez-
in. See also Aram-Gesiiur, Aram-Maachah, Aram-
Naharaim, Aram-Rehob, and Aram-Zobah.

Bibliography : Noldeke, Die Xnmen der AramdUchcn Na-
tion mill Sprache, in '/.. Ik M. a. 1871, x.w. 118 >/ g eq.\

Schrader, K. G. F. 1878, pp. 109 et xeq.; C. I. <)■ T. pp. Ill) et

seq.; Friedrich Delitzsch, I To Lag dux Dnradiexi 1881, pp.

257-359; Dillmann, Commentary to Genesis , x. 22, 23.

j. JR. G. A. B.

In Rabbinical Literature ; “ Aramean ” was

from the earliest times the equivalent of “heathen ”
in the Jewish vernacular, because the heathen neigh-
bors of the Jews used the Aramean tongue. An old
Targum, mentioned by the Mislinah (Meg. iv. 9),
employs the word “ Aramiyu-uta ” in the sense of hea-
thendom; as does also R. Ishmael in the first half of
the second century (Ycr. Meg. iv. 75c). In Pales-
tine the word “Aramean” was so tabooed that the
Jews preferred to use the Greek word “Syriac” to
designate their mother-tongue, rather than call it
“ Aramean.” This usage also passed over to the Ara-
bian-Jewish authors, as, for instance, Judah b. Ko-
reish, who calls the Arameans of the Bible and of the
Targum “Syrians.” But to avoid misconception, in
translating the Bible into Aramean, the word Ava-
mna (after the Hebrew “A rami ”) was employed for
the national sense and Armaa for the religious sense
of the word.

It is of historical interest to note that after the
conversion of the Arameans to Christianity, the
former Jewish significance attached to the word

Aram-Geshur
Arama, Meir

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

“ Aramean” was also given to it by Christians. With
the Syrians, even in the Peshitta, “ Armaia ” means
“heathen,” while “Aramaia” means “one of the
people of Aram.” In Palestinian sources the terms
“ Aram ” and “ Arameans ” are used to designate
Home and the Romans; the Palestinian pronuncia-
tion of the word “ Aromi ” may have served to screen
what they dared not say against the Romans. In
most cases, however, D1X- for Rome, is a mistake of
the copyist; it should read DHN. Edom.

Bibliography : Noldeke, Z. D.M. G. xxv. 115-130; Dictionaries

of Levy, Kohut, and Jastrow.

.1. SR. L. G.

ARAM-GESHUR : An Aramean district and a
small kingdom near Maachah (II Sam. xv. 8) (see
Aram-Maachah), and associated with it in Josh. xiii.
13. David married the daughter of its king (II Sam.
iii. 3). She became the mother of Absalom, who
fled thither after killing his brother Amnon (II Sam.
xiii. 38).

j. ,jr. G. A. B.

ARAM-MAACHAH (I Citron, xix. 6): A dis-
trict south of Damascus, bordering on the trans-
Jordanic territory of Manasseh. Maachah is said in
Gen. xxii. 24 to have been a descendant of Nahor,
Abraham’s brother, and the territory called after him
is declared in Josh. xiii. 13 not to have been con-
quered in the first Israelitisli settlement of Canaan.
David made its petty king tributary (II Sam. x.6-8),
and by the time of the chronicler, Maachah was
regarded as an ancestress of a Manassite clan
(I Chron. vii. 16). Strangely enough, II Sam. x. 0
has “king Maacah,” which makes it doubtful if
Aram-Maachah is the correct form.

j jr. G. A. B.

ARAM-N AHARAIM (translated as “ Meso-
potamia” in A.V.): A region somewhat ill-defined,
mentioned six times in the Bible. In the title of Ps.
lx., and in I Chron. xix. 6, it is used for the region
beyond the Euphrates (compare II Sam. x. 16). It is
stated in Judges iii. 8, 10, that the king of Aram-
Naharaim invaded Palestine. Gen. xxiv. 10 calls
the region of Haran, Aram-Naharaim (compare Gen.
xxviii. 10); while Deut. xxiii. 5 calls Pethor, the
■home of Balaam, a city of Aram-Naharaim. Pethor
appears as a city of the region near the Euphrates in
a list of Thothmes III. in the fifteenth century b.c.
(compare Midler, “Asien und Euro pa,” p. 267), and
in an inscription of Shalmaneser II. of the ninth cen-
tury b.c. (compare Schrader, “K. B.” ii. 163) as a
city west of that river.

Aram-Naharaim, literally, “Aram of the two riv-
ers,” suggested to the ancients the region between
the Euphrates and the Tigris; to some moderns, that
between the Euphrates and Chaboras (Habur) (see
Iviepert, “ Lehrbuch der Alten Geographie,” p. 154);
to others, the Euphrates and Orontes (Howorth, in
“Academy,” Jan. 17, 1891, p. 65); while still others
select different rivers. Meyer (“ Gesch. yEgyptens,”
p. 227), Mtiller (“ Asien undEuropa,” pp. 249 etseq.),
and Moore (Commentary on Judges, pp. 87, 89) are
probably right in regarding the Hebrew dual as ficti-
tious. If plural, it was no doubt the country called
by the Egyptians “Naharin,” an Aramaic name,
meaning “the land of the rivers.” It embraced a

considerable extent on both sides of the Euphrates,
extending east as far as the Tigris and west to the
Orontes, running south not only to Hamath, but to
Kadesh (compare Muller, ib. pp. 249-267). All the
Biblical references are to places in this region. The
name is not found in Babylonian or Assyrian inscrip-
tions, but occurs as Nahrima in three of the El-
Amarna letters. Nahrima is associated with the
Hittites — a fact which confirms the view taken
above.

•j. jr. G. A. B.

ARAM-REHOB (II Sam. x. 6, 8): A district of
Syria, of which the chief city was Rehob or Bet.h-
Reliob, associated with Aram-Zobah as hostile to
David. Num. xiii. 21 and Judges xviii. 28 place a
Beth-Rehob in the Lebanon region near Dan. Moore
(Commentary on Judges, p. 399) conjecturally iden-
tifies it with Paneas.

j. jr. G. A. B.

ARAM-ZOBAH (Ps. lx., title): The capital of
an Aramean state, at one time of considerable im-
portance. The statement in I Sam. xiv. 47, that its
king fought with Saul, has hitherto been uncon-
firmed. No such doubt, however, attaches to the
account of the war of its king Hadadezer with
David, who made the kingdom tributary to Israel
(II Sam. x.). In this war Hadadezer brought to his
help Arameans from beyond the Euphrates (II Sam.
x. 16). Upon the accession of Solomon, Zobah be-
came independent of Israel (compare I Kings xi. 23
et sec/.). Berothai, a city belonging to Hadadezer
(II Sam. viii. 8) is identified by many with Berothah
(Ezek. xlvii. 16), which was between Hamath and
Damascus. Zobah was probably located near this
city, though Halevy claims to have identified Zobah
with Chalkis.

After the tenth century, Zobah is not mentioned in
the Bible, but the city of Subiti, which is mentioned
in the annals of Assurbauipal as having been con-
quered by him in the seventh century, is probably
identical with it (compare Schrader, “K B.” ii. 217).
The same city is mentioned in some broken cunei-
form lists of towns in connection with Hamath and
Damascus.

Bibliography: Schrader, K. B. ii. 121 et seq.; Delitzsch, Wo

Lay das Parodies i pp. 279 et seq.

j. jr. G. A. B.

ARAMA, DAVID BEN ABRAHAM : Rab-
binical author, born in Turkey, 1525; lived in Salo-
nica. When barely twenty years old, he published
“Perush ‘al Sefer Mishneh Torah,” a commentary
on Maimonides’ Yad ha-Hazakah (Salonica, 1546-
1572; second edition, Amsterdam, 1706). He also is
the author of “Teslmbot,” consisting of a commen-
tary on difficult Talmudic passages (Constantino-
ple, 1579), which seems to be entirely lost.

Bibliography: Michael, Or ha-Hayyim, No. 094; Stein-

sehneicier, Cal. Bodl. No. 4790.

l. «. G. A. D.

ARAMA, ISAAC BEN MOSES: Spanish rabbi
and author; born about 1420; died in Naples 1494.
He was at first principal of a rabbinical academy at
Zamora (probably his birthplace); then he received
a call as rabbi and preacher from the community at

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aram-Geshur
Arama, Meir

Tarragona, and later from that of Fraga in Aragon.
He officiated finally in Calatayud as rabbi and head
of the Talmudical academy. Upon the expulsion of
the Jews in 1492. Arama settled in Naples, where
he died.

Arama is the author of “ ‘Akedat Yizhak ” (Offer-
ing of Isaac), a lengthy philosophical commentary on
the Pentateuch, homiletic in style. From this work
he is frequently spoken of as the “Ba'al ‘Akcdah ”
(author of the “ ‘ Akedali”). He also wrote a commen-
tary upon the Five Rolls, and a work called “ Hazut
Kashah ” (A Burdensome Vision), upon the relation
of philosophy to theology ; also “ Yad Abshalom ”
(The Hand of Absalom), a commentary on Proverbs,
written in memory of Ids son-in-law, Absalom, who
died shortly after his marriage.

Arama was the very type of the Spanish-Jewish
scholar of the second half of the fifteenth century.
First of all he was a Talmudist. The study of the
Talmud was of the utmost importance to him; so
that he lamented deeply when his rabbinical pupils
could not follow him from Zamora to Tarragona,
because the latter community was unable to support
them. In the next place, he was a philosopher. The
study of philosophy was so universal in Spain at
that period that no one could assume
As Talmud- a public position who had not devoted
ist and himself to it. Arama had paid par-
Phi- ticular attention to Maimonides; hut

losopher. independent philosophical thought is

hardly to be found in his work. His
remarks concerning the nature of the sold (“ ‘Ake-
dah,” chap, vi.) are noteworthy. After a detailed
account of the various theories about the soul which
had prevailed, he comes to the conclusion that the
first germ of the soul, common to the whole human
race, has its origin with and in the body. His theory
is that of Alexander of Aphrodisias — that the soul
is the “form” of the organic body — but Arama is
able to adduce support foritfrom Talmud and Cab-
ala. The third element in Arama’s mental compo-
sition was Cabala as expounded in the Zohar, which
he believed to have been written by Simon ben Yohai.
He did not, however, occupy himself so much with
the mystical side of Cabala as with its philosophy.

His earliest work, the “Hazut Kashah,” present-
ing in a certain sense an enunciation of Arama’s re-
ligious philosophy, includes also much that is inter-
esting pertaining to the history of the Jews in Spain
prior to their expulsion. The aim of the work was
to furnish a rejoinder to the missionary sermons of
the Church, to which, under the laws then preva-
lent, the Jews were compelled to listen. Hence his
polemic against the Christian dogma of Grace is the
resume of an oral disputation between Arama and a
Christian scholar. In support of his attack upon
this Christian dogma, Arama adduces the doctrine
of the freedom of the will as formulated by Aris-
totle, and the consideration of God’s transcendent
justice, which would make Grace to consist of noth-
ing but the exercise of the will of a despot. Be-
sides this instance of his polemics, his treatment of
the Deluge contains several attacks upon Christian-
ity. The greater portion of the work, however, is
devoted to the confutation of that philosophy which
refuses to recognize Jewish revelation, or recognizes

it only as identical with philosophy. For his exten-
sive use of the allegorical mode of interpretation, see
Allegory.

Arama’s chief work, which exercised great influ-
ence upon Jewish thought, and is still much read, is
the “ ‘Akedat Yizhak.” This is considered by many
as the classical work upon. Jewish homiletics. The
form of the sermons contained therein was closely
imitated by the Darsiiani.m. The old sermon was
either didactic — among Germans, upon ritual mat-
ters; among Spanish and Provencal Jews, upon phi-
losophy— or else it was of an edifying, moralizing
nature, such as tin1 Haggadot. Arama’s sermons in
this work were the first attempt to unite both these
tendencies. Though not artistic, he
Sermons should not be reproached therefor, but
Models for should rather be commended for hav-
Future ing established a model for genera -
Preachers, tions of darslianim and modern Jewish
preachers. Beginning with a Biblical
text, Arama constructs his sermon along the lines
of some saying of the Haggadali, the connection of
which with the text is expounded by means of a
philosophic disquisition, popularly told, and inter
spersed with specifically rabbinical interpretations;
each sermon thus satisfied the lovers of philosophy
as well as of the Talmud. His commentary on the
Five Scrolls partakes of the same philosophical and
homiletic nature as the “‘Akedat Yizhak”; it has
not, however, received much attention at the hands
of moderns.

Arama also attempted to write poetry, and is the
author of a Bakkashah (supplication), which, al-
though of no poetic excellence, has a certain charm.

Arama’s writings enjoyed universal esteem imme-
diately upon their appearance, to such an extent in-
deed that Isaac Abravancl, a younger contemporary
of his, did not scruple to embody long passages in
his own works. Arama himself, however, very often
copied from Rabbi Abraham Bibago without men-
tioning him, as J. S. Del Medigo pointed out in his
“Mazref la-Hokmah” (Crucible for Wisdom). Ar-
ama’s works were likewise esteemed by the Christian
world; for in 1729 an academical dissertation by M
A. J. van der Hardt. of the University of Helmstedt,
was published under the title “ Dissertatio Rabbinica
de Usu Linguae in Akedat Ischak,” treating of sec-
tion 62 of Arama’s work, giving it in Hebrew with
Latin translation.

Bibliography : Havyim Jos. Poliak, in his edition of the 'Ake-
dat Yizhak. Presburg, 1849, i. 2-7 ; Literaturhlatt ih* Ori-
ents. iv.' i>S8 ; Steinschneider, Cat. Bndl. s.v. : Benjacob,
O zar luoScfarim, under the respective titles ; Van Straalen,
Cat. Brit. Mus. (Stippl.), pp. 114, 125, 1ST ; Winter and
Wiinsche, Jl'ul. Lit. ii. iilS-tili ; S. 1. Fuenn, Keneset Visracl,
047, 648 ; Zunz, 8. P., p. 528 ; M. I.. Kohn, Biographien Hi r-
rorrayender Rahhinischer A utorittiten. pp. 7-20, 157-141;
Kaufmann, Die Sinne, Index, s.v.

L. G.

ARAMA, MEIR BEN ISAAC : Philosopher
and Biblical commentator; born at Saragossa at the
end of the fifteenth oentury; died about 1556 in
Salonica. His father was exiled from Spain in 1492
and died in Naples. Meir Arama, who had gone
thither with his father, remained there until the
French army invaded Naples in 1495. He then
went to Salonica and settled there, devoting himself
to literary pursuits.

Aramaic Language

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arama is the author of the following works : (1)
“Urim we-Tumim” (Light and Perfection), a philo-
sophical commentary on Isaiah and Jeremiah, pub-
lished by Menahem Jacob ben Eliezer Judah, Venice,
1603; (2) “Me’ir Iyyob ” (The Illuminator of Job),
commentary on Job written in 1506, and published,
together with the text, at Salonic-a, 1517 ; (3) “Mei'r
Tehillot” (The Illuminator of the Psalms), commen-
tary on the Psalms, written in 1512, and published,
together with the text, at Venice, 1590 ; (4) “ Perush,”
commentary on Song of Songs, published in the
Bible of Amsterdam 1724-27, which latter bears the
title “Keliillot Moslieh”; (5) commentary upon
Esther, still extant in manuscript (Codex Rossi, No.
727). Arama quotes in his works a commentary of
his on the Pentateuch. It is no longer in existence.
The commentaries of Arama are, like those of his
father Isaac, full of allegories and moral aphorisms.
He wrote also a pamphlet against Isaac Abravanel,
accusing him of plagiarizing the works of his father,
which pamphlet was republished recently by Gabriel
Polak.

Bibliography : Rossi, Dizionari Storicn, German translation,

2ded., p. 45; Steinschneider, Cat. Bixli. cols. 1693-94; Azulai,

Shem ha-Ocdolim. p. 120.

K. I. Bit.

ARAMAIC LANGUAGE AMONG THE
JEWS ; Of all Semitic languages the Aramaic is
most closely related to the Hebrew, and forms with
it, and possibly with the Assyrian, the northern
group of Semitic languages. Aramaic, nevertheless,
was considered by the ancient Hebrews as a foreign
tongue; and a hundred years before the Babylonian
exile it, was understood only by people of culture in
Jerusalem. Thus the ambassador of the Assyrian
king who delivered an insolent message from his
master in the Hebrew language and in the hearing
of the people sitting upon the wall,
Considered was requested by the high officials of
Foreign by King Hezekiali not to speak in He

Ancient brew, but in the “ Syrian language, ”

Hebrews, which they alone understood (II Kings
xviii. 26; Isa. xxxvi. 11). In theearly
Hebrew literature an Aramaic expression occurs
once. In the narrative of the covenant between
Jacob and Laban it is stated that each of them
named in his own language the stone-heap built, in
testimony of their amity. Jacob called it “ Galeed ” ;
Laban used the Aramaic equivalent, “.Tegar sahad-
utha ” (Gen. xxxi. 47). This statement undoubtedly
betrays a knowledge of the linguistic differences be-
tween Hebrews and Arameans, whose kinship is else-
where frequently insisted on, as for instance in the
genealogical tables, and in the narratives of the ear-
liest ages. One of the genealogies mentions Aram
among the sous of Shem as a brother of Arphaxad,
one of the ancestors of the Hebrews (Gen. x. 23). In
another, Kemuel, a son of Nalior, the brother of
Abraham, is called “the father of Aram” (Gen.
xxii. 21). Other descendants of this brother of the
Hebrew Abraham (Gen. xiv. 13) are termed Ara-
means; as, for instance, Bethuel, Rebekah’s father
(Gen. xxv. 20, xxviii. 5), and Laban, the father of
Rachel and Leah (Gen. xxv. 20; xxxi. 20, 24). The
earliest history of Israel is thus connected with the

Arameans of the East, and even Jacob himself is
called in one passage “ a wandering Aramean ” (Deut.
xxvi. 5). During the whole period of the kings,
Israel sustained relations both warlike and friendly
with the Arameans of the west, whose country, later
called Syria, borders Palestine on the north and
northeast. Traces of this intercourse were left upon
the language of Israel, such as the Aramaisms in the
vocabulary of the older Biblical books.*

Aramaic was destined to become Israel’s vernacu-
lar tongue ; but before this could come about it was
necessary that the national independence should be
destroyed and the people removed from their own
home. These events prepared the way for that great
change by which the Jewish nation parted with its
national tongue and replaced it, in some districts en-
tirely by Aramaic, in others by the adoption of Ar-
amaized-Hebrew forms. The immediate causes of
this linguistic metamorphosis are no longer histor-
ically evident. The event of the Exile

Aramaic itself was by no means a decisive fac-
Displaces tor, for the prophets that spoke to the

Hebrew, people during the Exile and after the
Return in the time of Cyrus, spoke in
their own Hebrew tongue. The single Aramaic sen-
tence in Jer. x. 11 was intended for the information of
non-Jews. But, although the living words of prophet
and poet still resounded in the time-honored lan-
guage, and although Hebrew literature during this
period may be said to have actually flourished,
nevertheless among the large masses of the Jewish
people a linguistic change was in progress. The
Aramaic, already the vernacular of international in-
tercourse in Asia Minor in the time of Assyrian and
Babylonian domination, took hold more and more of
the Jewish populations of Palestine and of Babylonia,
bereft as they were of their own national conscious-
ness. Under the Achaemenidae, Aramaic became the
official tongue in the provinces between the Eu-
phrates and the Mediterranean (see Ezra i v. 7) ; there-
fore the Jews could still less resist the growing
importance and spread of this language. Hebrew dis-
appeared from their daily intercourse and from their
homes; and Neliemiah— this is the only certain infor-
mation respecting the process of linguistic change —
once expressed his disapproval of the fact that the
children of those living in “mixed marriage” could
no longer “speak in the Jews’ language” (Neh.
xiii. 24).

How long this process of Aramaizat ion lasted is not
known. About the year 300 b.c. Aramaic makes
its appearance in Jewish literature. The author of
Chronicles uses a source in which not only documents
concerning the history of the Second Temple are
reproduced in the original Aramaic (Ezra iv. 8-22;
v. 1-6, 12; vii. 12-26), but the connecting narrative
itself is written in Aramaic (Ezra iv. 23, v. 5, vi. 13-
18). In the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, the author

♦[Modern Bible critics have endeavored to determine accu-
rately the influence of Aramaic upon the various authors of Bib-
lical books, and to use the results thus obtained in determining
the age and authorship of the books (see, for example, Konig,
“ Einleitung in das Alte Test.” p. 149 ; Holzinger, “ Einleitung
in den Hexateucb.” passim ; D. Giesebreeht,” Zur Hexateuch-
Kritik,” in Stade’s “ Zeitsehrift,” i. 177 et seq.; and compare
xiii. 309, xiv. 143; S. R. Driver, “Journal of Philology,” xi.
201-236) .— g.]

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aramaic Language

of the Book of Daniel begins his narrative in Hebrew,
but when lie introduces the Babylonian sages and
scholars as speaking Aramaic to the king, as if only
awaiting this opportunity, he continues his history
in Aramaic (Dan. ii. 4, vii. 28).* The employment
of the two languages in these Biblical books well
illustrates their use in those circles in which and for
which the books were written. In point of fact, at
the time of the Second Temple, both languages were
in common use in Palestine : the Hebrew in the acad-
emies and in the circles of the learned, the Aramaic
among the lower classes in the intercourse of daily
life. But the Aramaic continued to spread, and be-
came the customary popular idiom; not, however, to
the complete exclusion of the Hebrew. Nevertheless,
while Hebrew survived in the schools and among
the learned — being rooted, as it were, in the national
mind — it was continuously exposed to the influence
of Aramaic. Under this influence a new form of
Hebrew was developed, which has been preserved in
the tannaitic literature embodying the traditions of
the last two or three centuries before the common
era. So that even in those fields where Hebrew re-
mained the dominant tongue, it was closely pressed
by Aramaic. There is extant an almost unique
halakie utterance in Aramaic (‘Eduy. viii. 4) of
Yose b. Joezer, a contemporary of the author of
Daniel. Legal forms for various public documents,
such as marriage-contracts, bills of divorce, etc.,
were then drawn up in Aramaic. Official mes-
sages from Jerusalem to the provinces were couched
in the same language. The “ List of the Fast -Days ”
(Megillat Ta’anit), edited before the destruction
of the Temple, was written in Aramaic. Josephus
considers Aramaic so thoroughly identical with
Hebrew that he quotes Aramaic words as Hebrew
(“Ant.” iii. 10, § 6), and describes the language
in which Titus’ proposals to the Jerusalemites were
made (which certainly were in Aramaic) as Hebrew
(“B. J.” vi. 2, § 1). It was in Aramaic that Jo-
sephus had written his book on the “Jewish War,”
as he himself informs us in the introduction, before
he wrote it in Greek. That lie meant the Aramaic is
evident from the reason he assigns, namely, that he
desired to make this first attempt intelligible to the
Parthians, Babylonians, Arabs, the Jews living be-
yond the Euphrates, and the inhabitants of Adia-
bene. That the Babylonian diaspora was linguistic-
ally Aramaized is shown by the fact that Hillel loved
to frame his maxims in that language.

The oldest literary monument of the Aramaization
of Israel would be the Takgum, the Aramaic version
of the Scriptures, were it not that this received its
final revision in a somewhat later age. The Tar-
gum, as an institution, reaches back to the earliest
centuries of the Second Temple. Ezra may not have
been, as tradition alleges, the inaugurator of the Tar-
gum ; but it could not have been much after his day

* [Other explanations have been attempted in order to ac-
count for the appearance of both Aramaic and Hebrew in Dan-
iel and Ezra. PTof. Paul Haupt supposes that Daniel was origi-
nally written in Hebrew, that portions of it were lost, and that
these portions were supplied later from an Aramaic translation.
See A. Kamphausen, “The Book of Daniel” (“S. B. 0. T.”), p.
16; J. Marquart, “ Fundamente der Israel, und Jiid. Gesch.”
p. 72.— g.]

that the necessity made itself felt for the supple-
menting of the public reading of the Hebrew text of
Scripture in the synagogue by a trans-
The Tar- lation of it into the Aramaic vernac-
gum, the ular. The tannaitic Halakah speaks of
Aramaic the Targum as an institution closely
Version connected with the public Bible-read-
of the ing, and one of long-established stand-
Scriptures. ing. But, just as the translation of the
Scripture lesson for the benefit of the
assembled people in the synagogue had to be in
Aramaic, so all addresses and homilies hinging upon
the Scripture had to be in the same language. Thus
Jesus and his nearest disciples spoke Aramaic and
taught in it (see Dalman, “Die Worte Jesu”).

When the Second Temple was destroyed, and the
last remains of national independence had perished,
the Jewish people, thus entering upon a new phase
of historical life, had become almost completely an
Aramaic-speaking people. A small section of the
diaspora spoke Greek; in the Arabian peninsula
Jewish tribes had formed who spoke Arabic; and
in different countries there were small Jewish com-
munities that still spoke the ancient language of
their home; but the great mass of the Jewish popu-
lation in Palestine and in Babylonia spoke Aramaic.
It was likewise the language of that majority of the
Jewish race that was of historical importance — those
with whom Jewish law and tradition survived and
developed. The Greek-speaking Jews succumbed
more and more to the influence of Christianity, while
the Jews who spoke other languages were soon lost
in the obscurity of an existence without any history
whatever.

In these centuries, in which Israel’s national lan-
guage became superseded by the Aramaic, the liter-
ature of Tradition arose, in which Aramaic was pre-
dominant by the side of Hebrew ; it was a species of
bilingual literature, expressing the double idiomsof
the circles in which it originated. In the academies
— which, on the destruction of Jerusalem, became
the true foci of Jewish intellectual life — the He-
brew language, in its new form (Mislinaic Hebrew),
became t he language of instruction and of religious
debate. With but few exceptions, all literary ma-
terial, written and oral, of the tannaitic age. whether
of a halakie or non-halakic description, was handed
down in Hebrew. Hence the whole
Language tannaitic literature is strongly distin-
of guished from the post-tannaitic by
Amoraim. this Hebrew garb. The Hebrew lan-
guage was also the language of prayer,
both of the authorized ritual prayers and of private
devotion, as handed down in the cases of individual
sages and pious men. According to a tannaitic Ha-
lakah (Tosef. Hag., beginning; compare Bab. Suk.
42a), every father was bound to teach his child He-
brew as soon as it began to speak. It is no doubt
true that there was a knowledge of Hebrew in non-
scliolarly circles of the Jewish people besides that of
the Aramaic vernacular; indeed, attempts were not
lacking to depose Aramaic altogether as the lan-
guage of daily intercourse, and to restore Hebrew in
its stead. In the house of the patriarch Judah I.,
the female house-servant spoke Hebrew (Meg. 18«).
The same Judah is reported to have said that in the

Aramaic Language

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

land of Israel the use of the Syriac (Aramaic) lan-
guage was unjustifiable; people should speak either
Hebrew or Greek (Sotali 496; B. K. 83rt). This re-
mained of course only a pious wish, exactly as that
deliverance of Joseph, the Babylonian amora in the
fourth century, who said that in Babylon the Ara-
maic language should no longer be used, but instead
the Hebrew or the Persian ( ib .).

When the Mishnah of Judah I. provided new sub-
ject-matter for the studies in the academies of Pales-
tine and Babylonia, the Aramaic language was not
slow in penetrating likewise to those seats of Jewish
scholarship. As shown in the two Talmuds — those
faithful “minutes” of the debates, lectures, and de-
liberations of the colleges — the Amoraim partially
adhered to the Hebrew form of expression for their
propositions find explanations: but the debates and
lectures in the academies, together with the deliber-
ations and discussions of their members, were, as a
rule, in Aramaic; and even the terminology of their
exegeses and dialectics was Aramaized. The older
collections of haggadic Midrash also evidence the
fact that the language of the synagogue addresses
and of the Scripture explanation in theamoraic time
was, for the greater part, Aramaic. As a justifica-
tion for the preponderance thus given to Aramaic
within a field formerly reserved for Hebrew, Jo-
lianan, the great amora of Palestine, said : “ Let not
the Syriac (Aramaic) language be despised in thine
eyes; for in all three portions of sacred Scripture —
in the Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings —
this language is employed.” He then quoted the
Aramaic fragments in Gen. xxxi. 47 ; Jer. x. 11 ; and
Dan. ii. (Yer. Sotali vii. 21c). The same idea is prob-
ably intended to be conveyed by Rab, the great
amora of Babylonia, when lie says that Adam, the
first man, spoke Aramaic, which, therefore, was not
inferior to Hebrew in point of antiquity (Sanh. 386).
But the same Jolianan felt it his duty to oppose the
possibility that Aramaic should ever become the lan-
guage of prayer, by declaring that “ He who recites
his prayers in the Aramaic tongue, will receive no
assistance from the angels in waiting; for they
understand no Aramaic” (Shah. 12 «; Sotali 33«).
This utterance, however, did not prevent the Kad-
disli -prayer — said at the close of the public addresses,
and later of more general employment — from being
recited in amoraic times in the Aramaic language,
or the insertion, later, of other Aramaic portions in
the prayer-ritual.

For more than a thousand years Aramaic remained
the vernacular of Israel, until the conquests of the
Arabs produced another linguistic change, as a
sequel of which a third Semitic language became-
the popular tongue for a large portion of the Jew-
ish race, and the vehicle of their thought. The
spread of Arabian supremacy over the whole country
formerly dominated by the Aramaic

Arabic tongue produced with extraordinary
Displaces rapidity and completeness an Arabi-
Aramaic. zing of both the Christian and Jewish
populations of western Asia, who had
hitherto spoken Aramaic (Syriac). At the beginning
of the ninth century, in districts where the Jews
had previously spoken Aramaic, only Arabic-speak-
ing Jews were to be found; Arabic, as the daily

language of the Jews, held sway even beyond the
territory formerly occupied bj- Aramaic, as far as
the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean; and Aramaic then
became, in a certain measure, a second holy tongue,
next to Hebrew, in the religious and literary life of
the Jewish people.* It was especially to the Ara-
maic Targum that religious sentiment paid the
highest regard, even after it had ceased to be useful
as a vernacular translation of the Hebrew original
— serving only as the subject of pious perusal or of
learned study — and had itself come to require trans-
lation. In the ritual of public worship the custom
survived of accompanying the reading from the
Scriptures with the Targum upon the passage read,
a custom observed for certain festival-readings down
to the very latest centuries. To these Targum se-
lections were added Aramaic poems, some of which
have retained their places in the festival -liturgies.
Aramaic, as the language of the Babylonian Tal-
mud, of course always remained the principal idiom
of halakic literature, which regarded the Babylonian
Talmud as the source for all religio-legal decisions
and as the proper subject for explanatory commen-
taries. In richer and more independent form this
idiom of Aramaic appears in the Halakah in the re-
sponsa of the Geonim; whereas in the still later lit-
erature, the so-called rabbinical idiom is entirely de-
pendent upon the language of the Talmud, although
it but possesses a copious admixture of Hebrew ele-
ments. In the haggadic literature, which developed
wonderfully from the close of the amoraic age until
after the termination of the gaonic period, Aramaic
predominated at first; but in the course of time it
was entirely displaced by Hebrew.

A new field was suddenly conquered by Aramaic
when the Zohar, with its assumed antiquity of
origin, made its entrance into Jewish spiritual life.
This book, which became the most important text-
book of the Cabala, made itself the Holy Bible of all
mystical speculation, and owed not a little of its
influence to the mystic-sounding and
The Zohar. peculiarly sonorous pathos of the
Aramaic tongue, in which it is mainly
written. The Aramaic of the Zohar itself — a clever
reproduction and imitation of an ancient tongue —
served in its turn as a model ; and its phraseology
exerted a very marked influence over other than
cabalistic writers. An Aramaic extract from the
Zohar found its way into the prayer-book (Berik
Shemeli), and is recited before the reading from the
Law in the majority of synagogues of Ashkenazic
ritual. In poetic literature, however, both liturgic
and secular, Aramaic, apart from the above-men-
tioned poems belonging to the Targum, occupied
a steadily decreasing place. Masters of Hebrew
versification, especially under the influence of the
Cabala, tried their skill now and then on Aramaic
poems. An Aramaic poem by Israel Nagara (“ Yah
Ribbon ‘Olam ”) is still widely sung at table after the
Sabbath meal.

* In northern Mesopotamia, in Kurdistan, west ot Lake Ur-
mia, Aramaic dialects are still spoken by Christians and occa-
sionally by the Jews, which dialects are termed “Neo-Syriac.”
[The Jews in those regions call their Aramaic tongue “ Leshon
Galut.” For the literature on the subject, see R. Gottheil, “The
Judaeo-Aramaean Dialect of Salamas,” in “Journal of Amer.
Orient. Soc.” xv. 297 et sea.— g.]

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aramaic Language

In Hebrew philology, Aramaic was especially use-
ful in the explanation of Hebrew words in the Bible;
and it served as the foundation for a comparative
philology of the Semitic languages inaugurated by
Judah ibu Koreish and Saadia. Nevertheless, Ara-
maic was never treated either grammatically or lex-
icographically by the Jews of Spain, in spite of the
high development to which they otherwise carried
philology. In Nathan ben Jehiel’s Talmudical lexi-
con, the ‘Aruk — which covers also the Targumim —
Aramaic naturally occupies the most prominent
place. The first Aramaic lexicon limited to the Tar-
gumim was compiled by Elijah Levita. Among
Jewish scholars of the nineteenth century, Aramaic
grammars have been written by Luzzatto, Fiirst,
B! iiclier, and C. Levias; Jacob Levy published a com-
pendious lexicon of the Targums as well as a large
dictionary of the Talmudic and Midrashic literature,
which distinguishes throughout between Hebrew
and Aramaic ; G. Dalman has published a full glos-
sary, and Marcus Jastrow has nearly completed a
similar work.

The Hebrew word “Aramit,” employed in the
Bible (Dan. ii. 4 — •“ Syriac ” in A. V.— and elsewhere)
to designate the Aramaic language, is similarly used
in later times, particularly in Babylonia ; while in Pal-
estine as early as the taunaitic period, the Aramaic lan-
guage is also called Sursi by reason of the Greek des-
ignation of the Arameans as Syrians. The second book
of Maccabees calls it “the Syriac tongue ” (>) Zvpiaur)
<puv>/) ■ and the Septuagint translates “ Aramit ” (Dan.
ii. 4, etc.) by avptari ; compare Yer. Ned. x. 42a, where
read poD'IlD for po3’HD. Among Christian Ara-
means, Syriac is the exclusive appellation for their
language; and the Arabic form of this term, “Sur-
yani,” was the usual designation for Aramaic among
the Arabic-speaking Jews. In addition to these two
chief names for Aramaic, other terms were also em-
ployed in Jewish circles: Targum (lit-
Names and erally “ translation ” of the Bible, spe-

Dialects cifically the Aramaic version) denoted
of Aramaic, the language of the Aramaic portions
of the Bible. But the Syrian inhabi-
tants of the town lying below the monastery on Mount
Sinai were described by Benjamin of T udela as speak-
ing the “ Targum language ” (leshon Targum). The
Aramaic of the Bible (Daniel and Ezra) was called the
Chaldaic language because of Dan. i. 4 (Masora upon
Oukelos; Saadia); Jerome, too, calls it “Chaldaicus
Sermo.” The term “ Chaldaic ” for the Biblical Ara-
maic, and indeed for Aramaic generally, is a mis-
nomer, persisted in, moreover, until the present day.
It is also called “ Nabataean ” — denoting, according to
Bar-Hebraeus, the dialect of certain mountaineers of
Assyriaandof villagers in Mesopotamia— which is the
term used by Saadia to denote Aramaic in his trans-
lation of Isa. xxxvi. 11. Likewise in his introduction
to the book “Sefer ha-Galui” he complains that the
Hebrew of his Jewish contemporaries had become
corrupted by the Arabic and “Nabataean.” This
designation is due to Arabic influence (“Jew. Quart.
Rev.” xii. 517).

Aramaic contributions to Jewish literature belong
to both the eastern and the western branches of the
language. West Aramaic are the Aramaic portions
of the Bible, the Palestinian Targumim, the Ara-

maic portions of the Palestinian Talmud, and the
Palestinian Midrashim. In Palestinian Aramaic the
dialect of Galilee was different from that of Judea,
and as a result of the religious separation of the
Jews and the Samaritans, a special Samaritan dia-
lect was evolved, but its literature can not be con-
sidered Jewish. To the eastern Aramaic, whose
most distinctive point of difference is “u” in place
of “y ” as the prefix for the third person masculine
of the imperfect tense of the verb, belong the idioms
of the Babylonian Talmud, which most closely agree
with the language of the Mandaean writings. The
dialect of Edessa, which, owing to the Bible version
made in it, became the literary language of the
Christian Arameans — bearing preeminently the title
of Syriac — was certainly also employed in ancient
times by Jews. This Syriac translation of the Bible,
the so-called Peshitta, was made partly by Jews and
was intended for the use of Jews; and one book
from it has been adopted bodily into Targumic lit-
erature, as the Targum upon Proverbs.

For detailed information concerning the Aramaic
literature of the Jews, see the respective articles.
Only a summary is proper here, as follows:

(1) The Aramaic portions of the Bible already
mentioned.

(2) The Targum literature includes: (a) The two
Targums to the Pentateuch and to the Prophets
respectively, which received the official sanction of
the Babylonian academic authorities. Both orig-
inated in Palestine, and received their final form in
the Babylonian colleges of the third and fourth cen-
turies. That to the Pentateuch, owing to the mis-
understanding of a statement concerning the Bible
translation made by Akylas (Aquila), was denomi-
nated the Targum of Onkelos (‘Akylas). That to the
Prophets is ascribed by ancient tradition to a disciple
of Ilillel, Jonathan b.Uzziel: ( b ) The Palestinian Tar-
gum to the Pentateuch, the full text of which has
come down to us only in a late recension, where it
has been combined with the Targum Onkelos. In-
stead of being called by its proper name, Targum Ye-
ruslialmi, this full text had erroneously been called by
the name of Jonathan. A less interpolated form of
the Targum Yerushalmi to the Pentateuch revealed
numerous fragments that must have been collected
at an early period. There are also Palestinian frag-
ments of the Targum to the Prophets.* (c) The Tar-
gums to the Hagiographa vary greatly in character.

A special group is formed by those of
Extent the Psalms and Job. According to

of Aramaic well-founded tradition there was as

Literature, early as the first half of the first cen-
tury of the common era a Targum to
Job. The Targum to Proverbs belongs, as already
mentioned, to the Syrian version of the Bible. The
Five Rolls had their own Targums; the Book of
Esther several of them. The Targum to Chronicles
was discovered latest of all.

(3) Aramaic Apocrypha : There was at least a par-
tial Aramaic translation of the book of Siracli as early
as the time of the Amoraim. A portion of the Ara-
maic sentences of Siracli, intermingled with other

* [On a peculiar Targum to the Haftarot, see R. Gottheil," Jour-
nal of Amer. Orient Soc. Proceedings,” xiv. 43 ; Abrahams,
“ Jew. Quart. Rev.” xi. 295 ; “ Monatsschrift,” xxxix. 394.— G.]

Aramaic Language
Ararat

THE JEWISH EXCYCLOPEDIA

matter, is extant in the “ Alphabet of Ben Sira. ” The
Aramaic “Book of the Hasmonean House,” also en-
titled “Antioclius’ Roll,” contains a narrative of the
Maccabeans’ struggles, and was known in the early
gaonic period. A “Chaldaic” Book of Tobit was
utilized by Jerome, but the Aramaic Book of Tobit
found by Neubauer, and published in 1878, is a later
revision of the older text. An Aramaic Apocryphal
addition to Esther is the “Dream of Mordecai,” of
Palestinian origin.

(4) Megillat Ta'anit, the Fast Roll, is a list of the
historically “ memorable days,” drawn up in almanac
form. It was compiled before the destruction of the
Second Temple, edited in the Hadrianic period, and
later on augmented by various Hebrew annotations
mostly of the tannaitic age.

(5) The Palestinian Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi),
completed in the beginning of the fifth century.

(6) The Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Babli), com-
pleted at the end of the fifth century. The Aramaic
contents of both Talmuds are the most important and
also the most abundant remains of the Aramaic idiom
used by the Jews of Palestine and Babylonia respect-
ively. The numerous stories, legends, anecdotes, con-
versations, and proverbs reveal faithfully the actual
language of the popular usage. Neither Talmud is,
however, entirely an Aramaic work. As the utter-
ances of the Amoraim and their halakic discussions
retain a great deal of the New Hebrew idiom of the
tannaitic literature, both idioms were employed in the
academies. Moreover, a large proportion of the ma-
terial contained in the Talmud is composed of the ut-
terances of tannaitic tradition that were couched only
in Hebrew.

(7) The Midrasli Literature: Of this branch the
following are especially rich in Aramaic elements:
Genesis Rabbali, Leviticus Rabbali, Lamentations
Rabbati, the Midrash Hazita upon the Song of Songs,
and the old Pesikta. The Rabbot Midrashim on Ruth ,
Esther, and Ecclesiastes, and the Midrash on the
Psalms, contain also much Aramaic. The younger
Midrashim, especially those belonging to the Yelam-
denu (or Tanhuma) group, are, in part, the Hebrew
revisions of originally Aramaic portions. The Ara-
maic parts of the older Midrashim are linguistically
allied most closely to the idiom of the Palestinian
Talmud.

(8) The Masorali. The terminology of the Masorah,
which, in its beginnings, belongs to the amoraic
period, and the language of the oldest Masoretic an-
notations and statements, are Aramaic.

(9) The Gaonic Literature : The legal decisions of
the Geonim were for the greater part written in Ara-
maic, in harmony with the language of the Babylo-
nian Talmud; but they possessed this advantage, at
least in the first few centuries, that this was likewise
the living language of the people. The same is true
concerning those two works of the older gaonic pe-
riod, the “She’eltot” and the “Halakot Gedolot,”
which contain some material not found in the vo-
cabulary of the Talmud.

(10) Liturgical Literature: In addition to the Kad-
dish already mentioned, several liturgical pieces
originating in Babylon received general acceptance
throughout the diaspora. Such were the two prayers
beginning “ Yekum Purkan ” in the Sabbatli-morning

service, the introductory sentences of the Passover
Haggadah, and certain older portions of the liturgy
for penitential days.* The Aramaic poems intro-
ducing certain Targumic selections from the Penta-
teuch have been mentioned above.

(11) Cabalistic Literature: The revival of Ara-
maic as the literary language of the Cabala by the
Zohar has already been mentioned.

(12) Rabbinical Literature: The Aramaic coloring
of a large proportion of the works commenting upon
the Babylonian Talmud, as well as of other produc-
tions of halakic lore continuing the literature of the
gaonic age, was derived from the Babylonian Tal-
mud, from which the terminology and phraseology
were adopted at the same time as the contents.

Bibliography : Th . Noldeke, Die Scmitisclicn Spraclien , 2d
ed., Leipsic, 1899 ; G. Dalman, Einleitung zu einer Gram-
rnatik des JUdisch-Paldstinensischen AramUisch , Leipsic,
1894 ; idem. Die Wnrte Jesu, pp. 80 et seq ., Leipsic, 1898 ; A .
Biichler, Die Priester und der Cultvs , Vienna, 1895 ; S. Krauss,
Jew. Quart. Rev. viii. 67. Upon the liturgical Aramaic lit-
erature, see Zunz, Literaturgesch. pp. 18-22; Bacher, in
Monatsschrift , 1873, xxii. 220-228.

g. W. B.

ARAMAIC VERSIONS. See Bible Trans-
lations; Takgum.

ARANDA, PEDRO DE : Bishop of Calaliorra
and president of the council of Castile in the latter
part of the fifteenth century ; was a victim of the
Marano persecutions. His father, Gonzalo Alonzo,
who was one of the Jews that embraced Christianity
in the period of Vicente Ferrer’s missionary propa-
ganda during the early years of the fifteenth cen-
tury, adopted the life of an ecclesiastic. Aranda’s
brother, too, earned episcopal honors, being placed
at Montreal, Sicily.

Torquemada, the inquisitor-general, in the course
of the Marano persecutions, brought against Pedro
the charge that his father had died a Marano. A
similar accusation was made at the same time
against another bishop, Juan Arias Davila, of Sego-
via. The inquisitor-general demanded, therefore,
not only that the bones of the deceased suspects
should be exhumed and burned, but that their sons,
too, should be disgraced and deprived of their es-
tates. Sixtus IV. , however, resented such summary
degradation of high ecclesiastics, fearing that it
would lead to the dishonor of the Church. He fur-
ther set forth in a letter directed against Torque-
mada’s exaggerated zeal, that, in accordance with
an old tradition, distinguished personages of the
Church could only be tried for heresy by specially
appointed apostolic commissions. It was ordered
that specifications of the charges against Davila and
Aranda be forwarded to Rome; and an extraor-
dinary papal nuncio, Antonio Palavicini, was sent
to Castile to institute investigations. As a result,
both bishops were summoned to Rome, where subse-
quently several distinctions were accorded to Davila,
who during the remainder of his life enjoyed high
honors.

* It is curious to note that the Yemen Siddur contains a larger
quantity of Aramaic than the Siddurim of other countries. A
unique Targum of the 'Amidah (Teflllah) is to be found in a
Yemen MS. (Gaster, No. 61) of the seventeenth or eighteenth
century ; it has been printed in the “ Monatsschrift,” xxxix. 79
et seq.— G.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aramaic Lang-uag-e
Ararat

Aranda, too, at the outset won apostolic favor,
and was even advanced to the office of prothonotary ;
but on account of his wealth he soon fell a victim
to the cupidity of the pope. He was arraigned for
having taken food before mass and for having dese-
crated, by scratching, a crucifix and other holy
images. Moreover, a delegation of seven Maranos
from Portugal happened to be in Rome at the time
for the avowed purpose of purchasing for their con-
stituents the good-will of the pope and his advisers.
They had managed to win the favorable considera-
tion of the papal court, but their efforts were reso-
lutely opposed by Garcilaso, the ambassador of Fer-
dinand and Isabella. Observing the pope’s resolve
to imprison Aranda, Garcilaso pointed out the sus-
picion that was likely to arise in the popular mind

to the Hungarian Diet. The German family name is
Aufreeht.

Bibliography : SzinnyH, Magyar Irak Tara, i. ; Orszdgyli-
lesi Almanack, 1897.

S. M. W.

ARARAT : A district in eastern Armenia Ivin
between the lakes Van and Urmia and the rive
Araxes. The Biblical name corresponds to the Assyr-
ian TJrartu, a land invaded and partially conquered by
Assliurnazir-pal and Shalmaneser II. The Assyrian
cuneiform characters were introduced into the land of
Urartu as early as the ninth century n.c., and many
monumental inscriptions have been discovered within
its boundaries. About the middle of the ninth cen-
tury a strong native dynasty was established, and con-

Mount Ararat.

(From a photograph taken by special permission of the Russian government.)

from the anomalous incarceration of Aranda while
the Marano delegates, indubitable heretics, were
granted favor and freedom. As a consequence,
Aranda and five of the Maranos were arrested and
thrown into prison ; Pedro Essecuator and Aleman
Eljurado, the two leading members of the delega-
tion, succeeded in escaping (April 20, 1497). Thus
bereft of his worldly and ecclesiastic estate, Aranda
ended his days at the San Angelo.

Bibliography : Gratz, Oescli. der Juden, 3d ed., viii. 318, 385.

g. H. G. E.

ARANYI, MIKSA : Hungarian writer; born
at Trencsen, May 13, 1858. He graduated from the
university in Budapest, and was sent to Paris by
the secretary of state for education to finish his
studies. He returned to Budapest in 1884, where
he edited the “ Gazette de Hongrie ” till 1887. He
translated several economic works from Hungarian
into French, and up to the year 1901 was deputy

| tinned to rule until the Assyrian power was revived
by Tiglath-pileser III., about 740 n.c. Fora genera-
| tiou Urartu was invaded by Assyrian armies, until at
last it again attained independence. This it retained
until it was overrun by the Scythians about the end
I of the seventh century. Thus from the ninth to the
sixth century b.c., the land of Urartu or Ararat oc-
cupied a prominent place among the minor states of
southwestern Asia, and is referred to four times in
the Biblical narrative. In II Kings xix. 37 (= Isa.
xxxvii. 38) the fact is recorded that the assassins of
the Assyrian king Sennacherib fieil to the land of
Ararat, where they found refuge with the reigning
king Erimenas. In Jer. li. 27, Ararat is mentioned
first among the hostile nations which are called upon
to advance from the north and overthrow the power
of Babylon. The most familiar reference, however,
is that of Gen. viii. 4: “In the seventh month, on the
seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon
the mountains of Ararat.”

be £

Ararat
Arba‘ Kanfot

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

In the older Babylonian story of the flood the ark
(or “ ship ”) is represented as resting on a peak of “ the
mountain of Nizir,” situated east of the land of As-
syria. Berosus, the Chaldean priest, in his history
fixes the site in “the mountain of the Kordyseans ”
or Kurds, northeast of Mosul, in the direction of
Urumiah (Josephus, “Ant.” i. 3, § C); and Nicolaus
of Damascus states that the ark rested on a great
mountain in Armenia, somewhere near the boundary
between that land and Kurdistan. The principle de-
termining these various identifications seems to have
been that the ark rested on the highest point on the
earth, which was, therefore, the first to emerge from
the waters of the flood. Thus the peoples living
between the Tigris and the Euphrates naturally de-
cided that it was on the lofty mountains to the north-
east in the land of the Kurds. This belief of the
Babylonians, quoted by Josephus, is still held by
the Nestorians and Moslems. The Biblical reference
is indefinite; but of all the mountains in the ancient
land of Ararat, the lofty peak which towers 14,000
feet above the encircling plain, reaching a total
height of 17,000 feet above sea-level, is without a
rival. Its steepness emphasizes its great elevation,
and may well have impressed upon the minds of
travelers of antiquity the fact that it was higher than
the Kurdish mountains two hundred miles away. It
may also explain why the writer in Genesis appar-
ently abandoned the older conflicting Babylonian
traditions and fixed upon this imposing, solitary peak
far to the northwest.

The mountain itself is known as Ararat only
among Occidental geographers. The Armenians
call it Massis, the Turks Aghri Dagh, and the Per-
sians Koh i Null, or “ the mountain of Noah.” Thus
far it lias been impossible to trace back to an early
date an independent native tradition. Apparently
the local legends which have clothed it with mys-
tery, and which would place upon it the remains of
the original ark, are based upon the passage in Gen-
esis, and have been largely induced in comparatively
recent times by the influence of Western Christianity.
Superstitious fear and natural difficulties prevent
the natives from attempting the ascent of the moun-
tain ; but its top has repeatedly been reached by Eu-
ropeans, and its geological peculiarities have been
noted. Its cone is the crater of an extinct volcano,
and because of its great height it is snow-capped
throughout the year.

Bihlioor^phv : For the geography of Urartu see Sayce, Cunei-
form Inscriptions of Van, in Journal Royal Asiat ic Society,

vol. xiv.; Schrader, C. I. O. 'I'., Index, s.w.; idem, K. O.F.,

Index, s.v.

J. JR. C. F. K.

ARARAT. — A City of Refuge : A proposed
city planned by Mordecai Manuel Noah in 1825.
The reactionary policy adopted by many European
governments after the battle of Waterloo led to tlie
reimposition in many places of Jewish disabilities;
and Jews laboring under them turned eagerly to
emigration for relief. Mordecai M. Noah, in his jour-
neys to and from his post of United States consul at
Tunis, had occasion to familiarize himself with the
conditions of Jews in various parts of Europe and
Africa ; and he could not refrain from contrasting the
civil and political restrictions placed on the Jews

abroad with the equality of rights and opportuni-
ties for enterprise and worldly success accorded to
them in America. The consequence was that, in
1825, less than a decade after his return to New
York, he conceived and published a plan for the
establishment of “a city of refuge for the Jews,”
on a site which he selected upon Grand Island, in
the Niagara river, near Niagara Falls, not far from
Buffalo, N. Y. To this proposed city he gave the
name “Ararat,” thereby linking it with his own
name and personality, and at the same time suggest-
ing the nature of his scheme.

At that time Noah was perhaps the most distin-
guished Jewish resident of America ; and his success-
ful and varied activities as lawyer and editor, poli-
tician and playwright, diplomat and sheriff of New
York, lent to his project considerable importance.
Accordingly, he induced a wealthy Christian friend
to purchase several thousand acres of land on Grand
Island for this purpose. The tract was chosen with
particular reference to its promising commercial
prospects (being close to the Great Lakes and oppo-
site the newly constructed Erie Canal); and Noah
deemed it “ preeminently calculated to become, in
time, the greatest trading and commercial depot in
the new and better world. ” Buffalo, at that time,
had not grown to its present commercial importance,
and Noah, in sober earnest, anticipated Carlyle’s sa-
tirical prediction by describing the Falls of Niagara
as “affording the greatest water-power in the world
for manufacturing purposes.” After heralding this
project for some time in his own newspaper and
in the press, religious and secular, generally, Noah

Foundation-Stone of the Proposed City of Ararat.

selected Sept. 2, 1825, as the date for laying the
foundation-stone of the new city. According to
plan, impressive ceremonies, ushered in by the
firing of cannon, were held, and participated in by
state and federal officials, Christian clergymen, Ma-
sonic officers, and even American Indians, whom
Noah identified as the “ lost tribes ” of Israel, and
who were also to find refuge at this new “Ararat.”

Circumstances made it inconvenient to hold the
exercises on Grand Island; so they were held in-
stead in an Episcopal church at Buffalo. Noah was
naturally the central figure; and, after having ap-
pointed himself “judge and governor” of Israel, he
issued a “ proclamation ” in that official capacity. In
this “ state paper, ” he announced the restoration of
a Jewish state on Grand Island, preliminarily to a
restoration'of a Palestinian state; commanded that
a census of the Jews be taken throughout the world ;
levied a poll-tax of three shekels in silver per an-
num, to be paid into his treasury by Jews every-
where ; graciously permitted such Jews as wished to

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ararat
Arba' Kanfot

remain in their adopted homes to stay there ; directed
Jewish soldiers in European armies to remain in such
service till further “ orders ” ; ordained certain relig-
ious reforms; made provision for the election every
four years of a “judge of Israel,” with deputies
in each country; commanded the Jews throughout
the world to cooperate with him, and appointed as
his commissioners a number of distinguished Euro-
J pean Jews.

Nothing came of the plan. The proposed city w as
never built, and it is even doubtful if Noah himself
i ever set foot on Grand Island. The letters of some
of those nominated as European commissioners, de-
clining the proffered appointments, have been handed
down through the medium of the press of that day,
which freely ridiculed the whole project. In the
course of one of these letters, the grand rabbi of
Paris said :

“ We declare that, according to our dogmas, God alone knows
the epoch of the Israelitish restoration ; that He alone will make
it known to the whole universe by signs entirely unequivocal ;
and that every attempt on our part to reassemble with any polit-
ical national design is forbidden as an act of high treason against
the Divine Majesty. Mr. Noah has doubtless forgotten that the
Israelites, faithful to the principles of their belief, are too much
attached to the countries where they dwell, and devoted to the
governments under which they enjoy liberty and protection, not
to treat as a mere jest the chimerical consulate of a pseudo-
restorer.”

To-day, the only tangible relic of the entire proj-
ect is the foundation-stone of the proposed city,
preserved in the rooms of the Buffalo Historical
Society, with the inscription of 1825 still legible
upon its face. It is but fair to Noah to state that
his plan was to establish “Ararat” as a merely
temporary city of refuge for the Jew's, until in the
fulness of time a Palestinian restoration could be
effected; and that he developed plans and projects
for such Palestinian restoration both a few years
before and twenty years after the year 1825, iu
which year this “Ararat” project began and ended.

Bibliography: Lewis F. Allen, Founding of the City of Ara-
rat on Grand Island by Mordecai M. Noah, iu Buffalo His-
torical Society Publications , vol. i., reprinted as an appendix
to Some Early American Zionist Projects, by Max J. Kohler
(Am. Jew. Hist. Soc. Publications, No. 8); Daly, Set-
tlement of the Jews in North America, 1893; Simon Wolf,
Mordecai Manuel Noah, A Biographical Sketch, 1897;
Jost , Neuere Geschiehte der Juden, ii. 227-235, Berlin, 1847.
An interesting account of the project, in the guise of Action,
is furnished by Israel Zangwill in They that Walk in Dark-
ness (1899), in Noah's Ark.

a. M. J. K.

A.RAUNAH ; A Jebusite whose threshing-floor
in Jerusalem was 'pointed out to David by the
j prophet Gad as a fitting place for the erection of an
altar of burnt offering to Jehovah after the great
plague had been stayed, since it was there that the
destroying angel was standing when the pestilence
was checked (II Sam. xxiv. 16 et seq. ; I Chron. xxi.
15 et seq.). David then went to Araunali, and for fifty
pieces of silver bought the property and erected the
altar. It is remarkable that Chronicles give the form
Oman for the Jebusite’s name. A conjecture by
Cheyne, founded on the slight emendation of 1 to “j,
makes the true form of the name to be Adonijah.
According to I Chron. xxi. 31, Hebr. ; xxii. 1, A.V.,
the threshing-floor must have been Mt. Moriah.

•t. .in. J. F. McC.

ARAUXO, ABRAHAM GOMEZ DE: Lived
in the seventeenth century. He was a member of a
poetical academy in Amsterdam, Holland, iu 1682, a
good mathematician, and aroused the admiration of
his associates by his clever solution of riddles.

g. M. K.

ARAUXO, DANIEL : Physician. Lived in the
seventeenth century in the city of Amsterdam. In
the year 1655 he composed an elegy on the martyr
Isaac de Almeyda Bernal.

g. M. K.

ARBA : The hero of the Anakim, who lived at
Kirjatli-arba, a city named in his honor (Josh. xiv.
15). In Josh. xv. 13 and xxi. 11 he is called the
father of Anak, which evidently' means that he was
regarded as the ancestor of the Anakim.

J. JK. G. B. L.

ARBA* ARAZOT. See Council of tiie Four
Lands.

ARBA* KANFOT (“four corners”): The “four-
cornered garment”; a rectangular piece of cloth,
usually of wool, about three feet long and one foot
wide, with an aperture in the center sufficient to let
it pass over the head, so that part falls in front and
part behind. To its four corners are fastened the
fringes (Zizit) in the same manner as to the Tallit.
It is therefore also called the “small tallit” (tallit
katon).

The Arba‘ Kanfot, like the tallit, is worn by male
personsin pursuance of t lie commandment, as record
ed in Num. xv. 37-41 and Deut. xxii.
The Arba‘ 12, to wear a garment with fringes. But
Kanfot and while the tallit is thrown over the up-
the Tallit. per garments only in the morning serv-
ice, the Arba‘ Kanfot is worn under
the upper garments during the whole day. In put-
ting on the tallit the benediction to be pronounced
reads: “ Blessed art Thou, Lord our God. King of the
universe, who hath commanded us to wrap ourselves
in fringes” (JVV'VH F|OJ?ni"6). The conclusion of the
benediction on the Arba' Kanfot reads: “ . . . and
hath commanded us the commandment of fringes”
(Shulhan ‘Aruk, Orah Hayyim, 8, 12). Among the
Ashkenazim the tallit is used by males over thirteen,
while the Arba‘ Kanfot is provided also for children
as soon as they are able to put on their clothes with-
out assistance.

There is no trace of the Arha‘ Kanfot among the
Oriental Jews of the Middle Ages (compare Leopold
Low, “Gesammelte Schriften,” ii. 320.

Origin of Szegedin, 1890; Israel Abrahams,
the Arba* “Jewish Life in the Middle Ages,” p.

Kanfot. 287, Philadelphia, 1897). It may be
assumed that it was adopted by the
European Jews in the times of persecution, when
they had to refrain from exhibiting the garment with
fringes. The wearing of such a garment as an outer
robe was therefore limited to the synagogue, while
the precept to wear fringes at all times was fulfilled
in the wearing of the Arba‘ Kanfot. Some super-
stitions have gathered round the wearing of the
Arba‘ Kanfot in Eastern districts; the placing of a
piece of “afikomen” in one of the corners of the
Arba‘ Kanfot was supposed to avert the evil eye

Arba‘ Kanfot
Arcadius

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

(see Afikomen). In Moravia the Arba‘ Kanfot is
often left on the body in the grave.

[The oldest mention of the Arba‘ Kanfot is found

Arba' Kanfot.

(Reproduced by permission from the collection in the United States National
Museum.)

in the code of Jacob ben Asher, about 1350 (Tur Orah
Ilayyim, xxiv.), who refers to Mordecai as quoted in
the “Bet Yosef”), where, however, the custom is
merely alluded to (Mordecai’s annotations to Alfasi,
§ 945, ed. Vienna, vol. i., 82c.). — D.]

Bibliography : Men. 38 et scq.; Maimonides, Yad lia-Haza-
kah, Zizit ; Shulhan ‘ Aruk , Orah Hayyim , 8-10.

A. ' J. M. C.

ARBACH HAYYIM B. JACOB. See

Drucker, Hayyim: b. Jacob.

ARBATTIS : A place mentioned in I Macc. v.
23 in connection with Galilee, from both of which
districts Simon Maccabeus brought back some cap-
tive Jews to Jerusalem. Its situation has not been
positively determined.

J. jk. G. B. L.

ARBEL. See Betii-Arbel.

ARBELA. — Biblical Data : In I Macc. ix. 2,
Arbela is the district in which Mesaloth was situated,
and through which ran the road to Gilgal (for which
Josephus, “Ant.” xii. 11, § 1, gives Galilee). It is
probably to be identified with the modern “ Irbid. ”

Bibliography : Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy
Land , p. 437.

j. jr. G. B. L.

In Rabbinical Literature : Arbela is men-
tioned in rabbinical sources as the home of a scholar
named Nitai (Mattai), who lived in the middle of the
second century before the common era (Abot i. 6).
The Galilean Arbela, not far from Lake Genuesaret,
is intended, where, in the twelfth century, this schol-
ar’s grave was still pointed out (Petlialiiah of Re-
gensburg, “Travels,” ed. Margolin, p. 53). Accord-
ing to an old Baraita, familiar to the poet Eliezer
Kalir, Arbela was a priests’ city at the time of the
destruction of the Temple, and even in later cen-
turies it seems to have been an important town.
Mention is made of Arbelan linen (Gen. R. xix., be-
ginning), which was of inferior quality; also, of
Arbelan spindles (Tosef., Parali xii. 16). Talmud
and Midrash speak frequently of the Valley of
Arbela. Josephus also mentions the caves in the
vicinity.

Medieval Jewish literature often refers to the ruins
of the synagogue of Arbela (Carmoly, “ Itineraires
de la Terre Sainte,” p. 259), which are preserved to-
day in the village of Irbid, as the Arabic form of the
name runs. This Arbela, however, is undoubtedly
distinct from the Arbela where the exilarch Mar
Ukba dwelt (Yer. Sotah iv. 19 d), seeing that that
scholar could hardly have ever been in Palestine.
Accordingly, the Arbela in Adiabeue, between the
Lycus and the Caprus, 600 stadia (69 miles) from
Gaugamela, must be understood; and it is probable
that to this city Benjamin of Tudela refers (“Itin-
erary,” ed. Asher, i. 52, below).

Bibliography: Jastrow, Dictionary, it. 114; Kohut, .1 ruch
Completum, i. 368; Pauly-Wissowa, Ucal-Encyclopltdie, ii.
407 ; Rapoport, ‘ Erek Millin, pp. 191, 193 : Schiirer, Gesch.
des Jlldischen Vo ikes, i. 290, ii. 369 ; Neubauer, G. T. pp.
219,320, 374; Hirschensohu, Sheba" Hokmot , p. 43, Lem-
berg, 1883.

L. G.

ARBIB, EDUARDO : Italian deputy and au-
thor ; born at Florence, July 27, 1840. On the death of
his father he was obliged to discontinue his studies
and earn his livelihood as compositor and corrector

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arba‘ Kanfot
Arcadius

[for the press. In 1859 he enlisted as a volunteer in
the Piedmontese regiment of Alpine chasseurs, and
I took part in the war for independence. The war
j over, he returned to the printing-house, which
he left again to follow Garibaldi to Sicily in 18G0.

' He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on
l the battle-field of Milazzo, and entered the regular
army with the same grade. Arbib served in the
I campaign against Austria in 1866, and on the cessa-
! tion of hostilities he retired from the army and found
1 employment on the staff of “La Nazione,” a news-
, paper published in Florence; subsequently he be-
j came editor-in-chief of the “ Gazzetta del Popolo ” in
i the same city. Ultimately he removed to Rome,
j where in 1870 he founded a daily newspaper, “La
Liberia.” His political career began in 1880, when
he was elected by the citizens of Viterbo as their
i representative in the Chamber of Deputies ; and some
time later he was elected to the Chamber by the peo-
ple of Perugia. His contributions to Italian litera-
ture are: (1) “L’Esercito Italiano alia Campagna del
1866 ” ; (2) “ Raconti Militari ” (1870), in the “ Biblio-
teca Amena” (vol. lxv.); (3) “Guerra in Famiglia”
<1871); (4) “ La Moglie Nera ” (1874); (5) “Rabagas
Bandiere ” (1878).

s. M. K— F. H. V.

ARBIB, ISAAC. See Arroya, Isaac ben

MOSES.

ARBUES, PEDRO: Spanish canon and inquisi-
tor; called by certain Jews “the creature and dar-
ling of Torquemada”; born about 1441 at Epila,
Aragon (hence sometimes styled “master of Epila ”);
died Sept. 17, 1485. He was appointed canon of
Saragossa in 1474; and ten years later Torquemada
appointed him and the Dominican Gaspar Juglar
inquisitors for the province of Aragon. The zeal
, exhibited by Torquemada in his religious persecu-
! tions was emulated by Arbues, who in the first
month of his office held two autos da fe, at which
several Maranos were executed, and others were con-
demned to penance and loss of property. Though
! no record of further trials exists, he must have con-
tinued to be active in persecution, as the Maranos
were so enraged that his assassination was deter-
mined upon. The olfer of enormous sums to Ferdi-
nand and Isabella to induce them to limit the activity
of the Inquisition and the confiscation of property
had been fruitless, and, after consultation with
newly converted Jews — some of whom were men of
high rank, like Gabriel Sanchez, the king’s treasurer
— the extreme step was taken by two wealthy Ma-
ranos, Juan de la Abadia and Juan Esperandeu, with
the hired help of an assassin, the latter’s French
servant, Vidal, probably a Jew. Abadia’s incentive
was doubtless the execution of his sister and the
condemnation of his father by the Inquisition. An
attempt to enter Arbues’ bedchamber failed ; but the
design was accomplished while he was attending
mass. Two days later he died from his wounds.

The retaliation on the Maranos, not all of whom
were implicated, was awful. Vidal and Esperandeu
were cruelly put to death; and Abadia made an
attempt at suicide while awaiting his auto da fe.
On Arbues’ death, popular belief invested him with
miraculous power. A Jewess saved herself from

death by proving that from Catholic zeal she had
dipped her handkerchief in his blood. His canoni-
zation by Pius IX. (1867) aroused protests not only
from Jews, but from Christians. The general senti-
ment against the act is illustrated by the well-known
charcoal drawing of Kaulbacli, “ Peter Arbues Burn-
ing a Heretic Family." Arbues is represented as old
and decrepit, and taking fiendish delight in the suf-
ferings of his victims, who are probably Maranos.

Bibliography: H. C. Lea, Publications of the, American

Hint. Assn. December, ISSS; Chapters from the Religious

History of Spain, pp. 374 et seq.; Dublin Unit). Mag. 1S74,

lxxxiv. 334 et seu.

g. M. K.— W. M.

ARCADIUS : Byzantine emperor from 395 to
408. He was too weak a ruler to be able to with-
stand the influence exerted by his court favorites
upon his policy toward the Jews. Such privileges
as were accorded them were due to his privy coun-
selor, Eutropius (396-399), who easily allowed him-
self to be bribed into favoring the Jews. (See
Pauly-Wissowa, “ Realencyelopitdie der Class. Al-
terthumswisseusch.” s.v.) The laws curtailing the
various favors already granted to the Jews are sup-
posed by Griitz (“Gesch. der Juden,” 3d ed., iv. 359)
to have been promulgated after the death of Eutro-
pius. A law of the year 396 forbids, under penalty
of imprisonment, any imperial officer from fixing the
price on Jewish merchandise brought to market ; the
privilege is left to the Jews themselves (Codex Theo-
dosianus, xvi. 8,10). Still, in this law no reference
is had to Jewish market-inspectors, as Griitz infers.
It is a matter relating solely to the non-liability of
the Jews to the law, Deprelio rerum venalium, which
was already in existence in the reign of Diocletian.
The same spirit of justice manifests itself in another
law of Arcadius: “It is sufficiently well known that
the sect of the Jews is not limited in its rights by
any law ” (ib. xvi. 8, 9). In the same year (396), Arca-
dius issued an edict addressed to Claudianus, the
“comes” of the Orient, wherein he is ordered to pro-
tect the “illustrious patriarch ” against insult (§ 11).
He al^o commanded the prefect of Illyria (in 397) to
prevent any ill treatment of the Jews, and to guard
their synagogues against any disturbance “of their
wonted peaceful condition” (§ 12). Moreover, the
Jewish patriarchs, as well as all of their legal func-
tionaries, such as the archisynagogoi and presbyters,
were to enjoy the same privileges as the Christian
clergy, and be relieved of curial taxes. In the last
clause, Arcadius refers to the measures of the emper-
ors, Constantine the Great, Constantius, Valentiuian,
and Valens; but Gothofredus remarks concerning
this law (§ 13) that the privilege was suspended
under Valens in 383. In 404 Arcadius again con-
firmed these privileges to the patriarchs and other
officials of the Jewish communities, and once more
with reference to his father, the legislator, the em-
peror Theodosius (§ 14). All of these laws may be
found chronological ly arranged in the section of the
Digest, “De Judseis, Ccelicolis et Samaritanis.” But
laws concerning the Jews emanating from Arcadius
are also found in other portions of the codex of Theo-
dosius. In February, 398, Arcadius ordered that in
all civil contests, if both parties agreed, the Jews
might elect their patriarchs or any other officers as

Archa

Archeology

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

judges; but the execution of their sentences was
placed in the hands of Roman officials appointed for
that purpose. In all matters not pertaining to re-
ligion, the Jews had to conform to the requirements
of the Roman law (“Corpus,” II. i. 10). The ordi-
nance of 399 does not read as Grsitz has it, that all
Jews, including their religious officials, are subject
to the curial taxation, but refers to all the Jews(qui-
cunque ex Judseis), with the exception, of course, of
the functionaries of the synagogues (xii. 1. 165); and
thus this ordinance does not conflict with the other
similar one. The so-called shipping law of the year
390, regulating the transactions of the Jews and Sa-
maritans in Alexandria (xiii. 5, 18), was signed by
Arcadius as well as bv Valentinian and Theodosius;
but at that time Arcadius was scarcely more than a
child. Among the laws of Arcadius deserving par-
ticular mention is the one which gives warning
against those baptized Jews who rush to the chinch
from dishonest motives (xvi. 8, 2; Jost, “Gesch.”
iv. 226).

g. S. Kr.

ARCHA or ARC A (“ chest ”) : Technical name in
old English Treasury documents for the repository
in which chirographs and other deeds were pre-
served. By the “Ordinances of the Jewry” in 1194
it was arranged that “all deeds, pledges, mort-
gages, lands, houses, rents, and possessions of the
Jews should be registered”; that only at six or
seven towns contracts could be made in duplicate,
one part to remain with the Jewish creditor, the
other to remain in the Archa; and that the contents
of the arch:e were there to be recorded on a roll of
transcripts so that the king b}' this means should
know every transaction made by any Jew in the
kingdom. From time to time a “ scrutiny ” of the
Archa took place, when either the Archa itself, or
more probably the roll or transcript, was sent up to
Westminster to be examined by the treasurer there.
Many deeds showing copies of the rolls made at
these “scrutinies” still exist at Westminster Abbey
and at the record office (Memoranda of the Queen’s
Remembrances — Jews' Rolls, Nos. 556 [3, 12], 557
[1, 7, 8, 10, 13-23]).

During the thirteenth century there appear to
have been twenty-six towns in England at which
arcliae were kept; and it was only at these towns
that any business could be legally transacted with
Jews. These towns have been enumerated by Dr.
Gross as follows: Bedford, Berkhampstead, Bristol,
Cambridge, Canterbury, Colchester, Devizes, Exe-
ter, Gloucester, Hereford, Huntingdon, Lincoln,
London, Marlborough, Northampton, Norwich, Not-
tingham, Oxford, Stamford, Sudbury, Wallingford,
Warwick, Wilton, Winchester, Worcester, and York.

Jews were allowed to dwell in towns only where
there was an Archa, though exemptions were some-
times made. On Jan. 28, 1284, a roval mandate
was issued ordering' a general closure of the arcliae,
but commissioners were appointed to reopen the
London Archa on Feb. 28, 1286 (Rigg, “Select
Pleas of the Exchequer of the Jews,” 1902, p. lxi.).

Bibliography : 0. Gross, in Papers of the A nqlo- Jewish His-
torical Exhibition, pp. 182-190.

G. J.

ARCHAGATHTJS. See C.ecilius of Caeacte.

ARCHELAUS : Son of Herod I. ; king of Judea ;
born about 21 b.c., his mother being the Samaritan
Malthace. At the age of fourteen he was sent to
Rome for education, and, after a stay oftwo or three
years, returned home with his brothers Antipas and
Philip, who likewise had attended the schools of the
Imperial City. His return was possibly hastened by
the intrigues of Antipater, who by means of forged

Copper Coin of Herod Archelaus.

Obverse: HPOAOY. a hunch of crapes and leaf. Reverse:

E0NAPXOY. a helmet with tuft of feathers: in held to left

a caduceus.

(After Madden, “ Historv of Jewish Coinage.”)

letters and similar devices calumniated him to his
father, in the hope of insuring for him the same
sanguinary fate he had prepared for his brothers
Aristobulus and Alexander. As a result of these
slanders, Herod designated Antipas, his youngest
son, as his successor, changing his will to that effect.
On his death-bed, however, four day.? before his
demise, the king relinquished his determination and
appointed Archelaus to the throne, while Antipas
and Philip were made tetrarchs merely. Nothing
is known definitely of the occasion for this change,
though there may be some foundation for the state-
ment of Archelaus’ opponents, that the dying king,
in his enfeebled condition, had yielded to some pal-
ace intrigue in the latter’s favor.

Archelaus thus attained the crown with little dif-
ficulty at the early age of eighteen. That aged
plotter Salome found it convenient to abet Arche-
laus, and secured for him the adherence of the army;
hence there was no opposition when he figured as
the new ruler at the interment of Herod. The peo-
ple, glad of the death of the tyrant, were well dis-
posed toward Archelaus, and in the public assembly
in the Temple the new king promised to have re-
gard to the wishes of his subjects. It very soon
became manifest, however, how little he intended to
keep his word. Popular sentiment, molded by the
Pharisees, demanded the removal of the Sadducean
high priest Joezer (of the Boethus family), and the
punishment of those former councilors of Herod who
had brought about the martyrdom of the Pharisees
Mattatliias and Judas. Archelaus, professing al-
ways profound respect for the popular demand,
pointed out that he could not well take any such
extreme measures before he had been confirmed by
the Roman emperor, Augustus, in his sovereignty:
just as soon as this confirmation should be received,
he declared himself willing to grant the people’s
desire. His subjects, however, seem not to have
had confidence in his assurances ; and when, on the
day before Passover — a day when all Palestine, so
to speak, was in Jerusalem — they became so insist-
ent in their demand for immediate action, that the

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Archa

Archeolog-y

king felt himself compelled to send a detachment
of the Herodian soldiery against them into the
Temple courts; and when this detach-
His Harsh ment proved unable to master the en-
Treatment raged populace, he ordered out the
of the whole available garrison. Iuthemas-
People. sacre that ensued, three thousand were
left dead upon the Temple pavements.
As soon as the tumult had been somewhat allayed,
Archelaus hastened to Rome to secure the required
confirmation of his succession from Augustus. He
found that he had to encounter opposition from two
sides. Elis brother Antipas, supported by many
members of the Herodian house resident in Rome,
claimed formal acknowledgment for Herod’s second
will, that nominated him king. Besides, the Jews
of Palestine sent a deputation of fifty persons — who
were supported by about 8,000 Jewish residents of
Rome — and petitioned for the exclusion of t he Ilero-
dians from any share whatever in the government
of the land, and for the incorporation of Judea in
the province of Syria. Such was the disloyalty
among the Herodians, that many members of the
family secretly favored this latter popular demand.
But Augustus, with statesman-like insight, con-
cluded that it was better for Roman interests to
make of Judea a monarchy, governed by its own
kings tributary to Rome, than to leave it a Roman
province administered by Romans, in which latter
case there would certainly be repeated insurrections
against the foreign administration. As it would
be more prudent to make such a monarchy as
small and powerless as possible, he decided to divide
Herod’s somewhat extensive empire
Division into three portions. Archelaus was
of the accordingly appointed ethnarch — not
Kingdom king — of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea,
by Rome, with the exception of the important
cities of Gaza, Gadara, and Hippus,
which latter were joined to the province of Syria.
Antipas and Philip were made tetrarchs of the re-
maining provinces, the former receiving Galilee and
Perea, and the latter the other lands east of the Jor-
dan.

While these negotiations were pending in Rome,
new troubles broke out in Palestine. The people,
worked up almost into a state of frenzy by the mas-
sacres brought about by Herod and Archelaus, broke
into open revolt in the absence of their ruler. The
actual outbreak was without doubt directly caused
by Sabinus — the procurator appointed by Augustus
to assume charge pending the settlement of the suc-
cession— owing to his merciless oppression of the
people. On the day of Pentecost in the year 4 b.c.,
a collision took place in the Temple precincts be-
tween the troops of Sabinus and the populace. Sa-
binus utilized his initial success in dispersing the
people by proceeding to rob the Temple treasury.
But disorders broke out all over the province, and
his forces were not sufficient to repress
Insurrec- them. Judas, son of the revolutionary
tionary Hezekiah in Galilee, a certain Simon
Outbreaks, in Perea, Athronges and his four
brothers in other parts of the land,
headed more or less serious uprisings. It was only
when charge was assumed by Varus, the Roman

legate in Syria, with his numerous legions, assisted,
moreover, by Aretas, king of the Arabs, and his aux-
iliaries, that any measure of peace was restored to
the land, and this not without the loss of several
thousand Roman troops. What the loss on the
Jewish side must have been may perhaps be sur-
mised from the rabbinical tradition that the outbreak
under Varus was one of the most terrible in Jewish
history.

Archelaus returned to Jerusalem shortly after
Varus suppressed the insurrection. Very little is
known of the further events of his reign, which
lasted nine years; but so much is clear, that instead
of seeking to heal the wounds brought upon the
country by himself and his house, he did much to
accelerate the ultimate overthrow of
Banish- Judean independence. In the year 6
ment and of the common era, a deputation of
Death. the Jewish and Samaritan aristocracy
waited upon Augustus in Rome, to
prefer charges against Archelaus, with the result
that he was immediately summoned to Rome, de-
prived of his crown, and banished to Vienne in
Gaul, where — according to Dion Cassius Coccei-
anus, “Hist. Roma,” lv. 27 — he lived for the re-
mainder of his days.

Archelaus was a veritable Herodian, but without
the statesman like ability of his father. He was
cruel and tyrannical, sensual in the extreme, a hypo-
crite and a plotter. He observed the customary
seven days of mourning for his father, but in the
midst of them gave to his boon companions a con-
gratulatory banquet upon his accession. He care-
fully avoided placing his image upon his coinage in
deference to pliarisaic susceptibilities; but he never-
theless allowed his passion for his widowed sister-in-
law, Glaphyra, to master him, and married her in
defiance of the sentiment of the people and the
Pharisees, who regarded the union as incestuous
(Lev. xviii. 16, xx. 21). He deposed the high priest
Joezer on his return from Rome, not in obedience to
popular complaint, but for a money consideration.
Joezer’s brother was his successor, although the
latter was of exactly the same type. Indeed, Arche-
laus, in his short reign, deposed three high priests
for purposes of profit. Against this serious list of
evils there is hardly anything good to set in con-
trast, beyond perhaps the fact that he inherited from
his father a certain love of splendor and a taste for
building. He restored the royal palace at Jericho
in magnificent style, surrounding it with groves of
palms; and also founded a city, that he called in
His own honor Archelais.

Bibliography : Gr&tz, Gesch. d, Judcn , iii. passim ; F.wald,
Gcsch. dcs Vnlkes Israel , iv. passim : Hitzig, Gesch. des
Voikes Israel ii. passim; Schiirer, Gesch. i. passim, and
the literature therein indicated, on coinage, see Schiirer, ih,
p. 375, note 4; and Madden, Coins of the Jews, pp. 114-118.
g. L. G.

ARCHEOLOGY, BIBLICAL : The branch of
archeology that lias for its province a scientific pres-
entation of the domestic, civil, and religious insti-
tutions of the Hebrews, in the lands of the Bible,
especially in Palestine. It deals with these for the
whole stretch of Judaic history down to the fall of
Jerusalem in the year 70, the end of Judaism as a
power in Palestine. The term “ Archeology ” was used

Archeology

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

by Josephus in his great work, 'lovdaUrj ’ Apxaiotoyla
(literally “Judaic Archeology,” but usually trans-
lated “ Antiquities of the Jews ”), to cover the entire
history of his people, their life, customs, religious in-
stitutions, and literature. This comprehensive sense
remained current until the time of the Reformation.
Indeed, writers like Eusebius, Jerome, and Epipha-
nius, while they produced neither history nor arche-
ology as such, contributed material valuable for the
enrichment of both. It is safe to say that no treatise
on Biblical Archeology proper made its appearance
until after the Middle Ages.

It was not until the sixteenth century that Carlo Si-
gouius (died 1584) gathered up and presented in his
“ De Republica Hebrceorum ” a discus-
First sion of sacred places, persons, and rites.

Meaning This classification seemed to furnish
of Biblical scholars with a clue to what should be
Arche- included iu the term “Archeology ” as
ology. applied to the Bible; so that De Wette
(in 1814), followed by Ewald(in 1844),
gives the first really systematic classification of the
material that, up to the present time, is regarded as
belonging to the field of Biblical Archeology. Even
as late as Keil’s work (1875), the main divisions of the
subject are treated in the following order: (1) sacred
antiquities; (2) domestic antiquities; and (3) civil an-
tiquities.

The historico-critical method of investigating Old
Testament history claims to have rectified a former
error. It is now generally maintained that many of
the records of the history of Israel originated at a date
later than was formerly supposed, and that conse-
quently manj' of the religious institutions, customs,
and rites current among the Jews bear the marks of
later ideas, conditions, and environments. It is fur-
ther claimed that religious rites and customs owe
their character largely to the domestic life and sur-
roundings of a people. The recognition of this fact
necessitates a reversal of the order of the themes
usually included in the term “Biblical Archeology.”
Accordingly the present order of treatment is: (I.)
Domestic Antiquities; (II.) Civil Antiquities; and
(III.) Sacred Antiquities; but, as will be seen, there
is still another section to add on the land of Palestine
itself.

In the treatment of this topic, as of many other
topics relating to ancient times, no hard-and-fast
line can be drawn. History proper
Arche- should cover the entire religious and
ology and political life of a people. It should
History, present their laws, customs, and man-
ners. It should also, when occasion
requires, include their relations to neighboring peo-
ples, politically, socially, and commercially. Arche-
ology has to do with but a part of this material.
It concerns itself with the interrelationships of the
people in domestic, civil, and religious life. It goes
further, and includes in itself a consideration of the
character of the land where they live, and of their
social, industrial, artistic, and literary organizations
and features.

Biblical Archeology depends for its material upon
a mass of ancient literature and antiquities. It will
be impossible for the student of archeology to util-
ize to advantage the literary material, especially of

the Old Testament, without due regard to the liter-
ary processes by which it was prepared. Much of the
available material of archeology is secured from liter-
ature, but only after it has been subjected to the most
searching critical processes. Iu fine, archeology at
large finds in literature one of its best sources of in-
formation and one the testimony of which can not
be set aside. Nevertheless, at the bottom, beneath
all the literary activity of the people, lie, of course,
the conditions under which the Israelites produced
their literature. Hence, while much that is of value
to archeology is found in Israel’s literature, a knowl-
edge of archeology will include information con-
cerning the land which nourished that literature.
There is, consequently, a kind of necessary inter-
dependence between these two branches of knowl-
edge— literature and its native soil.

The religious system of the Old Testament em-
braces both literary and archeological material; both
ancient documents and monuments.

Arche- Biblical Archeology includes only so
ology and much of this material as bears upon
Religion, sacred places, persons, feasts, vessels,
and ritual. It does not discuss religious
ideas, either iu their origin or their development. It
does not present a systematized religio-legal system,
nor the relations of that system to civil processes.
Neither does it discuss the relation of Israel’s rites
and ceremonies to those of surrounding nations.
These themes, proper in modern scientific subdivi-
sions of material touching the ancient Jews, fall
under the head of religion or of comparative re-
ligion.

The soil of the Orient is the treasure-house of one
of the two great sources of Biblical Archeology.
Palestinian ruins at Jerusalem, at Lachisli, at Gaza,
at the Dead Sea, and in the tombs on the hillsides,
are all instructive teachers concerning the life and
times of the ancient Jews. Fragments of docu-
ments of this people and of their neighbors are re-
plete with information bearing upon the Archeology
of the Bible. The Moabite Stone, for the ninth
pre-Christian century, and the Siloam Inscription
are valuable evidences of the character of the wri-
ting and of some of the customs of those early days
(see Alphabet). The numerous small inscriptions
from Plienician sources tell a fascinating story of
tragical times contemporaneous with Israel. From
Palestinian ruins, likewise, come many voices of the
later periods, as the scattered and broken Greek and
Latin inscriptions are deciphered and interpreted.
Coins also tell their tale of the past, often with grati-
fying precision.

The revelations from the mounds of Babylonia
and Assyria, made within the last half-century,
vitally touch the people of Israel. The close relation-
ship existing between the social, political, and relig-
ious systems of that ancient West and East has now
been clearly ascertained. The close racial kinship
existing between Israel and the great powers cen-
tered on the Tigris and the Euphrates
Monumen- gives special significance to the antiq-
tal Sources, uities exhumed from those eastern
plains. The fact that Israel’s ancestors
migrated from Eastern centers, carrying with them
the characteristics of their early home land and peo-

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Archeology

pie, points likewise to the essential importance of
the “ finds ” brought from Mesopotamia.

Many items of considerable value to Biblical Arche-
ology are discovered in the community of religious
requirements and customs between Israel and her
| overland Eastern neighbors. The aggressiveness of
Eastern political influence and power toward the
West, in the later periods of Israel’s history, carried
with it other forces that largely affected the social
> and commercial fabric of the Palestinian kingdoms.
Consequently, there is no land outside of Palestine
whose ancient history and antiquities have a more
J noteworthy significance for Biblical Archeology than
| the great Mesopotamian region.

The imperishable character of the remains of an-
| cient life found in the sands and tombs of Egypt,
the proximity of that land to Palestine, and the
association of that people and that land with Israel’s
history make the territory in question a fascinating
! field to the archeologist. The influence of Egypt’s
■ civilization upon the literature and life of the Jews
is especially marked during the patriarchal, the
bondage, and the wilderness periods. At intervals
during the later stages of history — for example, in
Isaiah’s day — Egypt exercised no small influence
over the life of the Israelites. While many points
are still in dispute, some genuine increments of value
from Egyptian monumental sources may be even
now discovered.

The most fruitful sources of information germane
to the subject are of course the literatures of the Old
and New Testaments. As has been

Literary noted above, due regard must be had

Sources. from the beginning to the assured re-
sults of Biblical criticism. The Old
Testament material must be so used as to gain there-
from full advantage of the best-established results
of the scholarship of to-day. It must be remem-
bered, however, that a systematic archeology for
each period of history can not yet be presented;
merely the origin and growth of rites and customs
through the entire stretch of time are all that have
been traced. Uncertainty as to the dates of some of
’ the books of the Bible aggravates the difficulties of
the archeologist.

The New Testament material, less indefinite as to
time, furnishes valuable data regarding the Jews of
the first century, particularly those in Palestine.
Certain rites and ceremonies prevalent among the
sects of that age are relevant and instructive mate-
rial. Even the circumstances that led up to the
death of Jesus are full of interest for the student
of archeology. The experiences undergone by Paul
and other apostles in the establishment of the Chris-
tian Church often illuminate this subject.

The writings of Josephus, compiled, as they were,
from many and uncertain sources, possess, neverthe-
less, because of their immense sweep through time,
a multitude of apposite data. Josephus’ partiality
for his own people, and his desire to magnify their
importance throughout their history, have to be
guarded against; but he provides much material for
the portrayal of the life of the ancient Jews.

The inter-Biblical apocryphal books, such as I and
II Maccabees, III and IV Esdras, Judith, the Letter
of Jeremiah, etc., abound in hints and items of im-
II.— 6

portance in a systematic stud}- of Biblical Archeol-
ogy. Philo of Alexandria, though strongly influ-
enced by Greek thought, was a serviceable chronicler
of many things Jewish. This mass of literature
t ields much of genuine value to the archeologist of
Sacred Scripture.

The early centuries of the Christian era have left
several pertinent documents. The great mass of
rabbinical literature (the two Talmuds and the
Midrashic collections) is full of facts, statements,
and hints concerning the life of the Jewish people.
These are often of significant, illustrative impor-
tance in the elucidation of Old Testament conditions.
The compilations of Manetho, Berosus, and Philo
of Byhlus yield facts that add materially to some
phases of Biblical Archeology. The habits, customs,
and religious characteristics of the Jews, as described
iu early Christian and Greek writings, are also of
value. Arabic literature and antiquities reveal the
common Semitic character of ancient times, and
consequently some elements of Jewish life.

The unchangeable and permanent elements of the
Oriental Semitic personality are surprisingly illustra-
tive of the ancient Jewish character of the Bible. The
habits, customs, and rites of the inhabitants of the
East, and their mode of existence as a whole, are a
living commentary on many passages of Scripture,
the thought and significance of which are wholly
foreign to a modern Occidental. Such portions of
the Semitic world as are least modified by the ag-
gressions of civilization, like those in the interior of
Arabia, seem to maintain in their pristine purity the
traits of two or three millenniums ago. The closer
one gets to the primitive Semitic man, the nearer in
many cases is the approach to a true understanding
of his life as it appears in Holy Writ.

Out of the material already indicated, Biblical
Archeology claims for itself four general divisions,
under which it may best be treated; they are (1) the
land and people of Palestine ; (2) domestic or indi-
vidual antiquities; (3) public or civil antiquities;
and (4) sacred or religious antiquities.

I. Palestine : The character of any land is an
essential element in the determination of the charac-
teristics of its inhabitants. The mountains and plains,
the valleys and ravines, and the inspiring scenery of
adjacent regions made Palestine a land of pleasing
variety and of ever-refreshing beauty. Her wide
range of climate, her immense list of fauna and
flora, satisfied every reasonable demand of her rest-
less people. Her comparative isolation, her natural
defensive strength, and her relation to the great
civilizations of the East and the West, especially
during Israel’s national history, emphasize her im-
portance to the people that dwelt within her borders.

Palestine was already the home of ancient peoples
when the Patriarchs first trod upon her soil. The
tribes of Israel settled down to live in close proximity
to several different minor peoples. So close were
their relations that intermarriages re-
The Land suited, and an intermingling of every
and Its element of domestic, public, and relig-
People. ious life. The nation of Israel, built
upon such a foundation as this,
was a strange conglomeration of diverse elements.
Clashes with her minor neighbors, and commercial

Archeology

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

and political relations with the great empires that
oppressed her, affected domestic, civil, and sacred
relations.

II. Domestic Antiquities : The every-day life
of each person involves a large number of items.
These embrace the food available and used, the mate-
rial accessible for clothing and the method of its man-
ufacture, as well as the usual clothing worn by the
people, and the method of preparing and wearing
the head-gear. The individual lived also in a dwell-
ing of some kind ; either in a hole in the rocks, a tent,
a hut, a house, or in an elaborate structure in a city.
How were these various dwellings prepared, and
what was their internal arrangement? What led to
the aggregation of such buildings, which later be-
came cities? The replies to these questions will be
of supreme moment in following the growth of in-
dividual rights and privileges.

The Jewish family has a most interesting history.
The family formed the next step upward from the
individual, and was probably the basis of the clan.
The laws of marriage and their binding character
were essentials in the perpetuity of the nation. The
position and rights of the woman before and after
marriage, in the condition of monogamy and of
polygamy, and in case of divorce, fall under this
theme. The relations of the children to the individ-
ual parents, the methods of naming them, the observ-
ance of the rite of circumcision, their training and
education in and out of the home, must be noted.
The constitution of the Oriental family involved
slaves, with certain laws of purchase and retention,
both Israelitish and foreign. Certain diseases also
often attacked, and sometimes found victims in, the
family. The treatment of the aged and infirm, of
the helpless and unfortunate members of the house-
hold, is of especial interest. Death in the family
was attended by peculiar national observances. See
Family, Marriage, Patriarchate, Slavery.

Families and individuals maintained a certain
amount of social intercourse. These relations de-
veloped certain social obligations; established the
respective rights and privileges of host
Society and and guest, and the methods of conver-

Amuse- sation and entertainment. Social gath-

ments. erings at feasts likewise inaugurated
special customs and requirements.
These functions, as well as the more elaborate festi-
vals of their heathen neighbors, were occasions for
the forming of relations that to a large extent de-
termined the character of Israel. The introduction
of foreign customs gradually modified society in
Israel, until, by the downfall of the northern king-
dom, it assumed quite another complexion. The
origin, organization, and conduct of society form an
interesting theme in the department of Biblical Ar-
cheology. See Etiquette, Precedence, etc.

There is slight evidence that the Jews in early
times, aside from banquets attended by musical in-
struments of various kinds, enjoyed any indoor
amusement. Neither is there any extended descrip-
tion of outdoor sports, either for princes or populace.
But the prevalence of many terms employed in
hunting, such as the names of traps and weapons
used in taking animals and birds, and the names of
wild animals used for food, is evidence that this

sport was commonly indulged in, and to good pur-
pose. Several hints are also found in the Prophets,
especially as to the sport (or possibly occupation) of
fishing. Both of these out-door amusements, so pop-
ular in Egypt and in the East, were turned to good
account by the Israelites. See Games, Sports, Pas-
times.

The earliest records of the patriarchs and of the
Israelites show them following the life of nomads.
They raised herds of large and flocks of small cattle,
and moved about according to the demands for new
pasturage. The character of the country and their
slight tenure of the soil led to such a mode of exist-
ence. Even when they settled down as occupants
of Palestine and their life was mainly devoted to
other things, they nevertheless reared extensive
herds and flocks, comprising cattle, asses, sheep, and
goats. The hills of some parts of Palestine were best
adapted for such pursuits. See Animals, Cattle.

Israel’s occupation of the new territory made
possible another vocation besides cattle-raising.

Permanent settlement led to the culti-
Pasture vation of the soil, to the planting of
and vines and fruit-trees. Wheat, barley,
Agricul- and rye became staple products, and
ture. by irrigation all parts of the land
yielded profitable returns to the in-
dustrious husbandman. The methods of agriculture,
the influence of this mode of life on the nation, and
the importance of this industry on international re-
lations occupy no mean place in the history of the
life of ancient Israel. See Agriculture.

From the earliest times there are hints at the trades
that were current among the Israelites. After their
settlement in the land of Canaan especially, they be-
came acquainted with methods of producing tools
for the cultivation of the soil, and weapons for war-
fare. Carpenters and stone-masons were numerous
at the time of the construction of Solomon’s public
buildings. Workers in metals of different kinds are
found occasionally in the course of Israel’s history.
The ironsmith, the goldsmith, and the worker in
bronze were not uncommon in Palestine. The prep-
aration of skins for use as bottles and for sandals,
the manufacture of the bow and of the different
pieces of armor for the warrior called for skilful
labor. The preparation of flax and wool for clothing
required a method which in later years developed into
great weaving establishments. The vessels of clay
in use in Palestine in ancient times indicate that the
potter’s art had reached a high state of perfection.
These crafts doubtless received many useful sugges-
tions from Israel’s neighbors in the different periods
of her history. See Artisans, Handicrafts.

Exchange of commodities is one of the oldest oc-
cupations of men. Israel’s continual contact with
neighbors of all kinds, whose methods of lifewrereas
varied as their peculiarities, naturally led to some
commercial activity. The caravans that crossed
Canaan in Israel’s day traded in Ca-
Commerce naanitisli cities, and furnished markets
and Its for Palestinian products in Egypt
Methods, and in Babylonia. Israel exchanged
her products of the soil for the wares
of Plienicia and the perfumes of the south country
Commerce reached its climax in Solomon’s day, when

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Archeology

it extended as far as the undetermined port of Opliir,
and brought back for him the gold, silver, apes, pea-
cocks, and other luxuries and curiosities of distant
climes. Phenicia was Israel’s great trading-mart; for
thence she secured much of the material and many
of the workmen that made Jerusalem what it was in
Solomon’s reign.

The activity of exchange during the dual kingdom
is shown on several occasions. YVhen Ahab defeated
Ben-Hadad at Aphek, one of the items in the treaty
was the granting to Israel of “ streets ” [bazaars for
trading] in Damascus, as Syria had formerly had
“streets” in Samaria (livings xx. 34). The numer-
ous references in Hosea are evidence that Israel in
that period enjoyed the products of all lands. Egypt
was likewise on the most intimate commercial terms
with Palestine; and some of her choicest food and
clothing was purchased by Israel. But it was not
until after Israel’s overthrow as a nation that she
seemed almost entirely to abandon husbandry and
many of the crafts, and to give her whole life to the
pursuit of commerce. See Commerce, Trade.

The most convenient exchange was that of com-
modities for gold or silver or for some other precious
article. This was accomplished at first by means of
certain standards of weight for the metals, standards
of capacity for grains, and the like, and standards of
measurement (length, breadth, or thickness) for cloth,
leather, stone, etc. The same tricks of trade as are
found to-day — the light weight, the small measure,
and the short line — appear in the charges that follow
the arraignments of the Prophets. Late in history
the metals were stamped or coined, thus greatly sim-
plifying one of the most common articles of ex-
change. See Coin, Money.

Israel’s growth as a nation was accompanied by a
corresponding cultivation of the arts. The first no-
table exhibition is that seen in the elaborate architec-
ture of the Solomonic era. Whether it was borrowed
wholly from one nation or jointly from the leading
nations of that day is immaterial. Israel adopted
and executed some of the choicest specimens of an-
cient architecture. The pillars and their ornamen-
tation, though executed by Phenicians, were accord-
ing to the tastes and desires of Israel’s

Art in king. Plastic art likewise received at-

Israel. tention from the leaders in Israel, as is
seen in the numerous fragments ex-
humed from Palestinian soil. Sculpture and fine
stone-cutting added their part to the beautifying of
the great Temple of the Lord. Painting is scarcely
mentioned in the Old Testament (Ezek. viii. 10,
xxiii. 14), in strange contrast with the evidence seen
in Egyptian tombs. Music, on the contrary, re-
ceived much attention from the leaders, and even
from the common people. The shepherds in the
mountains, the prophets on the hills, the singers in
the Temple, made frequent and extensive use of
many kinds of musical instruments. See Music,
Temple.

W riting is almost as old as the race. Every nation
around Israel had its method. The people of Israel,
kin of these people by blood and language, had their
own particular system of writing. The letters of
the Hebrew alphabet had each a significance that
helped to hold it in mind. The Israelites wrote on

skins and clay, and carefully preserved their records
for later generations. This work was done, how-
ever, by a particular class of men, who were later on
designated as scribes. The different kinds of writing
materials, and the tools wherewith this art was ex-
ecuted, were not unlike those of the great contem-
poraneous nations. See Alphabet, Scribes, Wri-
ting.

III. Civil Antiquities : The earliest show of au-
thority is seen in the constitution of the family, with
the father as head and chief. Several heads made
up the body of elders, by whose decision affairs af-
fecting several families were administered. Gradu-
ally these elders became a regularly established or-
der, by or through whom the entire civil business of
the community was conducted. In the time of the
Egyptian bondage a class of men is found termed
“ officers,” who though apparently scribes, were like-
wise underlings of their Egyptian taskmasters. The
appointment of seventy elders in the wilderness was
an extension of the earlier and possibly of the bond-
age scheme on a more elaborate scale. The method
of government in vogue during the period of the
judges was a modification of the same general plan
under which Israel lived in the wilderness. The de-
tails of these systems are brought out with due
faithfulness in the records of these periods. See
Elders.

The system of government current among the
great and small nations of Israel’s day was that of
monarchy. Every foreign influence that touched this
people emanated from the environment of regal ad-
ministration. These powerful tendencies finally crys-
tallized into a demand by Israel for a king. A king,
with all the paraphernalia of a monarchy, was finally
established. The prerogatives of the ruler, the law of
succession, and the whole administration of govern-
ment henceforth accorded substantially with those
of other nations. Sufficient events and items of the
king’s conduct are narrated to give a good picture
of Israel’s monarch. See King.

On the return of a body of Jews from the vari-
ous lands into which they had been scattered, a new
method of government was adopted.

Post- The province of which Judea was a

exilian part was ruled by a Persian satrap.

Govern- Israel’s new territory was ruled by a
ment. governor, Zerubbabel, and later by
Ezra and Nehemiah, etc. These sub-
rulers paid tribute to Persia; and only on especial
appointments were they granted extraordinary pre-
rogatives, for example, Ezra. How far down into
the so-called inter-Biblical period these conditions
prevailed, it is not yet possible to affirm. The Mac-
cabean revolt against the Hellenizing edicts of the
Seleucid rulers was a forcible protest against a viola-
tion of the favorable treatment accorded the Jews by
Alexander the Great. Nearly one hundred years of
practical independence resulted in the downfall of
Jewish authority, brought about by Pompey in 63
b.c. Thenceforth Palestine as part of a province be-
came subordinate to a Roman governor. Information
as to the line of demarcation between the rights of the
Jews and Roman authority, the methods of admin-
istration adopted by Roman appointees, and a multi-
tude of other questions of local interest is abundantly

Archeology

Archimedes

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

supplied iu the documents of this period. See Gov-
ernment, Procurators, Rome, Sanhedrin.

References to law and its administration are found
even in the patriarchal period, when the head of one
family and liis associates were supreme
Public Ad- in authority. Legal processes were
ministra- simple and effective. In the period
tion of of the judges, the so-called judge was
Justice. the court of final appeal. But after the

establishment of the kingdom flicking
occupied the supreme bench. In postexilian times the
people elected their own judges. Numerous state-
ments distributed iu different periods of history are
found as to the purpose, the method, and the re-
sults of various penalties inflicted by authority. The
laws concerning all of these specifications are codified
in the Pentateuch.

As a subject of the state, each individual had cer-
tain property rights. When the tribes settled as hus-
bandmen on their newly won territory, each family
occupied its own land. This wqs its permanent pos-
session. It could lease the same; but in the year of
jubilee the land reverted to its first owners. The
forfeiture of property rights for political offenses,
such as is mentioned in Ezra, was unusual. Marriage
also carried with it certain rights, carefully specified
in the law. Personal property, the rights to buy and
sell, regulations concerning debts, restitution, inher-
itance, etc., were amply protected or prescribed in
the legal provisions of Israel. See Procedure,
Property, Sale.

This condition met Israel very early in her history.
The division of the host in the wilderness into com-
panies of different numbers for inter-
Warfare. nal civil convenience was doubtless
the basis of army divisions. The mili-
tary equipment of the armies of Palestine, east and
west of the Jordan, and their power of resistance to
Israel’s aggression, are meagerlyset forth in the Old
Testament. Israel’s method of levying and supply-
ing troops, and almost uniform success in Joshua’s
day, add importance to the study of her military or-
ganization. The perfection of army methods in the
regal period, and the great amount of money and en-
ergy devoted to the maintenance of the army, give
added impetus to the investigation of military science
among the great nations of Egypt and Mesopotamia.
This investigation covers the kinds of armor and
weapons used, methods of drilling and marching,
encampments, movements for attack and battle,
methods of sieges and defenses of fortresses and
cities, and the treatment of prisoners. See War-
fare, Weapons.

IV. Sacred Antiquities : The earliest records
of Israelitisli ancestors refer to special places devoted
to worship. While the Israelites were on the march
through the wilderness, they were accompanied by
a sacred tent. As soon as they had settled in the
land of Canaan they adopted numerous sacred high
places. There were also sacred trees, stones, foun-
tains, etc. Altars, obelisks, and the Asherah were
accompaniments of these places. At these shrines
Israelites met to do homage to their Preserver and
God. Solomon’s Temple was a partial centraliza-
tion of worship, which, however, did not become
complete until the reign of Josiah. The captivity

and the exile of the Israelites divorced them from
such shrines. On the return, Zerubbabel’s Temple
once again made Jerusalem the actual center of
worship. See Altar, Asherah, Bamah, Tem-
ple, etc.

The original purpose of the priest is not absolutely
settled. He was probably the attendant on a heathen
image, who uttered oracles on occa-
Sacred sion, to instruct the worshipers. Grad-
Persons, ually he became the offerer of the sac-
Places, and rifice, and therein stood as a kind of
Offerings, mediator between God and the person
seeking a message. The functions of
priest were apportioned between the priests proper,
who stood nearest God, and the Levites, who were
practical l_v their servants. Later still, the priestly
duties were narrowed down to sacrifice onljq leaving
to the Prophets the matter of oracular speaking and
teaching. The various steps to these different func-
tions, and the special devotees in service about these
places, are found in numerous cases mentioned in the
Old Testament. See Levites, Priests.

The original purpose of the sacred offerings is
wrapped in obscurity. For the non-bloody offering,
the peace-offering, the burnt offering, the sin-offer-
ing, and the trespass-offering there are specific reg-
ulations and significance. The condition of the
offering itself, the process of offering, and the result
of the same upon the giver are all laid down in the
codified rules of the Pentateuch. Few if any of the
things connected with the life of Israel are so fully
treated in the Old Testament as the subject of
“offering.” See Sacrifice.

Like their neighbors, the Israelites had sacred feast-
times. These are seen very early in the history. Hints
and more are found of the feasts of the new moon and
the Sabbaths. The yearly feasts were the Passover,
the First-Fruits, and the Tabernacles or Ingathering.
Each of these had its special regulations as to time,
duration, and attendants. Upon the centralization
of worship at Jerusalem, certain modifications took
place both in the accompaniments of the festival
days and iu the places where they were formerly
held. As time went by the number of such days
increased. See Festivals.

Israel was put under strict discipline in the matter
of personal cleanliness, both in reference to worship
and to every-day life Obedience to these demands
secured immunity from certain diseases and prevented
the spread of others. Such discipline attached a
wholesome sacredness to worship and enhanced the
value of human life and health. It prepared the na-
tion to conceive of a holy God, and to render Him a
clean service.

The preceding sections have indicated merely in
outline the main subdivisions of Biblical Archeology
on the basis of the latest investigators. They point
the reader to certain skeleton facts, which may be
clothed with flesh and blood by careful painstaking
research on the Old Testament.

For archeology in post-Biblical times, see Badge,
Bath, Ceremonies, Costume, Numismatics, Music,
Synagogue, etc.

Bibliography: Fenton. Early Hebrew Life , 1880; Benzin-
jrer, Arch. 1894 ; Bissell, Biblical Antiquities, 1888; Ewald,
Die Alterth timer des Yolkes Israel, 3d ed., I860 ; Keil.Handb.
der Bihlischen Archaeologie, 2d ed., 1875; Nowack, Hebr.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Archeology

Archimedes

Archaeologic , 1894; Schiirer, Gesch. 2d ed., 1890; Stade,
Gesch. des Vo Ikes Israel, 2d ed., 1889, especially vol. i„ book
vii., pp. 358-518. For the bearings of extra-Biblical material on
Biblical Archeology, see Ball, Light from the East, London,
1899; Schrader, C. I. O. T. 1888; Vigouroux, La Bible et les
Decmwertes Modernes, 5th ed., Paris, 1889; Boscawen, The
Bible anil the Monuments, London, 1895; Evetts, New Light
onthe Holu Land, London, 1891 ; Recent Research in Bible
Lands, edited by H. V. Hilprecbt, Philadelphia. 1890;
McCurdy, History, Prophecy, and Monuments, 1890, ii. vii.
chaps, i.-iv.; Sayce, The Egypt of the Hebrews, London, 1895;
idem. Patriarchal Palestine, London, 1895: idem. Races of
the Old Testament, London, 1891 ; Price, The Monuments
and the Old Testament, Chicago, 1900.

J. JR. I. M. P.

ARCHER, ARCHERY : The bow as a weapon
in war and the chase was familiar to the Hebrews
from patriarchal times (Gen. xxi. 20, xxvii. 3, xlviii.
22). Jonathan and Jehu were expert archers (II
Sam. i. 22; II Kings ix. 24); the tribe of Benjamin
was renowned for its sons’ skill with the bow (I
Chron. viii. 40, xii. 2); and David, after the battle
of Gilboa, sought to encourage archery practise in
Judah (II Sam. i. 18). The impulse thus given
seems to have taken root, so that 250 years later the
prophet Hosea speaks of the bow as representing
Israel’s military power (cli. i. 5).

From the figures extant in Assyrian monuments it
appears that the usual tactics with the bow were to
overwhelm the enemy with repeated showers of
arrows, and then close in with sword and spear upon
the harassed ranks. In Ps. cxx. 4 there is a refer-
ence to the practise of affixing burning material to
the arrow-head, no doubt for setting fire to a be-
sieged town. For further details and Hebrew terms
in connection with Archery, see Army; Weapons,
e. c. F. de S. M.

ARCHEVITES (’131X): A people whom Asnap-
per brought from Erecli or Uruk, a political and re-
ligious center of Babylonia, and settled in Samaria.
They wrote to Artaxerxes concerning the building
of the Temple at Jerusalem and had the work on it
stopped (Ezra iv. 9). Erecli (Uruk) is mentioned in

embodied in the Italian liturgy, notably his “ Song on
Circumcision.” He was an excellent Talmudist, and,
when quite young, reedited or rather supplied with
extensive textual references, the ‘Aruk of Nathan b.
Jehiel under the title “Sefer ha-‘Aruk” (Venice,
1531). His book” Degel Akabali” (The Banner of
Love), an ethical work with commentaries, was
printed in Venice (1551). The most notable of his
works are (1) “ ‘Arugat lia-Bosem” (The Bed of
Spices), a Hebrew grammar (Venice, 1602 ; reprinted,
Amsterdam, 1730), and (2) “Ma'yan Gannim” (A
Fountain of Gardens), fifty metrical letters, designed
to be models for students of this form of composition
(Venice, 1553). Of these two books the more im-
portant is the Hebrew grammar, because the subject
is exhaustively and originally treated. Twenty-five
out of the thirty-two chapters are devoted to the rudi-
ments of the language. Chapters twenty-six and
twenty -seven treat of Hebrew accentuation ; chapters
twenty-eight and twenty-nine discuss perfect style;
chapter thirty treats of steganography and Biblical
cryptography, and chapters thirty-one and thirty-
two treat of the nco-IIebraic meter, with original
models of style and method. The last chapter pleased
John Buxtorf the younger to such an extent that he
translated it into Latin, appending it to his transla-
tion of the Cuzari (1660). Archevolti, who loved the
Hebrew language and delighted in its poetical phra-
sing and shading, was disinclined to uphold the ideas
advanced by Judah ha-Levi, who, though one of the
greatest Hebrew poets, did not care to treat Biblical
subjects poetically, maintaining that they did not
readily lend themselves to such treatment. Arche-
volti held the opposite view, and in respectful terms
wrote against his famous predecessor, employing the
Talmudic bit of satire, “ The dough must be bad in-
deed if the baker says it is.”

Bibliography: Fiirst, Bihl. Jud. s.v. ; Steinsrhneider, Cat.

Bodl. No. 7004 ; Delitzscli, Zur Gesch. d. Hebr. Poesie, p. 0.

G. G. A. D.

Gen. x. 10.

J. JR. G. B. L.

ARCHEVOLTI, SAMUEL BEN ELHA-
NAN ISAAC : Italian grammarian, and poet of
the sixteenth century. Many of his piyyutim were

ARCHIMEDES : The greatest mathematician
of antiquity ; born in Syracuse about 287 b.C. His in-
fluence on Jewish literature was not extensive. Only
two of his works have come down
to us in a Hebrew translation. Ka-

COMpany of Egyptian archers at Deir el-Bahari.

(After Wilkinson, “ Ancient Egyptians,”)

Archipherecites

Ardit

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

lonymusben Kalonymus (after 1306) twice turned the
treatise “ On Conoids and Spheroids ” into Hebrew,
under the title Nmt^'XZn mail. He is said to have
made use of an Arabic translation of Costa ben
Luca, though Arabic bibliographers know nothing
of such a translation. An unknown author — whom
Steinschneider surmises to have been the same
Kalonymus — translated kvkXhv paBr/mq under the title
rouyn nnwn D,T»',:TiN* ISO. from the Arabic

vella,” No. 146, ILpt 'Efipaiuv, of the year 553, in
which the Archipherecites, the elders, and the teach-
ers are forbidden to use their power of anathema in
order to prevent the reading of the Greek version of
the Bible in place of the Midrasliic or Targumic in-
terpretation.

Bibliography : Grate, Gescli. derjuden , iii. 359, note 7 ; Krie-
<rei. Corpus Juris, iii. U40. Compare Academies in Pales-
tine.

Archers as Body-Guard of Darius.

(From Maspero, “ Passing of the Empires.”)

of Thabit ibn Kurrali (the Hebrew title is to be cor-
rected to which means “extension,” and

corresponds exactly to the Arabic “Masahali”).

Abraham bar Hiyyah shows a perfect knowledge
of the theories of Archimedes in his “ Encyclopedia
of Mathematical Sciences ” (compare Steinschneider,
“Hebr. Bibl.” vii. 92); and the same is true of Abra-
ham ibn Ezra, in his astronomical work “Reshit
Hokmali. ”

Bibliography: Steinschneider, Hchr. Uebers. § 310 ; Z.D.M.

G. 1. 173 et seq.

G. I. Bn.

ARCHIPHERECITES (ap^f/iE/crra;): Grecized
form of the Aramaic Np"lB 'C'T = “heads of the
school” ( pirka , literally “chapter,” hence “dis-
course”). The name occurs in Justinian’s “No-

ARCHISYNAGOGTJE (apXiavvdyo>yoq ; Heb.
riDJDH K’Nl): Synagogue-chief. The use of this
name as the title of the officer who supervised mat-
ters pertaining to the religious services of the syna-
gogue can be traced from the time of Jesus to about
the year 300 (Pes. 496). It occurs several times in
the New Testament. The distinctive function of the
Archisynagogue was to select suitable men for
the reading of the Law, the reciting of prayers, and
for preaching ; since in ancient times the synagogue
did not have regularly appointed officers for the
performance of these duties. Despite the specific-
ally Jewish character of the functions of the Archi-
synagogue, however, the name is borrowed from
the Greek, and was therefore used throughout the
Roman Empire where Jews were settled, but not in
Babylonia. Hence, the Babylonian Talmud, when
mentioning the Archisynagogue, finds it necessary
to translate the wrord by DJ~i2 (Ket. 86; compare
Yer. Ber. iii. 1, 66). From the Jerusalem Talmud
(l.c.) it further appears that in cases of necessity the
Archisynagogue of a community had to act as its
reader. In consonance with the nature of his office,
the Archisynagogue was chosen for his piety and good
moral character, while in the case of an arclion the
essential requirements were social position and in-
fluence. The Pharisees therefore regarded the Archi-
synagogues as inferior only to the CEOfl 'TEOn
(“disciples of the wise”), the Jewish scholars (Pes.
496. This passage is, however, of Palestinian origin).
Like most of the offices of the pharisaic Jews, that
of the Archisynagogue was not limited as to time,
but was usually held for life, and not infrequently
was hereditary; the Pharisees holding (see Torat
Kohanim Ahare Mot viii. , cd. Weiss, p. 83«) that the
son had a claim upon his father’s office unless he had
shown himself unworthy. This explains why the
title Archisynagogue was sometimes attached to the
names of the wife and the children, as found on some
Greek inscriptions. It was used, no doubt, to indi-
cate that they were members of an archisynagogal
family.

Bibliography : Schiirer, Gesch. ii. 364-367, 519; Gemeindever-
fassuuq , pp. 35-28 ; Weinberg, M. G. IT'. 1897, p. 657.

a. L. G.

ARCHITE ; Inhabitant of a town or district on
the southern border of Judah probably connected
with the Erech (A. V. Arclii) of Josh. xvi. 2.
Ilusliai, David’s friend, was from that region (II
Sam. xv. 32). It would appear to be somewhere in
the neighborhood of Atarotli, but has not been
identified with any certainty.

t. J-

ARCHITECTURE, JEWISH. See Almemar ;
America, Jewish Architecture in; Ark; Ceme-

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Archipherecites

Ardit

teries ; Galleries; Gravestones; Hospitals;
Mausoleums; Synagogues, Ancient; Synagogues,
Modern; Tombs, etc.

ARCHIVES ISRAELITES : A French Jew-
ish review, founded in 1840 by Samuel Cahen, author
of a French translation of the Hebrew Bible. The
first number appeared in January, 1840, as an octavo
pamphlet of sixty -four pages, entitled, “Archives
Israelites de France: Revue Mensuelle Historique,
Biographique, Bibliographique, Litteraire.” Some
of its first contributors were G. Weil (Ben-Levi), O.
Terquem, Solomon Munk, Gerson Levy', Rabbi M.
Cliarleville, Ph. Luzzatto, Albert Cohn, A. Darme-
steter, A. Widal, and E. Carmoly. In 1860 Isidore
Cahen, son of the founder of the paper, became its
editor.

The “Archives” has several times changed the
periods of its appearance, its form, and its title. It
has been a monthly and a semi-monthly ; and in 1879
it became a weekly. It is now a quarto, more in
the nature of a journal than of a review; short arti-
cles on topics of the day taking the place of longer
articles. Isidore Cahen continued to be the “ direc-
teur” until his death, March 6, 1902; editor-in-chief
is H. Prague.

In 1890 the “Archives” celebrated its fiftieth an-
niversary' by the publication of a collection of essays,
reminiscences, and letters, under the title “ La Gerbe ”
(The Sheaf).

Bibliography': La Gerbe , 1890.

G. J. W.

ARCHIVES, JEWISH, OF OLD CONGRE-
GATION. See Memorbuch ; Pinkes.

ARCHON (ARCHONTES or ARCHON-
TEIA) : The title of a member of the governing
body in the independent Jewish communities
throughout the Roman empire, as in Alexandria,
Antioch, Berenice in Cyrenaica, Rome, Tlos in Lycia,
and other cities. In Alexandria, where Emperor
Augustus established a Gerusia (Philo, “ In Flac-
cum,” § 10; compare Josephus, “Ant.” xix. 5, § 2;
Schurer, “Gescli.” 3d ed., iii. 41) instead of a single
Ethnarch for the Jews, thearchons constituted the
gerusia (Philo, l.c.), as is especially evident from the
construction of the sentence robg apxovrac, ri/v yepov-
ciav , o't Kal yepwg ml ti/xt/s elaiv iir6)vvfj.ot (see Alex-
andria for the contrary view, see Schurer, l.c.).
At the end of the first century of the common era,
nine arclions were at the head of the community' in
Berenice in North Africa; in Alexandria, more than
thirty-eight; while in Rome there were several com-
munities each with its Arclion, asappears from their
epitaphs. At Rome, the arclions were chosen in the
month of Tishri, about the Jewish New-Year; in
Berenice, probably during the Feast of Tabernacles.
Besides those elected for a term, there ivere arclions
for life. The mere title was sometimes bestowed on
women and children.

It may be generally accepted that the functions
of the Arclion were the same as those that Strabo
ascribes to the Alexandrian ethnarchs (Strabo, quoted
by Josephus in “Ant.” xiv. 7, £ 2), and those dele-
gated to the gerusia under Augustus; “He governs
the nation, metes out justice to them, and takes
care of their contracts and of the laws belonging to

them.” The arclions conducted political affairs;
Yvhile religious matters were managed by the heads
of the synagogue, who, at the same time, might be
arclions. Yet the gerusia probably met at the syna-
gogue, the court of which Yvas the place for public
distinctions adj udged by' the gerusia (compare Philo,
“ Legatio ad Cajum,” § 20). These arclions must be
distinguished from thoseof cities in Palestine organ
ized on the Greek plan ; as at Tiberias, for instance,
Yvhere the Arclion was the head of a Boule consist-
ing of 600 members (Josephus, “Vita,” §§27, 53, 54,
57; idem, “B. J.” ii. 21, § 3).

Bibliography : Schurer, Gesch. 3d ed., iii. 38-52.

g. A. Bit.

ARCTURUS. See Constellation.

ARDASHAR : Village in the government of
Erivan, Transcaucasia, Russia, about 16 miles south-
southeast from the capital of Erivan; the site of the
old Armenian capital Art axata, or Artashat ; Artaxata
is said to have been built for King Artaxias I. (189-
159 b.c.), by Hannibal, 180 b.c. It was destroyed
by' Nero’sarmy', and was restored by' Artashes(85-127
of the common era), yyIio transplanted thither cap-
tive Jews from Palestine. When the Persians des-
troy'cd the city in 370, they' took away as prisoners
40,000 Armenian and 9,000 Jewish families from
Artaxata. See Armenia.

Bibliography: Rei/extn i Nadpixi, No. 135, St. Petersburg,

1899; Entziklovedicheski Sluvar, ii., s.v., St. Petersburg,

1893.

II. R.

ARDASHIR, PARTHIAN KING. See

Partiiia.

ARDIT (O'TiX) or ARDOT (omN) : The name
of a family that emigrated from Aragon to Turkey,
where their descendants still live. The following
members are known :

1. Abraham Ardit : Lived in 1483 at Barcelona.

2. Ephraim Ardit: Lived in Smyrna; wrote,
under the title “Matteli Ephrayim” (Ephraim’s
Staff), a commentary' on Maimonides’ “Mishneh
Torah.” It was published in 1791 at Salonica, to-
gether with several of his responsa and sermons.

3. Hayyim Abraham Ardit : A resident of
Smyrna; wrote additional notes to the work of his
uncle, Ephraim Ardit (No. 2), and appended several
sermons of his own.

4. Hayyim Moses Ardit : Was in possession
(at Smyrna) of a manuscript of Joseph Caro’s “ Re-
sponsa,” which collection was printed under the
title “Abkat Rokel” in 1791 at Salonica, 2d edition,
Leipsic, 1859, very probably at Ardit’s initiative.

5. Isaac Abraham Ardit : Possibly a son of
No. 1; embraced Christianity, but retained the name
of Ardit (“Rev. Et. Juives,” iv. 59, 62).

6. Isaac b. Solomon Ardit : Author of a vo-
luminous commentary on the Talmudic treatise
‘Arakin (Salonica, 1823).

7. Raphael Ardit: Wrote “Marpeh Laslion ”
(Healing for the Tongue), a commentary on the Tal-
mudic treatise Shebu'ot, with an appendix contain-
ing novelise to Maimonides’ “ Mishneli Torah ” (Salo-
nica, 1826).

8. Raphael Solomon Ardit: A relative of
No. 6, to whose commentary he added some notes.

Ardotial

Arianism

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

9. Solomon ben Jacob Ardit : Cabalist, of
Smyrna. Wrote, under the title “Lehem Shelo-
moh” (Solomon’s Bread), a commentary on the
Pentateuch; also novella1, etc., which were pub-
lished in 1751 at Salonica, together with the writings
of Mei'r Bekkayam, who, before he died, set apart
money sufficient to cover the expenses of printing.
Solomon was also in possession of a manuscript of
Nahmanides’ novelise to the Talmudic treatise, Baba
Mezi‘a (Steinsclmeider, “ Die Hebr. Handschriften
der K. Bibliothek zu Berlin,” i. 44).

Ardot, with the prefix Cohen, is the name of a
family which also migrated from Aragon, and
among whose members Were the following:

10. Abraham Cohen Ardot: The learned son
of Asher Cohen Ardot (No. 11); died 1634.

1 1 . Asher Cohen Ardot : Great-grandson of
Isaac Arama ; lived at Salonica in the first half of
the seventeenth century ; died 1645. He was taught
the Talmud by A. Brudo, and was instructed in
other branches of Jewish learning by David ibn
Sliushan. Wealthy and learned, he presided over
the Talmudic college at Salonica, and maintained a
correspondence with several learned rabbis of his
time.

12. Eleazar Cohen Ardot : A physician of the
fourteenth century at Majorca . where he was on
friendly terms with Joseph Caspi (Kayserling,
“Gesch. der Juden in Spanienuod Portugal,” i. 168).

13. Joseph Ardot was de.egated by the com-
munity of Alcaniz to the disputation with Gero-
nimo de Santa Fe at Tortosa in 1413 (Ibn Verga,
“Sliebet Yehudah,” $ xl.).

14. Meshullam ben Solomon Cohen Ardot :
A contemporary of Solomon ben Adret; lived at
Barcelona toward the end of the thirteenth century
(Solomon Adret, “Responsa,” i. No. 415 et seq.).

15. Solomon Cohen Ardot : Lived about 1500
at Arta.

Bibliography : In addition to tlie authorities cited above, see

Steinsclmeider, Cat. Bodl. No. 7119.

g. M. K.

ARDOTIAL (ANDRUTIL) SHEM-TOB
BEN ISAAC : Spanish poet; flourished at Soria
in the beginning of the fourteenth century. The
name has been wrongly transcribed as

Androtil, Adrutil, Ardotliiel. Steinsclmeider con-
nects the name with Ardot ; the ending “ ial ” hav-
ing either a relative or a diminutive significance.
Shem-Tob was the author of the following works:
“Milhamot ha-‘Am welia-Misparim ” (Wars of the
People and the Numbers), containing short liter-
ary and poetical articles; “Ma'aseh,” an ethical
story, published in the collection “ Dibre Hakamim,”
Metz, 1849; “Yam Kohelet” (Sea of the Preacher),
a prayer of two thousand words, each of which
begins with the letter D (mem) ; several piyyutim
printed in the Mahzor according to the Spanish
rite. Under the title “ Mizwot Zemaniyot ” (Tem-
porary Injunctions), he translated into Hebrew an
Arabic work of Israel Israeli of Toledo on the ritual,
which is still extant in manuscript.

Bibliography: Zunz. Z. G. p. 42(S; idem, Litcraturgcsch.

p. 503; Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. No. 7119; idem, Hebr.

Vebers. §547 ; Ha-Karmel , vi. 85.

G. I. Br.

AREKA. See Abba Arika.

ARELIM. See Angelology.

ARENDAR. See Randar.

ARENDT, OTTO : German economist, author,
and member of the Prussian Diet ; born in Berlin,
Oct. 10, 1854, He graduated as Pli.D. from the
Berlin University and soon entered on a literary
career, identifying himself with the Ultraconserva-
tive elements of Prussia. He was the foremost ad-
vocate of bimetalism, protective tariffs, and of that
policy generally the trend of which is toward pres-
ervation of the quasi-feudal remnants of the Prussian
State. So unswerving was his loyalty to the Con-
servatives that he abandoned his religion, embraced
Christianity, and sometimes employed anti-Semitic
phraseology. Arendt was editor of the “ Deutsche
Woclienblatt” and the author of many works and
pamphlets, of which the following may be men-
tioned: (1) “ Vertragsmassige Doppelwalirung ”

(1878); (2) “Deutschland’s Internationale Bilanz ”
(1881); (3) “Restitution des Silbers” (1881); (4)
“ Wider Soetbeer” (1882); (5) “Borsensteuer”(1885);
(6) “Ziele Deutscher Kolonialpolitik ” (1886); (7)
“ Erhohung der Getreidezolle ” (1887); (8) “Kaiser
Friedrich und Fiirst Bismarck” (1889); (9) “Leit-
faden der Walirungspolitik ” (1893); (10) “Die Ur-
saclie der Silberentwerthung ” (1899), etc. Some of
these books went through several editions; the
“Leitfaden ” as many as seventeen.

His wife, Olga Arendt, daughter of Lina Mor-
genstern, was a teacher of elocution, and wrote:
“ Dramatisclies Marchenbilderbuch” (1891) ; “ Sylves-
ternacht ” (1893): second edition, 1900; and “Freund-
scliaftstag” (1894).

Bibliography : Kiirscbner, Deutsclier Literatur-Kalender.

s. M. B.

ARENS, LOUIS: Operatic singer (tenor); born
in Mitau, Russia, March 23, 1865. He was educated
at the Riga Gymnasium and studied music at the
Imperial Conservatory of Moscow under the direc-
tion of Tscliaikovsky, graduating in 1890. Arens
sang at the Imperial Opera of Moscow, in Berlin,
Milan, Naples, Turin, and at the Theater Royal,
Covent Garden, London (1894), where he has since
given many concerts. He is author of “ The Quar-
tet,” a children’s pantomime (for orchestra), and a
song, “ Die Erinnerung ” (for tenor).

Bibliography : Jewish Chronicle , December, 1899.

AREPOL, SAMUEL BEN ISAAC BEN
YOM-TOB : Commentator on the Bible, lived in
Safed and Salonica in the sixteenth century. He is
author of the following books : “ Imrot Eloah ”
(God’s Sayings), homilies on the Pentateuch (Venice) ;
“ Wa‘ad la-Hakamim” (The Assembly of the Wise),
a commentary on the prayer-book (Venice); “Leb
Hakam ” (The Heart of the Wise), a commentary on
Ecclesiastes (Constantinople, 1586); “ Mizmor le-To-
dah ” (A Song of Thanks), a commentary on Ps. cxix.
and the fifteen “Songs of Degrees” (Venice, 1576);
“ Sar Shalom ” (The Prince of Peace), a commentary
on Canticles (Safed, 1579); finally he published

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ardotial

Arianism

“Agudat Sliemuel” (Samuel's Collection), consist-
ing of extracts from his previously mentioned works
(Venice, 1576).

Bibliography :
Sefarim , p. 7.
G.

Cat. Bodl. col. 2-108; Benjacob, Ozar lia-

M. L. M.

ARETAS (in Aramaic nmn) IV.: Nabataean
king; reigned from 9 b.c. to 40 of the common
era. His full title, as given in the inscriptions, was
“ Aretas, King of the Nabataeans, Friend of his Peo-
ple.” Being the most powerful neighbor of Judea,
he frequently took part in the state affairs of that
country, and was influential in shaping the destiny
of its rulers. While on not particularly good terms
with Rome — as intimated by his surname, “ Friend
of his People,” which is in direct opposition to the
prevalent <j>i?.oponaioc (“ Friend of the Romans ”) and

Bronze Coin of Aretas IV. Philodeme of Nabathiea, with In-
scription—. . . nSn iinp] . . . iw — “Aretas King of
Nabathaea . . . Year ...”

(After Vigouroux, “ Dietionuaire de la Bible.”)

(piAoKaicap (“Friend of the Emperor”) — and though it
was only after great hesitation that Augustus recog-
nized him as king, nevertheless he took part in the
expedition of Varus against the Jews in the year 4
b.c. (see Archelaus and Varus), and placed a con-
siderable army at the disposal of the Roman general.
It appears, however, that his relations with the Jews,
or at least with the reigning family, became later
more friendly; and Herod Antipas married his
daughter. This marriage, however, led to a war
between Aretas and Herod ; the latter having con-
ceived a fatal passion for his sister-in-law, Herodias,
and having repudiated his wife, thus aroused the
hatred of the Nabataean king. Soon afterward there
arose a quarrel between Aretas and Herod concern-
ing the boundary of Gilead, which led to open war-
fare. In a battle between the two armies, Herod
Antipas was defeated, and would have been com-
pletely overthrown but for the interference of Rome ;
it was against Roman interests to permit the spread
of the power of Aretas. The emperor Tiberius
commanded Vitellius, governor of Syria, to punish
Aretas for his independent action. On account of
the emperor’s death (37), however, his order was
never carried out.

Aretas IV. is probably identical with the Aretas
whose governor at Damascus attempted to imprison
Paul the apostle while the latter was on his mission-
ary journey (II Cor. xi. 32). Since in a parallel
passage (Acts ix. 23 et seq.) the Jews of Damascus
are mentioned as lying in wait for Paul, it is very
probable that Aretas made the attempt to capture
Paul at the request of the Jews. From this it fol-

lows that the Jews must have been influential in
the Nabataean kingdom; otherwise the Nabatieans
would have been careful to avoid any interference
with Paul, who was a Roman citizen.

Bibliography: A. von (jutschmid, in Eutin g. NahatdUctie
Inschriften, p. 84, Berlin, 1885; schiirer, Qesch. i. 617-619,
and the bibliography cited; Paul Ewald, in Realencuclop.
.flir Protest. Theologie, 3cl ed.. i. 795 et seq.; Wilcken, in
Pauly-Wissowa, Real-EncycU>p(hlie, s.v.; and the commen-
taries upon the New Testament passages quoted.

G. L. G.

ARGENS, MARQUIS D’. See Mendelssohn,
Moses.

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. See Agricul-
tural Colonies in America, Buenos Ayres.

ARGOB : 1 . A district in Bashan which was taken
from Og by the Jews (Dent. iii. 4), and together with
the district of Gilead, was handed over to the half-
tribe of Manasseh (Dent. iii. 14). One account of t he
renaming of the land is given in Deut. iii. 15, and
another in Judges x. 3, 5. The latter account is to
be preferred, since Deuteronomy speaks of Havotli
Jair and Argob as identical, and it is known from
I Kings iv. 13 that Havotli Jair was in Gilead. The
district of Argob has not been located accurately, but
a steady line of tradition points to the modern Leja,
known to the Romans as Trachonitis, which is the
word the Targums use in translating Argob. The
land is of lava formation and very rocky ; it is sepa-
rated sharply from the surrounding fertile lands by
a line of rocks and stones. This fact may explain
the term, “cord of Argob.” 2. A place or a person
mentioned in II Kings xv. 25. The passage is very
obscure. Raslii holds that Argob was the royal pal-
ace. Others consider that the name refers to an ac-
complice of Pekah in the murder of Pekahiah. Still
others are of opinion that Argob was an officer of
Pekahiah who, with his master and one Arieh, was
assassinated by Pekah.

Bibliography: Buhl, Geographic ties Alten Paltlstina, p. 118.
.i. jr. G. B. L.

ARIA, LEWIS; Merchant aDd philanthropist;
died at Portsea in 1874. Of a Sephardic family, he
was trained to business and devoted the fortune he
made during a long career to the foundation of a
theological college for the training of Jewish youth
for the ministry. This was established at Portsea
and has turned out several Jewish ministers. By a
curious provision of the will, preference is to be
given to candidates for admission that have resided
in Hampshire, the county in which Portsea is situ-
ated. The incumbent of the post of principal of
Aria College is Rev. I. S. Meisels.

Bibliography: Jacobs, Jewish Year-Book, 5661.

ARIANISM : A heresy of the Christian Church,
started by Arius, bishop of Alexandria (d. 336), who
taught that the Son is not equivalent to the Father
(bpooraioQ = consubstantialis), thereby provoking a se-
rious schism in the Christian Church, which in turn
affected the fortunes of the Jews in many countries.
In view of the fact that most Germanic peoples —
such as the eastern and western Goths, as also the
Franks, the Lombards, the Suevi, and the Vandals —

Arianism

Arioch

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

were baptized into Arian Christianity, and that
these tribes settled in widely spread districts of the
old Roman empire, a large number of Jews, already
resident in those lands, fell under Arian domination.
In contrast with the domination of the orthodox
church, the Arian was distinguished by a wise toler-
ance and a mild treatment of the population of other
faiths, conduct mainly attributable to the unsophis-
ticated sense of justice characterizing the children
of nature, but also traceable in some degree to cer-
tain points of agreement between the Arian doctrine
and Judaism, points totally absent in the ortho-
dox confession. The very insistence upon the more
subordinate relationship of the Son — that is, the
Messiah — to the God-father is much nearer to the
Jewish doctrine of the Messiah than to the concep-
tion of the full divinity of the Son, as enunciated
at Nictea. This, the Germanic form of Arianism,
which deviates essentially from the Egyptian-
Syriac, is hardly more Jewish than it is heathen
(Helferich, “l)er West-Gothische Arianismus,” p.
16, Berlin, 1860; “ Monatsschrift, ” ix. 117, 1860).
Still, Borozus of Sardica, about the year 390, was
accused of “ Judaizing ” (“ Dionysius,” ed. Benedict,
ii. 11, 68). To the Catholic Gregory of Tours (“ Hist.
Franc.” v. 43) the Arian bishop Agila replied : “Blas-
pheme not a doctrine which is not thine. We on our
part, although we do not believe what
Among ye believe, nevertheless do not curse it.

the For we do not consider it a crime to
Goths. think either thus or so.” “To such
noble sentiment,” remarks Helferich
{ib. p. 50), “the Jews owed the humane treatment
which they received at the hands of the West-Gothic
Arians.” But the laws of the Visigoths (“Lex Visi-
gothorum,” Madrid, 1815), formulated under Rec-
cared (584) and his successors, when the tribes had
become converted to Catholic Christianity, give evi-
dence of a most bitter feeling against the Jews; and
the enactments for the persecution of Israel present
a striking picture, strongly contrasting with the
former happy circumstances of the Jews in the em-
pire of the Visigoths of Spain and France, while
these Visigoths were still Allans. The Jews were
not then the downtrodden people which the harsh
and exceptional laws of the Roman Christian em-
peror made of them. In Spain they formed a dis-
tinct nation beside Goths, Romans, Syrians, and
Greeks (enumerated in the “ Concilium Narbonense,”
iv.), and as such were in the main upon exactly the
same footing as all others. Indeed, the ruling Visi-
goths may have preferred the Jews to the Catholics,
for the latter were politically Romans, and eonfes-
sionally adherents of the Nicene Creed (Gratz, “Die
West-Gothische Gesetzgebung,” p. 6), while from
the former they had to fear neither political enmity
nor the fanaticism of the conversionist. Marriages
between Arian Christians and Jews were not infre-
quent (compare canon xvi. of the Synod at Elvira,
Hefele, “ Couciliengesch.” i. 162); and it appears
that the Jews exercised some sort of jurisdiction over
the Catholics (Helferich, ib. p. 6), although Hel-
ferich’s supposition that the Catholics were openly
opposed by the allied Arians and Jews has been
amply disproved by Felix Dalm (“ Die Ivonige der
Germanen,” vi. 413, 2d ed.).

The Ostrogoths were similarly disposed, and, upon
heir attainment to power in Italy', they treated the
Jews there according to the laws of justice and
equity. The golden words of Theodoric the Great
are familiar: “We can not command religion, for
no man can be compelled to believe anything against
his will.” As clearly appears from his decrees, the
religion of the Jews was certainly no less odious to
the Arian king than was the Catholic ; but his duty
as king demanded that he should treat his Jewish
subjects as human beings. Theodoric’s decrees in
favor of the Jews are, therefore, not the outcome of
his Arianism, and appertain to the general history
of the Jews rather than to the subject of this article.
The persecutions of the Jews by the Catholics in
Milan, Genoa, and Ravenna are, however, in so far
connected with the religious circumstances of the
country, that the Catholics thereby designed to re-
venge themselves for their own oppression by the
Arians. The enmity between both Christian parties
was so great that King Theodoric is said to have
harbored the design, at the instigation of a Jew, to
uproot Catholicism in Italy with the sword. A
fanatical source calls Triva, the praepositus cubiculi
(captain of the dormitory) of the emperor, “a
heretic and a friend of the Jews ” (Sar-
Theodosius. torius, “De Occup. Provinciarum Ro-
man. per Barbaross.” p. 108; Dalm,
ib. ii. 201). The Arian creed no doubt contributed
somewhat to the fact that Theodoric’s successor,
Theodosius, maintained a Jewish sorcerer (Proco-
pius, “ De Bello Adv. Gothos.” i. 9). It is no wonder,
therefore, that in 537 the Jews sided with their pro-
tectors, the Ostrogoths, in their courageous defense
of Naples against the besieging armies of the Roman
emperor (Jost, “Gescli. der Israeliten,” v. 57 ; Gratz.
“Gescli. d. Juden,” v. 50). A senseless story has it
that the Jews fought against the Arian Christians at
the Battle of Pollentia, on Easter, 403, being urged
thereto by Stilicho, the opponent of Alaric. This
legend owes its origin to the fact that the general of
Honorius happened to be named Saul, although he is
expressly stated (see “ Orosius,” vii. 37) to have been
a heathen (Jost, “Geschichte der Israeliten,” v. 330;
J. Bernays, “Gesammelte Abhandlungen,” ii. 128,
n. 48, Berlin, 1885). On the other hand, the Jews
took an active part in the defense of the town of
Arles in Gaul, possession of which, in 508, was dis-
puted with the Visigoths by Clovis, king of the
Franks, who had become a Catholic (Jost, ib. v. 48).
They also successfully defended for the Visigoths
the passes of the Pyrenees against the hostile Franks
and Burgundians (deduced from “ Concilium Tole-
tanum,” xvii. 6; Gratz, “Gesch.” v. 72).

The legislation of the Arian Lombards made no
distinction between Jews and non-Jews. Further
than this nothing is known of the history of the
Jews among them; nor is there any information
concerning the life of the Jews in North Africa
under the Vandals, who were likewise Arians, and
who treated the Catholics with great severity (Dahn,
“ Westgothisclie Konige,” i. 251). In the speech of
Augustine, Jews, heathens, and Arians were equally
abused (“ Concio ad Catechumenos Contra Judteos,
Paganos, et Ariauos ” ; “ Sitzungsbericlite der Wiener
Academie,” 1889, cxix. 63); but this speech, from

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arianism

Arioch

which some information of earlier times might have
been gleaned, is, unfortunately, no longer extant.

Bibliography : Helferich, Westgothischer ArUwAsmus und
die Spanisclie j Ketzergeschichte, 1860; Griitz, Die M'est-
gothiselie Gesetzgebung in Betreff der Judev, 1858, in
Jahresbericht desJUd. Thcologischen Seminars in Breslau.

K. S. Kit.

ARIAS, JOSEPH ZEMAH (SAMEH) : Ma-

rano litterateur; flourished in the latter part of the
seventeenth century. He belonged to the literary
coterie of Joseph Penso, the dramatist, and held a
high commission in the Spanish army at Brussels.

He attained the rank of captain and was at one
time adjutant to Colonel Nicolas Oliver y Fullano.
He is heard of in Brussels and in other Dutch cities
as the companion of the poet De Barrios. He is
better known, however, from his translation into
Spanish of Josephus’ “Contra Apionem,” which
appeared in Amsterdam, 1687, under the title,
“Repuesta de Josepho Contra Apion Alexandrine,
Traduzida por el Capitan Joseph Semah Arias.”
The translation was dedicated to Isaac Orobio de
Castro, and was printed with the approbation of
Isaac Aboab de Fonseca.

Bibliography; Gratz, Gesch. derJuden. 3d ed., x. 181; Kay-
serling, Sephardim , pp. 253, 351 ; idem, Bihl. Esp.-Part.-Jud.
p. 13.

H. G. E — G.

ARIAS MONTANUS (BENEDICTUS) :

Spanish priest and Orientalist; born in 1527 at Frese-
enal, Estremadura; died 1598 at Seville. Philip
II. entrusted him with the editing of the Polyglot
Bible which was printed in Antwerp (1568-1572)
under the title, “Biblia Sacra, Hebraice, Chaldaice,
Grace, et Latine, Philippi II., Regis Catholiei Pie-
tate et Studio ad Sacrosanct® Ecclesi® Usum Chpli.
Plantinus Excudebat.” Arias was accused of Judai-
zing, on account of his insertion in the Polyglot of
certain Aramaic paraphrases tending to confirm the
Jews in their claims; but he was acquitted of the
charge through a favorable report on the matter
by the inquisitor, P. Mariana (1580). He translated
Benjamin of Tudela’s “Masa'ot” into Latin (1575,
1636, 1764), and was the author of “ Antiquitatum
Judaicarum” (published, with engravings, in Ley-
den, 1593), and many other works.

Bibliography; McClintock and Strong, Cyclopedia , s.v.; La
Grande Encyclopedic , s. v.; Tomas Gonzalez Carhajol, in Mi-
moires de V Acad einie Royale dc Madrid , vii. ; Herzog-
llauek, Realencyklopddie , s.v. Montanus.

G. A. P.

ARIEL — Biblical Data : 1. Proper name of a
man (Ezra viii. 16). The name is recognizable in the
name of the Gadite clan Areli (Gen. xlvi. 16; Num.
xxvi. 17, Ariel in LXX.), and occurs also in II Sam.
xxiii. 20. R. V., and in I Cliron. xi. 22, R. V. The
text is corrupt. LXX. in Samuel has “ two sons of
Ariel”; Targ. “ two might}" men.” Proposed emen-
dations are: “two lions (or, lion whelps)” or “two
sons of Uriel.” The reference may be to persons or
to beasts. Form and meaning are uncertain. Sug-
gested interpretations are: “lion of God,” or, by
change of vowel, “light of God,” or “God is my
light.” 2. Poetic name for Jerusalem (Isa. xxix. 1, 2,
7), variously explained (Targ. “ altar ”). The illustra-
tion in verse 2 (“ Ariel . . . shall be unto me as Ariel, ”
the city shall reek with blood, like an altar) suggests

that the second “Ariel” equals “altar” or “altar
hearth ” ; so probably in Ezek. xliii. 15, 16, and in the
inscription of Mesha, line 12. For a proposed sense,
“ cresset ” or “ candelabrum, ” see note on Ezek. xl. 49
in “Sacred Books of the O. T.” (ed. Haupt). The
etymology of the word is uncertain, possibly mx,
“hearth,” with ^ formative. The name of the city
will then be an imitation of the name “Jerusalem”
(perhaps properly Urmhalem, “c-ity of Shalem ”),
“ city of God” (Uriel or Uruel). It is otherwise in-
terpreted as “ altar-hearth of God ” ; that is, the place
devoted to the worship of God.

.1. jr. T.

— — In Rabbinical Literature : The name Ariel
(“Lion of God”) was applied not only to the altar
(Targum, Isa. xxix. 1), but also to the whole Temple.
The Talmud (Mid. iv. 7) points out that the Temple
— that is, the Hekal — resembled a lion in being
broad in front and tapering toward the rear. Con-
cerning the name Ariel, a Midrasli remarks th.d the
Temple is called “lion ” (Isa. t.c.), and so also is the
house of David (Ezek. xix. 2-7) and Judah (Gen.
xlix. 9). Nebuchadnezzar, likewise, is called “ lion ”
(Jer. iv. 7); and it was this lion that destroyed the
Temple, deposed the house of David, and carried
Judah into captivity (Ex. R. xxix. 9).

j. sr. ‘ L. G.

ARIMATHJEA, JOSEPH OF. See Josepit
OF AltlM ATII/KA.

ARIOCH — Biblical Data: 1. King of Ellasar,
one of the four kings who invaded Palestine in the
days of Abraham (Gen. xiv. 1, 9) . The style of the
chapter in Genesis is such as to make it probable that
the narrative, though embellished, rests on some his-
torical tradition. Midrash Gen. R. xlii. seeks to iden-
tify Arioch with Yawan (changed by the censor into
Antiochus), and remarks further that coins the name
of which bore some resemblance to the name Ellasar
were still in circulation. It is now, however, gener-
ally held that Arioch, king of Ellasar, is identical
with Eri-aku, king of Larsa, found in cuneiform in-
scriptions, though it should be added that no ac-
count of Eri-aku’s campaign has as yet been discov-
ered, so that only the identity of the two names
can be maintained with certainty. We know that
Eri-aku was conquered by Hammurabi, the Amra-
phel of Gen. xiv. 1, and that he became a vassal to
him. The ruins of Larsa cover the site known as
Senlcereh.

Bibliography : Schrader. K. A. T. 2d ed., p. 135. Eng. ed.,

p. 121 : Honimel, A indent Hebrew Tradition , index, s.v. Eri-

aku ; Jensen, in Z. D. M. G. 1. 217 et seq.

2. Captain of Nebuchadnezzar’s guard, men-
tioned in Dan. ii. 14, 15.

3. A king of the Elymeseans (Elamites) in alli-
ance with Nebuchadnezzar (Judith i. 6).

j. jr. G. B. L.

In Rabbinical Literature: In Arioch of El-
lasar the Midrash finds an indication of the fate of
the Jews under Antiochus Epiplianes [Arioch being
construed as Antioch(us)] (Gen. R. xlii. 4). In the
other Arioch, “the captain of the king’s guard”
(Dan. ii. 14), the Rabbis recogniz.e Nebuzaradan,
who was given this name because he roared like a
lion ('“|X) against the captured Jews (Lam. R. v. 5;

Aristai

Aristeas

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

the reason for the identification is found in II Kings
xxv. 8, which offers a parallel to Dan. ii. 14). It
may be mentioned that the amora Samuel is often
called by the name of Ariocli (Saab. 53 a, and else-
where), which, however, is derived from the Old
Persian arjak (“ ruler ”).

j. sr. L. G.

ARISTAI (abbreviated form of ARISTiEUS):
A Palestinian scholar of the third amoraic generation
(third century) ; colleague of R. Samuel b. Naiiman.
The latter, commenting on Gen. xix. 24, “The Lord
rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone
and fire from the Lord out of heaven, ” remarks : “ W o
unto the wicked who cause the seat of mercy to be-
come a place of punishment! For inPs. cxlviii. 1-6,
David exhorts, ‘Praise ye the Lord from the heav-
ens,’ and does not mention either fire or hail or brim-
stone as included in the heavens. Our colleague, R.
Aristai, confirms our view by citing Ps. xcvi.6, ‘Hon-
or and majesty are before Him: strength and beauty
are in His sanctuary’” (Tan., Wayera, ed. Buber,
23). R. Aristai reports the following observation of
R. Berechiah in reference to the Hadrianic persecu-
tions: “ Isaiah cries unto the Lord, ‘Let thy dead live ’
(Isa. xxvi. 19), meaning ‘ those who have died for
tliee.’ One man has been crucified; why? because
he circumcised his son ; another has been burnt ; why ?
because he kept the Sabbath ; a third was slain ; why ?
because he was found studying the Torah. God’s
answer is : (Isa. l.c. ) ‘ My dead shall arise ’ ” (Tan. , ed.
Buber, p. 19; Baclier, “ Ag. Pal. Amor.” iii. 660).

J. sr. S. M.

ARISTEAS, THE HISTORIAN : Writer on
Jewish history mentioned in Eusebius, “Prsep. Ev.”
ix. 25, who quotes from Alexander Polyliistor’s col-
lection of fragments, a passage from a work of Aris-
teas (in many manuscripts “ Aristaios ”), entitled Htpi
'Iovdaiuv, which contains the history of Job almost
as it is given in the Biblical narrative, but offers much
that is noteworthy in regard to the names of per-
sonages. Job’s original name was “ Jobab ” ; that is,
Aristeas identifies Job with the Jobab mentioned in
Gen. xxxvi. 33, a great-grandson of Esau. He bases
his identification on the fact that Eliphaz recurs in
the generations of Esau in Gen. xxxvi. 10, 11; that
his appellation “Temanite” (Job ii. 11) is found in
Gen. xxxvi. 11, 34; that Job’s dwelling-place, Uz, is
suggested by Gen. xxxvi. 28; and that Zophar oc-
curs at least in Septuagint of Gen. xxxvi. 11, 15. In
point of fact, the author of Job simply borrowed the
names from Genesis. Now, in the Septuagint “ ad-
ditions” to Job, which agree almost word for word
with Aristeas, are found the same substitutions; Jo-
bab stands for Job, Uz is placed in Idumea, and Job’s
friends are called kings. If the “addition ” to Gen.
xxxvi. 33, ’I u/3a/3 vio; Z apa ck Bnooppag, designates
Job’s parents, mistaking the last name for that of
his mother, it enables us to remedy an error, not of
Aristeas, but of Alexander (rou ’ll oav yyuavra Bacaapav
h E bu/i -yevvrjaaL Tu/3) (Freudenthal, p. 138). Freu-
denthal holds it for certain that the author of the
“additions” made use of Aristeas. Possibly the re-
verse is more likely, that the translator supplemented
his work with these “additions,” as he himself says,
« rr/f IvpuiKf/c jSifl/.ov, from the Syriac, and that they

were used by Aristeas. For, in the first place, all
uncial manuscripts contain the “additions,” and we
have no tradition that any one has ever denied that
they belonged to the Septuagint (Field, “Hexapla,”
ii. 82); secondly, Freudenthal (p. 137) points out that
when the translator, in Job ii. 11, makes Job’s
friends kings, in opposition to the original text, he
takes a liberty similar to many which appear in the
“additions of the Septuagint.”

Aristeas’ era must be placed between the time of
the translation of Job and the epoch of Alexander
Polyhistor, probably, therefore, in the second cen-
tury. Aristeas’ work bears no relation to the Letter
of Aristeas, although the author of the letter very
probably borrows his name from the historian.

Bibliography: The text of his work is given hy C. Muller, Frag-
menta Historicorum Grascorum, iii. 220; Freudenthal, Al-
exander Polyhistor, 1S75, p. 231, compare pp. 136-143;
Schiirer, Gesch. 4th ed., iii. 356, 357.

K. P. W.

ARISTEAS, LETTER OF : In the guise of a
letter to a brother Pliilokrates, “ Aristeas ” writes :

“ By the advice of Demetrius Phalereus, chief librarian of Ptol-
emy Philadelphus, the king decided to include in his library a
translation of the Jewish Lawbook. To secure the cooperation
of the high priest Eieazar at Jerusalem, Aristeas advises him to
purchase and set free the numerous Jews who had been sold
into slavery after his father’s campaign against them (312). He
sends Andreas, a captain of his body-guard, and Aristeas, laden
with rich presents, and entrusted with a letter, asking Eieazar
to send him seventy-two elders to undertake the translation.
The envoys see Jerusalem, inspect the Temple and the citadel,
and admire the high priest and his assistants at their service in
the sanctuary ; they are instructed, moreover, by Eieazar in the
deeper moral meaning of the dietary laws, and
Contents return, with the seventy-two elders, to A lexan-
of the dria. The king receives the Jewish sages with
Letter. distinction, and holds a seven-day banquet, at
which he addresses searching questions to
them daily, always receiving appropriate answers. The wis-
dom of their replies, though it seems to the modern reader
rather trivial, arouses general astonishment. Three days after
the feast, Demetrius conducts the sages to the island of Pharos,
where in seventy-two days of joint labor they complete their
work. Demetrius reads the translation aloud in a solemn assem-
bly of the Jewish congregation ; it is accepted and sanctioned
by them, and any change therein officially forbidden. The
king, to whom the translation is also read, admires the spirit of
the Law-giver, and dismisses the translators with costly gifts.”

The author of this letter declares himself (§ 16) a
heathen ; as such, in §§ 128, 129, lie asks Eieazar con-
cerning the purport of the Jewish dietary laws; and
in § 306 consults the translators about the meaning
of the ceremony of washing the hands before prayer
(see Schiirer, ii. 444, note 57). But it is universally
recognized that in point of factliispanegyrizing tend-
ency toward Judaism throughout shows him to be a
Jew (Kautzsch, “Die Apokryphen, ” i. 16); it is also
certain that he can not have lived in the time of Phila-
delphus. However important and reliable his gen-
eral information maybe concerning Egyptian affairs,
government, and court-ceremonial in the times of the
Ptolemies (Wilcken, in “ Philologus,” iii. Ill), his his-
torical statements about the time of Philadelphus arc
unreliable. In § 180 he changes Philadelphus’ defeat
at Cos into a victory ; he does not know that Deme
trius was banished on the accession of
Errors in Philadelphus, or that the latter’s mar-
the Letter, riage with his sister was childless (§£
41, 185) ; he transplants the philosopher
Menedemus arbitrarily to the court of the Ptolemies
(§ 201), and lets the historian Theopompus and the

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aristai

Aristeas

tragedian Theodektes relate incredible stories to De-
metrius (§§314, 315). Of Theodektes, who died before
, 333b.c., Demetrius can scarcely have had cognizance.
Opinions about the date of the letter vary consid-
erably. Schiirer (“ Geschichte des Judischen Volkes
im Zeitalter Jesu Christi,” ii. 468) assigns it to about
200b. c. He bases his opinion upon the acknowledged
use made of the letter by Aristobulus, but Aristobu-
lus’ time is also a matter of divergent opinion (see
Ahistobulus). Schiirer thinks that in every aspect
the letter presupposes the situation before the con-
quest of Palestine by the Seleucids (Syrians), when it
; stood in a state of lax dependence on Egypt. But
this can not be proved ; Palestine appears to have
been in no way dependent upon Egypt. The high
priest is represented as an independent ruler, with
whom the king of Egypt negotiates as with an inde-
pendent sovereign. He maintains a strong garrison
in the citadel,* and gives the translators military es-
cort (§ 172).

Although the title of king is not mentioned, Philo,
who reproduces closely the contents of the letter, does
speak of (lam) \nvg. Schiirer has to allow that if the
period of the letter is conceived to be that of the
Hasmonean independence, it is superfluous to sug-
gest the hypothesis of “an artificial reproduction of
bygone circumstances. ” And in truth,
The there are many indications pointing to
Question the later Maccabean times. Can it be
of Date, only chance that the names Judas, Si-
mon, and Jonathan appear three times
each, and Mattatliias once, among the names of the
translators (§§ 47 et seq.)‘! The names Sosibius and
Dositheus (§§ 12, 50) are borrowed probably from
Philopator’s minister and from the Jewish general.
It is also extremely probable that Aristeas borrows
even his own name from the Jewish historian Aris-
teas, of whose work, Ilrpi ’I ovtiaiuv, a fragment exists
in Eusebius’ “Pneparatio Evangelica,” ix. 25). Ex-
amination of the parallelism with the verbal usages
of the Septuagint cited in the index to Wendland’s
edition of Aristeas’ letter will show by the multi-
tude of the resemblances that the letter was written
at a period in which the translation of the whole
Bible (not only that of the Law) had already exerted
wide influence. Of special importance, however, is
a passage in the prologue to Jesus Siracli, wherein
the latter’s grandson excuses the imperfections of
his translation by stating that the Greek translation
of the Law, the Prophets, and the other books varies
considerably from the original Hebrew. If the Greek
translation had still enjoyed, in the year 130 (when
the translation of Siracli was probably made), that
esteem which Aristeas (according to Schiirer, seventy
years earlier) presupposes, such condemnatory criti-
cism could not have been offered to Egyptian Jews.
All of this is testimony in favor of the later Macca-
bean age ; and the possession of Samaria and parts
of Idumea by the Jewish state (§ 107) proves the era

* Nothing concerning the date can be learned from the de-
scription of the citadel. It is certain only that it lay north of
the Temple. Schiirer (in private correspondence) takes it to be
the tower mentioned in Neh. ii. 8, vii. 2 ; Josephus, “ Ant.”
xii. §§ 133, 138 ; II Macc. iv. 12, 27; v. 5 ; while Wendland under-
stands it to be the large building (|8api?) built by the Hasrno-
neans, also north of the Temple. Schiirer (p. 470) is right in
holding that the mention of the harbors proves nothing.

to have been at least the time of John Ilyreanus.
One can, therefore, readily understand how if is that
Alexander Polyhistor was unacquainted with the
work, if written in the first century b.c. That it was
written before the invasion of Palestine by Pompey
(63) and the loss of Jewish independence can not be
doubted. These facts are sufficient to contradict the
theory advanced by Gratz (“Gesch. tier Juden,” iii.
379, 582) that it was written in the time of Tiberius.
The fact that, according to Aristeas (§ 301), the
island of Pharos was built upon and inhabited, gives
a definite date against Griitz, for according to Strabo,
xvii. 6, Pharos remained waste and desolate after
Caesar's war. The k/upaviarai, “informers,” men-
tioned by Aristeas (§ 167), whom Griitz imagines
to be the Roman delators, are mentioned in early
papyri of the Ptolemies. The visit which, in Aris-
teas (§ 304), the translators pay every morning of
their seventy-two working days to the king, does
not necessarily refer to the “salutatio matutina” of
the Roman imperial court. This detail may well
have been founded upon the court ceremonial of the
Ptolemies, about which we know little, but which,
as we learn from Aristeas himself (§ 175), was very
elaborate. Nor does Griitz prove convincingly that
Aristeas’ description of the Temple and of the cita-
del refers to the Herodian Temple and the Antonia.
That the author lived in Egypt has been mentioned ;
and it accounts for the rather superficial influence of
philosophy upon him. His references to the Epi-
curean doctrine of pleasure (§§ 108, 223, 277), the
recommendation of the pe-pionadua —
Its Philos- restraint of the passions — (§ 197), and
ophy Only many parallels to Greek proverbial
Common- wisdom, never rise above the plati-
place. tudes and commonplaces of an ordi-
nary education. When Aristeas says
(§ 132) that God’s power reveals itself in everything,
because His dominion fills the whole world (com-
pare § 143), only strong prejudice would discern
the conception of intermediary beings, Or would in-
terpret, as applied to “angels,” the various attributes
applied to God really only in their Biblical con-
ceptions (Gfrorer and Dilline). To consider Aristeas
the disciple of an Alexandrian school of philosophy
is to do him too much honor. When he deems that
the heathens pray to the one God, only under other
names (§ 16), and interprets the dietary laws in the
fashion of the allegorical Midrash, he shows simply
how attenuated his Judaism has become. And if
one fancies Biblical resemblances are to be detected
in the sayings of the translators, doubt is awakened
by their superficial conception, or by coincident re-
semblance to Greek proverbial wisdom, showing only
how every characteristic and national feature had be-
come reduced to vagueness.

The legend which forms the framework of the
book has attained great importance in the Christian
Church. However much the Jewish writer’s fancy
may have given itself play in its embellishment — as,
for instance, in the quasi -legal style of the reports
of the delibera tions, and in the clumsy imitations of
the accustomed forms of dinner-table philosophy —
still the legend in its main features may easily have
reached Aristeas through the channel of popular
tradition. The threefold cooperation of king, high

Aristeas
Aristobulus I.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

priest, and Palestinian sages, and especially the sol-
emn sanction of the Greek translation, have for their
sole objects the legitimation of the version, and the
obtaining for it of equal authority with the original
text. Philo, who otherwise follows Aristeas, goes
beyond him in attributing divine inspiration to the
translators, and in making them by divine influence
produce an identical translation, and in calling them
prophets (“Vita Mosis,” ii. 7). This exaggeration
must be considered simply as a popular develop-
ment of the legend, and Philo’s regard in his ex-
egesis for the translation as a holy text testifies to
the general appreciation in which it was held. When
the use of the Septuagint in the synagogue service
speedily surrounded it with an atmosphere of sanc-
tity, pious belief easily accommodated itself toamyth,
the material and form of which closely resembled the
familiar legend of the restoration of the holy books
by Ezra under divine inspiration; a legend which is
found for the first time in IV Esdras, but which is
certainly far older. The Christian Church received
the Septuagint from the Jews as a divine revelation,
and quite innocently employed it as a basis for Scrip-
tural interpretation. Only when Jewish polemics
assailed it was the Church compelled to investigate
the true relationship of the translation
Influence to the original. Origen perceived the
of insufficiency of the Septuagint, and, in
Aristeas. his “Hexapla,” collected material for
a thorough revision of it. But the leg-
end long adhered closely to the Septuagint and was
further embellished by the Church. Not only were
“ the Seventy ” (the usual expression instead of Sev-
enty-two) credited with having translated all the Sa-
cred Scriptures instead of the Law only (according
to Epiplianius, a whole mass of Apocrypha besides),
but the miraculous element increased. At one time
we are told the translators were shut up in seventy
cells in strictest seclusion (pseudo-Justin and others) ;
at another, in thirty-six cells, in couples. Epiphanius
in his work, “ De Mensuris et Ponderibus” (written
392), furnishes the most highly elaborated and most
widely accepted form of the story. The legend be-
came a weapon in the battle which was waged around
the Bible of the Church ; the “ inspired ” Septuagint
was not easily surrendered. The rigid orthodoxy
of the fourth century, which resulted in the ruin of
all knowledge in the Church, did not scruple to set
this legend in its crassest form in opposition to the
promising beginnings by Origen of a proper Bib-
lical text criticism, and so to arrest the latter com-
pletely at the start. Only Jerome, who as a philol-
ogist understood the value of Origen's work, made
use of his material, and in the Vulgate preserved
for the Western Church this most precious legacy,
exercising, consistently with his usage, a rational
criticism upon the legend.

Thus Aristeas plays a great, even a fateful, role
in the Church. The varying opinions as to this leg-
end very often reflect dogmatic views about the
Bible in general, and the understanding, or the
misunderstanding, of his critics concerning textual
questions.

Bibliography : Various editions : The ed. princeps of the
Greek text, by S. Schard, Basel. 1561. upon which all subse-
uent editions are based. M. Schmidt’s ed. in Merx. Arehiv
. Wissenschaftliche Eifortschung des A. T. (Halle, 1868),

341—313 ; Aristece ad Philocratem Epistula, cum Ceteris de
Oriyine Verskmis LXX Interpretum cum Testimonies ex
L. Mendelssohnii Schedis, ed. P. Wendland, Leipsrc, 1900.
Schmidt depends mainly upon one Paris manuscript, but Men-
delssohn compared all manuscripts extant. Wendland’s index
shows the importance of Aristeas for the study of Hellenistic
Greek, by comparison with the LXX, with inscriptions, papyri
in the Ptolemaic age, and Polybius. Paragraph references in
the above article are those in Wendland’s edition. Wend-
land, German translation with introduction, in E. Kautszch,
Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des A. T. ii. 1-
31, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1899. Other literature is quoted by
Schiirer, Gescli. des JUdischen Polices, 3d ed., ill. 470.

K. P. W.

ARISTIDES MAREIANUS OF ATHENS :

Christian apologist ; lived about the middle of the
second century. He is described by Jerome as having
been a most eloquent man. Both the author and his
work — a defense of Christianity addressed to the
emperor, Antoninus Pius — are, so to speak, new dis-
coveries. Beyond a brief notice of Aristides and his
“Apology” by Eusebius (“Hist. Eccl.” iv. 3; id.
“Citron. Ann.” 2140), he remained until recently
entirely unknown. Some Armenian fragments of
the “Apology ” had been published, in 1878, when, in
1891, Harris surprised the learned world with a
complete Syrian text of the work ; and at the same
time Robinson pointed out the interesting fact that
in “Barlaam and Josapliat” the Greek text of the
“ Apology ” had been almost wholly preserved.

The “ Apology ” which he presented to the Emper-
or Hadrian between the years 123 and 126, is of great
interest, not only for the early history of Christianity,
butalso for Judaism. For Aristides is one of the few
Christian apologists, of ancient or modern times, who
strive to be j ust to the Jews ; and this not alone con-
cerning their monotheistic faith — which he charac-
terizes as the true one — but also as regards their re-
ligious practises, of which he remarks : “ They imitate
God by the philanthropy that prevails among them ;
for they have compassion on the poor, release the
captives, bury the dead, and do such things as these,
which are acceptable before God and well-pleasing
also to man ” (Syrian text, xiv.). The only thing to
which lie takes exception is that their ceremonial
practises do not propitiate God — whom they wish to
serve by them — -but the angels ( l.c .).

This complaint against the Jews is not made from
actual observation of their life, but rests solely on a
theory borrowed from the New Testament (Col. ii. 18;
Gal. ii. 8, 10), and the New Testament Apocrypha
K i/pvypa lUrpov ; see Clement of Alexandria, “ Strom. ”
vi. 41). What Aristides defends so ably and so elo-
quently in his “Apology” is not specifically Chris-
tian doctrine, much less dogmatic Christianism, but
the moral side of the religion, which, according to
his own words, represents an excellence not to be
denied to Judaism likewise. Aristides seems to be
strongly influenced in his apologetics by the Jewish
“ Didache ” ; and his argument for monotheism (see
chaps, i., ii., iii.) recalls the favorite Jewish Hagga-
dot touching the conversion of Abraham to the true
faith (see Abraham in the Apocrypha and in
Rabbinical Literature). Directly or indirectly,
Aristides must have learned of these traditions. His
remarks upon the religious life of the Jews in Greece
in his time (ch. xiv.) are interesting: he states that
they do not observe the ceremonial laws as they
should. These remarks perhaps refer to the results
of the edict of persecution issued by Hadrian, when

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aristeas
Aristobulus I.

the Jews were compelled to transgress the Jewish
( ceremonial laws.

I Bibliography : Harris and Robinson, in Texts and Studies , i.
1; Raabe, in Texte und Untersuchungcn , ix. 1 (German
translation of the Syriac version) ; Seeberg, in Zahu’s For-
schungen , v. 159 ct seq.; contains a German translation of the
reconstructed Greek original; D. M. Kalf, English transla-
tion, in Ante-Nicene Fathers, ix. 359 et seq.: Harnack, in
Realencyklopiidie flir Protestant ische Theol. 3d edition, ii.
4G ; see also Otto, Cor pm Apologetorum, ix. 343.

L. G.

ARISTO OF PELLA (in the Decapolis) : A

Christian controversialist who wrote against Juda-
ism in the second century (135-170). He is the au-
thor of a ‘‘Dialogue Between Jason and Papiscus. ”

> The former is supposed to be a Jewish Christian,
the latter an Alexandrian Jew. So overcome is the
latter by his antagonist’s arguments, that in the end
he becomes a con vert to Christianity. This dialogue
j was a favorite in the third century ; “ was known to
almost everybody in the year 500 ” (Harnack, “Texte
und Untersuchungen,” i. 3 et seq .); and still existed
in the sev-
enth cen-
tury, but it
has now
completely
disappear-
e d. Al-
though
this dia-
logue is
preserved
in great
part in the
similar Lat-
in composi-
tion, “ Al-
tercatio Si-

monis Judtei et Theophili Christiani,” it is im-
possible for any one to form a correct idea of its
contents. It probably contained the information,
attributed to Aristo by Eusebius, that by the pro-
hibition of Hadrian the Jews were not permitted to
touch. the soil of Jerusalem (“ Historia Ecclesiastica, ”
iv. 6). It is also interesting to notice that Jerome
claims to have read in the dialogue, that in the
Hebrew text, Gen. i. 1, these words are to be found :
“Through His son, God created heaven and earth”
(“ Qusestiones Hebraeicse Libri Genesis, ” i. 1, and com-
mentary to Gal. iii. 13). This alleged Hebrew text,
as Ginzberg explains, is nothing but an exegetical
mistranslation of the first word in the Targum
(ITOSrD, “with wisdom” = Aoyof).

Bibliography: Harnack, as above ; Zahn, Forschungcn, pp.
308 et seq.; Corssen, Altcrcatio Simonis et Theophiti; Har-
nack, Geschichte Altchristl. Lit. (1893), i. 73 et seq.; and
Ginzberg, Die Haggada b. d. Kirchenvtltern, p. 3 ; compare
Otto, Corpus Apologetorum, ix. 349 et seq.

T. L. G.

ARISTOBULUS I. (called Judah, in Hebrew);
King of Jude$ eldest son of John Hyrcanus; bom
about 140 b.c. ; died 104. He succeeded his father
in the office of high priest, while his mother (or,
according to Wellhausen, his stepmother) was, by
the will of his father, to rule as queen. Immedi-
ately after the death of his father, Aristobulus
threw his mother into prison, where she was starved
to death : and to secure himself against further dan-

ger from his family, he imprisoned three of his
brothers. Then he ascended the throne, and became
the first Jewish king after the Babylonian exile — an
interval of nearly five hundred years.

Aristobulus was not content with the mere title
of king, but endeavored, in the brief period of his
reign, to prove himself worthy of his position. He
made war on Iturea, subjugated a large portion of
the people, strove to convert them to Judaism, and
forced circumcision upon them. This fact, which
Josephus derives from Timogenes, a heathen writer,
admits of no doubt, although it is not known exactly
what territory of the Itureans was conquered for
Judea by Aristobulus.

Successful as was his public career, Aristobulus
was extremely unfortunate in his family relations.
Being of feeble health, he gradually came under the
complete control of a clique, at the head of which
stood Alexandra Salome, the queen. Through its
machinations, he was led to suspect his favorite

brother,
Antigonus
— whom he
had e n -
tru s t e d
w i t h a
share in
the govern-
ment, and
whom he
treated al-
most as a
coregent —
o f designs
against
him, and
was finally

induced to order his execution, though unwit-
tingly, it is claimed. After this deed Aristo-
bulus is said to have been seized with such bitter
remorse at having caused the death

Palace of his mother and brother, that he
Intrigues, broke down completely and died of
grief, 104 b.c. If the account of Jose-
phus concerning the family history be true, Aristobu-
lus is the darkest figure in the Hasmonean dynasty ;
but not much credence can be attached to this portion
of his narrative, by reason of the amount of legend
that has gathered about it. It must be observed
that it was out of regard for the Pharisees that he
used only Hebrew inscriptions upon his coinage,
and caused himself to be represented upon it as a
high priest, because according to the Pharisees only
a member of the house of David could legitimately
hold the throne. Although strongly inclined toward
Hellenism himself, he was careful, even in such
comparatively small matters, not to offend the Phar-
isees; it is therefore highly improbable that he
should have risked their certain antagonism by the
murders imputed to him. See articles Alexandra
Salome and Antigonus, Son of John Hyrcanus.

Bibliography : Josephus, Ant. xiii. 11 ; Eusebius, Historia
Ecclesiastica , Eng. ed., v. 353, 385, 386 ; Gratz, Gescli.der Ju-
dea, 3d ed., ii. 103-105 ; Hitzig, Gesch. des Jtldischen Volkes,
ii. 473-475; Schiirer, Gesch. i. 216-319; Wellhausen, I. J. G. pp.
275, 276. For chronology, compare Niese, in Hermes, 1893, pp.
216 etseq. ; and for coins. Madden, Coins of the Je ws, pp. 81-83.
G. L. G.

Copper Coins of Judas Aristobulus.

Obverse: Olive wreath, round ([a'tinpn nam Svu pa mm*) m -unfi Sjjnrn ivt (“Judas
High Priest, and the Confederation of the Jews”). Reverse: Two cornua-copiae : in the
middle a poppy-head.

(After Madden, “ History of Jewish Coinage.”)

Aristobulus II.
Aristobulus of Paneas

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

ARISTOBULUS II. : King of Judea ; born about
100 b.c. ; died 49 b.c. He was the youngest son
of Alexander Jannaeus, whose political and religious
predilections he inherited, while his elder brother,
Hyrcanus II., seems to have leaned to the side of
his mother. Although he had no rightful claim to
the throne, he entertained designs upon it, even dur-
ing the life of his mother. He courted the nobles
and military party by constituting himself the patron
of the Sadducees and bringing their cause before
the queen. The many fortresses which the queen
placed at the disposal of the Sadducees, ostensibly
for their defense against the Pharisees, constituted in
reality one of the preparatory moves of Aristobulus
for the usurpation of the government.
Supports The queen sought to direct his mili-
the Sad- tary zeal outside Judea, and sent him
ducees. (70-69) against Ptolemy Mennrei; but
when the undertaking failed, Aristo-
bulus resumed his political intrigues. He left Jeru-
salem secretly and betook himself to his friends, who
controlled the largest number of fortified places, with
the intention of making war against his aged mother.
But the queen died at the critical moment, and he
immediately turned his weapons against his brother
Hyrcanus, the legitimate heir to the throne. The
war resulted in victory for Aristobulus. After a
reign of three months, Hyrcanus abandoned the royal
title in favor of his brother, in return for which Aris-
tobulus allowed him the unlimited use of his sources
of revenue.

This easily acquired peace did not long endure.
Hyrcanus was prevailed upon by Antipater to in-
duce Arefas, king of Arabia, to make war against
Aristobulus. In consequence of the victory of Are-
tas, added to the abandonment of Aristobulus by
the Pharisees — the most powerful party in Jerusa-
lem— who had gone over to Hyrcanus, Aristobulus
was compelled to withdraw to the Temple Mount.
The distressing siege which followed, about which
most wonderful stories are told (see Honi iia-Me‘ag-
gel and Hyrcanus II.), led to no decisive result.
A third party — Rome — was therefore called in to
unravel the complicated situation, and the effects of
this intercession proved not only inju-
Appeal to rious to the brothers, but in the end
Rome. brought about the destruction of the
Jewish state. At that time (65) Pom-
pey had already brought under subjugation nearly
the whole of Asia, and had sent his legate, Scaurus,
to Syria, to take possession of the heritage of the
Seleucids. Ambassadors from both the Judean par-
ties waited upon Scaurus, requesting his assist-
ance. A gift of four hundred talents (three hun-
dred, according to some) from Aristobulus turned
the scale in his favor. Aretas was notified to aban-
don the siege of the Temple Mount. Aristobulus was
victorious, and Hyrcanus retained but an insignifi-
cant portion of his power. The victorious brother
had even the satisfaction of avenging himself upon
Aretas; as the latter was withdrawing with his
forces from Jerusalem, Aristobulus followed and in-
flicted severe losses upon him. But the spirit which
he had conjured could not easily be laid, and the
favor of the Romans, to which he had looked with
so much confidence, soon became a factor in Jewish

politics which worked most detrimentally against
himself. When Pompey appeared in Syria (64),
affairs took a turn quite different from the an-
ticipations of Aristobulus. The golden vine, valued
at five hundred talents, which Aristobulus presented
to Pompey, and which excited the admiration of
the Romans even in later generations, had no effect
upon him ; and when, in the year 63, the still hostile
brothers, as well as delegates of the people’s party,
who desired the complete abolition of the Hasmo-
nean dynast}', appeared before him, he refused to
give any immediate decision. He had at that time
contemplated the utter destruction of Jewish inde-
pendence. Aristobulus saw through
Aristobulus the aims of the Roman general, but al-
and though powerless to offer effective re-
Pompey. sistance, his pride did not permit him
to yield without a show of opposition.
He left Pompey in a burst of indignation, and betook
himself to the citadel of Alcxandrion. Pompey fol-
lowed him and demanded the surrender of all the
forts. Aristobulus capitulated, but straightway pro-
ceeded to Jerusalem to prepare himself for resistance
there. When he saw, however, that Pompey pressed
on against him, his courage failed him, and he came
to the general’s camp, and promised him gold and
the surrender of Jerusalem if hostilities were sus-
pended. But promises alone were of no avail with
Pompey. He detained Aristobulus in the camp, and
sent his captain Gabinius to take possession of the
city. The war party in Jerusalem refused to sur-
render, and Aristobulus was made prisoner by Pom-
pey, who proceeded to besiege the city. The capture
of Jerusalem and of the Temple Mount, which fol-
lowed, ended the independence of Judea as well as
the reign of Aristobulus. In the triumph celebrated
by Pompey in Rome (61), the Jewish prince and high
priest was compelled to march in front of the chariot
of the conqueror. The Pharisees saw in this circum-
stance a just punishment for the Sadducean proclivi-
ties of Aristobulus (see the apocryphal Psalms of
Solomon i. and ii. ). But a severer fate even than
captivity was in store for this descendant of the
Hasmoneans. In the year 56, he succeeded in es-
caping from prison in Rome, and, proceeding to
Judea, stirred up a revolt. He was recaptured by
the Romans and again taken to Rome. In 49 he
was liberated by Caesar, and sent at the head of two
legions against Pompey in Syria, but on his way
thither was poisoned by friends of the latter.

Bibliography : Josephus, Ant. xiii. 16, §§ 1-6 ; xiv. 1, §§ 1-1 ; 6,

§ 1 ; 7, § 4 ; B. J. i. 5, §§ 1-4 : Dion Cassius xli. 18 ; Ewald,
History of the People of Israel, Eng. ed., v. 393-404 ; Gratz,
Gesch. tier Juden, iii. 128, 132, 133, 141-148; Hitzig, Gescli.
des Vnlhes Israel , ii. 420-500; Schiirer, Gescli. i. 231-242 ;
Wellhausen, I. J. G. 284-287.

g. L. G.

ARISTOBULUS III.: Last scion of the Hasmo-
nean royal house ; brother of Mariamne and paternal
grandson of Aristobulus II. He was a favorite of
the people on account of his noble descent and hand-
some presence, and thus became an object of fear to
Herod, who at first sought to ignore him entirely by
debarring him from the higli-priesthood. But his
mother, Alexandra, through intercession with Cleo-
patra and Antony, compelled Herod to remove Ananel
from the office of high priest and appoint Aristobu-

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aristobulus II.
Aristobulus of Paneas

lus instead. To secure himself against danger from
Aristobulus, Herod instituted a system of espionage
over him and his mother. This surveillance proved
so onerous that they sought to gain their freedom by
taking refuge with Cleopatra. But their plans were
betrayed, and the disclosure had the effect of greatly
increasing Herod’s suspicions against his brother in-
law. As he dared not resort to open violence, he
caused him to be drowned while lie was bathing in
I Jericho (35 b.c.).

Bibliography : Josephus, Ant. xv. 2, §§ 5-7; 3, §§ 1-3 ; Schiirer,

Gesch. i. 295.

g. L. G.

ARISTOBULUS : Youngest brother of Agrip-
pa I.; son of Herod’s son Aristobulus; flourished
I during the first half of the first century. He was
left an infant, together with his two brotheis,
j Agrippa and Herod, when his father was executed
(7 b.c.). He married Jotape, the daughter of Samp-
sigeram(D'UB’tOEJ'), king of Emesa (Josephus, “Ant.”
xviii. 5, §4). With his brother Agrippa he lived
on bad terms; and when the latter came to the court
of Flaccus, the governor of Syria, to find refuge
after his escapades at Rome, Aristobulus managed
to cause his banishment. Flaccus had been appealed
t.o as judge in a dispute between the inhabitants
of Damascus and those of Sidon concerning their
boundary. The Damascenes, it appears, bribed
Agrippa to intercede on their behalf with his patron.
This intrigue was discovered by Aristobulus, who
forthwith disclosed it to Flaccus ; as a consequence
Agrippa was bidden to leave the court (“ Ant.” xviii.

6, § 3). Aristobulus made an eloquent and success-
ful plea also before Publius Petronius (40), the gov-
ernor of Syria, against the erection of Caligula’s
statue at the Temple of Jerusalem (“Ant.” xviii. 8,
§4).

g. II. G. E.

ARISTOBULUS : Son of Herod the Great and
Mariamne the Hasmonean; born about 35 b.c. ; died
7 b.c. Both he and his elder brother Alexander,
by reason of their Hasmonean origin, were educated
by Herod as successors to his throne; and for that
purpose were sent to Rome (23 b.c.). Upon their
return to Jerusalem (18 b.c.) they became an eye-
sore to the anti-Hasmonean faction at court. Herod’s
sister Salome, and brother Plieroras, who had been
instrumental in the execution of Mariamne, were
particularly apprehensive lest the two princes should
succeed their father, as they would undoubtedly
take vengeance upon the murderers of their mother.
To prevent this, attempts were made at estranging
the princes from their father by means of calumnies.
Herod tried to discredit the evil rumors; and, to
fasten the ties of affection, he procured distinguished
alliances for both sons, Aristobulus being married
to Berenice, the daughter of Salome.

This, however, failed to put an end to Salome’s
intrigues; and Herod, at last, was induced to recall
to court Antipater, his repudiated son by Doris.
Seizing his opportunity, Antipater straightway be-
gan, by means of hypocrisy, slander, and flattery,
to supplant Aristobulus and Alexander in the esteem
of their father, and ere long became the likeliest
successor to the throne. Being sent to Rome, in j
II.— 7

order to gain the favor of Augustus, he continued
thence to calumniate his brothers; so persistently
that Herod at last resolved to arraign them before
the emperor. Meeting Augustus at Aquileia, the
capital of the province of Venetia (12 b.c.), he
charged his sons with contemplated parricide. Au-
gustus, convinced of their innocence, effected a rec-
onciliation. Owing, however, to the ceaseless in-
trigues of Antipater, Salome, and Plieroras, and the
strange relation of Glaphyra and Berenice, the posi-
tion of the two brothers became more and more pre-
carious. Finally, a number of the princes’ followers
were tortured into a public admission of the exist-
ence of a plot against the king’s life. The real de-
sign of Aristobulus and Alexander was to flee for
protection to the court of Archelaus. Ilerod suc-
ceeded in securing permission from Augustus to con-
vene, at Berytus, a council, including C. Sentius
Saturninus, the governor of Syria, to sit in judg-
ment on the accused princes. The council, consist-
ing of 150 of Herod’s trusted friends, gave no oppor-
tunity of defense to the accused, who were detained
in a neighboring village, Platana, and condemned
them to death. Alexander and Aristobulus were
brought to Sebaste and strangled in the year 7 b.c.
Their bodies were taken for burial to Alexandrium,
the burial-place of their maternal ancestors.

Bibliography: Josephus, Ant. xvi. ; idem, J B. J. i. 23-27:
Schiirer, Gesch. i. 336 et see/.

G. H. G. E.

ARISTOBULUS OF PANEAS ; Alexandrian
Peripatetic philosopher; lived in the third or second
century b.c. The period of his life is doubtful, Ana-
tolius (270) placing him in the time of Ptolemy Phila-
delphus (third century b.c.), Gercke in the time of
Philometorll. Lathyrus (latter part of second century
b.c. ; see Pauly -Wissowa’s “ RealencyklopUdie der
Klassisclien Alterthumswissenscliaft,” iii. 919); while
more reliable testimony indicates that he was a con-
temporary of Ptolemy Philometor (middle of second
century b.c.; see Schiirer, “Gesch.” iii. 384). lie
is the author of a book the exact title of which is not
certain, although there is sufficient evidence to prove
that it was an exposition of the Law. Eusebius
(“Prsep. Ev.” viii. 10, xiii. 12) has preserved two
fair-sized fragments of it, in which are found all
the quotations from Aristobulus made by Clement.
In addition, there is extant a small passage concern-
ing the time of the Passover festival, quoted by Ana-
tolius (Eusebius, “Historia Ecclesiastica,” vii. 32,
17).

Following are the contents of the fragments of Aristobulus ex-
tant. In the first fragment he discourses, at the “ king’s ” sug-
gestion, on the anthropomorphic expressions in the Bible, and
shows that they do not conflict with his previous definitions of the
nature of God (Eusebius, “ Pnep. Ev.” viii. 10).
The Extant Interpreting these expressions in their true
Fragments sense (<J>u<tucms), and not mythically, one can
of Aristobu- but admire Moses’ wisdom, from whom indeed
lus’ Work, philosophers and poets have learned much.

“ God’s hand ” means God’s might. “ God’s
resting ” denotes the maintenance of the order of the universe.
God’s “coming down ” to give the Law (Ex. xix. 18) was not a
descent in a physical sense, but expresses God’s condescension
in sending down His law; the fire on the mountain, which burned
but consumed nothing ; the trumpet-sounds without human
instruments (ib.), are outward manifestations of the Divine
Power (Svra/Jis).

Aristobulus of Paneas
Aristotle in Jewish Literature

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

The second fragment ("Praep. Ev.” xiii. 12) deduces from
certain previous discussions (no longer extant) that both Plato
and Pythagoras drew upon a translation of the Mosaic Law be-
fore the time of Demetrius of Phalerus (and this before the
Septuagint ; Aristeas, § 314, also refers to an older transla-
tion). God’s creative “ words ” are stated to denote simply His
activities. Similarly, Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato, when they
claim to hear “ the voice of God,” mean this creative power.
Then follows, in testimony of the 9eia iiivapis, the spurious
Orphic quotation, in which the Stoic idea of God’s permeating
the world (v. 11, Abel) is especially remarkable (fragm. 6, Abel).
The “ quotation ” is taken from the spurious poems of the forger
Hecataeus (Schiirer, ih. iii. 453 et set/.), as many resemblances
indicate, but is considerably elaborated. Thus in fragm. 10, Abel,
Aristobulus eliminates the original’s pantheistic idea ; in v. 11, 12,
he substitutes for the inscrutability of God the Platonic concept
of the knowledge of God through the i-oOv, reason, and inter-
polates this idea also in v. 40. In v. 13 et set/, he reverses the
deduction of “ evil ” from “ God.” V. 14 should read aurols
*’ ep is, as in the Theosophy of Aristokritos. Against Schitrer’s
putting Hecataeus in the third century b.c. is to be remarked,
as Elter has pointed out, that v. 8 of the AEschylus quotation <cai
Traaa mrjyr) Kai v&aros (TvcTTrj/xaTais identical With Ezekiel, in Euse-
bius, ” Prtep. Ev.” ix. 29, 12, irrfyai re natrat Kai vSaToif o’vtrrijp lara.
Since Ezekiel connects this verse with Ex. viii. 19, it must be
said to have originated with him; and, therefore, Ezekiel's drama
would also have to be placed in the third century before Chris-
tianity, along with pseudo-Hecataeus ! This agrees with Aratus’
pantheism (in the discussion of which Aristobulus admits that
he has substituted God for Zeus), which he adopts in order to
show that God’s power penetrates and permeates all things.
Reverent conceptions of God are demanded by all philosophers
and especially by y xa9' ipuas aipe<ris, “our school,” by which he
no doubt means Judaism, not Peripatetic philosophy ; for he im-
mediately points out the earnest inculcation of virtue by the
Jewish law.

In the next excerpt in Eusebius, the meaning of the Sabbath
ij) is discussed, designated also as the first day. The
Sabbath is, as it were, the birthday of light and also of wisdom,
for out of wisdom comes all light. Quite similarly to this. Peri-
patetic philosophers call wisdom a light (or lamp), and Solomon
(Prov. viii. 22) teaches the existence of wisdom before creation.
God’s resting on the seventh day does not denote idleness, but
the stable order of the universe ; so the results of the creative
acts do not signify the mere temporal results, but the lasting
value of the creations. The ipSont) (Sabbath) has also its deeper
significance, because the human “ Logos,” called the «0Sopos, is
its symbol. The number “ seven,” moreover, exerts great in-
fluence upon the development of living beings and plants.
Verses (genuine as well as spurious ; see Schiirer, ib. p. 461)
from Homer, Hesiod, Linos, attest its holiness. When Homer
says, ffjaopdrn 5’ i)oi poor ’ A \ , povTos, be means that

through the Aoyos as e/35opos man frees himself from forgetful-
ness and from the wickedness of the soul, and attains to a per-
ception of truth.

It is to be supposed that Aristobulus was familiar
with the abstract Platonic and Aristotelian idea of
God. This conception necessarily implies a special
Divine Power, acting on the world and in the world.
In addition to this he makes use of the Pythagorean
doctrine of numbers. The statement that he belonged
to the Peripatetic school may be ascribed to the fact
that, in xiii. 12, 10, he cites from a Peripatetic source
(Schiirer, p. 387). Taking into consideration again
his reference to Orpheus and other poets, it is seen
that he was an eclectic, the first partial approach to
which is to be met with in Posidonius (II epl k6o/mv),
in the first century b.c., but which can not be traced
to an earlier date (see Alexandrian Philosophy).

The desultory style of the work of Aristobulus,
and the intentionally obscure and mystical mode of
expression, offer considerable difficulty to the reader.
This is not to be attributed to those who quote from
it, but to the author himself, and has frequent!}' led
to grave misconceptions.

A further examination of the works attributed
to Aristobulus confirms the suspicion as to their genu-

ineness aroused by their eclectic character. The ex-
change of thought between the king — who sug-
gests the problems— and the Jewish scholar on the
Torah is quite impossible. But if it is as fictitious
as the reputed colloquy between the king and the
“Seventy,” narrated by Aristeas, a contemporary
of Philometor can not have been its author, as also
the pseudo-Orpliic poetry in Aristobulus shows. A
somewhat shorter and more original form of the
same has been preserved among a large number of
forgeries, all traceable to one source, the pseudo-
Hecatteus, named by Clemens on first quoting him.
This Orphic fragment (“ De Gnomologiorum Graeco-
rum Historia atque Origine,” parts v.-ix. ; Program
of Bonn University, 1894-95) betrays a strong resem-
blance to the Sibylline Books (Abel, 23. 24; John,
i. 18). That Aristobulus made use of Philo — a refer-
ence to whose works is the only means of rendering
intelligible many of the passages — has been pointed
out by Elter (“ Sp. ” 229-234). Grounds for doubting
Schiirer ’s belief that the literary forger
Quotations Hecataeus flourished in the third cen-

Probably tury b.c. are given in the “Byzan-

Spurious. tinische Zeitschrift,” vii. 449, and the
belief is expressed that Hecatseus and
Aristobulus belong to the second century of the com-
mon era. The name of Aristobulus may have been
taken from II Macc. i. 10. Schlatter’s suggestion
that the commentator of Ecclesiastieus derives his
philosophy from Aristobulus (“Das Neugefundene
Hebraische Stuck des Sirach,” pp. 103 et seq., Giiters-
loh, 1897) is not convincing, for the agreement be-
tween them exists only in opinions which can not
with certainty be ascribed to Aristobulus. Most his-
torians, however, adhere to Schurer’s view.

Bibliography : For the list of writers upon this topic, see

Schiirer, Geseh. 3d ed., iii. 391, 392.

G. P. W.

ARISTOTLE IN JEWISH LEGEND: As

the Greek who most impressed his influence upon the
development of the Jewish mind, Aristotle is one of
the few Gentiles with whom Jewish legend concerns
itself. Some 200 years b.c., the Jewish philosopher
Aristobulus, made the positive assertion that Jewish
revelation and Aristotelian philosophy were identical.
Hardly had 200 years elapsed before this opinion
was modified to such au extent that it was claimed
that Aristotle derived his doctrine directly from Ju-
daism. Josephus on this point says (“Contra Api-
onem,” ii. 17): “I do not now explain how these no-
tions of God are the sentiments of the wisest among
the Grecians, and how they were reared upon the
principles that he [Moses] afforded them.” Of Aris-
totle himself Josephus has preserved (“Contra Api-
onem,” i. 22) a very interesting passage from the
writings of Clearchus, the pupil of Aristotle, the au-
thenticity of which is maintained by such authorities
as Lobeck, Bernays, von Gutschmid (“ Kleine Schrif-
ten,” iv. 578), and Theo. Reinacli (“ Textes d’ Auteurs
Grecs et Romains Relatifs au Judaisme,” 1895, pp.
10-12). This passage, prefaced by the remark of Jo-
sephus, is as follows ;

“ In bis first book on Sleep he relates of Aristotle, his master,
that he had a discourse with a Jew ; and his own account was
that what this Jew said merited admiration and showed philo-

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aristobulus of Paneas
Aristotle in Jewish Literature

sopbical erudition. To speak of the race first, the man was a
Jew by birth and came from Coelesyria [Palestine], These
Jews are derived from the philosophers of
Fragment India. In India the philosophers call tbern-
of selves Kalani, and in Syria Jews, taking their
Clearchus. name from the country they inhabit, which is
Judea; the name of their capital is rather di-
fficult to pronounce : they call it Jerusalem. Now this man, who
had been the guest of many people, had come down from the
highland to the seashore [Pergamus], He was a Greek not only
in language, but in soul ; so much so that, when we happened to
be in Asia in about the same places whither he came, he conversed
with us and with other persons of learning in order to test our
wisdom. And as he had had intercourse with a large number
of sages, he imparted to us more knowledge of his own.”

This is Aristotle’s own account as recorded by Clear-
chus, and he adds more specific observations regard-
ing his great and wonderful fortitude in diet and
continent mode of living. Obviously it was the Jew’s
strict observance of the dietary laws that struck Ar-
istotle. Gutschmid (pp. 579-585) thinks that the Jew
here spoken of is the same wonder-working magician
(exorcist; see Josephus, “Ant.” viii. 2, § 5) who, by
some sort of hypnotism, drew the soul out of the
body of a sleeping child and brought it back again
with his rod in the presence of Aristotle (Proclus,
Commentary on Plato’s Republic, x.), which part
of the narrative Josephus intentionally omitted.

In the circles where the antagonism of Judaism
and Hellenism was known and understood, Aristotle
was reported by tradition to have said : “ I do not
deny the revelation of the Jews, seeing that I am
not acquainted with it; 1 am occupied with human
knowledge only and not with divine” (Judah ha-Levi,
“Cuzari,” iv. 13; v. 14). But when Aristotelian-
ism became harmonized with Judaism
Regarded by Maimonides, it was an easy step
as a Jew. to make Aristotle himself a Jew. Jo-
seph b. Shem-Tob assures his reader
that he had seen it written in an old book that Aris-
totle at the end of his life had become a proselyte
(“ger zedek”). The reputed statement of Clear-
chus is repeated by Abraham Bibago in the guise of
the information that Aristotle was a Jew of the tribe
of Benjamin, born in Jerusalem, and belonging to
the family of Kolaiali (Neh. xi. 7). As authority for
it Eusebius is cited, who, however, lias merely the
above statement of Josephus.

According to another version, Aristotle owed his
philosophy to the writings of King Solomon, which
were presented to him by his royal pupil Alexander,
the latter having obtained them on his conquest of
Jerusalem. With this legend of Alexander is asso-
ciated the celebrated “ Letter of Aristotle ” to that
monarch. Herein Aristotle is made to recant all his
previous philosophic teachings, having been con-
vinced of their incorrectness by a Jewish sage. He
acknowledges as his chief error the claim that truth
is to be ascertained by the reasoning faculty only,
inasmuch as divine revelation is the sole way to
truth. This “ letter ” is the conclusion of an alleged
book of Aristotle, “two hands thick,” jp which he
withdraws, on the authority of a Jew, Simeon, his
views with regard to the immortality of the soul, to
the eternity of the world, and similar tenets. The
existence of this book is mentioned for the first time
about 1370 by Hayyim of Briviesca, who expressly
declares that he heard from Abraham ibn Zarza that
the latter received it from the vizir Ibn al-Kliatib (d.

1370). He does not state whether this apocrypha
was written in Arabic or Hebrew ; the Hebrew “ Let-
ter,” as received, does not appear like a translation.
It is safe to assume with Hayyim, that the Simeon
mentioned was none other than Simeon the Just,
about whose supposed relations to Alexander the
Great the oldest Jewish sources give us informa-
tion (Yoma, 69«; see Alexander the Great).
Identical with this letter is the prayer of Aristotle
which the Polish Bahurim had in their prayer-books
during the sixteenth century (Isserles, Responsa No.
C; ed. Hanau, 10«.

A second “ Letter ” by Aristotle to Alexander con-
tains wise counsel on politics; he advises the mon-
arch that he must endeavor to conquer the hearts,
and not simply the bodies, of his subjects (preface
to “Sod ha-Sodot"). See Samter, “Monatsschrift,”
(1901) p. 453.

The essay entitled “The Apple,” also ascribed to
Aristotle, is tinged with a similar tendency. In it
Aristotle refers to Noah and to Abraham, “the first
philosopher.” It was these spurious writings of Ar-
istotle which gained for him the esteem of the caba-
lists, as evidenced by the very flattering utterances
of Moses Botarel (Commentary on “Yezirah,” 26 b).
The story of the love-affair between Aristotle and
Alexander’s wife, in which the former comes off very
badly — current in the Middle Ages (see Peter Al-
fonsi, “Disciplina Clericalis,” vii.)and originating
in a Hindoo fable (see “ Pantscliatantra,” ed. Ben fey,
ii. 462) — was also told in Jewish circles, and exists in
manuscript by Judah b. Solomon Cohen (thirteenth
century), in Spirgati’s catalogue, No. 76(1900), p. 18.

Bibliography: Abraham Bibago, Derek Emuna, p. 46; Aza-
ria tie Rossi, 3/cor ‘ Enayim , ed. Benjacob, p. SHI ; Gedaliah
ibn Yahyah, Slialshelet ha-Knbhnla, ed. Warsaw,1889, pp. Bib,
140, under the heading of Hakme Yawnn ; Steinschneider,
Hehr. Uehers. i. 229-273, contains an almost complete list of
the pseudo-Aristotelian writings; Modlinger, Raj/}/e Aristo.
Vienna, 1883 ; A. J. Glassberg, Zikran Ba it, pp. 280, 281.

k. L. G.

ARISTOTLE IN JEWISH LITERATURE :

One thousand years after his death, Aristotle, as his
pupil Alexander had aforetime done, began to con-
quer the East, and finally ascended to the supreme
rulersliip of the entire realm of medieval thought.
Many writings of the Stagirite were translated from
their Greek originals or from their Syrian versions
into Arabic (especially by the Nestorian Christian
Honein ibn Ishak [809-873], and his son Isl.iak), in
which language they were eagerly studied by Jews
in all Arabic-speaking countries. Aristotle’s influ-
ence upon Jewish thinkers, however, varied in dif-
ferent ages. Abraham ibn Daud (1160) was the first
Jewish philosopher to acknowledge the supremacy
of Aristotelianism. Earlier thinkers unquestionably
were acquainted with Aristotle’s philosophy, but
the systems of Plato and other pre-Aristotelian phi-
losophers then held the field. From Abraham ibn
Daud until long after Maimonides’ time (1135-1204),
Aristotelian philosophy entered and maintained the
foreground, only again to yield its position gradu-
ally to Platonism, under the growing influence of
the Cabala.

Aristotle’s name is found in the scanty details that
have been handed down of the philosophy of David
al-Mokammez (about 920), whom the Karaites include

Aristotle in Jewish Literature THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

100

in their sect (see Poliak, “Halikot Kedem,” p. 73;
“Orient,” 1847, pp. 620 et m/. ; and Judah Barzilai,
“ Yezirah-Commentar,” ed. Berlin, pp. 65 el seq.). For
Mokammez, as also for Isaac Israeli (who died about
950), Aristotle is always “ the philosopher ” par excel-
lence (Steinschneider, " Hebr. U ebers. ” p. 391). Saadia
Gaon (933) displays a minute acquaintance with the
Stagirite’s writings, though the name of Aristotle is
not to be found in his works. But it is not his custom
to mention his authorities, and he is
Saadia familiar, for example, with Aristotle’s
and definition of space and adopts it. In

Gabirol. the third chapter of the first book of the
“ Emunot ” he protests vehemently
against the Aristotelian cosmology. He here omits
the name of the Stagirite with evident intention,
being unwilling to give the name of the philosopher
who, claiming the existence of the world from eter-
nity, opposes the Biblical account of Creation. In
order to counteract the spreading influence of the
Aristotelian theory of Creation, he is most careful to
elucidate its weak points. But all these polemics do
not hinder Saadia, whose philosophy is indeed of an
eclectic nature, from accepting the Aristotelian defi-
nition of the soul as his own (“Emunot,” iii. 5); his
indebtedness to Aristotle’s book, n<y>t ipvxvs, betray-
ing itself clearly in his Chapter on the Soul.

It can be shown that Saadia does not disclose a
very accurate knowledge of Aristotle in those works
that precede his “Emunot,” traces of Aristotelian
methods appearing in his great work only. The
Arab philosopher Alfarabi (died 950) popularized
the Greek philosopher by his translation and com-
mentaries, the reputation of which soon extended to
Spain. The first representative of Arabian philos-
ophy in Spain, and indeed in western countries in
general, was not an Arab, but a Jew, Solomon ibn
Gabirol. His “ Mekor Hayyim” shows a consistent
amalgamation of Aristotelian principles with Neo-
Platonic conceptions of the universe. But in spite
of the unmistakable traces of Aristotelian philosophy
in the “Mekor Hayyim,” the Greek’s name is not
mentioned. Aristotle is mentioned, however, in
Gabirol’s “Tikkun Middot ha-Nefesh.”

When the Stagirite’s scientific works were pre-
pared for Western readers, it was held necessary to
popularize them. There is a work, written in Ara-
bic, containing many moral maxims collected from
Greek philosophers. This book, “ The Dicta of the
Philosophers,” by the above-mentioned translator,
Honein ibn Ishak, afforded those to whom the study
of exact philosophy was too difficult the possibility
of familiarizing themselves with the best thoughts
of the Greek philosophers, and it thus contributed
much to Aristotle’s popularity in Jewish circles.
(Concerning this work and its influence upon litera-
ture, see Lowenthal, “Honein ibn Ishak’s ‘Sinn-
spriiche der Philosophen,’ ” Berlin, 1896.) Unques-
tionably, it was from this book that Gabirol took the
aphorisms that are quoted in the “Tikkun” as by
Aristotle. In the Tikkun also, without mention of
the author, are found several passages on the Aristo-
telian doctrine of the “ ethical mean. ”

In the period following Gabirol, the writings of
Avicenna, a commentator upon Aristotle, became
widely known throughout Europe, leading to the

displacement of the older philosophy based upon
Plato and Neo-Platonism. The Arabic expounders
of Aristotle leavened his views more and more with
monotheism ; and thus through new interpretations
and constructions the heathen character of his phi-
losophy was gradually refined away. Then, too,
many works passed under Aristotle’s name that a
more critical age would immediately
Pseudo- have detected as spurious. But the
Aris- lack of all critical sense in the Middle
totelian Ages, and the general prejudice in
Writings, favor of Aristotle, whose genuine
writings contain many passages in
which he rises from heathenism to almost pure mono-
theism, blinded even the most discerning to the fact
that many of the works ascribed to him could not
possibly have been his. The most important works
of this character are “Aristotle’s Theology ” (ed. by
Dieterici) and “ Liber de Causis ” (ed. by Barden-
hewer). Modern scholars have discovered the
former to be a mere collection of extracts from the
“Enneades” of Plotinus; in the Arabic version of
which passages antagonistic to monotheism are par-
aphrased or entirely omitted. Similarly the “Liber
de Causis ” is nothing but an extract from the 2™<-
Xduaic 6eo>). oyiKij by Proclus.

One of the consequences of the false ascription of
•these works to Aristotle was that real Aristotelian-
ism never prevailed lastingly with Arabs and Jews.
Only isolated doctrines of Aristotle were of prepon-
derating significance in the Arabic and Jewish
thought of the Middle Ages. The first reaction
against the influence of the Sage of
Judah Stagira is noticed toward the middle
ha-Levi of the twelfth century, when Judah
Against ha-Levi admonished his contempo-
Aristotle. raries with all the fervor of his ardent
religious soul, not to be ensnared by
the wisdom of the Greek at the cost of their own
hereditary faith. True to his Arabic prototype,
Ghazzali, he showed that Aristotle was not to be
relied on in his scientific statements. Ha-Levi be-
trayed a curiously vacillating mind, distracted be-
tween veneration for the great sage and abhorrence
for the false doctrines of his mighty intellect. He can
not forbear maintaining that if Aristotle had, like
the Jews, been possessed of tradition, he would not
have set forth the impossibility of the creation of
the world. Ha-Levi warns his readers against Aris-
totle’s recognition of the unity of God; for the God
for whom the spirit longs is a very different God
from the one attained by cold speculative thought.

Twenty years after the completion of the “ Cuzari,”
Abraham ibn Daud wrote his “ Ha-Emunah Ramah ”
(The Exalted Faith). A dauntless philosopher, he
controverted in fullest measure Ha-Levi’s standpoint:
“ The study of the philosophy of religion is very detri-
mental to the true faith” (“Cuzari,” v. 16). Abra-
ham believed just the contrary: that the thoughtful
one would find his faith strengthened by the study of
philosophy. He is a rigid Aristotelian, following
in the footsteps of Avicenna, and protesting with ail
his might against the disparagement of philosophy
by Ghazzali. His book, published in 1160, is one of
the first attempts at a compromise between Juda-
ism and the Peripatetic philosophy of the Arabs.

101

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA Aristotle in Jewish Literature

While the Arabs preferred Aristotle’s logical and
metaphysical works, Maimonides devoted his atten-
tion to his moral philosophy and sought to harmo-
nize it with revelation. In his “ Shemonali Perakim ”
(Eight Chapters), Maimonides adopts the Aristote-
lian four faculties of the soul. Both alike teach that
two perfections dwell in the soul — the
Maimon- moral and the intellectual. The source
ides and of virtue and vice lies, with both phi-
Aristotle. losophers, in the capability of thought
and desire. The most weighty of the
“ Eight Chapters ” is the fourth. In accordance with
Aristotle, Maimonides defines virtue as the desired
action “ in the mean. ” Moral acts are those that hold
the “mean” between two harmful “extremes," be
tween the “too much” and the “too little.” When
the soul is sick and falls into one extreme, it can be
cured only by bringing it into the other extreme.
As regards the problems of the aim of mankind and
the purpose of human existence, the Jewish philoso-
pher necessarily differs from the Greek. According
to Aristotle, true happiness consists in virtue; but
with Maimonides the aim of mankind is divine per-
fection. Man must endeavor to approach (lie essence
of the Deity as far as possible. What Maimonides
expresses in the most exalted diction is found in the
saying of the sages, “Let all thy actions be done in
the name of Heaven! ”

This theory of moral theology is the introduction
to Maimonides’ philosophical system as presented in
the“Moreh Nebukim ” (Guide for the Perplexed).
Following generally in the footsteps of Aristotle, he
deserts him only when approaching the domain of
God’s law. But here, too, it is Aristotelian doc-
trine, coinciding, it is true, with Revelation in the
basic principle that men are incapable of compre-
hending God’s being fully, on account of their
imperfection and His perfection. Concerning the
sphere of metaphysical thought, absolute truth
must lie in Revelation; that is, in Judaism. All
that Plato and Aristotle thought out had been al-
ready correctly and more deeply taught by the phil-
osophical oral law, of the possession of which by
the Prophets Maimonides is convinced (“Moreh,” i.
71, ii. 11). While everything that Aristotle wrote
concerning nature, from the moon down to the cen-
ter of the earth, was founded upon positive proof
and is therefore sure and irrefragable, all his ideas
concerning the character of the higher spheres par-
take rather of the nature of opinions than of philo-
sophical certainties (“Moreh,” ii. 22). Aristotle
posits the eternity of the world, but can not demon-
strate it. It being thus a matter of conflicting opin-
ions, the supposition of an actual commencement of
the world in time is far more intelligible. Maimon-
ides thus appears as a sharp critic of Aristotle in*
theology, and refuses allegiance to him whenever
he treats the statements of religion with disdain.
Recognizing the divine origin of the Law, he neces-
sarily arrays himself in strong opposition to Aris-
totle, who sees in the law of nature the highest and
immutable law; for it is the corollary of his accept-
ance of the eternity of the world. Consequently,
Aristotle recognizes no miracles and no revelation, no
selection by God of a peculiar people, no mission to an
individual, no choice of any one particular age. Mai-

monides expressly mentions that Aristotle denies all
Special Providence, which certainly contradicts what
Aristotle himself says in his “Nicomacliean Ethics,”
x. 9. Maimonides’ work evoked, as is well known,
considerable party-strife, which ended, however, in
the acknowledgment by all parties of his authority.

The distinction of having Completed Maimonides’
endeavor may be accorded to Levi ben Gerson (d.
about 1344) of Provence, who possessed accurate
knowledge of the Aristotelian and other philosoph-
ical writings. He took the commentator Averroes as
his guide in expounding the Stagirite. Neverthe-
less, Levi is a decidedly independent thinker by no.
means blindly “swearing to the words of his master.”

He holds that there is in a force tend-
Levi ben ing toward humanity an impulse not
Gerson, operating in a circle so as to return
an Aristo- constantly to the point of departure,
telian. but manifesting itself rather as a stead-
ily ascending spiral. Accordingly, no
older solution of a problem can claim unconditional
acceptance as the truth, if later research conflict
with it. lie is thus an opponent of the Aristo-
telian conception of the eternity of the world. Had
the world existed from eternity, the comparative
youth of the various sciences could not be ex-
plained (and he maintains their comparative youth
in opposition to the above-quoted opinion of Mai-
monides), inasmuch as striving after knowledge is
an original characteristic of mankind. His innate
acumen, which induces him to subject individua,
doctrines of Aristotle to close criticism, in order t<
advance his own views against him, and to sub-
stantiate them when necessary, is not inconsistent
with a devoted and thorough study of the Stagirite.
He is so thoroughly at home in Aristotle, that though,
for instance, unable to quote any authentic passage
from his master concerning immortality, lie is yet
able to formulate something entirely in harmony
with his views (Joel, “ Levi ben Gerson,” p. 22). For
Maimonides, and liis successor Levi ben Gerson, Aris-
totle is throughout an undeniable authority. ILs
deliverances are to them generally as unassailable
and as indisputable as those of the Bible itself. 1 his
attitude sometimes led these two devoted Aristote-
lians to misinterpret certain Scriptural passages that
seemed to conflict with the Stagirite. With all Mai-
monides’ magnificent attempts to harmonize Judaism
and Aristotelianism, and with all the achievements
in this direction by Ben Gerson, they could not fail
to awaken in discerning minds the conviction that
all such endeavors started from vain premises. Levi
ben Gerson’s effort to reconcile the “ creatio ex nihilo”
(the creation out of nothing) with Aristotle’s view,
by claiming boldly the eternity of the Original Mat-
ter, only served, like other compromises, to expose
the impossibilities of the undertaking.

The first to shatter with daring hand the idola-
try that the Middle Ages had paid to the Stagirite,
was Hasdai Crescas of Saragossa(1377-
Crescas At- 1410). He made the first noteworthy
tacks attempt to demonstrate the unten-
Aristotle. ableness of the Aristotelian concep-
tions. He especially protests against
his statement of the finiteness of the world, and,
starting from the supposition that an infinite retro-

Aristotle in Jewish Literature
Ark of the Covenant

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

102

gression of causes is unthinkable, proves the exist-
ence of a “primus motor,” the existence of God
therefore. He further contradicts Aristotle’s view
that God’s happiness consists in the recognition of
Himself, for knowledge has only value when it is
preceded by ignorance, and where there never has
been ignorance there can be nothing pleasurable.
Crescas, though independent herein, was still only
a continuator of those early attempts which were
undertaken by Judah ha-Levi in the “Cuzari,” to
secure full recognition for Judaism. In the age fol-
lowing Hasdai Crescas all traces of Aristotelianism
gradually disappeared from Jewish philosophical
literature; and in the cabalistic movement, which
little by little assumed dominance, the characteristics
of Platonism came more and more into prominence.

The “ Ethics ” of Aristotle occupies an important
place in the history of Jewish literature, although
attention was directed to it comparatively late. The
Jews possessed in their own relig-
Aristotle’s ious writings an abundance of practi-
“ Ethics.” cal rules which rendered Aristotle’s
“ Ethics ” superfluous. Only when his
system came to be studied as a whole was any at-
tention paid to the “Ethics.” The “Nicomacliean
Ethics,” which alone of all Aristotle’s ethical wri-
tings was known to the Middle Ages, was trans-
lated into Hebrew from a Latin version in the begin-
ning of the fifteenth century. The translator, Don
Mei'r Alguadez, expresses the opinion in his preface
that Aristotle’s ethical writings contain an explana-
tion of certain precepts of the Torah. A commen-
tary upon this translation was written in 1584 by
Moses Almosnino. But Aristotle was by no means
unknown to the Jews of much earlier ages as an
ethical writer. An “ Ethical Letter, ” found among
the ethical epistles of the physician Ali ibn Rodb-
wan (contained in Al-Harizi's translation, in “De-
barim ‘ Attikim,” edited by Benjacob),was ascribed to
him. Shem-Tob Falaquera also reproduces the “ Let-
ter of Aristotle ” in his “ Ha-Mebakesli.” The Stag-
irite’s name is frequently met elsewhere in Jewish
ethical literature. The ethical aphorisms quoted by
Honein ibn Ishak in his work already mentioned
found their way into many specimens of popular
literature. Aristotle’s relations with Alexander the
Great are frequently mentioned in this literature as
exemplary in their way, and Jews eagerly accepted
the legendary accounts of the conversion of Aristotle
to the true faith, and of the repudiation by him of
his theory of Creation. But Immanuel ben Solomon
(about 1320), in his imitation of the “Divina Corn-
media,” nevertheless locates Aristotle in the infernal
regions, because he taught the existence of the world
from eternity. Gedaliah ibn Yahyah (sixteenth cen-
tury) claimed to have found a book in which Aris-
totle recanted all his errors. People were easily per-
suaded to believe that “the wisest of the wise ’’had
given in his allegiance to the doctrines of the Torah ;
that Simon the Just, whose acquaintance he is said
to have made upon the occasion of Alexander’s visit
to Jerusalem, had convinced him of his errors. (See
Aristotle in Jewish Legend.) Prayers said to have
been written by Aristotle have frequently been print-
ed in devotional works of recent centuries ; as, for
instance, one handed down by Honein ibn Ishak (see

Lowentlial, “Honein’s Sinnspriiclie der Philoso-
plien,” p. 112).

Aristotle was almost universally held in esteem by
the Jews ; at one time for his intelligence and mental
power, at another as a penitent sinner.
Apprecia- The following is Maimonides’ verdict
tion of concerning him ; “ The words of Plato,
Aristotle. Aristotle’s teacher, are obscure and
figurative : they are superfluous to the
man of intelligence, inasmuch as Aristotle supplanted
all his predecessors. The thorough understanding
of Aristotle is the highest achievement to which man
can attain, with the sole exception of the under-
standing of the Prophets.” Shem-Tob ben Isaac of
Tortosa (1261) styles Aristotle “ the master of all phi-
losophers.” Elijah b. Eliezer of Candia, who edited
the “ Logic ” about the end of the fourteenth century,
calls Aristotle “the divine,” because, having been
endowed by nature with a sacredly superior intellect,
he could understand of himself what others could
receive only from the instruction of their teachers.
See Aristotle in Jewish Legend.

k. A. Lo.

ARITHMETIC : The art of reckoning. This
must have been familiar to the ancient Hebrews.
The sacred books mention large amounts, showing
that the people were acquainted with the art of
computation. Expressions are found even for frac-
tions (see Gesenius, “Lehrgebaude,” 704).

The Hebrews, like the Greeks ami other people of
antiquity, made use of the letters of the alphabet
for figures. According to their alphabetical order,
the letters were made to express the units, tens, and
hundreds, as high as 400. In a later period, proba-
bly after contact with the Arabs, the final letters i
| □ were added, so as to furnish numerals up to
000 ; mention of this fact is made in many cabalistic
writings, but seemingly they were not generally
used.

The question arises whether, in computations with
these letters, the ancient Hebrews had any fixed sys-
tem taught in the schools, or whether each calcula-
tor was left to his own manipulation of them. The
probabilities are in favor of the former hypothesis,
in view of the high degree of mathematical knowl-
edge found here and there in the Mislinuh and Ge-
mara. Nothing of such a system has, however,
come down to us from the Talmudic times. Skilful
Jewish arithmeticians are first mentioned in the
eighth century. Said Rabban al-Tabari, the teacher
of the physician Razi’s father, was known as an ex-
cellent arithmetician (Wustenfeld, “ Aerzte,” p. 20).
About 997 the Jewish mathematician Bisher ben
Pinhas ben Shubeib wrote an arithmetical treatise.
At the same epoch lived Josephus Hispanus, or
Sapiens, from whom Gerbert (Pope S}rlvester II.)
borrowed his system of multiplication and division
(see Cajori, “History of Elementary Mathematics,”
p. 179), and who is believed to have been the intro-
ducer of the so-called Arabic numerals into Europe
(see Weissenborn, “Einfuhrung der Jetzigen Ziffern
in Europa,” pp. 74 et seq.). In the beginning of the
eleventh century there flourished Abraham ben
Hiyya. who wrote an encyclopedia of mathematical
sciences ; he used Arabic numerals, but knew nothing

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Aristotle in Jewish Literature
Ark of the Covenant

of the zero. In the first volume of this encyclopedia
he makes use of the Arithmetic of Nicomaclius of
Gerasa, a disciple of Pythagoras, which, translated
from the Greek into Arabic under the title “Al-
madlial ila ‘ilm al-Adad,” was held in great esteem
by the Jews. Joseph ibn Aknin recommends this
Arithmetic, and it was translated into Hebrew in
the fourteenth century by Kalonymus ben Kalony-
mus. Abraham ibn Ezra composed an arithmetical
treatise under the title “Sefer ha-Mispar”; he makes
use of the zero, calling it in Hebrew “ ‘iggul.” His
Arithmetic is the oldest extant in Jewish literature.
Abraham ibn Ezra found many imitators, the most
•celebrated of whom were Levi ben Gershon and
Elijah Misrahi. To-day Hebrew literature contains
about twenty arithmetical treatises. (See Mathe-
matics.)

Bihuograpitt : Steinsehneider, Bibliotheca Mathematica ,

J.H9U ; Edinburgh Review , xvili. 87 et seq.

G. I. Bli.

ARK OF THE COVENANT (Hebrew, )nN
JUT mu. etc. : for the complete list of names of the
Ark, see below). — Biblical Data: The first mention

Ark of the Covenant.

(After Calmet.)

of the Ark in the Bible is in Ex. xxv. 10 et seq. , where
Moses on Mount Sinai is told to have an Ark of
shittim-wood made for the Commandments which
are about to be delivered. Minute directions are
given for the plan of the Ark. It is to be 21 cubits
in length, in breadth, and 1^ in height. It is to
be overlaid within and without with gold, and a
crown or molding of gold is to be put around it.
Four rings of gold are to be put into its corners —
two on each side — and through these
Dimensions rings staves of shittim-wood overlaid
and Con- with gold for carrying the Ark are to
struction. be inserted ; and these are not to be re-
moved. A golden cover (Hebr. mED ;
A. V., “mercy -seat”), adorned with golden cheru-
bim, is to be placed above the Ark ; and from here
the Lord says He will speak to Moses (Ex. xxv.
10-22). The Ark is to be placed behind a veil, a
full description of which is given (ib. xxvi. 31-38).

Even Aaron was forbidden to enter this place of
the Ark too often; and he was enjoined to perform
certain ceremonies when entering there (Lev. xvi. 2
el seq.). Moses was directed to consecrate the Ark,
when completed, with the oil of holy ointment (Ex.

xxx. 23-26); and he was .also directed to have the
Ark made by Bezaleel, the son of Uri of the tribe of
Judah, and by Aholiab, the son of
Sanctity Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan (ib.
and Conse- xxxi. 2-7). These instructions Moses
cration. carried out. calling upon “every wise-
hearted ” one among the people to
assist in the work (ib. xxxv. 10-12). Bezaleel made
the Ark (ib. xxxvii. 1); and Moses approved the
work (ib. xxxix. 43), put the testimony in the Ark,
and installed it (ib. xl. 20, 21).

In Deut. x. 1-5 a rather different account of the
making of the Ark is given. Moses is made to say
that he constructed the Ark before going upon
Mount Sinai to receive the second set of tables. The
charge of carrying the Ark and the rest of the holy
utensils was given to the family of Kohath, of the
tribe of Levi; but they were not to touch an}- of the
holy things until after the latter had been covered
by Aaron (Num. iv. 2-15).

In the march from Sinai, and at the crossing of
the Jordan, the Ark preceded the people and was
the signal for their advance (Num. x.
A Movable 33; Josh. iii. 3, 6). During the cross-
Sanctuary. ing of the Jordan the river grew dry
as soon as the feet of the priests carry-
ing the Ark touched its waters, and remained so
until the priests, with the Ark, left the river, after
the people had passed over (Josh. iii. 15-17; iv. 10,
11, 18). As memorials, twelve stones were taken
from the Jordan at the place where the priests had
stood (ib. iv. 1-9). During the ceremonies prece-
ding the capture of Jericho, the Ark was carried
round the city in the daily procession, preceded by
the armed men and by seven priests bearing seven
trumpets of rams’ horns (ib. vi. 6-15). After the
defeat at Ai, Joshua lamented before the Ark (ib. vii.
6-9). When Joshua read the Law to the people be-
tween Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, they stood
on each side of the Ark (ib. viii. 33). The Ark was
set up by Joshua at Shiloh (ib. xviii. 1); but when
the Israelites fought against Benjamin at Gibeah,
they had the Ark with them, and consulted it after
their defeat (Judges xx. 27).

The Ark is next spoken of as beingin the Temple
at Shiloh during Samuel’s apprenticeship (I Sam.
iii. 3). After their first defeat at Eben-ezer, the
Israelites had the Ark brought from Shiloh, and
welcomed its coming with great rejoicing. In the
second battle the Israelites were again defeated, and
the Philistines captured the Ark (ib. iv. 3-5, 10, 11).
The news of its capture was at once taken to Shiloh
by a messenger “with his clothes rent,
Captured and with earth upon his head.” The
by the old priest, Eli. fell dead when he heard
Philistines, it; and his daughter-in-law, bearing
a son at the time the news of the cap-
ture of the Ark was received, named him Ichabod —
explained as “ Where is glory? ” in reference to the
loss of the Ark (ib. iv. 12-22).

The Philistines took the Ark to several places in
their country, and at each place misfortune resulted
to them (ib. v. 1-6). At Ashdod it was placed in the
temple of Dagon. The next morning Dagon was
found prostrate before it; and on being restored
to his place, he was on the following morning again

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104

found prostrate and broken. The people of Aslidod
were smitten with boils (Hebr. A. V. “ em-

rods ” — that is, hemorrhoids) ; and a plague of mice
was sent over the land ( ib . vi. 5; the Septuagint, v.
6). The affliction of boils was also visited upon the
people of Gath and of Ekron, whither the Ark was
successively removed (ib. v. 8-12). After the Ark
had been among them seven months, the Philistines,
on the advice of their diviners, returned it to the
Israelites, accompanying its return with an offering
consisting of golden images of the boils and mice
with which they had been afflicted. The Ark was
put down in the Held of Joshua the Betli-shemite,
and the Beth-shemites offered sacrifices and burnt
offerings {ib. vi. 1-15). Out of curiosity the men of
Beth-sliemesh gazed at [A. V. “looked into”] the
Ark; and as a punishment over fifty thousand of
them were smitten by the Lord (ib. 19). The Beth-
shemites sent to Kirjath-jearim, or Baal-Judali,
to have the Ark removed (ib. 21) ; and it was taken
thither to the house of Abinadab, whose son Eleazar
was sanctified to keep it (ib. vii. 1). Kirjath-jearim
was the abode of the Ark for twenty years (ib. 2).
Under Saul the Ark was with the army before he
first met the Philistines, but the king was too im-
patient to consult it before engaging in the battle
(ib. xiv. 18, 19). In I Cliron. xiii. 3 it is stated that
the people were not accustomed to consult the Ark
in the days of Saul.

At the very beginning of his reign David removed
the Ark from Kirjath-jearim amid great rejoicing.
On the way to Zion, Uzzali, one of the drivers of the
cart on which the Ark was carried, put out his hand
to steady the Ark, and was smitten by t he Lord for
touching it. David in fear carried the Ark aside
into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite, instead of
carrying it on to Zion, and here it
In the Days stayed three months (II Sam.- vi. 1-11;
of David. I Cliron. xiii. 1-13). On hearing that
. the Lord had blessed Obed-edom be-

cause of the presence of the Ark in his house, David
had the Ark brought to Zion by the Levites, while
he himself, “girded with a linen epliod,” “danced
before the Lord with all his might ” — a performance
for which lie was despised and rebuked by Saul’s
daughter Michal (II Sam. vi. 12-16,20-22; I Cliron.
xv.). In Zion he put the Ark in the tabernacle fie
had prepared for it, offered sacrifices, distributed
food, and blessed the people and his own household
(II Sam. vi. 17-20; I Cliron. xvi. 1-3; II Cliron. i.
4). Levites were appointed to minister before the
Ark (I Cliron. xvi. 4). David’s plan of building a
temple for the Ark was stopped at the advice of God
(II Sam. vii. 1-17; I Chron. xvii. 1-15; xxviii. 2, 3).
The Ark was with the army during the siege of
Rabbah (II Sam. xi. 11); and when David tied from
Jerusalem at the time of Absalom’s conspiracy, the
Ark was carried along with him until he ordered
Zadok the priest to return it to Jerusalem (II Sam.
xv. 24-29).

When Abiathar was dismissed from the priest-
hood by Solomon for having taken part in Adoni-
jali’s conspiracy against David, his life was spared
because he had formerly borne the Ark (I Kings ii.
26). Solomon worshiped before the Ark after the
dream in which the Lord promised him wisdom (ib.

iii. 15). In Solomon’s Temple a Holy of Holies (Hebr.
T21, A. V., “ oracle ”) was prepared to receive the
Ark (ib. vi. 19); and when the Temple was dedi-
cated, the Ark, containing nothing but the two
Mosaic tables of stone, was placed therein (ib. viii.

1-9; II Chron. v. 1-10). When the
In Solo- priests came out of the holy place
mon’s after placing the Ark there, the Tern-

Temple. pie was filled by a cloud, “for the

glory of the Lord had filled the house
of the Lord” (I Kings viii. 10-11; II Chron. v. 13,
14). When Solomon married Pharaoh’s daughter,
he caused her to dwell in a house outside Zion, as
Zion was consecrated because of its containing the
Ark (II Chron. viii. 11). King Josiah had the Ark
put into the Temple (II Chron. xxxv. 3), from which
it appears that it had again been removed by some
predecessor.

The only mention of the Ark in the Prophets is
. the reference to it by Jeremiah, who, speaking in the
days of Josiah (Jcr. iii. 16), prophesies a time when
the Ark will no longer be needed because of the
righteousness of the people.

In the Psalms the Ark is twice referred to. In
Ps. lx xvii i. 61 its capture by the Philistines is
spoken of, and the Ark is called “ the strength and
glory of God ” ; and in Ps. cxxxii. 8, it is spoken of
as “the ark of the strength of the Lord.” The Ark
is mentioned in only one passage in the Apocrypha
(II Macc. ii. 4—10), which contains a legend to the
effect that the prophet Jeremiah, “being warned of
God,” took the Ark, and the tabernacle, and the altar
of incense, and buried them in a cave on Mount
Sinai, informing those of his followers who wished
to find the place that it should remain unknown
“until the time that God should gather His people
again together, and receive them unto mercy.”

The Ark is called by several names in the Bible,
as follows:

I. “The ark” (ppxn) : Ex. xxv. 14 et al.; Lev. xvi. 2; Nnm.

iii. 31 et al.; Dent. x. 2 et al.; Josh. iii. 15 et al.; I sim.

vi. 13 et al.; II Sam. vi. 4 et al.; I Kings viii. 3 et al.; I

Chron. vi. 16 et al.; II Chron. v. 4 et al.

II. “ The ark of the testimony ” (1. rnj?L' pxn) : Ex. xxxi. 7 :

(2. mpn pis) : Ex. xxv. 22 etal.; Hum. iv. 5 etal.; Josh.

iv. 16.

III. a “The ark of the covenant” (1. rvnm pis) : Josh. iii. 6
cf al.; (2. n'-on ppxn) : Josh. iii. 14.
h “The ark of the covenant of the Lord” [Yhwh] ; com-
pare IV. a (1. mm pnj ppx) : Num. x. 33 et al.;
Deut. x. 8 ct al.; Josh. iv. 7 et al.; I Sam. iv. 3 et al.; I
Kings iii. 15 et al.; I Chron. xv. 25 et al.; II Chron. v. 2
etal.; Jer. iii. 16; (2. mm mp3 ppxn) : Josh. iii. 17.
c “ The ark wherein is the covenant of the Lord, which he
made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the
land of Egypt” (-pa psrx mm nna at” -arx ppxi
mmco ppxa dpx ix'xina U’PlhX oy) : 1 Kings viii. 21.
d “ The ark wherein is the covenant of the Lord, that he
made with the children of Israel” (n'm ah’ Pirx ppxn
oy pirx mm) : II Chron. vi. 11.
e “ The ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth ” ;

compare IV. ft (ppxn Sa pnx nnan ppx) : Josh. iii. 11.

/ “The ark of the covenant of the Lor'd of hosts [or Yhwh
of hosts], who dwelleth between the cherubim ” ; com-
pare iv. i, j (a-oPDn at’' mxax mm nna ppx) risam.
iv. 4.

(/“The ark of the covenant of the Lord [or Yhwh] your
God ” ; compare IV. c, e (oa’nSx mm rvna ppx) : Deut.
xxxi. 26 ; Josh. iii. 3).

7i “The ark of the covenant of God”; compare IV. /, a
(D'nSxn P'Pa ppx) : Judges xx. 27; I Sam. iv. 4; II
Sam. xv. 24 ; I Chron. xvi. 6.

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Ark of the Covenant

IV. a “The ark of the Lord [Yhwh] ” ; compare III. b (pis

mn') : Josh. iv. 11 et al.; I Sam. iv. ts et ah; II Sam. vi. 9
et ah; I Chron. xv. 3 et ah; II Chron. viii. 11.
b “ The ark of the Lord [Yhwh], the Lord of all the earth ” ;

compare III. e (y-ian St) piK mm p-is) : Josh. iil. 13.
c "The ark of the Lord God [or Yhwh] ” ; compare IIL y
(mm 'ns jntO : 1 Kings ii. 2(5.
d “The ark of the Lord [or Yhwh] God of Israel” (pis
Snij” viSn mn') : I Chron. xv. 12 et ah
c “The ark of the Lord [or Yhwh] your God” ; compare
IIL y (3D'.nss mm pnx) : Josh. iv. 5.

/ “The ark of God”; compare IIL h (1. pnx) : I.

Sam. iii. 3 et ah; (2. mnSsn piN) ; I Sam. iv. 13 et al.;
II Sam. vi. 3 et al.; I Chron. xiii. 3 et ah; II chron. i. 4.

0 “The ark of our God ” ; compare III. h (irnSs pntO : I.

Chron. xiii. 3.

It “ The ark of the God of Israel” (Sk-C” 'mSs pnx): I Sam.
v. 8 et ah

1 “The ark of God which is called by the Name, the name

of the Lord [or Yhwh] of hosts who dwelleth between
the cherubim”; compare III. / (Nnpj'nii’N D’npNn pn«
rhy colon ay' nisox mn» os’ os’) : II Sam. vi. 2, R. V.
j “The ark of God, the Lord [or Yhwh], who dwelleth
between the cherubim, which is called the Name ” [lit-
eral translation] ; compare III. / (mn' o'nSsn pnx
as’ NnprnatH no-on aa’i') : I Chron. xiii. 6.

V. “The holy ark” (ipnpnpns) : II Chron. xxxv. 3.

VI. “The ark of thy [God’s] strength” (pt^ pnN) : Ps. cxxxii.

8 ; II Chron. vi. 41.

Different names for the Ark predominate in differ-
ent books, as follows: In Exodus, Nos. I. and II. 2;
in Numbers, Nos. II. 2 and III. b, 1; in Deuteron-
omy, No. III. b, 1 ; in Joshua, Nos. IV. a and III.

a, 1; in I Samuel, Nos. IV. a and/, 2; in II Sam-
uel, Nos. IV. a and/, 2; in I Kings, Nos. I. and III.

b, 1 ; in I Chronicles, Nos. I. and III. b, 1 ; and in
II Chronicles, Nos. I. and III. b, 1.

j. jr. C. J. M.

In Rabbinical Literature: The Ark, by reason

of its prominence in the Bible, forms an important
subject of discussion by the Kabbis, a great many
sayings relating to it being found throughout the
Talmud and the Midrashim. They discuss the di-
mensions, position, material, contents, miraculous
powers, final disposition, and various incidents di-
rectly or indirectly connected with the Ark. Such
discussions at times embody popular legends, and
are also of interest as reflecting the poetical spirit
which animated many of the rabbis.

Thus it is related (B. B. 99ci) that the available
space in the Holy of Holies war not in the least
diminished by the Ark and the cherubim — that is to
say, that through the working of a miracle the Ark
and the cherubim transcended the limitations of
space. With regard to the position of the Ark in
the Holy of Holies, there is the following picturesque
saying in Tanliuma, Kedoshim, x. :

“ Palestine is the center of the world, Jerusalem the center of
Palestine, the Temple the center of Jerusalem, the Holy of Holies
the center of the Temple, the Aik the center of the Holy of
Holies; and in front of the Ark was a stone called mre* pH,
the foundation stone of the world.”

In Yoma 72 b, and Ycr. Slick, vi. 49<7, it is recorded
that Bezalcel made three arks which lie put inside of
one another. The outside and inside ones were made
of gold, and measured respectively ten cubits and a
fraction and eight cubits, while the middle one was
of wood and measured nine cubits. Again, accord-
ing to one opinion (Yer. Sliek. vi. 49c), there were two
arks traveling with the Israelites in the wilderness.
One contained the Law, in addition to the tablets of
the Ten Commandments, and the other the tables of

stone which Moses had broken. The one that con-
tained the Law was placed in the “ tent of meeting ” ;
the other, containing the broken tables, accompanied
the Israelites in their various excursions, and some-
times appeared on the battle-field. According to
still another view (l.c.), there w as only one Ark, and
it contained both the Law’ and the broken tables (Ber.
8b; B. B. 14 b). R. Jolianan in the name of Simon ben
Yohai, basing his opinion on the repetition of the
word “name” (DK>) in II Sam. vi. 2, maintains that
the Ark contained the Ineffable Name and all other
epithetsof God (B. B. l.c. ; Num. R. iv. 20). Marching
in the vanguard of the Israelites, the Ark leveled the
hills before them (Ber. 54 b; see Arnon). It carried
the priests, who in turn were to carry it in the passage
of the Jordan (Sotali 35«). When King David had
the Ark brought from the house of Abinadab and
carried upon a new cart, the two sons of the latter,
driving the cart, were tossed by an invisible agency
into the air and flung to the ground again and again,
until Ahitophel explained to David that this was ow-
ing to the transgression of the Law, which enjoined
upon the sons of Kohath to carry the Ark upon t la ir
shoulders (Num. vii. 9; Yer. Sanh. x. 29«). When
the Philistines despatched the Ark upon a cart drawn
by two milch-kine without a driver, the kine not only
took the Ark straightway to Beth-shemesh (I Sam.
vi. 8-12), but they also sang a song (taking “ imyixh-
sharnah ,” v. 12, “and they took the straight way, ’’as-
derived from .ski rah, “a song”). According to R.
Meir, their song was the verse, “I will sing unto the
Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously ” (Ex. xv. 1) ;
according to R. Jolianan, “ Give thanks unto the Lord,
call upon his name” (Ps. cv. 1); others suggest Ps.
xciii., xcvii., xcviii., xeix., or cvi. ; but R. Isaac
Nappalia has a tradition, preserved in Tanna debe
Eliyalni, xi. (compare ‘Ab. Zarali 245), that they
sang the following processional hymn:

“ Rise, O rise, thou acacia chest !

Move along, move along in thy great beauty !

Skilfully wrought with thy golden adornments !

Highly revered in the sanctuary’s recesses !

O’ershadowed between the twin Cherubim ! ”

— Midr. Sam. xii.; ‘Ab. Zarah he.; Gen. R. liv.

“When Solomon brought the Ark into the Temple, all the
golden trees that were in the Temple were tilled with moisture
and produced abundant fruit, to the great prollt and enjoyment
of the priestly gild ; until King Manasseh put an image of an
idol in the Temple, which resulted in the departure of the Di-
vine Presence and the drying up of the fruit ” (Tan., Terumah,
xi.; also with slight variations, Yoma 39b).

The Ark was not merely a receptacle for the Law ;
it was a protection against the enemies of the Israel-
ites, and cleared the roads in the wildcr-
A Van- ness for them. Two sparks, tradition
guard in relates, came out from between the two
the Desert, cherubim, which killed all serpents
and scorpions, and burned the thorns,
the smoke of which as it curled upward sent a sweet
fragrance throughout the world, and the nations of
the earth exclaimed in wonder and admiration (Cant,
iii. 6), “What is this that cometh up from the wil-
derness like pillars of smoke ? ” (Tan. , Wayakhel. j ii. )

Opinions are divided as to what finally became of
the Ark when the Temple was destroyed. Some,
basing their views on II Chron. xxxvi. 10, and Isa.
xxxix. 6, declare (Yoma 535) that it was taken to

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Ark of the Law

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106

Babylonia, while according to others (ib.) it was
not taken into captivity, but was hidden away in
the Temple, in the apartment where
Its Ulti- the wood for fuel was kept ; and it is
mate Fate, related that a certain priest, while doing
his work in that apartment, noticed
that some of the stones in the paved floor projected
above the others. He no sooner began to tell the
story to a fellow-priest than he expired. That was
regarded as a sure sign that the Ark had been buried
in that place (Yer. Shek. vi. 49c). Another tradition
records that it was King Josiah who hid the Ark
and other sacred vessels, for fear that if they were
taken to Babylonia they would never be brought
back (ib.).

“ Why was a distance of 2,000 cubits always
maintained between the Ark and the people? In
order that when the march was stopped upon each
Sabbath day, all the people might travel as far as the
Ark to offer their prayers ” (Num. R. ii. 9). “One
son of Obed-edom betokens by his name, ‘ Peulthai,
for God blessed him ’ (I Chron. xxvi. 5), the blessing
brought upon his father’s house; he honored the
Ark by placing a new candle before it every morn-
ing and evening” (Num. R. iv. 20.).

Ark is used figuratively for a teacher of the Law
in a farewell address; “If Obed-edom was blessed
greatly for keeping the Ark in his house, how much
more should he be blessed who shows hospitality to
students of the Law?” (Ber. 084.)

j. sit. I. Hr.

- — — In Mohammedan Literature : In the Koran
the Ark of the Covenant and Moses’ ark of bul-
rushes are both indicated by the one word “ tabut, ”
which term certainly comes from the Hebrew
“tebah,” through the Jewish- Aramaic “tebuta. ”
The reference in the Koran to the Ark of the Cove-
nant occurs in the middle of the story of the choice
of Saul to be king. There the people demand a sign
that God has chosen him, and the narrative continues
(ii. 249): “and their prophet said unto them, ‘ Lo,
the sign of his kingship will be that the ark [tabut]
will come unto you with a “ Sakinah ” in it from
your Lord, and with a remnant of that which the
family of Moses and the family of Aaron left —
angels bearing it. Lo, in that is verily a sign for
you if ye are believers ! ’ ” Baidawi (ad loc. ) explains
“tabut” as derived from the root tub (return), and
as thus meaning a chest to which a
Tabut, thing taken from it was sure to re-
Sakinah, turn. It was the chest in which the
and Law (Taurat) was kept, and was about
Remnant, three cubits by two, and made of
gilded box-wood. “Sakinah,” he
says, means “rest,” “tranquillity”; and it came to
the Israelites in the coming of the Ark to them, or
it was the Taurat itself, brought in the Ark and
calming them by its presence (see Shekinah).
Moses was wont to make it go on before in battle,
and it would steady the Israelites and prevent them
fleeing.

Others said that there was in the Ark a figure of
chrysolite or ruby with the head and tail of a slie-
cat and with two wings. It would utter a moaning
sound, and the Ark would rush toward the enemy
with the Israelites following it. When it stayed,

they stood and were at ease, and victory came. By
the “ remnant ” in it is meant the fragments of the
broken tables, the staff and clothes
Composi- of Moses, and the turban of Aaron.

tion After Moses died, God took it up to
of “Rem- Himself, and the angels now brought
nant.” it down again. But others said that
it remained with the prophets that
succeeded Moses, and that they gained victories
by means of it until they acted corruptly and the
unbelievers took it from them. So it remained in
the country of Goliath until God made Saul king.
He then brought calamity upon the Philistines
and destroyed five cities. Perceiving that this was
through the Ark, they placed it on two bulls, and
the angels led it to Saul.

Al-Tha'labi, in his “Kisas al-Anbiyya” (p. 150 of
cd. of Cairo, A. H. 1314), gives details as to the
earlier and later history of the Ark. He brings it
into connection with the important Moslem doctrine
of the Light of Mohammed, the first
History of all created things, for the sake of
of the which God created the worlds. The
Ark. Ark was sent down by God from par-
adise with Adam when he fell. In it,
cut out of a ruby, were figures of all the proph-
ets that were to come, especially of Mohammed
and his first four califs and immediate followers.
At the death of Adam it passed to Seth, and so
down to Abraham. From Abraham, Islimael re-
ceived it as the eldest of his sons. It passed then
to Islnnael’s son, Ivedar, but was claimed from him
by Jacob. Kedar refused to relinquish it, but was
divinely commanded to give it up, as it must remain
in the line of the prophets of God, which was now
that of Israel. On the other hand, the Light of
Mohammed, which shone on the forehead of every
lineal ancestor of his, remained in the Arab line of
Kedar. So the Ark passed down to Moses. How
and when it was lost, the Moslem historians do not
state. According to Ibn ‘Abbas, a cousin of Mo-
hammed and the founder of Koranic exegesis, it,
with the rod of Moses, is now lying in the Lake of
Tiberias, and will be brought forth at the last day.
The story of the image with the cat’s head and tail
is traced back to Wahb ibn Munabbili, who was of
Jewish birth. It has probably some Midrashic
origin. What is apparently an earlier
Earlier form of this latter legend is given in
Form the “ Hhamis ” of Al-Diyarbakri (i. 24
of Legend, et xeq. ; compare ed. of Cairo, 1302).

In it the chest with images of the
prophets is not connected with the Ark of the Cov-
enant. The chest, called also tabut, which had been
given to Adam as above stated, was in the possession
of the emperor Heraclius, and was shown by him
to ambassadors from Abu Bakr, the first calif. It
had been brought from the extreme West (Maghreb)
by Alexander, and so had passed to the Roman
emperors. D. B. M.

Critical View : A classification of the passages

in which the Ark is mentioned (compare Seyring, in
Stade’s “ Zeitschrift, ” xi. 115), shows that in the
older sources (J., E., and Samuel) the Ark is called
simply “the ark,” “the ark of Yhwh,” or “the

107

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ark of the Covenant
Ark of the Law

ark of God.” In Deuteronomy, and in writers under
Deuteronomic influence, it is called “the ark of the
covenant of Yhwh”; while the priestly sections
call it “ the ark of the testimony.” In I Sam. iv. the
Ark is taken into battle, and both Israelites and
Philistines are affected by it as though Yhwh Him-
self were there.

As the Egyptians, Babylonians, and other nations
had similar structures for carrying their idols about
■(compare Wilkinson, “Ancient Egyptians,” iii. 289;
Delitzsch, “ Handworterbuch,” under “ elippu ” ; and
“Isaiah,” in “S. B. O. T.”
p. 78), critical scholars hold
that the Ark was in the
earliest time a kind of mov-
able sanctuary (see Well-
liausen, “ Prolegomena, ” 5th
cd., p. 46, note; Stade,

“Gesch.” i. 457; Nowack,

“Arcliaologie,” ii. 3; Ben-
ziuger, “ Arcliaologie, ” 367 ;

WTinckler, “Gesch. Israels,”
i. 70; Couard, in Stade’s
“ Zeitschrift, ” xii. 53; and
Gutlie, “ Geschichte d e s
Volkes Israel,” p. 31). As
the corresponding shrines
of other' nations contained
idols, so late tradition has it
that the Ark contained the
tables of the Decalogue (I
Kings viii. 9, 21). As the
two versions of the Deca-
logue, that of E. in Ex. xx.,
and that of J. in Ex. xxxiv.,
differ so radically, critics
hold also that there could
have been no authoritative
version of the Command-
ments deposited in the Ark,
but believe that it contained
an aerolite or sacred stone
— similar to the sacred stone
of the Ivaaba at Mecca —
which was regarded as a
fetish. The fact that in J.

(the Judean source) the Ark
is not prominent, Yhwh

being consistently represented as dwelling at Sinai
while his angel goes before Israel (Ex. xxxiii. 2), and
that in E. (the Epliraimitic source) the Ark plays a
conspicuous part, led Wellhausen and Stade to be-
lieve that it was originally the movable sanctuary of
the Joseph tribes, from whom, after the union of the
tribes, it was adopted by the nation. This view has
been generally adopted by other critics (see refer-
ences above).

In the historical books the Ark plays no part after
the time of Solomon, when it was placed in the
Temple. Couard believes that it was carried from
Jerusalem in the days of Rehoboam by the Egyptian
king Sliishak (Stade’s “Zeitschrift,” xii. 84). That
would adequately explain its disappearance from
history. While the Ark figures in Deuteronomy and
in the priestly legislation, there is, as Couard points
out, no evidence that it was actually in existence as

an object in the cult at the time that those codes
were combined ; it appears to represent merely an
ideal in the minds of the compilers.

Bibliography : W. Lotz, Die Bundeslade , Leipsio, 1901 ; J.
Meinhold, Die Lnde Jah well's in Then}. Arheiten aus (1.
Mieinischen Wiissenschaftlichen Predigerverein , Bonn,
1900.

J. JR. G. A. B.

ARK OF THE LAW. — In the Synagogue

(CHpH pIN) : A closet or chest in which are kept
the Torah scrolls used in the public worship of the
synagogue. The Ark

Supposed Earliest Representation of an Ark of the Law, in the Museo Borgiano at Rome.

(From Garrucci, “ Arte Christiana.”)

placed a few feet above the floor of the nave and is
reached by steps. As the Torah is the most sacred
and precious possession of the Jew, so is the chest
which holds it the most important and ornate part of
the synagogue. It is called “ Aron lia-Kodesli ” (the
Holy Ark) after the Ark of the Covenant in the Tab-
ernacle and the Temple (Ex. xxv. 10 etseq., xxxvii.
1 etseq.). The perpetual lamp (Tftn U) is usually
hung in front of it. From the platform near it the
priests pronounce their benediction on festivals (com-
pare the expression p r6 r6y, R. H. 316; Shab. 1186),
and in modern Ashkenazic synagogues the bimah or
almemar — the platform from which the prayers are
recited and the lessons of the Torah read by the pre-
centor— is placed near it (compare in the Talmud the
expressions rQTin "Gy and rQVin 'IS b TV

[Ber. v. 4; R. H. iv. 7, 346], for performing the func-
tion of precentor). Whenever the Ark is opened the

Ark of the Law

T1IE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

108

auk of the Law of the Sephardic Synagogue at Amsterdam.

(After Picart.)

congregation rises in reverence for the Torah it holds,
and when it is empty, as on the Feast of the Rejoi-
cing of the Law (Simhat Torah), when all the Torah
scrolls arc taken out to he carried in procession, a

Symbolic Representation of an Ark of the Law on a Glass Dish
in the Museo Borgiano at Rome.

(From Garrucci, “ Arte Christiana.”)

burning candle is placed in it. Before the Ark there
is frequently placed a curtain of costly material,
called paroket after the curtain which in the Taber-
nacle and Temple screened the Holy of Holies (Ex
xxvii. 21, xxxvi. 35, xl. 21).

It may be safely assumed that the Ark constituted
from the first an integral part of the synagogue
edifice. The synagogue was considered a sanctuary
next to the Temple (Meg. 29 a; see Targum toEzek.
xi. 16), and the Ark as corresponding to the third
division of the Temple, the Holy of Holies. The ap-
plication of the term to the Ark is therefore not
appropriate, as this name was given to the second or
middle division of the Temple (I Kings vi. 5, 17 ; vii.
50). It is equally certain that the Ark served from
the beginning as a receptacle for the sacred scrolls
used in the service of the synagogue, although the
older accounts do not expressly mention it. This
may be inferred from the analog}' with the Ark of
the Covenant in which, according to tradition (Dent,
x. 2 et mp ; I Kings viii. 9; II Chron. v. 10), the tab-
lets of the covenant, or the Decalogue, were de-
posited, and the place of which was taken by the
Ark and the Torah.

In the Mishnali the Ark is referred to not as fns,
but as HD'n, the word used in the Old Testament
(spelled without ') for the Ark of Noah (Gen. vi.-
viii.) and the Ark in which Moses was hidden (Ex. ii.
3, 5). Its preference for the term “ Tebah ” may be
due to a desire to distinguish between the Ark of the

109

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ark of the Law

dentally that the sacred books were kept in thcsyna-
gogue (rm.lftareiov)-, Chrysostom (347-407) refers in
“ Oratio Ad versus Judaeos,” vi. 7 (“ Opera,” ed. Mont-
faucon, vol. i.), to the Ark (nifluToc, the word by
which the Septuagint renders the Hebrew piN) and
in “Orat.” i. 5 to the “Law ” and the “Prophets”
which were kept in the synagogues. It is only .Mai

Ark of thf. Law in thk Synagogue at Gibraltar.

(From a photograph in the collection of Hon. Mayer Sulzberger.)

Tabernacle and Temple, and that of the synagogue
(compare, however, the Baraita). The vulgar crowd
commit a deadly sin in calling the sacred shrine simply
“chest ” (Shah. 32 a). In Megillali iii. 1 this gradation
of sacredness is given : From the proceeds of the sale
of a synagogue an Ark may be purchased ; from those
of an Ark, wrappers(for the Torah scroll) ; from those

of wrappers, books (that signifies, according to Mai-
monides’ Yad ha-Hazakah, Hilkot Tefillali, xi. 14,
the Pentateuch and other parts of the Old Testa-
ment in book form) ; from those of books, a T orali
scroll (compare also Shulhan ‘Aruk, Orali Hayyim, §
153, 2). According to Ta‘anit ii. 1 the Ark was port-
able. Josephus (“Ant.” xvi. 6, § 2) mentions iuci-

monides (Yad ha-Hazakah, Hilkot Tefillali, x. [xi.]
3) and Bertinoro (to Ta'anit ii. 1) who state ex-
plicitly that the sacred scrolls were preserved in the
Ark.

a. J. M. C.

Architecturally Considered : In earlier times

and in less important synagogues the Ark was

Ark of the Law
Ark of Noah

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

110

generally a movable piece of furniture, so that in case
of disturbance or danger it could be readily removed
with its contents. In its most rudimentary form it
was merely a wooden case or closet, raised from the
floor sufficiently high for the congregation to see the
scrolls of the Law when the doors were open.

Sometimes the Ark is fashioned as a recess or
niche in the wall, and the design is then very properly
considered in connection with the architectural
treatment of the interior of the synagogue. When
this method is adopted it is generally ornamented
with columns, cornices, and arches;
and when built of stone or other rich
materials, presents an appearance of
great dignity. Examples may be
found to-day in some of the London
synagogues, a particularly notable one
being that in Great St. Helens, which
itself is a fine piece of classic design.

In this structure the Ark is a cur-
tained recess iu a semicircular wall. It
is flanked with pilasters and coupled
Corinthian columns,
which are surmounted by
other columns and arches
supporting a half-dome,
a fine effect of stateliness
being attained by this sim-
ple treatment.

A more modern example
is found in the synagogue
Mickve Israel, of Phila-
delphia, where the Ark
occupies practically the
entire eastern end of the
building. Here, also, it
takes the form of a recess
in the wall; and it is
framed with columns and
pilasters supporting
a round arch, in the
tympanum of which
are the tables of the
Law surrounded by
stained glass. When
the doors are opened,
a base of white mar-
ble is disclosed, and
on this rest the scrolls.

In the synagogue
at Amsterdam there is an extremely beautiful Ark
treated architecturally with Ionic columns, cornices,
and pediments ; the central portion is raised higher
than the sides and contains the tables of the Law
elaborately framed and surrounded by carving.
This Ark is specially notable from the fact that
it is divided vertically into five parts, each having
separate compartments with doors, and all con-
taining scrolls. Notwithstanding its elaboration,
however, it has no relation to the interior design
of the building, and must be considered rather as
a handsome piece of furniture placed in the position
of honor.

In many of the important synagogues in Europe
the Ark is treated in the same way. In Wiesbaden,
Florence, and Paris are three instances of this.

The Ark in the synagogue in each of these cities is
a superb structure made of stone, marble, and rich
metal work ; but the main line of the walls against
which it is placed has been recognized in its design,
and while it is a separate structure, it still forms
a consonant part of the interior and harmonizes with
it without losing its distinctive importance.

The Ark iu the Temple Emanu-El in New- York
is an unusually elaborate piece of Moresque design.
It is richly carved, entirely constructed of wood,
and colored in the manner of the Alhambra.

In the Temple Beth-El, New York,
the Ark is made of onyx and colored
marbles, and is placed against a semi-
circular background of marble and
mosaic. Richly wrought and gilded
bronze is used for capitals and other
ornamental parts, and for the doors —
w'hich latter are counterweighted, and
rise instead of sliding to the sides.
These doors are of open design, so
that, even when they are closed, the
scrolls may be seen, as the
interior is illuminated with
electric lights.

The approach to the Ark
of the West End Syna-
gogue, New York, is by
four steps from the main
floor, giving upon a broad
platform extending nearly
the whole width of the
building; from the center
of the rear of this again,
rise four semicircular steps
leading to the actual Ark.
This is of elaborate Mo-
resque design and work-
manship, in which strong
relief is obtained by
the use of light oak
fretwork, embedded
in black walnut
panels, in the central
sliding doors which
conceal the scrolls.
Handsome walnut
pillars, which repro-
duce the form of
those of stone that
support the portico of the exterior of the building,
and of those of onyx that uphold the galleries,
flank the Ark. The whole structure is set in an
arched recess in the south wall of the building, and
receives light in the daytime from rows of Mo-
resque windows of stained glass, placed close to-
gether and filling the extent of the arch. By night,
concealed gas or electric lights are skilfully adjusted
to illuminate the salient points of the design. The
pulpit and the reading-desk, occupying their custo-
mary positions, repeat the mosaic ornamentation of
the combined oak and walnut, characteristic of the
Ark. An equally elaborate Ark is that of the “ She-
arith Israel ” congregation in New York, the Sephar-
dic place of worship ; a colored plate of it forms the
frontispiece of vol. i. of this Encyclopedia.

Ark of the Law in the Synagogue at Pogrebishche, Russia.

(From Bersohn, “ Kilka Slow.’’)

Ill

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ark of the Law
Ai k of Noah

The Ark is always surmounted by a representation
of the two tables of the Law, while a perpetual
lamp hangs in front : silver and bronze lamps of rich
workmanship are often placed at the sides. The

a.m. 5265 = 1505 c.E.

(From the Musle de Cluny.)

doors, except in the Sephardic synagogues, are cov-
ered by curtains, and the walls of the interior are
also adorned with rich hangings.

The Ark is approached always by at least three
steps, but sometimes many more are used, and — as
in the case of the Paris synagogues — a line effect is
obtained by marble steps and balustrades.

a. A. W. B.

ARK OF MOSES (“tebah”): For three months
Moses was kept hidden by his mother, and when she
could no longer conceal him, she made a box and
launched it on the Nile river (Ex. ii. 2-3). The box
was made of rushes, and was lined with slime and
pitch to make it water-tight. Midr. R. to Ex. i. 21
says that the pitch was placed on the outside of the
box. so that its odor should not be offensive to the
infant.

J. JR. G. B. L.

ARK OF NOAH. — Biblical Data : The vessel
occupied by Noah and his family during the Deluge
(Gen. vi. 14, vii., viii. ).

The English name should not be confounded with
the Ark of the Covenant. The Hebrew name, n2n,
is the same as that of the chest in which the infant
Moses was placed on the banks of the Nile. It was a
box-like structure made of gopher- wood, a species
of pine-tree not found in Babylonia, but brought, as
was frequently done, from the Mediterranean coast
land. It had three stories and a roof. In the paral-
lel Babylonian flood -story no mention is made of the
material; but in the main tin; descriptions agree.
In either case the vessel was made water-tight with
bitumen and provided with cells or rooms. The pro-
portions, as given in Genesis, show regard for safety
and rapid movement under steering. The huge
dimensions of the Ark — 300 cubits long, 50 cubits
broad, and 30 cubits high — were never reached in
the construction of ancient vessels, but would have
been necessary for the accommodation of all the ani-
mals that survived the Deluge. It was really a great
house set afloat, and was so called in the Babylonian
version (“Flood Story,” line 91). Its purpose, ac-
cording to both accounts, was to accommodate Noah
and his family and the animals of every kind that
were to populate the earth after the waters subsided.
In the Babylonian account the Ark rested on Mount
Nisir, east of the Lower Zab river, therefore not far
from the starting-point; and the high water lasted
but a week. Noah’s Ark, after tossing about for a
year, rested in the highlands of Ararat or Armenia,
and stories have been current at various times to the
effect that remains of it had been found in that re-
gion, as, for example, in Josephus, “Ant.” i. 3, § 6
(see Aha hat and Flood). See Schrader, “Cunei-
form Inscriptions and the Old Testament,” i. 46-60.

j. jr. J. F McC.

— In Rabbinical Literature ; One hundred and
twenty years before the Deluge, Noah p lan ted cedars
from which he afterward made the Ark (Gen. R.
xxx. 7; compare Christian parallels; Ginzberg,
“ Mouatsschrift, ” xliii. 411). This lengthy period
was requisite, partly in order to urge the sinful peo-
ple to amend their ways, and partly to allow suffi-
cient time for the erection of the Ark, which was of
very large proportions According to one view the

Coin of Apamea, with Supposed Representation of Noah's Ark.

(From Maspero, “ Dawn of Civilization.”)

Ark consisted of three hundred and sixty cells, each
ten yards long by ten yards wide; according to an-
other it consisted of nine hundred cells, each six
yards long by six yards wide (Gen. R. xxxi. 11;
compare commentaries on the passage for the exact
mathematical computations). The lowest of these

Ark of Noah
Arkansas

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

112

stories was used as a depositary for refuse ; in the
second the human beings and the “clean” beasts
were lodged, and the uppermost was reserved for the
“ unclean” beasts. A differing opinion reverses the
order, so that the refuse was deposited in the third

The Ark of Noah Afloat.

(From the Sarajevo Haggadah.)

story, from which it was shoveled into the sea
through a sortof trap-door (narapaKrtiq ; Gen. R. l.c.).
For purposes of illumination, Noah used precious
stones, bright as the sun at noonday (Sanli. 1086;
Yer. Pes. i. 276; Gen. R. l.c.), which shone by night
and were dull by day. The stones were the sole
light in the Ark, since the stars and planets did not
fulfil their functions during the Deluge (Gen. R.
xxxiv. 11). Another miracle witnessed by the occu-
pants of the Ark was the entrance of the animals.
They were not led in by Noah, a task which would
have been impossible for any human being ; but God
■caused them, as well as the spirits of those whose
bodies were yet uncreated, to gather there from all
sides (Gen. R. xxxi. 13, xxxii. 8; Zeb. 116a ; for
Christian parallels see Ginzberg, “ Monatssclirift,”
xliii. 414). Another Midrasli says that the an-
gels appointed over the various species of animals
brought each his allotted animal with its necessary
fodder (Pirke R. El. xxiii.). In regard to the feed-
ing of the animals, the greater number of Haggadot
say that each received suitable food at the usual
time (Tan.,ed. Buber, Noah ii.; Gen. R. xxxi. 14);
and since Noah was constantly employed in feeding
them, he did not sleep for a moment during the year
in the Ark. As Noah was an exception among his
contemporaries, so also were the animals that were
destined to be saved. They were the best of their
species, and, unlike the other animals of the time,
they remained true to their proper natures, with-
out overstepping the limitations which nature had
prescribed for them (Tanhuma, l.c. v. ; Gen. R.
xxviii. 8; Sanli. 108a). Besides the regular occu-
pants, the Ark supported Og, king of Bashan, and
the immense animal “Re6m,” neither of whom,
owing to their enormous size, could get into the
Ark, but held fast to it, remaining alongside (Pirke
R. El. xxiii. ; Gen. R. xxxi. 13). In order that Noah
on his entrance into the Ark might not be molested
by the wicked people, lions and other wild animals
were placed to guard it. A beam of the Ark was
found by Sennacherib, and he made an idol of it

(Sanli. 96a). Another beam of the Ark was used as
the gallows for Hamau, according to Midrash Abba
Gorion, iv. ; ed. Buber, 19a (see Flood in Rab-
binical Literature).

j. sr. L. G.

In Mohammedan Literature : Mohammed’s

conception of the Ark of Noah was of an ordinary
ship He refers to it frequently in speaking of
Noah, and in all but two cases uses the word “fulk,”
which is elsewhere his usual word for a ship. In
one passage (sura liv. 14) he calls it “a thing of
boards and nails ” ; in another (xxix. 14), “satinah,”
which he also uses elsewhere of a ship.

There is, therefore, little Koranic material that
need be considered under this rubric. A curious
expression in the Koran (xi. 43), “And he said,
‘Ride ye in it; in the Name of God it moves and
stays, ’ ” probably means only that at all times it was
under the care of God. But some commentators
(Baidawi, ad loc.) have thought the meaning to be
that Noah said, “In the Name of God!” when he
wished it to move, and the same when he wished it
to stand still.

It is mentioned (xi. 46) that it settled on al-Judi.
This name must go back to a flood-legend current
among the Syrians of the east Tigris, in which the
Ark settled on the mountains of Gordysea. But in
Moslem tradition this has become a specific moun-
tain, lofty and long in shape, near the town called
Jazirat ibn ‘Umar, on the east bank of the Tigris,
in the province of Mosul. So Yakut ( s.v . ii. 144),
and Ibn Batuta passed it on his travels (ii. 139).
MasTidi (“ Golden Meadows,” i. 74) states that the
place where the Ark grounded could be seen to his
day, but there do not seem to be current among
Moslems any of those tales so common in Jewish
and Christian legend of remains found by adventur-
ous travelers. Probably the Moslem al-Judi was
much too accessible. According to Yakut a mosque
built by Noah was still to be found there.

The Ark Resting on Mt. Ararat.

(From the Sarajevo Haggadah.)

On the dimensions and plan of the Ark there was
much difference of opinion. It is evident that Mo-
hammed’s conception of a simple ship had been
changed by outside influence. Baidawi (l.c.) gives
the Biblical dimensions of 300 cubits by 50 by 30,
and expands only in explaining that in the first of

113

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ark of Noah
Arkansas

the three stories wild and domesticated animals were
lodged, in the second were human beings, and in
the third the birds. But other professed legend-
gatherers go much farther. Al-Tha'labi in his
“Iyisas al-Anbiyya” (pp. 81 ct seq.) and al-Diyar-
bakri in his “Khaims” give stories of how Noah,
under the direction of Gabriel, built a “ house ” of
teak-wood — after having first grown the trees for
the purpose — with dimensions of 80 cubits by 50 by
30; or, according to others, 600 by 330 by 33; or,
again — and this on (lie authority of Jesus, who raised
up Shem to give the information to his disciples —
1,200 by 600. On every plank was the name of a
prophet, and the body of Adam was carried in the
middle to divide the men from the women. When
Noah came near the end of his building, he found
that three planks, symbolizing three prophets, were
missing, and that he could not complete the “ house ”
without them. These planks were in Egypt and
were brought from there to Noah by Og, son of
Anak, the only one of the giants who was permitted
to survive the Flood. The last of the Ark seems to
have been that Noah locked it up and gave the key
to Shem (Ibn Wadih, i. 12).

j. jr. I). B. M.

ARKANSAS : One of the South-central states
of the United States; admitted June 15, 1836; seced-
ed May 6, 1861; and was readmitted June 22, 1868.

Arkansas has about three thousand Jews. Though
their settlement in different parts of the state can
be traced to comparatively early days, their com-
munal activity is of but recent development. A
curious item of circumstantial evidence in this mat-
ter is the old marriage law of Arkansas (Statutes of
1838), which was so worded as to exclude Jewish
ministers from performing the ceremony. This law
remained unchanged until 1873, when, through the
exertions of M. A. Cohn of Little Rock, the blunder
was corrected in the revised statutes. There are in
the state but fire congregations of sufficient size
and means to employ a permanent minister and to
hold regular services; namely, Little Rock, Pine
Bluff, Fort Smith, Llot Springs, and Jonesboro. The
communities next in size are Texarkana, Helena,
and Camden.

The most important Jewish community in the
state is Little Rock; it is the oldest as well as the
largest. The first Jewish settlers there that can be
traced were the Mitchell family (three brothers).

who came from Cracow, Galicia, in
Little 1838. From that year until the Civil
Rock. War there was little Jewish immigra-
tion ; but during the war and imme-
diately afterward the influx was comparatively
large. In 1866 a congregation was formed and in-
corporated with M. Navra as president. On March
18, 1867, a charter was granted to it under the name
“Congregation B’nai Israel of Little Rock.” The
members worshiped in the Masonic Temple under
the leadership of a hazan, S. Peck of Cincinnati,
who resigned in 1870. In 1872 J. Bloch was elected
rabbi; and the congregation moved into a hall, pre-
paratory to building a temple. This temple was
completed and dedicated in September, 1873. Bloch
served until 1880, and was succeeded by I. W. Ben-
son, who held office from 1881 to 1883; he was fol-
II.— 8

lowed by M. Eisenberg, who occupied the pulpit
for the remainder of the year. He was followed by
Joseph Stolz as rabbi, who was at the time a student
in the Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati. The
rabbis succeeding him were: Emanuel Schreiber
(1889-1891), Charles Rubenstein (1891-1897), Harry
LI. Mayer (1897-1899), and Louis Wolsey, the pres-
ent incumbent. The membership (Sept., 1899) is
170; and the Sabbath -school has 100 pupils and 5
teachers. The building now occupied was built
during the ministry of Rev. C. Rubenstein, and was
dedicated in May, 1897, by him and Rabbis Wise,
Samfield, and Stolz. Recently there has also been
established an Orthodox congregation, having a
membership of 13. Their present leader is a hazan,
S. Carmel. With the growth of the community and
congregation the following societies were organized :

Synagogue at Little Rock, Arkansas.

(From a photograph.)

The Concordia Club (social, 1868); The Hebrew
Ladies’ Benevolent Society (for the relief of the
poor, 1869); Little Rock Lodge, No. 158, I. O. B. B.
(1871); Kesher Slid Barzel (1876); Hebrew Relief
Society (1892); The Temple Aid Society (formed by
Rabbi Rubenstein in 1892, to aid in building the
temple).

Many Little Rock Jews have been prominent in
public life. One of the earliest settlers, Jonas Levy,
was mayor from 1860 to 1865, and Jacob Erb (now
in Chicago) occupied a position as county judge
from 1890 to 1894, while Jacob Trieber is at present
the judge of the United States Circuit Court.

The estimated population is 40.000, of whom the
Jews number 900. The latter include many mer-
chants, a banker, lawyer, school-teacher, sash and
blind manufacturer, photographer, and pawnbroker.
Jews are also engaged in the following trades : baker,
barber, confectioner, lauudryman. musician, restau-
rateur, and tailor. It is perhaps worthy of note that

Arkansas

Arles

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

114

many of the Jews of Little Rock and other Arkansas
cities were members of the Confederate Army.

Pine Bluff has a Jewish community almost as
large as that of Little Rock. The proportion of
Jews to the total population being greater, they are
more influential in public affairs. Between 1845
and 1850, a Jew named Wolf— now in the New
Orleans home — came to Pine Bluff. From that date
the influx of Jews continued until to-
Pine Bluff, day (1902) there is a Jewish popula-
tion of some 700 or 800. In 1867 the
congregation Anshe Emeth was organized with 20
members. Bloch, a teacher in the public schools,
was rabbi, and M. Aschaffenberg, president. In
1871 Bloch resigned and was succeeded by Fliigel,
who retained office for four years. His successor
was M. Greeneblatt, at whose death (1885) Rev.
Isaac Rubenstein was appointed. He held office but
one year, and was succeeded in 1887 by the Rev.
Ferdinand Becker. During his long term the con-
gregation increased to its present membership, 76;
and he conducted a most successful Sabbath-school.
On his retirement in 1898 he was succeeded by the
present incumbent, Rabbi Joseph Kornfeld.

The population of Pine Bluff is estimated at
12,000, of whom 800 are Jews. The majority of
the Jewish inhabitants are merchants; and there are
several lawyers, a physician, and a school-teacher.
The trades followed by Jews are: carpenter, laun-
dry, printer, and tailor.

Fort Smith, the community next in size, is con-
siderably smaller than Little Rock or Pine Bluff.

Although there were Jews here as
Fort Smith, early as 1845, it was not till much
later that there were enough to form
a congregation. The earliest settler that can be
traced was Edward Czarnickow, who came to Fort
Smith from Posen in 1842. He was followed by
Morris Price (1843), Michael Charles (1844), and his
brother, Louis Czarnickow, and Leopold Loewen-
thal (1845). From 1845 to 1865 several business
houses were established, and the greater part of the
business done was carried on with the Indians that
flocked to Fort Smith.

The first organization was the Cemetery Associa-
tion. It was established in 1871, and the next year
it purchased a plot for a cemeteiy. Louis Tides
was president. The Hebrew Ladies’ Benevolent
Society was also organized in that year. From its
inception it has been a great power for good ; reliev-
ing the poor, and contributing generously to the
building of the temple. In 1890, through the efforts
of Rabbi Messing of St. Louis, a congregation,
consisting of about 25 members, was formed. A.
Traugott was appointed minister. With the aid of
the Ladies’ Benevolent Society a lot was bought and
a temple erected. In 1895 Traugott retired and was
succeeded in 1896 by Max Moses. During the min-
istry of the latter the debt on the temple was almost
entirely liquidated. In 1898 Moses was succeeded
by Max C. Currick, who served till the end of 1901.
The membership has greatly increased, there being
now (1902) 44 full members and 25 associate mem-
bers; of these about 10 live in neighboring towns.
The Sabbath-school, which has 40 pupils and 3
teachers, is in a most prosperous condition. Besides

the organizations mentioned, there are the Progress
Club (social), with 40 members (1899) ; and a local
lodge of the I. O. B. B. (1879), at one time very
prosperous, the membership of which has fallen
from 30 to 7.

The total population of Fort Smith is estimated
at 20,000, of whom 230 are Jews. The only trades
pursued are: tailor, cutter, photographer, and up-
holsterer.

Van Buren, a suburb of Fort Smith, contains a
few Jewish families, most of whom are members of
the Fort Smith congregation.

Hot Springs has a Jewish population of 170 in
10,000. There have been Jews in Hot Springs since
1856, when Jacob Ivempner came there from Cra-
cow, Galicia. The congregation was organized in
1878. F. L. Rosenthal was the first rabbi, and was
succeeded by the present incumbent,
Hot Louis Schreiber. On account of the

Springs, large numbers of sick poor that flock
to Hot Springs, the demand upon the
community is very heavy ; and to meet it the Society
for the Relief of the Sick Poor was organized in
1899.

The first Jewish settler in Jonesboro was Morris
Berger, who arrived in 1882. In 1897 there were
enough Jews to form a congregation. In Septem-
ber of that year Rabbi Isaac Rubenstein was called
to the ministry. Through his untiring efforts the
temple was completed, and was dedicated on Jan. 2,
1898. He died in Jan., 1899. In August of the
same year Adolph Marx began his
Jonesboro, ministry, and served until 1900, when
Texarkana, he was succeeded by J. Ellinger.

Helena, The total population of Jonesboro is

Camden. 5,000, of whom 125 are Jews. Both
in Hot Springs and Jonesboro the only
trades pursued by Jews are those of tailor and
shoemaker.

Texarkana, Helena, and Camden have Jewish com-
munities of about the same size, numbering each
between 100 and 140. None of them has either a
permanent rabbi or regular services; but they all
have services during the autumn holidays, generally
conducted by a student of the Hebrew Union Col-
lege. The oldest of these communities is Helena, its
congregation having been organized as far back as
1869. It had permanent rabbis until 1887. They
were: A. Meyer (1880-1881), L. Weiss (1882-1884),
A. M. Block (1885), and A. Gustmann (1886-1887).
Abraham Brill served as rabbi from 1900 till 1901.
Each of these communities has a social club, a so-
ciety for the relief of the poor, a literary society,
and a local lodge of the I. O. B. B.

Scattered through the remainder of the state, in
the towns of Brinkley, Batesville, Conway, Ozark,
Paragould, Malvern, Newport, Paris, Fayetteville,
Searcy, and Dardanelle, there are some four or five
hundred Jews. They are in no greater groups than
five families to a town ; with the exception of New-
port and Conway, which have each about 55 Jews.

a. M. C. C.

ARKITE(S): Ancient people of northwestern
Palestine. In Gen. x. 17, I Chron. i. 15, the Arkite
('pbjin) is mentioned as a son of Canaan and opens

115

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arkansas

Arles

the series of the chief Phenician cities. The city of
Arka, from which the name is derived, is the modern
ruin Tell ‘Arka in the Lebanon, northeast of Tripo-
lis, on a brook called River of ‘Arka (not the Sabbati-
cal River of Josephus!). The city occurs in Egyp-
tian inscriptions, about 1500 b.c., as ‘(I)rkan(a)tu
(W. M. Muller, “Asien und Europa,” p. 247); in the
Amarna Letters (122 et seq. ) as Irgata, Irganatu. The
Assyrians mention Irkanat as hostile under Shalman-
eser II. ; Tiglath-pileser III. subjected Arka (De-
litzsch, “Paradies,” pp. 272, 284; Schrader, “Cunei-
form Inscriptions and the Old Testament,” i. 87, 246).
In Roman times Arka (Arke, etc.) was an important
town, called Caesarea Libani. It was a Roman colony
and famous for the cult of Venus Arcitis ( Macrobins ).
As a fortress it played a prominent part in the Cru-
sades.

The strange form Ariki in the Septuagint, in Jose-
phus, and in the Samaritan text is not intelligible.

j. JR. W. M. M.

ARKOVY, JOSEPH : Professor of clinical
dentistry at the University of Budapest; born in
Budapest, February 8, 1851. He graduated in 1876
from the university of his native city, and then
went to London, where for several years lie prac-
tised in the German Hospital. In 1881 he estab-
lished a clinical hospital at Budapest, which was
amalgamated in 1890 with the general clinics as the
“Department of Dentistry.” Arkovyis the pioneer
of scientific dentistry in Hungary, and the author of
several works on the subject, the more important
of which are: “A Fogalc Gondozasa” (1881); “A
Fogbel es Gyokliartya Bantalmak ” (1884); and
“Diagnostic der Zahnkranklieiten ” (1885). He has
also published several essays in Hungarian, German,
and English dental journals. Arkovy has been bap-
tized.

Bibliography: Acta Reg. Scient.Univ. Hung.. 188&-1885;

Pallas, Lcxiknn, i.

s. M. W.

ARLES (Latin Arelas or Arelate, Hebrew O'SlN,

-|5nx, 'h^'in. 5-6-in. •’“ixbiN, ninx. “tinx. ’fna,

-3^1N): City of France, in the department
of Bouclies du Rhone ; ancient capital of Provence.
The date of the settlement of the Jews in Arles is
lost in antiquity. According to a legend, the em-
peror Vespasian placed Jews on three vessels, which
were abandoned by their captains in the open sea.
One of these came to Arles, another landed at Bor-
deaux, and the third reached Lyons (“Siddur,” Roe-
delheim, 1868, ed. Baer, p. 112).

This legend makes it probable that there were
Jews in Arles during the first centuries of the com-
mon era. But the first official docu-
Early ment, concerning them dates from 425.
Settlement. In that year the emperor Valentinian
III. addressed to the pretor of Gaul,
and to Patroclus, bishop of Arles, a decree, enjoin-
ing them to forbid Jews and heathens to take up the
career of arms, to enter the magistracy, or to possess
Christian slaves (Papon, “Histoire Generale de Pro-
vence,” i. ii.). These restrictions, however, were
not carried out, or, at any rate, did not last long;
for some years later the bishopric of Arles was oc-

cupied by Saint Hilar}’ (429-449), who cherished the
most kindly feelings toward Jews in general, and
especially toward those of Arles.

In 476 the Roman dominion in Gaul came to an
end, and Provence fell into the hands of the Visi-
goths. Euric conquered Arles, where he settled for
a long time. So long as the Visigoths remained at-
tached to Arianism, the Jews enjoyed all civic rights.
In 508, when Arles was besieged by the Franks and
Burgundians, the Jewish inhabitants valorously de-
fended the city. Arles fell into the hands of Clovis,
and Bishop Caesarius was openly accused by the
Jews of treason. The bishop’s adherents, however,
accused a Jewish soldier of having thrown a letter
to the besiegers, inviting them to climb the wall at
a certain place. The soldier was put to death, and
the bishop wasacquitted. But this relatively happy
state of the Jews did not last. Arles, like most
towns of southern France, fell under the dominion
of the Merovingian kings, whose fanaticism weighed
heavily upon the French Jews. The bishops were
encouraged by Chilperic himself (561-584) to attempt
the conversion of the Jews; and Virgilius, bishop of
Arles, displayed such zeal for the salvation of Jew-
ish souls, that even Pope Gregory the Great thought
it necessary to moderate it by a stern rebuke (see S.
Gregorii Papae I. Magni Epistolse,” ii. lxv.).

With the death of Dagobert I. (668), on which
occasion the power passed into the hands of the
Carlovingian dynasty, the state of the
Under French Jews in general considerably
the Carlo- improved. The Carlovingian princes
vingians. efficaciously protected them from the
attacks of the clergy. Jewish history
has nothing to record of this happy period. It takes
up the thread again with the death of Louis le Debon-
naire (814-840), when Boso, count of Provence, sup-
ported by Pope John VIII. and the clergy, founded
the kingdom of Burgundy with Arles for capital.
In 850, the Jewish communities of Lyons, Chalon,
Macon, and Vienne, to save their children from bap-
tism, sent them to Arles, where Bishop Roland
showed himself most favorably disposed toward the
Jews. The usurper (879-888), as a token of his grat-
itude toward the clergy, transferred his rights over
the Jews of Arles to Rostang, archbishop of this
town. Boso’s son and successor did the same in
921 to Bishop Manasse. This form of transfer was
sanctioned later by the German emperors, who ac-
quired rights of suzerainty over Provence. Thus
Conrad III., in 1147, granted to the archbishop of
Arles, Raymond of Montredon, among other of his
regal prerogatives, the jurisdiction over the Jews of
his diocese. Frederick Barbarossa in 1154 confirmed
and extended these privileges. The archbishop un-
derstood how to make the most of the power be-
stowed upon him, and laid heavy taxes upon the
Jews of Arles. And yet their state was tolerably
favorable in comparison with that of the Jews of
other towns in France, who suffered much from the
Crusaders. The archbishop watched carefully over
his property, and permitted none to interfere with
his Jews.

According to Benjamin of Tudela, the Jewish
community of Arles counted at the second half of
the twelfth century about 200 families. At their

Arles

Armenia

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

116

head were six rabbis: Moses, Tobias, Isaiah, Solo-
mon, Abba Mari, and Nathan (see Benjamin of
Tudela, “Travels,” i. 5). They lived in a separate
quarter of the town, and had their synagogue in
Rue Neuve (Noble de la LaugitSre, “ Abrege Clirono-
logique del’Histoire d'Arles,” pp. 301, 312). Their
chief trade consisted in selling kermes, which is
used in dry-salting. In 1215 Archbishop Michel de
Moriere regulated the administration of the Jewish
community of Arles. On every Feast of Tabernacles
the Jews had to elect three members, who were to
administer the community. The elected members as-
sumed the title of “rectors,” and they

Rectors. were invested by the archbishop with
full power. The rectors were responsi-
ble for their acts to the archbishop. The first rec-
tors assigned by the archbishop himself were: Du-
rantus (Durant), Salvetus (Salves), and Ferrerius
(Ferrier). Trinquetaille, a suburb of Arles, also pos-
sessed quite an important community, which disap-
peared in 1300, when this suburb was united with
the town.

The counts of Provence gradually established
their power in Arles, owing to the incessant conflicts
between the archbishop and the Christian inhabitants
of the city: and the state of the Arlesian Jews ac-
cordingly changed. Thus Charles 1. of Anjou offi-
cially deprived the archbishop Bertrand of Malferrat
of his rights over the Jews (1276). This circum-
stance occasioned much suffering among the Jews
of Arles; for the clergy could now undisturbedly
excite the fanaticism of the Christian inhabitants
against them. Charles I. of Anjou, it is true, ac-
corded to all his Jewish subjects every kind of pro-
tection ; and on one occasion energetically took their
part against the Dominican friars, who tried to in-
troduce the Inquisition into Provence. But Charles’
successor had not his energy, and the state of the
Jews of Arles gradually grew worse. Thus Charles
II (1285-1309), incited by the clergy, issued ordi-
nances, according to which the Jews were forbidden,
on pain of a fine of two silver marks, to employ a
Christian servant, to hold a public office, or to lay
aside the distinguishing yellow badge.

The first half of the fourteenth century was a
relatively happy epoch for the Jews of Arles under
the reign of Robert of Anjou, who
The cherished kindly feeling toward them;
Fourteenth but the second half was just the re-
and verse. The presence of Joanna on the

Fifteenth throne of Provence gave scope to the
Centuries, enemies of the Jews, and the most
odious restrictions were placed upon
them. Jews could not, for instance, testify against
a Christian ; nor were they allowed to visit the pub-
lic baths on any day during the week but Friday,
which was set aside for their exclusive use; they
were forbidden to do work on Sundays; no Jew
could embark for Alexandria, and only four could
take passage by the same boat for any of the other
parts of the Levant.

In 1344 the Jews of Arles had much to suffer from
the riots following the blood accusation against
Samson of Reylhane. Such riots were repeated
every few years, and Louis III. (1417-1434) saw the
necessity of appointing special officials for the pro-

tection of the Jews. These functionaries, called
“conservators,” exercised jurisdiction over the Jews
and maintained order in the communities. In 1436
the mob attacked the Jews of Arles, and maltreated
even the conservators. King Rene (1434-1480) sup-
pressed the functions of these guardians; and by the
ordinance of May 18, 1454, granted to the Jews the
right to retain their ancient customs. He, likewise,
authorized them to build a fortress in their quarter,
in order to protect themselves from the attacks of
the populace during Holy W eek (Noble de la Lau-
giere, ib. p. 301).

With the death of King Rene (1434-1480) the Jews
lost their last protector. On the 13th of Nisan, 5244
(April 8, 1484), when Provence was annexed to
France, a band of laborers from Dauphin, Auvergn-
ois, and the mountain districts of Provence, driven
by misery, attacked the Jews of Arles, ransacked
their houses, killed several women, and compelled
about fifty persons to embrace Christianity. These
violent outbursts were repeated in the summer of
1485 (S. Kahn, in “Rev. Et. Juives,” xxxix. 110).
In 1488 the Jews were definitively expelled from
Arles, to which place they never returned.

Among the eminent persons associated with the
town of Arles maybe mentioned: R. Moses (tenth
century); Judah ben Moses of Arles
Prominent (eleventh century) ; Judah ben Tobias
Jews (twelfth century); Abraham ben Da-
in Arles, vid of Posquieres, called also Abraham
ibn Daiul (twelfth century); Samuel
ben Judah ibn Tibbon, Me'fr and his sou Kalony-
mus, Isaac ben Jacob Cohen, Gerson ben Solomon
(thirteenth century); Levi ben Abraham, who took
partin the religious controversy of 1303-1306; Jo-
seph Kaspi, Kalonymus ben Kalonymus, Don Com-
prad of Arles, Kalonymus ben David ben Todros,
Isaac ben Joseph Kimhi, Tanhum ben Moses (four-
teenth century) ; Nathan ben Neliemia Kaspi, Isaac
Nathan ben Kalonymus ben Judah ben Solomon
(fifteenth century).

The following physicians of Arles may also be
mentioned : Maestro Bendit, probably identical with
Bendich Ahin, physician to Queen Joanna in 1369;
Benedit du Canet, one of the physicians of Louis
XI. ; Maestro Salves Vidal of Bounin, and Asher
ben Moses of the family Valabregue (1468).

Bibliography : Papon, Histoire Generate de Provence , I. ii.
etseq.; Deppine, Les Juifs dans le Moiien Age, p. 1(M;
Nostradamus, Histoire ct Chrnniquc de Provence, passim;
Gross, in Monatssclirift, 1878, 1880, 1882; idem, Gallia Ju-
daica, pp. 73 ct seq. ; Rev. Et. Juives, xl. 74 ; xli. 62, 154.
g. S. K — I. Bn.

ARLI (ARLES), JOSEPH JUDAH, of Sienna.
See Joseph of Akles.

ARLI, SAMUEL, OF MANTUA. See Sam-
uel of Arles.

ARMAVIR : The old capital of Armenia, on the
southeastern slope of Mount Ahaghoz, said to have
been founded by King Armais in 1980 b.c. Moses
of Chorene (fifth century) has the tradition that
when King Vaharshak settled in Armavir (149 b.c.),
he built a temple there and asked his favorite, the
Jew Shambu Bagarat (Bagratuni), to give up his re-
ligion and worship idols. Shambu refused compli-
ance. Moses also relates that when King Tigrancs
II. (90-36 b.c.), in order to take revenge on Queen

117

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arles

Armenia

Cleopatra of Egypt, sent an expedition to Palestine,
he carried a great number of Jews into captivity,
and settled them in Armavir and in Yardges. He
goes on to state that later they were transferred
from Armavir to Ernanda; and under King Ar-
saces (8/5—127) again transferred into the new capital
Artasliat. When King Sapor II. of Persia invaded
Armenia (360-370), lie led away from Artasliat 30,000
Armenian and 9,000 Jewish families, the latter
brought by King Tigranes from Palestine, and then
completely destroyed the city.

Bibliography : Faustus de Byzanee in Langlois, Collection
ties Histoires Armeniemies, i. 274, 275; Regextyi Nadpisi
(Regests and Inscriptions), pub. by the Society for the Pro-
motion of Education Among the Jews of Russia, pp. 37 et set
St. Petersburg, 1899.

u. II. R.

ARMENIA : Formerly a kingdom of western
Asia, now (1902) apportioned among Russia, Tur-
key, and Persia. According to the Peshitta and
Targum Onkelos, the “Minni” of the Bible (Jer. li.
27) is Armenia — or rather a part of that country, as
Ararat is also mentioned (Isa. xxxvii. 38; II Kings
xix. 37) as a part of Armenia. The
In cuneiform inscriptions speak of “ Man-
the Bible, nai ” in the same neighborhood (Schra-
der, “K. A. T.” 2d ed., p. 423). In
ancient times the Armenians were in communication
with Tyre and other Phenician cities, in which they
traded with horses and mules (Ezek. xxvii. 14).
The Meshecli mentioned in Ezek. xxvii. 13; xxxii.
26; xxxviii. 2, 3; xxxix. 1, and in Ps. cxx. 5, are
probably the Mosclii (Assyrian, Mu&likii and Musku),
the inhabitants of the Moschian mountains, between
the Black and the Caspian seas, which contained rich
copper mines. “ Tubal ” (Assyrian, Tubal), which is
always mentioned in connection with Meshecli, is
the name of the Tibareni, who lived to the south-
east of the Black sea. The name of the Mosclii is
perhaps preserved in Mzchet, the ancient capital
of Iberia (Georgia), now a small village and station
on the Transcaucasian railroad, about fourteen Eng-
lish miles from Tiflis.

Descendants of the Jewish captives who were
carried away from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar
have lived in great numbers in the Parthian and
Persian countries adjoining Armenia, and, occupy-
ing themselves with agriculture and handicrafts, at-
tained wealth and lived peacefully under the rule
of their “ Princes of the Diaspora ” (“ resli galuta ”),
who were supposed to be descendants of David
(M. Brann and D. Chwolson, in the article “ Yevrei,”
in Eutziklopedicheski Slovar,” vol. xi., s.v., St.
Petersburg, 1894).

According to Moses of Chorene (fifth century),
King Hratchai (Fiery -Eye) obtained from Nebuchad-
nezzar, king of Babylon, a distin-
Early guished Jewish captive, named Sham-
Settlement. bat (which name, according to A.

Harkavy, is identical with “ Sabbat ”),
whom he loaded with honors. From Shambat de-
scended the family of Bagratttni (or Bagration),
which heads the list of the Russian nobility (see
Bobrinski, “ Dvoryanskie Rody,” i. 1, St. Peters-
burg, 1890). When Vagharsliak, brother of the Par-
thian king Mitliridates I., and the founder of the
Arshak dynasty, ascended the throne of Armenia

150 b.c., he introduced a new rule in the govern-
ment of the country, nominating the Jew Bagarat,
a descendant of Shambat, hereditary viceroy (naha-
rar, satrap), and coronator ( aspet ); that is, the official
charged with the duty of placing the crown on the
head of the ruler. This dignity and duty remained
with the Bagratuni family until the end of the
Arshak dynasty in 433. The coronation, thence-
forth, depended for its validity upon the perform-
ance of this act (N. O. Emin, “Minutes of the Sixth
Session of the Fifth Russian Archeological Con-
gress,” held at Tiflis, September, 1881, to be found
in “Russische Revue,” xviii. 309-311). But accord-
ing to modern critics (Gutsclimid and others) the
work of Moses of Chorene is of a later date and his
statements are open to question.

During his expedition to Palestine, to take venge-
ance on Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, Tigranes took
a great number of Jews captive. He settled them
in Armavir and in the city of Yardges, on the river
Ksakh, which subsequently became a large commer-
cial center. King Arsliam, the brother of Tigranes,
imprisoned the coronator Hanania, and deprived
him of all honors, because he liberated from bond-
age the Jewish high priest Hyrcanus. Josephus
relates that Cleopatra took part in Antony's expe-
dition to Armenia, when Antony subdued Armenia
and “sent Artabazes, the son of Tigranes, in bonds,
with his children and procurators, to Egypt ” (“ Ant.”
xv. 4, § 3). He also states that the Herodian house
was related to the royal house of Armenia (“ Ant.”
xviii. 5, § 4; ib. xiii. 16, § 4).

Many captive Jews were removed by Arsaces
(85-127 of the common era) from the city of Ernanda
and settled by him in the capital of Artasliat. Ac-
cording to tradition, the family of Am atom, which
was of Jewish origin, came from Oriental Aryan
countries to Armenia in the reign of Arsaces.

At the end of the reign of Arshak, during his
iniquitous persecution, tiie Persian king Sapor II.
(about 360) ordered the destruction of the fortifica-
tions surrounding all the Armenian

Carried cities, and also commanded that all the

Away by Jewsand Judaizersof the city of Van,

Persians, who had been transferred to that city
during the reign of Tigranes, should
betaken into captivity and settled in Aspalian.

Faustus, the Byzantine (4th century), in descri-
bing the invasion of the Persians in the time of King
Sapor II. (310-380), relates that the Persians re-
moved from the city of Artasliat 40,000 Armenian
and 9,000 Jewish families; from Ernandasliat 20,000
Armenian and 30,000 Jewish; from Zeraga van 5,000
Armenian and 8,000 Jewish; from Zarishat 14,000
Armenian and 10,000 Jewish; from Van 5,000 Ar-
menian and 18,000 Jewish ; and from Nakhichevan
2,000 Armenian and 16,000 Jewish families (360-370).
This great mass of Jews, according to Faustus, had
originally been transported from Palestine by King
Tigranes Arshakuni. While these figures may be
exaggerated, there can be hardly any doubt that
Armenia at that time possessed a large Jewish pop-
ulation (see Ersch and Gruber, “ Encyklopadie, ”
xxvii. 440 et seq.\ Gratz, “Gescli. der Juden,” iv.
422; Jost, “Gescli. der Israel.,” ii. 128, Leipsic,
1858; Harkavy, “Vyestnik Russkikh Yevreyev,”

Armenia

Armilus

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

118

1871; “Razsvyet,” 1882-83; F. Lazarus, in Brull’s
“Jahrbuch,” x. 34, 35).

In the Talmud (Yer. Git. vi. 48 a) a rabbi, Jacob of
Armenia, and the Academy of Nisibis are referred
to, which goes to prove that Jewish
In Jewish, scholarship flourished there. In the
Literature, second century Jewish prisoners of
war were brought from Armenia to
Antiochia, and were ransomed by the Jews there
(Yeb. 45a). To the question (Bab. Sanh. 94a)
whither were the Ten Tribes driven, Mar Zutra (third
century) answers : “To Africa;” and Rabbi Hanina:
“To the Slug [l^D] mountains.” Africa is said to
be Iberia (Georgia), and Slug may be, as Harkavy
suggests, Cilici, between Assyria and Armenia (A.
Harkavy, “Ha-Yehudim u-Sefat ha-Slavim,” pp.
105-109, and his reply to Steinsclineider, H.B. ix. 15,
52 in “Roman oh Alexandrye,” 1892, p. 32, note).

Armenia is also mentioned iii the Midrashim:
“God said, if I let them pass through the deserts,
they will die of starvation. Therefore I lead them
by the road of Armenia, where they will find cities
and fortresses and plenty of provisions ” (Lam. R. i.
14). See also Cant. IL, Amsterdam ed. , p. 198.

The Karaite Ibn Yusuf Ya'kub al-Kirkisani, in
treating of Jewish sects in his Arabic work, written
in 937, speaks of the sect founded by Musa al-Za‘fa-
rani. Musa — known under the name of Abu-Imran
of Tiflis — -lived in the ninth century. He was born
in Bagdad, but settled in the Armenian city of Tiflis,
where he found followers, who spread all over Ar-
menia, and under the name of “Tiflisites” ( Tifli -
siyim), still existed in Kirkisani’s time. “It is in-
teresting to know, by the way,” says Harkavy,
“that in the ninth and tenth centuries such a large
Jewish community existed in Tiflis, in which a
separate sect could be formed ” (A. Harkavy, in
“Zapiski Vostochnavo Otdyeleniya Imperatorskavo
Russkavo ArclieolOgicheskavo Obslichestva,” viii.
247 ; idem , in “Voskhod,” 1896, ii. 35, 36).

Hasdai ben Isaac, in his letters to t lie king of the
Chazars (about 960), says that it was his intention to
send his letters by way of Jerusalem, Nisibis, Ar-
menia, and Bardaa, which fact is proof of the exist-
ence at that time of Jewish communities in Armenia
(see A. Harkavy, “ Soobshcheniya o Chazarakli,” in
“Yevreiskaya Biblioteka,” vii. 143-153).

Benjamin of Tudela in his “Travels” (Mas'ot:
1160-1173) says that the power of the Prince of the
Exile (Exilareh) extends itself over all the com-
munities in the following countries: Mesopotamia,
Persia, all of Armenia, and the country of Kota,
near Mt. Ararat. In Nisibis — “a large city, richly
watered ” — he found a Jewish community of about
1,000 souls. Pethahiah of Regensburg, in his “Sib-
bub ha-‘01am” (1175-1185), narrates that from Cha-
zaria he traversed the land of Togarma, and from To-
garma entered into the land of Ararat (Armenia),
reaching Nisibis in eight days. In another passage
lie speaks of large Armenian cities, containing few
Jews. “In ancient times the Jewish population [of
these cities] was large; but owing to internal strife,
their numbers were greatly reduced. They scat-
tered and went to various cities of Babylon, Media,
Persia, and Kush.”

In 1646 the Spanish adventurer Don Juan Me-

nesses came to Constantinople to offer Turkey the
dominion of a whole Armenian province inhabited by
Jews (Hammer, “Gescli. des Osmanisclien Reiches,”
v. 392). For modern history, reference may be
made to the respective cities and countries.

Bibliography: For the main facts of this article Moses of
Chorene lias been relied upon. Moses Chorenesis, ed. Whis-
ton, London, 173t> ; Istoriya Armeitii Mcriseya Clwrenskavo ,
transl. by N. (>. Emin, pp. 36-37,54-56,60-69,75,82,98, 104-
105, 109-1 10. 113, 172; Langlois, Collection des Histoires Ar-
meniennes: Faustus dt Byzance , i. 274-275; Drevnosti,
Trudy Moskimskavo Archeologicheskavo Obshchestva ,
1880, supplement, p. 100; Regesty i Nadpisi , Nos. 134, 135,
136; Sehiirer, Geschichte, 3d ed., iii. 1-38; A. Harkavy, Ob
Yazykye Yc vreyev Zhivshikh v Drevneye Vretnya na Russi,
etc., St. Petersburg, 1865, and the above-mentioned works ;
Hamburger, R. B. T. ii. 72, 1281-1286, 1307-1310, 1883, iii. 9-24,
1892 ; Jost, Gesc.h. des Judenthums , i. 336-340, Leipsic, 1857 ;
Mommsen, Romisclie Gescli. v. 489, Berlin, 1894; M. I. Saint-
Martin, Me moires Historiyues et Geographiques surl'Ar-
menie. i. passim , Paris, 1818; Neubauer, G. T. 370, 400-
407, Paris, 1868; and works mentioned in the text.
g. H. R.

In Rabbinical Literature : According to an

old tradition, which has found striking verification
iu recent discoveries in Assyria, Mt. Ararat (Gen.
viii. 4) was held to be an Armenian locality (Targ.
Yer. ad loc.\ Josephus, “Ant.” i. 35). The render-
ing of “Minni” (Jer. Ii. 27) by “Armenia,” as given
in the Targum, has also been verified. On the other
hand, the identification of Harmonah (“Harmon,”
Amos iv. 3, R. V.) with Armenia (Targum, ad loc.)
is probably based upon the false etymology of
rUlCnn, as if the word were composed of har (moun-
tain) and monuh pyo) (Armenia).

It is probably on this false etymology that the
Haggadah bases the statement that upon their jour-
ney from Palestine to the places whither they were
deported, the Ten Tribes passed through Armenia.
“ This,” adds the Midrash, “was probably ordained
by God in order that the Israelites might pass
through cultivated regions where they could easily
procure food and drink, and not through the desert,
where they would suffer from hunger and thirst”
(Lam. R. to I, 14). Apart from Nisibis, which can
not well be included in its limits, the Talmudic and
Midrashic sources know almost nothing of Armenia.
An amora, Jacob Armenaya by name, is mentioned
(Yer. Git. vi. 48a, below); yet it is doubtful whether
the epithet “ Armenaya ” here really signifies “ Arme-
nian. ” Equally doubtful is the import of the passage
(Yeb. 45a), where Jewish captives are mentioned as
having been transported from Armon to Tiberias.
This Armon, contrary to the statements of Rapoport
and Neubauer, can not be identical with Armenia.
Bibliography : Neubauer, G. T. pp. 370 et seq .; Rapoport,

■ Erek Millin , pp. 205, 206 ; Karin Hemed , v, 213, vi. 172.

L. G.

ARMENIAN VERSION OF OLD TESTA-
MENT. See Bible Translation.

ARMILUS : In later Jewish eschatology and
legend, a king who will arise at the end of time
against the Messiah, and will be conquered by him
after having brought much distress upon Israel.
The origin of this Jewish Antichrist (as he can well
be styled in view of his relation to the Messiah) is as
much involved in doubt as the different phases of
his development, and his relation to the Christian
legend and doctrine.

Saadia (born 892; died 942) is the earliest trust-
worthy authority that speaks of Armilus. He men-
tions the following as a tradition of the ancients,

119

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Armenia

Armilus

lienee of the eighth century at the latest : If the
Jews do not prove themselves worth}- of Messianic
salvation, God will force them to re-
Saadia’s pentance by terrible persecutions. In
Tradition consequence of these persecutions, a
of scion of the tribe of Joseph will arise
Armilus. and wrest Jerusalem from the hands of
the Edomites, that is, from the Chris-
tians; the Arabic text of Landauer, p. 239, has cor-
rectly “Jerusalem,” and not “Temple,” as in the He-
brew translation, which has it owing to an erroneous
interpretation of the Arabic “al bait al mukaddas.”
Thereupon the king, Armilus, will conquer and sack
the Holy City, kill the inhabitants together with
“the man [Messiah] of the tribe of Joseph,” and then
begin a general campaign against the Jews, forcing
them to flee into the desert, where they will suffer
untold misery. When they have been purified by
sorrow and pain, the Messiah will appear, wrest
Jerusalem from Armilus, slay him, and thereby
bring the true salvation.

Armilus is for Saadia, or rather for Saadia’s
sources, nothing more or less than the last power-
ful anti-Jewish king, the Gog of the
Armilus prophets under another name (com-
in the pare “Emunot we-De’ot,” ed. Fischel,
Apoc- viii. 152-154; ed. Landauer, pp. 239-
alyptic 241). The same thing is said of Gog
Mid- that Saadia says of Armilus in “ Agga-
rashim. dot Mashiah ” in Jellinek, “B. H.” iii.

141 ; but the role ascribed there to the
Messiah, son of Joseph, shows that this Midrash is
not Saadia’s source.

However, an entirely different shape and meaning
arc given to Armilus in some smaller Midrashim deal-
ing with the “latter days.” In the “Midrash wa-
Yoslia' ” — which comes nearest to Saadia's concep-
tion— Armilus is taken to be Gog’s successor; but is
represented as a monstrosity, bald-headed, with one
large and one small eye, deaf in the right ear and
maimed in the right arm, while the left arm is two
and one-lialf ells long. His battle with and his de-
feat by the Messiah, son of Joseph, correspond with
Saadia’s account (Jellinek, “B. H.” i. 56; Targ. on
Isa. xi. 4; but see Steinschneider, “Hcbr. Bibl.”
xiv. 45). A similar description of Armilus is found
in “NistarotR. Simon b. Yoliai” (Secrets of Simon
b. Yoliai), a pseudepigraph, the latest redaction of
which can not antedate the first crusade (Stein-
schneider, “Z. D. M. G.”xxviii. 646). (See Apoca-
i.yptic Litekatuke, Neo-Hebraic, 10.) The state-
ment found there that Armilus is the son of Satan and
of a stone (Jellinek, “B. H.” iii. 80) is an interpola-
tion from another source, written in Aramaic, while
the book itself is in Hebrew ; nor is this curious origin
of Armilus mentioned anywhere else in the book.
An entirely different conception of Armilus is found
in the pseudepigraphs : “ Zerubbabel, ”
Armilus “ Otot lia-Mashiah” (Signs of the Mes-
and siah) and “ Tefillat R. Simon b. Yoliai ”
Satan. (Prayer of R. Simon b. Yoliai). Aside
from a few unimportant variants in
these three versions — the Zerubbabel seems to show
the earlier, shorter form — they agree in the follow-
ing description of Armilus: In Rome there is a
splendid marble statue of a beautiful girl which

God Himself made in the beginning of the world
(JVC’N'O 'O' ntl’C’O). according to the version given
in “Tefillat R. Simon.” Through sexual intercourse
of evil men, or even of Satan himself, with this statue,
a terrible creature in human form was produced,
whose dimensions as well as shape were equally
monstrous. This creature, Armilus by name — the
Gentiles called him Antichrist, says the “Otot” —
will set himself upas Messiah, even as God Himself,
being recognized as such by the sons of Esau, that
is, by the Christians. He agrees to accept as his
doctrine the Gospels, which the Christians lay be-
fore him(“B. II.” ii. 60; f if atom — not tefillotam —
signifying something offensive, morally as well
as religiously, whereas tefillotam signifies their
prayers). Then he turns to the Jews, especially to
their leader, Neliemiah b. Husliiel, saying, “Bring
your Torah and acknowledge that I am God.” Xe-
heniiah and his followers open the Torah and read
to Armilus, “I am the Lord, tliy God; thou shalt
have no other gods before me.” But as Armilus
nevertheless insists upon being recognized as God by
the Jews, and they cry out to him that he is Satan
and not God, a bitter battle breaks out between
Armilus with an immense heathen army on the one
side, and Neliemiah with 30,000 Jewish heroes on
the other. This unequal combat ends in the death
of the “Ephraimite Messiah” and a million Jews.
After an interval of forty-five days, during which the
Jews unworthy of the Messianic glory die out (com-
pare the similar statement in reference to the liber-
ation from Egypt found already in the old Haggadah,
Mekilta, Beshallah, i., ed. Weiss, p. 29), and the rem-
nant have shown their true worth in sore trials and
bitter sufferings in the desert whither they will have
fled, Michael will blow his trumpet ; then the Mes-
siah and Elijah will appear, gather the dispersed of
Israel, and proceed to Jerusalem. Armilus, inflamed
against the Jews, will march against the Messiah.
But now God Himself will war against Armilus and
his army and . destroy them; or the Messiah, as one
version has it, will slay Armilus by the breath of
his mouth (Jellinek, “B. II.” ii. 51, line 3. where the
text is probably corrupt; compare II Thess. ii. 8).
According toa Roman legend (see Eusebius, “Chron-
icon,” I. xlvi. 7, ed. Migne, pp. 283, 284, and Book
II. anno 1145), it was an Armilus who presumed
to war with Jupiter, and was slain by the latter’s
thunderbolt. In the Armilus legend the Messiah
takes the place of Jupiter, and here also Armilus is
slain by fire and sulphur from heaven (Jellinek,
“B. H.” ii. 62).

The alleged descent of Armilus from a stone is a
Jewish version of the wide-spread legend connected
with the name of Virgil and referring
The Later to a statue that became a courte-

Armilus zan among the Romans (Gudemann,

Legend. “ Gesch. desErzieliungswesens . . . der
Juden in Italien,” pp. 221 etseq., 332,
333). It is indeed not improbable that this borrowing
from the Virgil legend was due to Christian influence.
The antithesis, Christ and Antichrist, which is the
distinctive feature in the Christian legend of the An-
tichrist, led already in the tenth century to the
opinion that Antichrist also would be the offspring
of a virgin and, of course, of Satan (see Bousset,

Armleder

Army

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

120

“Antichrist,” p. 92, and the description of St. Hilde-
garde, lib. iii. , visio xi., ed. Migne, pp. 710 et seq.).

As to the origin of the name Armilus, whether it
is derived from Romulus, the founder of Rome, or
from Ahriman, the evil principle of the Persians,
Arimainyus = Armalgus (Targ. Isa. xi. 4 and Targ.
Yer. Deut. xxxiv. 3), see Ahriman, Antichrist,
and Romulus.

Bibliography: Bousset, Der Antichrist , especially pp. 66-70,
88-99; English translation by A. H. Keane, pp. 104-112 and
138-140; Briill, in Kobak's Jescliurun, vii. 11; Frankel, in Z.
D. M. G. Iii. 295; Gratz, in Wertheimer’s Jahrb. fUr Israel-
iten , 1804, p. 239 ; and Gescliichte, 3d ed., iv. 412; Griinbaum,
in Z. D. M. G. xxxi, 300 ; Giidemann, Gesch. des Erziehungs-
wesens der Juden in Italien, pp. 221 et seq., 332-333; Horo-
witz, Bet 'Elsed ha-Aggadot , p. 25 ; D. Kaufmann, in Monats-
sclirift, xl. 135, 136; Kohler, in Z. D. M. G. xxiii. 693 ; Kohut,
Aruch Completum, i. 291-292; Krauss, Griechusche und
Lateinisclie LehnwCirter, i. 241-243; Jellinek, Introduction
to Bet ha- Midrash, ii. 21-23, iii. 17-20; Schurer, Geschichte,
3d ed., ii. 532, 533 ; Vogelstein and Rieger, Gesch. der Juden
in Rom, i. 155 et seq.; Zunz, G. V. 2d ed., p. 295.

K. L. G.

ARMLEDER PERSECUTIONS ; A series of
persecutions by a band of marauders who in 1338-39
massacred a large number of Jews in Alsace. In
1336 a nobleman of Franconia, pretending that an
angel had commissioned him to do so, gathered a
band of desperadoes and pillaged and murdered the
Jews. These assassins styled themselves “Juden-
schlager ” (Jewbeaters). Somewhat later John
Zimberlin, an innkeeper of Upper Alsace, followed
the example set in Franconia. He tied pieces of
leather round his arms and bade his followers do
the same. This gave rise to the name “ Armleder. ”
Their leader was called “King Armleder,” and
under him they marched through Alsace, killing
many Jews.

Those who were fortunate enough to escape fled
to Colmar, where the citizens protected them.
Armleder, whom success had intoxicated, besieged
the city and devastated the surrounding country.
The citizens asked Emperor Louis of Bavaria to
assist them. When Armleder heard that the im-
perial troops yvere approaching, he fled to France.
No sooner had the emperor left the country, how-
ever, than Armleder again appeared.

The lords of Alsace, under the leadership of the
bishop of Strasburg, formed an alliance (May 17,
1338), the members of which pledged themselves to
pursue Armleder and fifteen of his most prominent
followers. But it was very difficult to attack Arm-
leder’s adherents; and in the following year a
knight, Rudolph of Andlau, made an agreement
with “ King Armleder,” granting an amnesty to him
and his followers, provided that for the next ten
years they would refrain from molesting the Jews.
Though attacks ceased for a short time, the Jews,
during the ten years of armistice, never lived in
security ; and in 1349 there occurred the terrible mas-
sacres on the occasion of the Black Death, to which
the attacks of Armleder had been the prelude.

Bibliography: Scheid, Histoire des Juifs d' Alsace, Paris,
1887, pp. 23 et seq.; Sehudt, Jtidische Merkirtirdigkeite.il,
Frankfort-on-tbe-Main, i. 455, 1714, whom Gratz (Gesch. der
Juden, 3d ed„ vil. 326) follows, is very inaccurate.

G. D.

ARMORY : A word occurring only three times
in the A. V. In Jer. 1. 25 it is used figuratively
(“The Lord hath opened his armory and brought
forfli the weapons of his indignation”). In Song

of Songs iv. 4 reference is made to a tower of David,
built for an Armory, on the walls of which there
“hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty
men.” In Neh. iii. 19 Ezer, son of Jeshua, under-
took the repair of the city wall opposite the entrance
to the “armory at the turning ” (of the wall). Thus
there seem to have been one or more buildings de-
voted to the storage of arms, as it is mentioned in
I Kings x. 17 that Solomon kept five hundred golden
shields “in the house of the forest of Lebanon.”

J. jr. F. de S. M.

ARMS. See Weapons.

ARMY.— Biblical Data: This term, here used
to designate the defensive force of Israel at all stages
of the nation's history, embraces widely dissimilar
aggregations of men. The Hebrew vocabulary
scarcely indicates these distinctions fully. Thus,
the most comprehensive Hebrew term is (“ force”
or “ forces ”) ; iOV.a much more common designation,
is properly “ an army in the field ” ; while H3*iyD
means “an army in order of battle.” As the char-
acter of any fighting body depends upon its com-
position and organization, the subject will here be
treated from this point of view. The decisive his-
torical dividing-point is the institution of a standing
Army in the time of King David, an epoch coeval
with the establishment of the kingdom.

In the old tribal days levies were made by the
chief of each clan, to be employed either in the gen-
eral cause or in the interests of the
In Tribal clan itself. As typical of this custom
Days. may be cited the levy of Abraham,
mentioned in Gen. xiv. Abraham
here musters his own well-tried servants — heredi-
tary retainers, not chattels of questionable loyalty —
and these constitute a military body prepared to
operate in the maneuvers of the brief campaign
(xiv. 14). In verse 24 of the same chapter a sugges-
tion is given of the readiness with which kindred or
friendly clans fell in with a movement to help the
general cause. The “ army ” here consists of all re-
liable, able-bodied men, who possess no other dis-
cipline than that acquired in the vicissitudes of
semi-nomadic life. The same conditions apply to
the deeds recorded in Gen. xxxiv. 25, xlviii. 22, and
virtually remain unchanged during the desert wan-
derings of the tribes. The encounter with Amalek
(Ex. xvii. 8-13) is an example of these frequent
conflicts with alien peoples, which are also vividly
exemplified in the gradual subjugation of the Ca-
naanites by the Hebrew confederacy, detailed in
Judges i. 1— ii. 5, where the attack is described as
being made either by single clans or by a combina-
tion of tribes. Here the fighters include all those
capable of bearing arms, the division of forces de-
pending solely upon the exigencies of the occasion.

A slightly different system prevailed after the
settlement had been fairly established. The neces-
sity of defending territory once ac-
After the quired led to the formation of a kind
Settlement of irregular militia in each consid-
in Canaan, erable district. Combinations for
the common defense against external
and internal enemies naturally followed ; and these
gradually led to the formation of an elementary

121

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Armleder-

Army

Army organization, in which the unit consisted of
a military body or company (TnJ) of no fixed nu-
merical standard, but accustomed to act together
and to obey a popular leader. The existence of
such companies is already indicated in the Song of
Deborah (Judges v. 14, Hebr.), where it is said:
“From Machir came down the troop-leaders [A. Y.
“governors”], and from Zebulun those marching
with the baton of the captain ” ; the captain here be-
ing “the writer” (see A. V.), or the man who kept
the muster-roll of his troop — a duty later delegated
to a special officer (Jer. lii. 25). Such companies
consisted of volunteers, many of whom in course of
time took up the business as a permanent occupation.
In periods of national or local danger these men were

the landed proprietor furnished his contingent of
tigliting-men in proportion to his wealth; and his
military reputation ordinarily depend-
Elements ed upon such display of force. This
for a was one of the reasons why Gideon,
General the most stable of the judges, was

Levy. chosen to take the lead against the

Midianites. In the later period of
the Judges there were three elements in a general
levy: (1) casual recruits, a more or less irrespon-
sible body; (2) the freemen of the family or house-
hold, with their bondmen ; (3) irregular troopers
of the guerrilla order. Gideon’s sifting process on
the march (Judges vii. 2 et seq. ) illustrates the various-
grades of quality in his motley Army.

/VA v YVX XS.vy

wmMm

wmm

Oq&occ

tow

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MOCQcS

xx'coocQQ

y v 'y vvvyvv^0|

oocooww

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AN Assyrian Army Marching Through a Wooded Region.

(From Layard, “ Nineveh.”)

of great service to their people; but when no great
occasion demanded their interference, they were apt
to become a species of licensed freebooters. Both
Jephthah and Samson seem to have been typical
leaders of such free-lances, whose capacity for mis-
chief. in the event of a wide-spread discontent with
the existing order of things, was exemplified by
David’s baud of outlaws.

While someof the ruder and rougher of the judges
thus became leaders of semi-professional warriors,
an entirely different order of soldiery was being de-
veloped in a more regular way. As the clan and
family chiefs of the earlier days put their men into
the field and led them, so in more settled times the
great landholders furnished their respective quotas
for the common defense. Thus the term YOU
(gibbor hnyil) in some cases came to signify both “ man
of valor ” and “ man of property — that is to say,

The reign of Saul constituted a stage of transition
in the military as well as in all the other affairs of
Israel. During this regime the Phi-
Reign of listines, the most military people of
Saul. Palestine, had become a constant
menace to the Hebrews, and had
thereby revealed the imperative necessity botli of a
stable government and of a standing Army for the
national defense. It was merely an unclassified levy
that Saul had with difficulty raised against the Am-
monites (I Sam. xi. 7 et seq.). After the repulse of
those tribes, however, he dismissed the greater part
of the host, retaining 3,000 to hold points of vantage
in Bethel and Gibeah against the Philistines (I Sam.
xiii. 2 et seq.). Naturally, the king and the crown
prince Jonathan divided the command between
them; the former selecting for his special service
any man distinguished for personal prowess (I Sam.

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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

122

xiv. 52). But the changing fortunes of the war and
the king’s mental troubles precluded any further
development. Thus, while a standing force was
recognized as necessary, the soldier was still any

age to the court, a small body of chosen troops
who were strictly professionals, were equipped with
a regular commissariat, and received fixed wages
(compare I Kings iv. 27). These were not chosen,
like the old levies, by tribal representation, but were
recruited from the best available
Reign of sources. Some had doubtless been
David. members of David’s former band of
outlaws, while others were Philis-
tines; and it was from the latter that the whole
body derived its name, Tl^sm ’man (“ Cherethites
and Peletliites ”). At the same time, the geueral
militia was still maintained and extended (II Sam.
xviii. 1; II Kings i. 9; xi. 4, 19). Upon the death
of David’s old general Joab, the captain of the
guard Benaiah became commander of the whole
Army; and it may be assumed that thenceforth the
two positions were usually vested in the same officer.

All hopes that Israel would continue to be a great
military nation came to an end through the misgov-
ernment in the later years of Solomon, and the schism
which it occasioned ; nor had the Army under David
attained to an equality with the re-
Decline spective military forces of other lead-
TJnder ing Eastern nations of the period. In
Solomon ; David's time, cavalry formed no part
Cavalry, of the service. Introduced by Solo-
mon, it had to be abandoned by the
immediate successors of that ruler. Both horses
and chariots, however, were employed during and
after the Syrian wars. According to the report of
Shalmaneser II. of Assyria, who fought against him
in 854 n. c. , Ahab had 2,000 chariots; and the decline
of the military power of northern Israel was marked
by the reduction to which the successors of the latter
had to submit (II Kings vii. 13, xiii. 7). Thus,
Hezekiah of Judah was ridiculed by an Assyrian
legate because of his lack of war-horses and riders
(II Kings xviii. 23). All branches of the service
were most fully developed in the military era of
Jeroboam II. and Uzziali (Azariah). It is certain
that the permanent maintenance of a large cavalry
force was made difficult for Israel by reason of the
rugged nature of the ground. Moreover, the Proph-
ets opposed cavalry as a foreign innovation, and
as tending to encourage relations with Egypt, the
country from which most of the war-horses were
furnished (Isa. xxxi. 1); and the service was further
condemned as fostering a reliance upon mere human
force (compare Ps. xx. 7, xxxiii. 7, cxlvii. 10).

Bibi.iography : Apart from the data furnished by the Bible it-
self, some casual information is given in Josephus (Ant.).
The inscriptional accounts of Assyrian wars in Syria and Pal-
estine afford a few details. For the army operations of
antiquity in the Orient, the Egyptian and the Assyrian monu-
mental sculptures — especially the latter — are of high value.
Special treatises are: Gleichgross, De Re Militari Hebrce-
orum , 11)90: Zachariae, under the same title, 1735, and the
articles in the Bible dictionaries, among the best of which is
that of Bennett in the Encyc. Biblica. See also Spitzer,
Dns Heer- und Wehr-Oesetz der Alten IsraeJiten, 2d ed.,
1879; Nowacb, Hebrilische Archdnhigie, i. 359 et seq.; F.
Schwallv, Scmitische Kriegsatterthttmer, vol. i., Leipsic,
1901.

j. JR. J. F. McC.

one capable of bearing arms. Such a militia, nat-
urally, provided its own supplies (compare I Sam.
xvii. 17), and received no pay.

The decisive advance made by David consisted in
liis having at the capital, and indeed as an append-

Ancient and Medieval : Of peaceful disposi-
tion, the Jews at all times have shown bravery in war.
As the terms for virtue among the Greeks and Ro-
mans, apery and virtus respectively, are derived from
military prowess, so the nobleman among the He-

123

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Army-

brews is called “isli hayil” (the man of [military]
strength; warrior). Abraham, the prototype of
the nation, while guided by the words, “ Let there
be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, . . .
for we are brethren ” (Gen. xiii. 8, R. V.), goes
courageously to war against the four mighty kings
to rescue his nephew, and refuses to take a portion
of the spoils after having liberated the land of
Sodom (Gen. xiv. 14-23). It fell to
Spirit Esau’s, not to Jacob’s, lot to “ live by
of Bravery, the sword” (Gen. xxvii. 40); yet no
sooner did Simeon and Levi, the sons
of Jacob, learn of the villainy (not “folly,” as in A.
Y. and R. V.) which Shechcm, the sou of Hamor,
had wrought with regard to their sister Dinah, than

Persian Foot-Soldiers.

(After Coste and Flandin, “ La Perse Aucienne.”)

they “ took each man his sword, and came upon the
city boldly, and slew all the males” (Gen. xxxiv.).
The Mosaic laws on warfare, which insist that peace
should be offered to a city before it be besieged
(Dent. xx. 10), are framed on the presumption that
faint-heartedness is rare among the people; since the
officers are enjoined to issue before the battle the
proclamation: “What man is there that is fearful
and faint-hearted? let him go and return unto his
house lest his brethren’s heart faint as well as his
heart” (Deut. xx. 8; compare Josephus, “Ant.” iv.
8, §41 ; Sotah viii. 1). Indeed, the Song of Deborah
echoes the spirit of heroic warfare, while it upbraids
the tribes and clans that abode by the sheepfolds
and would not come to the help of the Lord against
the mighty (Judges v. 8 etseq., 16, 23). Thus the
battle of Gideon (ib. vii.) was a battle of heroes. So
do the feats of Saul (I Sam. xi. 7-11), of Jonathan
{ib. xiv. 13-45; compare II Sam. i. 22), of David
(I Sam. xvii., xviii. 7) and his men (II Sam. xxiii.),
and the warlike psalms (Ps. xx., xl viii. , lxviii., cx.,
cxlix.) testify to the value laid on prowess by the
Hebrew nation. The religious enthusiasm of the
Hasmoneans lent to their patriotism in war still
greater intensity, and made of the people a race
of heroes (I Macc. iii. 21, iv. 8 et seq., v. 31 et seq.,
vi. 42).

Under the Hasmonean dynasty' a regular Army

was formed (I Macc. xiv. 32), the soldiers receiving
payment. Jews served as mercenaries in the Syrian
Army also (I Macc. x. 36). Hyrcanus I. was the
earliest to maintain foreign mercenaries (Josephus,
“Ant.” xiii. 8, § 4); Alexander Jannseus did like-
wise (Josephus, “B. J.” i. 4, § 3).

One of the chief obstacles in Jewish warfare at
the beginning of the Hasmonean uprising was that
the Jews were prevented from carrying arms on
the Sabbath. This exposed them to the peril of
being attacked without being able to defend them-
selves (see I Macc. ii. 38; Josephus, “ B. J.” i. 7, § 3;
ii. 16, § 4; idem, “Ant.” xviii. 9, § 2); but it was
decided that in defense, and in sieges as well, when
the warriors were regarded as carrying out special
divine ordinances, fighting on the Sabbath day was
permitted (I Macc. ii. 41; Sifre, Deut. 204; Slmb.
19a). Whether arms may be carried on the Sabbath
as an ornament of the warrior, or not, is a matter of
dispute between Eliezer — who stands on the affirma-
tive side — and the other tannaim,
Fighting who see in weapons of war a neces-
on sary evil that the Messianic time, the
Sabbath, world's great Sabbath, will do away
with (Shah. vi. 4). “Nor did our
forefathers,” says Josephus (“Contra Ap.” i. 12),
“betake themselves, as did some others, to robbery;
nor did they, in order to gain more wealth, fall into
foreign wars, although our country contained many
ten thousands of men of courage sufficient for that
purpose.” Of the heroic valor displayed by the
Jews at the siege of Jerusalem, the last three books
of Josephus on the wars of the Jews, and the Mid-
rashim, give ample testimony. It filled Titus and
his soldiers with admiration. And yet, despite the
terrible losses and cruel tortures inflicted upon the
nation by the victor, the war spirit did not die out
in the Jewish people. Bar Kokba’s Army, which
tradition places at 200,000 men, performed wonders
of heroism (Git. 57a; Lam. R. ii. 2; Yer. Ta’auit, iv.
69a; Pesik. R. 29, 30 [ed. Friedmann, p. 1396e<sey.]).

The story of Anii.ai (Hanilai) and Asinai (Hasi-
nai), the Jewish robber generals, whose Army filled
the lands of Babylonia and Parthia with fear, forms
a strange chapter in the history of the Jews of the
East (see Josephus, “Ant,” xviii. 9, §§1-9).

But not only in their own country did the Jews
prove to be brave soldiers. Josephus (“ Ant.” xi. 8,
§ 5) records that many Jews enlisted of their own
accord in the Army of Alexander the Great, and that
Ptolemy I., recognizing their bravery and loyalty,
took many Jews and distributed them into garrisons
{ib. xii. 1). Ptolemy Philometor and his wife Cleo-
patra committed their whole kingdom to Onias and
Dositheus, the two Jewish generals of the whole
Army, whose bravery and loyalty were the safe-
guards of the queen in times of great
Classical peril (Josephus, “Contra Ap.” ii. 5).

Times. Helkias and Ananias, two Jewish gen-
erals of Cleopatra, saved her throne
from the onslaughts of her own son, Ptolemy Lathy -
rus {idem, “Ant.” xiii. 13, § 1).

Seleucus Nicator and Antiochus, his grandson,
kings of Syria, received aid from the Jews in their
wars, and in recognition endowed them with many
privileges of citizenship {ib. xii. 3, §§ 1-3). The

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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

124

Jews aided the Romans, also, in their wars. Espe-
cially did Julius Caesar speak in terms of high praise
of the valor displayed by the fifteen hundred Jewish
soldiers engaged in his wars against Egypt and
against Mitliridates of Pergamus; and in recognition
of their services he conferred especial favors on
Hyrcanus, the high priest, and on the Jewish people
(ib. xiv. 8-10). Mark Antony received assistance
from Jewish soldiers, Herod having formed an Army
of five Jewish and five Roman cohorts {ib. xiv. 15,
§ 3). On the other hand, Mark Antony, at the request
of Hyrcanus, exempted the Jews from service in the
armies because they were not allowed to carry arms
or to travel on the Sabbath (ib. xiv. 10, §§ 12, 13).

It was reserved for the Christian emperor Honorius
to issue (418) a decree — renewed by Theodosius, by
Clotaire II., and by the Byzantine emperors — forbid-
ding Jews and Samaritans to enlist in the Roman
army (Codex Tlieodosianus, xvi. t. 8, 16), probably
in view of their Sabbath observance, asDolim (“Die
Biirgerliclie Yerbesserung der Juden,” i. 151) sug-
gested ; but, as he contended (ib. p. 154), this does not
afford sufficient reason (see also “ Protocolle der Drit-
ten Rabbiner-Versammlung zu Breslau,” 1846, p.
196; “ Juden-Emancipation,” in Ersch and Gruber,
“Encyklopadie,” p. 297, note 49).

Of the military spirit of the Jews of Babylonia
the following fact bears testimony: Twelve thou-
sand Jews had fought in defense of
Babylonia. Caesarea Mazaca against Sapor I., only
to be defeated and massacred; and
when the news reached Samuel, the great teacher of
Nehardea and friend of the new dynasty, he would
not show signs of mourning, as his patriotic feel-
ing was stronger than his love for his coreligionists
(M.K. 26«).

Of the warlike spirit of the Jews in Arabia, the
story of Dhu-Nowas and the chivalry of Samau’al
ibn Adiya are by themselves sufficient testimony.
When Mohammed came to Medina he found the
whole country full of Jews ready to resist him with
arms in hand, and he was anxious to make them his
allies. They refused. But though they were noted
for being brave and sturdy fighters, they lacked
strategic skill and organization. First the Banu
Kainuka were surrounded, captured, and allowed
to leave the country for the Holy Land ; then the
Banu Nadhir, part of whom were massacred, the
rest emigrating also to Palestine; lastly

Arabia. the Jews of Khaibar, after having
fought like lions, surrendered and
emigrated to Babylonia (628). “ The sword which

the Hasmoneans had wielded in defense of their re-
ligion, and which was in turn used by the Zealots
and the Arabian Jews [in the cause of freedom], was
wrung from the hands of the last Jewish heroes of
Khaibar” (Graetz, “History of the Jews,” iii. 83).
Benjamin of Tudela (twelfth century) found an in-
dependent Jewish warrior tribe living in the high-
lands of Khorasan near Nisapur, numbering many
thousand families, regarding themselves as descend-
ants of Dan, Zebulun, Asher, and Naphtali, under
a Jewish prince of the name of Joseph Amarkala
ha-Levi (Benjamin of Tudela, ed. Asher, pp. 83
et seq.). Another independent Jewish tribe bent
upon warlike expeditions is mentioned by Benjamin

as living in the district of Tehama in Yemen (ib.
p. 70).

When the city of Naples was besieged in 536 by
Belisarius, the general of the emperor Justinian, the
Jews, besides supplying the city with all necessaries
during the siege, fought so bravely in defense; of
the part of the city nearest the sea,
In that the enemy did not venture to at-
Southern tack that quarter; and when Belisa-
Europe. rius at last forced his entrance, they
still offered heroic resistance, accord-
ing to the contemporary testimony of Procopius (“ De
Bello Gothicorum,” i. 9; Graetz, “History of the
Jews,” iii. 31 et seq. ; Gudemann, “Gescli. des Erzie-
hungswesen der Juden in Italien,” p. 2). When
Arles was besieged by the generals of Theodoric
(508), the Jews, loyal and grateful to Clovis, their
king, took an active part in the defense of the city
(Griitz, “Gescli. der Juden,” v. 56; Eng. transl.,
iii. 36).

Jewish soldiers assisted Childeric in his war against
Wamba. The Moors are said to have entrusted to
Jews the guardianship of the conquered cities of
Spain. Under King Alfonso VI of Castile, in 1068,
40,000 Jews fought against A'usuf ibn
In Spain. Teshufin in the battie of Zalaka, with
such heroism that the battle-field was
covered with their bodies. Under Alfonso VIII.
(1166-1214) there were many warriors among the
wealthy and cultured Jews of Toledo that fought
bravely against the Moors (Graetz, “History of the
Jews,” iii. 386; German ed., vi. 229). Alfonso X.,
called “the Wise,” while infante, had many Jews in
his army ; and in the capture of Seville (1298) the
Jewish warriors distinguished themselves so highly
that, in compensation for their services, Alfonso
allotted to them certain lands for the formation of a
Jewish village. He also transferred to them three
mosques which they turned into synagogues. The
cruel fanaticism of the Moors had alienated the
Jews, who were now won over to the Christians by
the tolerant rule of the latter (Graetz, ib. iii. 592 ; Ger-
man ed., vii. 136). Jews fought bravely at the side
of Pedro the Cruel in defense of the cities of Toledo,
Briviesca, and Burgos, against Henry de Trasthmara,
his brother, and had to pay for their loyalty to their
king either with their lives and the lives of their
undefended wives and children, or, as the Jews of
Burgos had to do, with a heavy ransom to the re-
lentless victor (Graetz, ib. iv. 123 et seq. ; German ed.,
vii. 424).

According to Brisch (“Gescli. der Juden in Coin,”
i. 77), the Jews of Cologne carried arms. They
were enjoined to take active part in the military
service and to defend the city in case of war (“Coi-
ner Gescliichtsquellen,” ii. 256, 311); the rabbis on
the Rhine permitted the Jews to do so in case of
siege. When excommunicated by Pope Gregory
VII., Henry IV. was deserted by princes and priests
states and cities, but the Jews of Worms in com-
mon with their Christian fellow citizens stood by
him and defended him with arms in hand. The em-
peror showed his recognition in the shape of decrees
releasing them from paying toll in Frankfort-on-the-
Main, Dortmund, Nuremberg, and other centers of
commerce (Gratz, “ Gescli. der Juden,” vi. 88). Jews

125

TIII<: JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Army

defended the city of Prague against the Swedes in
the Thirty Years’ War (Griitz, ib. x. 50; English ed.,
iv. 707); and in 1686, as loyal subjects of Turkey,
they defended the city of Ofen against

Germany the victorious armies of Austria (Gratz,
and ib. x. 286). Under Boleslav II., in the

Austria, tenth century, the Jews fought side
by side with their Bohemian fellow-
citizens against the pagan Slavs (see Low, in “Ben
Chananja,” 1866, p. 348). The Jews of Worms and
of Prague were practised in hearing arms. On the
other hand, the Jews of Angevin England were pro-
hibited from possessing arms by the Assize of Arms,
1181 (Jacobs, “Jews of Angevin England,” p. 75).

Under Ferdinand II. and Maria Theresa, Jews
served in the Austrian Army (Wolf, in “ Ben Cha-
nanja,” 1862, p. 61). In 1742-43 Kabbi Jonathan
Eibenschiitz, in common with other rabbis of Prague,
allowed the Jews to fight in defense of the fortifica-
tions of the city of Prague against the attacks of the
French Army, he himself standing among them to
cheer and encourage them. This is stated in a
memorandum of the Austrian Jews, dated 1790,
where many rabbinical arguments are given in favor
of performing military service on the Sabbath in be-
half of their country (Wolf, ib. 1862, pp. 62 et seq.).

Dohm (“ Burgerlichc Verbesserung tier Juden,” ii.
239) relates that in the naval battle between the
British and the Dutch, Aug. 15, 1781, a Dutch Jew
fought with such heroism that many other Jews
were induced to follow his example and join the
navy; and the chief rabbi of Amsterdam not only
gave them his permission and his blessing, but ex-
cused them from the observance of the Sabbath and
the dietary laws as far as their military duties would
interfere with it. Jewish soldiers in the Dutch navy
excelled in courage and zeal in the conquest of
Brazil (Kohut, in Simon Wolf’s “The American Jew
as Patriot, Soldier, and Citizen,” p. 443; Graetz,
“History of the Jews,” iv. 693). Jews, encouraged
by their rabbi, Isaac Aboab, defended the fort of
Recife, near Pernambuco, against the Portuguese
with such remarkable skill and heroism as to evoke
the praise and gratitude of the government; for,
without their dauntless resistance, the garrison would
have been compelled to surrender (Graetz, l.c. pp.
693, 694). When the French fleet, under Admiral
Cassard, made a sudden attack on the Jewish colony
of Surinam in 1689, it was met with brave resist-
ance; and, despite the fact that it was a Sabbath day,
the Jews fought valiantly for their colony (Kohut,
l.c. p. 460). Of this bravery they gave proof a sec-
ond time, in 1712, when Cassard again attacked Su-
rinam, on which occasion one of the Pintos defended
the fort single-handed, until, overwhelmed by su-
perior force, he was compelled to surrender (Kohut,
l.c. pp. 454-61). Especially did David Nasi distin-
guish himself by his heroic valor and skilful general-
ship. He died in 1743 on the battle-field, in his
thirty-first campaign against the Maroons (Kohut,
l.c. p. 466).

The Jews of Poland were, like their fellow citi-
zens, enjoined to do military service. In Lithuania
and the Ukraine they fought alongside their Chris-
tian brethren. In the rebellion of the Cossacks
(1648-1653) the Jews fought with the noblemen

against the rebels. Among those that fell at Ostrog
and Zaslav, under Marshal Firley, there were many
hundreds of Jewish soldiers. John III. Sobieski, by
a decree of 1679, exempted the Jews from military
service; nevertheless, they fought in times of peril
for their country. When, in 1794, the
Poland. population of Warsaw rose in arms,
Jew's were among them ; and a whole
Jewish regiment fought under Colonel Berko near
Praga against Suwarow (Sternberg, “Gesch. der
Juden in Polen,” pp. 54, 55; Ph. Bloch, in “Oester-
reichische Wochenschrift,” 1900, p. 280 (see Russian
Army, below).

g. K.

Modern : There is no record of Jews serving in

the mercenary forces employed by the Continental
monarchs after the decay of the feudal system and
before the introduction of national armies and navies
after the French Revolution. But they liavealways
been found among their countrymen when the patri-
otic spirit has been roused. The record of the I hitch
Jews in the colonial forces continues a high one to
the present day. In the Alt-Neu-Sehulc, theancient
synagogue of Prague, hangs a banner said to have
been presented by Emperor Ferdinand III. to the Bo-
hemian Jews for their gallant share in the defense of
Prague against the Swedes in 1648, notably that of a
special company formed to extinguish fires caused
by the enemy’s artillery.

In Europe, prior to the Napoleonic campaigns,
Jews were often in evidence in military affairs as
Army contractors. Joseph Cortissos (1656-1742), to
whom Marlborough owed much of his success, is per-
haps the most prominent of these. TheJewsof Hol-
land, of Britain, and, later on, of America, did good
service in the armies and navies of the free countries
during the eighteenth century. An English officer.
Aaron Hart, born in London in 1724, was among the
first British settlers in ( anada. Isaac Myers, of New
York, organized a company of “ bateau-men ” during
the French and Indian war in 1754.

American Jews most readily took up arms in the
Revolutionary war. Forty-six names are known.

twenty-four of them being those of of-
American ficers. prominent among whom is Col.

Jews in Isaac Franks. Col. David Salisbury
theRevolu- Franks, who wasof English birth, was
tionary prominent in resistance to the British.

War. At that time there were scarcely 3,000
Jews in all North America. In the
War of 1812, 44 Jews took part, from Brig.-Gen. Jo-
seph Bloomfield and 8 other officers, down to Private
Judah Touro; in the Mexican war of 1846, 60 Jews
served, 12 of them officers, among whom was David
de Leon (afterward surgeon -general of the Confeder-
ate armies), who twice received the thanks of Con-
gress. Over 100 Jews have served in the small
regular Army of the United States (including Major
Alfred Mordecai. attache during the Crimean war,
and the author of works on ordnance and explosives ;
and Col. Alfred Mordecai, Jr., recently chief of the
National Armory, Springfield, Mass.). Three naval
officers have been particularly distinguished ; namely,
Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy (died 1862), who se-
cured the abolition of corporal punishment and rose
to the highest rank in his day; Capt. Levi Myers

Army

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

126

Harby (died 1870); and Commander Adolf Manx at a
recent date.

But it was the great Civil war that gave to the
Jews of the United States their greatest opportunity
of proving their military ardor and capacity. Then
patriotism and gallantry shone out most brilliantly.
Fourteen families alone contributed 53 men to the
ranks; and 7 men have been traced
Jews in the who received from President Lincoln
Civil War. ‘‘medals of honor” for conspicuous
gallantry. Simon Wolf gives a list of
Jews serving on the Union and the Confederate sides,
which exhibits 40 staff officers (including a commis-
sioned hospital chaplain, the Rev. Jacob Frankel),
11 naval officers, and a total of 7,878 of other ranks,
out of a Jewish population of less than 150,000 souls.
Among these were at least 9 generals (Brevet Maj.-
Gen. Frederick Ivnefler of Indianapolis being the
highest in rank), 18 colonels, 8 lieutenant-colonels,
40 majors, 205 captains, 325 lieutenants, 48 adjutants,
etc., and 25 surgeons.

In the recent war with Spain (1898) American Jews
were equally active. It has been asserted that the
first volunteer to enroll and the first to fall were
alike Jews. It is certain that Jews served in both
the navy and the Army to an extent far beyond their
due numerical proportion, and thattliey
Jews in the behaved with zeal and valor. Thenum-

Spanish- hers of officers engaged wereas follows :
American Army 32; navy 27; non-commissioned
War. officers and men — Army 2.451; navy
42. These figures are based upon the
preliminary lists given in the “American Jewish
Year-Book ” for 1900-1.

Before the armies of their native lands were open
to them, adventurous Jews not seldom became sol-
diers of fortune. Such was Perez Lacliman (better
known as General Loustannan), who held high com-
mand in the Mahratta army. Dr. Joseph Wolff, the
missionary, when visiting central Asia and northern
India in 1829, found a number of Jews of leading
military rank in the armies of native princes.

But it was especially through the forces of the
French republic, consulate, and empire that the
Jews became active as soldiers or sailors. It has been
alleged, but on nebulous grounds, that the great mar-
shals, Koult and Massena, were tliem-
Jews Serve selves Jews. Be this as it may, there
Under were 797 men serving in 1808 out of
Napoleon. 77,000 French Jews; and many a Po-
lish community for the first time be-
held a foreign Israelite in the person of some soldier
of Napoleon. Two decorated Jewish soldiers, Jean
Louis May and Simon Mayer, sat in the Sanhedrin
of 1806. A Jewish officer, Lazarus Mayer Marx, was
appointed to the marine artillery in 1810. A Jew-
ish regiment under one Berko was among Koscius-
ko’s forces in the Polish revolt. Berko became a
colonel in the French Army, and died during the
campaign of 1811. Many Jews were also in the na-
tional armies assembled against Napoleon. Joshua
Montefiore (1752-1843), uncle of the late Sir Moses
Montefiore, served in the British Army, and, as an
officer of the East Yorkshire Regiment, was pres-
ent in 1809 at the capture of Martinique and Gua-
deloupe. The duke of AVellington is reported to

have said, in 1833, that not less than fifteen Jewish
officers had served under him at Waterloo. Among
these Avas Cornet Albert Goldsmid (1794-1861), who
afterward rose to the rank of major-
Jews general in the British service. He
Under Well- had been preceded in the rank of gen-
ington. eral by Sir Jacob Adolphus, M.D.

(1770), inspector-general of hospitals;
Sir Alexander Schomberg, Royal Navy (1716-1804);
Lieut. -Gen. Sir David Ximenes (died 1848); and has
been followed by Lieut. -Gen. Sir George d’ Aguilar,
K.C.B., and Maj.-Gen. George Salis-Schwabe, not
to mention a singularly large number of gallant gen-
tlemen of less immediate Jewish origin.

The names are known of 125 Jewish soldiers of
the Prussian Army who served in the campaigns of
1813-15, 20 of them officers, one a drum-major.
Sixteen of these received the Iron Cross for valor.
Altogether 343 Jews served in the Prussian Army at
that time, of whom only 80 were conscripts and no
less than 263 volunteers. At the conclusion of the
war there were 731 Prussian Jews serving. Among
these may be mentioned Lehmann Cohn, a sergeant
of the Second Cuirassiers, who earned the Iron Cross
at Leipsic, and fought in La Haye Sainte at Water-
loo. One of his sons fought as a captain in Italy
in the fateful year 1848; and another, still living
in London, earned his medal under the walls of
Delhi in 1857. Mention must also be made of that
remarkable woman, Louise Grafemus (really Esther
Manuel), who, in search of her husband who was in
the Russian Army, disguised herself and served in
the Second Konigsberg Uhlans, was wounded twice,
and rose to be sergeant-major, and received from
Billow the Iron Cross. She found her husband in
1814 under the walls of Paris, only to
A Jewess see him fall in action the next day,
Sergeant- when grief betrayed her sex. She
Major. was then thirty years of age, and was
sent back to Hanau, her home, with
great honor (“ Die Juden als Soldaten,” p. 4).

Jews served in the Austrian Army from the year
1781. Emmanuel Eppinger became an officer in 1811,
and earned decorations from two monarclis. In 1809
Yon Honigsberg was made lieutenant on the battle-
field of Asperu, and several sons of Herz Homberg,
the Bible commentator, were officers (see Werthei-
mer, “Jahrbucli,” i. 16, ii. 187 and 237). The Dutch
Jews behaved particularly well in 1813-15. They
had been recognized as brothers-in-arms since 1793.

In considering the naval and military services of
European Jews after the Napoleonic campaigns, it
must be remembered that Jews have not been treated
more indulgently than their Gentile neighbors in the
matter of military duty where universal service is
the rule, especially where, as in Russia, and particu-
larly Rumania, they are still exposed to civil disa-
bilities. In Russia, indeed, 38 per cent of the Jews
liable to serve in the Army are called out, as against
30 per cent of the general population; but this is
due to the retention on the books of the names of
absentees and possibly of deceased persons also,
whenever these happen to be Jews. In this way it
is made to appear that an overwhelming proportion
of Jews seek to escape their military duties; but the
experience of every other country would suffice to

127

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Army

expose the inaccuracy of this proposition. A quar-
ter of a million Jews are on the books of the active
and reserve forces of the Russian empire, 75,000 of
whom serve on the peace strength.

Turning to Germany, where service in the Army
is equally compulsory on all Jewish as on other
German citizens, it is interesting to find that mem-
bers of 1,101 congregations, to the number of 4,703,
have been traced by name who served

Jews in against France in the campaigns of

Modern 1870-71. Of these German Jews 483
European were killed and wounded, and no less
Armies and than 411 were decorated for conspicu-

Navies. ous gallantry. Owing to the privilege
enjoyed by the officers of German reg-
iments of reserving commands to their own social
class, there are no Jewish officers in the active Ger-
man Army, with the exception of the Bavarian con-
tingent, and none in the navy.

In Austria-Hungary matters are different. As
early as 1855 there were 157 Jewish officers, many in
t lie medical corps. In 1893 Austria-Hungary had
40,344 of her Jewish citizens enrolled in all branches
of her Army and 325 in her navy. Besides these
there were as many as 2,179 Jewish military, and 2
naval, active officers, exclusive of those in the reserve
contingents. These numbers were considerably above

8 per cent of the total Jewish population.

In France, again, 10 Jews have reached the rank
of general officer. In the beginning of 1895 there
were serving also in the active Army 9 colonels,

9 lieutenant-colonels, 46 majors, 90 captains, 89 lieu-
tenants, and 104 sublieutenants of Jewish birth.
The Jewish officers of the reserve in 1883 numbered
820. These contingents are largely in excess of the
mere proportional representation for which the Jew-
ish population of France would call.

The Italian Jews, comparatively few in number,
have a particularly brilliant military reputation.
Two hundred and thirty -five Jews volunteered for
the Piedmontese Army in 1848. In the one Tuscan
battalion, which bore off the honors at Curtatone
and Montanaro, no less than 45 Jews,
High. from Pisa and Leghorn, were serving
Reputation at the time. In the Crimean war
of Italian Sardinian as well as French, British,
Jews. and Russian Jews took part. Fully
260 Jewish volunteers came forward
in 1859, and 127 of them followed Garibaldi at Na-
ples in 1860. Among the renowned “ Thousand of
Marsala,” too, there were 11 Jews. In 1866, when
there were but 36,000 Jews in all Italy, 380 volun-
teered for act ive service. In the Royal Italian Army
that marched into Rome in 1870, there were 256
Jews. General Ottolenghi has reached high com-
mand, and is decorated with several orders for dis-
tinguished service. Other Jewish officers of lower
rank in 1894 numbered 204 in the active Army, and
457 in the various reserve forces; that is to say,
about seventeen times the proportional quota of Ital-
ian Jewry.

Among the smaller states, the Jewish soldiers of
Bulgaria, and even those of Rumania, have behaved
with singular gallantry. Forty Jewish volunteers
received medals from the sultan of Turkey after the
recent Greek war.

There remain only the British Army and navy to
be spoken of. Service in these is a superlative test
of Jewish patriotism and aptitude for military duty,
since such service is absolutely voluntary, and in-
cludes the tedium of tropical garrison duty far
oftener than the excitement of war. Some families
of less immediate Jewish descent, such as the Barrows
and Ricardos, contribute many officers of distinction.
But reckoning only gentlemen of Jewish birth, there
were in Jan., 1902, 12 naval and marine officers,
39 officers of the regular Army (including Col. Al-
bert E. W. Goldsmid, late assistant adjutant-general ;
Lieut. -Col. J. J. Leverson, C. M. G., the diplomat;
and Major F. L. Nathan, superintendent of the
Royal Explosives Factory), 17 officers of British
militia, and 86 officers of British volunteers. Add-
ing colonial Jewish officers of militia
Jews in the and volunteers, Canada provided 2,
British Fiji 2, Jamaica 2, Australia 27, New
Army and Zealand 8, South Africa 43, and India
Navy. 1, making a total of 239 Jewish offi-
cers in the British forces. The colo-
nial Jews have done particularly good service, Capt.
Joshua Norden (1847), of Natal, being tin; first Jew
to fall in South Africa, where Col. David Harris
in 1896 concluded a stiff little campaign near Kim-
berley. Official returns exist of the religion of the
non-commissioned officers and rank and file of the
British regular Army and militia ; but these are noto-
riously unreliable. The recruits on and after enlist-
ment incline to regard their religious denomination
as a private and personal matter, and therefore ex-
hibit a preference for the all-embracing “Church of
England,” to which three of every four private sol-
diers elect to belong. Exclusive of officers, there
were on Jan. 1, 1899, 82 Jews reported in the
ranks of the Army and 46 in the militia; but the
progress of the South African campaign led to the
identification of many more Jewish sailors and sol-
diers, of whom over 2,000 have taken part, with
distinct credit to their race, in the Transvaal war.
There were serving in Jan., 1902, not less than the
following numbers of British Jews, every one, it
must be repeated, enrolled of his own free will and
accord: Royal navy and marines, 120; regular Army,
550; British militia, 180; British yeomanry and vol-
unteers, 800; and colonial militia and volunteers,
500, a goodly proportion of the Jews in the British
empire. For there are also Jews in India, the Beni
Israel, who for over a century have contributed
gallant and faithful soldiers to the Sepoy infantry.
In 1869, from that small community there were serv-
ing in the Bombay Army 36 native officers and 231
soldiers. With the introduction of “ class regiments ”
formed entirely of men of the chief warlike races of
India, the military career of the Beni Israel became
restricted, until they entered the hospital corps and
armed police of that great Eastern dependency.

Bearing in mind the universal liability to military
service in Continental states, and comparing the Jew-
ish with the Gentile population of each country, it
may be calculated that there are now serving on the
active peace strength of the undermentioned regular
armies and navies of Europe the following numbers
of Jewish citizens : Russia, 75,000; Austria-Hungary,
11,700; Germany, 6,400; France, 1,400; Italy, 850;

Army

Arnhem

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

128

Rumania, 750 ; Great Britain and Ireland, 650; other
states, 1,350 ; making a total of 98,000 European Jews
who may be termed for the time being professional
soldiers and sailors. But including the Jews who
would be called out to bring up to war strength the
various auxiliary and reserve forces of European
countries, it would be found that their nine millions
of Jewish subjects would place under arms some
350,000 soldiers of well-proved military quality.
See Russian Army.

Bibliography : For America : Simon Wolf, The American
Jew as Patriot, Soldier, and Citizen, Philadelphia, 1895;
American Jewish Year-Book, 1900-1, pp. 525-02:1; and pub-
lications of the American Jewish Historical Society. For Con-
tinental Europe : P. Nathan, Die Juden als Soldaten (pub. by
the Gesellschaftzur Abwehr Antisemitischer Angriife), Berlin,
1896 ; Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, 1888, p. 680,
reprint from Pesther Lloyd ; Mittcilungen am dem Verein
zur Abwehr des Antisemitisimis, 1899, p. 232 ; Jewish Year-
Book, 19111, pp. 19.5-212; 1902, pp. 205-210; 1903; M. Bloch,
hes Vertm Militaircs des Juifs, in Actes et Conferences,
Rev. Et. Juices, xxxiv. : J. Loeb, Reflexions sur les Juifs,
in Rev. Et. Juives, xxxix. 15-17.

G. F. L. C.

Jews served in the armies of the Cliazars and in
the Jewish dukedom of Taman as early as the ninth
and tenth centuries (Chwolson, “Ibn
Russian. Dust,” p. 17 ; Mordtmanri, “ Isztaclni,”
p. 103). Records are extant concern-
ing two Jewish envoys, Saul and Joseph, who
served the Slavonian czar about 960 (A. Harkavy,
“Juden und Slavisclie Sprachen,” pp. 143-153);
concerning Anbal the Jassin, who, in 1175, served
under Prince Bogolyubski of Kiev (“ Polnoe So-
branie Russkikh Lyetopisei,” ii. and v.); and con-
cerning Zachariali Guil-Gursis (probably Guizolfi),
prince of Taman, who in 1487 offered Czar Ivan
Vasilyevich of Moscow “to come to him and to
serve him with his whole household, or first alone,
with only a few of his men,” which offer was ac-
cepted by the czar in a letter, dated March 18, 1488;
but for certain reasons he did not go to Russia
(“Sbornik Imperatorskavo Russk. Istor. Obshchest-
va,” xxxv. 41, 42, 43). In the responsa of Rabbi
Meir of Lublin (Venice, 1638), p. 1035, mention
is made of Berachaii, “the Hero, ” who was killed
in the Polish war against Russia, near Moscow,
in 1610. From a document discovered in 1900 at
the Archives of the St. Petersburg Archeological
Institute it is evident that among the “Children of
Boyars” who enlisted in the Russian military serv-
ice in 1680 two were Lithuanian Jews, Samoilo
Abramov Vistizki and his son Juri (Goldstein, in
“ Voskhod,” 1900, No. 30). The warlike Jews of the
Caucasus also deserve mention.

When the old kingdom of Poland came under
Russian rule, Jews were not admitted into actual
service in the Russian Army, but instead had to pay
a special military tax.

By an edict of Emperor Nicholas I., issued Aug.
26, 1827, the Jews were ordered to perform actual
military service on the basis of a special and very
Severe statute. According to the regulations of this
statute, the authorities were permitted to take re-
cruits from Jews at the ages of 12 to 25 (see Canton -
ists), and “supernumerary” recruits (bezzachotnye)
even up to the age of 35. The practical application
of these regulations gave rise to direful abuses and
corruption The Jews were subjected to heavier

duties in performing military service than the rest
of the population, being compelled to furnish 10 re-
cruits per 1,000 inhabitants every year, while non-
Jews were to furnish 7 per 1,000 every alternate
year (Mysli, “ Rukovodstvo k. Ruskkim Zakouam
o Yevreyakh,” p. 411). For arrears in taxes Jews
had to furnish one additional recruit for every 2,000
rubles. The Karaites, who applied to the czar in
1828, were exempt from military service (“Vosk-
hod,” 1896, vii. 2).

In 1853 temporary regulations were issued, per-
mitting Jewish communities and private individuals
to present substitutes from among those of their
coreligionists that had been detected without pass-
ports. Great atrocities and corruption resulted
from these regulations, which were abolished by the
emperor-reformer, Alexander II., who, on Sept. 10,
1856 (Complete Russian Code, 2d ed., V. xxxi., No.
30,888), ordered that henceforth recruits from Jews
should be taken on the general basis; thus prohibit-
ing the recruitment of minors and of “ supernumer-
aries” (see Poimanniki).

The following table, derived from official sources,
will show the number of recruits enlisted, and also
that of the alleged arrears:

Year.

Jews Enlisted.

Deficiency.

1876

6,427

2,455

1377

5,183

4,351

1873

6,503

2,630

1879

7,983

2,281

1880

9,268

3,054

1881

8,084

1,702

1882

6,910

2,527

1884

7,774

2,559

1885

8,727

2,340

1886

12,070

746

1887

12,263

407

1888

13,141

572

1889

14,552

378

1890

14,755

437

1891

15,837

860

1893

15,438

1,053

1893

15,306

3,084

1894

14,171

1,263

1895

14,188

1,238

1896

15,831

1,583

1897

15,934

1,468

Total

240,345

36,993

In the law of Jan. 13, 1874, enacting universal
military service, no special regulations concerning
the Jews are mentioned. Various exceptional rules
as to their duties in the military service were formu-
lated later, and are contained in the laws of Feb.
15, 1876; Jan. 9, 1877; May 9, 1878; April 12. 1886,
etc. By the law of May 9, 1878, the Jews who had
enjoyed the privilege of the first grade — that is, in
being exempt from service on account of certain
family conditions — wrere deprived of their privileges
in case of deficiency of Jewish recruits in the other
grades. By the law of 1886 the family of a Jew
who evaded military service was lined 300 rubles.
For the detection of such a refractory conscript a
premium of 50 rubles was offered. Since the en-
actment of 1874 great prejudice was manifested by
Russian Gentiles against the Jews as soldiers, espe-
cially as regards the arrears in Jewish recruits; but
official reports show that from 1876 to 1897, 240,345
Jews were taken into the Russian Army, and the
number of uncomplying conscripts did not exceed

129

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Army

Arnhem

36,993 for the twenty-one years. It has been proven,
however, that a larger proportion of Jewish recruits
were enlisted, compared with the general popula-
tion, the apparent discrepancy being accounted for
by the irregular registration of deaths in the death
registers, and also by the large emigration of Jews
from Russia.

In addition to the statistics furnished in the fore-
going table, Jewish recruits to the number of 8 were
enlisted in 1874 and 1875. The fact must be taken
into account that service in the Russian Army en-
tails more hardships upon the Jews than upon non-
Jews, for the following reasons: (a) In military
service the Jews are often prevented from observing
the laws of their religion, as, for instance, concern-
ing kosher food; (b) the relation between Jewish
and Christian soldiers is not very pleasant, and the
treatment of the Jews in the Army is most unsatis-
factory ; (c) the military service does not give any
privileges to the Jewish soldier, who is compelled
to leave the place of service for the pale of Jewish
settlement immediately after the completion of his
term of service. “Under such circumstances,” says
Mysh, “ one should be surprised rather at the com-
paratively small number of arrears among the Jew-
ish recruits. ”

Russian military authorities — among them General
Yermolov in his “Diary,” published in the “Artil-
leriski Zhurnal ” of 1794; General Lebedev in “Rus-
ski Invalid,” 1858 (No. 39); and Major-General Ku-
ropatkin in “ Voyenny Sbornik” (Military Collection),
1883, clii. 7, 8, 50 — have often testified to the real
patriotism and bravery of the Russian Jewish sol-
dier. The daring deeds of Goldstein in the war
for the liberation of the Slavonians (in 1876), of
Gertzoy, near Erzerum (in 1878), and ot Leib
Faigenbaum, near Plevna (in 1878), will be long re-
membered. L. Orshanski was in the emperor’s
guard for 54 years, and was buried with military
honors in St. Petersburg in 1899 (“Jew. C'hron.”
March 17, 1899).

Bibliography : M. J. Mysh, Rukovodstvo k. Russkim Zako-
?! am o Yevreyakh , 2d ed., St. Petersburg, 1898; M. Brauda,
in Kohelet (collection of articles in Hebrew), published by
Zederbauin and Goldenblum, St. Petersburg, 1881 ; J. M.
Grushevski, Yuridicheskaya PrakUka, etc. in Voskhod ,
1899, iii. 30-46; Sbornik Impcratorskavn Russkavo Isto-
rieheskavo Obshchestva.xli.li', Ibn Dastah, Account of the
Chazars , Burt ass. etc., Russian translation by I). Chwcilson,
p. 17, St. Petersburg, 1869 ; Isztachri, Das Buck der Lander,
translated by Von Mordtmann, 1875, 103-105; Epiznd iz Ote-
chestvennoi Voiny 1812, in Den, 1870, No. 40; v. I. Nemiro-
vich-Danchenko, Voimtvuyushchi Izrail, St. Petersburg, 1880,
No. 8, 49-50 ; O. M. I.erner, Zapiski Grazhdanina, Odessa,
1877; Nornye Vremya, 1876. p. 190; S. Kronhold, in Russki
Yevrei, 1879, No. 7, p. 11; St. Petersburyskiya Vyedomosti,
1879, 287 ; Ally. Zeit. des Jud. 1877, No. 37 ; 1878, No. 4, 42 ; H .
M. Rabinowich, Statisticheskie Etyudy , St. Petersburg, 1886.

H. R.

ARNHEIM, FISCHEL : Bavarian deputy and
lawyer; born at Baireuth, Bavaria, Feb. 23, 1812;
died there Jan. 31, 1864. He was destined by his
parents for a commercial career. They gave him
a thorough Jewish education, and he was at a very
early age proficient in Bible and Talmud. But his
love for science induced him to prepare himself for
the gymnasium, the highest class of which he en-
tered at the age of seventeen. Arnheim subsequently
studied law at the universities of Munich and Er-
langen ; and in 1848 he was appointed royal attorney
II— 9

at law at Naila, and later in his native town, Bay-
reuth.

Owing to his wide reputation as a lawyer, Arn-
heim was elected by the cities of Hof and Miinch-
berg to the Bavarian legislature, where his juridical
knowledge and unbiased and independent attitude
made an impression. In appreciation of his services
the freedom of the city of Hof was conferred upon
him, and his reelection on four occasions to the leg-
islature was never opposed.

He was the only Jew in his electoral district. He
remained a deputy until his death. Being a student
of Bible and Talmud, Arnheim successfully defended
his coreligionists against accusations raised by anti-
Semitic members of the legislature.

Bibliography: Kayserling, GedenkhUUtcr, p. 2; Ally. Zeit.

des Jud. 1869, pp. 11,5-116.

s. M. B

ARNHEIM, HEYMANN: German rabbi;
born at Wongrowitz, Prussia, Feb. 6, 1796; died
there Sept. 22, 1865. While still a child he was left
fatherless, and from the age of twelve was compelled
to earn his own living. Notwithstanding these un-
favorable conditions, he acquired a knowledge of
Latin and Greek, and, more especially, of the Ger-
man language and literature. He first became a
private teacher at Neu-Strelitz ; then (1824) a school-
teacher at Fraustadt, and finally (1827) occupied a
similar position at Glogau. There he published
(1830) his first work, “Leitfaden beim Unterriclit in
der Mosaischen Religion.” In 1836 he translated
into German and commented on the Book of Job.
This translation was highly appreciated by the
learned world, and Arnheim was invited by Zunz
and Sachs to collaborate in the translation of the
Bible that they were preparing. To this work
Arnheim furnished the following books: The first
fourbooksof the Pentateuch, Kings, Ezekiel, Ilosea,
Obadiali, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Zechariah, Prov-
erbs, Job, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Nehemiali, and
Jeremiah — this last in collaboration with Sachs.

In 1840 Arnheim became head teacher ( Oberleli -
rer) at Glogau, and commenced to preach in the
great synagogue. The same year he published a
translation of the Sabbath prayers and of the Yoze-
rot for Purim, with notes in which he displayed a
great knowledge of Midrashic literature. In 1849
he became rabbi of the Zeller Institution.

Arnheim was a contributor to many scientific
journals, such as the “Hallische Jahrbucher” and
the “Magazin fur die Literatur des Auslandes.”

Bibliography: Monatssckrift, 1894, p. 508 ; Fuenn, Kcncset

Yisrael, p. 156.

s. I. Br.

ARNHEM : A city of Holland, situated on the
Rhine about fifty miles southeast of Amsterdam. No
Jews are mentioned in the records of the city prior
to 1404. In that year two Jews are mentioned as
having passed through Arnhem on a royal errand to
Zutphen, and as having been detained on their return
by floods in the former place, where the city authori-
ties provided for their maintenance. A curious state-
ment of the supplies granted them is found in Van
Hasselt, “Geldersclie Oudheden,” i. 66, § 21. The
city archives also reveal the facts that about the mid-

Arnhem

Arnold of Citeaux

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

130

die of the fifteenth century a Jew was appointed city
physician, and in 144!) a riot took place in Arnhem
before the house of a Jew, in which
Early the Jew Isaac was so energetically de-

History. fended that the authorities, fearing re-
moval from office, agreed to resign in a
body if any one of them were dismissed. On Ash
Wednesday, 1450, a Jew was baptized in Arnhem, and
in 1460 it was announced that all meat sold by Jews
must be provided with a little yellow marker ; disobe-
dience entailed a fine of ten grosehen (“ Alle vleesch
dat de Joeden gehandelthebben, en sal men nyet ver-
koopen, daer en sy een gheel Vaenken by den vleesch
daer men ’t mercliken hi kenuen macli. Die anders
dede verloer 10 gr.”). On September 21, 1451, Car-
dinal Nicolaus de Cusa preached in Arnhem on ab-
solution, and declared that none should ever receive
absolution who permitted a Jew practising usury to
dwell alongside of or below him. At the same time
he ordered, under penalty of expulsion, that all Jews
should register at the burgomaster’s office, and in
future wear a Jew -badge upon their outer garment.
They were not allowed to exact interest on pledges,
nor henceforth to lend money to Christians at all ;
every transgression of this regulation was punishable
with a fine of 4 g.to be paid bybotli Jew andChristian.
Within the space of a year all existing loau-offices
must be closed without stringency upon borrowers;
and Jews must leave the city, unless they earn their
bread by labor and honest commerce without usury,
and wear a badge for recognition by all (“ Oir broet
met hoeren Arbeide verdienen of regtveerdige koo-
manschap sonder woekeren, doen wolden, en mits zy
dat Teyken boven lieur Cleeden dragen, daer men se
bi kennen macli ”). Meanwhile it was ordered that
no one should do them any injury by day or night,
openly or secretly (“dat nyemant an den Joeden
enicli arch sou keereu by dage off by nacht, heymelicli
off openbaer”). On Jan. 10, 1571, Alba notified the
authorities of Arnhem that all Jews living there, and
all their property — of which an inventory was to be
made — should be seized and held in ward until further
disposition be made. This demand was,
Jews but as far as is known, not complied with
Tolerated, by the authorities of Arnhem, while
the authorities of Zutphen replied that
no Jews lived there. Probably as a result of Charles
Y. ’s cruelty the Jews left Holland ; they returned,
however, in the seventeenth century, when Jews were
found in the eastern portion of Gelderland and Hol-
land. Immigrants from Poland also arrived, usually
by sea, and settled preferably in the western harbor-
towns. Not until the end of the seventeenth cen-
tury were traces of Jews again found in Arnhem. A
resolution dated March 20, 1663, denied citizenship
to Jews, and forbade them to follow the butcher’s
trade ; it shows that they had at least the right to
settle there.

The first mention of a synagogue was made in
1735, when the physician Levi Heymans registered a
complaint with the burgomaster and the assessors,
in which he petitioned that the congregation “be
compelled to afford him peaceable possession of his
sitting in the Jewish synagogue.” On Feb. 7, 1765,
three Jews, as wardens of the Jewish congregation,
presented a petition stating that the congregation

had greatly increased in numbers, and that their
meeting-place for prayer in the house of Solomon
Cohen, which they bad used a number of years, had
become too small. In response they were requested
to prepare a plan and submit a con-
Syna- stitution and by-laws for the govern-

gogues. ment of an incorporated congrega-
tion. The plan submitted was officially
approved April 17, 1765, the congregation was estab-
lished, wardens were elected, and the constitution
was read at a meeting of the congregation. Among
the first wardens was Samuel Jacob Hanau, who was
associated with a Catholic named Kerkhoff in a large
china and pottery factory, the products of which
were used by the city authorities and were famous
for taste and finish. In the Walstraat, close to the
town wall, a house was set aside for the synagogue;
the approach to it was by a narrow lane which still
bears the name “Joedengang” (Jews’ way). It was
leased for twelve years, from April 1, 1769; and in
1782 another house close to the wall, by the Velper-
poort, was hired and fitted up as the synagogue.

At first the Jews of Arnhem buried their dead in
the neighboring village of Huizen. Later they used
the more distant cemetery in Wageningen, where
a considerable Jewish congregation existed. Two
Jews, Solomon Cohen Jacobs and Samuel Levie, on
Sept. 22, 1755, petitioned the authorities fora suit
able burial-place. By a resolution of
Cemeteries. Oct. 13, 1755, a lot forty feet by one
hundred was assigned to them, to be
fenced in by them, but otherwise free of all expense.
On April 11. 1808, a larger tract was purchased (ad-
joining this), and continued in use till 1865, when a
general city cemetery was laid out, and a distinct
portion was assigned to the Jews. An agreement
was made that the Jews should not alienate their
part of the cemetery, and that the city should never
disinter the bodies.

A benevolent society was established, possibly
only a burial society, although, according to a pro-
vision of the by-laws, all fines collected were to be
paid partly to the town hospital, partly to the Jew-
ish poor. When the congregation became too large
for this synagogue, a site for a new building was
purchased in the Kerkstraat for 5,000 florins in 1798.
It is evident that at the end of the eighteenth century
the congregation of Arnhem was prosperous, and
that it contained many wealthy Jews. This fact is
shown by an event mentioned in only one place (Van
der Aa, “ Aardrykskundig Woordenboek,” under
“Arnhem”). In 1783 a riot took place in Arnhem
because the city authorities sold a portion of the
old burial-place surrounding the large church on
the “ Marktplein ” to a Jew, who erected thereon a
mansion. Public indignation was allayed only by the
restoration of the cemetery, properly fenced in, to its
original purpose. In 1852 another site was pur-
chased, upon which the present synagogue stands,
the former building being used for a school. On
Aug. 19,1853, a new synagogue was consecrated. A
model bath house was established in 1885 through
the efforts of Chief Ilabbi T. Tal. In 1891 the school
was removed to an elegantly appointed building
belonging to the congregation, adjacent to the syna-
gogue.

131

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arnhem

Arnold of Citeaux

After the time of the French consistorial division of
the country, Nymegen was the seat of the rabbinate
for the province of Gelderland. But on the death of
Jacob Lehmans, in 1881, the seat was transferred to
Arnhem ; and on June 26 of the same year Tobias Tal,
a graduate of the Amsterdam rabbinical seminary,
was elected chief rabbi. He remained until he was
called to The Hague in 1895; and his brother-in-law,
Louis Wagenaar, formerly chief rabbi in Leeuwarden
and of the province of Friesland, was appointed his
successor in Arnhem. Other learned men, with at
least local reputation, were : Joel Frankfort, teacher
from 1836 to 1866, esteemed for Talmudic learning;

J. Waterman, translator of Fiirst’s He-
Chief Per- brew lexicon into Dutch, and a leader
sonalities. of the reform movement in Dutch Ju-
daism which reached fullest develop-
ment about 1860. In 1780, the jurist Jonas Daniel
Meyer was born in a house situated where the syna-
gogue now stands. The Dutch poetess, Estella Herz-
feld, wife of Mr. Hymans, passed a portion of her
life in Arnhem.

Besides the burial and charitable societies that
exist in every Jewish congregation, Arnhem has the
following: (1) Hizzuk Enumoh, an association for
the study of rabbinical literature; (2) Berit Abra-
ham, a society that gives pecuniary aid to lying-in
women, and toward expenses attendant on the cere-
mony of circumcision; (3) Sa'adas Ahim, an asso-
ciation composed of small traders, for mutual assist-
ance in times of sickness and mourning; (4) a charity
association, and an association for lending money
without interest to small traders, and several others.
The Home for the Aged was removed to a new and
better house in 1899, and steps were taken to es-
tablish an orphan home in Arnhem for the whole
province. In addition there is a society for dower-
ing respectable girls, and for providing poor school
children with clothing, especially on their attaining
the thirteenth year; also a fund for remitting money
to Palestine.

The Jewish population in 1898, according to the
rather unreliable “ Provincial Verslag,” was 1,390
in a total population of 56,413 — about 2.5 per cent.
There were 30 births in 1898, a rather small propor-
tion ; but the death statistics were more favorable,
seeing that, while the mortality in the whole popula-
tion of the town was 1,029 (18£ per thousand), among
the Jews there were only 19 deaths(13| per thousand).
This mortality is the highest of recent years, the aver-
age number of deaths being 16. The Jews of Arnhem
support themselves mainly as small traders in cloth-
ing and woolen goods. The meat business affords
employment to a number of Jews, who may be said to
control the trade. Several large stores
Statistics, are maintained by Jews. There is only
one Jewish lawyer, who is a member
of the city council, and maintains a banking-house;
he and a Jewish member of thebar, with a few teachers,
compose the academically educated Jewish popula-
tion of Arnhem. Nevertheless, the congregation may
be accounted one of the most prosperous in Holland.

Bibliography : For the older history of Arnhem, besides the
manuscript in the Archives, see Van Wyn, Hutszittend Leven,
i. 306, 572, 650, 651 : V. Hasselt, Geldersche Oudheden : idem,
Arnhemsche Oudheden ; Nyhoff, Oorkonden van Gelder-
land; idem, Wandel ingen door een Deel van Gelderland ;

Van der Aa, Aardrykskundig Wonrdenhoek ; Koenen, Ge~
schietlenis der Juden in Nederland. For its later history.
Waterman’s Oration, to have been delivered at the dedication
of the New Synagogue, Arnhem, 1853, but printed and circular
ted only— now very rare— is valuable.

6. J. VR.

ARNOLD: Cardinal-bishop of Cologne; died
April 3, 1151. One of the few prelates who, during
the Crusades, protected the Jews from the violence
of the mob. When, during the Second Crusade, the
inflammatory sermons of the French monk Ro-
dolphe caused the populace throughout the Rhine
provinces to attack the Jews, and torture and kill
such of them as would not accept baptism, this car-
dinal-bishop was persuaded by a gift of money to
set aside the castle of Wolkenburg, Lorraine, near
Konigswinter, as an asylum for the Jews, and to
allow the many Jews that fled thither to defend
themselves with arms against the aggressors. The
property that the Jews left behind was turned over
to the bishop. This occurred on Sept. 23 and 24,
1146. Toward the end of that month two Jews,
Abraham and Samuel, were murdered on their way
up to the castle. Moved by a second present from
the Jews, the bishop had the murderer cruelly put
to death.

Bibliography : A roil i us, Regesten zvr Gesch. der Juden im
Frdnkischen und Deutsche n Reiche, Nos. 236. 237, 250;
Brisch, Gesch. der Juden in Chin, 1879, p. 148. The author-
ity for these statements is Ephraim ben Jacob, who was one
of those shut up in Wolkenburg. Besides his account, see
Neubauer and Stern, Hehr. Berichte liber die Juden-Ver-
folgungen Wdhrend der Kn uezilge, 1892, pp. 80, ion ; Grfitz,
Gesch. der Juden, vi. 179.

ARNOLD OF cfTEAUX : Cistercian monk,
who, with the sanction of Pope Innocent III. (1198-
1216), incited a crusade against the Albigenses and
Jews of southern France, and occasioned the attack
of Simon de Montfort on Viscount Raymund Roger.
The latter was stigmatized as a patron of Jews and
Albigenses, and on this account his beautiful capital,
Beziers, was besieged by De Montfort, and on its
fall (July 22, 1209) was well-nigh totally destroyed.
According to Arnold's report to the pope, about
twenty thousand perished by the sword regardless
of caste, age, and sex; after which the city was
looted and burned, so that “the vengeance of God
raged therein in a wondrous way.” The flourishing
and cultured Jewish congregation of Beziers was
almost exterminated ; two hundred persons lost their
lives, and a great many others were taken captive.
“ The year of mourning ” is the name by which that
year is designated in the Jewish chronicles; the
Hebrew word for “mourning” having appropri-
ately the numerical value of the date (ftp = 69 =
4969, or 1209 of the common era).

From southern France, Arnold carried his murder-
ous fanaticism to Spain under the following circum-
stances: Mohammed al-Nasir, the Almohade prince
from the northwest of Africa, apprehending the
success of the Christians in Mohammedan Spain,
transported a vast army to Andalusia to make war
on the advancing religion. The Christian princes
of Spain immediately ceased their habitual inter-
necine hostilities for the sake of united resistance,
and appealed to Innocent III. to inspire a general
crusade against the Crescent. The pope acceded;
and among the multitudes crossing the Pyrenees,

Arnon

Arnstein

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

132

Arnold and bis followers were foremost. These
ultramontane swordsmen, as they were designated
in contrast to the Spaniards, were deeply affronted
by the comparative prosperity and freedom that the
Jews enjoyed in the Castilian capital Toledo; and
Arnold instigated a sudden onslaught upon them
(June. 1212). At that particular juncture the Jewish
population of Toledo, in addition to being the most
representative and flourishing in Spain, had been
swelled by the accession of fugitives from Salva-
tierra, the first city captured by the Mohammedan
invaders (Sept., 1211). The fate of the Jews of
Toledo would have been sealed had not Alfonso the
Noble, king of Castile, and the Christian knights of
the city, promptly protected them ; thus terminating
auspiciously what was in Castile an importation of
foreign fanaticism, the first persecution of Jews.

Bibliooraphy : Ibn Verca, Sliehet Yehudah, ed. Wiener,
p. 113 ; Griitz, Gesch. der juden, 3d ed., vi. 333, 339 ; vii. 9, 13.

g. II. G. E.

ARNON.— Biblical Data : A river and wady
of eastern Palestine, the modern Wady Mojib (or

Gorge of the River Arnon Near Its Mouth.

(From Stade, “ Geschichte des Volkes Israel.”)

Wady el-Mojib). The name means perhaps “ noisy, ”
a term which well describes the latter part of the
course of the river. Its length is about 45 miles, from
its rise in the desert to its entrance into the Dead
Sea. It spreads out to a breadth of 100 feet here
and there, but for the most part is narrow; and

though low in summer, in the winter season it is in
places 8 or 10 feet deep. It runs at first northwest-
erly, but afterward its course becomes westerly.
Its striking feature is the steepness and narrowness
of the ravine through which it passes shortly before
it empties into the lake, opposite Engedi. Between
the lofty limestone hills, which cause this precipitous
descent, and the lake, the river expands into a shal-
low estuary nearly 100 feet wide.

The Arnon has always been an important bound-
ary-line. Before the Hebrew period it separated,
for a time at least, the Moabites from the Amorites
(Num. xxi. 13, 26; Deut. iii. 8; Judges xi. 18).
After the Hebrew settlement it divided, theoretically
at least, Moab from the tribes of Reuben and Gad
(Deut. iii. 12, 16). But in fact Moab lay as much to
the north as it did to the south of the Arnon. To the
north, for example, were Aroer, Dibon, Medeba, and
other Moabite towns. Even under Omri and Ahab,
who held part of the Moabite territory, Israel did
not hold sway farther south than Ataroth, about ten
miles north of the Arnon. Meslia in his inscription
(Moabite Stone, line 10) says that the Gadites(not the
Reubenites) formerly occupied Ataroth, whence he
in turn expelled the people of Israel. He mentions
(line 26) his having constructed a road along the Ar-
non. The ancient importance of the river and of the
towns in its neighborhood is attested by the numer-
ous ruins of bridges, forts, and buildings found upon
or near it. Its fords are alluded to by Isaiah (xvi. 2).
Its “heights,” crowned with the castles of chiefs,
were also celebrated in verse (Num. xxi. 28).

J. JR. J. F. McC.

In Rabbinical Literature; The Haggadali

tells the following story of a miracle witnessed at
the Arnon, which seems to be alluded to in the Bible
(Num. xxi. 14, 15). The mountains bordering on
the Arnon consist of two lofty ranges, witha valley,
seven miles wide, between them. When on the way
to the promised land, the Israelites, after having
crossed the first range, prepared to cross the second,
the Amorites hid in the caves, intending to attack
the unsuspecting travelers. But the Ark of the Cov-
enant, which preceded the Israelites, caused the
heights to sink and the valley to rise, with the re-
sult that the concealed Amorites were crushed in the
caves. The miracle would have been unnoticed by
the Israelites, had not God caused the well which
accompanied them to throw up portions of the
corpses. Then it was that all Israel sang the Song
of the Well (Num. xxi. 17 et seq.). In commemora-
tion of this miracle the Rabbis decided that a special
benediction be uttered upon seeing the Arnon (Ber.
54 a et seq. ; Num. R. xix. 25; Tan., Hukkat., xx.).

j. sr. L. G.

ARNSTADT : Capital of the German principality
of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, on the River Gera.
In 1264 (Aug. 5 and 7) there were outbreaks here
against the Jews, in which five were slain (the learned
R. Shabbethai ben Samuel; Joseph and Kasser, sons
of R. Jehiel bar Hakim ; R. David Cohen, of Mayence ;
and the boy Eliezer, son of Ii. Simson, of France).
In Feb., 1349, the Black Death raged in the town.
In 1441 the Jews were expelled from the town. In
1466 another expulsion took place, “because they

133

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arnon

Arnstein

[the Jews] would not he baptized.” In 1521 Jews
are still mentioned as dwelling there, and as pos-
sessing a synagogue, which occupied the site later
covered by the Bartholomew Cloister. Their cemetery
in the Ichterhauser-strasse is also mentioned. In the
seventeenth century there were no Jews in Arnstadt,
though in the nineteenth century a congregation was
again formed there. In 1900, in a population of about
14,000, there were 97 Jews.

Bibliography : Aronius, Regesten zur Gesch. der Juden , p.

287, No. 695 ; Salfelil, Das Martyrolngium des NUrnberger

Memorbuches , pp. 99, 143, 2.55, 268, 274, 284.

G. A. F.

ARNSTEIN, BENEDIKT DAVID : Austrian
playwright, grandson of the famous Vienna banker
Adam Isaac von Arnstein; born in Vienna Oct. 15,
1765; died there in 1840. In 1782 he entered his
grandfather’s banking-house, but left in 1786 to
undertake a series of travels which enabled him to
make the acquaintance of many distinguished wri-
ters of his time. From association with Alinger and
Liebel he learned to appreciate the Greek and Roman
classics. Such men as Retzer, Schreyvogel, Kotze-
bue, Ratscliky, and Zeon exercised a powerful influ-
ence upon him. He published: “Eine Jildische
Familienscene,” 1782; “Dramatische Versuche,”
1778; “Die Kleinodien,” drama, 1796; “Die Maske,”
comedy, 1796; “Die Pflegetoclitcr,” drama, 1798;
“Das Billet,” comedy, 1800; “Das Gesclienk,” 1801.

Bibliography: Wurzbach, Biograpliisches Lexicon der

OesteiTeichisch-Ungarischen Monarchic; Fr. Graeffer,

Kleine Wiener Mcmoiren , ii. 1845; Oesterreichische Na-

tionalencyklopttdie , i. 123. __

ARNSTEIN, FANNY (VOGELE) VON : A

leader of society in Vienna ; born in Berlin Sep-
tember 29, 1757 ; died near Vienna June 8, 1818.
Daniel Itzig, the wealthy and generous banker,
and head of the Jewish community of Berlin,
was her father. She was one of a family of nine
daughters and four sons. Itzig being a man of culture,
and surrounded by an attractive family, his house
became a social center. Close relation existed with
the Mendelssohn circle, even before Fanny’s brother-
in-law David Friedlander came to Berlin, and two of
Mendelssohn’s sons married members of her family.
Henriette Herz, Raliel, Dorothea, and Henriette
Mendelssohn, Marianne Meyer, and the other repre-
sentatives of the Jewish salon period were her inti-
mate friends. On her early marriage with the
banker Nathan Adam von Arnstein she carried the
social influences of Berlin, as molded by Frederick
the Great, to the Vienna of Joseph II. To wide read-
ing and unusual linguistic attainments she joined an
attractive exterior, tact, grace, and distinguished
bearing, and, above all, extraordinary kindness of
heart. The Von Arnstein mansion at Vienna and her
villas at Schonbrunn and Baden were daily thronged
with guests ; and her easy hospitality, of which Raliel
writes in her letters, embraced alike the prosperous
and the poor. Her benefactions, private and public,
were endless ; she was especially active in ameliora-
ting the destitution that followed the disasters of
1809. Ladies of rank united to care for the needy;
and, though a Jewess and of the inferior nobility, she
was invited to join them on account of her executive
ability and sagacity. When the same association

founded a hospital at Baden, near Vienna, she col-
lected 7,000 florins among her coreligionists; and in
1813 she sent supplies to Rahel, then engaged in
relief -work at Prague. Love of her adopted coun-
try filled her soul; and the opinion she had con-

ceived of Napoleon and the French, on her visit to
Paris during the Consulate, did not tend to lessen
her almost personal grief over Austrian and Prus-
sian reverses. The Frenchmen who freely gathered
round her were never left indoubt as to her feelings.
On the other hand, the German victories of 1813-14
gave her the keenest delight; and the Vienna Con-
gress saw her at the zenith of social success. Her
salon was frequented by the celebrities assembled at
the capital — Wellington, Talleyrand, Hardenberg,
Capo d’lstrias, Varnhagen von Euse, his wife, the
Schlegels, Justinus Kernel-, Karoline Pichler, and
Zacliarias Werner. For over a generation she exer-
cised an influence upon Austrian art and literature.
She was one of the founders of the Gesellscl.afc der
Musikfreunde. Only one shadow fell upon her life.
During her widowhood her beauty attracted aumirc-rs
and suitors, whom she successfully kept at a distance.
Prince Karl von Lichtenstein was particularly assid-
uous in his attentions. A rival, Freiherr von Weichs,
ascribing his own lack of success to Frau von Arn-
stein’s preference for Lichtenstein, challenged and
killed him. Though the first families of Vienna
were concerned, Frau von Arnstein was wholly ex-
onerated, and continued to enjoy her popularity.
Despite the distractions of society, she was a devoted
mother to her only daughter, Henrietta, Baroness
Pereira- Arnstein, who inherited her intellect, grace,
beauty, and goodness.

Bibliography : Varnhagen von Ense, Ausgeu'tthlte Scliriften ,
xvil. 328-335; Wurzbach, Biograpliisches LcxUcon des Kaiser-
thums Oesterreich , Vienna, 1750-1850; M. Kayserling, Die
Jiidischen Frauen , 1879, pp. 220-226: A. de la Garde, Fetes et
Souvenirs du Cnngres de Vienne, 1843, i. 439 : Fr. Grafter,
Kleine Wiener Mcmoiren, i. 249, iii. 247; Oesterreichische
National Eneyklopadie, i. 121 ; Iris, 1854, p. 51 ; Blatter fiir
Musik, Theater, und Kunst, published by L. A. Zellner, 1855,
vol. i. No. 89.

s. H. S.

ARNSTEIN, NATHAN ADAM VON. See

Aknstein, Fanny von.

Aroer

Aronssohn

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

134

AROER : A name probably meaning “ bushes of
dwarf juniper” (Lagarde, “Sem.” i. 30), which is
applied in the Old Testament to three distinct local-
ities.

1 . “ Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of
Arnon” (Deut. ii. 36, R. V.), is probably represented
by the present ruins of 'Ara'ir on the north bank of
the Arnon ravine, about eleven miles from the mouth
of the river (Tristram, “Moab,” pp. 129-131). The
city was still standing in the time of Eusebius. This
place was usually described by its situation, in order
to distinguish it from other localities of the same
name (Deut. iii. 12, iv. 48; Josh. xii. 2, xiii. 9; Judges
xi. 26; II Sam. xxiv. 5). It appears first as having
been captured by the Amorite king Sihon from Moab
(compare Num. xxi. 26). It should be noted that in
the Meslia inscription, 1. 26, it is mentioned as having
been built by the Moabites. After Israel’s attack
on the A metrites, it was assigned as part of the terri-
tory of the tribe of Reuben, whose southern frontier
it marked. This is the city mentioned in Num.
xxxii. 34, with the southern towns, as having been
built by the children of Gad before the distribution
of the land. When Hazael and his Syrians took
from Israel the territory across the Jordan, Aroer is
given as its southern limit (II Kings x. 38). It is
clear, from Jer. xlviii. 19, that the Moabites ulti-
mately recovered it from the Israelites.

2. A city in the territory of the tribe of Judah
(I Sam. xxx. 28, and probably Josh. xv. 22). It has
been identified with the ruins of ‘Ar'ara, twenty
miles south of Hebron and twelve miles southeast
from Beer-sheba. David sent to the elders of this
city a share of the booty taken from the Amalekites
who had attacked Ziklag (I Sam. xxx. 28).

3. A town east of Rabbatli -Ammon (Josh. xiii. 25)
in the territory of the tribe of Gad, originally an
Ammonite city (Judges xi. 33). It has not yet been
identified. According to Jerome (“Onomastieon Sa-
crum,” 96, 5), it was on a mountain, twenty Roman
miles north of Jerusalem.

The reading “ the cities of Aroer are forsaken ” (Isa.
xvii. 2) is probably incorrect, as it presents many
geographical difficulties, occurring as it does in con-
nection with “ the burden of Damascus.” While it is
possible that there may have been another Aroer
near Damascus, it is more likely that the passage
should be rendered “ the cities thereof shall be for-
saken.” This emendation, proposed by Lagarde, has
been quite generally accepted by modern scholars.

The Gentile name from Aroer is Aroerite(I Cliron.
xi. 44).

J. JR. J. D. P.

ARON HA-KODESH : Hebrew name for the
Ark in the synagogue. See Ark of tite Law.

ARON, ARNAUD : Chief rabbi of Strasburg,
Alsace; born March 11, 1807, in Sulz unterm Walde,
Alsace, and died April 3, 1890. Destined for a rab-
binical career, he began his Talmudic studies at an
early age at Hagenau and continued them at Frank-
fort-on-the-Main. In 1830 he became rabbi of the
small community of Hegenheim in Upper Alsace;
and the more important Jewish community of Stras-
burg called him to be its spiritual head in 1833. As
he was under thirty, the age prescribed by law, he

required a special dispensation to qualify for the
office. In Strasburg Aron acquired the reputation
of an eloquent and inspiring preacher and a zeal-
ous communal worker.

School of Arts and
Trades and took active
interest in other useful
institutions. ‘In 1855
he convened an assem-
bly of the rabbis of the
department of the
Lower Rhine for the
consideration of relig-
ious questions.

Aron is the author
of a devotional work
which enjoys great
popularity among
French Israelites. This
is “Prieres d'un Cceur
Israelite,” a collection of prayers, partly original and
partly drawn from Biblical and other Jewish sources.
In this work he had the assistance of Eunery. Arn-
aud Aron was the author of the catechism used for
confirmation as prescribed by the Consistory of Lower
Alsace. In 1866 the French government acknowl-
edged his services by appointing him a Knight of
the Legion of Honor. In 1870, while Strasburg was
besieged, it was he, together with the archbishop,
who raised the white flag on the cathedral. Subse-
quently he was decorated by the German emperor.

s. I. B.

ARON, EMIL: German physician; born at
Stettin, Pomerania, March 12, 1864. He received
his education at the Werderselie Gymnasium at Ber-
liu, and the universities of Berlin, Munich, and Heid-
elberg, being graduated from the last mentioned
with the degree of doctor of medicine in 1888. After
a tour to Vienna, Paris, and London, Aron in 1890
established himself as a physician in Berlin. He
was assistant physician in the Jewish Hospital in
that city from 1891 to 1896, becoming specialist in
laryngology. Aron has been a contributor to the
“ Berliner Klinische Wocheuschrift ” (“ Zur Kasuistik
der Halsrippen,” 1892, etc.), Virchow’s “Archiv fur
Pathologischc Anatomie und Physiologie und fur
Klinische Medizin” (“ Ueberdie Eiuwirkung Verdich-
teter und Verdlinnter Luft auf den Iutratrachealen
Druck beim Mensclien,” 1892, etc.), “Deutsche Med-
izinische Wochcnsclirift” (“Zur Behandlung des
Pneumothorax,” 1896, etc.), and other medical
journals.

Bibliography : Wrede, Das Gexstuje Berlin , s.v., Berlin,

1898.

s. F. T. H.

ARON, HENRY : French publicist: bom in
Paris, Nov. 11, 1842; died there Nov. 13, 1885. He
was a pupil of the Ecole Normale and obtained a
fellowship there in 1865, but soon gave up teaching
to join the staff of the “Journal des Debats,” and
also collaborated in the “Revue Politique et Litt4-
raire. ” Aron afterward became secretary of the “ Re-
vue des Deux Mondes.” Iu 1876 he was entrusted
by Ernest Picard, minister of the interior, with the
management of the “Journal Otficiel” and of the
“Bulletin Franpais, ” but on the resignation of the

He assisted in founding the

Amaud Aron.

135

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aroer

Aronssohn

ministry lie relinquished his charge, which he re-
sumed upon the reelection of a Republican majority,
Oct. 14, 1877. He was decorated with the Legion
of Honor Jan. 30, 1870, but resigned again when
the “Journal” came under state control, on Jan.
1, 1881. He reentered the “Journal des Debats” as
art critic. Though not a Hebraist, he became, in
1880, one of the founders of the “ Revue des Etudes
Juives.”

s. J. W.

ARONIUS, JULIUS: German historian; born
Feb. 5, 1861, at Rastenburg, Germany; died June
29, 1893. After completing the gymnasium course,
he entered the University of Berlin, where he stud-
ied history, philology, and later went to the Uni-
versity of Konigsberg. He was graduated from the
latter as Pli.l). in 1883, on which occasion he wrote
a thesis, “Studieu fiber die Alteren Angelsachsischen
Urkuuden.” Aronius became instructor at the Ber-
lin Realgymnasium, at the same time devoting him-
self to the study of Jewish history. Entrusted by
the Ilistorische Commission with a preparation of a
history of the Jews in Germany during the Middle
Ages, he began the work, under the title “ Reges-
ten znr Geschicliteder Juden in Deutschland ” (Ber-
lin. 1893). This work gives in chronological order,
under each date, an abstract of every entry in the
medieval chronicles and documents relating to the
Jews of Germany. Its publication was interrupted
by the death of Aronius, and was completed by
Saalfeld.

s. I. Br.

ARONS, LEO : German physicist and Social-
ist. Though privat-docent at the University of Ber-
lin he took part in the Socialist movement, and was
in consequence suspended from his office by the
minister of education, Bosse, April, 1899. Being
wealthy, he spent in 1895 large sums of money to
advance the interests of his party. In 1897 he car-
ried a resolution at the Socialist convention of Ham-
burg, in virtue of which the Socialists would no
longer abstain from voting at the elections for the
Prussian Diet.

Arons’ scientific works belong to the field of theo-
retic as well as of experimental physics, with espe-
cial reference to electricity. Among the many
works published by him may be mentioned the fol-
lowing: “Bestimmung der Vcrdet’schen Coustante
im Absoluten Masse,” in “ Annalen der Physik und
Chemie," new series, 1885, xiv. 161; “ Interferenz-
streifen im Spectrum,” ib. p.669; “ Verduunungs-
wiirme und Warmekapacitat von Salzlosungen,” ib.
xxv. 408; “Methode zur Messung der Elektromo-
torisclieu Gegenkraft im Elektrischen Lichtbogen,”
ib. xxx. 95; “Ueber den Elektrischen Rfickstand,”
ib. xxxv. 291; “ Beobaclitungen an Elektrisch Pola-
risirten Platinspiegeln,” ib. xli. 473; “Ein Elektro-
lytischer Versuch,” ib. xlv. 383; “Ein Demonstra-
tionsversuch mit Elektrischen Schwingungen,” ib.
p. 553; “Die Elektricitatsconstanten und Optisehen
Brechungsexponenten in Salzen,” ib. liii. 95; “Elek-
trisclie Lichtbogen,” ib. lvii. 185; “ Polarisations-
Erseheinungen in Diinnen Metallmembrancn,” ib.
lvii. 201; “Versuclie fiber Elektrolytisclie Polarisa-
tion,” in “ Verliaudlungen der Ph3rsikalischen Gesell-

schaft zu Berlin,” xi. 3; “Ueber einen Quecksilber-
Lichtbogen,” ib. p. 6.

Bibliography : Die Nation , 1897-98, p. 18; 1898-99, p. 422.
s. I. Bek.

ARONSON, RUDOLPH : Composer and the-
atrical manager; born in New York, April 8, 1856.
He early manifested talent for music, and after his
graduation from the New York high school was sent
to the Vienna Conservatory. After completing his
course there, he entered the Paris Conservatoire, de-
voting himself to a careful study of the French
composers. He had a strong predilection for the
lyrical genre, and it was the popular rather than the
classic compositions that he strove to master in re-
gard to style and method.

Returning to America, Aronson first came promi-
nently before the public as the director of fashion-
able concerts in Madison Square Garden, New York;
and such was the success of these concerts that
he built a concert-hall at Forty-first street and
Broadway, opened May 27, 1880. In connection
with this enterprise, the now popular “roof-garden ”
was first introduced as a summer feature.

He subsequently secured capital for a theater to
be devoted soldi- to the elaborate performance of
light operas — the Casino, a fine specimen of Moor-
ish architecture, opened Oct. 22, 1882, which was
the first permanent home of light opera in America.

Aronson has composed over 150 dances, marches,
and various other orchestral pieces, many of which
have been successfully performed by Gilmore,
Cappa, Eduard Strauss, Theodore Thomas, and
other prominent orchestral leaders.

Bibliography : Dramatic Mirror. New York : Boston Times,
Feb. 26, 1888; New York Herald, May 28, 1880; Who's Who
in America, 1901.

A. J. So.

ARONSSOHN, JACOB EZEKIEL : German
physician and medical writer; born in 1774; died
June 12, 1807; obtained his degree of M.D. in 1800;
and subsequently became teacher at the Berlin
University. Of his various publications may be
mentioned: (1) “ Medicinisclie Gesch. der Franzo-
sischen Armee in St. Domingo im Jahre 1803, oiler
Ueber dasGelbe Fieber,” Berlin, 1805 (translation of
a French work by N. P. Gilbert, treating of the yel-
low fever); (2) “ Die Ivuust des Zalmarztes oiler Yoll-
standiger Theoretiseher und Praktisclier Unterricht
fiber deran den ZalmenVorkommenden Chirurgisehen
Operationen, die Einsetzung KuustlicherZalme, Ob-
duratoren und Kfinstlicher Gunmen” (translated from
the French by L. Laforgue, with illustrations, Ber
lin, 1803) ; (3) “ Yollstiindige Abhanillung Aller Vene-
rischen Kranklieiten,” with annotations by F. W.
Wolf, Jr., Berlin, 1808; (4) “Grfiudliche Anleitung
zur Zweckmiissigen Einrichtung der Apotheken,”
with illustrations, Berlin, 1804; (5) “Die Ivunst das
Leben des Schonen Geschlechts zu Verlfingern,"
with illustrations, Berlin, 1804; 2d ed., 1807; (6)
“ Rechtfertigung der Schutzblattern, oiler Kulipoc-
kenimpfung,” Berlin, 1801; (7) “ Toilettenkunst-
Recepte. 64 Wolilfeile, Bewiihrte, nacli Chemischen
und Diiitischen Grfiuilsittzen Abgefasst, zur Be for -
derung und Erhaltung der Schonheit,” Berlin, 1805.

Bibliography : Fiirst, liihl. Jud.; .1. S. Meusel, Das Gelehrte
Teutscltland im l'Jten Jahrhundert, xiii. 36; A. C. P. ( allis-

Aronssohn

Ai'ragel

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

136

sen, Medizinisches Schriftsteller-Lexicon der Jctzt Lcbcn-

den Aerzte, Wundaerzte, etc., 1830, i. 244.

s. F. T. H.

ARONSSOHN, JACQUES LEON: German
physician ; born at Metz May 2, 1793 ; died at
Strasburg Sept. 8, 1861. His father, Jacques Arons-
solm (died 1845), practised medicine at the garrison
of Pont-a-Mousson. Aronssohn went to Strasburg
in 1809 to matriculate at the Faculte de Medecine.
He took his degree as doctor in 1816; became assist-
ant surgeon at the municipal hospital in 1823; and
resigned this position two years later to go to Eng-
land to finish his studies. In London he made the
acquaintance of some of the most prominent physi-
cians and surgeons, as, for instance, Astley Cooper,
Lawrence Brodie, and Tyrrell. After his return to
France he established himself as a physician at
Strasburg; and during his twenty-five years of prac-
tise he was regarded as one of the most efficient of
doctors. In 1838. suffering from a chronic irritation
of the larynx, he went to Italy to seek a milder cli-
mate. At Pisa he was requested by the French
ambassador to take part in the autopsy on the body
of the daughter of King Louis Philippe. Scarcely
had this work been finished, when he was sum-
moned to Florence by the widow of King Murat.

During 1832, while the cholera raged in France,
Aronssohn was requested to organize one of the
provisory hospitals. Later he was appointed a
member of the Central Sanitary Commission; of the
board of health ; of the committee of primary instruc-
tion; of the commission for the inspection of the
asylum at Stephansfeld ; and physician to the East-
ern Railway Company. From 1849 he was presi-
dent of the Societe de M&lecine de Strasbourg and
a member of several French and foreign scientific
societies. The Legion of Honor was bestowed on
him in 1839; at the same time he was appointed as-
sistant physician to the king, which for him was
merely a title. It brought him in contact, however,
with the royal family and the eminent men of that
epoch. As early as 1823 he was authorized by the
Royal Council of Public Instruction to establish a
course of surgical instruction. He took an active
part in the foundation of the institution for the ex-
amination of fellowship; and when Professor Lob-
stein died Aronssohn remained in charge of the med-
ical clinic for six months.

Aronssohn was not eloquent; his lectures resem-
bled his conversation ; they were informal talks, at-
tractive, and so presented that they held the atten-
tion of the pupils.

The grief he suffered at the death of an adopted
son, the severe illness of his beloved daughter, and
the loss of a dear friend, brought on the heart-fail-
ure that ended his useful life.

Aronssohn is the author of:

“ Les Tumeurs Developpees dans les Nerfs,” inaug-
ural dissertation, 1822; “Appreciez les Progres Re-
cents du Diagnostic,” 1836; “ Memoires et Observa-
tions de Medecine et de Chirurgie Pratiques ” ; 1st
Memoire: “ LTustruction des Vers dans les Voies
Aeriennes”; 2d and 3d Memoires : “ Quelques Points
de l’Histoire des Hernies”; “Tetanos”; “Lotion
Chaudes des Terebenthiue dans les Brulures”;
“ Compte Rendu de la Clinique Medicale de la Fac-

ulte”; “ L'lntroduction au Traite sur les Eaux
Minerales du Duche de Nassau ” (translated from
Kaula); “ L’lnfiammation et les Scrofules.”

Besides these works Aronssohn wrote a number of
reports for different societies and committees of
which he was a member; for instance, “Projet de
Loi d’ Organisation Medicale.”

Bibliography: Gazette Medicale de Strasbourg, 1862, pp.

181-190.

s. A.

ARONSTEIN, L. : German chemist; born May
25, 1841, at Telgte, Westphalia; graduated from the
University of Gottingen in 1864 with the degree of
Ph. D. Two years later he became assistant in the
physical department of the University of Leyden,
Holland, and in 1867 accepted the post of director
at the high school ( Hohere Biirgerschule) of Breda,
Brabant, where he also taught the natural sciences.
In 1876 Aronstein was appointed professor of chem-
istry at the Royal Military Academy of Breda, and
in 1894 was offered a similar appointment in the
Royal Polytechnic School, Delft. He accepted the
invitation, and has continued to occupy the position
ever since. His papers, which are of a distinctly
technical character, have appeared on the pages of
Liebig’s “ Annalen der Chemie,” published in Leip-
sic and Heidelberg; in the “Berichte der Deutsclien
Chemise-hen Gesellshaft,” the “Recueil des Travaux
Chimiques des Pays- Has,” etc. Brief notices and re-
views of Aronstein’s contributions to chemistry may
be found in the “ Jaliresbericlit liber die Fortscliritte
der Chemie,” edited by F. Fittica, Brunswick.

Bibliography : Poggenclorff, Biographisch-Literarisches

Hand wOrtcrbuch, Leipsic, 1898.

s. A. S. C.

ARONSTEIN, PHILIPP (pen-name Arn-
stein) : German school-teacher and author; born
Dec. 4, 1862, at Halver, province of Westphalia,
Prussia. Aronstein received his education at the
gymnasium in Soest, the universities of Berlin and
Bonn, and the Academy of Munster, whence he was
graduated as doctor of philosophy. After having
taught at different schools in England and Germany,
he at present (1902) holds the position of Oberlehrer
at the Progymnasium at Myslowitz, province of
Silesia, Prussia. He has been a contributor to sev-
eral well-known German magazines and newspapers;
e.g., “Neue Deutsche Rundschau,” “Anglia” (“Ben
Jonson’s Theorie der Lustspiele,” 1894; “Dickens-
Studien,” 1896), “Englische Studien” (“John Mars-
ten als Dramatiker,” 1894; “Die Entwicklung der
Lokalverwaltung in England,” 1895), “Neuere
Sprachen” (“England um die Mitte des 18ten Jalir-
liunderts,” 1895), and has written principally upon
education in England, and English history and liter-
ature. Aronstein’s chief independent works are:
“Benjamin Disraeli’s Leben und Dichterische
Werke,” 1895, and “Die Entwicklung der Hoheren
Knabenschulen in England,” 1897. He also trans-
lated from the English into German Bishop Mandell
Creighton’s “Age of Queen Elizabeth,” 1900.

s. F. T. H.

ARPAD : A city of northern Syria, the modern
Tell-Erfad, thirteen miles northwest of Aleppo. It

137

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aronssohn

Arrag-el

is mentioned in II Kings xviii. 34, xix. 13; Isa. x. 9,
xxxvi. 19, xxxvii. 13; Jer. xlix. 23. Rammannirari
III. fought against it (Schrader, “ Keilinschriftliche
Bibliothek,” i. 209), and Tiglath-pileser III. besieged
it for two years and captured it about 740 b.c. (ib. i.
213, and Isa. x. 9).

j. jr. G. A. . B.

ARPHAXAD (“1KOD1K): According to Gen. x.
22, 24; xi. 10-13; and 1 Ghron. i. 17, 18, the third son
of Sliem. Bochart's identification (“ Phaleg,” ii. 4) of
this name with the Arrapachitis of the Greeks, an
Armenian region, north of Assyria, adjacent to the
Great or Upper Zab river, has long prevailed. The
Arrapachitis, however, did not belong to the Semitic
world ; and it would be difficult to account for the
element “ -shad ” (very improbably explained as an
Armenian element, “-shat,” by Lagarde, “Sym.”i.
54). Still more improbable is the Kurdish Albag.
Delitzsch’s (“Paradies,” 256) explanation from the
Assyrian “arba-kishsliati ” (the four quarters of the
world), has not been confirmed. More recently, the
view of Michaeiis, anticipated by Josephus (“Ant.”
i. 6, § 4), that Arpakshad contains die name of the
Kasdim or Chaldeans, has become predominant. The
explanations of Gesenius, etc.,“ boundary [“Arp”] of
Chaldea” ( Keshad ); of Cheyne, “Arpakh ” and “ke-
shad,” written together by mistake (“Expositor,”
1897, p. 145), etc. , are now superseded by the observa-
tion of Hommel (“Ancient Hebrew Traditions,” 294)
that Arpakshad is the same as “ Ur of the Chaldeans ”
( Ur-kasdim ). Both names agree in the consonants
except one, and also in meaning, as Arpakshad is the
father of Slielah, grandfather of Eber and ancestor of
Terah, Nalior, and Abraham, who came from Ur
(Gen. xi. 12). The inserted “ p ” of Arpakshad has so
far not been explained — Hommel has recourse even to
Egyptian— but it is doubtless due to some graphic
error (see Ur). In Judith i. 1, etc., Arphaxad, a
king of the Medians in Ecbatana, is mentioned, con-
quered by Nebuchadnezzar II. of Assyria and put
to death. The name has clearly been borrowed
from Gen. x. by the writer.

J. JR. W. M. M.

ARRAGEL, MOSES ; Spanish rabbi ; flour-
ished in the first half of the fifteenth century at
Maqueda and Guadalfajara, Castile. The name is
the Arabic al-Rijal (Steinschneider, “Jew. Quart.
Rev.”xi. 610); according to H. Derenbourg (“Jour-
nal des Savants,” November, 1898), it is derived
from the Hebrew “ha-Ragil” (the expert).

When in 1422 Don Luis de Guzman, grand mas-
ter of the Order of Calatrava, was preparing in
Toledo to make war upon the Moors, he seems to
have suffered a change of heart ; and, tired of the
chase, of playing chess, and of reading romances of
chivalry, he felt the need of a good translation of
the Bible in Spanish, with a commentary thereon.
He asked Rabbi Moses Arragel to undertake this
work (April 5). At first the rabbi declined the in-
vitation, feeling how impossible it was for a Jew to
translate, or comment upon, the Bible in a manner
to satisfy a Catholic. Don Luis, however, insisted;
and he assigned Friar Arias de Eneiena, custos of
the Franciscans in Toledo, to make known to Moses

his particular wishes in regard to the matter. The
translation of the Old Testament in the Castilian
language is one of several which were
Translates made at this time; and the coopera -

the Old tion of the Jewish rabbi with Catho-
Testament. lie dignitaries in its production is one
of the signs of the comparative relig-
ious tolerance then prevailing in Castile.

It took Arragel many years to finish this work.
When completed (June 2, 1430) it was presented
by him with much ceremony to Don Luis in Toledo,
in the presence of a concourse of prominent and
learned men. The head of the Order of St. Francis,
replying to the presentation address, expressed him-
self as follows; “Rest assured that if, please God,
the interior of the Bible as regards its substance is
equal to its exterior, it will be the most beautiful
and the most famous work to be found in many a
kingdom.” These and other details are found pre-
fixed to the translation, accompanying which is the
whole correspondence between Don Luisde Guzman
and Moses Arragel. Luis’ letter commences as fol-
lows: “We, Master of Calatrava, send many saluta-
tions to you, Raby Moses Arragel, our vassal in our
city of Maqueda. Know, O Raby Moses! that we
desire to possess a Bible with glosses and comments;
and we are told that you can do the work well.”

It is interesting to notice that this translation into
old Castilian follows the order of books according to
the Hebrew canon. This was the express desire of
Jerome; and indeed his translation seems to have
formed, in a measure, the basis for this new transla-
tion, which was made with the help of the Hebrew
original. Wherever the Latin text of Jerome agreed
with the Hebrew, Moses followed both; where they
differed, he followed the Hebrew exclusively. A
surprising freedom of speech is also shown by Moses
in the glosses that he has attached to the text. He
does not scruple to differ from the interpretation of
his own coreligionists. When lie comes in conflict
with the dogmas of the established church, he says
plainly: “This is the opinion of the Christians; but
the Jews hold just the opposite view.” He often
cites the view of the. grand master, Don Luis, him-
self, but never controverts him. He is decidedly
rational in his own views on many points, and does
not scruple to declare many expressions figurative.
The glosses are not simply dry explanations, for
Moses has inserted here and there a number of Jew-
ish tales, fables, and proverbs. The authorities cited
are numerous. Of classic authors, we find Aristotle,
Euclid, Ptolemseus, and Pliny ; of Christian scholars,
Saint Bernard, Saint Ildefonso, and Nicholas de
Lyra. His remarks on Christian theology are drawn
from the “ Tratado sobre la Justicia de la Vida Es-
pirituel ” of Don Pedro, archbishop of Seville. He
mentions byname the Talmud, the Midrash (Midras
or “los Prabot”), the cabalists “rabi Tanhuma,”
“rabi Salomon” (Raslii), “rabi Abraham Abeu
Ezra,” “rabi Moysen de Egipto” (Maimonides),
“rabi Ni(;un (Nissim) de Barcelona,” “rabi Jaed ”
(Jacob ben Asher), “rabi Joseph,” “el Camhy ”
(Kimhi), etc.

On the whole, this work of Arragel’s shows him
to have been a man of vast learning, of fine liter-
ary taste, and of a breadth of view hardly to be

Arrag-el

Art

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

138

expected in a Spanisli rabbi of that time. According
to S. Berger, Arragel used some previous attempts
at translating the Bible into Castilian. As such he
notes MS. Escurial, i.j. 3, and for the prophets, a
manuscript of the fifteenth century preserved in the
Library of the Academy of History at Madrid.

The manuscript of this translation, called the
“Bible of Olivares,” is preserved in the Palace of
Liria at Madrid, belonging to the duchess of Ber-
wick and of Alba. It was given in 1624 to Don
Gaspar de Guzman, count of Olivares, by Don
Andres Pacliico, the grand-inquisitor, because of
the services rendered by himself and his father, the
ambassador at Rome. It passed by marriage into
the possession of the fifth duke of Alba, Don Fran-
cisco Alvarez of Toledo. There are 515 folios, the
text being in two columns, surrounded by the
glosses, which are written in very minute script.

It is interesting from another point of view: it is
filled with miniatures which make it one of the
treasures of the Casa de Alba. The
Its illustrations (334 in number, of which
Careful 6 are full-page), however, have a
Illustra- particular Jewish interest; for, in ad-
tions. dition to the pictures in it of indubi-
tably Christian origin, and copied from
other Bibles in the Cathedral library of Toledo, there
are others which have a thoroughly Jewish tinge,
and on account of which the supposition is justified
that Moses Arragel, if he did not himself assist in
the painting, at least gave directions to the Toledo
artists who did the work. In one picture the inte-
rior of a synagogue is reproduced with the greatest
care and exactness. Moses is represented as holding
the Law in his hands, the Law being written on a
large marble plate. The frontispiece, which is here
reproduced, represents the grand master upon his
throne, covered with a white mantle upon which is
seen the red cross of the Order of Calatrava; around
him are vassals and knights; by his side are a Fran-
ciscan and a Dominican (Friar Arias de Encinas and
Juan de Zamora); and in front of him is Rabbi
Moses himself, on his knees, presenting his work to
his lord and master. The Jew-badge can be plainly
recognized on his right arm. He is surrounded by
the knights of the order; while immediately below
the throne a scene is depicted in which the knights
are seen feeding, clothing, and otherwise succoring
the Jews.

Biblioorapiiy : t)e Rossi, Histor. WOrterh. p. 47; Nepi-Glii-
rondi , p. 280. A description of the manuscript, together with
extracts, was given in 1899 by Senor Paz y Melia in an article
entitled La Bihlia Puesta era Romance por Rabi Mose
Arragel de Guadalfajara , contained in a collection pub-
lished in honor of Marcelino Menendez y Pelayo, Madrid,

1899, vol. ii. pp. 1 et seu., an account of which article will be
found in Bloch's Oesterreichische Wochenschrift, May li,

1900. p. 350. A detailed account has been given by Samuel
Berger in the Bulletin des Antiquaires , 1898, pp. 219-244
(an abstract of which article can be found in the Rev. Et.
Juives, xxxviii. 309-311 ) , and in Romania, xxvili. 521. Com-
pare also Catalog o de las Colrcciones Erpuestas del Palacin
de Liria, Madrid, 1898, p. 40, and Reuss and Berger in the
Realencgclopiidie flir Protestantische Theologie, 3d ed.,
p. 143, reprinted in Urte.rt uml Uebersetzungen der Bibel,
Leipsic, 1897, p. 203.

ARRAS : Chief city of the department of Pas-
■de-G'alais, capital of the ancient Artois, France.
According to Gross, the name of this city appears
in a very curious Hebrew document (De Rossi, MS.

No. 563, 23), which relates that Robert the Pious,
king of France (996-1031), together with his vassals
and neighboring princes, having decreed the exter-
mination of the Jews who refused baptism, a cer-
tain Jacob b. Jekuthiel went to Rome to invoke for
his coreligionists the protection of the pope. The
pope sent a high dignitary to put a stop to the per-
secution. Jacob went from Rome to Lorraine, and
thence to Flanders, about 1023. He died there at
(i.e., Arras), on the banks of a river, probably
the Scarpe. His sons conveyed his body to Rheims.

It does not follow from this text that there was a
Jewish community at Arras at this time; and the
identification of the Hebrew word in question with
Arras is very problematic. Jews probably were liv-
ing at Arras, as in the whole surrounding region, in
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; but nothing
whatever is known of their history.

Bibliography : Gross, Gallia Judaica, pp. 71 et seq.

G. I. L.

ARROWS. See Weapons.

ARROYO, ISAAC BEN MOSES: Lived in Sa-
lonica toward the end of the sixteenth century. He
wrote “ Makhil Kolielet ” (The Preacher Preaching)
and “Tanhumot El” (Consolations of God), philo-
sophical expositions of Ecclesiastes and the Penta-
teuch (Salonica, 1597, 1573).

G. 51. L. 51.

ARSACES : Parthian king ; according to some

scholars, the sixth of that name, mentioned in I 5Iacc.
xiv. 2-3, as having entrapped Demetrius, who had
rebelled against him. Demetrius married a daughter
of Arsaces and, according to Josephus (“ Ant. ” xiii. 5,
§ 11), died in captivity. He is further mentioned — in
I Macc. xv. 22 — in the number of kings to whom
Rome sent the edict which forbade the persecution
of the Jews. He is also known as 5Iithridates I.

g. G. B. L.

ART AMONG THE ANCIENT HE-

BREWS : Material for the formation of an opinion
on the art of the ancient Hebrews is extremely
scanty, as the vestiges are limited
to certain specimens of pottery and
of the glyptic art, including inci-
dental references in Hebrew liter-
ature, touching mainly the Temple
at Jerusalem.

The potter’s art reverts to the
earliest days. After their settle-
ment in Canaan, the Israelites no
doubt soon learned this art from
the inhabitants, although for a
long time thereafter the Pheui- <Fr%‘ eV^"" °f J‘
cians, who carried their earthen-
ware to far-off lands, still continued to supply the
interior of Palestine. Excavations in Jerusalem and
Tell el-Hesy (probably the ancient

Pottery. Lacliish) have yielded a proportion-
ately rich fund of material, sufficient,
according to Flinders Petrie, to trace the history of
Palestinian pottery. Petrie distinguishes an Amorite,
a Phenician, and a Jewish period, each having its own
characteristic style. It is undoubtedly true that the
j art of pottery among the Hebrews was developed

Shekel of Simon
Maccabeus. (Ex-
act size.)

Moses Arragel Presenting His Castilian Translation of the Bible to Don Luis de Guzman.

(From “ Estudioa de Erudicion Espaiiola.”)

Art

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

140

under Phenician influence, for its forms are always
coarse imitations of Phenician models. The older
finds, especially those of Jerusalem, exhibit forms

Hebrew Pottery.

(From Warren, “ Recovery of Jerusalem. ”)

that are in use to-day throughout Palestine and
Syria. See Pottery.

Glyptics dates back to remote antiquity. If tra-
dition assumes that signet-rings were worn by the
Patriarchs (Gen. xxxviii. 18), and that the genera-
tion of the wilderness-journey was skilled in engra-
ving on precious stones, it points at least to the an-
tiquity of the art. The Hebrews were taught this
kind of engraving by the Canaanites, who, in their
turn, had received it from the Phenicians. Origi-
nally, this art of engraving came from the East; for
in the Euphrates district it had been the custom
since remotest time to attest all the more important
business transactions by written con-
Seal- tracts, to which the seals of the parties
Engraving, interested were affixed. The northern
Syrians and Phenicians no doubt
adopted the custom through their frequent inter-
course with this district; and, with the custom, they
doubtless learned also the art of making the seals.
The devices upon these seals point likewise to their
Eastern derivation (see Perrot and Chipiez, “Histoire
de l’Art dans 1’ Antiquite,” vol. iii. , “La Phenicie,”
p. 240). It is, however, always difficult to decide
whether any particular seal among those preserved
belonged to the Hebrews or to
some neighboring nation, unless
it contain some distinctive name.
Eveu when the name is indubi-
tably Jewish, it is always possible
that it may have been made by
Phenicians. The Hebrew and
Phenician seals resemble each other
very closely in shape, script, and
ornamentation. As to ornamen-
tation, there are found devices
of Phenician origin, such as the
palm-leaf, garland of poppy-heads or pomegranates,
winged spheres, etc., and those of Egyptian, such
as Hathor’s insignia, the eye of Osiris, etc. (see the
illustrations in Benzinger, “Hebraische Archaolo-
gie,” pp. 258 ei se<j. ; and see article Seals).

Seal of Elishegib bat
Elishama cut in
jasper.

(In the British Museum.)

Of metal work there are no remains extant. The
description of Solomon’s Temple is the main source
of information upon this point, the notable fact in
which is that it was a Tyrian artificer, named Hiram
(I Kings vii. 13) or Huram Abi, as the chronicler
calls him (II Chron. ii. 13), who made the necessary
utensils for the sanctuary. The Jews themselves
evidently had not yet mastered the art of casting in
bronze or brass, certainly not to the extent necessary
for this work. The account of the building in
I Kings vii. affords only the merest outlines of the
larger art-works manufactured for its use, such as
pillars, the brazen sea, portable lavers, or basins,
etc. The shapes of the smaller utensils, vessels, and
vases of gold and silver were undoubtedly molded
after Phenician models. It was espe-
Metal- ciallyin the manufacture of such arti-
Casting. cles that the Phenicians excelled ; and
their products ruled the market, par-
ticularly in Egypt. Even if the Jewish metal-
workers under Hiram learned enough to make the
smaller articles themselves (compare II Kings xvi.
10), they still wrere constructed upon Phenician lines.
The same is true of the ornaments employed, which
exhibit the Phenician composite style. Thus, in ad-
dition to native flowers, are found the palm-leaf of
Assyria, the lotus-flower of Egypt, and especially
pomegranates and colocynths. Figures of animals,
so frequently found on Phenician vases, were among
the decorations of the borders of the brazen sea. In
religious symbolism, likewise, the same Egjrptian
and Jewish forms are found alongside each other:
the lotus, the eye of Osiris, Ilathor, and Horns upon
seal, all of Egyptian origin — the original meaning

Fragment of a Glass Vase, with Representation of tbe Temple.

(From Vigouroux, “ Dictionnaire de la Bible.”)

of these symbols was of course lost to the Syrian
artists — while the most frequent device of Baby-
lonian origin among the Hebrews was the cherub
(I Kings vi. 23-28, 32, 35; vii. 36; see Cherub).

Older than the art of metal-casting among the

141

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Art

Jews was another species of metal -■ work— overlay-
ing with metal plate. The very ancient Epiiod re-
ceived its name no doubt from the fact that it con-
sisted of a figure of wood or other material, overlaid
with gold or silver foil. The “ calves of gold ” at
Dan and JBeth-el were probably only idols thus over-
laid, and not entirely composed of solid metal
(I Kings xii. 28). Later accounts of the building of
the Temple specify that the walls aud doors, and
even the floor, were overlaid with gold-leaf.

The plastic art was the one that had the least
opportunity for development. Sculpture in stone
hardly existed at all among the Jews: they pos-
sessed neither clay idols — the “mazebah” was al-
ways a plain stone pillar — nor sarcophagi, which
latter, in Phenicia and Egypt, af-
Sculpture, forded opportunity for art -display:

nor are any sculptured decorations of
their stone houses known. They evidently lacked
during all this period the ability to execute artistic
work in stone.

Ivory- and wood-carving, on the other hand, were
practised by the Jews from ancient times. The
above-mentioned overlaying with metal involved,
as a necessary condition, that the underlying wood
had been wrought into proper shape. The old tera-
pliim seem to have been of human form, or at least
to have possessed a human head (I Sam. xix. 13).
The cherubim for the Holy of Holies were carved
out of olive-wood. The wood-work of the walls
and doors of the Temple was ornamented with
carvings (I Kings vi. 18, 29, 35). Solomon’s throne
of state is mentioned as an important product of the
•carver’s art (in ivory) (I Kings x. 18-20); but un-
fortunately it is not stated whether it was made by
Jewish or by Phenician artificers.

It was the religion of the Jews that precluded the
full development of the art of sculpture, and so cou-
fiued it within the above-mentioned narrow limits.
In the most ancient times, when images were not
proscribed, the technical ability to make them artis-
tically was lacking ; and when in later periods this
artistic skill might have been acquired from others,
images were forbidden. The persistent fight of the
Prophets against images was waged
Religion with such success that in the end not

as an only was any representation of the

Opponent Deity forbidden, but even the por-
of the traiture of living beings in general,
Plastic man or beast. Such a command as

Art. that of the Decalogue (Ex. xx. 4;

Deut. v. 8) would have been impos-
sible to a nation possessed of such artistic gifts as
the Greeks, and was carried to its ultimate conse-
quences— as to-day in Islam — only because the peo-
ple lacked artistic inclination, with its creative
power and formative imagination.

The same reason, to which is to be added a defect-
ive sense of color (see Delitzsch, “Iris, Farbenstu-
dien und Blumenstiicke,” pp. 43 et seq. ; Benzinger,
“Ilebr. Archaologie,” pp. 268 et seq.), prevented any
development of painting. Attempts in this direc-
tion are found in the earliest times in the custom of
decorating with colors jars, vases, and articles of
similar character. Objects found at Tell el-Hesy
show such attempts of a somewhat rude fashion;

those found in Jerusalem exhibit them executed in
a more careful and finished manner. The question,
of course, still remains whether these
Painting, latter objects are native products or im-
ported articles. In either case the
painting amounts to but a simple form of ornamenta-
tion by means of colored lines, in which geometrical
figures predominate, with parallel lines and lines at

Robinson’s Arch, Jerusalem.

(From a photograph by Ilonfils.)

right angles, zigzag and waving lines, all forming a
sort of band around the neck or body of the vessel.
In the Old Testament, painting is not mentioned:
when Ezekiel (xxiii. 14) speaks of “ men portrayed
upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans por-
trayed with vermilion,” it is not painting that is re-
ferred to, but probably outline drawings with a col-
ored pencil, the contours being then filled in with
color. See Cherub, House, Sanctuary, Syna-
gogues, Temple, Pottery, Seals.

Bibliography: Herzfeld, Zwei Vortrilge Uber die Kunstlei-
stungen der Hebriier und Aden Juden , 1864; Bliss, Tell
el-Hesy , a Mound of Many Cities , 1894; Perrot et C'hipiez,
History of Ancient Art , vol. i v.; Flinders-Petrie, Tell el-
Hesy. 1891 ; Benzinger, HebrdiscUe Archtlologie, 1894. pp.
249 et seq.; Nowaek, Lehrbuch der HebrUisclien Archli-
ologie, 1894, pp. 259 et seq.

j. jr. I. Be.

ART, ATTITUDE OF JUDAISM TO-
WARD : Art, the working out of the laws of beauty
in the construction of things, is regarded in the Bible
as wisdom resulting from divine inspiration (Ex.
xxxi. 1-6, xxxv. 30-35, xxxvi.-4), and is called in
the Talmud “liokmah ” (wisdom), in distinction from

Art

Arta

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

142

labor (roxta fU'NI TODn, R. H. 29* ; Shab. 131*).
It is, however, somewhat incorrect to speak of
Jewish art. Whether in Biblical or in post-Biblical
times, Jewish workmanship was influenced, if not
altogether guided, by non-Jewish art. Roman ar-
chitecture was invoked in the building of Herod’s
Temple just as Phenician architecture was in the
construction of those of Solomon and of Zerubbabel
(I Kings vii. 13; Ezra iii. 7). Plastic art in general
was discouraged by the Law ; the prohibition of idols
in the Decalogue (Ex. xx. 4) being in olden times
applied to all images, whether they were made ob-
jects of worship or not (see Josephus, “Ant.” xvii.
6, § 2; xviii. 3, § 1; ib. “B. J.” i. 33, § 2; ii. 9, § 2;
10, § 4). In accordance with this view the pious in
Talmudical times even avoided gazing at the pic-
tures engraved on Roman coins (‘Ab. Zarah 50a;
Pes. 104a; Yer. Meg. iii. 2 [74a]; Hippolytus, “Ref-
utation of All Heresies,” ix. 21 ). It is possible, how-
ever, that these figures formed an exception because
they were, as a rule, representations of kings or em-
perors worshiped as gods by the Romans.

Rabbinical tradition, however, follows more ra-
tional rules in interpreting the law prohibiting
images. Referring the law, Ex. xx. 23, “Ye shall
not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye
make unto you gods of gold,” to beings beheld by
prophetic vision at the throne of God, or to anthro-
pomorphic visions of God himself, the Rabbis for-
bade only the fashioning of the four figures of Eze-
kiel as a whole or of any other angelic being, and
especially the making of human figures, as these
might be made objects of worship (Mek., Yitro, x. ;
‘Ab Zarah 42*, 436). In view, however, of the
fact that only carved figures or statues
Influence were, as a rule, objects of worship,
of the prohibition was not applied to im-
Idolatry. ages not projecting ( Ab. Zarah 43*).

Portrait-painting, therefore, was never
forbidden by the Law. As a matter of fact, far
more potent than the Law was the spirit of the
Jewish faith in putting a check on plastic art. In
the same measure as polytheism, whether Semitic
or Aryan, greatly aided in developing art as far as
it endeavored to bring the deity in ever more beau-
tiful form before the eye of the worshiper, Judaism
was determined to lift God above the realm of the
sensual and corporeal and to represent Him as Spirit
only. In particular, the lewdness of the Astarte
worship, which still exerted its evil influence in post-
exilic times (Isa. 1 vii. 3 et seq.), offended the Jewish
sense of chastity, so that idolatry was termed “to
go a whoring” (Num. xv. 39; Hosea i. 2, and else-
where). Nor was the Syrian or the Greco-Roman
idolatry any purer in the judgment of the Rabbis,
as may be learned from ‘Ab. Zarah ii. 1, where it is
stated that the heathen in Mislmaic times were still
suspected of sexual intercourse with beasts. They
saw too often in artistic beauty the means of moral
depravation, and insisted, therefore, on the mutila-
tion or destruction of every idol (ib. iv. 5). And
whatever the Church did during the Middle Ages
toward developing art, in the eyes of Judaism the
images of Jesus and the Virgin, of the apostles and
the saints, presented a relapse into pagan idolatry,
warning the Jew all the more strongly against the

cultivation of the plastic arts, since both the making
of or the trading with any such images as might be
used for the Christian cult was forbidden (Shulhan
‘Aruk, Yoreh De‘ah, 141, 3). In all probability the
extensive use made by the Church of symbolic fig-
ures caused the Jew to shun applying them.

Still, both ecclesiastical and secular ai t existed to
some extent among the Jews of the Middle Ages.
While it was a rule not to decorate the walls of the
synagogue with figures, lest the devotion of the
worshiper should be distracted by the sight, the
doors of the synagogue and the Ark were frequently
ornamented with representations of
In animals (among which the lion was a
the Middle favorite subject), occasionally also of
Ages. birds and snakes, and of plants (such
as flowers, vines, and the like). In all
cases where fear of idolatrous worship by non-Jews
was excluded, liberal-minded rabbis saw no reason
for prohibiting such ornamentation, whereas rigor-
ists would discourage it altogether (see Berliner,
“ Aus dem Inueren Leben der Deutschen Juden im
Mittelalter,” p. 117; D. Kaufmann, in “Jew. Quart.
Rev.” ix. 254 et seq.-, Abrahams, “Jewish Life in
the Middle Ages,” p. 29).

Of home utensils, cups and lamps used for Sab-
bath and festival days were occasionally, despite the
opinion of rabbinical authorities, embossed with fig-
ured designs. Platters painted and inlaid, table-
covers embroidered with golden birds and fishes,
wooden vessels edged and figured, were in common
use (Abrahams, l.c. p. 146). The walls of the
houses of the rich were sometimes decorated with
paintings of Old Testament scenes, and on the out-
side secular subjects were portrayed (Berliner, l.c.
p. 35; Abrahams, ib.). Portrait-painting, though
not common, was not unknown among the Jews of
Germany in the eighteenth century ; while in Italy
it existed as early as the fifteenth century. Espe-
cially was the illumination of manuscripts and the
artistic binding of books carried to great proficiency
by Jews, who probably acquired the art from the
monks (Abrahams, l.c. p. 220). According to
Lecky “(Rationalism in Europe,” ii. 237, note 2),
many of the goldsmiths of Venice who cultivated
the art of carving were Jews. Of recent years
greater attention has been paid to the subject of
Jewish ecclesiastical art, especially since the Anglo-
Jewisli Historical Exhibition of 1887. Societies
have been founded at Vienna, Hamburg, and Frank-
fort-on-the-Main devoted to the collection and study
of artistic objects used in Jewish acts of worship,
whether in the synagogue or the home. In bibliog-
raphy, also, attention is now being paid to title-
pages, illustrations, initials, and the like, in which
Jewish taste has had an influence.

Modern Jewish art no longer bears the specific
character of the Jewish genius, but must be classi-
fied among the various nations to which the Jewish
artists belong. See America, Architecture in;
Almemar; Ark ; Cemetery; Numismatics;
Mj£uillah; Sefer Torah; Synagogue.

Bibliography: David Kaufmann, Zur Gesch. der Kvnst in
Synagogen, in Erster Jahresbericht der GeseUschaft fiir
Sammlung win Kunstdenh miller des Judent.hums, Vien-
na, 1897 ; M. Gudemann, Das Judenthum und die Bilden-
den KUnste, in Zweiter Jahresbericht, ib. 1898; Scbudt,

143

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Art

Arta

Jlhlische Merku'iirdigkcite n, i. 252 et seq.\ A. Freimann, Die

Abtheilung der Dr. Ritualgcgenstiinde im Stddt. Dint nr.

Museum zu Frankfurt-am-Main (privately printed, 1900);

S. J. Solomon, Art and Judaism , in Jew. Quart. Dev. xiii.

553-566; D. H. Muller, Die Hagada von Serajevo.

J. Iv.

Art in the Synagogue : This is restricted

for the reason that it distracts the thought of the
worshiper at prayer. A prohibition against copy-
ing the forms of the cherubim of the sanctuary or
the four animals of the Chariot for synagogue use
was deduced from the words of the Decalogue, “Ye
shall not make ‘with me ’ ” (Mek., Yitro, 10; ‘Ab.
Zarah 43«)> hut it was held not to apply to the lion
alone, when shown without the other animals of the
Chariot group; hence this animal was extensively
used as an ornament on the Ark and as the ensign
of Judah. The synagogue of Ascoli in Italy had
an Ark of gilt walnut with two life-size lions,
carved out at the bottom, flanking the steps leading
to the doors behind which the scrolls were deposited.
After the expulsion of the Jews in 1569 the Ark was
removed to Pesaro (D. Kaufmann, in “Jew. Quart.
Rev.” ix. 254-269). R. Moses Trani, in answer to
an inquiry, decided that a bas-relief sculpture of a
lion should not be permitted to remain within an
Ark of the Lord (Responsa, i. 30, quoted in “Leket
ha-Kemali,” p. 36/;).

David ibn Zimra, in the case of one who built a
synagogue in Crete and wished to place a crowned
lion on the top of the Ark — the design of his coat of
arms — decided against it (Responsa, No. 107).

Judah Minz of Padua would not allow Hertz
Werth, a rich member of his congregation, to place
before the Ark an embroidered curtain with a bas-
relief of a deer set in pearls, being his coat of arms,
while other rabbis permitted it. Finally, a com-
promise was reached by Rabbi Isaac Castiglione,
who allowed the figure of the deer to be embroid-
ered on the curtain without forming a bas-relief (J.
Caro, “Abkat Rokel,” Responsa, No. 65). Joseph
Caro, in reply to a question, permitted figures of
birds to be embroidered on the curtain (ib. No.
66). While R. Eliakim ordered paintings of lions
and snakes to be erased from the walls of the syna-
gogue at Cologne, R. Ephraim permitted the paint-
ing of horses and birds on the walls of the syna-
gogue (Mordecai, ‘Ab. Zarah iii. ; “Bet Joseph” to
Tur Yoreh De‘ah, § 141). Indeed, curtains embroid-
ered with figures are in use in almost every country
where the Jews are scattered, without any fear of
disturbing the thought of worshipers in the syna-
gogue, for the reason that artistic decoration in honor
of the Torah is regarded as appropriate, and the
worshiper, if he be disturbed by it, needs not ob-
serve the figures, as he can shut his eyes during
prayer (“ Abkat Rokel,” Responsa, No. 66).

On the other hand, Elijah Capsali decided against
any decoration in the synagogue which employed
figures of animals as part of the design. R. Samuel
Archevolti objected to the decorations of the Safed
synagogue, and his opinion received the approba-
tion of Moses Alsheik and R. Jacob BeRab (“Jew.
Quart. Rev.” ib.). Moses Sofer ruled against a
stained-glass window above the Ark bearing the fig-
ure of the sun with rays and inscribed : “ From the
rising of the sun even to the going down of the same

the Lord's name is to be praised,” on the ground that
the people bowing to the Ark, on entering the syna-
gogue, would be worshiping the sun (“ Hatam So-
fer,” Responsa, No. 129).

Acase occurred where a representation of a “ meno-
rah ” (Hanukkali lamp) had been painted on the Ark,
with a different verse of the Seventy -seventh Psalm
for each of the seven branches, and on the occasion
of its renovation the ambitious artist signed his
name to it. R. David ibn Zimra (Responsa, No.
107) said he had no objection to the replacement of
the old design by a more artistic painting; but he
ordered the signature to be erased, as that innova-
tion was likely to attract attention, and was disre-
spectful in a synagogue. The same decision is
rendered by Mendel Krochmal (“Zemah Zedek,”
Responsa, No. 50).

k. J. D. E.

ARTA or LARTA; Chief city of the nomarchy
of Arthamania, Greece; situated on the Arta, about
7 miles from its mouth. It is the ancient Ambra-
cia, called by the casuists of the sixteenth century
Acarnania, and assigned to the Morea. In 1890 it
contained 4,328 inhabitants, of whom about 200
were Jews. Little is known of the early history of
the community. The casuists of the sixteenth cen-
tury speak of an old synagogue “ of the Corfiotes ”
(called also “of the natives,” ^Hp), which

leads to the supposition that Jews from Corfu set-
tled at Arta when Roger I. of Sicily took possession
of that Ionian island. Moreover, Benjamin of Tu-
dela (about 1170, under Manuel I. Comnenus) men-
tions 100 Jews (or Jewish families?), whose leaders
were R. Solomon and IL Heracles.

At the time of Scanderbeg (1404-67), Arta was
already under Turkish rule. Upon their expulsion
from the Spanish dominions, the Jews,

Fifteenth coming from Calabria, Apulia, and

Century. Sicily, formed congregations and es-
tablished a college. The earliest lead-
ers of the latter were Rabbi Caleb (a name which
frequently occurs among both Rabbinites and Ka-
raites, and was later used by the Sephardim as a
family name), Solomon Hamy, and Benjamin b.
Shemariab, and, later, Abraham Obadiah Sephardi
(died at an advanced age before 1529), who be-
queathed his whole fortune to the poor of the Cor-
fiote and Apulian synagogues; and finally Benjamin
b. Mattathias (died before 1539), the author of “Bin-
van Ze’eb.” The last-named, a loyal and modest
character, was engaged in commerce in addition to
his studies. He corresponded with the rabbis of
Venice, of Constantinople (Elijah Mizrahi), and of
Salonica (Joseph Taytazak), and engaged in disputes
wit}) David Cohen of Corfu. His son-in-law, Sam
uel b. Moses Calai (still living in 1574), author of
“Mishpete Shemuel” (Venice, 1599), was the con-
temporary and rival of Isaac (b. Sliabbetliai ?) Co
hen, Solomon b. Baruch, Abraham b. Moses, and
others. Somewhat earlier lived the notary Shabbe-
tliai b. Moses Russo (1525). About that time (be-
fore 1534) certain new ordinances were instituted.
It appears that the Jewish youth of both sexes had
somewhat scandalized the community of Arta by
holding dancing parties. The heads of the commu-

Arta

Artaxerxes I.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

144

nity not only put an end to such entertainments,
but also forbade betrothed young men to visit their
fiancees before marriage, as was the

Internal ancient custom of the natives. This
Dis- last measure caused dissensions in the

sensions. community. The Jews originally
from Apulia, numbering about thirty
families, especially protested, under the leadership
of the heads of the community, Shabbethai b. Caleb
and Moses b. Shabbethai Clevi (Clevois?), Judah b.
Jacob, and David b. Solomon Mioui, Herero b. Sol-
omon Pic-lion, Mordecai b. Mazaltob Mac;a, Matta-
thias b. Leon, Mattatliias b. Solomon Benjamin
Haliczi (probably from Haliczin Galicia), and Shab-
bethai b. Abraham Fidelo. In order to avoid future
scandal and to secure the sanctity of the home, it
was decreed (about 1521) that betrothals should be
entered into only in the presence of ten laymen and
one rabbi. Moreover (before 1561), dice or any other
games of chance were forbidden except outlie scmi-
liolidays, Purim, and the fast preceding it.

The Jewish population of Arta comprised at this
period about 300 families, who were, however, not
completely assimilated; for the Greek Jews had
not yet yielded altogether to the Spanish. In addi-
tion to the occurrence mentioned above, the Jews
had other causes for dissension among them, chiefly
in regard to the apportioning of the taxes. In this
latter case the difficulties were adjusted by the syn-
dics. But disputes arose among the permanent resi-
dents of Arta, or between them and strangers who
came to the city, like the Jews of Patras who had
left their native town to escape some great danger.
Arta itself, where they sought refuge, did notalwajrs
afford protection. In one instance the governor of
the city cast all the Jewish inhabitants into prison
during the Feast of Tabernacles in order to extort
from them the sum of 3,000 florins.

The Jews on the highways were even less secure
than in the cities: the casuists of this epoch record
several assassinations of Jews; e.g., that of Moses
Soussi. The principal occupation of the Jews being
commerce, they traveled a good deal, either to Corfu
or to Janina (45 miles from Arta), where they sold
Venetian wares or fabrics, or to neighboring villages
and other places. They also followed various
trades, even women being engaged in dyeing silk.
There were also Jewish physicians at Arta (Jacob
Rofe, Moses Polastro), who at times charged the
comparatively large sum of 50 ducats for treating
a patient.

The moral tone of the community, though marked
on the whole by devotion and even an austere piety,
was lowered in individual cases through lack of
central administration. Thus, a certain Shemariali
b. Abraham dared to maltreat the rabbi Benjamin
b. Shemariali and even to say things prejudicial to
the community. Another, Solomon by name, stig-
matized as apostates the Maranos who, fleeing from
Apulia, sought refuge at Arta. Finally, a certain
Manoal) Politzer (? ~iy^S), with the assistance of
two false witnesses, Abraham Turkia and Abraham
Tobiel, appropriated (about 1529) the legacy of R.
Abraham Sephardi mentioned on page 143. In con-
trast to this darker side is the solidarity which
mnited not only the Jews living in Arta, but also the

latter with those of the neighboring towns. Thus it
is recounted that when some pirates robbed a cer-
tain Eliezer of Pola P^IDO) and sold their booty to
the Jews of En-Mavra, a notification from the rab-
binical body of Arta was sufficient to cause the pur-
chasers to restore the property to the owner in con-
sideration of the expenses involved.

Rabbinic studies declined here as in the Orient
generally. By the seventeenth century the rabbis —
for example, Eliezer Menaliem — were
Decadence obliged to seek their knowledge at the
in Seven- colleges of Salonica, as probably also
teenth R. Moses Jacob, Raphael Cohen,
Century. Abraham ‘Iton (jUOy), and Shabbethai
Russo, contemporaries of the chroni-
cler David Conforte. This decadence was doubtless
due in part to the political vicissitudes which suc-
cessively befell Arta, such as the invasions of the
Venetians (1688), of the French (1797), of Tepede-
lenli Ali, pasha of Janina (1798), of the Greeks (1821),
and lastly of the Turks (1821).

Between 1854 — when the town revolted against
the Turks, who reconquered it after a few months
— and June, 1880, nothing of note occurred among
the Jews of Arta. Then, at the instance of some
public-spirited men, the Talmud Torah was reor-
ganized so as to include both secular and religious
instruction. This reform went into
Modern effect a year later (June, 1881), accord-
Times. ing to regulations written in three
languages (Hebrew, Greek, and Ital-
ian), dated March 17, 1880, and signed by Julius
(Shabbethai Ezra) Besso (president), Jacob Raphael
Mioni (vice-president), Moses Daniel Yerushalmi
(treasurer), Michel Shabbethai Besso (secretary), and
the inspectors Elie Joseph Cane, Moses Solomon
Battino, Moses Zaffo, and Abraham Shabbethai
(printed by Nacamulli, Corfu). Mention is also
made of two benefactors of the institutions, citizens
of Corfu: (1) Abraham Tchaki, who contributed
much toward the success of the work, and (2) espe-
cially Solomon Abrahain, who, in addition to funds,
gave a building of the value of 1,000 francs, which
he owned at Arta. Nicole Zanetti is mentioned as
professor of Greek.

Some time after (1881), Arta was ceded by the
Turks to the kingdom of Greece, conformably to
the Treaty of Berlin.

g. A. D.

ARTABAN V.; Last of the Parthian kings;
died in the year 227. He was the son of Volageses V.,
whose throne he ascended about 216, after a struggle
with his brother Volageses VI. For many years he
successfully conducted a war against the Romans,
defeating both Caracalla and his successor Mac-
rinus. He lost his life, however, in his conflicts with
the Persians, 227.

This last ruler of the house of the Arsaeids was
well inclined toward the Jews; Abba Arika, the
head of the academy of Sura, received signal marks
of his friendliness. Thus he once sent to him a
number of valuable pearls as a gift, and received
in return from Abba Arika a mezvznh (door-post in-
scription), with the remark, that the word of God
was of a higher value than all the gems of earth

145

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Arta

Artaxerxes I.

(Yer. Peah i. 1, p. 15 d; Gen. R. xxxv., end; in botli
places “ Rabbi ” is erroneously given in place of the
original “ Rab ”).

When Artaban died Rab exclaimed in sorrow, “ The
bond of friendship has been sundered! ” (‘Ab. Zarah
10 b. The text lias pnx ; read pviK (Persian Ar-
dewan) ; Koliut, “Aruch Completum,” i. 280).

Bibliography : Gutschmid, Gesch. Iran's, pp. 154 et seq..

1888: Jost, Gesch. des Judenthiuns, Ii. 139; Gratz, Gesch.

der Juden , 2d ed., iv. 281.

G. L. G.

ARTAPANUS : Historian ; lived in Alexandria
in the second century b.c. He wrote a history of
the Jew’s, parts of which have been preserved in the
writings of the church-fathers Eusebius (“Prtepara-
tio Evangelica,” ix. 18, 23) and Clement of Alexan-
dria (“Stromata,” i. 23, 154), as well as in those of
some later authors. Freudenthal shows that both
Alexander Polyliistor and Josephus made use of
Artapanus’ work. The fragments that have sur-
vived enable one to form an opinion — not a very
flattering one — as to the merits of their author.
Artapanus evidently belonged to that narrow-
minded circle of Hellenizing Jew’s that were unable
to grasp wdiat was truly great in Judaism, and,
therefore, in their mistaken apologetic zeal — for
even in those early days Judaism had its opponents
among the Hellenes — set about glorifying Judaism
to the outer world by inventing all manner of fables
concerning the Jews. As an illustration of this
method, the following account of Moses will serve.
According to Artapanus (Eusebius, ibid. ix. 27),
Moses is he whom the Greeks called Musaeus; he
wras, however, not (as in the Greek legend) the pupil,
but the teacher, of Orpheus. Wherefore Moses is
not only the inventor of many useful appliances and
arts, such as navigation, architecture, military strat-
egy, and of philosophy, but is also — this is peculiar
to Artapanus — the real founder of the Groek-Eg}’p-
tian worship. By the Egyptians, whose political
system he organized, Moses was called Hermes <ha
ti/v T6jv lepov ypapparuv epprjvdav (“because he ex-
pounded the waitings of the priests ”).

The departure from Egypt is then recounted, with
many liaggadic additions and embellishments. The
astounding assertion, that Moses and the Patriarchs
were the founders of the Egyptian religion, led
Freudenthal to the assumption that “ Artapanus ”
must be a pseudonym. assumed by some Jewish wri-
ter who desired to be taken for an Egyptian priest,
in order to give greater weight to his words. This
supposition, how’ever, as Schurer points out, is
highly improbable, and fails to explain the remark-
able phenomenon of a Jew ascribing a Jewish origin
to the Egyptian pantheon. It is much more proba-
ble that Artapanus belonged to a syncretistie circle
of philosophers that saw no such grave objection to
a moderate idolatry as to prevent its being accepted
as of Jewish origin. Having adopted the Greek
fables that derived the Egyptian cult from Grecian
heroes, and having identified these heroes with Bib-
lical personages, he had no alternative but to trace
the idolatry of Egypt to a Jewish source.

[Or, Artapanus’ position may have been some-
wdiat asfollow’s: Thinking it necessary for the honor
of the Jewish people that they should be regarded
II. — 10

as the source of all religion, he chose to attribute to
them the origin of the Egyptian religion in spite of
difficulties that he may have felt in connection w’ith
its idolatry. — t.]

Bibliography : Dahne, GeschichU. Darstelhmrj, ii. 200-303 ;
Freudenthal, Alexander Poluhistor, pp. 143-174, 215, 231 et
seq.; Susemihl, Gesch. der Griechischen Literattir, ii. 046 et
seq.; Gratz, Gesch. der Juden. iii. 606 ; VVillrioli, Juden and
Griechen, p. 160; Schurer, Gesch. 111. 354-357, who gives
further references.

t. L. G.

ARTAXERXES I. (surnamed Longimanus —

“Long-Hand ”): King of Persia; ascended the throne
in 465 b.c. , and died in 425 b.c. In the Persian name
Artakhshathra (“he whose empire is perfected ”) the
“thr” (written with a special sign in Persian) is pro-
nounced with a hissing sound, and is therefore repre-
sented in other languages by a sibilant. Thus in Bab-
ylonian, Artakshatsu, Artakhshassu, and numerous
variations ; in Susie, Irtaksliashsha ; Egyptian, Artakh-
shaslia; Hebrew, Nnti’CTimN and NJIDCTimN (that
is, Artakhshasta) ; in Greek, ’ Apra^aar/C (inscription in
Tralles’ “Corpus Inscriptionum Grtecarum,” 2919),
and by assimilation with the name Xerxes ’ ApraS-ep^s
and ’ ApTogepZr/c. According to the chronographic lists
of the Babylonians and of the Ptolemaic Canon, Artax-
erxes I. reigned forty-one years, which includes the
short reign of his son Xerxes II., murdered after a
reign of six weeks. Some Greek authorities give him
only forty years; thus Diodorus, xi. G9,
Sources of xii. 64. (Concerning the chronology,
Infor- compare Meyer, “Forschungcn zur
mation. Alton Geschichte,” 1899, ii. 482.) From
this period many dated archives are ex-
tant, found throughout Babylonia, but particularly
in Nippur, by the expedition of the University of
Pennsylvania (published by Hilprecht and Clay,
“The Babylonian Expedition of the University of
Pennsylvania,” vol. ix., 1898). But there are no ar-
cheological remains of the reign of Artaxerxes I. with
the exception of a single inscription on a building in
Susa and an alabaster vase in Paris which bears his
name in Persian, Susian, Babylonian cuneiform, and
in hieroglj'phs. All information concerning him is
derived from the accounts of Greek writers, especially
the fragments of Ctesias, and from the statements of
the booksof Ezra and Nehemiali. Josephus wrong-
fully claims that the Aliasuerus (Xerxes) of the Book
of Esther is this Artaxerxes I., and also that the Ar-
taxerxes of Ezra and Nehemiali is Xerxes.

Artaxerxes was the second son of Xerxes, who was
murdered in the summer of 465 by his all-powerful
vizir Artaban. The murderer accused the king’s
eldest son Darius of the crime, with the result that
Darius was slain by his younger brother Artaxerxes,
w’ho then mounted the throne. But Artaban sought
the crown for himself, and therefore aimed at the life
of the young king; the latter, it is stated, warned
by Megabyzus, his brother-in-law, rid himself of the
murderer by slaying him, with all his household and
party, in open combat (Ctesias, “Persica,” 29; Dio-
dorus, xi. 69; Justin, iii. 1, according to Dinon; but
Aristotle, “Politics,” viii. 8, 14 has a different ver-
sion). The murder of Xerxes is mentioned also by
ZElian (“ Vari® Historise,” xiii. 3), and in an Egyptian
inscription of the time of Ptolemy I., which ascribes
the deed to the vengeance of an Egyptian god on the

Artaxerxes I.
Arthur Legend

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

146

foreign king. The Greek chronoiogists, evidently
through a misunderstanding, make of Artaban a Per-
sian king and state that he reigned seven months.
The Greeks gave Artaxerxes the surname M.aap6-
xap (Longimauus, Long-Hand), asserting, probably
correctly, that his right hand was longer than his
left. They uniformly describe him as a brave and
handsome man, a kindly and magnanimous ruler (Ne-
pos, “De Regibus,” eh. i. ; Plutarch, “Artaxerxes,”
ch. i.). The authentic narrative of Nehemiali gives an
accurate picture, showing him to have been a kindly
monarch, who, noticing the sadness of his cupbearer,
asked him his wish and granted it. This charac-
terization does not deny that he was
His susceptible to harem-influence or that
Character, he could become very angry when any
one appeared presumptuous. Ctesias
relates that he once sought to decapitate Megabyzus
because, on a hunting expedition, when a lion was
about to spring upon the king, Megabyzus slew
him without awaiting the royal spear-thrust. The
women of the court interceded for the offender, and
his sentence was commuted to long exile upon an
island in the Persian gulf, whence he finally suc-
ceeded in escaping. He afterward secured the king’s
pardon. The reverence with which the Persians re-
garded Artaxerxes may be seen in the fact that two
of his successors adopted his name.

His long reign was generally tranquil, the system
of government introduced by Darius working sat-
isfactorily. A few satraps who rebelled now and
again (as, for instance, at the very beginning of the
reign, the governor of Baetria), were speedily sub-
dued. On the borderlands and in the mountainous
districts the authority of the government may not
have been vigorously sustained, but every other re-
ligion under his sway in Asia may be said to have
enjoyed a period of peaceful growth. Artaxerxes I.
was, however, not a creative genius.

Fuller details are known concerning his relationship
to the Jews, toward whose development- at a critical
juncture he contributed efficiently. Two documents
are contained in the Book of Ezra, ch. iv. (albeit
wrongfully placed by the editor of that work); and
there are also fragments of the memoirs of Ezra and
Nehemiali themselves. Both documents in ch. iv. and
the decree containing Ezra’s appointment in ch. vii.

have been declared spurious. In addi-
His Rela- tion, the attempt has been made fre-
tions to the quently to place Ezra’s journey and
Jews. reforms in the reign of Artaxerxes II. ;

but all such endeavors are critically
untenable (compare Meyer, “Entsteliung des Juden-
tliums,” 1896).

In the seventh year of Artaxerxes I. (458 b.c.) the
Babylonian Jews requested that permission should
be given to the priest Ezra to visit Palestine, with
full power over the Jews there, and to enforce the
book of the Law as the will of the king. How the
king acceded to this request, and how Ezra endeav-
ored to carry out his mission, are well known. Ezra
first took strong measures against the mixed mar-
riages, coming thereby into conflict with “ the peo-
ple of the land,” the Samaritans and their allies. To
protect himself against them, Ezra undertook to
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Permission for this

was not contained in the commission he had received
from the king; accordingly the Samaritans and their
governor, Relnim, interfered and addressed a letter
to the king, given in Ezra iv. 7. The king, who had
no doubt been informed of the former importance of
the rebellious city and the danger which its reforti-
ficatiou might threaten to his revenues, issued orders
that the rebuilding of the walls must stop (iv. 17).
The triumph of the Samaritans was complete ; the
walls were torn down, and the gates were burnt (Nell,
i. 3). Such was the condition of the city when, in
Kislew of the twentieth year (December, 446), Nelie-
miah, the king’s cupbearer, received information
from his brethren concerning it. The Bible narra-
tive tells how he succeeded in being sent as governor
to Judea, and how he immediately (summer of 445)
set energetically to work to restore the fortifications,
thus enabling Ezra, through the influence of his
authority, to establish the book of the Torah as the
law binding upon the Jews. Nehemiali returned to
court in 433 (Nell. v. 14, xiii. 6), but was despatched
to Judea a second time to counteract certain evils
which had arisen.

g. E. Me.

ARTAXERXES II. (originally Arsakes, sur-
named Mnemon by the Greeks): The eldest son of
Darius II. ; succeeded his father in 404 b.c. (Dio-
dorus, xiii. 108), and adopted the name of his grand-
father Artaxerxes. He reigned until 359; that is, 46
years.

Artaxerxes II. seems to have been of a noble dis-
position; but, despite personal bravery, he was
feeble in character, and under subjection to his im-
perious mother, Parysatis, who favored her younger
son Cyrus to the extent of desiring the throne for
him. After Cyrus’ rebellion, and his death in the
battle of Cunaxa (401 b.c.), Parysatis ruled the king
completely and led him into the gravest crimes.
Owing to his weakness, he was not the man to save
the effete and dying Persian empire. Immediately
upon his accession Egypt declared and maintained
its independence. His whole reign was filled with
rebellions and uprisings by satraps, especially in
Asia Minor and Syria, though Palestine, then under
the rule of the high priests, seems to have steered
clear of any participation. Nevertheless, the inter-
nal distractions of the Greek world enabled him to
succeed in the main in asserting that supremacy
over Greece that Darius and Xerxes had vainly
aimed at. After having diverted the attack of the
Spartans by inciting their war against Corinth, he
succeeded, through conjunction with Sparta and
Dionysus I. of Sicily, in imposing his will upon the
Greeks by the celebrated “Peace of the King,”
in 387 b.c. For decades thereafter, this “King’s
Peace ” was the law in Greece, against which no
state dared rebel.

Bibliography : Greek histories, especially Plutarch's Biog-
raphy of this king', are full of information concerning Artax-
erxes II.: but the suggested connection with the history of

Ezra, made by some historians, is without foundation.

g. E. Me.

ARTAXERXES III.: A son of Artaxerxes II.
He originally bore a name which in Babylonian
was written “ Umasu ” (and therefore in the Ptole-
maic canon, as given by Elias of Nisibis, the form

147

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Artaxerxes I.
Arthur Legend

D1EK is found). He was called Ochus by the Greeks.
After he had rid himself of the rightful successor,
Darius, he mounted his father’s throne in the autumn
of 359 b.c., and reigned until the summer of 338.
Hence the Babylonians and the Ptolemaic canon as-
sign twenty-one years to his reign, while Diodorus
(xv. 93; xvii. 5), together with the Greek chronolo-
gies, wrongly extends his reign by some years (see
Meyer, “ Forsclmngen zur Alten Geschichte,” ii. 460,
488* et seq., 496 et seq.).

Artaxerxes III. Ochus was a cruel and bloodthirsty
despot. He began his reign by murdering all rela-
tives who might become dangerous to him. He was,
however, a most energetic ruler, who allowed him-
self to be discouraged by no obstacle
His or failure, but ruthlessly prosecuted his

Character, purposes. With the assistance of the
unscrupulous eunuch Bagoas and his
Rhodian captains of mercenaries, Mentor and Mem-
non — fitting tools for his schemes — he succeeded in
cementing the rapidly disintegrating empire of Per-
sia by bloodshed, treachery, and fraud. He crushed
several insurrections, notably that of the rebellious
Sidonian in 345-344; and after many unsuccessful
attempts he succeeded, in 343 or 342, in subduing
Egypt also, and made it suffer severely for its
rebellion.

A certain conflict with his Jewish subjects seems
to have been connected with these struggles. Jose-
phus (“Ant.” xi. 7, § 1) relates that when the high
priest J udas (Joiada) was succeeded by his son Joha-
nan (Jonathan or John ; compare Neh. xii. 1 1 , 22), his
brother Jesus (Joshua) sought to.deprive him of the
office. Jesus relied for support upon Bagoses, Ar-
taxerxes’ general (the Bagoas previously mentioned),
and so enraged Johanan that the latter struck him
down in the Temple. Bagoses seven years later
avenged the murder of Jesus by exacting of the Jews
a tax of 50 drachmas for each lamb offered at the daily
sacrifices. He also unlawfully and
Connec- forcibly entered the Temple precincts,
tion with claiming that he was purer than the
Jewish murdering high priest Johanan. There

History, is no reason to consider this account as
being in its essentials untrue (Willrich,
“Juden und Griechen vor der Makkabitisclien Erlie-
bung,” p. 89, declares the episode to be a misunder-
standing of events which happened under Antiochus
Epiphanes). It is probably to this episode that Eu-
sebius refers in his “Chronicle” (under date of 1657
from Abraham — that is, 360 b.c. — which date is cer-
tainly erroneous; he is followed by Jerome; by
Syncellus, p. 486; and by Orosius, iii. 76), when he
relates that Artaxerxes III., upon his march against
Egypt, carried a number of Jews into exile in Hyr-
caniaand Babylonia. Possibly one of the uprisings
alluded to above may have included a portion of
Judea. This is possibly also the explanation of the
strange statement of Justin (xxxvi. 3) that Xerxes,
the king of the Persians, conquered the Jews. Neither
of these statements is particularly reliable. The sug-
gestion that the story of Judith is a reflection of these
events lacks all foundation. The statement of Solinus
(xxxv. 4) that Jericho was besieged by Artaxerxes
and destroyed by him, has been explained by Theo-
dore Reinach (“ Semitic Studies in Memory of A.

Kohut,” pp. 447 et seq.) to refer to the conquests of
the Sassaniau king Artaxerxes I. (226-241).

In 338 Artaxerxes III., with most of his sons, was
murdered by Bagoas; one of his sons, Arses, was
elevated to the throne ; but after a reign of two or
three years he also was put to death by the mur-
derer of his father.

g. E. Me.

ARTEMION : Leader of the Jewish insurrection
in Cyprus against Trajan, 117. There are but scanty
details of this revolt. According to Roman sources,
the Jews destroyed the capital of the island of Sala-
mis and slew 240,000 Greeks. The revolt was quelled
by Trajan’s general .Martins Turbo; and to judge
by the atrocities committed by him, the suppression
was attended with very sanguinary results for the
Jews. The law passed in Cyprus after the revolt,
that no Jew should set foot on the island, and that,
if cast there by shipwreck, he should suffer death,
shows the hatred felt by the Greek Cypriotes toward
the Jews.

Bibliography : Dion Cassius, History , lxviil. 322 ; Griitz,

Gesch. dcr Juden , iv. 127-129.

g. L. G.

ARTHUR LEGEND: The cycle of stories clus-
tering around the semi-mythical hero King Arthur
of England, and which finds its place in Jewish lit-
erature in a Hebrew translation entitled IDCTl "I2D
r6uyn n^JOn (“The Book of the Destruction of
the Round Table”), composed iu 1279 by an author
whose name can not be ascertained. Only a few
fragments exist in the Vatican manuscript edited
by A. Berliner in “Ozar Tob,” 1885, pp. 1-11.
These include passages from “The Life of Lancelot”
“ The Birth of Arthur.” “The Quest
of the Grail ” KDtf’p H 113'^). The

original seems to have concluded with a sermon on
repentance, to which the translator refers in his pref-
ace as one of his two motives for translating the
work, the other motive being to drive away his own
melancholy. From the nature of the translation,
which includes several Italian words, Steiuschneider
concludes that the original was in Italian and that
the writer lived in Italy. But the source from which
the author drew his form of the story is no longer
extant; it was obviously merely a short abridgment
of the voluminous romance of chivalry out of which
the Arthur Legend has been composed. While the
book throws no light upon the origiu of the legend,
or even upon its later literary history, it is interest-
ing for the contrast it presents between the scenes of
bloodshed and unchastity that constitute the ro-
mance and the Jewish ideals so opposed to these.
“The Quest of the Grail,” though possibly in its
origin a Celtic legend, has become inextricably
associated with the Christian sacrament of the mass;
and it is therefore extremely curious to find it
treated in Hebrew. The translator seems to have
felt this, and gives a somewhat elaborate apology
for translating it. A Judaeo-German version of the
legend also exists among the manuscripts in the
library of the city of Hamburg.

Bibliography: Steinschneider, Hehr. XJebers. pp. 907-969;

idem. Hehr. Bihl. viii. 16; idem, Cat. Hamburg Library ,

No. 228 and p. 183.

A. J.

Articles of Faith

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

148

ARTICLES OF FAITH : In the same sense as
Christianity or Islam, Judaism can not be credited
with the possession of Articles of Faith. Many at-
tempts have indeed been made at systematizing and
reducing to a fixed phraseology and sequence the
contents of the Jewish religion. But these have al-
ways lacked the one essential element : authoritative
sanction on the part of a supreme ecclesiastical bod}'.
And for this reason they have not been recognized
as final or regarded as of universally binding force.
Though to a certain extent incorporated in the lit-
urgy and utilized for purposes of instruction, these
formulations of the cardinal tenets of Judaism car-
ried no greater weight than that imparted to them
by the fame and scholarship of their
No respective authors. None of them
Fixed had a character analogous to that
Dogmas, given in the Church to its three great
formulas (the so-called Apostles’
Creed, the Nicene or Constantinopolitan, and the
Athanasian), or even to the “ Kalimat As-Shaliadat ”
of the Mohammedans. The recital of this “ Kali-
mali” is the first of the five pillars of practical relig-
ion in Islam, and every one converted to Islam must
repeat it verbatim ; so that among the conditions re-
quired of every believer with reference to confession
is the duty to repeat it aloud at least once in a life-
time. None of the many summaries from the pens
of Jewish philosophers and rabbis has been invested
with similar importance and prominence. The rea-
sons for this relative absence of official and obliga-
tory creeds are easily ascertained. The remark of
Leibnitz, in his preface to the “ Essais de Theodicee,”
that the uations which filled the earth before the es-
tablishment of Christianity had ceremonies of de-
votion, sacrifices, libations, and a priesthood, but
that they had no Articles of Faith and no dogmatic
theology, applies with slight modification to the
Jews. Originally race — or perhaps it is more correct
to say nationality — and religion were coextensive.
Birth, not profession, admitted to the religio-national
fellowship. As long as internal dissension or exter-
nal attack did not necessitate for purposes of defense
the formulation of the peculiar and differentiating
doctrines, the thought of paragraphing and fixing
the contents of the religious consciousness could not
insinuate itself into the mind of even the most faith-
ful. Missionary or proselytizing religions are driven
to the definite declaration of their teachings. The
admission of the neophyte hinges upon the profes-
sion and the acceptance on his part of the belief;
and that there may be no uncertainty about what is
essential and what non-essential, it is incumbent on
the proper authorities to determine and promulgate
the cardinal tenets in a form that will facilitate
repetition and memorizing. And the same necessity
arises when the Church or religious fellowship is
torn by internal heresies. Under the necessity of
combating heresies of various degrees of perilous-
ness and of stubborn insistence, the
No Need Church and Islam were forced to define
for Creeds and officially limit their respective
in Judaism, theological concepts. Both of these
provocations to creed-building were
less intense in Judaism. The proselytizing zeal,
though during certain periods more active than at

others, was, on the whole, neutralized, partly by
inherent disinclination and partly by force of cir-
cumstances. Righteousness, according to Jewish
belief, was not conditioned on the acceptance of the
Jewish religion. And the righteous among the na-
tions that carried into practise the seven fundamen-
tal laws of the covenant with Noah and his descend-
ants 'were declared to be participants in the felicity
of the hereafter. This interpretation of the status
of non-Jews precluded the development of a mis-
sionary attitude. Moreover, the regulations for the
reception of proselytes, as developed in course of
time, prove the eminently practical — that is, the non-
creedal — character of Judaism. Compliance with
certain rites — -baptism, circumcision, and sacrifice —
is the test of the would-be convert’s faith. He is in-
structed in the details of the legal practise that mani-
fests the Jew’s religiosity, while the profession of
faith demanded is limited to the acknowledgment of
the unity of God and the rejection of idolatry (Yoreh
De‘ah, Gerim, 268, 2). Judah ha-Levi (“Cuzari,”
i. 115) puts the whole matter very strikingly when
he says: “We are not putting on an equality with
us a person entering our religion through confession
alone [Arabic original, bikalamati — by word]. We
require deeds, including in that term self-restraint,
purity, study of the Law, circumcision, and the
performance of the other duties demanded by the
Torah. ” For the preparation of the convert, there-
fore, no other method of instruction was employed
than for the training of one born a Jew. The aim
of teaching was to convey a knowledge of the Law,
obedience to which manifested the acceptance of the
underlying religious principles; namely, the exist-
ence of God and the holiness of Israel as the people
of His covenant.

The controversy whether Judaism demands belief
in dogma, or inculcates obedience to practical laws
alone, has enlisted many competent scholars. Moses
Mendelssohn, in his “Jerusalem,” defended the non-
dogmatic nature of Judaism, while Low among
others (see his “Gesammelte Sclnifteu,” i. 31-52, 433
et seq. 1871) took the opposite side. Low made it
clear that the Mendelssohnian theory had been car-
ried beyond its legitimate bounds. The meaning of
the word for faith and belief in Hebrew (roiDK) had
undoubtedly been strained too far to substantiate
the Mendelssohnian thesis. Underlying the practise
of the Law was assuredly the recognition of certain
fundamental and decisive religious principles cul-
minating in the belief in God and revelation, aud
likewise in the doctrine of retributive divine justice.
The modern critical view of the development of the
Pentateuch within the evolution of Israel’s mono-
theism confirms this theory. The controversy of the
Prophets hinges on the adoption by the people of
Israel of the religion of Yhwh, that excluded from
the outset idolatry, or certainly the recognition of
any other deity than Yhwh as the legitimate Lord
of Israel; that, in its progressive
Evolution evolution, associated with Yhwh the
of concepts of holiness, j ustice, and right-
Judaism. eousness; and that culminated in the
teaching of God’s spirituality and
universality. The historical books of the Bible,
as recast in accordance with these latter religious

149

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Articles of Faith

ideas, evince the force of a strong and clearly ap-
prehended conviction concerning the providential
purpose in the destinies of earth’s inhabitants, and
more especially in the guidance of Israel. The
Psalms and Wisdom books manifest the predomi-
nance of definite religious beliefs. To say that
Judaism is a barren legalistic convention, as Men-
delssohn avers, is an unmistakable exaggeration.
The modicum of truth in his theory is that through-
out Biblical Judaism, as in fact through all later
phases of Jewish religious thinking and practise,
this doctrinal element remains always in solution.
It is not crystallized into fixed phraseology or rigid
dogma. And, moreover, the ethical and practical
implications of the religion are never obscured.
This is evidenced by the Biblical passages that, in
the opinion of many, partake of the nature of Arti-
cles of Faith, or are of great value as showing what,
in the opinion of their respective authors, constitutes
the essence of religion. Among these the most note-
worthy are Deut. vi. 4; Isa. xlv. 5-7; Micali vi. 8;
Ps. xv.; Isa. i. 16, 17; xxxiii. 15.

Whatever controversies may have agitated Israel
during the centuries of the Prophets and the earlier
postexilic period, they were not of a kind to induce
the defining of Articles of Faith to counteract the in-
fluences of heretical teaching. Dogmatic differences
manifest themselves only after the Maccabean strug-
gle for independence. But even these differences
were not far-reaching enough to overcome the in-
herent aversion to dogmatic fixation of principles;
for, with the Jews, acceptance of principles was not
so much a matter of theoretical assent as of practi-
cal conduct. Though Josephus would have the di-
visions between the Pharisees and Sadducees hinge
on the formal acceptance or rejection of certain
points of doctrine — such as Providence, resurrection
of the body, which, for the Pharisees, was identical
with future retribution — it is the

Discus- consensus of opinion among modern
sions and scholars that the differences between
Dogmatism these two parties were rooted in their
Disfavored, respective political programs, and im-
plied in their respectively national
and anti-national attitudes, rather than in their
philosophical or religious dogmas.

If the words of Siracli (iii. 20-23) are to be taken
as a criterion, the intensely pious of his days did not
incline to speculations on what was beyond their
powers to comprehend. They were content to per-
form their religious duties in simplicity of faith.
The Mislinali (Hag. ii. 1) indorsed this view of Si-
racli, and in some degree discountenanced theos-
ophy and dogmatism. Among the recorded discus-
sions in the schools of the Rabbis, dogmatic problems
commanded only a very inferior degree of attention
(‘Er. 136: controversy concerning the value of hu-
man life; Hag. 12a: concerning the order of Crea-
tion). Nevertheless, in the earliest Mislmah is found
the caution of Abtalion against heresy and unbe-
lief (Ab. i. 11 [12]); and many a Baraita betrays
the prevalence of religious differences (Ber. 126;
‘ Ab. Zarali 17a). These controversies have left their
impress upon the prayer-book and the liturgy. This
is shown by the prominence given to the Shema’ ;
to the Messianic predictions in the Sliemoneh-’Esreh

(the “Eighteen Benedictions”), which emphasized
the belief in the Resurrection ; and, finally, to the
prominence given to the Decalogue — though the
latter was again omitted in order to counteract the
belief that it alone had been revealed (Tamid v. 1;
Yer. Ber. 66; Bab. Ber. 12a). These expressions of
belief are held to have originated in the desire to
give definite utterance and impressiveness to the
corresponding doctrines that were either rejected or
attenuated by some of the heretical schools. But
while these portions of the daily liturgy are express-
ive of the doctrinal contents of the regnant party
in the synagogue (see Landshuth, in Edelman’s
“ Hegyon Leb ” ; and Liturgy), they were not cast
into the form of catalogued Articles of Faith.

The first to make the attempt to formulate them
was Philo of Alexandria. The influence of Greek
thought induced among the Jews of Egypt the re-
flective mood. Discussion was undoubtedly active
on the unsettled points of speculative belief; and
such discussion led, as it nearly always does, to a
stricter definition of the doctrines. In his work,
“De Mundi Opificio,” 1 x i . , Philo enumerates five
articles as embracing the chief tenets of Mosaism :
(1) God is and rules; (2) God is one; (3) the world
was created; (4) Creation is one; (5) God’s provi-
dence rules Creation. But among the Tannaim and
Amoraim this example of Philo found no followers,
though many of their number were drawn into con-
troversies with both Jews and non-Jews, and had to
fortify their faith against the attacks of contempo-
raneous philosophy as well as against rising Chris-
tianity. Only in a general way the Mislmah Sanh.
xi. 1 excludes from the world to come the Epicu-
reans and those that deny belief in resurrection or
in the divine origin of the Torah. R. Akiba would
also regard as heretical the readers of D'JlVnn D'tED
— certain extraneous writings (Apocrypha or Gos-
pels)— and persons that would heal through whis-
pered formulas of magic. Abba Saul designated as
under suspicion of infidelity those that pronounce
the ineffable name of the Deity. By implication the
contrary doctrine and attitude may thus be regarded
as having been proclaimed as orthodox. On the
other hand, Akiba himself declares
Philo and that the command to love one’s neigh-

Akiba. bor is the fundamental principle of
the Law; while Ben Asai assigns this
distinction to the Biblical verse, “This is the book
of the generations of man ” (Gen. v. i. ; Gen. R.
xxiv.). The definition of Hillel the elder, in his
interview with a would-be convert (Sliab. 31a), em-
bodies in the golden rule the one fundamental article
of faith. A teacher of the third Christian century,
R. Simlai, traces the development of Jewish relig-
ious principles from Moses with his 613 commands
of prohibition and injunction, through David, who,
according to this rabbi, enumerates eleven ; through
Isaiah, with six; Micah, with three; to Habakkuk,
who simply but impressively sums up all religious
faith in the single phrase, “The pious lives in his
faith” (Mak., toward end). As the Halakah enjoins
that one shall prefer death to an act of idolatry,
incest, uncliastity, or murder, the inference is plain
that the corresponding positive principles were held
to be fundamental articles of Judaism.

Articles of Faith

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

150

From Philo down to late medieval and even
modem writers the Decalogue has been held to be
in some way a summary of both the articles of the
true faith and the duties derived from that faith.
According to the Alexandrian philosopher (see “De
Vita Mosis”) the order of the Ten Words is not acci-
dental. They divide readily into two groups: the
first five summarizing man’s relations to the Deity;
the other five specifying man’s duties to his fellows.
Ibn Ezra virtually adopts this view. He interprets
the contents of the Decalogue, not
The merely in their legal-ritual bearing,
Decalogue but as expressive of ethico-religious
as a principles. But this view can be
Summary, traced to other traditions. In Yer.

Ber. 6 b the Shema‘ is declared to be
only an epitome of the Decalogue. That in the
poetry of the synagogal ritual this thought often
dominates is well known. No less a thinker than
Saadia Gaon composed a liturgical production of
this character (see Azhai!ot); and R. Eliezer ben
Nathan of Mayence enriched the prayer-book with
a piyyut in which the six hundred and thirteen com-
mands are rubricated in the order of and in connec-
tion with the Decalogue. The theory that the Dec-
alogue was the foundation of Judaism, its article of
faith, was advocated by Isaac Abravanel (see his
Commentary on Ex. xx. 1); and in recent years by
Isaac M. Wise of Cincinnati in his “ Catechism ” and
other writings.

The only confession of faith, however, which,
though not so denominated, has found universal ac-
ceptance, forms a part of the daily liturgy contained
in all Jewish prayer-books. In its original form it
read somewhat as follows: “True and established is
this word for us forever. True it is that Thou art
our God as Thou wast the God of our fathers; our
King as [Thou wast] the King of our fathers ; our Re-
deemer and the Redeemer of our fathers ; our Creator
and the Rock of our salvation ; our Deliverer and
Savior — this from eternity is Thy name, and there is
no God besides Thee.” This statement dates prob-
ably from the days of the Hasmoneans (see Lands-
liutli, in “Hegyon Leb”).

In the stricter sense of the term, specifications in
connected sequence, and rational analysis of Articles
of Faith, did not find favor with the teachers and
the faithful before the Arabic period.

Saadia’s, The polemics with the Karaites on the
Judah one hand, and, on the other, the neces-
ha-Levi’s, sity of defending their religion against
and the attacks of the philosophies current

Bahya's among both Mohammedans and Jews,
Creed. induced the leading thinkers to define
and formulate their beliefs. Saadia’s
“Envunot we-Deot” is in reality one long exposition
of the main tenets of the faith. The plan of the
book discloses a systematization of the different re-
ligious doctrines that, in the estimation of the
author, constitute the sum total of his faith. They
are, in the order of their treatment by him, the fol-
lowing: (1) The world is created; (2) God is one
and incorporeal ; (3) belief in revelation (including
the divine origin of tradition); (4) man is called to
righteousness and endowed with all necessary qual-
ities of mind and soul to avoid sin; (5) belief in re-

ward and punishment: (6) the soul is created pure;
after death it leaves the body; (7) belief in resurrec-
tion; (8) Messianic expectation, retribution, and
final judgment. Judah ha-Levi endeavored, in his
“Cuzari,” to determine the fundamentals of Juda-
ism on another basis. He rejects all appeal to
speculative reason, repudiating the method of the
Motekallamin. The miracles and traditions are, in
their supernatural character, both the source and
the evidence of the true faith. With them Judaism
stands and falls. The book of Bahya ibn Pakuda
(“Hobot lia-Lebabot ”), while remarkable, as it is,
for endeavoring to give religion its true setting as a
spiritual force, contributed nothing of note to the
exposition of the fundamental articles. It goes
without saying that the unity of God, His govern-
ment of the world, the possibilities of leading a di-
vine life — which were never forfeited by man — are
expounded as essentials of Judaism.

More interesting on this point is the work of R.
Abraham ibn Daud (1120) entitled “ Emunah Ramah”
(The High Faith). In the second di-

Ibn. Daud vision of his treatise he discourses on
and the principles of faith and the Law.

Hananel These principles are: The existence
ben of God; His unity; His spirituality;

Hushiel. His other attributes; His power as
manifested in His works; His provi-
dence. Less well known is the scheme of an African
rabbi, Hananel b. Hushiel, about a century earlier,
according to whom Judaism’s fundamental articles
number four: Belief in God; belief in prophecy;
belief in a future state; belief in the advent of the
Messiah.

The most widely spread and popular of all creeds
is that of Maimonides, embracing the thirteen arti-
cles. Why he chose this particular number has been
a subject of much discussion. Some have seen in
the number a reference to the thirteen attributes of
God. Probably no meaning attaches to the choice
of the number. His articles are: (1) The existence
of God; (2) His unity; (3) His spirituality; (4) His
eternity; (5) God alone the object of worship; (6)
Revelation through His prophets; (7) the preemi-
nence of Moses among the Prophets;
The (8) God’s law given on Mount Sinai;

Thirteen (9) the immutability of the Torah as
Articles of God’s Law ; (10) God’s foreknowledge
Mai- of men’s actions; (11) retribution;

monides. (12) the coming of the Messiah; (13)
Resurrection. This creed Maimonides
wrote while still a very young man; it forms a part
of his Mishnah Commentary, but he never referred
to it in his later works (see S. Adler, “Tenets of
Faith and Their Authority in the Talmud,” in his
“Kobe? ‘al Yad,” p. 92, where Yad ha-Hazakali,
Issure Biah, xiv. 2, is referred to as proof that Mai-
monides in his advanced age regarded as fundamen-
tals of the faith only the unity of God and the pro-
hibition of idolatry). It did not meet universal
acceptance; but, as its phraseology is succinct, it
has passed into the prayer-book, and is therefore
familiar to almost all Jews of the Orthodox school.
The successors of Maimonides, from the thirteenth
to the fifteenth century — Nahmanides, Abba Mari
ben Moses, Simon ben Zemali Duran, Albo, Isaac

151

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Articles of Faith

Aranm, and Joseph Jaabez — reduced his thirteen
articles to three: Belief in God ; in Creation (or reve-
lation); and in providence (or retribution). Others,
like Crescas and David ben Samuel Estella, spoke of
seven fundamental articles, laying stress also on free-
will. On the other hand, David ben Yom-Tob ibn
Bilia, in his “Yesodot ha-Maskil” (Fundamentals of
the Thinking Man), adds to the thirteen of Mairnon-
ides thirteen of his own — a number which a con-
temporary of Albo (see ‘“Ikkarim,” iii.) also chose
for his fundamentals; while Jedaiah Penini, in the
last chapter of his “ Behinat lia-Dat,” enumerated no
less than thirty-five cardinal principles (see Low,
“Judische Dogmen,” iu “Gesammelte Werke,” i. 156
et seq.; and Schechter, “Dogmas of Judaism,” in
“Studies of Judaism,” pp. 147-181).

In the fourteenth century Asher bon Johiel of
Toledo raised his voice against the Maimonidean Arti-
cles of Faith, declaring them to be only temporary,
and suggested that another be added to recognize
that the Exile is a punishment for the sins of Israel.
Isaac Abravanel, in his“Rosh Amanali,” took the
same attitude toward Maimonides’ creed. While
defending Maimonides against Hasdai and Albo, he
refused to accept dogmatic articles for Judaism,
holding, with all the cabalists, that the 613 com-
mandments of the Law are all tantamount to Arti-
cles of Faith.

In liturgical poetry the Articles of Faith as evolved
by philosophical speculation met with metrical pres-
entation. The most noted of such metrical and
rimed elaborations are the “Adon ‘Olam,” by an
anonymous writer— now used as an introduction to
the morning services (by the Sephardim as the con-
clusion of the musaf or “additional” service), and
of comparatively recent date; and the other known
as the “Yigdal,” according to Luzzatto, by R.
Daniel b. Judah Dayyan.

The modern catechisms abound in formulated Arti-
cles of Faith. These are generally intended to be
recited by the candidates for confirmation, or to be
used for the reception of proselytes

Modern (see Dr. Einhorn's “‘Olat Tantid ”).

Cate- The -Central Conference of American

chisms. Rabbis, in devising a formula for the
admission of proselytes, elaborated a
set of Articles of Faith. These modern schemes
have not met with general favor — their authors
being in almost all cases the only ones that have
had recourse to them in practise. The points of
agreement, in these recent productions consist iu the
affirmation of the unity of God ; the election of Israel
as the priest people; the Messianic destiny of all
numanity. The declaration of principles by the
Pittsburg Conference (1885) is to be classed, per-
haps, with the many attempts to fix in a succinct
enumeration the main principles of the modern Jew-
ish religious consciousness.

The Karaites are not behind the Rabbinites in the
elaboration of Articles of Faith. The oldest instances
of the existence of such articles among them are found
in the famous work by Judah ben Elijah Hadassi,
“Eshkol ha-Kofer.” In the order there given these
are the articles of the Karaite faith: (1) God is the
Creator of all created beings; (2) He is premundane
and has no peer or associate ; (8) the whole universe

is created ; (4) God called Moses and the other Proph-
ets of the Biblical canon ; (5) the Law of Moses alone
is true ; (6) to know the language of
The the Bible is a religious duty; (7) the
Karaites. Temple at Jerusalem is the palace of
the world’s Ruler; (8) belief in Resur-
rection contemporaneous with the advent of the
Messiah; (9) final judgment; (10) retribution. The
number ten here is not accidental. It is in keeping
with the scheme of the Decalogue. Judah Hadassi
acknowledges that he had predecessors in this line,
and mentions some of the works on which he bases
his enumeration. The most succinct cataloguing of
the Karaite faith in articles is that by Elijah Bash-
yatz.i (died about 1490). His articles vary but little
from those by Hadassi, but they are put with greater
philosophical precision (see .lost, “Geschichte des
Judenthums,” ii. 331).

Bibliography: Schlesinger, German translation of ‘ Jifkarim
(especially introduction and annotations), xvi-xliii. 620 i t
sm/., tu ii et sea.; L6w, Gesammeltt Werke, 1. 31 58, 133 176;
Jost, Gescli. ties Judenthums unit Seiner Sekten; Ham-
burger, Realencyciopihlie, s.v. Dogmen; Rapoport, Bio-
graphy of Hananel ; schechter. The Dayman of Judaism, in
Studies in Judaism, pp. 147-1X1 ; J.Aub, Ueherdie. Glauhens-
Sumbale dev Mosaischen Iielinion; Frankel’s Zeitsrhrift
f Ur die Reliyitisen Interessen ilcs Jiulenthums, 1845. 4UH,
449; Creizenach, Grundiehren des Jsraelitisehen Glauhens,
in Geiger’s Wissensch. Zeitschrift fUrJild. Thenloyie, i. 39
et sec/., ii. 68, 255.

k. E. G. II.
The Articles: The thirteen Articles of Faith for-
mulated according to Maimonides in his Mishnah
Commentary to Sanhedrin, introduction to ch. ix.
— which have been accepted by the great majority
of Jews and are found in the old prayer-book — are
as follows:

l. I firmly believe that the Creator blessed be His name!— Is
both Creator and Ruler of all created beings, and that He alone
hath made, doth make, and ever will make all works of nature.

2. I firmly believe that the Creator — blessed be His name!— is
one: and no Unity is like His in any form ; and that He alone is
our God who was, is, and ever will be.

3. I firmly believe that the Creator— blessed be His name!—
is not a body; and no corporeal relations apply to Him ; and
that there exists nothing that has any similarity to Him.

4. I firmly believe that the Creator— blessed be His name ! —
was the first and will also be the last.

5. I firmly believe that the Creator — blessed be His name ! —
is alone worthy of being worshiped, and that no other being is
worthy of our worship.

6. I firmly believe that all the words of the Prophets an* true.

7. I firmly believe that the prophecy of Moses, our master —
peace be upon him !— was true; and that he was the chief of
the Prophets, both of those that preceded him and of those that
followed him.

8. 1 firmly believe that the Law which we possess now is the
same that hath been given to Moses our master— peace be upon
him !

9. I firmly believe that this Law will not be changed, and
that there will be no other Law [or dispensation] given by the
Creator — blessed be His name !

10. I firmly believe that the Creator— blessed be His name !—
knoweth all the actions of men and all their thoughts, as it Is
said : “He that fashioneth the hearts of them all. He that con-
sidereth all their works ’’ (Ps. xxxiii. 15).

11. I firmly believe that the Creator -blessed be He!— re-
wardeth those that keep His commandments and punisheth
those that transgress His commandments.

12. I firmly believe in the coming of the Messiah ; and al-
though He may tarry, I daily hope for His coming.

13. I firmly believe that there will take place a revival of
the dead at a time which will please the Creator— blessed be
His name, and exalted His memorial for ever and ever !

According to Maimonides he that rejects any of
these articles is an unbeliever, and places himself
outside of the Jewish community.

Artisans

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

152

Joseph Albo reduces the articles to three funda-
mental principles:

1. Existence of God: Compiehension of God’s unity. His in-
corporeality, His eternity, and of the fact of His being the object
of man’s worship.

2. Revelation : Comprehension of prophecy, of Moses as su-
preme authority, of the divine origin and immutability of the
Law.

3. Retribution: Comprehension of the divine judgment
and of Resurrection.

These three principles have, in the main, been
adopted also by modern theologians, both conserva-
tive and liberal, as the fundamentals of Judaism in
the religious instruction of children as well as in the
confession of faith to be recited by proselytes; some
(e.ff., Budinger) laying especial stress on the immor-
tality of the soul, others ( e.g ., Stein) on the priestly
mission of Israel, or the Messianic hope.

Einhorn posits the following live Articles of Faith :

1. God the Creator.

2. Man in His image.

3. Revelation (through Moses).

4. God the Judge.

5. Israel His priest-people.

The Central Conference of American Rabbis, in
189G, at Milwaukee, Wis., adopted the following
four (or five) articles in the “ Proselyte Confession ” :

1. God the Only One.

2. Man His image.

3a. Immortality of the soul.

3b. Retribution.

4. Israel’s mission.

ARTISANS.— In Bible and Talmud: The

general term for “artisan ” in the Bible is “harash ”
or “horesh,” which, derived from a verb meaning
“to cut,” is applicable to any worker in a hard sub-
stance, such as metal, stone, or wood (compare the
use of this term in a general sense in II Kings xxii.
6, xxiv. 14; Jer. xxiv. 1, xxix. 2). At times it is
used more definitely of a carpenter (Jer. x. 3; Isa.
xli. 7), of a metal-worker (Hosea xiii. 2), or of an
armorer (I Sam. xiii. 19). Usually,

Terms. however, the term is qualified by the
addition of the material, as “harash
eben,” a worker in stone (II Sam. v. 11); “harash
‘ez,” a worker in wood (ib.)\ “horesh nehosliet,” a
worker in bronze (I Kings vii. 14); and “harash
barzel,” a worker in iron (II Cliron. xxiv. 12).
From the same root is derived “harosliet,” skilled
work, defined, as above, by the addition of “eben”
or “ ‘ez ” (Ex. xxxi. 5). In traditional literature the
terms for “ artisan ” and “ handicraft ” are “ umman ”
and “ ummauut ” respectively (Song Sol. vii. 2, “ om-
man ”).

Leaving to special articles a detailed description
of the various crafts and occupations mentioned in
Bible and Talmud, it will be sufficient to give here a
general summary of specialized occupations, where-
in, for completeness’ sake, unskilled laborers are in-
cluded.

The smelting of gold and silver is undoubtedly
one of the oldest crafts known to man. The “ zoref ”
(Judges xvii. 4; Isa. xl. 19, xli. 7, xlvi. 6; Jer. x.
9, 14, li. 17, and elsewhere) or “ mezaref ” (Mai. iii.
2-3), literally “smelter,” is the goldsmith or silver-
smith. The smelting was done in the “kur” (smelt-
ing-pot, Prov. xvii. 3, xxvii. 21) or the “mazref”
In traditional literature the “ zahabi, ” Aramaic

“dahabi,” “dahabana” (goldsmith), is distinguished
from the “kassafi ” or “kassaf ” (silversmith). Cop-
per and bronze were worked by the “horesh neho-
shet ” (Gen. iv. 22 ; I Kings vii. 14). In the Mish-
nah he is called “ mezaref nehosliet ” (Ket. vii. 10) ;
in the Talmud “ hashshala dude ” (kettle-smith, Ket.

77a; see, however, id., where “meza-
Workers in ref nehosliet ” is differently explained).
Metal. Iron, like gold, was smelted in the
“kur” (Deut. iv. 20; I Kings viii. 51;
Jer. xi. 4). The “harash barzel” (iron-worker or
smith, II Chron. xxiv. 12) is called in traditional
literature “nappali” (one who uses bellows) or
“ pehami ” (one who uses charcoal). Mention is also
made of the “tarsi” (chaser or embosser; compare
Low, in Krauss, “Lelinworter,” ii. 277a; and Jas-
trow, “Dictionary,” s.v. 'DID, i.).

The “harash ‘ez ” (worker in wood, Ex. xxxi. 5)
is called in traditional literature “naggar,” and
means “carpenter” as well as “joiner.” As spe-
cialists in this calling are mentioned the “ saddaah ”
or “saddana” (maker of stocks, Pes. 28a) and the
“kazzaz” (feller of trees, Cant. R. ii. 2; Lev. R.
xxiii.). Carving is mentioned in I Kings vi. 29, and
elsewhere : “ kiyyur ” (paneling), in traditional litera-
ture (B. B. 53 b).

Workers in stone were the “liozeb” (quarryman
or stone-cutter, I Kings v. 29), who hewed the
stone from the rock, and the “horesh
Workers in eben” (stone-polisher, II Sam. v. 11).

Wood In traditional literature the first is
and Stone, called “hazzab,” the latter “sattat”
(B. M. 1185). Those who chisel mill-
stones are called “nekorot” (Tosef., Kid. v. 14; Kid.
82a) ; engravers in stone are “ pattahe abanim ” or
“mefattehe abanim” (Yer. Sliek. iv. 48a; Kelim
xxix. 5).

The “boneli ” (builder) is called in traditional liter-
ature “bannai” (Kelim xxix. 3; Tosef., Kelim, B.
B. vii. 2; Yer. Hag. ii. 775; B. M. 1185), who is
differentiated from the “ ardikal ” or “ adrikal ” =
Assyrian “ dimgallu”(the architect or eyestone-setter,
B. M. l.c. ; Targ. II., Sam. v. 11). The specialized
term for wall-builders is “goderim” (II Kings xii.
13) or “harashe eben kir” (II Sam. v. 11). To this
trade belong the “pison” (mortar-maker, Kelim xx.
2), the “tab” (plasterer, Ezek. xiii. 11), and the
“ sayyad ” (whitewashes lime-burner, Sliab. 805).

The “yozer” (potter) is in traditional literature
“ pahara ” (Targ. Isa. xxix. 16). As specialists in
this trade are mentioned the “kaddad ” (jug-maker,
M. K. 135; Pes. 555, MS.M., ed. Via), the“godel
tannurim” (oven-maker), the “ godel kele zurali ”
(art-potter, M. K. 11a; Yer. Shab. vii. lOd), and the
“ kaddar ” (maker of pots, Tohar. vii. 1). The “ zag-
gag,” Aramaic “zaggaga” (glazier, M. K. 135; Yer.
‘Ab. Zarah ii. 40c), is specialized into the “nofeah
kele zekokit ” (glass-blower, Yer. Shab. l.c.). Here
belongs the “hofer shiliin” (ditcli-
Workers in digger, B. K. 50a). The “ bursi”
Clay, (tanner or hide-dresser; see Krauss,
Earth, and “Lelinworter,” s.v.) or ‘“abbedan”

Leather. (Kelim xxvi. 8) had as assistant the
“ shallaha ” (flayer, skinner, Shab.
495), who prepared the hides for tanning. As special-
ists in this line are found the “ shakkaf ” or “ uslikafa”

153

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Artisans

(shoemaker, Tosef., Kelim, B. B. i. 15; Git. 685),
the “ raz'an” (belt-maker. Pes. iv. 6), the “sarag”
(harness-maker, Kelim xxiv. 8), the “zakkak”
(maker of leather bottles, Mik. ix. 5), and the “san-
delar” (sandal-maker, Ycr. Hag. iii. 78 d).

In the textile industry a number of crafts are
mentioned, such as “zammar” (the wool-weaver,
‘Eduy. iii. 4; Kelim xxix. 6) ; “pishtani ” (the beater
of flax, Yer. Yeb. xiii. 13c; Gen. R. xxxii.3); “ma‘a-
zela” (the spinner, Eccl. R. vii. 9); “azloya”(tlie
net-weaver, B. M. 245); “kiwwaah” (the common
weaver, Shab. 113a, 1405); “oreg” (the weaver, Yer.

Shek. v. 49a) ; “ gardi ” (wool-weaver,
Textile Kelim xii. 4); “tarsi” (the artistic
Industry, weaver, ‘Ah. Zarali 175; Suk. 515);

“sericarius” (the silk-weaver, Pesik.
R. xxv.; Cant. R. viii. 11, where the word appears
in corrupted form); zabba‘, zabba'ah” (the dyer,
B. K. ix. 4: Git 525); “kobes” and “kazzara”
(the fuller, Ber. 28a; Tosef., Kelim, B. M. iii. 14;
Yer. Ber. iv. 7 d). Connected with this are the occu-
pations of the “hayyat” (tailor, Shah. i. 3), the
“godel miznefet” (turban- or cap-maker, Kelim xvi.
7); and the“ashpara” (clothes-cleaner, ‘Ah. Zarali
205).

“Ma'aseh rokem” (the art of embroidery) and
“ma‘aseh liosheb” (the art of fine weaving) were
known and already highly developed in Biblical
times (compare Embroidery). Mention is also
made of the“sakkay” (sack-maker, Kelim xiii. 5),
and of the “sarad” or “saddar” (net-maker, Yoma
85a; Mek., Ki Tissa; Yalk., Ex. 327; Tosef., Kid.
v. 14).

Agriculture afforded work not only to the field -
laborers but to the “tahona” (miller, Yer. Peali i.
15c), and the “nalitom” (professional baker, Hal. ii.
7). The baker was the “ kefela” (m-r/Aoc, restaurant-
keeper, Tosef., B. M. xi. 30). The “kallay1 ” parched
the grain and offered it for sale, and the “ garosali ”
or “daslioshah” (grist-maker) manufactured differ-
ent kinds of groats or pearl-barley (Men. x. 4; M.
K. ii. 5). Cooking, in Talmudic times, developed
into an art, so that one boasted of knowing a hun-
dred ways of preparing eggs (Lam. R. iii. 16). The
“megabben” (cheese-maker, Tosef., Sliab. ix. [x.]
13) ; the “ tabbali,” “ tabbalia” (butcher,
Workers in slaughterer, or “shohet,” also profes-
Agricul- sional cook, Bezah 28a; Hul. 18a;

tural Tosef., Ber. iv. 10), and “kazzab”
Products, (meat-seller, ‘Eduy. viii. 2); the “hal-
itar” (confectioner, Yer. Hal. ii. 58c);
the “ sodani ” (brewer, Ber. 445), and the “ bassam ”
or “pattam” (manufacturer of spices, druggist,
Tosef., Kid. ii. 2; Yer. Yoma iv. 41d) supplied
other necessities of the household. Fish and game
were provided by the “haram” (fisher, Yer. M. K.
ii. 815) and the “rishba” (fowler, Hul. 116a). The
hunting of deer is frequently mentioned in the Tal-
mud and Midrashim (Sliab. xiii. 5 ; B. M. 855).

Cattle-raising required the services of a “nakdud ”
(herder, Lev. R. i. 9), ofa“ro‘eh” (shepherd), and of
a“karzila” (assistant, B. K. 565). The “pattam”
fattened animals for the market (Tosef., Bezah, iii.
6). Other occupations dealing with cattle are
“ ahuryar ” (equerry, Meg. 125 ; differently explained
in Jastrow, “ Dictionary,” s.v.), “baham” or “bak-

kar” (cattle-raiser and cattle-driver, Deut. R. iii. 6;
Yer. Bezah v. 635), “gammal” (camel-driver),
“hammar” (ass-driver, Kid. iv. 14), and “karar”
(carriage-driver or wagoner, ib. Bab. and Yer. ;
B. M. vi. 1).

The demands of personal comfort, which in most
instances called for manual labor, though the occu-
pations themselves were scarcely those
Other of Artisans, were filled by the “ ballan ”
Occupa- (pa/iavevt;, bather, Shell, viii. 5), with
tions. his attendants, the “ turmesar” (ftepuai) ;

the “ oleyar,” “olearius” (clothes-keep-
er, Yer. Ma'as. Sli. i. 52 d), and the “udyatha” (the
female superintendent of the vapor-baths, Yer. Slieb.
viii. 38a, “Zosime, the udyatha”); the “sappar”
(liair-cutter, Kid. l.c.), and the “ gara‘ ” (barber and
blood -letter, Kid. 82a). The women lmd their “ gad-
delet,” “godelet,” or “megaddelet” (hair-dresser,
Kelim xv. 3; Kid. ii. 3).

In the interest of landowners worked the “ kay-
j-al” (measurer, Yer. B. M. ix. 12a), and the “ma-
shoali,” “ mashohaah” (surveyor, Kelim xiv. 3; B. M.
1075). The care of the city required the labor of
the “ibbola’ah” (gate-keeper, watchman, Niddah
675).

Traffic and communication by land gave employ-
ment to the “ kattaf ” or “sabbal ” (load -carrier, B. Si.
1185; Yer. B. 31. x. 12c); to the “iskundara,” “bal-
dara,” “ daw war, ”“ tablara ” (the courier. Kid. 215;
Yer. ‘Ah. Zarali i. 39 d; Esther R. i. 8; Sliab. 19a;
Targ. Prov. xxiv. 34; Pesik. R. xxi.), and to the
“ba‘al aksanya,” *“ ushpizkan,” “diyyora,” “pun-
daki” (the innkeeper, Pesik. R. xi. ; Meg. 26a ;
Ta'an. 21a; Git. viii. 9). Communication by water
was kept up by the “sappan” (seaman, Slieb. viii.
5), the “mallali” (sailor, Eccl. R. ix. 8), the “mab-
bora” (ferryman, Hul. 94a), and the “naggada”
(tracker of vessels, B. M. 1075). The ship had also
an “amodaali” (diver, R. H. 23a).

Finally, mention must be made of the “ zappat ”
(pitch-burner, Mik. ix. 7); the “ dikulaah ” (basket-
maker, B. B. 22a); the “lihlar,” “ libellarius,”
“sofer,” “safra” (writer), who wrote documents as
well as books (Shall, i. 3; Git. viii. 8; ‘Ab. Zarali
95) ; and the “ kabbora’ah ” (grave-digger, Sanli. 265).

In primitive society most of the handicrafts are
carried on by members of the family as occasion
demands. It is only with the advance
Handi- of civilization that work becomes spe-
crafts and cialized and a class of Artisans devel-
Women. ops. Thus even in Talmudic times,
side by side with specialized crafts-
men, a great deal of work was done by the women
of the family. The Mishnah Ketubot (v. 5) sheds
light on this subject:

“ The following are the things whieh a wife is under obliga-
tion to do for her husband : the grinding, baking, washing,
cooking, nursing her children, making the bed, and spinning
wool. If she has brought him one maidservant, she needs not
be obliged to grind, bake, or wash ; if she has brought him two
maids, she needs not cook or nurse ; if three, then she needs not
make the bed or spin wool ; if four, then she is at liberty to
spend her time sitting in the armchair. R. Eliezer says. Even
if she has brought him a hundred maids, she should be forced
to spin wool ; for leisure leads to idiocy.”

Something similar is found a hundred years later
(Yeb. 63a).

Artisans

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

154

A trade which would necessitate business inter-
course with women is looked upon as improper
(Kid. iv. 14); for every one who deals with wom-
en has bad leaven in him, otherwise he would
not have chosen such a trade (Kid. 82«; compare
Jastrow, “Dictionary,” s.v. 11D). But, like all theo-
ries, this rule was not always carried out in practise ;
even scholars disregarded it (compare Pes. 1136).
See also Labor.

Nevertheless there were several trades regarded
unfavorably by popular opinion. This is well ex-
pressed by R. Mei'r (about the year 140):

“ One should teach his son an easy and cleanly occupation.
One should pray to Him to whom riches and possessions belong :
for in every trade there is wealth as well as poverty ; but neither
wealth nor poverty is dependent on the occupation, but rather
on the meritoriousness of man ” (Kid. iv. 14).

And R. Judah ha-Nasi (about the year 200);

“ There is no occupation which will disappear from this world.
Happy he who has seen at his parents’ home a fine trade; but
wo unto him who has seen his parents engaged in an unpleas-
ant trade. The world can not get along without a manufacturer
of perfumes, neither without a tanner. Happy he whose trade
is manufacturing of perfumes ; wo unto him who is a tanner”
(Kid. 82 b).

Drivers of asses and camels, shepherds, sailors,
wagon-drivers, storekeepers, and crockery -dealers
are looked down upon, “for their
Estimation trades are robbers’ trades ” (Kid. i v. 14 ;
of Certain Yer. Kid. iv. 66c et seq.). The follow -
Trades. ing occupations are also looked upon
with disfavor because they jiring one
into contact with women, and neither king nor high
priest should be chosen from among those who fol-
low them — namely, the trades of goldsmith, carder,
millstone-cliiseler, pedler, weaver, barber, fuller,
leech, batli-man, and tanner (Kid. l.c.).

Classification by trade and the formation of gilds
are mentioned in the Bible. Thus, gilds of gold-
smiths and perfumers are referred to in
Gilds. Neh. iii. 8. Gilds of potters and weav-
ers seem to be indicated in I Chron.
iv. 23. These gilds seem to have been hereditary,
similar to, the later families of Garmu and Ab-
tinas, who tenaciously retained in their respective
families the special knowledge of baking the show-
bread and preparing the holj' incense (Yoma iii. 11).
The coppersmiths or embossers had a separate syna-
gogue (Meg. 26« ; Naz. 52«). In Alexandria there
was a perfect organization of the various trades. In
the synagogue the goldsmiths, silversmiths, smiths,
embossers, weavers, etc., sat each in a separate
group (Suk. 516). Among some trades there existed
also mutual insurance (B. K. 1166). See also Agri-
culture, Baking, Baths, Bottle, Cookery,. Cor-
i'er, Cotton, Dyeing, Embroidery, Engraving,
Flax, Fuller, Glass, Iron, Labor, Leather,
Metals, Pottery, Shipbuilding, Spinning,
Weaving, Wool.

Bibliography: S. Meyer, ArTie.it nnd Hnndwerk im Tal-
mud., Berlin, 1878; Delitzsch, Jlldisches Ha ndwerh nieben
zur Zeit Jem, 3d ed., Erlangen, 1879; J. S. Bloch, Der Ar-
beiterstand bei den Paldstinensern, Griechen und R6-
mern, Vienna, 1882 , Rieger, Vcrsuch einer Technologic und
Trrminologie der Handwerke in der Mischnah, Breslau,
1894 ; g. Lowy, Die Technologic und Terminologie der MVd-
le.r und Backer in den Rabbinisclien Quellen , Leipsic,
1898 ; Schwab, Repertoire , ii., s.v. Metiers.

J. sr. C. L.

ARTISANS — Medieval; So far as they were
allowed by the restrictions of the trade gilds, many
Jews of medieval times obtained their livelihood by
working with their hands. Benjamin of Tude'ia
(1171) refers to many manufacturers of silk in the
Byzantine empire, to dyers in Syria, and glass-
makers at Tyre. A little later King Roger of Sicily
brought Jewish silk-weavers to south Italy to found
that industry (Gratz, “ Gescliichte, ” vi. 263). In
deed, the trade of dyeing seems to have been almost
a monopoly of Jews in southern Europe, and was
certainly their favorite form of industry, the tax lev-
ied on them being called “ Tiguta Judseorum ” (Giide-
mann, “Culturgesehichte,” ii. 312).

The Jewish silk manufacturers of Italy were also
distinguished (ibid. 240). The Jews of Lyons, when
expelled in 1446, established an important silver-
smith business at Trevoux. In Sicily the Jews ap-
peared to have almost a monopoly of handicrafts,
and the authorities in 1492 protested against the
edict of expulsion, because, as they said, “nearly all
the artisans in the realm are Jews.” Among the
Jews of Germany and north France in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries are found masons, tanners,
card-painters, armorers, stone-engravers, glaziers,
and even makers of mouse-traps, while among the in-
habitants of Spain before the fifteenth century were
to be found shoemakers, silversmiths, weavers, me-
chanics, carpenters, locksmiths, basket-makers, and
curriers (Jacobs, “Inquiry,” pp. xv, xxiii). About
1620 the majority of the Jews of Rome earned their
living as tailors (Rieger, “Rom,” 198). Among the
Artisans mentioned in the inscriptions at the Prague
cemetery of the seventeenth century are furriers,
carpenters, locksmiths, glaziers, potters, wood-
cutters, wheelwrights, and wagon-makers (Dock,
“ Familien Prags ”). When it is remembered that
many of these occupations could only be filled by
persons who had entry to the gilds, which were re-
ligious fraternities as well as trade-unions, and did
not admit the Jews, there is a remarkable variety of
handicrafts in which Jews can be traced during the
Middle Ages; see the lists at the end of chapter
xii. of Abrahams’ “Jewish Life in the Middle Ages. ”

There is, however, considerable variation in the
amount of handwork shown by the Jews in the Mid-
dle Ages according to place and time. Where the
central government was strong an attempt was made
to use the Jews as indirect tax-gatherers, and here
very little handwork is found ; where, on the con-
trary, the central government was not all-powerful,
the Jews had freer access to the more natural means
of earning a livelihood. Of course, throughout Jew-
ish history a certain number of employments in
which handwork is required had to exist among
them for religious purposes. Thus they require a ■
special class of butchers and even of bakers, while
their barbers also have to be acquainted with Jew-
ish custom. That the exclusion from the gilds
was the main cause of the relatively small numbers
of Artisans among the medieval Jews is shown by
the fact that, as soon as restrictions were removed,
handicrafts were adopted by the Jews. Thus within
fifteen years of the “ Judenordnung ” of Bohemia,
1797, winch opened all occupations to Jews, there
were over 400 Jewish Artisans in Prague (Jost, “ Ge-

155

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Artisans

scliichte,” ix. 167). Ten years after the first Jewish
training-school for handicrafts was opened in Copen-
hagen in 1795, there were no less than 740 engaged

The Jews of some of the European capitals have
shown considerable taste for handiwork, as is in-
stanced by the following tables:

in handicrafts out of 1,170 adult males (Jost, ibid.
xi. 5). See Engraving and Engravers; Gold-
and Silversmiths.

Bibliography: Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages ,
ch. xi., xii ; Albert Wolf, Etit'cw fiber .Jlidische Kunst und
AltereJildische KUnstler ; in Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft
fur JUdisclie Vulkshunde , ix., 1902, pp. 12-74.

A. J.

Modern — Statistics : Frequent expulsions

and increased restrictions on residence during the lat-
ter Middle Ages furthered the diversion of the Jews
into commerce, and especially into pedling. But
during the last two hundred years handicrafts have
found favor and have been taken up again, so
that to-day out of the 3,000,000 Jews who may
be regarded as of working age over 1,000,000 earn
their living by manual labor. In the East, Jews
are frequently found as Artisans. Those in Morocco
include tinsmiths, boot-makers, and carpenters
(“ maltzan ”). In Arabia they occur as armorers,
silversmiths, and masons; in Persia, as silk-spinners
and glass - grinders (Polak). Cliubinsky declares
that in Russia “Jews are prized as workmen owing
to their zeal and cleverness” (“Globus,” 1889, p.
377). He gives the percentage of Jewish Artisans
in the southwestern provinces of Russia as forty
per cent of the total number of Artisans, and in
the cities fifty per cent of the total. At Jerusalem,
iu 1879-80, Sydney M. Samuel found 416 heads of
families pursuing 29 handicrafts, among whom were
tinkers, goldsmiths, watchmakers, smiths, turners,
and masons (“Jewish Life in the East,” p. 78).
In 1881 Fresco reports 882 Jews of Damascus
earning their living at handicrafts, no less than 650
being weavers (Anglo-Jewisli Association, “ Re-
port.” 1882, p. 78). Among the Russian Jews who
passed through Liverpool in 1882, 1,730 out of
1.843 were Artisans and agriculturists (Mansion
House Fund, “Report,” p. 10). Nor is this a re-
cent development. As far back as 1840, of the
30,000 Jews of Berdychev 600 were tailors, 380
tin- and coppersmiths, 350 shoemakers, 200 car-
penters and coopers, 160 furriers, 90 bakers, etc.
(Jost, “ Geschiclite,” xi. 294«). In view of the anti-
Semitic attitude of Rumania, it is curious to con-
trast in the following list the number of Jews and
Gentiles engaged in different trades at Bucharest in
1879 (“Jew. Chron.” Sept. 5, 1879):

Occupation.

Gen.

Jews.

Occupation.

Gen.

Jews.

Tinsmiths

729

Woodturners ..

Tailors

689-

Cabinetmakers

Painters

215

354

Bookbinders . .

Braid makers .. .

251

Lampmakers..

Silversmiths . . .

164

Hatters

Watchmakers . .

112

Brushmakers. .

Coppersmiths. . .

Totals

719

2,618

In an enumeration of the Jews of Kishinev in
1887 (“ Ila-Yom,” No. 280) very large numbers are
given of those engaged in handicraft, among whom
may be mentioned :

rigarmakers...l,117

Tailors 896

Shoemakers... 684
Bakers and
cooks 299

Seamstresses

Fishmongers and

batchers

Tinsmiths

Coopers

452

Capmakers . . .

. 123

Glaziers

. 94

295

Sawyers

. 92

202

Saddlers

. 68

136

Bookbinders .

. 55

Occupation.

Budapest, 1870
(KorOsi).

Vienna, 1869
(Jeitteles).

Tailors

1,638

505

Shoemakers

316

119

Carpenters

Turners

Locksmiths

106

Cpholsterers

116

Painters

140

Jewelers

235

170

Watchmakers

Bookbinders

Butchers

120

By a later census taken in Budapest statistics are
furnished of the Jewish Artisans in that capital on
Jan. 1, 1900; these are given according to the occu-
pations in which they were engaged, as follows:

Occupation.

Jews.

Jewesses.

Total.

Food preparation

2,480

244

2,724

Clothing

3,610

1,471

5,081

Building

292

293

Textile

150

114

264

Pottery

Wood

616

620

Metals

2,147

2,197

Graphic

909

928

Industrial art

582

643

Engraving

310

321

Leather

188

189

Paper

178

219

oil or grease

128

132

Dyeing

185

198

Miscellaneous

694

2,364

3,018

12,552

4,404

16,912

In a census of the Jewish Artisans of Algeria, the
following were the handicrafts most popular among
10,785 proletarians enumerated (“Revue Socialiste,”
1899):

Shoemakers 730

Tailors 554

Workmen 371

Blacksmiths 178

Cigarmakers 131

Coachmen 124

Coachbnilders Ill

Carpenters 102

Soapmakers 74

Painters 70

Trimmers 66

Masons 51

Tanners 45

Workers in wood 41

Dyers 39

Iu only a few instances can complete figures be
given, owing to the general absence of any informa-
tion as to religion in occupation statistics; but the
interest of such statistics is the greater from their
rarity. The following are, so far as known, the
only official figures giving the actual number of
Jews engaged in handicrafts, arranged according to
countries and cities ; though some are of rather early
date, it seemed desirable to include them, in the
absence of later particulars. Unfortunately, no
official statistics on the subject are available for the
United States.

Place.

Date.

Number.

Authority.

Algeria

1899

32,875

“ Revue Socialiste.”

Poland

1857

129,538

Soloweitschik.

Prussia

1861

11,445

Engel.

“ Statist. Jahrb.” 1899.

1895

43,246

Russian Pale of Set- 1.
tlement i

1888

293,507 -j

Jacobs' “ Persecution
of Jews,” 1890, p. 26.

1898

395.942

Soloweitschik.

Berlin

1870

3.725

Schwabe.

Budapest

1870

4,791

Korosi.

London

1898

38,000

Soloweitschik.

Vienna

1869

4,378

Jeitteles.

Artisans

‘Aruk

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

156

Of the actual trades followed, the most popular
are the making of clo tiling and shoes, just as in the
non-Jewish population. The cigar and jewelry
trades also are favorite occupations of the Jews;
thus over 60 per cent of the diamond-polishers
of Amsterdam are of Jewish faith. All these are
mainly trades that can be followed at home in the
worker’s own hours, and are known to the econo-
mist as “domestic industries.” Jewish workmen
drift into these naturally, as thereby they are en-
abled to refrain from labor on their Sabbath. Be-
sides, the simpler processes of the tailoring and shoe-
making trades are easily acquired, and therefore
prove attractive to the Russo-Jewish immigrants.
This has given rise to much so-called “ sweating.”

However, it is in Russia especially that the Jews
have shown the readiest inclination to manual indus-
tries; the large number of nearly 400,000 mentioned
in the foregoing table applies only to the fifteen
governments of the Russian Pale of Settlement in
1898, and must be supplemented by at least another
200,000 for Poland, where Jews are rapidly taking
to manufactures. In 1888, of the Jews of the Pale,
12 per cent, were Artisans, which is a higher propor-
tion than in the general communities of either France
or Prussia ; and the percentage had increased by 1898.

Despite the fact that there are so many Jewish
Artisans, the proportion of Jews earning their living
by manual labor is generally much less than that of
the general populations among whom they dwell.
This is mainly due to the fact that they are concen-
trated in the towns. The following table gives the
percentage of adult workers among the Jews and
the rest of the population for the countries and
towns mentioned at the time indicated:

Place.

Date.

Jews.

Others.

Authority.

Italy

1870

1861

12.5

18.97

22.3

39.41

Jacobs.

Engel.

“ Statist.

Jahrb.” 1899.
Sohwabe.

1895

19.31

36.06 -j

Berlin

1871

21.4

22.9

57.2 '

1891

16.5

18.3

“ Statist.

Jahrb.” 1899.
Jeitteles.

1869

16.27

41.23'

This table shows by comparison that the percent-
age of Jewish Artisans in the countries and cities
specified averages only one-half of the number of
handicraftsmen of other faiths. This is not so much
due to any aversion on the part of Jews to manual
exertion as to their special attraction to and capacity
for commercial pursuits (see Commerce). Up to
within a few years the Jewish Artisans did not show
much inclination to combine and organize themselves
into gilds or unions; but recently a large number of
trades-unions and benefit societies have been formed
by them in Wilna, London, and New York. Jews
show a special aptitude for work in which great
muscular strength is not required, but are capable of
working for many consecutive hours. Their capa-
bilities for higher or finished workmanship is a mat-
ter of dispute. In London and New York they have
certainly revolutionized the cheap-clothing trade,
and by that means seriously affected the trade in
second-hand clothing, which was itself until recently

a Jewish monopoly. For the actual trades in which
Jews engage see Handicrafts, Occupations; for
the influence on their position see Social Condition,
and for the recent attempts to train handworkers
see Education, Modern.

Bibliography: Jacobs, Studies in Jewish Statistics, iv., vi.,
London, 1891 ; L. Soloweitschik, Un Proletariat Meconnu,
Brussels, 1898 (English statistics to be used with caution).

A. J.

ARTOM, BENJAMIN: Chief rabbi of the
Spanish and Portuguese congregation of London;
born at Asti, Italy, in
1835; died at Brighton,
near London, Jan. 6,

1879. He was left
fatherless when a child,
and his maternal uncle
supervised his early
training. His theolog-
ical education he owed
to the rabbis Marco
Tedeschi, of Trieste,
and Terracini. At
twenty he taught He-
brew, Italian, French,

English, and German.

His first appointment
was that of minister
to the congregation of Saluzzo near Genoa. While
rabbi of a congregation in Naples he received a
call to London, where he was installed as chief rabbi
of the Spanish and Portuguese congregations of the
United Kingdom (Dec. 16, 1866). After a year’s stay
in England, he became so proficient in English that
he could preach in that language with eloquence.
Deeply interested in Anglo-Jewish institutions, he
directed his attention chiefly to organizing and sup-
erintending the educational establishments of his
own congregation, the Sha'are Tikvah and Villareal
schools. Although of Orthodox views, he welcomed
moderate reforms, and endeavored to promote any en-
terprise tending toward the union of discordant fac-
tions. He was author of various odes and prayers
in Hebrew, and several pieces of Italian poetry. A
selection of his sermons delivered in England was
published in 1873.

Bibliography : Jewish Chronicle , January, 1879 ; Jewish

World , January, 1879 ; London Times, January, 1879.

j. G. L.

ARTOM, ISAAC : Italian patriot, diplomat,
financier, and author; born at Asti, Piedmont, Dec.
31, 1829; died at Rome Jan. 24, 1900, and was bur-
ied at Asti. At the age of sixteen he was ready for
the university; but the higher schools of Piedmont
excluded Jews, so he, in 1846, removed to Pisa,
where he entered the university to study law. At
the outbreak of the revolution against Austria in
1848, Artom, despite his frail constitution, joined
the students’ battalion commanded by Professor
Montanelli, and took part in the battles of Curta-
tone and Montanara. At the close of the war he
resumed the study of law, and in 1853 received a
doctor’s degree from the University of Turin.

In 1855 Artom entered the Foreign Office of Tus-
cany in the capacity of volunteer, or supernumerary.

Benjamin Artom.

157

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Artisans

‘Aruk

and three years afterward was made private sec-
retary to Count Cavour. Clerical attacks on Cavour
included among the charges against
Private him the fact that his chief secretary
Secretary was a Jew. In reply, Cavour ex-
to Cavour. pressed the highest opinion of Artom’s
ability (Chiola, “Lettere di Camillo
I Cavour,” iii. 306).

On the death of Cavour (June 6, 1861), Artom
wished to retire from active political life, but was

dissuaded by Count
Arese, who, having
meanwhile been ap-
pointed ambassador to
France, induced Artom
to accompany him to
Paris and to accept the
post of secretary of
legation (1862). When
Pasolini was installed
minister of foreign
affairs, Artom was ap-
pointed chief secretary.
Soon after, however,
he resumed his diplo-
matic career, first as counselor of legation at Paris,
and later as minister plenipotentiary to Denmark. In
1866, during the peace negotiations with Austria,
Artom and General Menabrea were chosen to repre-
sent Italy ; and on the outbreak of the Franco-Prus-
sian war, in 1870, the former was sent on a diplomatic
mission to Vienna. From 1870 to 1876 Artom was
again connected with the ministry of foreign affairs,
in the capacity of under-secretary of state. He was
elected senator of the kingdom, March 23, 1877,
being the first Jew to sit in the Italian legislative
body.

Artom is favorably known as a writer both of
prose and of poetry. Of his verses many were in-
spired by special occasions, his most effective liter-
ary effort of this kind being an ode upon the death
of Victor Emmanuel (Turin, 1878). Among his prose
essays are (1) “Relazione Sugli Studii Superiori nell’
Uuiversita di Heidelberga” (Bologna, 1868); (2)
“Vittorio Emanuele e la Politica Estera ” ; and (3) a
brief record of the Italian ministry of foreign affairs,
(published in the “IX Gennaio”). Other publica-
tions by Artom include a volume commemorating
the death of Victor Emmanuel II., Bologna, 1882;

and an Italian translation of Gneist’s
Artom’s “ Rechtsstaat ; Lo Stato Secondo il
Literary Diritto; Ossia la Giustizia nell’ Am-
Works. ministrazione Politica,” Bologna, 1884.

But the most ambitious and by far
the most important work of Artom is the biography
of his former chief and friend, Cavour. This work,
written in collaboration with A. Blanc, and entitled
“ L’CEuvre Parlementaire du Comte de Cavour,” was
published in Paris in 1862, and was soon afterward
translated into Italian. As senator, Artom prepared
two reports — one on the Italian treaty with Zanzi-
bar (“ Trattato di Commercio col Sultano di Zanzi-
bar,” Rome, 1886); the other on certain commercial
and maritime negotiations with France, Spain, and
Switzerland (“Facolta al Governo di Mettere in
Vigore il 30 Giugno, 1888, le Convenzioni di Com-

mercio e di Navigazione che Fossero perConcludersi
con la Francia, la Spagna, e la Svizzera,” Rome,
1888).

Bibliography: Vapereau, Diet, de s Contemporains, s.v.;

Gubernatis, Diet. International des Ecrivains du Jour ,

s.v.

S. F. S.

ARTON (formerly AARON), LEOPOLD
EMILE : French adventurer; born in Strasburg
in 1849; settled in Paris in 1871. He was implicated
in distributing among statesmen and politicians the
bribes of the Panama Canal Company, which sought
to secure the authorization of the Chambers for the
company’s financial operations. During more than
four years the name of Arton was on all lips in
France. He was many times the object of violent
interpellations and stormy debates in both the Cham-
ber of Deputies and the Senate, and was a steady
menace to the stability of more than one French
cabinet. He fled in 1892; but the French police
never really tried to capture him until 1895, when
he was arrested (Nov. 10) in London, and extradited.
He was convicted by the Cour d’Assises of the de-
partment of the Seine (June 27, 1896) of defrauding
a dynamite company, and sentenced to six years’
imprisonment at hard labor. The judgment was
annulled, and the Cour d’Assises of the Seine-et-
Marne department condemned him to eight years’
seclusion — which was considered less severe than
hard labor — Nov. 6 of the same year.

While in prison he produced his famous “Note-
book ” (“Carnet des 104 ”), which contained, accord-
ing to him, the names of the 104 deputies and senators
whom he claimed to have bribed. A consequence
of his revelation was a new interpellation in the
Chamber of Deputies to the minister of justice
(March 22, 1897). A legal prosecution was author-
ized against three deputies, among whom was the
former friend of Arton, Alfred Naqtiet, and one
senator. This proceeding reawakened the violent
passions believed dead. A new parliamentary com-
mission d’enquete was established by the Chambers
June 29, in order to investigate the revelations of
Arton ; and this was followed by a new sensational
trial Dec. 18, 1897, which lasted until Dec. 30, and
resulted in the acquittal of all politicians accused
by Arton, who, a few months later, was himself
pardoned.

Bibliography: Meyer, Konversations-Lexikon , 5th ed., s.v.:

La Grande Encyclopedic , under Panama.

s. II. R.

ARUBOTH : A district, probably in the south
of Judah, where the sou of Ilesed, a commissariat
officer of Solomon, had his headquarters (I Kings
iv. 10).

j. jr. G. B. L.

‘ARUK Cpiy): Hebrew expression for “diction-
ary,” corresponding with the Arabic “ta’alif,” and
derived from “ ‘ arak [millin] ” (Job xxxii. 14), “ar-
ranged words” (A. V. “directed words”).

A Biblical dictionary, under the title “Mahberet
ha-'Aruk” (Composition of the Dictionary), was
written by Solomon ibn Parhon of Aragon in the
twelfth century.

A Talmudical ‘Aruk was first composed by Zemah

Arumah
Aryeh Loeb

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

158

ben Paltai, a gaon of Pumbedita, at the close of the
ninth century; but only traces of it have been pre-
served (see Rapoport's biography of Nathan, the
author of the ‘Aruk, in “ Bikkure ha-Yttim,” x.
24; and Kohut’s “‘Aruk ha-Shalem ” [Aruch Com-
pletum] I., introduction, xviii.).

The work generally quoted as “ ‘Aruk ” is the
great Talmudical dictionary composed by Nathan
ben Jehiel of Rome, and completed in 1101. (See
Natiian b. Jeiiiel.) Of this greater work different
compendia were made later on for the use of larger
circles of readers, with the explanation in modern
languages of difficult words, under the title “Sefer
ha ‘Aruk lia-Kazer” (The Smaller ‘Aruk), and were
used by Sebastian Munster, Reuchlin, and other
Christian scholars. See J. Perles, “Beitrage zur
Gesch. der Hebriiischen und Aramaischen Studien,”
1-112, Munich, 1884. K.

ARUMAH : A place in Ephraim not far from
Shechem, where Abimelech, the judge, took refuge
(Judges ix. 41). It has been identified with El
‘Ormeli on the hills southeast of Shechem.

j. jr. G. B. L.

ARUVAS (AROVAS), ISAAC: Rabbi and
author; son of R. Hananiah Aruvas; lived in the
seventeenth century. He filled the office of rabbi in
several African communities, and later settled in
Venice. He is the author of “ Emet we-Emunah ”
(Truth and Faith), a religious school-book published
in Hebrew and in Italian (Venice, 1672). The work
contains the 613 precepts and prohibitions arranged
in the order of Maimonides’ “Sefer ha-Mizwot,” the
thirteen articles of faith of Maimonides, a number of
ceremonial laws modeled upon those of Joseph Caro ;
and several ritual laws. It is highly spoken of by
Moses Zakut and others. Aruvas was also the author
of “Zibhe Zedek” (Thank-Offerings of Righteous-
ness), Venice, 1662, a rhythmical-alphabetical poem
on the ritual law of slaughtering, to which are ap-
pended commentaries.

g. M. K.

ARUVAS, MOSES BEN JOSEPH : A phy-
sician and translator; lived in Cyprus and Damascus
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He trans-
lated Aristotle’s “Theology,” a pseudepigraphic
work, from the Arabic into Italian. This transla-
tion, made at the request of Franciscus Roseus of
Ravenna, became the basis for Nicholas Castellani’s
Latin book, “Sapientissimi Philosophi Aristotelis
Stagiritie Theologia," which Roseus presented to
Pope Leo X. and published in Rome, 1519. Aruvas
afterward translated the Arabic text into Hebrew.
In this translation there was very little of the origi-
nal Latin.

Bibliography: Munk, Melange*, pp. 248, 249 ; Steinschneider,

Hcbr. lichen, p. 244.

G. M. K.

ARVAD (the classical ARADUS) : A town men-
tioned by Ezekiel (xxvii. 8, 11) as having contributed
materially to Tyre’s commercial greatness. Men of
Arvad rowed the ships and manned the walls of Tyre.
In the genealogical list of Gen. x. 18, and in the cor-
responding list of I Cliron. i. 16, Arvad is given as an
offshoot of Canaan, hence the term “ Arvadite. ” The
city, now called Ruwad or Ruweida, was built on an

island, the very small size of which compelled the
building of tall structures. It early gained promi-
nence as a commercial center, and was able to with-
stand Thothmes and Assurbanipal ; but later it be-
came secondary to Tyre, and this was its condition
in the days of Ezekiel. It did not, however, lose its
prestige and importance, for it is mentioned in
I Macc. xv. 23 that Lucius the Consul writes to
Aradus ordering it not to oppress the Jews.

j. jr. G. B. L.

ARYEH (n‘~iN‘. “lion”); A name commonly
found among the Jews. The first person known to
have borne it lived in the middle of the second cen-
tury (Pes. 1136). His real name, however, was Judah;
and “Aryeh,” or to give the more exact and fuller
form, “Gur Aryeh” (Lion’s Whelp), was a compli-
mentary addition to it (borrowed from Gen. xlix. 9).

There is no evidence of any other such use of the
word; but among Italian and German-Polish Jews,
on the other hand, frequent use was made of Aryeh
as a religious name along with the secular names
Leo, Leopold. Lowe (Lob, Leib), etc. The form
“Gur Aryeh ” is quite rare, and is to be found only
among the Italian Jews (compare, for instance, Finzi
Gur Aryeh, seventeenth century; and Judah Gur
Aryeh in Michael’s catalogue, “Ozerot Hayyim,”
MS. 37). Judah and Aryeh often appear as the re-
ligious names of persons whose secular name is Leon
or the like. L. G.

ARYEH JUDAH B. ZEBI HIRSCH. See

Judah b. Zebi Hirsch.

ARYEH LOEB : Dayyan of Lublin, Poland, in
the seventeenth century. He was the author of
“ Likkute ha-Or ” (Collection of Light), in two vol-
umes, the second of which, “Ha-Maor lia-Gadol”
(The Greater Light), is as yet unpublished. The
first, published under the title of “ Ha-Maor ha-
Katan” (The Lesser Light) at Lublin in 1667, con-
tains a commentary on the laws of “ Kiddush ha-
Hodesh ” (Consecration of the New Moon), by
Maimonides.

Bibliography : Michael, Or ha-Hayyim , No. 528.

l. g. J. L. S.

ARYEH LOEB B. ABRAHAM PORTSCHI-
NER. See Portsciiiner, Loeb b. Abraham.

ARYEH LOEB BEN ASHER: A rabbi and

one of the most eminent Talmudists of his age; born
in Lithuania at the end of the seventeenth century;
died at Metz June 23, 1785. He was rabbi in Pinsk,
and, later, president of the yeshibah in Minsk. In
1765 he was called as rabbi to Metz, then one of the
most important congregations in Europe. His elec-
tion was confirmed by royal decree October, 1766.
While his confirmation was still pending, a serious
trouble broke out in the synagogue, which nearly
brought about his resignation. He opposed this prac-
tise of the congregation : On Pentecost it was custom-
ary in Metz to recite the hymn Akdamut. after the
reading of the first verse of the Pentateuch-lesson.
The rabbi objected to this interruption of Scripture,
reading, and ordered the reader to proceed, but the
trustees defied his authority and insisted on the tra-
ditional usage. A violent scene followed, and the
rabbi was compelled to leave the synagogue. He

159

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Arumah
Aryeh Loeb

never afterward entered it except to deliver his ser-
mons, four times a year; but at the request of mem-
bers of the congregation who regretted their action
on the occasion of the discreditable disturbance in
the synagogue, he remained in the rabbinate till his
death.

Aryeh Loeb was considered one of the keenest
casuists of his time (see Azulai, “ Shorn lia-Gedolim ”
s. v. “ Shaiigat Aryeh”). His yeshibah was well fre-
quented; and he lectured even when, toward the
end of his life, he became totally blind. His chief
work, “ Shaiigat Aryeh” (The Roaring of the Lion), is
considered a classic in casuistic literature. It was pub-
lished at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 1755;Briinn, 1796;
Slavita, 1833; with glosses by Moses Aryeh Loeb ben
Joshua of Wilna, Josefow, 1855; and Wilna, 1874,
with additions from the author’s manuscripts and
glosses by his son Asher Loew. In 1781 Aryeh Loeb
published a work containing glosses to the Talmudic
treatises Rosh lia-Shanali, Hagigah, and Megillah,
together with miscellaneous casuistic novelise, under
the title “ Ture Eben ” (Rows of Stones). A supple-
ment, containing glosses to Ta'anit, was published at
Wilna in 1862 under the title “Geburat Ari” (The
Strength of the Lion). Responsa of his are also found
in the collection on the divorce-suit of Cleve. He was
an advocate of the strictest orthodoxy and a type of
the casuist that never can accept any exposition of
a passage but the literal sense. When the Talmud,
for example, calls Nebuchadnezzar (Hag. 13a) “the
wicked, the son of the wicked, the grandson of
Nimrod the wicked,” Aryeh Loeb would not accept
tjie explanation that Nebuchadnezzar is called Nim-
rod’s descendant on account of his being of similar
character, but insists that Nebuchadnezzar was, on
the maternal side, a descendant of Nimrod (sec “ Ture
Eben,” 19/;).

Aryeh Loeb is officially called Lion Asser, which
means Lion (French for Loeb), son of Asher. His
son, who was rabbi of Carlsruhe and died in 1837,
called himself Asher Loew. Of Aryeh Loeb’s disci-
ples the most notable were: Raphael Cohen, rabbi
of Altona, and Hayyim, the founder of the rabbinical
college of Volozhin.

Bibliography : Ha-Meassef, ii. til ; .lost, Israelitisclic Anna-

ten- ii- 18H; Michael, Or lia-Hauyim. , p. 253; A. Kahn, Lea

Rabbins dc Metz, in Iter. Et. Julies, xii. 295 ct se<j.

ARYEH LOEB B. BARUCH BENDET. See

Loeb b. Baruch Bendet.

ARYEH LOEB B. HAYYIM BRESLAU.

Sec Breslau Loeb ben Hayyim.

ARYEH LOEB BEN JACOB JOSHUA ;

German Talmudist and author; born 1715; died at
Hanover March 6, 1789. He was a son of the
author of “Pene Yehosliua',” who died as rabbi of
Frankfort-on-the-Main 1755. In his youth he was
his father’s assistant, and taught as such in the
yeshibah (academy) about 1745-1750 (see his let-
ters in Israel Lipsclnitz’ responsa “Or Yisrael,”
No. 57, Cleve, 1770). Subsequently he was called
as rabbi to Skala in Galicia, and in 1761 to Hanover,
where he officiated until his death. Aryeh edited
the fourth part of his father’s work (Ftirth, 1780),
and added to it his own novelise on treatise Baba
Kamma under the title “Pene Aryeh ” (The Face of

the Lion). His own works are of the usual scholastic
type. Aryeh was succeeded by his son, Issacliar
Berisch (1747-1807). A eulogy on him is found in
Eleazar Fleckeles’ sermons, “ ‘Olat Hodesh,” Prague,
1793.

Bibliography : Buber, Anshc Shem, pp. 43 et sea., Cracow.

1895.

ARYEH LOEB BEN JOSHUA HESHEL.

See Loeb b. Joshua Heshel.

ARYEH LOEB HA-KOHEN OF STYRYJI.

See Loeb iia-Kohen of Stykyji.

ARYEH LOEB HA-LEVI. See Loeb ha-
Levi of Brody.

ARYEH LOEB HA-LEVI HORWITZ. See

Horwitz, Aryeh Loeb.

ARYEH LOEB LIPSCHITZ. See Lipschitz,
Aryeh Loeb.

ARYEH LOEB BEN MEYER. See Loeb
Aryeh ben Meyer.

ARYEH LOEB MOKIAH. See Loeb
Moriah.

ARYEH LOEB BEN MORDECAI HA-
LEVI. See Epstein Loeb ben Mordecai.

ARYEH LOEB B. MOSES. See Loeb bkn
Moses iia-Kohen.

ARYEH LOEB OF POLNOI. See Loeb of
POLNOI.

ARYEH LOEB B. SAMUEL ZEBI HIRZ.

See Loeb ben Samuel Zebi IIirz.

ARYEH LOEB BEN SAUL (called also
LEVI SAUL LOEWENSTAM): Polish rabbi;
born in Cracow about 1690; died at Amsterdam
April 2, 1755. He came of a famous family of rab-
bis. His father Saul had been rabbi of Cracow; his
grandfather was Rabbi Hoeschl of Cracow. In 1707
he married Miriam, the oldest daughter of Zebi Ash-
kenazi, then rabbi in Altona; and continued his stud-
ies under his father-in-law, with whom he went to
Amsterdam, and thence to Poland. In the latter
country he was elected rabbi of Dukla. Through
the influence of his relatives he then obtained the
rabbinical position in Tarnopol, the former incum-
bent having been ousted by the officials of the
government to make room for him. This interfer-
ence on the part of the civic authorities naturally
aroused great opposition to him in the congregation,
and in a short time Aryeh Loeb was deposed. Sub-
sequently he was elected rabbi of Rzeszow, and later
on of Glogau. In 1740 he was called to Amsterdam,
where he remained until his death. A call was
extended to him from Prague in 1751, but he did
not accept it. It is doubtful whether he was rabbi
in Lemberg, as stated by Buber (“Anshe Shem,”
p. 38).

Aryeh did not publish any books, and what there
is of his exists in the works of others — as in the
responsa of Zebi Ashkenazi, No. 76; in those of
Mordecai of Diisseldorf (“Maamar Mordecai,” Nos.
62, 63, Briinn,1790), and in the worksof his son Saul,
“Binyan Ariel” (Amsterdam, 1778) — and shows no
originality. He took an active part in the contro-
versy between Jacob Emden and Jonathan Eybe-
scliiitz, and sided with the former, who was his wife’s
brother. His letters on that controversy are -full of
invectives against Eybeschiitz (see Emden’s “Sefat

Aryeh Loeb
Asaiab

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

160

Emet,” p. 16, Lemberg, 1877). According to the tes-
timony of his brother-in-law, Jacob Emden (see the
latter’s autobiography, “Megillat Sefer,” pp. 21, 68,
Warsaw, 1896), he was a man of mediocre abilities,
whose scientific attainments were not above the prac-
tical requirements for the rabbinical office. Of his
sons, one, Saul Aryeh, was his successor, while the
other, who called himself IIirschel Lewin, was
rabbi in Berlin. The son of the latter was Chief
Rabbi Solomon Herschell of London. See Amster-
dam.

Bibliography: Buber, Anshe Shem, pp. 37 et seq., Cracow,

1895.

ARYEH LOEB OF SPOLA. See Loeb of
Spola.

ARYEH LOEB TEOMIM. See Teomim.
Loeb.

ARZA : The steward of King Elaliat the palace,
in Tirzah, where Elah was killed by Zimri (I Kings
xvi. 9).

j. jr. G. B. L.

ARZARETH : The name of the land beyond the
great river, far away from the habitation of man, in
which the Ten Tribes of Israel will dwell, observing
the laws of Moses, until the time of the restoration,
according to IY Esd. xiii. 45. Columbus identified
America with this land. (See Ivayserling’s “ Chris-
topher Columbus,” translated by Dr. C. Gross, p.
15.)

The name, it has been suggested by Schiller-Szi-
nessy, is taken from Deut. xxix. 24r-27, “ Because they
forsook the covenant of the Lord . . . and went and
served other gods . . . the Lord rooted them out
of their land . . . and cast them into another land
[ere? aheret] as this day.” This passage is made to
Tefer(in Mishuah Sanh. x. 3) to the Ten Tribes (com-
pare Tosef., Sanli. xiii. 12; Bab. ib. 1105; Yer. ib.
x. 29c; Ab. It. N., ed. Scliechter, A, xxxvi. 108, and
Baclier, “ Agada der Tannaiten,” i. 143). But differ
ent opinions are expressed by Akiba and Eliezer —
the traditions are rather confused as to the names —
whether the Ten Tribes may be expected to return
or not, since this point is not determined in the
Scriptural verse. One of them takes the words “as
this day” to signify that “as the day goetli, but
doth not return, so shall they who are cast off not re-
turn ” ; the other explains the words : “ as the day be-
gins with the darkness of the night, but turns into day,
so shall the darkness of their banishment be turned
into bright daylight” (Mislmah Sanh. l.c.). The
fourth Book of Esdras took the latter view, which
was adopted also by R. Judah ha-Nasi in the Tosefta
(l.c.), who refers to Isa. xxvii. 13.

Bibliography : Schiller-Szinessy, in Journal of Philology, iii.

114; Neubauer, Jew. Quart. Rev. i. 16.

J. JR. K.

ASA: 1. A Levite, father of Berecliiali; found
in die genealogy of the Levites in I Chron. ix. 16.
2. See Asa, Third King of Judah.

J. JR. G. B. L.

ASA (abbreviation of Asayah). — Biblical
Data: Third king of Judah; son of Abijam and
grandson of Relioboam; reigned 917-876 b.c. (I

Kings xv. 7-9). The most important event of his
reign was the deliverance of Judah from Baasha,
king of Israel, under whom the superior strength of
the northern kingdom assumed a threatening aspect.
Baasha raised a fortress at Ramah, four miles from
Jerusalem; and, in order to secure immunity from
his attacks, Asa was obliged to obtain the help of
Ben-liadad I. of Damascus, thus involving the Ara-
means of Syria for the first time in the affairs of
Israel. Ben-liadad invaded the most northerly ter-
ritory of Israel northwest of the Sea of Galilee, and
annexed it to his own dominions. The price paid
to the Syrian king by Asa was taken from the store
of silver in the Temple and the royal palace.
Baasha was forced to retire; and Asa, using the
material of the ruined fortress of Ramah, built Geba
and Mizpah for the defense of his northern frontier
(I Kings xv. 16-22). Asa also repelled a raid of
Egyptians and Ethiopians under Zerah (Osorkon II.)
(II Chron. xiv. 9-15). According to the narrator in
I Kings, Asa was a religious reformer, putting down
impure worship with an unsparing hand (I Kings

xv. 11-15); but, while he was on the whole a wise
and successful ruler, the picture given of him is
somewhat vague. His religious reforms, more par-
ticularly, can hardly have been thorough, in so far as
no traces of them are to be observed in the reigns of
his successors. See Baasha and Ben-hadad.

j. jr. J. F. McC.

In Rabbinical Literature: According to the

Rabbis, Asa was one of the five men who were dis-
tinguished by certain physical perfections possessed
by Adam, but were, on account of their having
abused them, afflicted in these very parts of their
body. Samson was distinguished by ids strength, and
behold, “his strength went from him” (Judges xvi.
19); Saul by towering with his neck above the rest,
and behold, “he took a sword and fell upon it” (I
Sam. xxxi. 4) ; Absalom by his long hair, and behold,
“ his head caught of the oak ” (II Sam. xviii. 9) ; Zede-
kiali by his eyes, and behold, “ they put out the eyes of
Zedekiah ” (II Kings xxv. 7) ; Asa by his feet (com-
pare as to Adam B. B. 58«; Tan., Aliare Mot, ed.
Buber, 3) and behold, “in the time of his old age he
was diseased in his feet” (I Kings xv. 23); that is,
he was afflicted with gout. And the reason for this
affliction of Asa was that, when enlisting the whole
of Judah in war he “exempted none” (I Kings xv.
22), but forced also the students of the Law — nay,
even newly married husbands, whom the Law (Deut.
xx. 7) exempts — to march along (Sotah 10a). [Pirke
Rabbeuu lia-Kadosh, v. 14, ed. Gruenhut, p. 72, has
Asaiiel the light-footed (II Sam. ii. 18—23) instead
of Asa. Compare Pirke R. Eliezer liii. , where, in-
stead of five, six are mentioned, Josiah being added
as the sixth, as boasting of and afflicted in his nos-
trils (II Chron. xxxv. 22, 23; Ta‘an. 225) whereas
Tan., Wa’ethanan, ed. Buber, 1, has seven instead
of five.]

The chronological discrepancy between II Chron.

xvi. 1 and I Kings xvi. 8 is readjusted by the in-
terpretation that the thirty-sixth year of Chronicles
refers to the thirty-six years of the secession of the
northern kingdom, which was a punishment for
the thirty-six years of Solomon's marriage to the

161

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aryeh Loeb
Asaiah

daughter of Pharaoh, and ended in reality in the
fifteenth year of Asa’s reign, when Zerah the Ethi-
opian was vanquished by him; the alliance between
the kingdoms of Israel and Syria (I Kings xi. 23)
also lasted thirty-six years In obtaining an alliance
with the king of Syria against Baasha by giving
away the gold and silver treasures of the house of
the Lord (I Kings xv. 18), Asa sinned grievously,
for which Hanani, the seer, sternly rebuked him
(II Cliron. xvi. 7) (Tosef., So(ah, xii. 1, 2; Seder
‘Olam R. xvi.).

Asa, having contracted a matrimonial alliance with
the wicked house of Omri, brought about the decree
of Heaven that after forty -two years both the houses
of David and of Omri should go down together,
which nearly happened in the time of Aliaziah,
wherefore the latter is said to have been forty-two
years old when he ascended the throne (II Chron.
xxii. 2) in contradiction with xxi. 20, and II Kings
viii. 26 (Tosef., Sotah, xii. and Seder ‘Olam R.
xvii.).

Among the treasures which Asa took from Zerah
the Ethiopian, and which Zerah had taken from
Shishak (II Chron. xii. 9, compare xvi. 2), there was
also the marvelous throne of Solomon upon which
all the kings of Judah subsequent^' sat (Esther R.
i. 2) ; while the other great treasures were given by
Asa to the king of Syria to obtain his alliance ; then
they were taken again by the Ammonites, to be recap-
tured by Jelioshaphat ; then they fell into the hands
of Sennacherib, from whom Hezekiah recovered
them, and at the capture of Jerusalem they came
into the hands of the Babylonians ; then into those of
the Persians, and afterward of the Macedonians, and
finally of the Romans, who kept them at Rome
(Pes. 119rt; compare III Sibyl. 179 and 351; IV
Sibyl. 145).

J. SR. K.

ASAD : One of the two Arabian-Jewish rabbis
that are said to have instructed the Tobba‘ Abu Kari-
bah (king of Yemen) in the tenets of the Jewish re-
ligion. The name of the other was Ka‘b; and both
belonged to the tribe of the Banu Kuraiza. Ta-
bari (“Annales,” i. 902), who relates this incident,
adds that they were the most learned Jews of their
age. It is, however, noteworthy that older histo-
rians, like Ibn Ishak and Ibn Hisliam, do not men-
tion their names (see Arabia).

Bibliography: Gratz, Geschichte der Juden, v. 92.

G. H. Hir.

AS‘AD AL-DIN, YA‘KUB IBN ISHAK
AL-MAHALLI : Egyptian physician; lived in
Cairo toward the end of the twelfth century and at
the beginning of the thirteenth. He was born in al-
Mahallah, a city between Cairo and Damietta. Ibn
Abi Usaibia, in his history of the Arabic physicians,
praises As‘ad highly' and speaks of him as one of
the most renowned scholars and physicians of that
time. In 1201 As‘ad went to Damascus, where he
engaged in many controversies with the local phy-
sicians, among whom wasSadaka ben Munajjah, the
Samaritan. He returned to Cairo, where he died.

Ibn Abi Usaibia mentions the following works
of As‘ad: (1) “Makalah fi Kawanin Tabiyah ”
II.— 11

(Treatise on the Canons of Medicine); (2) “Kitab al-
Nazli” (Book of Pleasure), on the reflection that the
eye beholds in the mirror; (3) “Kitab fi Mizaj Di-
mashka” (Book Containing Three Treatises); (4)
“ Masail Tabiyah ” (Questions of Medicine).

Bibliography: Ibn abi Usaibia, ed. Muller, ii. 118; Carmoly,

Histoire des Mi-dec ins, p. 71; Steinschneider, Hebr. Biblio-

grapliie, xv. 181.

G. I. Br.

ASAHEL. — Biblical Data : 1. Son of Zeruiah,
sister of David (I Chron. ii. 16). He was noted as a
swift runner. As one of the thirty heroes of David
(II Sam. xxiii. 24; I Chron. xi. 26), he had command
of the army in the fourth month (I Chron. xxvii. 7).
After the defeat of the forces of Ishboslieth, he pur-
sued Abner (II Sam. ii. 18, 19). Asahel was, how-
ever, killed by Abner, who in revenge was slain by
Joab (II Sam. iii. 27). 2. Father of Jonathan, who

opposed Ezra’s policy of putting away foreign wives
(Ezra x. 15). 3. A Levite sent by Jelioshaphat to

teach the men of Judah the “book of the law of
God ” (II Chron. xvii. 8). 4. A Levite assigned by

Hezekiah to collect the tithes and offerings in the
Temple (II Chron. xxxi. 13).

j. jr. G. B. L.

In Rabbinical Literature: Asahel, son of

Zeruiah, was so fleet that he overtook deer; and
when he ran over a field of ripening corn, the ears of
grain did not even bend, but remained erect as if
untouched. When his time had come, however, he
could not move an inch, and was slain by Abner
(Eccl. R. ix. 11; Yalk., Jer. 285). (See Joab.) To
Asahel was applied the verse: “I returned, and sawr
under the sun, that the race is not to the swift”
(Eccl. ix. 11).

j. SR. L. G.

ASAHEL, HAYYM ; Rabbi and author who
lived in Salouica during the first half of the eight-
eenth century. He was the son of Benjamin Asa-
hel, the chief rabbi of that city. Hayyim Asahel
was the author of a Hebrew work entitled “Sam
Hayyai ” (Spice of My Life), a collection of addresses
and responsa, which was published after his death
by his son Benjamin (Salonica, 1746). He lived for
some years at Jerusalem, and was commissioned to
collect subscriptions throughout Asia Minor for the
poor of Palestine. He died at Smyrna while on this
mission.

Bibliography: Azulai, Sbem ha-Gedolim, ii. s.v. "n od ;

Michael, Or ha-Hayyim, No. 895.

G. M. Fr.

ASAIAH ; 1. A prince of the tribe of Simeon
who, with others, attacked and captured Gedor, and
settled there (I Chron. iv. 36). 2. Servant of King

Josiah, by whom he was sent, in company with
Ahikam, Shaphan, Aelibor, and Hilkiali, to inquire
concerning the book of the Law that had been found
in the Temple (II Kings xxii. 12, 14; II Chron.
xxxiv. 20). 3. A Levite appointed to take part in

bringing back the Ark and in the service of song
after its return (I Chron. vi. 15 [A. V. 30] ; xv. 6,
11). 4. A Shilonite residing in Jerusalem (I Chron.

ix. 5); identical with Maaseiah (Neh. xi. 5).

j. jr. G. B. L.

Asaph

Ascarelli

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

162

ASAPH: 1. A son of Berechiah or Berachiah.
(See Asapii pen Berechiah.) 2. The father of
Joah, chronicler at the court of Hezekiali (II Kings
xviii. 18, 37; II Chron. xxix. 13; Isa. xxxvi. 3, 22).
3. The keeper of the forests of Artaxerxes, probably
in Palestine, in the time of Nehemiah (Neh. ii. 8).

j. jr. G. A. B.

4. Eponym of a musical gild. The name is pre-
fixed as the title of authorship to twelve psalms (1. ;
lxxiii.-lxxxiii.) in the second and third books of the
Psalter. The name appears only in the later histor-
ical writings. In the original documents of Ezra and
Nehemiah (Ezra ii. 41 ; Neh. vii. 44 — about 400 b.c.)
the singers are all designated as “sons of Asaph,”
and are distinct from the Levites. In Neh. xi. 22,
however, the overseer of the Levites at Jerusalem
is described as “of the sons of Asaph, the singers.”
According to the chronicler (about 250 b.c.), the
sons of Asaph were Levites, and there were three
bands or gilds of singers descended respectively from
Asaph Heman (Ps. lxxx viii.) and Ethan (Ps. lxxxix.),
or Jeduthun (I Chron. xv. 17, xvi. 41, xxv. 1-6; II
Chron. v. 12, xxxv. 15). The chronicler further rep-
resents Asaph as a contemporary of David, and as
the founder of the gild of Asaphite singers (I Chron.
xvi. 4-7; Ezra iii. 10; Neh. xii. 46). See Ethan,
Jeduthun, Psalms.

j. jr. J. P. P.

ASAPH ( ‘ ‘ Mar Rab ”) : To j udge from the title
“ Mar Bab, ” he was one of the Geonim (see Gaon).
and, presumably, lived about the middle of the ninth
century. The name occurs in a Cairo Genizah frag-
ment, whose author was possibly Judah b. Barzilai
of Barcelona. This Asaph may be identical with
the Asaph who figures as one of the transmitters of
the Massorah traditions (anonymous chronicle in
Neubauer, “Medieval Jewish Chronicles,” i. 174;
here DDN is very likely a misprint for C]DN); but
there are no grounds for connecting him with the
physician Asaph.

Bibliography: Jewish Quarterly Review, ix. 675-678.

J. SR. L. G.

ASAPH BEN BERECHIAH : One of the cap-
tive Levites carried off to Assyria (I Chron. vi. 24
[A.V. 39]), and whom Arabic and later Jewish legend
says was Yezir of Solomon (Al-Nadim, “ Kitab-al-
Fihrist,” i. 19; Jellinek, “B. II.” v. 23). To him is
ascribed a very remarkable treatise on medicine,
called “Sefer Asaf,” “Midrash Befu’ot, ” or “Sefer
Refu’ot ” — probably the oldest treatise of its kind in
Hebrew — manuscripts of which exist in the libraries
of Florence, Paris, Munich, Vienna (Pinsker 15, frag-
mentary), London (Almanzi collection; see Stein-
selmeider, “Hebr. Bibl.” v. 23), and Oxford. The
contents of these manuscripts vary; but, in general,
they contain treatises on the Persian months, physi-
ology, embryology, the four periods of man’s life,
the four winds, diseases of various organs, hygiene,
medicinal plants, medical calendar, the practise of
medicine, as well as an antidotarium, urinology,
aphorisms, and the Hippocratic oath.

The introduction is in the form of the later Mid-
rash, and ascribes the origin of medicine to Sliem,
the son of Noah, who received it from the angels.

The only authorities cited are “the books of the wise
men of India,” and a “book of the ancients,” from
which the present work was translated. Mar Mor.
the Christian of Salerno; Mar Joseph, the physician;
Boufils, the physician ; Rudolf, the physician in
Worms; Samuel, the physician, etc., occur in ad-
ditions made to the Oxford manuscript. Stein-
schneider and Low, however, have shown that the
list of medicinal plants goes back to Dioscorides:
and the aphorisms can only be a working over of
the well-known treatise of Hippocrates. In other
places, Steinschneider has suspected the influence of
Galen.

There are very few indications affording any clue
to the author or to the time and place in which he
wrote. The author’s name varies; “Asaph ha-
Yehudi” (Asaph the Jew), “Asaph
On the Katan” (Asaph the little), “ Asaph lia-
Author’s Rofe ” (Asaph the physician), “Asaph
Name. he-Hakam” (Asaph the wise man). In
the Bodleian manuscript this name is
coupled with that of Johanan ha-Yarhoni, which
Fiirst takes to mean “of Jericho.” In the Paris man-
uscript (No. 1197, 7) the name reads “Asaph ben
Berechiah lia-Yarhoni ” (Asaph the astronomer). In
one place in the Bodleian manuscript Judah ha-
Yarhoni is mentioned, and in a later part Samuel
YarhinaT. A Johanan ben Zabda is mentioned to-
gether with Asaph in connection with the Hippo-
cratic oath.

In the quasi-historical introduction, Asaph is
placed between Hippocrates and Dioscorides. Rap-
oport saw in the name Asaph a corruption of either
Hisop or iEsculapius, and thought that the author
might be identical either with Sliabbetliai Don nolo
or Isaac Israeli. Neubauer (“ Orient und Occident,”
ii. 659, 767) held that Asaph was a Christian of the
eleventh century, who wrote originally in Arabic,
and whose work was translated into Hebrew from
the Latin. The more correct view seems to be that
it was translated from some Syriac original, as Steiu-
schncider holds. Hebrew, Aramean, Persian, Greek,
and Latin technical terms abound. This would
place its composition somewhere in northern Syria
or in Mesopotamia, rather than in Palestine, as Zunz
thought. In this connection it is interesting to note
that Solomon ben Samuel of Urgendsh (Gurgany)
makes free use of Asaph’s list of plants in the Per-
sian-Hebrew lexicon which he composed in the four-
teenth century (Bacher, “Ein Hebraisch-Persisches
Worterbucli,” p. 41).

The date of composition can only be determined
in a general way from the quotations of the work in
Jewish literature. Donnolo (born 925
Date of in Oria), if Kaufmann is right (“Die
Composi- Sinne,” p. 150), is the oldest known
tion. authority who quotes the work; and
till Gedalialiibn Yahya (sixteenth cen-
tury) there were about a dozen authorities, among
them Hai Gaon and Rashi, who mention Asaph’s
book. The date of composition would thus be in
the ninth or tenth century, about the time at which
Dioscorides was translated into Syriac. There is a
legend that Socrates was a pupil of Asaph (Stein-
schneider, “Hebr. Uebers.” p. 870).

A Latin rendering of a portion of the work is to

163

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Asaph

Ascarelli

be found in a Paris manuscript (No. 655, 6), under
the title “ Distinctio Mundi Secundum Magistrum
Asaph Hebrseum, Qualiter Terra Permanet Ordi-
nata”; it lias been published by Neubauer. Stein-
schneider suggests that the name occurs in a cor-
rupted form in a Greek manuscript, “ Viaticum ”
(Paris, MS. No. 2241), as ’A tnf vlog ’I paniov.

Bibliography : A complete description of the work is given by
Steinsehneider in Hehr. Bibl. xix. 35, tit, 84, 105. The intro-
duction has been printed by Jellinek in Bet tia-Midrash, iii.
155, and the Hippocratic oath by Fuenn in Karmel , i. 239,
and bv Dukes in Manatsschrift , viii. 202; compare Stein-
schneider, !.c. A number of quotations will be found in
Kaufmann, Die Sinne, Index, s.v. The Aramaic terminology
has been studied by Low in Aramtlische Pflanzennamen ,
p. 24 et passim. Compare also Wolf , Bibl. Hehr. iv. 789;
Steinsehneider, Dnnnnln (1868), passim ; idem, Jewish Lit-
erature. p. 367: Rapoport, in Ozar ha-Hokmah, ed. J. Ba-
rasch, p. iii. (Vienna, 1856); Zunz, in Geiger’s Jild. Zeit-
schrift, iv. 199, reprinted in his Gesammctte Schriften, i.
160; Neubauer, in Orient und Occident, ii. 659, 767 ; idem.
Cat. Bndl. Hehr. MSS. No. 2138 ; Fiirst, Gesch. der Kariier ,
pp. 24, 139; Manatsschrift, vi. 277.

L. G. G.

ASARAMEL : A name of uncertain meaning
and intent occurring in I Macc. xiv. 28. The read-
ing, as it has come down, gives it as the name of a
place; but it is possible that it really is the name or
a title of Simon. In support of the first view it lias
been suggested that it is a corruption of “Hazar
‘Am El ” (Court of the People of God). Wernsdorf,
Grimm, and others see in the word the title of Simon,
“Sar ‘Am El” (Prince of the People of God).

J. JR. G. B. L.

ASARELAH or ASHARELAH : One of the

Asaphites appointed by David to the Temple serv-
ice, according to I Chron. xxv. 2). In verse 14 the
same personage appears as “ Jesharelah. ” The read-
ings “ Asarelah ” and “ Jesarelah ” (witli s) seem pref-
erable. The variation in the initial syllable has a
parallel in “Jesse,” usually written “Yishai” ('t?'),
but which appears once as “Ishai” (,tl,,N, I Chron.
ii. 13). The name itself may be a distortion of Israel
plus au emphatic ending “a.” See Kittel’s note in
“S. B. O. T.” to Chron. iv. 16.

J. Ju.

ASCALON (ASKELON). See Ashkelon.

ASCAMA (TO3DH ; plural Ascamot) : The name
given by Spanish and Portuguese Jewish com-
munities to the laws governing their internal ad-
ministration. These laws, approved and accepted
as binding by the members, called in general “ Yehi-
dim,” were, for the most part, framed upon ancient
models. They are a survival, to a certain extent,
of the old internal administration of the Jewries of
Spain and Portugal. Originally written in Spanish
or Portuguese, they have been translated into the
respective vernaculars of the countries in which
these communities now exist. The ascamot of the
English communities, framed in 1664, were translated
from the original Portuguese into English in the year
1819. They correspond somewhat to the “tekanot”
of the Ashkenazic communities, though the latter
are more limited in their scope, and more like “de-
cisions in council ” on certain affairs of communal
interest.

Among the Ashkenazim the word “ liaskamah ”
(correct form of “Ascama”)is used exclusively in

the sense of approbation, and is chiefly employed as
the name of a permit for the publication of a book.
This liaskamah or license had to be signed by at
least three rabbis. The first instance of this kind
of censorship seems to have occurred in 1554 in Italy
(see I. Abraham’s “Jewish Life in the Middle Ages,”
pp. 69 et seq.), not for the purpose of stamping the
book with any special religious character, but to
prevent the publication of any work that was likely
afterward to be destroyed by the censor appointed
by the Inquisition. It would also serve the purpose
of safeguarding the author’s copyright. In later
times the license was transformed into a recom-
mendation.

Formerly the Mahamad — that is, the governing
body of the Sephardic communities — also claimed a
similar right to grant the license for any book pub-
lished under its jurisdiction. Hakam David Nieto
published his “ Matteli Dan ” in London (1714) with-
out any liaskamah, but “con licencia de los Seiiores
del Mahamad ” (with the license of the Mahamad).
In the same manner every local authority claimed
the right to grant or to refuse such a license. See
Approbation, Censorship.

Bibliography : W. Popper, The Censorship of Hebrew Bunks,
1899, pp. 39, 44, 94, 106.

D. 51. G.\.

ASCARELLI, DEBORAH ; Italian poetess,
and wife of Giuseppi Ascarelli; lived at Venice at
the end of the sixteenth and at the beginning of the
seventeenth century.

As early as 1560 Deborah was known in Rome as
a poetess of talent. She translated into Italian verse
the second section of part two of Moses Rieti’s “ Mik-
dash Me'at,” which, under the title “Me'on lia-Sho-
alim,” was recited in the Italian synagogues. This
“Tempio di oratori ” commenced as follows:

“Tempio di chi cliiede em fin perfetto
I)i chi ricerca sol gratia e amore
E da vita il tuo fronto benedetto.”

It was published in 1601-2 by David della Rocca
(Venice, 31 pp.), together with Deborah’s translation
of Bahya’s “Tokehah” (Admonition to the Soul);
Rabbenu Nissim’s “ Longer Confession ” ; the Seph-
ardic ‘Abodah for the Day of Atonement ; some
original poems of Deborah, and an anonymous
poem, supposed to have been written by the editor.
The work was intended for liturgical purposes, and
contained also the Hebrew originals. Deborah’s
translations keep close to the Hebrew text, but are
spirited and full of real poetic fire. Nothing further
is known of her life.

Bibliography: Basnage, Histnire de s Juifs, ix. 31, 866; Kay-
serling, Die JUdischen Frauen, pp. 159, 354; Mortara, Di-
dice Alfahetico, s.v.; Steinsehneider, Cat. Bndl. col. 1988;
idem, Manatsschrift, xliii. 92; Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, 3d
ed., p. 132 ; Berliner, Gesch. der Juden in Rom, ii. 194 ; Vogel-
stein and Rieger, Gesch. der Juden in Rom, ii. 264, 265.

G. I. BR.

ASCARELLI, MOSES VITA (JEHIEL):

Physician at Rome ; died Dec. 11, 1889. He received
his early education at the Talmud Torah in that
city, and later studied medicine at the University of
Rome. During the cholera epidemic in 1867 he
distinguished himself by his disinterested labors, in
recognition of which he received a medal from Pope

Ascari

Asceticism

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

164

Pius IX. Ascarelli took au active interest in the
organization of the Jewish community in Rome, and
was one of the founders of the”Soeieta di Fratel-
lenza,” for the dissemination of education among
poor Jews and the development among them of a
taste for art and the professions.

Amid his many occupations, Ascarelli found time
to contribute to Jewish literature, and was a fre-
quent contributor under the pseudonym “Emet le-
Ya’akob ” to the Hebrew journal “Ha-Maggid,” for
which he wrote many poems and articles on the con-
dition of Italian Jews under Pope Pius IX. Asca-
relli translated from Hebrew into Italian the work
“Nahalah le-Yisrael ” (A Heritage unto Israel), a re-
sponsum sent by the chief rabbi, I. M. Hazau, in
connection with a disputed inheritance in the Gal-
lichi family. Ascarelli translated also, from French
into Hebrew, under the title “ Sefer ‘Am Polanim
we-Gere Polanim,” the work of the Polish poet
Mickiewicz, “Le Livre de la Nation Polonaise et des
Pelerins Polonais.” He used to preach in the Cata-
lan Synagogue; and one of his sermons has been
printed under the title “Panigerico sull’ Elezione
d'lsraele nel Tempio Israelitico di Roma il Sciavuot
5640 [May 17, 1880] per l’lniziazione alia Maggiorita
Religiose del Figlio Angelo Raffaele e altri Giova-
nelli della Communioue.”

Bibliography : Vogelstein and Rieger. Gescli. der Juden in
Rom, ii. 386, 405, 408, 409; Zeitlin, Bibliotheca Hebraica,
p. 6; Lippe, Bibliogra ph inches Lexicon, p. 566.

S. I. Br.

ASCARI or AZKARI, ELAZAR BEN
MOSES BEN ELAZAR : Rabbi and author of
the sixteenth century; styled by Azulai “Ir we-
Kaddish ” (Angel and Saint): a pupil of R. Joseph
Sagis, the colleague of Joseph Caro. He lived at
Safed.

Ascari was a founder of the “Sukkat Shalom”
(Tabernacle of Peace) — a society devoted to religious
meditations — and wrote in its interest in 1585 his
work “Haredim” (The Devout Ones), which deals
with the three principles of religious devotion; the
knowledge of God. the strict observance of His
commandments, and penitence. The section on the
Commandments deals separately with the mandatory
and prohibitory laws, and includes also those that
can be observed only in Palestine. In the sectiou
on penitence, Ascari expresses his opposition to un-
necessary fasting as a means to repentance. The
work is permeated by a spirit of broad humanity
coupled with humility and holiness.

Although Ascari understood the Cabala, and was
personally acquainted with Isaac Luria — whom he
describes as “our holy cabalist, on whom the Holy
Spirit rests, as he speaks so wondrously ” — he can
not be counted among the cabalists. Ascari 's com-
mentary on the treatise Berakot of the Talmud
Yerushalmi was published iu the Jitomir edition
of the latter work (1866), and was reprinted in I. D.
Willawski’s new edition of the same.

Bibliography: Azulai, Shem lia-Gedolim, s.v.: Michael, Or
ha-Hayyim, No. 489.

K. ■ J. L. S.

ASCENSION : The translation to heaven of a
few chosen ones, either to remain there in lieu of
dying, or merely to receive revelations and then to
return to earth. The ascensions of Enoch (Gen. v.

24) and Elijah (II Kings ii. 11) were of the former
nature. Among the Babylonians and the classic
peoples of antiquity the belief was wide-spread that
extraordinarily pious men who had led blameless
lives were permitted by God to leave the world
without suffering death. The Babylonian legends
tell of Xisuthros that he was caught up into heaven
because he found favor in the sight of God (Berosus,
ed. Richter, 1825, p. 57 ; Eusebius, [Armenian] ed.
Mai, p. 14), and of Etana-Gilgamesli riding on an eagle
to heaven, “ whence the earth appears as a hill and
the sea as a basin ” (see Harper, in Delitzsch and
Haupt’s “Beitrage zur Assyriologie,” ii. 391-408;
and Jastrow, “Religion of Babylon and Assyria,”
pp. 520-522); the latter reappears in the Alexan-
der legend (see Yer. ‘Ab. Zarah iii. 42c; Meissner,
“Alexander und Gilgamos,” p. 17). The Biblical
accounts of the ascensions of Enoch and Elijah do
not therefore contradict the different theories on
death found in Genesis (compare Death), which
latter do not exclude exceptions. In addition to the
first two mentioned, other personages are spoken
of in post-Biblical accounts as not tasting death
(II Esd. iv. 26). The apocryphal literature includes
Baruch among such men (“Apocalypse [Syriac] of
Baruch,” xiii. 3), and so does the rabbinical literature
(compare Baruch, in Rabbinical Literature), as
well as Ezra (II Esd., end) and Moses (“Assump-
tio Mosis,” x. 12), and this notwithstanding that the
latter’s death is definitely mentioned in the Bible.

The following list of persons who were taken up
into heaven is found in rabbinical literature: Enoch
(Biblical); Elijah (Biblical); Eliezer, Abraham's
steward; Ebed Melek, Zedekiah’sEthi-
In Rabbin- opian slave, who rescued Jeremiah
ical from death (Jer. xxxviii. 7 et xeq. ) ;
Literature. Hiram of Tyre, the builder of Solo-
mon’s Temple; Jabez (I Cliron. iv. 10
et seq.)\ Serali, Asher’s daughter; Bithiali (I Chron.
iv. 18); Pharaoh’s daughter, the foster-mother of
Moses ; and of later times the amora Joshua b. Levi,
and a grandson of Judah lia-Nasi, whose name is not
given (Yalk., Gen. 42; Ezek. 367 ; Derek Ere? Zutta
i. end; compare Epstein, “ Mi-Kadmoniyot,” pp.
Ill, 112, and Kohler, “The Pre-Taimudic Haggada ”
in “Jew. Quart. Rev.” v. 417-419). According to
the Rabbis, all these personages are in paradise,
which in later times was supposed to be heaven;
therefore, the Bible may well say that Elijah as-
cended into heaven; see also Jonah, in Rabbin-
ical Literature.

In addition to these there are others who ascended
into heaven temporarily, returning after a time to
the earth. The Biblical prototype of these is Moses,
who went up unto God in order to receive the Torah ;
and the later legends mention several pious men,
who, like Moses, received instruction and revelation
in heaven, accounts of which are given in the apoc-
ryphal works The Apocalypse op Abraham, Tes-
tament of Abraham, Apocalypse [Greek] of
Baruch. In post-Biblical times, also, persons re-
ceived revelations in paradise. Paul is not the only
one wdio believed himself to have been taken up into
heaven; for a generation later the Jews spoke of the
four rabbis who entered paradise. Although vari-
ous attempts were made to interpret this passage

165

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ascari

Asceticism

(Hag. p. 146; Tosef., ib. ii. 3) allegorically or figu-
ratively, as early as the gaon Samuel b. Hophni,
who was followed, mutatis mutandis, by Gratz in
modern times, the expression DTlD^ DJ3 J (“ to enter
paradise”)— exactly corresponding to the phrase DJDJ
ny (“ to enter the garden of Eden ”) (compare
Ah. R. N. xxv., ed. Schechter, p. 40) — means noth-
ing else than that these four men, Elisha b. Abu yah,
‘Akiba, Ben ‘Azzai, and Ben Zoma, actually entered
into the heavenly paradise.

Later Midrashim mention the Ascension of Ishmael
b. Elisha, said to have been one of the martyrs dur-
ing the Hadrianic persecutions. These
The men, together with Akiba and his
Later teacher Nehunyali b. ha-Kaneh, were
Midrashim. known in the mysticism of the time
of the Geonim as the triumvirate of
the H 33113 'HYP (“the riders in the heavenly char-
iot”). Hai Gaon narrates that during this period a
certain class of mystics were able, by various manip-
ulations, to enter into a state of autohypnosis, in
which they declared they saw heaven open before
them and beheld its mysteries. It was believed that
he only could undertake this “Merkabah-ride ” who
was in possession of all religious knowledge, ob-
served all the commandments and precepts, and
was almost superhumanly pure in his life (“Hekalot
Rabbati,” xiii., xiv., xx.). This, however, was re-
garded usually as a matter of theory ; and less per-
fect men also attempted by fasting and prayer to
free their senses from the impressions of the outer
world, and succeeded in entering into a state of ec-
stasy in which they recounted their heavenly visions.

A more modern form of this kind of Ascension is
the p|»SW JY^y (Ascension of the Soul) of the Hasi-
dim. The founder of Hasidism, Israel
Hasidism. Baal Shem-Tob, speakg of his Ascen-
sion— a belief that appears still more
pronounced among later representatives of that sect,
who, in their state of ecstasy, either believed or pre-
tended to believe that they had been caught up into
heaven. Compare Cabala, Enoch, Hasidism, Mer-
KAB AH- RIDERS, MOSES.

Bibliography: Charles, Apocalypse of Baruch , 189(5, p. 73

note 7 ; Bloeh, in Monatsschrift , xxxvii. 20-25.

k. L. G.

ASCENSION OF ISAIAH. See Isaiah, As-
cension OF.

ASCETICISM : A term derived from the Greek
verb aaneu, meaning “to practise strenuously,” “to
exercise. ” Athletes were therefore said to go through
ascetic training, and to be ascetics. In this usage
the twofold application — to the mode of living and
the results attained — which marks the later theolog-
ical implication of the term is clearly discernible.
From the arena of physical contests the word easily
passed over to that of spiritual struggles ; and pre-
Christian writers speak of the “askesis” of the soul
or of virtue— the discipline of the soul, or the exer-
cise in virtue. But the physical idea, no less than
the moral, underlies the meaning of the term in
medieval Christian parlance. The monastery, as the
place where the required life of abstemiousness is
lived under rigorous regulation and discipline, be-
comes the “asketerion,” a word which to the clas-

sical Greek conveyed only the notion of a place re-
served for physical exercise; while the monks were
the “ascetikoi,” the ascetics, under discipline attain-
ing unto the perfect practise.

It is thus seen that both the term and the idea
which the term expresses are of non-Jewish origin
and implications. Judaism can not
Non- be said to encourage Asceticism, even

Jewish. in the restricted sense of discipline.

Rationalists have indeed affected to
construe the ritual legalism of both the Pentateuch
and the later rabbinical codes as a disciplinary
scheme, devised by God or man with the view of
bringing men under rigid restriction of freedom of
action, in the satisfaction of the appetites and the
control of the passions, to a higher degree of moral
perfection. But even before comparative studies
had shown that most, if not all, of the so-called dis-
ciplinary contrivances of the Mosaic scheme rest on
notions altogether other than those assumed, the
rigorous constructionists among Jewish theologians
put themselves on record as utterly inimical to the
ascription of utility, either moral or material, to the
divine laws. They were simply divine command-
ments, and to inquire into their origin or their pur-
pose was forbidden — “Hukkali hakkakti; we’en at-
tem reshuyim leharher ahareha ” (I have decreed the
statute ; but you are not permitted to inquire into its
reasons; Yoma 676 ; Sifra, Al.iare, xiii.).

Atall events, Judaism isof a temper which is fatal
to asceticism; and the history of both Judaism and
the Jews is, on the whole, free from ascetic aberra-
tions. Fundamental to the teachings of Judaism is
the thought that the world is good. Pessimism has no
standing-ground. Life is not under the curse. The
doctrine of original sin, the depravity of man, has
never had foothold within the theology of the syna-
gogue. It never held sway over the mind and the
religious imagination of the Jews. In consequence
of this the body and the flesh were never regarded
by them as contaminated, and the appetites and pas-
sions were not suspected of being rooted in evil.
The appeal to mortify the flesh for the sake of pleas-
ing Heaven could not find voice in the synagogue.

Asceticism is indigenous to the religions which
posit as fundamental the wickedness of this life and
the corruption under sin of the flesh. Buddhism,
therefore, as well as Christianity, leads to ascetic
practises. Monasteries are institutions of Buddhism
no less than of Catholic Christianity. The assump-
tion, found in the views of the Montanists and
others, that concessions made to the natural appe-
tites may be pardoned in those that are of a lower
degree of holiness, while the perfectly holy will
refuse to yield in the least to carnal needs and de-
sires, is easily detected also in some of the teachings
of Gautama Buddha. The ideal of holiness of both
the Buddhist and the Christian saint culminates in
poverty and chastity; i.e., celibacy. Fasting and
other disciplinary methods are resorted to to curb
the flesh. Under a strict construction of the mean-
ing of Asceticism, it is an error to assume that its
history may be extended to embrace also certain rites
in vogue among devotees to fetishism and nature-
worship. Mutilations, the sacrifice of the hair,
dietary observances and prohibitions, which abound

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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

166

in all forms of religion at a certain stage of develop-
ment, do not spring from the notion of the sinful-
ness of the natural instincts and of
Torture life. Nor is the sacrificial scheme in
of any way connected with Asceticism,
the Flesh. The idea of privation is foreign to
it. If the offering was a gift to the
Deity and as such entailed upon the offerer the part-
ing with something of value, the expectation which
animated him was invariably that of receiving rich
return. But whatever theory must be accepted in
explanation of the various rites of mutilation, and
of the sacrificial ritual, certain it is that Judaism
from the beginning set its face most sternly against
the one, and materially restricted the other. Muti-
lations for whatever purpose and of whatever char-
acter were absolutely prohibited. Funeral horrors
and superstitions were not tolerated. The Levitical
code restricted sacrifices to one place. The priests
only were entrusted with the office at the altar. And,
if the Prophets arc the truest expounders of the
ideals and ideas of the religion of Israel, even the
sacrificial and sacerdotal system, with its implica-
tions of extraordinary and precautionary cleanliness
and physical abstemiousness, was of little vital mo-
ment.

Fasting, which plays so essential a part in the
practises of ascetics, found official recognition only
in the development of the Day of Atonement. The
Prophets, again, had little patience with fasting.
There are some obscure allusions to fast days of pop-
ular observance ; but the Prophets of exilic and post-
exilic days insist on the futility of this custom.
Isaiah (Iviii.), while appealing for a broader char-
ity and deeper sense of justice, maintains that these,
and not fasting, are the expression of a will sancti-
fied unto God. It is characteristic of the attitude of
later Judaism that this very chapter has been as-
signed for the Haftarah for the Day of Atonement,
the one penitential fast-day of the synagogue.

Nevertheless, fasting among the Jews was re-
sorted to in times of great distress. The Book of
Esther, of late date, illustrates this

Fasting, for the period included in the Biblical
canon. Rabbinical sources prove the
growing tendency to abstain from drink and food
whenever memories of disaster marked the days of
the synagogal calendar, or instant danger threatened
the community. In the scheme of the synagogue
the one fast-day of the Bible received no less
than twenty-two as companions (compare Fasting).
Still, it may he doubted whether this multiplication
of fast-days can be taken as a sign of an increased
tendency to Asceticism. Probably the theory of
Robertson Smith (“The Religion of the Semites,” p.
413) still holds good to a large extent in explanation
of many of the fast-observances of later Judaism, as
undoubtedly it does for the voluntary and occasional
fast-days mentioned in the historical books of the
Bible; namely, that Oriental fasting is merely' a
preparation for the eating of the sacrificial meal.
The rabbinical injunction, not to eat too late a meal
on the eve of the Sabbath-day, so as to enjoy' all
the more that of the Sabbath, tends to corroborate
the theory. Perhaps this also underlies the rab-
binical report that some examples of rabbinical

pietyr fasted every' Friday' (in preparation for the
Sabbath).

Among the Rabbis some are mentioned as great and
consistent fasters. Rabbi Zeira especially is remem-
bered for his fondness of this form of piety'. Yet to
make of him an ascetic would transcend the bounds
of truth. He fasted that he might forget his Baby-
lonian method of teaching before emigrating to Pales-
tine (B. M. 85«). The story continues

Ascetics that he abstained from drink and food
in Talmud, for the period of one hundred day's, in
order that hell-fire might later have
no power over him. Simon ben Yohai is depicted
as an ascetic in the traditions preserved in rabbinical
literature. But exposed to persecutions under the
Hadrian regime, and often in danger of his life, his
whole mind was of an exceptionally somber turn for a
Jewish teacher. Moreover, his ascetic practises were
not inspired by a consciousness of the futility' of this
life and its sinfulness, but by' the anxiety to fulfil to
the letter the Law, to ponder on the Torah day and
night. He begrudged the hours necessary' for the
care of the body as so many' precious moments stolen
from the study of the holy Law. He envied the gen-
eration of the desert who had been fed on heavenly
manna, and were thus absolved from the care for
their daily bread ; an echo of this sentiment may' be
detected in the petition of Jesus for daily bread (on
Simon b. Yohai, see Baclier, “ Ag. Tan.” ii. 70-149).

Still, with all these seeming leanings to ascetic
conduct, these rabbis did not encourage individual
fasting. The community' in distress did indeed pro-
claim a public fast ; and it was the duty' of the loyal
member to participate. For he who would not
share in the distress would have no part in the con-
solation of the people (Ta‘an. 11a). The habitual
faster was called a sinner (ib.). This judgment was
enforced by an appeal to the Biblical text in connec-
tion with the “Nazir’s” (Nazarite’s) expiatory sac-
rifice (Num. vi. 11). Rabbi Zeira would not permit
his disciples to indulge in extraordinary practises of
self-restraint, if they presumed thereby to reflect on
the piety of others saner than they. The title ap-
plied to such an adept at saintly' practises is charac-
teristically deprecatory for his attitude of mind : his
conduct is declared to smack of conceit, if not of
hypocrisy (Yer. Ber. ii. 5 d).

The attempt has been made to explain the Biblical
Nazaritesas forerunners of monastic orders addicted
to the practise of ascetic discipline. Pentateuchal
legislation concerning them shows them to have
been merely tolerated. Modern criticism explains
their peculiarities as arising from motives other than
those that determine the conduct of ascetics. The
Biblical Nazirs, forerunners of the Nebi'im (Proph-
ets), were protestants against the adoption of the cus-
toms and the religious rites of the Canaanites. In
tlieir dress and mode of life they emphasized their
loyalty to Yiiwh, enthroned on the desert mountain.
Wine and the crown of hair were sacred to the gods
of the land. Their very' appearance emphasized
their rejection of the new deities. And in later days
the number of those that took the Nazarite vow was
exceedingly small. One is inclined to the opinion
that no case occurred in which the Pentateuchal pro-
visions became effective.

167

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Asceticism

Ascetics

Nor may the Essenes be classed among the order
of ascetics. While some of their institutions, nota-
bly celibacy, appear to lend support to the theory
that would class them as such, their fundamental
doctrines show no connection with the pessimism
that is the essential factor in Ascet-

Essenes icism. They were political indifferen-
not tists; they were but little, if at all,
Ascetics, under the sway of national aspirations.

They stood for a universal fellowship
of the pure and just. They set but little store by
the goods of this earth, and were members of a com-
munistic fraternity. But it is inadmissible to con-
strue from these elements of their hopes and habits
the inference that in them is to be found a genuine
Jewish order of monks and ascetics.

A stronger case against the theory that Judaism
is a very uncongenial soil for the growth of Ascet-
icism might be made out by an appeal to the later
Jewish mystics, the Hasidim and Cabalists of vari-
ous forms, all ecstatic fantastics, and — this is a point
that must not be overlooked — more or less strongly
under the influence of distinctly non-Jewish conceits.

Looking upon this life as essentially good, accord-
ing to Gen. i. 31 ; upon the human body as a servant
of the spirit, and therefore not corrupt: upon the
joys of earth as God-given and therefore to be cher-
ished with gratitude toward the divine giver; hav-
ing a prayer for eveiy indulgence in food and drink;
a benediction for every new experience of what-
ever nature, gladsome or sad — the Jew partook with
genuine zest of the good cheer of life, without, how-
ever, lapsing into frivolity, gluttony, or intemper-
ance. His religion, that taught him to remember
his dignity as one made in the image of God, and
to hold his body in esteem as the temple of God’s
spirit within, a dwelling of the Most Holy, “a host,”
as Hillel put it, “for the guest, the soul,” kept the
Jew equidistant from the pole of self-torturing pes-
simism, from the mortification of the flesh under the
obsession of its sinfulness and foulness, and from the
other pole of levity and sensuousness. Never in-
temperate ill drink or food, he sought and found
true joy in the consecration of his life and all of its
powers and opportunities to the service of his God,
a God who had caused the fruit of the vine to grow
and the earth to give forth the bread, a God who
created the light and sent the darkness, a God who,
as a Talmudical legend — one of the many with Elijah
for their subject — has it, reserves paradise “for them
that cause their fellows to laugh ” (Ta'an. 22a). The
most beautiful saying of the rabbis about Asceti-
cism is: “Man will have to give account in the
future for every lawful enjoyment offered to him
which he has ungratefully refused” (Rab in Yer.
Kid., at the close); compare Tanh., end, “The
wicked in his life is considered as one dead,” etc.
Bibliography: Lazarus, Ethics of Judaism, §§246-256.

K. E. G. II.

ASCETICS ; While the dominant note of Juda-
ism is optimism, faith in a God who delights in the
happiness of His creatures and expects their grate-
ful appreciation of His bounties — see Abstinence —
there have, nevertheless, been prevalent in Jewish
life certain ascetic tendencies of which the historian

must take account. The two great rabbinical
schools of the first pre-Christian century, the
Shammaites and the Ilillelites, debated the ques-
tion whether life was worth living or

Sham- not — “tob le-adam shenibra mishelo

maites and uibra” (‘Er. 13/a), and there was an un-
Hillelites. mistakable element of austerity in the
teaching of many a Sliammaite that
favored asceticism (compare II Esdras iv. 12). While
one teacher would say, “ The Shekinah rests on man
only amid cheerfulness that comes from duty well
performed ” (Pes. ii. la), another held the view that
“there should be no unrestrained laughter in this
world ” (Ber. 31a).

But it was particularly with the view of fitting
the soul for communion with God, or for the pur-
pose of keeping the body sufficiently pure to allow
it to come into contact with sacred objects, that
many strove to avoid things that either cause intox-
ication or Levitical impurity, the drinking of wine
(Lev. x. 9; Num. vi. 3; Amos ii. 12; Judges xiii.
14), or sexual intercourse, which was forbidden to
the people of Israel, in preparation for the Sinai
Revelation (Ex. xix. 13), and to Moses during the life
of communion with God (Deut. ix. 9, 18; I Sam.
xxi. 5; Sliab. 87a). According to this principle the
life of the ancient Hasidim or Perusliim (Pharisees)
and Zenu'im (Essenes) was regulated. At the same
time these devotees of holiness, making “askesis”
(the practise of fortitude) their special object of life
(see Philo, ed. Mangey, “De Vita Contemplativa,”
ii. 475, 477, 482), were naturally led to view sensual
life as contaminating. Conybeare (“About Philo's
Contemplative Life,” p. 266) says: “Philo's ideal
was to die daily, to mortify the flesh with fasting;
he only insisted that the seclusion from social life
should take place at the age of fifty, the time when
the Levites retired from the active duties of the
Temple service” (see all the passages in Conybeare,
l.c. pp. 265-273, 315).

This was exactly the view of the Essenes and
Therapeutic also, in whatever connection they stood
to Jonadab ben Recliab and the Kenites (see Mek.,
Yitro, 2, regarding “the water-drinkers” (shote
mayim), as some of these are called). Bants, the
eremite saint with whom Josephus passed three
years of his life (Josephus, “Vita.” § 2), was cer-
tainly an ascetic. Likewise were John the Baptist
(Matt. iii. 4 and parallels) and the early Christians,
Jesus and Paul included, in so far as they shunned
marriage as a concession to the flesh (Matt. xix. 10-
12; I Cor. vii. 28-38), imbued with ascetic views.
It was exactly in opposition to this tendency, so
marked in early Christianity, that the Talmudists
denounced fasting and penitence (Ta'anit 11a, b)
and accentuated the duty of cheerfulness in the
Elijah legend (Ta'anit 22a). Upon the destruction
of the Temple in the year 70, a veritable wave of as-
ceticism swept over the people, and in tribute to the
national misfortune various ascetic rules were insti-
tuted (see B. B. 60J; Tosefta Sotah, end; II Esdras ix.
24; compare Bacher, “ Agada der Tannaiten,” i. 164).

Still, mysticism, which goes hand in hand with
asceticism, always had its esoteric circles. Judah
lia-Nasi, called “the saint,” was an ascetic (Ket.
104a). Mar, the son of Rabina, fasted throughout

Ascetics

Aschentmrg-

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

168

the whole year with the exception of the holy clays
and the eve of the Atonement Day (Pes. 686). For
the sake of communing with the upper
Mysticism world, the lower one was despised by
and the elect few who preserved the tra-
Asceticism. ditiou of the gnosis and the apoca-
lyptic mysteries. So did the followers
of Obadiali Abu-Isa, the Isawites, and of Judah
Yudghan, the Yudghanites, at the close of the
seventh century and at the beginning of the eighth,
the forerunners of the Karaites, and many promi-
nent Karaites themselves lead ascetic lives; abstain-
ing from meat and wine, and spending much of their
time in meditation and devotion, partly in order to
obtain a deeper knowledge of the Scriptures, partly
as mourners over Jerusalem (see Shahrastani, "Book
of Religions and Philosophical Sects,” Haar-
b nicker’s translation, i. 254-257; Gratz, “Gesch.
der Juden,” iii. 417 et seq., 446 et seq. ; Jost, “Gesch.
des Judenthums,” ii. 350 et seq. ; Abele Zion and
Karaites).

To some extent, therefore, all the mystics of the
Middle Ages were Ascetics, assuming or accepting
for themselves the title of “Nazarites,” or being
called by their contemporaries “saints.” This is es-
pecially true of Abraham b. David of Posquicires and
his circle in the thirteenth century, whose relation to
the beginnings of the Cabala can hardly be denied.
Further, the currents of thought which, emanating
from India, created Sufism in Persian and Moham-
medan circles in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
exerted considerable influence upon Jewish thinkers,
as may be learned from Bahya, whose ethical sys-
tem, “Hobot ha-Lebabot,” oscillates between ascet-
icism and Jewish optimism, with a decided leaning
to the former.

Even such thinkers as opposed the ascetic view
could not extricate themselves entirely from the
meshes of Neoplatonic mysticism, which beheld in
the flesh or in matter the source of
Abraham evil. Thus Abraham ben Hiyya
ben strongly refutes the Neoplatonic con-
Hiyya on ception of evil as being identical with
Asceticism, matter, and maintains against Bahya
that indulgence in fasting and other
modes of penitence is not meritorious, since only he
who is ruled by his lower desires may resort to as-
ceticism as the means of curbing his passion and dis-
ciplining his soul, whereas the really good should
confine himself to such modes of abstinence as are
prescribed by the Law. Nevertheless, Abraham b.
Hiyya claims a higher rank for the saint who, se-
cluded from the world, leads a life altogether con-
secrated to the service of God. He goes even so far
as to advocate the state of celibacy in such cases;
referring to the example of Moses — who had to
abandon intercourse with his wife when receiving
the laws on Sinai — to the majority of the prophets
(who were, as he thinks, unmarried), and to Ben
‘Azzai (according to Yeb. 636). Like Bahya, he
considers that the ascetic, while leading a purer and
holier life, requires less legal restraint (see his
“Hegyon lia-Nefesh,” ed. Reifman, 16a, 32a, 37a;
Rosin, “Ethik des Maimonides,” pp. 15, 16; Giide-
mann, in “Monatsschrift,” 1900, pp. 196-216).

Of Asher, the son of Meshullam b. Jacob in Lunel,

Benjamin of Tudela (“Travels,” ed. Asher, 36) re-
lates as eye-witness that he was an ascetic (“ parush ”)
who did not attend to any worldly business, but
studied day and night, kept fasts, and never ate
meat. His brother Jacob bore the title of Nazarite,
having also been an ascetic abstaining from wine
(see Zunz’s note in Asher’s “Benjamin of Tudela,”
ii. 11, 12; Gratz, “Gesch. der Juden,” vi. 240,
241).

Also the whole family of Judah, the “hasid” of
Regensburg, of the twelfth century, his father,
Samuel, and his grandfather, Kalonymus of Speier,
grandson of Eliezer the Great of Worms, seem to
have been a family of Ascetics (see Michael, “Orha-
Hayyim,” Nos. 433, 990, 1174, 1200).

The subsequent development and growth of the
Cabala produced other forms of asceticism. In
fact, the Hasid and the e the medieval apoc-
alyptic literature bein i of Essenism, ablu-
tions and fasting we to by the adepts of

the Cabala as means jing communion with

the upper world. S' . these Hasidim would
spend the whole week . ithout or with interrup-
tion, according to their physical endurance — in fast-
ing, rendering only the Sabbath a day of comfort
and joy (see Hasidism). The object of their peni-
tences and fastings was to bring about the time of
divine favor, the Messianic era. Every Messianic
movement had therefore Ascetics as leaders, such
as were the Shabbethaians (see Gratz, “Gesch. der
Juden,” iii. 307) and others (see Abraham b. Sam-
uel Cohen of Lask). Others would refrain from
eating animal food — ’eber min ha-Hciy — and, like the
Buddhists or the Pythagoreans of old, live on vege-
tarian diet. The same is related by Epiphanius of
the Dositliean sect.

Against all these ascetic views and tendencies
Maimonides raised his powerful voice ; and his sober
view maintained the upper hand. Pie
Mai- admits the wholesome influence on

monides those needing much discipline of the
on Fasting, soul of fasting and vigils, of sexual and
etc. social abstemiousness, the self-torture

of the hermit, and of the penitent who
dwells in deserts and uses only coarse haircloth for
the covering of his flesh ; but he declares the con-
stant use of what can at best be only a remedial
measure in abnormal and unsound conditions of life
to be a great folly and injurious extravagance.

Maimonides, while adopting the Aristotelian
maxim of the golden middle way in all things, finds
in the various restrictions of the dietary and mar-
riage laws of the Torah a legislative system of train-
ing the people to a sobriety which makes superfluous
such asceticism as the monks and the saints of other
nations indulge in ; nay, sinful indeed, according
to the rabbinical interpretation of Num. vi. 11,
which says that the priest shall “ make an atonement
for him [the Nazir] for that he has sinned against
the person [in making his vow of abstinence]” (see
Ned. 10a; Maimonides, “Yad,” De‘ot, iii. 1, vi. 1).

Jewish hermits, living in a state of celibacy and
devoting themselves to meditation, are still found
among the Falashas. They claim that Aaron the
high priest was the first Nazarite who from the time
of his consecration separated from his wife to live

169

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ascetics

Aschenburg:

only in the shadow of the tabernacle. Accordingly
they join the monastic order after they have been
married and have become fathers of children (Halevy,
“ Travels in Abyssinia,” p. 230). According to Flad
(“ Abyssinisclie Juden,” pp. 32 et seq.), the order
founded by Abba Zebra (Halevy, “ Abba Sura ”)
consists altogether of eunuchs. This would indicate
non-Jewish influence, of which the Falashas show
many traces.

Bibliography : Lazarus, Ethics of Judaism, §§ 246-250 ;

Dukes, Zur Kenntniss der N eulxebrtlischen Poesie. 1842,

pp. 8 et seq.\ Goldziher, De VAscetisme, in Revue de VHistoire

ties Religions, 1898, pp. 314 et seq.; Noldeke, Sufi, in Z. D.

M. G. xlviii. 45-47.

ASCH, ABRAHAM : German rabbi and au-
thor; born at Posen; officiated as rabbi of Zell toward
the end of the eighteenth century. He descended
from a learned family which traced its pedigree to
Mei'r of Lublin. His father, Joseph, was rabbi of
Dessau ; and one of his relatives was the scholarly
Isaiah Berlin. Ascii wrote “Mareh Esh ” (The Ap-
pearance of Fire), published posthumously by his
son, Moses Jacob, in 1803. It contains critical notes
on the texts of various Talmudic treatises. Probably
Asch is not identical with Abraham Asch, author
of “Torah Kullali” (The Whole Law), Berlin, 1796,
who agitated against the custom of hasty burials.
Bibliography : Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 666.

L. G. P. B.

ASCHAFFENBURG : Important town on the
right bank of the Main in Bavaria. Jews in Ascliaf-
fenburg are first mentioned in the thirteenth cen-
tury, when reference is made to a Rabbi Abraham
of Aschaffenburg. In the reports of the persecution
which the Jews had to suffer in the year 1349, at
the time of the Black Death, Aschaffenburg and its
neighboring towns are mentioned. Records exist
of Jewish inhabitants in the following towns of the
diocese of Mayence, called later the principality of
Aschaffenburg: Buchen, Kiilsheim, Babenhausen,
Steinheim, Seligenstadt (1292), Miltenberg (where a
large cemetery existed as early as 1336), Amorbach,
and Walldlirn.

In documents of 1344-45 mention is made of the
synagogue of Aschaffenburg. A scholar of Aschaf-
fenburg, R. Mei'r, is quoted in the fifteenth century
by Joseph Kolon (“Responsa,” No. 1). In the six-
teenth century mention is made of a Rabbi Simon
ben Isaac ha-Levi, author of “ Debek Tob ” and
“ Massoret ha-Mikra ’’ ; and in the seventeenth cen-
tury of R. Mei'r Grotwohl. During the seventeenth
century, Aschaffenburg had a Jewish congregation
of considerable size, as is evident from various doc-
uments. In 1698, with the consent of the prince-
elector, a new synagogue was built; but in the be-
ginning of the eighteenth century the congregation
had dwindled down to twenty members. From this
time onward the religious leaders of the community
can be enumerated.

In 1719 the various congregations that had the
right to use the cemetery of Aschaffenburg founded
a charitable and burial society. These congre-
gations were: Goldbacli-Hosbach, Grossostheim,
Kleinwallstadt, Mommlingen, Hofstetten, Gross-

wallstadt, Niedernberg, and Hausen. In the records
of the burial society there are some regulations by
Isaac Seckel Ethausen, author of nx
Rabbis (“ Or Ne'elam ”), who signs as

and rabbi of the district of Aschaffenburg.
Teachers. In 1723 he left Aschaffenburg, in order
to accept the position of chief rabbi
of Mayence. In 1769 a convention, presided over
by the chief rabbi, D. M. Scheuer, was held, which
devoted its attention almost exclusively to the meth-
ods of improving religious instruction. Seligmann
Sulzbach is mentioned as teacher in the Talmud
Torah, in 1779: he was a son-in-law of Mei'r Barby,
rabbi at Pressburg, in whose work, “Hiddushe Me-
haram Barby,” he is quoted. Ilis successor, in 1784,
was Israel Isserlein, who calls himself “Rabbi
of Eibenschutz.” In 1786 Hillel Wolf Sondheimer,
who had been assistant rabbi at Furtli, was elected
rabbi of Aschaffenburg; but officially he was called
“ teacher ” (Schullehrer). In 1803, when Aschaffen-
burg was separated from Mayence, Sondheimer was
made chief rabbi of Aschaffenburg. He officiated
in that capacity up to 1832, and died on March 3 of
that. year, aged eighty-three years. Ilis successor,
Gabriel Neuburger, was elected April 13, but was
only considered as a deputy, in which capacity he
officiated up to 1845. Later he resided as a private
member of the congregation in Aschaffenburg, where
he died in 1888. He was succeeded by district rabbi
Abraham Adler, who officiated until his death in
1880. Adler was succeeded by Simon Bamberger,
who had formerly been rabbi in Fischach. Barn-
burger was at first appointed deputy, but in 1888
was made district rabbi. He died Dec. 9, 1897.

The synagogue, erected in 1698, had to be demol-
ished in 1887, when a new one was built. The con-
gregation maintains a school for religious instruc-
tion, and has a separate cemetery besides the one
used by the smaller congregations of the district.
In the last century the community possessed a Jew-
ish hospital. There are several Jewish charitable
associations, which have an income derived from
legacies; there is also a social club. The congrega-
tion, the members of which are mainly merchants,
numbers 130 families.

Bibliography: Salomon Bamberger, Historisehe Rcriehte
liber die Juden der Stadt und des Ehcmaligen Filrsten-
tums Aschaffenburg, Strasburg, I960.

D. S. Ba.

ASCHE, TOBIAH BEN EZEKIEL (known
also as Tobiah Schlochow ; that is, of Schlochow,
near Stolpe, Germany): German Talmudist; rabbi
of Zempelburg at the beginning of the nineteenth
century. His “ ‘Et Barzel” (Iron Pen) is an ex-
planation of halakic legal themes, and was published
posthumously (Berlin, 1832) by his son Gershon,
rabbi of Prenzlau. To his father’s work Gershon
appended his own “ Nikrat ha-Zur” (Cleft in the
Rock), also of halakic character, and the funeral
oration delivered by him at Tobiah’s grave.

Bibliography : Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 748 : Fiirst,
Bibliotheca Judaica, iii. 276; L. Levin, in Zeiischrift der
Histor. Gesellsch. filr die Provinz Posen, 1900, xv. 94.

L. G. P. B.

ASCHENBURG, SIMON B. ISAAC HA-
LEVI: Talmudic scholar; lived at Frankfort-on-

Asche*

Ascoli

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

170

the-Main, later at Jerusalem, at which latter place
he died about 1598. He was the author of a useful
supercommentary upon Rashi’s Pentateuch com-
mentary entitled “ Debek Tob ” (A Good Bond). This
work, often reprinted later, was published for the
first time by the author himself at Venice in 1588.

Bibliography : Rossi, Dizionario Stnrieo, transl. by Ham-
berger. 2d ed., p. 47 ; Conforte, Kore lia-Dorot, p. 446 ; Stein-
schneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 2599; Frumkin, Eben Shetnuel,
pp. 65, 66, Wilna, 1874.

L. G. I. Br.

ASCHER, ANTON : German actor; born at
Dresden July 15, 1820; died in Meran April 24,
1885. Trained for the stage by Ludwig Tieck, he
made his debut in 1838 at Haiuichen, Saxony, play-
ing the same year also at Merssen, Bautzen, and
Zittau. In 1839 he appeared at Wiesbaden, going to
the Hoftheater, Dresden, a few months later. He
remained there until 1844; went to Hamburg in
1845; Konigsberg and Cassel in 1846; and Potsdam
in 1847. From 1848 to 1860 he played bon-vivant
roles at the Friedrich- Wilhelm Theater, Berlin; and
toward the end of the engagement he had charge of
the stage. From 1866 to 1872 he was director of the
Carl Theater, Vienna. His best roles were Thorane
in “Der Konigslieutenant,” Boh in “Die Journal-
isten,” Zimburg, and Bichard Weiss.

Bibliography : Fliiggen, Blihnen-Lexikon, p. 8.

s. E. Ms.

ASCHER, BENJAMIN HENRY: Hebrew
scholar and author; born in 1812 at Peisern (grand
duchy of Posen); died Feb. 24, 1893, in London.
His father, a corn-merchant, gave his son a careful
religious and secular education. In 1840 Ascher
went to England, where he soon mastered the Eng-
lish language, and, in 1843, was elected “kabranim
rabbi” (funeral preacher) of the Great Synagogue.
In 1847 he published a new edition of the well-
known “ Sefer Hayyim ” (The Book of Life), with
an English translation. In 1859 he published Solo-
mon ben Gabirol’s “Mibhar ha-Peninim” (A Choice
of Pearls), embracing a collection of ethical aphor-
isms, maxims, and reflections, accompanied by an
English text and explanatory notes. He wrote two
other works of minor importance, “Initiation of
Youth ” (1850), a small catechism, and the ritual for
the “ Dedication of the House.” In 1884 he resigned
his office, which he had held for over forty years.
Ascher obtained from Sir George Grey several con-
cessions for Jewish prisoners, to enable them to ob-
serve their religion.

Bibliography: Jew. Chron. March 3,1893, p. 8; H. A. Lowy,
Catalogue of Hebraica and Judaica in the Guildhcill
Library, pp. 93, 147, London, 1891.

J. B. B.

ASCHER, JOSEPH: Composer and pianist;
born at Groningen, Holland, June 4, 1829; died in
London, June 20, 1869. He was a son of Simon
Ascher, reader of the Great Synagogue, London,
and studied music under Moscheles, -whom he fol-
lowed to the Conservatory at Leipsic, where he be-
came a pupil of Mendelssohn. In 1849 he went to
Paris and subsequently received an appointment as
pianist to the empress Eugenie. The emperor of
Austria also made him court pianist ; and he was
decorated by ex-Queen Isabella of Spain. During
the last two and a half years of his life he suffered

from nervous debility incurred by his irregular life
and by overexertion in his musical studies. Many
of his shorter pieces evince a decidedly original turn.
Among his best-known compositions are two mazur-
kas, “La Perle du Nord” and “Dosia,” and an
etude, “LesGouttesd’Eau.” Besides these, he wrote
more than a hundred galops, nocturnes, mazurkas,
transcriptions, and etudes, and a considerable num-
ber of drawing-room pieces. His song, “Alice,
Where Art Thou? ” is still a favorite at concerts.

Bibliography : Jewish Record, June, 1869: Brown, Diet, of

Miisicians, s.v.; Champliu, Encyclopedia of Music, s.v.;

Grove, Diet, of Music and Musicians, i. 97 ; Riemann,

Musiklexikon, s.v.

J. G. L.

ASCHER, SAUL : German author and transla-
tor; born at Berlin Feb. 8, 1767 ; died there Dec. 8,
1822. He began his literary career as an advocate
of Jewish emancipation; gradually extending his
activities to general topics, chiefly historical, polit-
ical, and religious. His works are: “Bemerkungen
liber die Bilrgerliche Verbesserung der Juden, Veran-
lasst bei der Frage: Soli der Jude Soldat Werden?”
Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 1788 ; “ Scholien, oder Frag-
mente der Pliilosophie und Ivunst,” Berlin, 1790;
the same under the title “ Pliilosopliisehe Betracht-
ungen liber Empfinduugs- und Erkenntnisskraft,”
Berlin, 1793; “Leviathan, oder liber Religion in
Riicksicht des Judenthums,” Berlin, 1792; “Eisen-
menger der Zweite; nebst einem Vorangesetzten
Sendsclireiben an Herrn Professor Fichte in Jena,”
Berlin, 1794; “Graf von Thein ein Wundarzt,” in
the Berlin “Monatsschrift,” Berlin, 1794; “Napo-
leon, oder liber die Fortschritte der Regierung,”
1808; “II. Gregoire: die Neger, ein Beitrag zur
Menschen- und Staatskunde,” translated from the
French, 1809; “ Biographiscli-Historische Skizzen ”
(2 vols.); “Theodiskus, Unterlialtungen in den
Abendstunden ” (2 vols., 1813); “Die Germano-
manie,” 1815; a translation from Mandeville’s
“Fables of the Bees,” with a commentary, 1817;
“ Die Wartburgfeier,” 1818; “IdeeeinerPressfreiheit
und Censurordnung,” 1818; “Ansichtvon der Zu-
kunft des Cliristentums,” second edition, 1819;
“ Der Geistesaristokratismus,” 1819 ; “ Europa’s Poli-
tisclier und Ethischer Zustand seit dem Congress von
Aachen,” 1820.

Bibliography : J. S Mensel, Das Gelehrte Tevtschland oiler

Lexicon der Jetztlebenden Teutschen Schriftsteller, i. 98;

Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, 2d ed., xi. 136, 155, 229, 333 ; Rose,

New General Biographical Dictionary, ii. 248; Fiirst,

Bibl. Jud. 1. 57.

s. W. S.— M. B.

ASCHER, SIMON : Hazan ; born in Holland,
1789; died at London December, 1872. He was
reader and cantor of the Great Synagogue, London,
for a period of thirty -seven years. With the aid of
Mombacli, the well-known composer, he may be
said to have systematized English synagogue-music ;
and memories of his fine voice are still a tradition
among English Jews, who recall his clear tenor and
florid style of recitative with frequent roulades.
Bibliography : Jewish Chronicle, Dec. 6 and 13, 1872.

J. G. L.

ASCHIAN. See Ashyaix.

ASCOLI, DAVID D’ ; Italian writer; lived
about the middle of the sixteenth century. He was

171

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ascher

Ascoli

tlie author of “Apologia Hebrgeorum,” published at
Strasburg in 1559, in which he protested against the
decree of Pius IV. commanding all Jews in Catholic
countries to dress in orange or yellow to distinguish
them from Christians. Both Ascoli and Cinelli, who
praised the book in the “Bibliotheca Volante,” suf-
fered a long term of imprisonment for their free
criticism of the ecclesiastical authorities.

Bibliography: Didot et Hoefer, Nouvelle Biographie Uni-
verselU, iii. 432 ; Nouveau Larousse Illustre, i. 503 ; Wolf,
llihl. Hebr. iii. 181 ; Rossi, Dizionario Storico , translated
by Hainberger, p. 49 ; Vogelstein and Rieger, Gesch. der Ju-
den in Rom , ii. 158.

G. W. S.

ASCOLI, GITJLIO : Italian mathematician ;
born in Triest Nov. 20, 1843; died in Pisa. Reared
in a city with a large Italian-speaking population,
a natural inclination drew young Ascoli to Milan,
where, from 1874 until 1879, he taught mathematics
at the Reale Istituto Tecnico Superiore. In the lat-
ter year he was appointed associate professor at the
polytechnic school of Milan, and was elected corre-
sponding member of the Reale Istituto Lombardo di
Scienze e Lettere.

Ascoli’s contributions to mathematics, which be-
long principally to the domain of the theory of func-
tions, and deal particularly with Fourier’s series,
have been published in Brioschi’s “ Annali di Mate-
matica,” the reports of the Reale Istituto Lombardo,
Battaglini’s “Giornale di Matematica,” the “Matlie-
matisclie Annalen,” the transactions of the Reale
Accademia dei Lincei, etc. Brief notices of Ascoli’s
mathematical papers may be found in the pages of
the “Jahrbuch liber die Fortscliritte der Mathe-
matik ” (Berlin).

Bibliography : Poggendorff, Biograpfiisch-Litterarisches
Ha ndwiirterbuch.

s. A. S. C.

ASCOLI, GRAZIADIO ISAIAH: Italian
philologist; born July 16, 1829, at Goritz, Austria.
His father, who had made a fortune in the manufac-
ture of paper, died while Graziadio was an infant.
Graziadio devoted himself at an early age to the
study of languages, especially to comparative phi-
lology, to which latter he became passionately at-
tached. At the age of sixteen he made a sensation
in philological circles by a comparative study of the
Friulian dialect and the Wallachian
First tongue (“ Bull’ Idioma Friulano e sulla
Work. sua Affinity con la Lingua Vallacca;

Schizzo Storico-Filologico,” Udine,
1846) — a masterly work, considering that the subject
had never before been treated, and that the boy phi-
lologist had not even a suggestion from a teacher.

Ascoli thenceforth devoted himself with enthusi-
asm to the promotion of the study of philology in
Italy; and in 1854 he founded the first linguistic
journal in his country under the title of “Studii
Orientali e Linguistics ” The vast erudition ex-
hibited by the brilliant editor of the two volumes
that appeared between 1854 and 1855
Appointed won for him the chair of comparative
Professor philology at the Accademia Scientifico-
in Milan. Litteraria of Milan. There he began
his “Corsidi Glottologia,” afterward
published and translated into English and German,
and awarded the Bopp prize by the Berlin Academy.

At Milan Ascoli realized his life-dream of reviving
the study of languages in Italy and of reawaken-
ing the taste for the Oriental tongues, which, since
the death of the two Assemani, had almost sunk into
oblivion.

All the philologists of any importance in Italy
have been the disciples of Ascoli. He is one of the
few really great pioneers that have given the study
of language its present strictly scientific character;
and he has left the impress of his genius on almost
every branch of linguistics. In comparative philol-
ogy, in the study of Oriental languages and of the
tongues and dialects
of Europe, in the sci-
ence of phonology — in
all these his richly
creative and original
mind, combined with
an unparalleled erudi-
tion and a rare sense
o f penetration, has
achieved brilliant and
lasting results. His
“Fonologia Compara-
ta del Sanscrito, del
Greco e del Latino ”

(Turin and Florence,

1870; translated into
German by Bazzigher and Scliweizer-Sidler, Halle,
1872), followed in 1877 by the “ Studii Critici ” (Turin
and Florence ; translated into German by Merzdorf
and Mangold, Weimar, 1878) at a time when the
discussion of phonetic principles was most active
— wrought a revolution in comparative Indo-Ger-
manic philology. In particular, his distinction be-
tween the velar and the palatal gutturals — as for
instance between the sounds of “ kite ” and “ quite ”
— solved many of the difficulties found in the appli
cation of Grimm’s law in its cruder form.

Ascoli is the author of many important discov-
eries in the science of phonology, he having been
the first to formulate many of the
Contribu- laws of phonetic change : both in Italy

tions to and abroad he is deemed one of the
Philology, greatest authorities on all questions in
this important branch of linguistics.
Hardly less great is Ascoli’s reputation as an au-
thority on Romance philology ; and his “ Saggi
Ladini” (Vienna, 1872; reprinted in vol. i. of the
“ Archivio Glottologico Italiano”) was epoch-making
in the study of Italian and the more closely allied
Romance tongues, and brought forth a mass of im-
portant and valuable researches, published in the
“Archivio Glottologico Italiano” founded at that
time by him.

Ascoli is also the author of: “Lettere Glottolo-
giche ” (Turin and Milan, 1881-86), to which the In-
stitute of France awarded the Volney prize, and
which, like most of Ascoli’s larger contributions,
have been translated into German (by Guterbock,
Leipsic, 1887); “II Codice Irlandese dell’ Ambrosi-
ana,” edited and illustrated by himself, containing
deep and fruitful researches on the Celtic tongues
(published as vols. v. and vi. of the “Archivio Glot-
tologico Italiano”); the “Saggi Indiani,” an impor-
tant contribution to comparative Indo-Germanic phi

G. I. Ascoli.

Asooli

Asenath

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

172

lology (first published in the “ Archivio Glottologico
Italiano ”) ; the brilliant researches on the Gipsy lan-
guage, which appeared under the title, “Zigeune-
risches,” and especially an appendix to Pott’s work,
“ Die Zigeuner in Europa und Asien ” (Halle, 1865),
and other works.

The greater part of Ascoli’s scientific papers may
be found in his journal, the “Archivio Glottologico
Italiano,” of which 15 volumes had
Scientific appeared up to 1900. But he has also
Papers. contributed largely to the following
journals among others: “Archivio
Storico Italiano,” the “ Crepuscolo,” the “ Atti dell’
Istituto Lombardo,” the “Rivista di Filologia,” the
“Zeit.schrift der Deutschen Morgenliindisclien Ge-
sellscliaft,” the “Beitrage zur Vergleichenden
Sprachforscliung ” (ed. Kuhn). His paper in the
“Atti del Quarto Congresso degli Orientalisti ” shed
unexpected light on the origin of the Sassanian coins
in the Naples Museum, and supplied a long-felt,
want by a brilliant interpretation of important medi-
eval inscriptions in Hebrew discovered in southern
Italy.

Probably the only work of Ascoli's that did not
receive universal favor was his investigations on
proto- Aryan tongues and the affinities between the
Aryan and the Semitic languages. In Italy his
work “ Nesso Ario-Semitico,” 1863-64, created a new
school, which has many adepts among eminent schol-
ars; but European and American philologists are
divided as to the merits of Ascoli’s theory.

Ascoli has received many honors and distinctions
in his professional and literary career. He has been
repeatedly elected president of the
Honors Reale Accademia Scientifico-Litteraria
and Dis- of Milan, and is a member of the Higher
tinctions. Council of Public Instruction ; cava-
lier of the Order of Merit of Italy;
knight of several foreign orders; member of the In-
stitute of Lombardy and of the Accademia dei Lincei ;
honorary member of the Asiatic Society of Italy;
corresponding member of the Academie des Inscrip-
tions et Belles-Lettres of Paris; member of the acad-
emies of Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, St. Petersburg,
etc. ; and of every philological society of importance
in his native country and abroad.

The long-expected appointment of Ascoli to a
senatorsliip in the kingdom took place Jan. 25, 1889.

Bibliography : Dp Gubernatis, Dictionnaire International
des Ecrivains du Jour , Florence, 1888-91 : G. Vapereau,
Dictionnaire Universel des Cnntemporaim , Paris, 1893,
s.v. ; Laroussej La Grande Encyclopedic ; Brockhaus, Kon-
versatwns-Lexicon. 14th ed.; Meyer, Konversatiom-Lcxi-
con, 5th ed.; Wursbarh, Biographisches Lexicon des Kai-
serthums Oestrrreich. Vienna; M. Heines, Dor wa-Haka-
maw (Hebr.), 1890, pp. 31-27.

b. A. S. C.

ASCOLI, JACOB BEN ABRAHAM ROFE :

Physician and payyetan; lived at Camerino, Italy,
perhaps at Ascoli, in the second half of the fifteenth
century. Two Reshuts for Nishmat of his are
printed in the Mahzor Romania — (1) For the Day of
Atonement : Tt ^>3 "|b 31b6 fn mi» *]Db6 11V,
etc. (“ They will praise Thy name, O Most High, who
showest the road by which every living being will
return to Thee”); (2) For the Feast of Tabernacles:
D'»J? ^>3C -iru cy by DW HDD Sr'IJ tns'1 (“May

the Redeemer spread a tabernacle of peace over the
people that He hath chosen among all peoples”).
In signing these “ reshuts,” Ascoli added to his name
the word Til, which seems to correspond to the verse
of Psalms ’ -pton TN3'1 (“Let thy mercies also
come unto me, O Lord,” Ps. cxix. 41).

Bibliography: Landshutb, ' Amrnude hn-‘Ahodah. p. 104;
Zunz, Literaturgesch. p. 523; Mortara, Indice Alfabetica ,
s. v.

L. G. I. Br.

ASEFAH : Technical term for the meetings of
the members of the Jewish communities of Poland
and Lithuania. In cases of importance, the director
of the “ kalial ” (“ parnes hodesh ”) gave the order
to the “ shammash ” of the “ kahal-stubel ” (the ser-
vant of the office) to call the prominent members of
the “ kalial ” to a conference. All the important
affairs of the community, the internal as well as the
external, including in the latter communications
from the government authorities, were brought be-
fore the Asefali.

Bibliography : M. Berlin, Oclierk Etnografii Yevreiskavo
Narodonaseleniga v Rossii , p. 54, St. Petersburg, 1861.

H. R.

ASENATH. — Biblical Data: Daughter of
Poti-pherah, priest of On, and wife of Joseph (Gen.
xli. 45). The name is apparently Egyptian; but no
satisfactory explanation has yet been proposed,
j. jr. G. B. L.

In Rabbinical Literature : That Joseph,

called “ the righteous ” (Book of Wisdom x. 13; Ab.
R. N. xvi.,and elsewhere), should have married a
heathen wife seemed objectionable to the Rabbis;
and they consequently state that she was the child
of Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, bom after violence
had been done her by Shechem, the son of Hamor
(Pirke R. El. xxxviii. ; Midr. Abkir, quoted in Yalk.,
Gen. 146; Targ. Yer. Gen. xli. 45, xlvi. 20; Midr.
Aggadah, ed. Buber, i. 97). When her brothers
had learned of the birth of an illegitimate child in
their family, they wanted to kill the child in order
to prevent public disgrace. But Jacob placed upon
the child’s neckatalismanic plate engraved with the
name of God, and — according to one version— left her
exposed under a thorn-bush (njD, “seneli,” whence
the name of the girl, “Asenath”), and the angel Ga-
briel carried her to the house of Potiphar in Egypt,
where the latter’s wife, being childless, reared her
as her own daughter. According to another version
(Midr. Aggadah, l.c.), Jacob had the child exposed
under the walls of Egypt. Her crying attracted the
attention of Potiphar, who was passing at the time.
Stories about Asenath, somewhat similar to the Mid-
rasliic traditions, are found in Syriac and Arabic
literatures.

Bibliography : Perles, in Rev. Et. Juives , xxii. 87-92; Payne
Smith, Thesaurus Sgriacus , s.v. Dinah : Sachau, in Kurzes
Verzeicliniss der Sachau'schen Sammlung , p. 7, tor the
Syriac : and Goldziher, in Jeschurun, viii. 84, for the Arabic.

J. SR. K.

ASENATH (in Greek ’A oeveO), LIFE AND
CONFESSION OR PRAYER OF: A Greek
Apocrypha of pronounced Jewish character, with
only one small Christian interpolation. It contains
a Midrashic story of the conversion of Asenath, the
wife of Joseph, and of her magnanimity toward her
enemies. For a long time known only through an

173

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ascoli

Asenath

abridged Latin translation embodied in Vincent of
Beauvais’ “ Speculum Historiale,” cli. cxviii.-cxxiv.,
it was first published in full by P. Batiffol, after four
manuscripts, in his“Studia Patristica,” Paris, 1889-
90, with a valuable introduction. A fragment had
previously appeared in Fabricius, “Codex Pseudepi-
graphicus Veteris Testamenti,” ii. 85-102. A Syriac
translation of the sixth century, discovered by As-
semani (see Wright, “Syriac Literature,” in “Encyc.
Brit.” xxii. 855 etseq)., is published in Land’s “ Anec-
dota Syriaca,” iii. 18-46, and rendered into Latin
by Oppenheim, “ Fabula Josephi et Asenatlue Apoc-
rypha,” Berlin, 1886. An Armenian translation
appeared in “Revue Polyhistoire, ” 1885, 200-206,
and 1886, pp. 25-34, and in the “Armenian Collec-
tion of Apocrypha of the Old Testament,” Venice,
1896. On the Slavonic version, see Bonwetscli, in
Harnack, “ Gescli. d. Altcliristl. Literatur,” i. 915;
on the Ethiopic version, Dillman, in Herzog-Plitt,
“Real-Encyklopadie,” 2d ed., xii. 366. Neither the
rabbinical nor the patristic literature has preserved
any trace of the story.

The book consists of two parts. The first, which
is the larger, and which has given it the name of
“Prayer or Confession of Asenath,”
Model of a presents Asenath as a model of a Jew-
Proselyte. isli proselyte in the light of Hellenistic
propaganda. Asenath, the daughter
of Potiphar (Penteplires), priest of Heliopolis (On),
a rich man and chief counselor of Pharaoh, far sur-
passed the Egyptian maidens in beauty ; for she was
“tall like Sarah, handsome like Rebekah, and fair
like Rachel,” and the fame of her beauty filled the
land. Reared in great luxury but in entire seclu-
sion, a worshiper of idols, she thinks only of marry-
ing Pharaoh’s son ; and when her father proposes
to her that she become the wife of Joseph, “the
mighty man of God,” who honored him with a visit,
she proudly refuses because he has been a slave and
owes his release from prison only to his skill in in-
terpreting dreams. But on seeing Joseph’s beauty
when sitting alone at table (compare Gen. xliii. 32,
reversed in the spirit of Dan. i. 5), she falls in love
with him, as do all the Egyptian women (compare
Yalk. and Targ. Yer. on Gen. xlix. 22; Koran, sura
xii. 30).

Joseph, on learning from Asenath ’s father that
she is a pure-minded woman who has never seen
a man before, gladly receives her like a sister, but
refuses to kiss her, saying :

“ It is not befitting a pious man who blesses the living God
with his lips, who eats the blessed bread of life, drinks of the
blessed cup of immortality, and anoints himself with the oil of
incorruption, to kiss a foreign woman who blesses dead and
dumb idols with her lips, eating the bread of death from their
table, drinking of their libations from the cup of treachery, and
anointing herself with the ointment of perdition. In fact, a
pious man kisses besides his mother and his sister only his own
wife : nor does a pious woman kiss a strange man ; for this is an
abomination before the Lord God.”

When Asenath bursts into tears, Joseph compas-
sionately lays his hand upon her head, praying that
the God of his father Israel, the Creator of the Uni-
verse, who calleth men from darkness to light, from
error to truth, and from death to life (compare Philo,
“De Peenitentia,” i. and ii. ; “De Nobilitate,” vi.),
may renew her with His holy spirit that she may

eat of the bread of His life, drink of the cup of His
blessing, and join her to the number of His people
He had chosen before the Creation of the universe, so
that she may partake of the bliss prepared for His
chosen ones in the life everlasting. Asenath returns
to her rooms, and with bitter tears, repenting of her
idolatrous practises, spends eight days in fasting
and penance; putting on sackcloth, strewing ashes
upon her head, lying on the floor strewn with ashes,
and foregoing sleep at night. She takes her costly
robes and jewelry and throws them down on the
street, in order that the poor may sell them for their
needs; destroys all her idols of silver, gold, and pre-
cious stones in accordance with rabbinical law (see
‘Abodah Zarah 435-44), and casts them to the needy
for their use ; while all the edible things prepared for
her gods she throws to the dogs. Being
Asenath’s well-nigh exhausted from fasting and
Penitence, weeping, she at first feels utterly for-
saken, having brought the hatred of
her parents and kinsmen upon herself by despising
their gods; yet she lacks the courage to pray with
polluted lips to “the jealous God of Joseph, the God
who hates idolaters.” Finally, the thought that He
is also a merciful and compassionate God, the Father
of the orphaned, the comfort of the broken-hearted,
and the helper of the persecuted, fortifies her to offer
a supplication, echoing the deepest longing of a God-
seeking soul, full of saintly humility and contrition.

The prayer, which is a long one, show's indisputa-
ble elements of Essene lore. Asenath begins witli
an address to God as “ Creator of the
The U niverse.who fastened the foundation-

Prayer. stones of the earth upon the abyss so
that they do not sink ; who spoke and
all things w'ere made; and whose word is the life of
all creatures.” She then makes a confession of her
sins in w'ords familiar to the Jew acquainted with
the ancient liturgy :

" Have pity on me, O Lord : for I have greatly sinned, trans-
gressed, and done evil. Knowingly and unknowingly, I have
sinned by worshiping idols and by polluting my lips by their
sacrificial meal. I am not worthy to open my mouth to speak
to Thee, O Lord— I, the wretched daughter of Potiphar, once so
proud and haughty.”

Still more characteristic is her petition :

“ I take refuge with Thee, O Lord. As the little child Bees
in fear to the father, and the father takes it to his bosom, so do
Thou stretch forth Thy hands as a loving father and save me
from the enemy who pursues me as a lion, from Satan, the
father of the Egyptian gods, who desires to devour me because
I have despised his children, the Egyptian gods. Deliver me
from his hands, lest he cast me into the fire ; lest the monster of
the deep [leviathan] eat me up, and I perish forever. Save
me ; for my father and mother deny me, and I have no hope
nor refuge but Thy mercy, O Lover of men. Helper of the
broken-hearted ! There is no father so good and sweet as Thou,
O Lord. All the houses my father gives me as possessions are
for a time and perishable ; but the houses of Thy possession, O
Lord, are indestructible and last forever.”

On the morning of the eighth day an angel ap-
pears to her resembling Joseph, but with a face like
lightning, and with eyes like beams of tire, the cap
tain of the host of the Lord (Michael). He tells her
to wash, and to exchange her garments of mourn
ing for garments of beauty — for as a pure virgin she
needs no veil — and then announces to her that “from
that day on she should be reborn, w'hile eating the
blessed bread of life, and drinking the cup filled with

Asenath

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

174r

immortality, and anointing herself with the blessed
oil of incorruption, and that her name should be
written in the book of life never to be effaced.”
She should no longer be called “ Asenath ” (rODN),
but City of Refuge (“Manos” DDD), for through
her many Gentiles (eftvrj) should take refuge under
the wings of the divine Shekinali (compare Rev.
xiii. 6), and under her walls those that turn to
God, the Most High, should find protection in re-
pentance. (This is clearly the meaning of the orig-
inal text; and what follows defies explanation.) The
angel then prepares her for the arrival of Joseph as
her bridegroom, and tells her to put on her bridal
gown, “prepared from the beginning of the world,”
which glad tidings she receives with a prayer of
thanksgiving to the Lord “who rescued her from
darkness and led her from the deep abyss unto light. ”
She then orders bread and wine to be set before
the angel; but nothing is said of the eating of the
bread and the drinking of the wine to which Joseph
and the angel had both alluded in connection with
her looked-for conversion. Instead of this, a mirac-
ulous incident is told. A honeycomb of wondrous
odor is provided by the angel— prepared, as he says,
by the bees of paradise from the dew of the roses,
as food for the angels and all the elect
Christian ones of God. The angel puts some
Inter- into the mouth of Asenath, saying:
polation. “Behold, thou eatest the bread of life
and drinkest the cup of immortality,
and art anointed with the ointment of incorruption.
Behold, thy flesh shall bloom with the fountain of
the Most High, and thy bones fatten like the cedars
of the garden of God ; thy youth shall not see old
age and thy beauty shall never vanish ; but thou
shalt be like the walled mother-city for all (Syriac
Version, “who take refuge with the name of the
Lord God, the King of all the worlds ”). Here again
allusion is made to the Hebrew noun “ manos” (refuge)
for Asenath. Then, in several manuscripts and the
Syriac translation, the story is told that the angel
makes a cross over the honeycomb with his finger
and the same is turned into blood. Another miracle
follows. Some bees are slain by the angel, but rise
again, thus symbolizing the resurrection. Obviously,
this episode is an interpolation by a Christian writer,
who removed the passage relating to the eating of
the covenant bread and the drinking of the covenant
wine alluded to afterward. Asenath, however — the
main story continues — tells the angel to bless also
her seven virgins ; and he does so, calling them seven
columns of the “ City of Refuge,” and wishing them
also to attain eternal life. He then disappears in a
fiery chariot drawn by lightning-like horses.

Asenath then washes her face with pure water
from the well, and behold! her whole being is trans-
formed. She is amazed at her own beauty; and
when she goes to meet Joseph he does not recognize
her. She tells him : “ I have cast all my idols from
me; and, behold! a man from heaven came to me to-
day and gave me of the bread of life, and I ate, and
I drank of the blessed cup, and he gave me the name
‘City of Refuge,’ saying, ‘In thee many heathen
will seek refuge in God. ’ ” Joseph, in return, blesses
her, saying : “ God has laid the foundation of thy
walls; and the children of the living God shall dwell

in the city of thy refuge, and the Lord God will be
their King forever.” They then kiss each other.
(The rather strange symbolism contained in the nar-
rative, which says that Joseph kissed her three times,
thereby giving her the breath of life, the breath of
wisdom, and the breath of truth, is hardly part of
the original story.) Joseph accepts Asenath’s invi-
tation to partake of the meal she has prepared,
Asenath insisting upon being permitted to wash his
feet. Asenath’s parents and relatives also come to
partake of the meal, and, greatly amazed at her un-
common beauty, they praise “ the Lord who reviveth
the dead.”

The wedding- feast is not given by Potiphar, who
wanted Joseph to stay with Asenath at once, but by
Pharaoh himself, who places golden
Wedding- crowns upon their heads, “ such as were
Feast in his house from of old ” (that is long
Given by prepared by God), and makes them
Pharaoh, kiss each other while he blesses them
as father. He has all the princes of
the land invited, and proclaims the seven days of
the nuptial festivities to be national holidays, de-
creeing that whosoever should do any work thereon
should be put to death.

It is obvious that this is, to all intents, a typical
story of the conversion of a heathen to Judaism.
There is no other savior or sin-forgiving power men-
tioned throughout the book than the God of Israel.
In fact, the conception of the Shekinali under whose
wings the heathen came to take refuge, of the power
of repentance by which all impurity of the soul is
removed and eternal bliss is secured by
Typical the heathen, is so thoroughly Jewish
Story of that the Christian copyists seem to
Convert to have been puzzled by it and thus led
Judaism, into confusion and error, as the manu-
scripts in ch. xv. show. But the lead-
ing idea of the story becomes clear and intelligible
only by recurrence to the Hebrew name, “Asenath,”
which, by a transposition of the letters, is made to
read “ nasat ” (she has fled) — from her idolatry, and
which also suggests the idea of “manos” (refuge)
and “nas” (to flee), also taken as “refuge” (Ps. lix.
17; II Sam. xxii. 3; Deut. xix. 3; and Ex. xvii.
15). Compare also Tan., Wayera, ed. Buber, ii. 110,
where “nisali” occurs in Gen. xxii. 1, and “nes” in
Ps. lx. 6; and Yalkut, Judges, iii. 1, where the word
“lenassot” is taken in the sense of “refuge”: “God
is refuge to His worshipers ; while from the wicked
the refuge departs” (Job xi. 20). Every proselyte
is, according to Philo (“De Monarchia,” i. § 7; “De
Victimas Offerentibus,” §10; “De Septenario,” § 2;
“ De Creatione Principum, ” § 6 ; “ De Caritate, ” § 12 ;
“De Pcenitentia,” §§ 1, 2; “ De Execratione, ” § 6 ;
“Fragmenta ad Ex. xxii.” § 20; compare Num. R.
viii.), without a natural protector, because he has
left his parents and his parental faith, and therefore
seeks refuge under the wings of God as his Protector
(Ruth ii. 12). This view of the proselyte claiming
protection in some city of refuge, emphasized by
Philo, has found expression also in the Halakah (see
Sifre, Deut. 259; Targ. Yer. on Deut. xxiii. 10, 17).
Asenath is presented as the type of a true proselyte
who, finding herself forsaken when renouncing her
idolatry, seeks and finds refuge in God. It seems

175

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Asenath

that when the view of Asenath’s having been a prose-
lyte was superseded by the theory that she was the
daughter of Dinah (see Asenath), Pharaoh’s daugh-
ter, tiie foster-mother of Moses, replaced her in rab-
binical tradition. She was represented as a proselyte
who went to wash herself clean from the idolatry of
her father’s house, and became Bithyali, “the daugh-
ter of the Lord” (Sotali 126; Meg. 13a; Ex. R. i. ;
Lev. R. i.).

The second part of Asenath’s Life and Prayer is
of a different character. It resembles the heroic
legends told of the sons of Jacob in the Testaments
of the Twelve Patriarchs and in the Book of the Jubi-
lees; and its lesson is simply ethical : the pious ought
to show magnanimity toward his enemy. On the
twenty-first day of the second month in the second
year of the famine, Jacob went with his family to
live in Goshen, and Asenath went to see him because
he was to her as a father and as a god. But she was
amazed at his beautiful appearance, as he, with his
thick snow-white hair and long white beard, resem-
bled a robust youth with arms and shoulders like an
angel (Gen. R. lxv.), and with the thighs, legs, and
feet of a giant.

Jacob blessed her and, according to the Syriac
translation, said to her, “ Thou art like one who re-
turneth from the battle-field after a long absence.”
Batiffol thinks that this refers to the rabbinic view
that she was the daughter of Dinah; but the allu-
sion is rather vague. More striking is it that Simeon
and Levi, the two avengers of Dinah, accompany
Asenath and Joseph, and play a prominent part as
the protectors of Asenath in the event that follows.
Levi, “whom Asenath loved more than all the other
brothers of Joseph — because as a prophet and a
saint he read the heavenly writings and disclosed
them (in true Essene fashion) to Asenath in secret,
having seen her place of bliss in a diamond-walled
city in the highest heaven ” — went to the right of
Asenath, and Simeon to the left as

Jacob’s they journeyed home. But the son

Heroic of Pharaoh, on seeing Asenath, fell

Sons. in love with her, and sent for Simeon
and Levi, offering them great treasures
if they would aid him in obtaining Asenath, who
was, as he says, betrothed to him before Joseph took
her to wife; but they refused to do so. When Pha-
raoh’s son unsheathed his sword to kill them, Simeon
intended to slay him ; but Levi restrained his im-
petuosity, whispering to him, “We are God-fearing
men ; and it is not befitting that we should requite
evil for evil. ” The son of Pharaoh fell into a swoon
when he saw drawn from their scabbards the swords
with which the two brothers had avenged the vio-
lence perpetrated by Shecliem against their sister.

But he succeeded in winning, by some tale of
falsehood, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah to aid him
in his plans. Dan and Gad at once agreed, and
started that same night, each with five hundred war-
riors at his side, and with fifty spearmen on horses to
form the vanguard. Naphtali and Asher followed,
though they had at first tried to dissuade their
brothers from acting so wickedly against their father
and brother.

The son of Pharaoh, angry at his father’s love for
Joseph, made an unsuccessful attempt to slay his

parent. He then went with six hundred spearmen
to capture Asenath. Joseph had gone to the capital
to sell corn, and Asenath was left with six hundred
men as her body-guard, Benjamin being at her side
in the chariot, when suddenly, from behind the
thicket at the roadside where they had lain in am-
bush, the spearmen of Pharaoh's son came forth and
began an attack upon Asenath’s body-
Attack on guard. Asenath, when she saw Pha-
Asenath’s raoli’s son, called upon the name of
Body- the Lord, and fled from her chariot;
Guard. but Benjamin, a lad of nineteen with
the power of a young lion, leaped
from the chariot, and filling his hand with stones
gathered from a ravine, cast one (like David) against
the right temple of the son of Pharaoh, inflicting a
deep wound which threw him from his horse to the
ground half dead. Then he wounded in like man-
ner fifty of the spearmen who were with Pharaoh’s
son; and they fell down dead before him.

In the meantime Levi, who by his prophetic power
realized Asenath’s danger, called his brothers, the
sons of Leah, to arms; and they pursued the men
who lay in wait for Asenath, killing them all. The
sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, however, fled before
them, and with drawn swords hurried toward Ase-
nath and Benjamin, intending to slay them; but at
the prayer of Asenath, behold! their swords fell out
of their hands to the ground and were turned into
ashes. The sons of Bilhah and Zilpah implored her
forgiveness, entreating her to save them from the
hands of their brothers; and she pardoned them and
told them to hide behind the thicket until she had
succeeded in pacifying their brothers. This she did,
telling them to spare their brothers and not to requite
evil for evil ; and when Simeon in his violent rage
wanted to be the avenger of wrong, she entreated
him again, saying, “Do not requite evil for evil, let
the Lord avenge the wrong, but do you show for-
giveness.” Meantime the son of Pharaoh had risen
from the ground, blood issuing from his mouth and
forehead, and as Benjamin was about to strike him
down, Levi seized his hand, saying, “ Do not do this,
brother, for we are pious men and it does not befit
us to requite evil for evil, or to smite a fallen enemy.
Assist me in healing his wounds; and if he recover,
he will be our friend, and his father, Pharaoh, will
be our father.” Levi then lifted the son of Pharaoh
from the ground, washed and bandaged his wound,
placed him upon his horse, and brought
Levi’s him to Pharaoh, who received him with
Mag- his paternal blessing. On the third
nanimity. day after his arrival the son of Pha-
raoh died, and his father, who was 109
years old, overcome with grief, soon followed. Pha-
raoh bequeathed the crown to Joseph, who ruled over
Egypt forty-eight years, and then left the throne to-
Pharaoh’s youngest son, who, being an infant at the
time of his father’s death, was left in charge of Jo-
seph, who became a father to him.

This second part of the book has, as far as can be
seen, left no trace either in rabbinical or patristic
literature. The role played by the sons of Bilhah
and Zilpah is, however, the same as is ascribed to them
in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (Test.
Patr.,Dan. 1 and Gad 1 ; but in Gen. R. lxxxiv. ;

Ash

Ashdod

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

176

Jer. Peali i. 1, p. 16c ; Targ. Yer. to Gen. xxxvii. 2,
somewhat different). At any rate the ethical maxim,
not to requite evil for evil, but to be magnanimous
toward the enemy, is decidedly Jewish. A Chris-
tian writer would most certainly have emphasized
the teaching : “ Love your enemies ” (Matt. v. 44).

The book as a whole belongs to the Hellenistic
propaganda literature by which Jewish writers en-
deavored to win the non-Jewish world for the Jew-
ish faith, while at the same time eagerly representing
their Hebrew ancestors as physical as well as moral
heroes. See Proselytes. K.

ASH : The A. Y. rendering of the Hebrew “oren”
(Isa. xliv. 14); R. V. has “fir-tree.” According to
Tanhum (quoted in Gesenius, “Thesaurus,” under
pN), the word was used in later Hebrew in the sense of
“ mast. ” The plural, “ oranim ” — for which Hai Gaon
uses the Aramaic form “ornan ” — is mentioned in the
Mishnali (Parali iii. 8) between cedars and cypresses.
The tree belongs to the family of the conifers, has
hard wood, and a tall, smooth, straight stem. This

other Mei'r Ash, whose official family-name was Ei-
senstaedter, author of “Imre Esh” (Words of Fire),
Unghvar, 1864. He was rabbi of Unghvar, and died
Dec. 27, 1861. The pun on fcjV'x as “fire ” may also
underlie the titles of the works of the first Mei'r Ash,
as, for instance, his “ Paniin Mei'rot ” (The Shining
Face). See Names. D.

ASH, ABRAHAM JOSEPH: Talmudist; born
in Semyatitch, Russia, about 1813; died in New
York city May 6, 1888. Coming to the United
States in 1852, he helped to organize, in New York
city, the first Russian -American congregation, Bet
ha-Midrash lia-Gadol, and eight years later he was
elected its rabbi. In this capacity he served till his
death, with the exception of brief intervals in which
he made futile attempts to engage in business, seek-
ing to free himself from dependence on the rabbinate
for a livelihood. He strenuously opposed the eu-
deavor by some of the Reform rabbis in 1886 to de-
liver lectures in Orthodox congregations, and he
wrote an open protest headed with the Talmudic

ASHAMNU

Cantor &

Cantor. Congregation.

( Congregation recite till “doff,” when Cantor proceeds.)
con brio.

sham - nu, ba gad - nu, ga - zal

tres - passed, have been faith - less, have rob

nu, dib - bar - nu do - fi.

- bed, have spo - ken base - ly.

agrees with tradition and etymology. The Targum
renders the word “ urna,” a Hexaplar addition to the
Septuagiut 7r/raf ; Jerome translates it pinvs; while
Maimonides and Tanhum explain it to be a kind of
cedar. This, together with the evidence that comes
from the Assyrian and Syriac equivalents, makes it
evident that the term denotes some kind of fir.
The most acceptable suggestion is that of Tristram,
who sees in it the Aleppo pine (Finns Halepensis).
The word is not to be confounded with “aron,”
which occurs in the Talmud as the name of the
laurel-tree.

J. JR. C. L.

ASH (also Asch [C' N]): A family name which is
an abbreviation of “Alt Schul” or “Eisenstadt”
(DNDC^ ]PN). Such abbreviations are especially
frequent in names of which the second part begins
with the sound “s,” for which the Hebrew puts
So “Lasch” (\p’\>) is put for “ Lichtenstadt, ” and
“Nasch” (Ep’J) for “ Nikolsburg. ” The name “Ash"
for “Eisenstadt” is found in the case of Mei'r Ash,
rabbi of that place, died June 7, 1744. His descend-
ant, Abraham Zebi Hirsch, rabbi of Ottynia, who died
Aug. 21, 1868, signs his name “Eisenstadt.” “Ash”
is also found as an abbreviation in the name of an-

legal phrase, pnn mCTD p’TDH HD (“What
right lias the ox of the damager in the premises
of the one damaged ! ”).

Bihi.iography: J. D. Eisenstein, Russ.- Am. Jew. Cong. Am.

Jeu\ Hist. Publ. No. 9, pp. 04-71.

A. J. D. E.

ASHAMNU (i “ we have trespassed ”) : The
old shorter form of the confession of sin (“ Widdui "),
mentioned in the Talmud and in the “Didache"
(first century c. e.), in which each letter of the He-
brew alphabet is successively utilized as the initial
of an acknowledgment of wrong-doing, the round
number of twenty-four expressions being reached,
after the usual fashion, by the threefold employment
of the last letter, H- Originally chanted by cantor
and congregation together in a monotone or a sim-
ple intonation of breadth and majesty, its rendering
among many Polish congregations in the repetition
of the “ ‘ Amidot ” on the Day of Atonement typically
illustrates degeneration of the traditional congre-
gational setting of a solemn passage into florid elab-
oration by a soloist. Originally leading the people
by dictating to them word by word, the precentor
came to be satisfied to start them in each of the sec-
tions into which the occasional use of an accusative
noun marked off the succession of otherwise intran-

177

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ash

Ashdod

sitive verbs, and, when the congregation had sub-
sided into silence, to complete the section himself in
a melismatic solo after the manner shown on page 176.

a. F. L. C.

ASHAN : Town in the domain of Judah (Josh,
xv. 42), but which was in the actual possession of
Simeon (Josh. xix. 7; I Chron. iv. 32). Priests also
had residence in Ashan (I Chron. vi. 44) ; though in
the corresponding passage of Josh. xxi. 16, “Ain”
(which may simply be a corruption of “Ashan”) is
given instead. Chor-ashan (or, rather, Bor-ashan) of
I. Sam. xxx. 30 is perhaps the same as Ashan.

j. jk. G. B. L.

ASH'ARIYA : Mohammedan theological sect,
founded at the beginning of the tenth century by
Abu el-Hasan al-Ash‘ari (“ the Hairy ”). Its aim was
to combat doctrines taught by the Rationalists (Mo-
taziiites), and at the same time to moderate the un-
compromising rigidity of the views of the Orthodox
party. The principal points of controversy between
the Orthodox and the Motazilites were: (1) the pre-
existence of the Koran, (2) predestination of human
acts, and (3) the divine attributes. While the Mo-
tazilites asserted that the Koran was created, the
Orthodox held that the Koran existed before the
creation of the world (compare the same view held
by the Rabbis regarding the Torah Sifre, ‘Ekeb. 37;
Pes. 54a; Ned. 396; Gen. R. i. ; Tan., Naso, 19;
Tanna debe Eliyaliu i. 31; and Pirke R. El. iii.).

The Ash'ariya, as an intermediate party, main-
tained that if the book, in the form in which it is
transmitted, had been created, still its principles
must have existed before the world. Again, while
the Orthodox, taking the Koran literally, believed
that human actions were determined by the will of
God, as laid down in an eternal law, the Motazilites,
refuting this doctrine as being contrary to the spirit
of divine justice, insisted on man’s perfect freedom
to do either good or evil, which accordingly meets
with reward or punishment hereafter. The Ash-
'ariya, ascribing divine authority to the word of the
Koran, could not but give their adhesiou to the be-
lief of the Orthodox; but, in order to preserve a
semblance of freedom for man, and of justice for
God, they conceded to man the benefit of making
the first efforts toward the realization of the predes-
tined plans of God for good and evil — a theory de-
clared by Aaron ben Elijah the Karaite (“ ‘Ez Hay-
yira”) to be unintelligible. In opposition to the
Motazilites, the Ash'ariya asserted the existence of
attributes distinct from God’s essence ; still they dif-
fered from the Orthodox in admitting that the an-
thropomorphisms found in the Koran are not to be
taken literally.

In discussing the questions of the divine attributes,
many Jewish philosophers were influenced by the
Ash'ariya (compare Hasdai Crescas, “OrAdonai,”
pp. 22 etseq.), but not so in regard to the freedom of
man’s will, as they all strove as far as possible to
reconcile the omniscience of God with man’s abso-
lute freedom of action.

At first the Ash'ariya found few adherents ; for
while the Orthodox objected to the concessions made
to the Motazilites, the more enlightened element felt
dissatisfied with the meager results of the compro-
II.— 12

mise. In the course of a century, however, the Ash-
'ariya triumphed over the Motazilites. Abu Bekr
al-Bakillani, as the head of the school, systematized
the doctrines of the Ash'ariya, laying the foundation
of the new Ivalam, or scholastic theology.

Bakillani taught the existence of atoms and of the
vacuum — theories which were severely attacked
by Maimonides (“Moreh,” i. 72, iii. 17). The Ash-
'ariya likewise proclaimed the real existence of the
negative attributes. For instance, according to this
sect, weakness is not mere absence of strength, but
a positive quality (compare “Torot ha-Nefesh,” iii.,
where Bahya concur^ in this idea, basing it on the
Biblical verse, “ I form the light, and create dark-
ness: I make peace, and create evil” [Isa. xlv. 7]).

Bibliography : Sbahrastani, pp. 98 et seq. ; Ibn Kballikan,

ed. Slone, i. 673; Abu el-Festia, Tarik. ed. Constantinople, ii.

95: Munk, Melanges , pp. 324 et seq.; Spitta. Znr Gesch.

Ahu el-Hasan al-Ash'ari, pp. 26 etseq.; Franz Delitzsch,

‘ Ez Hayyim, pp. 302-307.

K. I. Br.

ASHBEL: A son of Benjamin (Gen. xlvi. 21, and
in the genealogical list of I Chron. viii. 1). The
gentilic name “ Ashbelite ” is found in Num. xx vi. 38.

J. JR. G. B. L.

ASHDOD (Assyrian Asdudu, Greek Azotos) :
The northernmost of the five royal cities of the Phi
listines, two to three miles from the seacoast, about
half-way between Gaza and Joppa. In I Sam vi.
17 it is mentioned first among the principal Philis
tine cities; and the Ark of the Lord is brought first
to that place as a trophy (I Sam. v. et seq.). Amos
(iii. 9) gives Ashdod as the representative of all Phi-
listine cities, but Ashdod is placed second in the list
in Amos, i. 8, and fourth iii Zecli. ix. 6. Judah’s
claim upon Ashdod (Josh. xv. 46) is to be consid-
ered as merely theoretical, as Josh. xiii. 3 proves.
The capture by King Uzziah (II Chron. xxvi. 6) is
usually treated by modern critics as probably unliis
torical. It is not certain that the petty king Dagan-
takala of the El-Amarna tablets resided in Ashdod.
Asdudu led the revolt of Philistines, Judeans, Edom-
ites, and (Moabites against Assyria after expelling
the king Akhimeti, whom Sargou had installed in
stead of his brother Azuri. Gath (Gimtu) belonged
to the kingdom of Ashdod at that time. But the
Assyrian general subjected Ashdod in 711 b.c. (com-
pare Isa. xx. 6, and “C. I. O. T.” pp. 87 et seq.), and
the usurper, Yawani, fled. Mitinti was king in the
time of Sennacherib; Akhimilki in the reign of Esar-
liaddon. Psammeticlius of Egypt is reported to
have besieged the great city Azotus for twenty-nine
years (Herodotus, ii. 157). The reference to “the
remnant of Ashdod ” (Jer. xxv. 20; compare Zeph.
ii. 4) is interpreted as an allusion to this event. In
Neh. iv. 1, the Ashdodites seem still to represent
the whole nation of the Philistines, as well as in Neh.
xiii. 23, so that xiii. 24, the “speech of Ashdod”
(which the younger generation of the Jews began to
adopt), would be the Philistine dialect. Winckler
(“Gesch. Israels,” p. 224) explains the use of that
name by the fact that Ashdod was nearest to Jerusa-
lem of the Philistine cities. Yet the simplest expla-
nation seems to remain, that Ashdod was still the
leader among those cities even in Greek times. Judas
Maccabreus does not seem to have conquered Azotus

Ashdod

Asher

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

178

itself (I Macc. iv. 15, v. 68), but Jonathan ( ib . x. 84,
xi. 4) destroyed it and burned the old temple of
Dagon (compare I Sam. v. 2, 3; see also ib. xvi. 10).
According to Josephus, “Ant.” xiii. 15, § 4, Alexan-
der Jannteus possessed it (contrast “B. J.” i. 7, § 7).
Pompey restored its independence (“B. J.” i. 6, § 4),
which apparently means only that he reconstructed
its walls. It belonged to the dominion of Herod and
Salome (“ Ant. ” xvii. 18, § 9). Vespasian had to take
it by force (“ B. J.” iv. 130) ; so that the Jewish in-
habitants must have been in the majority. The
New Testament mentions Azotus in one passage
only (Acts viii. 40). The modern Esdud is an in-

tiate of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh.
He subsequently visited Paris, Berlin, and other
European cities, acquiring professional experience.
Ashenheim practised for some time in London, lec
turing frequently and being an active contributor to
the Anglo-Jewisli press. He emigrated to Jamaica
in 1843 and settled at Kingston, where he practised
till 1850, when he removed to Falmouth, a port on
the north coast of Jamaica. In addition to his prac-
tise, and lectures more or less connected with his
profession, he addressed the public, through the
press, on sanitary reform and on compulsory vacci-
nation, of which he was an able advocate. At Fal-

Generai, View of Modern Ashdod.

(From a photograph by Bonfils.)

significant village nearly four miles from the sea.
To the west of the wooded height on which the vil-
lage stands, traces of the ancient harbor — now known
as Minet el-Kal’a — can still be seen. The statement
of Ptolemy and Josephus that it was a maritime city,
is explained by the possession of a harbor on the
shore, which is called “Azotus by the Sea” (“Ant.”
xiii. 15, § 4). This place has been compared with
the Asdudimmu mentioned by Sargon, but the com-
parison is hardly justified. See Philistines,
j. JR. ' W. M. M.

ASHDOTH-PISGAH : The declivities of the
Pisgali range on the east of the Jordan, which were
handed over to the Reubenites (Deut. iii. 17, iv. 49;
Jos. xiii. 20) (see Pisgah).
j. jr. G. B. L.

ASHENHEIM, LOUIS : Scotch physician and
surgeon ; born at Edinburgh 1817 ; died at Jamaica
Nov. 26, 1858. Educated in his native city, he ob-
tained honors at the university, and became a licen-

mouth he rendered valuable services during an out-
break of cholera.

Bibliography: Falmouth Advertiser, Oct., 1858: Falmouth
Post , Oct., 1858 ; Jewish Chronicle , Dec. 3 and 10, 1858.

j. G. L.

ASHER. — Biblical Data: The eighth son of
the patriarch Jacob, and the traditional progenitor
of the tribe Asher. He is represented as the younger
brother of Gad; these two being the sons of Zilpah,
the handmaid of Leah (Gen. xxx. 10 et seq., xxxv.
26). Four sons and one daughter were born to Asher
in Canaan, who went down with him to Egypt (Gen.
xlvi. 17). See Asher, Tribe and Territory; and
on the general view to be taken of the tribes of
Israel, Tribes, Twelve,
j. jr. J. F. McC.

In Rabbinical Literature : For a time Asher

was not on good terms with his brothers, because he
bad informed them of Reuben’s sin against bis step-
mother Bilbali, and they would not believe him;

179

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ashdod

Asher

indeed they reproached him instead. Not until
lieu ben repented and confessed his crime did they
realize their injustice toward Asher. From the first
he had had no evil intentions against Reuben ; in
fact he was the very one whose endeavor it had
always been to reconcile the brothers, especially
when they disputed as to who among them was des-
tined to be the ancestor of the priests (Sifre, Deut.
355). In the Test. Patr., Asher, 5, Asher is regarded
as the example of a virtuous man who with single-
mindedness strives only for the general good.

Asher married twice. His first wife was ‘Adon,
a great-granddaughter of Ishmael; his second,
Hadurah, a granddaughter of Eber and a widow.
By her first marriage Hadurah had a daughter
Serah, whom Asher treated as affectionately as if
she had been of his own flesh and blood, so that the
Bible itself speaks of Serah as Asher’s daughter
(“ Sefer ha-Yasliar, Wayeslieb ”). According to the
Book of Jubilees (xxxiv. 20), Asher’s wife was
named “Iyon” (probably HIV, “dove”).

Asher’s descendants in more than one regard de-
served their name (“Asher” meaning “happiness”).
The tribe of Asher was the one most blessed with
male children (Sifre, l.c.); and its women were so
beautiful that priests and princes sought them in
marriage (Gen. R. lxxi., end). The abundance of
oil in the land possessed by Asher so enriched the
tribe that none of them needed to hire a habitation
(Gen. R. l.c.); and the soil was so fertile that in times
of scarcity, and especially in the Sabbatical year,
Asher provided all Israel with olive-oil (Sifre, l.c. ;
Men. 856; Targ. Yer. on Deut. xxxiii. 24). The Asli-
eriteswere also renowned for wisdom (Men. l.c.).

J. sr. L. G.

ASHER, Tribe and Territory. — Biblical

Data : The fortune of Asher is foreshadowed in
the Blessing of Jacob, where it is said; “Asher, his
food shall be rich, and he shall yield the dainties of
a king ” (Gen. xlix. 20, Hebr.). Until the settlement
in Canaan, the tribe stood in honor. Of its lot in
Egypt there is no record; but after the Exodus
its men numbered 41,500 strong (Num.
Situation, i. 41); and at the close of the desert
march the census showed that it had
reached 53,400 (Num. xxvi. 47). During the jour-
neyings the tribe had its station between Dan and
Naphtali, north of the Tabernacle (Num. ii. 25 et
seq.). It also had its representative among the tribal
chiefs sent to spy out the land of Canaan (Num.
xiii. 13).

The blessing of Moses, delivered, according to
tradition, at the close of the march, is put forward as
partly predictive: “Blessed be Asher with descend-
ants, and let him be pleasing to his brethren, and let
his foot be dipped in oil” (Deut. xxxiii. 24, Hebr.).
The material portion of this aspiration, like that of
Jacob’s blessing, was in large measure fulfilled.
The territory allotted to Asher (Josh. xix. 24-31)
was the coast-land extending from Dor (Tanturah)
on the south to Sidon on the north. It thus in-
cluded, north of Mount Carmel, the territories of
Accho, Achzib, Tyre, and Sidon. The coast-land
west of the shoulder of Carmel, though assigned
to Asher, was occupied by Manasseh (Josh. xvii.

11). The tribe was thus settled on the western
slopes and valleys of Upper and Lower Galilee
and on the Phenician plain. Here was some of
the most productive land in Palestine — pasture,
wooded hills, and orchards — noted especially for the
abundance and richness of its olive-oil. On account
of its remoteness from the centers of national life,
and its facility of communication with the Phenician
markets, as well as the ease with which it could
support itself, the tribe speedily be-
Relations came dissociated from the rest of Is-
to Other rael, so that it took no part against
Tribes. the Canaanites with Barak and Deb-
orah (Judges v. 17). Yet it joined
in the pursuit of the Midianites after the victory of
Gideon (Judges vii. 23). It is also said (I Chron. xii.
36) that a great host of Aslierites offered their sup-
port to David when he succeeded to the kingdom of
Saul, and that some men of the tribe “humbled
themselves” in the reformation of Hezekiah (II
Chron. xxx. 11).

J. .m. J. F. McC.

Critical View : Asher is one of the most indis-
tinct and elusive of the tribes of Israel. It is diffi-
cult to fix the boundaries of the tribe’s possessions;
and it is not even certain that it inhabited any ex-
tensive continuous territory. There is, as mentioned
above, no trace of its clansmen south of Carmel ; and
it is not clear in what sense this district
Bound- was assigned to them. Possibly the
aries. tradition is based on some migration
of Aslierites northward through that
region. Many of the towns allotted to them north
of Carmel can not be identified. But those whose
sites are known (among them Cabul, Achshaph,
Helkath, Neiel) suggest by their location a distribu-
tion of settlements rather than a compact and well-
defined tribal possession. Besides the Phenician
coast cities (Accho, Tyre, Sidon), Betli-dagon further
inland was probably never Aslicrite.

Asher appears to have had at no time a close con-
nection with the body of Israel. It had more at stake
than any other tribe in the common struggle with
the northern Canaanites, and yet it held aloof. In
the light of this outstanding fact, it is not easy to
understand how it could have become so loyal at
any later date as to send 40,000 men to join the
standard of David (I Chron. xii. 36). The probabil-
ity of such a statement is lessened by the fact that in
the tabulation of the several contingents (verses 23-
38) the largest quotas are said to have come from the
tribes that were most remote from the centers of the
life and activity of Israel. On the whole the con-
clusion is irresistible that Asher consisted of certain
clans that were affiliated with portions of Israel, but
were never incorporated into the body politic.

Critical opinion is divided as to whether Asher
was a name originally Israelitish, or whether it was
adopted by certain of the outlying
Name and tribesmen from a Canaanitic source.
Origin. What light does the story of the birth
of Asher throw on the question? He
was the full brother of Gad, and the names have the
same meaning. Gad is a Canaanitish god of fortune,
and Asher is from a root meaning “prosperous,”

Asher, Abraham
Asher b. David

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

180

“happy,” whence the great Assyrian god Asshur.
But how was this name Asher suggested? A clue
is perhaps afforded in the fact pointed out by W.
Max Muller (“Asien und Europa,” p. 236), that
“Aseru” appears on Egyptian monuments as the
name of a land and people in western Galilee in the
fourteenth century b.c. It is conceivable that Is-
raelitish settlers in that region adopted in this modi-
fied form the name of their new residence. Such a
thing was not in itself impossible, since there is evi-
dence that several of the tribes had territorial desig-
nations given to them after the Hebrew occupation
of Canaan.

There is, however, still the possibility that this
“ Aseru ” was itself the name of a Hebrew settlement
existing from oldeu time in Palestine and kept up
independently of the sojourn in Egypt which ended
with the Exodus. In considering these possibilities
a good deal must depend upon the aualogy of the
history of the other tribes and their current designa-
tions— a matter which is itself still very obscure.

Still another hypothesis has been offered. Jas-
trow suggests (“J. B. L.” xi. 120) that the clan
Heber of the tribe Asher (I Clirou. vii. 31) repre-
sents the Cliabiri of the El-Amarna
The tablets, and the brotlier-clau Malchiel,
Asherite the Milkili, who figure in the same in-
Clan scriptions. If this should be correct,

Heber. the conclusion would be drawn that a

formidable body of people was press-
ing upward from southern Palestine two hundred
years before the Exodus, and that they finally set-
tled in western Galilee; leaving perhaps a trace of
their temporary settlement in the towns south of
Carmel referred to above as being finally occupied
by Manasseh. This hypothesis has to contend
against the opinion, now somewhat widely held, that
the Chabiri were the Hebrews themselves.

Bibliography : Besides the most recent commentaries on the
Biblical passages cited above, see Kittel, Gescli. der He-
i truer : Meyer, Gesch. des Alterthums ; Wellhausen, Israel-
itische und Jlldische Gescli. pp. 15 et seq .: Stade, Gescli.
des Volkes Israel , i. 172 et seq. ; Entstehung des Volkes
Israel , in Altad. Reden u. Abhandlungen ; Jastrow, in
J. B. L. xi. 120; Barton, ibid. xv. 174; Bernh. Luther, Die
Israel. SUirnme , in Stade’s Zeitschrift, 1901, xxi. 12 et seq.,
18 et seq., 41 et seq., 51.

J. JR. J. F. McC.

ASHER, ABRAHAM (ADOLF) : Publisher,
bibliographer, and editor; born at Kammin, Prussia,
Aug. 23, 1800; died at Venice, Sept. 1, 1853. He
was destined for a commercial career, and was sent
for this purpose to England. He settled afterward
as a jewelry merchant at St. Petersburg, Russia;
but on one occasion he happened to buy an old
library. This decided his later career. He gave
up his former business and devoted himself en-
tirely to bibliography and publishing. In 1830 he
removed to Berlin and established himself as a book-
seller and publisher; in the former capacity obtain-
ing the valuable agency for the purchase of foreign
books for the British Museum. A branch of the firm
was accordingly established in London. It was
through the influence of Asher that Joseph Zedner
was appointed curator of the Hebrew books of the
British Museum.

Asher was the author of : “ Bibliographical Essay
on the Collection of Voyages and Travels Published

1598-1600 by L. Hulsius,” Berlin, 1839; and “Biblio-
graphical Essay on the Scriptores Iierum Germani-
carum,” Berlin, 1843. Among the works issued by
him as publisher are two in particular, for which
he earned the gratitude of Hebrew scholars: (1)
Benjamin of Tudela’s “Masa'ot” (Travels); (2) Con-
forte’s “Kore lia-Dorot” (Literary History). The
first he edited, vocalized, and provided with an ex-
haustive index of the geographical names (London,
1840); the same in an English translation, with crit-
ical notes and commentaries by him, by Rapoport
and Zuuz (2 vols., Berlin, 1840—41). He thus made
accessible to the modern Anglo-Jewish reading pub-
lic a work that is quite a phenomenon in Hebrew
literature. At Asher’s initiative and expense, David
Cassel revised, edited, and indexed Conforte’s “Kore
lia-Dorot ” — one of the very few literary sources for
the life and activities of Oriental and African schol-
ars in the two centuries after the Spanish expulsion.
Bibliography : Zeitlin, Bibliotheca Hebraiea, p. 7.

j. M. B.

ASHER, ANSHEL BEN ISAAC : Preacher
at Prenzlau, Prussia, and teacher in the school
founded there by his father. In 1701 he published
at Dessau a collection of discourses under the title
of “ Shemenah Lalimo ” — with reference to his name
“Asher” (!Dr6 niDC' “Itf’ND : see Gen. xlix. 20)—
consisting of two parts: the first containing some
homilies on the Sabbath and the holy days, including
Hanukkah and Purim ; and the second on the seven
solemn occasions of man’s life; viz., circumcision,
redemption of the first-born, “bar mizwah” (relig-
ious majority), marriage, ordination, burial, and res-
urrection.

Bibliography: Michael, Or ha-Hayyiin , No. 545; Stein-

schneider. Cat. Bodl. s.v., p. 748.

1.. G. K.

ASHER, ANSHEL BEN JOSEPH. See

Anschel.

ASHER, ANSHEL BEN MOSES BAER:

Talmudist ; lived in the second half of the eighteenth
century. He wrote two works: “Ben Emunim”
(Son of Faith), Filrth, 1785; and “Hiddat Shim-
shon” (Samson’s Riddle), Furth, 1785. The former
is a homiletic commentary on the Bible ; the latter
an ethical work, divided into three parts.

Bibliography: Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 752; Zedner,

Cat. Hebr. Boohs Brit. Mils. p. 61.

1.. G. I. Br.

ASHER, ANSHEL BEN WOLF. See Wolf,

Asiier ben Anshel.

ASHER, ASHER: Physician; born Feb. 16,
1837, at Glasgow, Scotland; died Jan. 7, 1889, at
London, England. He was educated at the high
school and university of his native city, and was the
first Jew in Scotland to enter the medical profession.
In 1862 he went to London and became medical offi-
cer of the Jewish Board of Guardians, and in 1866
was appointed secretary of the Great Synagogue.
About this time the idea of a union of the various
Loudon synagogues had been put forward, chiefly
by Lionel L. Cohen ; and Asher devoted himself to
the project with intense energy. In March, 1871,
he became first secretary of the United Synagogue,
contributing largely to the success of that iustitu-

181

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Asher, Abraham
Asher b. David

tion ; he wrote the introduction to the by-laws of the
constituent synagogues, and practically founded its
visitation committee. This office he retained till his
death.

Owing to Asher's intimate relations with the
Rothschilds, in his capacity of medical attendant,
unofficial almoner, and personal friend, his advice
was generally followed by them in communal mat-
ters. He was connected with a large number of in-
stitutions in the Lon-
don community, and
may be regarded as one
of its organizers. In
company with Samuel
Montagu he under-
took, in Jewish inter-
ests, journeys to Pales-
estine, America, and
Russia. After the visit
to Palestine he wrote a
report on the condition
of affairs in Jerusalem,
which effected much
good. His sympathetic
nature attracted to him
most of the young men of ability of the rising gen-
eration, and upon them he exerted great influence.
Asher wrote much for the Jewish press, chiefly under
the pen-name “Aliquis.” The only book he pub-
lished was “The Jewish Rite of Circumcision,” Lon-
don, 1873.

Bibliography : Jewish Chronicle, Jan. 11, 1889; E. Lynn Lin-
ton, Christopher Kirkland, vol. ill., eh. 4 (description of Dr.

Asher’s borne life).

ASHER, DAVID : German educationist and
philosophical writer; born at Dresden Dec. 8, 1818;
died in Leipsic Dec. 2, 1890. He received his early
education at the Jewish school of his native city, and
subsequently entered the gymnasium there, being one
of the first Jews admitted to the institution. As his
mother was unable to support him, his stay there was
short. Asher then learned the trade of carving and
gilding, thereby supporting himself as a journeyman
artisan during his travels to various cities of Ger-
many and Austria. On the invitation of a wealthy
relative he went to London, where he learned Eng-
lish at a private school — subsequently becoming as-
sistant teacher there — and at the same time assidu-
ously studied philosophy, philology, Hebrew, and
modern languages. Later, Asher held various offices
in the Jewish congregation and was tutor to the
children of the chief rabbi of England. Upon his
return to Germany he obtained the degree of doctor
of philosophy at the Berlin University. Settling iu
Leipsic, he soon acquired reputation as an English
instructor, having among his pupils many persons
of high rank. For seven years he held the post of
English master at the Commercial School ; and for
eight years that of examiner of candidates for higher
schools at the university. He was also a member of
the Academy for Modern Languages, in Berlin, and
official interpreter to the Royal Law Courts of Leip-
sic. A linguist of the first order, he was engaged in
literary work of varied character, and diligently con-
tributed to most of the leading German journals,
as well as to the English periodicals the “Times,”

“ Athenaeum,” “ Academy,” and “ Jewish Chronicle.”
For the last he translated Dr. Dollinger’s “Address
on the History of the Jews of Europe.”

Asher distinguished himself as an interpreter of
the philosophy of Schopenhauer ; and as an ardent
champion of his own coreligionists, energetically
combating anti-Semitic attacks.

The more important of his numerous works and
articles, original and translated, are; “Outlines of
the Jewish Religion ” ; “ England’s Dichter und Pro-
saiker der Neuzeit”; “A Manual on the Study of
Modern Languages in General, and of the English
Language in Particular,” with a preface by Dean
French ; “ Offenes Sendschreiben an Arthur Schopen-
hauer”; “Arthur Schopenhauer als Interpret des
Gothe’schen Faust”; “ Der Religiose Glaube; eine
Psyehologisclie Studie”; “Arthur Schopenhauer;
Neues von Ihm und fiber Ilin ” ; “ Das Endergeb-
niss der Schopenhaeur’schen Philosophic ” ; “Exer-
cises on the Habitual Mistakes of Germans in Eng-
lish Conversation,” etc., 3 vols. ; “Die Wichtigsten
Regeln der Englisclien Syntax ” ; “Entertaining Li-
brary for the Young, with Explanatory Notes and
Complete Vocabularies,” etc., 2 vols.; “Ueber den
Unterriclit in den Neueren Spraclien ” ; “ Die Grund-
ziige der Verfassung Englands”; “Die Kunst zu
Lesen ” ; “ Selihot, with a new English Translation ” ;
“ Biidinger’s ‘ Way of Faith, ’ or the Abridged Bible,”
translated from the German; Buckle’s “Essays,”'
translated into German; “Contributions to the His-
tory of the Development of the Human Race,” by
Lazarus Geiger, translated from the German ; “ Das
Naturgesetz in der Geisterwelt,” by Henry Drum-
mond, translated into German.

Bibliography: Jew. Chron. Dee. 5, 1890, p. 8; Dee. 12, 1890,
p. 9.

j. B. B.

ASHER BEN DAVID : A son of Abraham ben
David of Posquieres; flourished about the middle of
the thirteenth century. He was a pupil of his uncle,
Isaac the Blind, and one of the earliest cabalistic
writers. He was the author of nno J"’ KTl'D or
ppn (Explanations on the Thirteen Attributes of
God; Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7), and Turn D (Explanation
of the Tetragrammaton and the Sefirot). The rela-
tion of these two works to each other, however, can
not be definitely stated, since only a small part has
been printed, in “ Ozar Nehmad,” iv. 37, and “ Hebra-
ische Bibliographic,” xii. 80, 113. Probably he tried
to justify the number (ten) of the Sefirot as seem-
ingly not in harmony with the thirteen attributes of
God assumed in the Talmud. He identifies, on the
one hand, the ten Sefirot with the ten spheres of the
philosophers, and, on the other, explains the thirteen
attributes of God as derivations of the three mid-
dle Sefirot: niNsn, mm or D'orn, p. non
(love, justice, mercy), which he designates as ni3N
(fundamental principles).

Asher was taught by his father, whom he calls a
learned man; and he had verbal intercourse with
Jacob ben Samuel of Anduze, with Mei'r ben Simon,
and with Abraham ben Isaac of Carcassonne.

Bibliography: Heh.'Bibl. xii. 80 et seq.; Gross, Gallia
Judaica, p. 450; Bloch, E ntwickeluny der Kabbala, etc.,
p. 42. [Michael ( Or ha^Hayyim, No. 536) doubts whether he
was the son of Abraham b. David of Posquieres.]

K. P. B.

Dr. Asher Asher.

Asher, Ensel
Asher b. Levi

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

182

ASHER, ENSEL B. JUDAH LOEB : Chief
of the bet din at Slonim, Lithuania, in the beginning
of the eighteenth century. He wrote two works:
“ Otot le-Mo'adim” (Signs for the Feasts) and “ Baruk
mi-Banim Asher” (Blessed Be Asher Above Sous:
Deut. xxxiii. 24). The former contains a novella to
Pesahim ix., and also the laws of the festivals and
half festivals. The latter comprises a homiletic
commentary on the Pentateuch. Both were pub-
lished at Zolkiev, in 1749 and 1752 respectively.

Bibliography: Walden, Shem ha-Gedolim he-Hadash, ii. 7,
15; Benjacob, Ozar ha-Sefarim. pp. 31-83.

L. G. I. Br.

ASHER BEN HAYYIM OF MONZON :

Spanish liturgist of the fourteenth century. He was
the author of a book entitled “Ha-Pardes” (Para-:
dise), the ten sections of which are devoted to an ex-
haustive discussion of the benedictions, the results
being epitomized in a single extract entitled “ Teru-
mot ha-Pardes ” (The Heave-Offerings of Paradise).
Azulai saw the manuscript in Italy, and made ex-
tracts from it, which he afterward published in his
commentary “ Shij'ure Berakali ” to the Shullian
‘Aruk, Orah Hayyim. The manuscript in question
was probably identical with that now preserved in
the Bodleian Library. The latest authority cited in
it is Yom-Tob b. Abraham of Seville.

Bibliography : Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, ed. Wilna, ii. 61 ;
Michael, Or ha-Hagyim, p. 540; Neubauer, Cat. Bodl. Hebr.
MSS. No. 799; Zutiz, Ritus, p. 30.

L. G.

ASHER BEN IMMANUEL SALEM. See

Salem.

ASHER, JACOB ABRAHAM BEN ARYEH
LOEB KALMANKES : Cabalistic and rabbinical
author; born probably in Lemberg about the begin-
ning of the seventeenth century ; died there April 3,
1681. He wrote (1) “Sefer lia-Eshel” (The Book of
the Grove), a volume of homilies, of which the first
part, on Genesis, containing also some homiletical
remarks by his grandfather, Joseph Kalmankes,
was printed in Lublin, n.d. ; and (2) “Ma‘yan lia-
Hokmali ” (Fountain of Wisdom), an introduction to
the Cabala, drawn chiefly from the works of Isaac
Luria. This latter work was first printed in Amster-
dam, 1652, then in Koretz. 1684, and lastly under the
■title “Tob we-Yashar” (Good and Right) in Berlin,
1706. Moses ibn Zur put it in rimed prose under
the title “Mebo Slia'ar ha-Shamayim ” (The Way
to the Gate of Heaven), but this was never pub-
lished.

Bibliography: Buber, Anslie Shem, p. 45; Benjacob. Ozar
ha-Sefarim, pp. 55, 350.

L. G. D.

ASHER BEN JACOB HA-LEVI : Talmudic

lexicographer; lived in Osnabruck, Prussia, toward
the end of the thirteenth century. His father was
probably the “Jacob ha-Levi” mentioned by Eliezer
ha-Darshan as his teacher, and his nephew was
Isaac ben Judah ha-Levi, author of xn njyD (Stein-
sclmeider, “Cat. Bodl.” col. 1127). Asher was the
pupil of Samuel ben Baruch of Bamberg. He wrote
explanations of various parts of the Malizor, to be
found in MSS. Munich, No. 423, Bodleian, No. 1102.
as well as in a private MS. in the library of David
Kaufmann (in “ Monatssclirift, ” xli. 146). He is

especially severe upon the “ men of France and the
Islands of the Sea,” complaining that they had tam-
pered with the liturgy, in some places omitting words
and in others adding to the received text. Asher is
best known as the author of the small edition of the
‘Aruk contained in MS. Berne, No. 200, which he
compiled in the year 1290 within the space of five
weeks for his nephew Isaac ben Eleazer ha-Levi.
This recension contains 142 folios, and follows in
the main the Regensburger MS. of the same work.
Asher has, however, inserted into his edition a num-
ber of words dealing with the liturgy that are not to
be found in the large ‘Aruk. This manuscript served
as the basis for Buxtorf’s “ Lexicon Hebrseo-Chal-
daicum.”

Asher must not be confounded with a man of the
same name who lived during the twelfth century,
and perhaps belonged to the same family and who
corresponded with Eliezer ben Nathan (J"2N1), and
lived in Worms or that neighborhood. According
to Gross (“Magazin,” x. 76), this latter Asher was
the son of Jacob ben Isaac ben Eliezer of Worms
(Zunz, “ L. G.” p. 156). Perles thinks that Eleazer
ben Asher ha-Levi, who collected the valuable “Sefer
Zikronot,” was his son (Neubauer, “ Medieval Jewish
Chronicles,” i. xx. ; Gaster, “Chronicles of Jerali-
meel,” p. 1). From the similarity in names, Perles
argues that the family of Asher ben Jacob ha-Levi
must be connected with the older Ha-Levi family of
which Zunz has given (“ Literaturgesch.” p. 156)
the pedigree (compare also Salfeld, “Ntirnberger
Memorbucli,” pp. 104, 361).

Bibliography : Zunz. Ritus, p. 195; Perles, in Manatsschrift ,
xxv. 372, and in Jubelschrift zum Siebzigsten Geburstage,
des Prof. Dr. H. Grlitz, pp. 1 et seq. ; Kaufmann, in Mnnats-
schrift. xxxiv. 185 et. seq. : Weiss, in Manatsschrift, xli.
146 ; Neubauer. Catalogue of Hebrew Manuscripts of Bodl.
Lilrr. col. 311.

I,. G. G.

ASHER BEN JEHIEL : Eminent Talmudist;
born in western Germany about 1250 ; died in Toledo,
Spain, 1328. His family was prominent for learning
and piety ; his father having been a learned Talmud-
ist, and one of his ancestors (not his grandfather)
having been Eliezer ben Nathan (}"2ND.

Asher ben Jehiel was the most prominent disci-
ple of Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg, and, like his
teacher, was in all probability the victim of black-
mail by the government, which desired to deprive
him of his fortune. His emigration from Germany
was probably involuntary ; for, according to his own
statement, he possessed considerable means while in
Germany, but in later years could not assist his son
Jacob, whose poverty prevented him
Settles in from honoring the Sabbath with spe-
Toledo. cial garments and meals (“Tur Orah
Hayyim,” § 242). Moreover, Asher’s
son Judah testifies to the fact that he died in poverty
(“Bet Talmud,” pp. 372-375). After leaving Ger-
manjr he settled first in southern France, then in
Toledo, of which latter city he became rabbi on the
recommendation of Solomon Adret.

In his religious attitude he resembled his teacher,
MeVrof Rothenburg, representing the rigorous school
which was averse to lenient decisions in legal mat-
ters, even when theoretically justified (“Responsa,”
xlvi., c. 2). He was also opposed to secular knowl-

183

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Asher, Ensel
Asher b. Levi

edge, especially philosophy ; thanking God for hav-
ing saved him from its influence, and boasting of
possessing no knowledge outside the Torah. His
position was clearly defined by him when lie stated
that philosophy is based on critical research, and
religion on tradition ; the two being incapable of
harmonization. Of philosophy, he said, it may be
truly stated, “None that go unto her may return ”
(“Responsa,” lv. 9). Asher, however, had the cour-
age of an independent opinion and laid down the
principle: “We must not be guided in our decisions
by admiration of great men; and in the event of a
law not being clearly stated in the Talmud, we are not
bound to accept it, even if it be based on the works
of the Geonim” (Weiss, “Dor Dor we-Dorsliaw,” v.

63). His liberalism, however, is some-
His times orthodoxy in disguise. He de-
Religious dares, for instance, that the liturgy of
Attitude, the Geonim does not fall under the Tal-
mudic rule forbidding change in the
wording of the traditional prayers (Maimonides,
“ Yad,” Berakot, i. 16). Similarly, his decision against
praying more than three times a day (“Responsa,”
iv. 13) is really on the side of rigorous orthodoxy.
His assertion that the words ’J'DD (“an

oral law revealed to Moses on Sinai ”) do not always
bear a literal meaning, but signify, in general, a uni-
versally adopted custom, must not be taken as a lib-
eral interpretation bearing out the theory of oral tra-
dition (so Z. Frankel, in “Darke lia-Mishnah,” 20),
but as an apologetic attempt to uphold rabbinical
authority. The latter view is borne out by the con-
text (Hilkot Mikwaot 1, in the twelfth volume of
the usual Talmud editions).

Asher possessed vast Talmudic knowledge, meth-
odical and systematic, and was distinguished for
terseness in summing up long Talmudic discussions,
the final results of which he indicated clearly. His
attitude, however, toward secular knowledge made
his influence on the Spanish Jews a narrowing one.
He espoused the cause of the anti-Maimonists — even
becoming their leader— and desired the synod to
issue a decree against the study of non-Jewish learn-
ing. Together with his sous he thus transplanted
the strict and narrow Talmudic spirit from Germany
to Spain, where it took root and turned the Spanish
Jews from scientific research to the study of the
Talmud.

Asher’s extant works are: a commentary on Zera-
Mm, the first order of the Mishnali, with the excep-
tion of Berakot ; a commentary on the sixth order
(Toharot); on the treatises Nedarim (third order),
and Tamid ; glosses like the Tosafot on several Tal-
mudic treatises ; a volume of responsa; and an ab-
stract of the Talmudic laws (Halakot). His fame
rests on the last-mentioned, constructed on the plan
■of Alfasi’s work. Omitting the haggadic portions
of the Talmud, and all the laws not practised outside
of Palestine, such as the sacrificial, criminal, and po-
litical ones, Asher made an abstract of the practical
Halakah, leaving out the discussions, and concisely
stating the final decisions. Though in
Bis Works, this respect he follows the example of
Alfasi, he differs from him in quoting
later authorities, notably Alfasi, Maimonides, and
the Tosafists. Asher's work superseded Alfasi’s

within a short time. It became so popular that it
has been printed with almost every edition of the
Talmud under the title “ Rabbenu Asher,” abbrevi-
ated (Rosli). His son Jacob compiled, under
the title “ Piske ha -Rosli,” a list of the decisions found
in the work. Commentaries on Asher’s Halakot were
written by a number of later Talmudists, among
whom were: Yom-Tob Lipman Hei.ler, who wrote
“Ma’adane Melek,” “ Ma’adane Yom-Tob.” “Lehem
Hamudot,” and “Pilpela Harifta”; Nathaniel Weil,
who wrote “ Korban Netlianael ”; and Phiueas Selig
of Lask, who wrote “ ‘Ateret Paz.” Compare Ber-
lin, Saul b. Zebt Hirsch.

Asher had eight sons, of whom the most promi-
nent were Judah and Jacob.

Bibliography: Azulai, Shew ha-Gedolim. s.v. ; Michael. Or

ha-Hayuim, No. 543; Steinscbneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 748;

Gratz, Gescli. der Jnden, 3d ed. vil. 233 et xeq. ; Weiss, Dor

Dor we-Dorxhaw, v. 61-70.

L. G. D.

ASHER BEN JOSEPH. See Anschel.

ASHER BEN JUDAH LOEB LANDAU.

See Landau, Asher.

ASHER KUBO. See Covo, Asher.

ASHER, LEMEL HA-LEVI: Polish Tal-
mudic scholar ; lived at the end of the eighteenth
century. Together with his two sons. Yehiel Michel
ha-Levi of Glogau and Moses ha-Levi of Glogau, he
wrote homilies on the Pentateuch, published in 1820
under the title “ Hut ha-Meshullash ” (The Threefold
Cord).

Bibliography: Zedner, Cat. Helrr. Boohs Brit. Mux. p. fit;

Beifiacob, Ozar ha-Sefarim, p. 171.

H. R. I. BR.

ASHER, LEON : German physician; born
April 13, 1865, in Leipsic. He is the son of Dr.
David Asher, for many years secretary to Chief
Rabbi Nathan M. Adler in London. Leon Asher,
after graduating from the public school in Leipsic,
studied medicine at the university of that city
from 1885 to 1890, and received the degree of M.D.
Having worked in the line of medical and psychical
research, he went in 1891 to Heidelberg, where he
was engaged as laboratory assistant with W. Kiihne
and G. Quincke. In 1894 he became assistant at the
Bern Physiological Institute in Switzerland, and in
1895 privat-docent at the university. He spent the
summer vacations of 1896-98 in the laboratory of
the physiologist Hering in Leipsic, and in 1901
was appointed professor of medicine iu Bern Uni-
versity.

Asher’s researches cover a wide field in nervous
and muscular physiology, including the physiology
of the sense functions and of the transformation cf
tissue. Aided by the Berlin Royal Academy of
Sciences, he experimented considerably iu the direc-
tion of ascertaining the qualities of lymph and the
precise mode of its formation; the majority of his
conclusions are now accepted in the medical world.
He edits, together with Iv. Spiro, an annual entitled
“Ergebnisse der Physiologie.”

s. “ F. de S. M.

ASHER BEN LEVI ( known also as ‘ Abd al-
Masih) : Legendary boy convertand, subsequently,

Asher

Ashes

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

184

Christian martyr; lived toward the end of the fourth
century in Sinjar, between Nisibis and Mosul in
Mesopotamia. He was born of Jewish parents. As
a boy he lived all alone and was shunned by his
Christian and Zoroastrian companions. One day he
begged to be allowed to eat with the Christian boys;
but they refused to allow him to do so until he be-
came a Christian. As the church of the village was
at some distance, the boys themselves baptized him ;
performing all the necessary ceremonies and giving
him the name “ ‘Abda da-Meshiha ” (Servant of the
Messiah). They even pierced his ears, and hung in
the right ear an earring, a custom not observed by
the Jews. Asher’s mother hid him from his father,
who was a rich man and head of the Jewish com-
munity, fearing his wrath if the story should become
known.

The boy then had visions of Jesus, of hell, and of
his own death. A bishop, happening to be in the
village, blessed him. On a Sabbath-day, when his
father held a feast, the boy’s conversion became
known because he refused to eat with Jews. Asher
ran off to the well where he had been baptized, but
was killed there by his father. The boys who had
baptized him found the body and buried it. A few
days afterward a company of merchants camping
near by saw a light burning over the grave and smelt
fragrant odors coming from beneath the stone. They
were Christians and took the body away, a rich man
promising to build a church in the boy’s honor.
Over the place where the grave had been a little
church was built, with the inscription, “This is the
place of martyrdom of the Messiah’s martyr, ‘Abd
al-Masih.” After a time the father grew old and
was troubled by evil spirits. He had to be taken to
the place where his son had died, and together with
all his household embraced Christianity. The day
of Asher’s martyrdom is given as the twenty-seventh
of Tammuz (July), 390.

There is probably no historical background to the
story, as the Arabic form of the name, “‘Abd al-
Masih,” shows that it is of much later origin than
the text would have us believe. In the Syriac,
“‘Abda da-Meshiha” does not occur as a proper
name.

Bibliography: The text of this Syriac legend was first pub-
lished with a Latin translation by Corluy in Analecta Bol-
landiana, 1886, v. 5-52: and the text alone was repub-
lished in Bedjan’s Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum, i. 173
et seq., Paris, 1890. Compare also Zeibschrift filr Kalhol-
ische Theologie, 1887, ii. 196; Wright, Catalogue of Syriac
Manuscripts, p. 1146; Steinsehneider, Polern. und Apolog.
Lit. p. 115; Assemani ( Bibliotheca Orientalis, III. i. 285)
mentions an Arabic account of Asher’s conversion; according
to J. Bollig, however, the manuscript does not contain it. But
in MS. Arab. No. 145 of the Vatican Library there is a Tractatus
tie Animo Rational!, Auctore Abdelmessia Israelita, and
also by the same author, Articuli Breves de Trinitate et Uni-
tate Dei, composed in 1241 at Cairo. Steinsehneider has con-
founded the two ‘Abd al-Masihs.

T. G.

ASHER B. MESHULLAM : Talmudist; flour-
ished at Lunel in the second half of the twelfth cen-
tury. He was a son of the well-known scholar
Meshullam ben Jacob, and a pupil of Joseph ibn
Plat and Abraham b. David of Posquieres, whose
ascetic tendencies he shared. Benjamin of Tudela,
in the first part of his “Travels,” says that Asher
lived in complete seclusion, wholly devoted to the
study of the Torah, and that he never tasted meat.

At the same time Asher was not hostile to philoso-
phy. Judah ibn Tibbon, in a letter to Asher, praised
his fondness for science, and in his testament ex-
horted his son to cultivate Asher’s friendship.
Asher’s alleged leaning toward the Cabala, men-
tioned by Graetz, is not proved ; the fact that he
was responsible for the translation of Gabirol’s
“ Tikkun Midot ha-Nefesh ” is no proof for or against
his cabalistic leanings. The cabalists had a strong
leaning toward Gabirol’s mysticism ; and, after all,
the above-mentioned work of Gabirol is moral, rather
than strictly philosophical, in its tendencies.

Asher was the author of several Talmudic works,
of which the following are cited by title: “Hilkot
Yom-Tob,” rules for the holidays; “ Sefer lia-Mata-
not,” a work referring perhaps to the tithes payable
to the priests. Neither of these writings seems to
have been preserved. According to an entry in the
manuscript of the small “Midrash ‘Aseret lia-Dib-
berot,” Asher was its author, but the statement is
not verifiable. Compare Midrashim, Minor.

Bibliography : Azulai, Sliem ha-Gedolim, ed. Wilna, p. 34;
Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, 3d ed.. vi. 203; Gross, Gallia
Judaica, pp. 280-281; Renan and Neubauer, Les Ecrivains
Juifs Fran^ais, pp. 468-469 ; Reifmann, Toledot It. Zcrah-
yah, p. 48 ; Literaturblatt des Orients, 1849, p. 481 ; Michael,
Or ha^Hayyim, No. 552.

K. L. G.

ASHER BEN SAUL (Ha-Kohen) OF
LUNEL : French writer on ritual ; lived in the four-
teenth century. He wrote a work upon the various
rites current among the Jews, entitled, “Sefer ha-
Minhagot,” which exists in manuscript in the Cam-
bridge (England) University Library (MS. Add. Do.
5, 38). Asher is mentioned in the responsa of Solo-
mon ben Simon Duran (Responsum, No. 195, ed.
Livorno, 1742, p. 34«); in the “Kol Bo,” which
cites certain extracts on the blessings (§ 24); and in
the manuscript, “Sefer Asufot ” (No. 48).

Bibliography : Renan and Neubauer. Les Rabbins Francais,
p.511; Gross, Gallia Judaica, p. 281; Michael ( Orha-Hay -
yim, p. 552) confounds Asher hen Saul with Asher ' ben
Meshullam.

ASHER SELIG BEN JUDAH MARGO-
LIOT. See Margaliot, Asher Selig ben Judah.

ASHER BEN SIMEON : Religious poet of Ger-
many, who lived at a period not later than 1546. He
wrote a selihali (penitential poem) entitled mnEW
bn toes, which is not to be confounded with
a similar selihali by Kalonymus ben Judah (Zunz,
“ S. P.” p. 255). In this poem, which consists of
fifteen five-lined strophes, the author prays for the
welfare of the king of the land in which he lives.
Zunz claims some connection between Asher ben
Simeon and Asher of Frankfort, who was author of
a short “ widdui” (confession) mentioned by Joseph
ben Pliinehas Hahn in his “ Yosif Omez,” § 483, p.
585.

Bibliography; Zunz, Literaturgesch. p. 390.

ASHER ZEBI BEN DAVID : Hasidic rabbi of
Koretz, Volhynia, and later “maggid ” (preacher) of
Ostrowo, government of Lomza in Russian Poland;
flourished at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
He was a pupil of Israel Baal-Shem’s successor,
Baer of Meseritz. Asher is the author of “Ma‘ayn

185

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Asher

Ashes

ha-Hokmah” (Spring of Wisdom), Korets, 1817
— containing cabalistic homilies on the Pentateuch
and other books of the Bible. Zweifel in his work
in defense of Hasidism (“Shalom al-Yisrael,” pp. 81,
82) quotes aphorisms from this work ; but is fair
enough to conclude with one that shows Asher’s
contempt for those who study the laws of nature or
secular science.

Bibliography : Sefcr Seder ha-Dorot mi-Talmide ha- Baht,

p. 30b.

L. g. P. Wi.

ASHERAH (mtl'N): A Hebrew word occurring
frequently in the Bible (R. V.)and signifying, ex-
cept in a few late passages noted below, a wooden
post or pole planted near the altars of various gods.
In the Authorized Version the word is rendered
“grove.”

It has often been inferred from Deut. xvi. 21 that
the Asherali was originally a tree, but the passage
should be translated “an asherali of any kind of
wood” (compare Moore, “Ency. Bibl.” and Budde,
“New World,” viii. 734), since the sacred tree had
a name of its own, el, elah, elon, and the Asherali was
sometimes set up under the living tree (II Kings
xvii. 10). This pole was often of considerable size
(Judges vi. 25), since it could furnish fuel for the
sacrifice of a bullock. It was found near the altars
of Baal, and, down to the days of Josiah, near those
of Yiiwh also, not only at Samaria (II Kings xiii.
6) and Beth-el (II Kings xxiii. 15), but even at Jeru-
salem (II Kings xxiii. 6). Sometimes it was carved
in revolting shapes (I Kings xv. 13), and at times,
perhaps, draped (II Kings xxiii. 7). It is most often
associated in the Bible with the pillars (“mazzebot”)
that in primitive days served at once as a represen-
tation of the god and as an altar (W. R. Smith, “ Re-
ligion of the Semites,” 2d ed., p. 204). It was pro-
scribed in the Deuteronomic law and abolished in
Josiah’s reform (II Kings xxii. 23).

In a few passages (Judges iii. 7; I Kings xviii.
19; II Kings xxiii. 4) Asherali appears to be the
name of a goddess, but the text has in every case
been corrupted or glossed (compare Moore and
Budde, as cited above). In the first of the three
passages the name Ash taroth should stand, as it does
elsewhere, in the case of similar charges of defection
from Yhwh (compare Judges ii. 13, x. 6; I Sam.
vii. 4, xii. 10). In the other two passages, the term
Asherali is superfluous. These passages may indi-
cate, as Moore suggests, that the Asherali became in
some localities a fetish orcultus god.

Asherali was also the name of a Syrian goddess.
In the El-Amarna tablets of the fifteenth century
b.c. her name appears with the determinative for
deity as a part of the name Arad-Ashirta (or ‘Ebed-
Ashcrah). It also appears in a Sumerian hymn pub-
lished by Reisner (“ Sumerisch-Babylonisclie Hym-
nen.” p. 92), on a hematite cylinder (“Zeit. f. Assyr. ”
vi. 161), and in an astronomical text of the Arsacide
period (ib. vi. 241). She appears to have been the
consort of the god Amurru, a Baal of the Lebanon
region (compare Jensen, “Zeit. f. Assyr.” xi. 302-
305). Arad-Ashirta in the El-Amarna tablets repre-
sents not only a sheik, but a clan, and is possibly the
one which afterward became the tribe of Asher.

Possibly a trace of this goddess is to be found in
an inscription from Citium in Cyprus, which dedi-
cates an object to “My lady mother
Asherali Asliera” (compare Schroder, “Z. I).
the Name M. G.” xxxv. 424). Many scholars,
of a Syrian however, interpret the passage other-
Goddess. wise (compare Moore, l.c.). Ilommel
has recently announced (“Expository
Times,” xi. 190) that he has discovered in a Mina-an
inscription a goddess Athirat. phonetically equiv-
alent to Asherali. This would indicate that Asherali
was a name for an old Semitic goddess long before
the fifteenth century b.c. ; but for the present this
must be regarded merely in the light of a possibility.
The relation of this goddess to the pole called Asherali
in the Bible is a difficult problem. The name in the
Bible is masculine ; the plural “ Asherim ” occurring
sixteen times, and the plural “Asherot” but three
times. The latter is clearly an error. Asherali must be
a nomen unitatis. G. Hoffmann has shown (“Ueber
Einige Phbnizische Inschriften,” pp. 26 et seq.) that
these posts originally marked the limits of the sacred
precincts, and that in the Ma'sub inscription it is.
the equivalent of “ sacred enclosure.” Moore finds
in this fact the explanation of the use of the word in
Assyrian ( ashirtv , ashr&ti ; eshirtu, exit rati), in the
sense of sanctuary. Hommel fancies that he sees in
the original form of the ideogram for Islitar (compare
Thureau-Dangin, “L’Ecriture Cuneiforme,” No.
294), a post on which hangs the skin of an animal.

Quite apart, however, from lIomintTs somewhat
imaginary conjecture, the Assyrian and Phenician
use of the word in the sense of “sanctuary,” taken
in connection with the Arabian and Syrian use of it
as the name of a goddess, indicates that the posts
were used at the sanctuaries of the primitive Semitic
mother-goddess, and that in course of time their
name attached itself in certain quarters to the god-
dess herself, and has survived in South Arabia and
Syria. When, therefore, the late editors of the Old
Testament books made of the Asherali a fetish or
cultus god, history was but repeating itself (sec Ash-
toreth. Idolatry, Mazzebaii, Phenicia).

Bibliography : Movers, Die PhOnizier, i. 560 et seq. ; Well-
hausen, Composition des Hexateuchs, 1889, 2d ed., pp. 281 et
seq. ; Stade, Gesch. des Vt tikes Israel, pp. 458 et seq. ; idem,
Zeilschrift, i. 345, iv. 295 et seq., vi. 318 et seq. ; G. Hoffmann,
Ueber Einige Phtinizische Inschriften, pp. 26 etseq. : W. R.
Smith, Religion of the Semites, 2d ed., pp. 187 et seq. ;
Schrader, Zeit. fiir Assyriologie und Verwandte Gebiete,
iii. 364; Collins, in Proceedings of the Society of Biblical
Archeology, xi. 291 et seq. : Barton, in Journal of Biblical
Literature, x. 82 et seq. ; idem, in Hebraica, x. 40 et seq. ;
idem, Semitic Origins. 1902, 246 et seq. ; Nowack, Leltrbuch
der Hebriiischen Archttologie, 1894, ii. 19 etseq.; I. Benzinger,
Hebrdische Archttologie , 1894, pp. 380 etseq. : Driver, Com-
mentary on Deuteronomy, in the International Critical
Commentary, 1895, p. 201 ; Moore, Commentary on Judges,
pp. 86 et seq., 191 et seq.\ P. Torge, Aschera und Astaite,
Leipsic, 1902.

J. JR. G. A. B.

ASHERI (’"1K>X, “the Asherite”): A name by
which Asher ben Jehiel is frequently cited in
rabbinical literature, especially in halakic discus-
sions. Modern historians use the expression “ Aslier-
ides” when speaking of the sons and descendants of
Asher b. Jehiel.

j. sr. L. G.

ASHES. — Biblical Data : The usual transla-
tion of the Hebrew “efer” which occurs often in.
expressions of mourning and in other connections

Ashes

Ashi

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

186

It is a symbol of insignificance or nothingness in
persons or words (Gen. xviii. 27 : Isa. xliv. 20: Mai.

iii. 21 [iv. 3] ; Job xiii. 12, xxx. 19).

TJse. In the Red Heifer ritual, for purifica-
tion from defilement by contact with a
corpse (Num. xix.), the Ashes of the offering are to
be put into water, some of which is then to be
sprinkled on the unclean person ; their virtue is,
of course, derived from the sacred material of the
offering.

A mourner cast Ashes (or dust) on his head (II
Sam. xiii. 9), or sat (Job ii. 8 ; Jonah iii. 6) or lay (Esth.
iv. 3) or rolled himself (Jer. vi. 26: Ezek. xxvii. 30)
in Ashes (or dust). The rendering “ashes” for the
Hebrew word in question is, however, in some cases
doubtful. In a number of passages in which it oc-
curs (in all, indeed, except those relating to the Red
Heifer), it might as well or better be translated
“ dust ” ; so where a persou is said to eat, feed on,
sit in, lie, or wallow in the “efer”; or put it on his
head; or where it is used to represent finely attenu-
ated matter (Ps. exlvii. 16). Its use appears to be
substantially identical with that of the word “ ‘afar,”
commonly rendered “dust.” The sense of humilia-
tion is expressed by sitting or rolling in the “ ‘afar” or
dust (Isa. xlvii. 1; Mic-ali i. 7, vii. 17: Ps. lxxii. 9);
grief and suffering by putting dust on the head
(Josh. vii. 6; Job ii. 12). The word symbolizes at-
tenuation and annihilation or extinction (Job xxx.
19; Ps. xviii. 43 [42]); it is even employed to desig-
nate the burnt remains of the Red Heifer (Num. xix.
17). The two words are synonyms, and in the ex-
pression “dust and ashes” are combined for the sake
of emphasis (with paronomasia: “‘afar we-efer.”).
There is. however, a difference in the usage : in ex-
pressions of mourning it is only the latter (“efer”)
that occurs in combination with “sackcloth ” (Jer. vi.
26; Isa. lviii. 5: Dan. ix. 3; Esth. iv. 1. 3), while the
former is used for the physical material of the soil
(Gen. ii. 7; Job xx. 11, and elsewhere). The word
(“deslieu”) in the sacrificial ritual rendered in A. Y.
“ashes,” means “fat”; so in I Kings xiii. 3, 5; Lev.
i. 6, iv. 12, vi. 3, 4 [10, 11]; and also in Jer. xxxi.
40, whence it appears that sacrificial Ashes were car-
ried to the valley south of Jerusalem. Still another
word translated by “ashes” in A. Y. (Ex. ix. 8. 10) is
“ piali,” which appears to mean “ soot ” (of a furnace).

It is not clear what was the precise idea or feeling
which it was intended to express by the use of dust
(or Ashes) in acts of mourning. The
Symbolical custom in the Old Testament may be

Signifi- ancient, and the result of the conver-

cance in gence of several sorts of procedure.
Mourning. It is a well-known usage in some sav-
age tribes, in mourning for the dead,
to smear the body with clay, the purpose being, per-
haps, merely to have a visible sign of grief as a mark
of respect for the deceased. Possibly, at a later
time, the dust of mourning was taken from the
grave in token that the living felt himself to be one
with the dead (compare W. R. Smith. “Religion of
the Semites,” 2d ed., pp. 322-336, and Schwally,
“Leben nach dem Tode,” p. 15). When religious
ideas became more clearly defined, the old customs
were naturally interpreted in the light of the newer
conceptions. The dust, occupying the lowest place

and trodden under foot, might well symbolize the
downcast state of the afflicted ; and, as misfortune
was regarded as the result of the displeasure of the
Deity (Ruth i. 20; Job vi. 4, ix. 17), the sufferer
would humiliate himself by prostration ; thus also
repentance would be expressed (Job xiii. 6). To
this, no doubt, there was added the idea that man
was made of dust (Gen. ii. 7), and was to return to
the dust of the grave and of Sheol (Gen. iii. 19; Job
vii. 21 ; Ps. xxii. 16 [15]). Compare the Babylonian
representation of dust as the food of the inhabitants
Of the underworld (“Descent of Ishtar”).

The ordinary Semitic term for “ dust ” is “ ‘afar,” a form which
is found in Assyrian. Aramaic, Hebrew, and Arabic (it does not
occur in this sense in the current Ethiopic texts) ; its primary
meaning is, perhaps, “a minute thing, a bit.” Probably the
primary signification of “ efer ” is the same ; outside of Hebrew it
is found only in African Semitic dialects (Ethiopic or Amharic),
where (in the form “afrat”)it signifies “dust” (Dillmanu,
“Lexicon .Etbiopicum ”). Each of the terms might thus be
used for any finely divided thing, as “dust,” or “ash,” or
“refuse.” The Septuagint employs a number of words in
rendering “ efer” and “ ‘afar,” varying the word according to the
connection. In “ ‘afar ” there is a trace of the sense “ fat” : Ethi-
opic “ ‘ efrat,” “unguent” (Dillmann); Arabic “ta'affara,”
“become fat” (Lane); compare also Assyrian “ipru,” “food”
(Friedrich Delitzsch, “Ass.vrisches Worterbuch ”). Whether
there is any connection between this sense and the Hebrew use
of “ deshen ” for “ ashes ” is not clear.

Bibliography : Schwally, Lehen nach dem Tocle, 1892 ; W. R.
Smith. Religion of the Semites , 1894 ; Benzinger, Hebrdische
Archtlologie , 1894; Nowaek, Lelirbuch der HebrHischen
Archttologie , 1894; Frey. Tod, Seelenglaube and Seelen-
kult im Alter i Israel, 1898; Griineisen, Ahnenkult und die
Urreligion Israels, 1900; Talmud, Ta'anit. For Greek usage:
[Pseudo-] Lucian. De Luctn, 12. Jastrow, Earth, Dust, and
Ashes as Symbols of Mourning Among the Ancient He-
brews, in Journal of American Oriental Society, xx. 133-

I. 50.

J. JR. T.

In Rabbinical Literature : The Midrash re-
marks (Gen. R. xlix. 11; Hub 88h), in reference to
the only use of Ashes in the Biblical ritual — namely,
the Ashes of the Red Heifer (Num. xix. 9 et seq.) —
God said to Abraham; “Thou spakest in thy life-
time, ‘ I am but dust and ashes ’ [Gen. xviii. 27] ; but
just these things shall serve as means of atonement
for thy children ; for it is written, ‘And a man that
is clean shall gather up the ashes [Num. be.].’”
Ashes were also used to cover the blood of slaugh-
tered fowl, for the Rabbis maintained that in the
Biblical passage referring to the ordinance (Lev.
xvii. 13) the word 13J? signified earth and Ashes
(Hul. l.c., an interpretation ascribed to Hillel’s
school ; compare also Bezali i. 2).

Authentic records testify to the use of Ashes as a
sign of grief in Talmudic times. In the Mishnah
(Ta'au. ii. 1) it is recorded that during the fast -days
proclaimed in consequence of drought the Ark of
the Covenant, as well as the people participating in
the procession, were sprinkled with Ashes — a cus-
tom still prevalent in the fourth century in Pales-
tine, where earth could be used as a substitute for
Ashes (Ta‘an. 16a; Yer. Ta‘an. ii., beginning ; Gen.
R. l.c.). On such occasions as public fasts, Ashes
were strewn upon the holy Ark set up in the public
place and upon the heads of the nasi and the ah bet
din, while the rest strewed them upon their heads
themselves. That part of the forehead where the
phylacteries were placed was selected (Ta'an. 16a).
The reason given for covering oneself with Ashes is
either that it should serve as an expression of self-

187

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ashes

Ashi

humiliation, as if to say, “We are before thee as
ashes ” (Gen. xviii. 27 ; Job xlii. 6), or it is to bring
before God the memory of Abraham, who said, “I
am but dust and ashes ” (Gen. xviii. 27), or the mem-
ory of the offering of Isaac, whose Ashes, according
to the rabbinical opinion, lay piled up before God
upon the altar as if he had actually been sacrificed
as a holocaust (Ta'an. 16a; Yer. Ta'au. ii. , begin-
ning; Gen. II. l.c.). It is difficult to say whether
the remark of Tos. Ta'au. 156, 16a, that the Ashes
to be used in such cases should be of incinerated
human beings, rests on tradition or on imagination.

Ashes, as a symbol of mourning, were also sprin-
kled upon the bridegroom during the wedding cere-
mony, in order to remind him, at the height of his
felicity, of the destruction of Jerusalem (B. B. 606).
This custom is even to-day observed among some of
the orthodox. In memory of the same national
disaster the Jews also ate bread sprinkled with
Ashes at the last meal before the fast-day of the
Ninth of Ah (Yer. Ta'au. iv. 69 r; Lam. R. to iii. 16;
Shulhan ‘Aruk, Grab Hayyim, 552. 6 gloss).

Raba says that if sifted Ashes are strewn round
the bed, the footprints of night-demons can be ob-
served in them in the morning (Ber. 6a). LTnworthy
disciples are called “white pitchers full of ashes”
(ib. 28a).

j. sr. L. G. — Iv.

ASHI : A celebrated Babylonian amora ; born
352; died 427; reestablished the academy at Sura,
and was the first editor of the Babylonian Talmud.
According to a tradition preserved in the academies
(Kid. 726), Ashi was born in the same year that Raba,
the great teacher of Mahuza, died, and he was the
first teacher of any importance in the Babylonian
colleges after Raba’s death. Simai, Ashi’s father,
was a rich and learned man, a student of the college
at Naresh, near Sura, which was directed by Papa,
Raba’s disciple. Ashi’s teacher was Kahana, a
member of the same college, who afterward became
president of the academy at Pumbedita.

While still young Ashi became the head of the
Sura Academy, his great learning being acknowl-
edged by the older teachers. It had been closed
since Hisda’s death (309), but under Ashi it regained
all its old importance. His commanding personal-
ity, his scholarly standing and wealth are sufficiently
indicated by the saying then current, that since the
days of Judah I., the Patriarch, “learning and social
distinction were never so united in one person as in
Ashi” (Sanh. 36 a). Indeed, Ashi was the man des-
tined to undertake a task similar to that which fell
to the lot of Judah I. The latter compiled and
edited the Mishnah; Ashi made it the labor of his
life to collect after critical scrutiny, tinder the name of
“Gemara,” those explanations of the Mishnah that
had been handed down in the Babylonian academies
since the days of Rab, together with all the discus-
sions connected with them, and all the lialakic and
haggadic material treated in the schools.

Conjointly with his disciples and the scholars who
gathered in Sura for the “ Ivallali ” or semi-annual
college-conference, he completed this task. The
kindly attitude of King Yezdegerd I., as well
as the devoted and respectful recognition of his

authority by the academies of Nehardea and Pum-
bedita, greatly favored the undertaking. A partic-
ularly important element in Ashi’s
Compiles success was the length of his tenure of
the office as head of the Sura Academy,
Gemara. which must have lasted fifty -twoyears,
but which tradition, probably for the
sake of round numbers, has exaggerated into sixty.
According to the same tradition, these sixty years are
said to have been so symmetrically apportioned that
each treatise required six months for the study of its
Mishnah and the redaction of the traditional expo-
sitions of the same (Gemara), thus aggregating thirty
years for the sixty treatises. The same process was
then repeated for thirty years more, at the end of
which period the work was considered complete.

The artificiality and unreality of this legendary
account are made clear by the facts that the treatises
are of different degrees of length and
Varying difficulty, and that a large number of
Accounts them possess no Gemara whatever,
of His Probably all that is historical in this
Work. statement is that Ashi actually revised
the work twice — a fact that is men-
tioned in the Talmud (B. B. 1576). Beyond this, the
Talmud itself contains not the slightest intimation
of the activity which Ashi and his school exercised
in this field for more than half a century. Even the
question as to whether this editorial work was writ-
ten down, and thus, whether the putting of the Baby-
lonian Talmud into writing took place under Ashi
or not, can not be answered from any statement in
the Talmud. It is nevertheless probable that the
fixation of the text of so comprehensive a literary
work cotdd not have been accomplished without the
aid of writing. The work begun by Ashi was con-
tinued by the two succeeding generations, and com-
pleted by Rabina, another president of the college
in Sura, who died in 499. To the work as the last-
named left it, onl_v slight additions were made by
the Saboraim. To one of these additions — that to
an ancient utterance concerning the “Book of Adam,
the first man” — the statement is appended (B. M.
86a), “Ashi and Rabina are the last representatives
of independent decision [horaah],” an evident refer-
ence to the work of these two in editing the Baby-
lonian Talmud, which as an object of study and a
fountainhead of practical “decision” was to have
the same importance for the coming generations as
the Mishnah had had for the Amoraim.

Ashi not only elevated Sura till it became the in-
tellectual center of the Babylonian Jews, but con-
tributed to its material grandeur also.
Restored He rebuilt Rab’s academy and the
Sura's Im- synagogueconnected with it; sparing
portance. no expense, and personally superin-
tending their reconstruction (Shah.
11a). As a direct result of Ashi’s renown, the exil-
arch came annually to Sura in the month after the
New-Year to receive the respects of the assembled
representatives of the Babylonian academies and
congregations. To such a degree of splendor did
these festivities and other conventions in Sura at-
tain, that Ashi expressed his surprise that some of
the Gentile residents of Sura were not tempted to
accept Judaism (Ber. 176).

Ashima

Ashirah

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

188

Sura retained the prominence conferred on it by
Ashi for several centuries ; and only during the last
two centuries of the Gaonic period did Pumbedita
again become its rival. Ashi’s son Tabyomi — al-
ways spoken of as “ Mar (Master), the son of Rab

ous confusion has been made by some of the later
commentators — even by Abraham ibn Ezra — who
mistake the idol Ashima for the Samaritan appella-
tion for God, Ashima meaning “the Name”; just
as the Jews are accustomed to speak of the Deity as

Con Spirito, ad lib.

ASHIRAH (A)

A - shi - - rah la - do - noi ki ga - oh ga

I will sing un - to the Lord, for He hath been high - ly ex -

— i t-

- - . . -

-U— i p.p -

— I — -1 — 1

m m — m-

— ^ W —

ah: sus we - ro - - - ke - bo.... ra - mah ba - yam.

alt - ed: Horse and ri - der hath He thrown in the sea.

ah: sus we - ro - - - ke - bo.... ra - mah ba - yam.

alt - ed: Horse and ri - der hath He thrown in the sea.

Ashi,” was a recognized scholar; but it was not
until 455, twenty-eight years after his father’s death,
that he was invested with the position which his
father had so successfully filled for more than half
a century.

Bibliography : Letter of Sherira Gaon ; Heilprin, Seder
ha^Dorot; Zacuto, Yuhasin ; Weiss, Dor. iii. 208 et seq. ;
Bather, Agada der Batiyl. Amorder, p. 144.

J. 8R. W. B.

ASHIMA. — Biblical Data : One of the gods of
the Hamatliites, an image of which was set up in
Samaria by the men of Hamath, whom Sargon set-
tled there after 722 b.c. (II Kings xvii. 30). Jew-
ish tradition explains the name as signifying a short-
haired goat. Hence, some suppose that he was a
sort of Oriental Pan, a god of woods and shepherds. '
This explanation is highly improbable. Others have
considered the name to be a form of Ashmun (or
Eshmun), the Phenician god ; while still others have
connected it with the name of the Babylonian god-
dess, Tashmitu, consort of Nairn, the god of learn-
ing. Kittel (“Die Biicher der Konige,” 1900), fol-
lowing Baudissin, holds that Ashima was an Aramaic
deity, probably connected in name with the river

“ha-Shem” (Reifmann, in Gurland’s “Ginze Yis-
rael,” 74).

J. sr. L. G.

ASHIRAH (HYtTK = “I will sing”): The first
word of the Song of Moses (Ex. xv.), known as
“Sliirat ha- Yam” (The Song at the Sea), read in the
synagogues in the lesson of the seventh day of the
Passover (the anniversary of the crossing of the Red
Sea), in the lesson of Sabbath “ Beshallah” (Ex. xiii.
17-xvii. 16) in the yearly cycle of Pentateuchal read-
ings, and at the conclusion of the Psalms in the daily1"
morning service. Traditionally associated with the
song is a very ancient intonation, which has indeed
been popularly claimed to be the actual chant sung
by Miriam and her sisters, and which probably en-
kernels a true relic of Temple music. It would al-
most suggest itself to the earliest reciters of the song
to chant it in an echo of the martial notes of a trum-
pet-call. Trumpet-calls remain the same throughout
the centuries, inasmuch as such musical phrases con-
sist only of notes dependent on certain natural prop-
erties of every column of air enclosed in a tube.
Thus the ancient reciter would, on commencing the

Sostenuto.

Az. . . . ya - shir
Then. . did Mo

ASHIRAH (B)

Mo - sheh u - be - ne

ses sing and the chil - dren of

Yis - ra - el
Is - ra - el

et ha - shi -

this

-3T-® m ' S (S'

» . ' m m *

— m-- — « — * - — g — m—

-f *==H

;

t [j v r

, Z_ II

7 W w \

1 2 — B— i- i —

w & ^ ^ ,

1 U

rah ha - zot la - do - nai way - yo - me - ru le - mor.

song to the Lord and spake, say - - ing:

Ashmaya, near Tyre. This conjecture seems much
more probable, although nothing further is positively
known than what is stated in the Biblical passage
above cited.

J. JR. G. A. B.

In Rabbinical Literature : According to the

Rabbis (Yer. ‘Ab. Zarah iii. 42 d; Sanli. 636), this idol
of the Hamatliites had the form of a buck. A curi-

Song of Moses, have modulated his bardic speech-
song into some imitation of a trumpet-note, even as
is still traditionally done when from the scroll of the
Law it is read out that “ Pharaoh drew nigh ” (Exod.
xiv. 10) with “his chariots and his horsemen” lib.
18), or that “the standard of the camp of the chil-
dren of Judah set forward . . . and over his host
was Nahslion” (Num. x. 14), or that “they removed

189

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ashima

Ashirah

from Elim and encamped by the Red Sea” (Num.
xxxiii. 10), or similar details of a military move-
ment. Such modulations are known as “nedarim.”
So, when the cantillation of the lessons from the nota-

ishes are still, to a certain extent, fluid, not having
strictly crystallized into any definite set of notes.
Asldrah (verse 1) would be given as opposite (A).
With the Sephardim musical tradition has. on the

Allegretto moderato.

Al.

i - -4*=

1-4 — =

ASHIRAH (C)

~t * >

• — •

A 2.

1. Az ya - shir Mo - sheh

be - ne.

Yis - ra - el
A.

et ha - shi -

£ ? . '•I 5

-t -Sjf~+ r

-a =$-4=4=

-j • * * - s

g=p=:s

— ! — N

« . 0 » #

-*3-j •_]

^ 1 9

✓ 1*

rah ha - zot la - do - nai, ... wa - yo - me-ru le - mor: A - shi - rah la - do

1=4

nai, ki ga - oh ga - ah;

I !/

sus ... we - ro - ke - bo .

ra - mah ... ba - Yam.
A2.

#S- * =p

0 •

* —

... g

— 1 —

—J—

j _

— 3s— 3s— i

B)- j 1-

-J-

'j?

— 0 —

.. 0-

— * *1

2. ‘Oz -

we -

✓ '

zim -

rat

Yah

wa -

ye -

lii

li -

shu

‘ah;

Zeh e -

3. A - do - nai ish mil - ha - mah, a - do - nai she - mo.

4. Mar - ke - bot Par - ‘oh we - he - lo Ya - rah ba - Yam, u - mib -

bar - - sha - li shaw . . . tub - be - ‘u be - Yam Suf .

tion of the accents (see Music, Synagogal) had be-
come crystallized in its various forms, the trumpet was
still imitated whenever the Song of Moses was read.

But the song was also recited in morning prayer;
and, however much the length of the set service
might cause it to be still more hurried through on
week-days, yet on Sabbath and festivals attention
would be paid to rabbinical exhortation that it
should be chanted “standing, and with melody, and
with gladness. ” Among the Ashkenazim “ melody ”
came more and more to mean the solo intonation of
the “hazan,” who gradually elaborated the old mar-
tial call into triumphant flourishes rather beyond the
vocal capacity of an ordinary congregant. These he
would alternate with the normal cantillation, and
would employ them for the special emphasizing of
the more striking verses of the song. Such flour-

whole, inclined to congregational singing rather than
to the vocalization, however edifying, of any indi-
vidual. The whole assemblage shared in the chant-
ing of the Song of Moses, in its place in the morning
service at least. Hence the development of the orig-
inal supposed trumpet-call proceeded in a different
direction. It became a formal melody rather than a
dramatic improvisation, rhythmic rather than free,
and settled down into a fixed tune as distinct from
a recitative. In Italy a simpler chant is utilized for
week-days; but on Sabbath aud festivals Ashirah
is rendered as in (B).

This, as transcribed by Professor F. Consolo in
his “Libro dei Cauti d’lsraele,” is perhaps the
freest among the versions of the Sephardim: and the
variant preserved among Turkish Jews is very
similar to it. But more effectively developed is the

Ashirah

Ashkenaz

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

190

version marked C, handed down by the Portuguese
tradition, and transmitted to the daughter congre-
gations by Amsterdam especially. The French ren-
dering (compare Naumbourg, “Agudat Shirim,” No.
60) is a variant which establishes the original iden-
tity of the Italian and of the Dutch, the latter being
the source of the English and the American forms.
The essential notes of all of them, despite several
characteristic phrases of the Sephardic “hazanut,”
recall those of the trumpet-call here suggested as
their original. The rhythmic clearness and tuneful
definiteness of the Portuguese variant result from its
developed struc-
ture (similarly to
many o t h e r
chants of the
Sephardim, as in
their versions of
Ps.xix.andxcii.)
in the binary or
two-part form.

The two sym-
metrical yet con-
trasting music-
al sentence,
marked a and b
in the preceding
transcription of
the first four
verses, permit of
the fitting of the
chant to senten-
ces of varying
length and out-
line in the text
itself.

This melody
was first tran-
scribed about
1856 by Emanuel
Aguilar for the
Rev. D. A. De
Sola's “ Ancient
Melodies of the
Liturgy of the
Spanish and Por-
tuguese Jews.”

Quite recently
its martial con-
ception has been
interestingly emphasized in its adoption for the
“ Parade March” of the Jewish Lads’ Brioade. The
melody lias been applied by the Sephardim, accord-
ing to their custom, to many other texts, particu-
larly the psalms of the Hallee; and it has also been
associated by the writer with Thomas Moore’s “ Song
of Miriam,” to form a hymn. It has been further util-
ized by Asger Hamerik, a Norwegian composer,
formerly director of the Peabody Conservatory at
Baltimore, Md., as one of the three Hebrew themes
of his admirable “ Sinfonia Trionfale,” entitled a
“Jewish Trilogy.”

a. F. L. C.

ASHKABAH. See Hashkabah.

ASHKELON : City on the southern coast of
Palestine. It occurs in Egyptian texts twice as

“Askaruni,” among the cities revolting against Ra-
ineses II. (see illustration, p. 192) and Meneptah; in
the El-Amarna tablets, the prince Yitia of Askaluna
is mentioned as being obedient to Egypt. Ashkelon
never seems to have been in the hands of the Israel-
ites, though hard pressed by Samson (see Judges xiv.
19; I Sam. vi. 17; Josh. xiii. 3; II Sam. i. 20, etc.).
In Judges i. 18, it is stated that “Judah took Ash-
kelon with the border thereof”; but this statement
is in contradiction to the Septuagint, in which the
verse states what Judah “did not take.”

The Assyrians frequently mention Iskaluna (or

Askaluna). Tig-
lath-pileser II.
subjected it, and
about 732 b.c.,
made Rukibti
king instead of
M i t i n t i . Sen-
nacherib, in 701
b.c., captured
Sklka, whom he
calls a usurper
and rebel, and
put Sliarru-
ludari, the son of
Rukibti, again in
his place. The
kingdom of Ash-
kelon comprised
at that time Jop-
pa, Bet-Dagon,
Bene- Barak, etc.
Mitinti was king
in the time of
Esarhaddon and
Assurbanipal.
Herodotus (i.
105) narrates
that the Scyth-
ians [that is,
Cimmerians ; or
Ashguzi (Ash-
kenazim) of the
Bible] plundered
the temple of the
“heavenly Aph-
rodite ” in Ash-
kelon about 620
b.c. The prin-
cipal deity of Ashkelon was the fish goddess Derketo
(=Atargatis?), to whom fishes were sacred; some
were kept in a tank near the city (Diodorus, ii. 4;
Pausanias, i. 14, 6). Her daughter, “ the heavenly
Aphrodite,” whose sacred animal was the turtle-
dove, was sometimes called Semirainis. “ Zarifa, ” the
general name for a building with a cone-shaped roof,
occurs as the name of a temple at Ashkelon (‘Ab.
Zarah 115).

According to Scylax (“ Periplus ”), the Tyrians
held Ashkelon in the Persian time. Although thor-
oughly Hellenized, it surrendered twice easily to
Jonathan the Maccabee (I Macc. x. 86, xi. 60), and
later to Alexander Jannaeus. Strabo (vii. 59) still
calls it “a small city.” Herod the Great, who, ac-
cording to some traditions (Justin, “Dialogus cum

Plan of the ancient City of Ashkelon.

(From “Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palastinens. Vereius.”)

191

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Asiuran

Ashkenaz

Try phone ”), was bom in Ashkelon, embellished it
considerably, and his sister Salome resided there
(Josephus, “B. J.” ii. 6, £ 3)- In the great revolu-
tion, the Jews seem to have attacked it without suc-

Inhabitants of Ashkelon.

(From Sayce, “ Races of the Old Testament.”)

cess (contrast “B. J.” ii. 18, § 1, with iii. 2, § 12).
The most flourishing period of Ashkelon was during
the later division of the Roman control, when it was
a free republic (Pliny, “Hist. Nat.” v. 68), famous for
the literary taste ruling there. Ammianus Marcel -
linus, xiv. 8, 11, speaks of it as a considerable place.

question. Ptolemy’s statement (v. 16, 2; viii. 20,
13) that it was a maritime city may be understood
as broadly as in the case of several neighboring cities.
The site of Ashkelon proper is placed by some schol-
ars near the village El Mejdel, northwest of Aska-
lan. It may be mentioned that the onions of Ash
kelon, famous in antiquity (Strabo, Stephen Byzan-
tinus), still grow wild on the fertile spot (see Phi-
listines).

Bibliography : Memoirs of the Survey of Western Pales-
tine, vol. iii., sheet 16; (iuthe, in Zeit. Deutscli. Pnliist. IV r.
ii. 164 ct seq. For rabbinical references : H. Hildesheimer,
Beitrdge zur Geographic PcUtistinas, pp. 1 et seq.
j. jr. W. M. M.

ASHKENASY, EUGENE ; Botanist ; born at
Odessa May 5, 1845. He occupies (1902) the position
of honorary professor of botany at the University of
Heidelberg, Germany. In 1871 he wrote “Beit rage
zur Kritik der Darwinischen Theorie.” A consider-
able number of his articles have been published in
the “Botanische Zeituilg,” the “Botanischer Jahres-
bericht,” and in the “Bibliotheque de l’Uuiversite
de Geneve,” lvi., 1 viii. , lxii. S.

ASHKENAZ (T13fN): A people traced back
(Gen. x. 3; I Chron. i. 6) through Gomel' to Noah's
third son, Japheth. In Jer. Ii. 27, 28, it is mentioned

THE RUINS OF ASHKELON.
(After a photograph.)

In the Crusades its possession passed frequently into
the hands of the Christians and the Moslems alter-
nately (1154, 1187, 1192). Since its demolition in
1270 it has remained a ruin. Whether the extensive
ruins of the medieval “ Ascalon,” west of the village
El-Jora, cover exactly the site of the ancient city or
only the portion referred to as “ Ascalon ” Maiumas —
that is, the suburb with the so-called port — is an open

in connection with the kingdoms of Ararat and
Minni and with the Medes as being hostile to Baby-
lon. The Targum to the passages in Gen. and Chron.,
the Talmud (Yer. Meg. i. 715) and Midrash (Gen.
R. xxx vii.) identify it with Asia; that is, the Roman
province (Asia propria or proconsularis), consisting
mainly of the districts of Lydia, Phrygia, and Caria.
Targum Yer. has, instead of it, “ Adiabene” (that is,

Ashkenaz

Ashkenazi

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

192

the district of ancient Assyria), with which the Tal-
mud and Midrash connect Riphath (apparently ac-
cording to marginal reading Diphath in Chron. i. 6).
While in the Targum, Talmud, and Midrash, Togar-
mah is identified with Germania (the identification,
three instances in all, being clearly based on similar-
ity of sound), the medieval Jews (as, for example,
Yosippon) understood by Ashkenaz the Teutons.
Eusebius had also made this identification, while, ac-

spread through Mysiaand Phrygia, and subsequently
settled in western Armenia (Ashkhen is an Arme-
nian proper name). Assyriologists identify Ashke-
naz with a people named Ashguza whose aid was
sought by the Maunai when they revolted from Esar-
haddon: both were settled near Lake Urumiyeh.
This view agrees better with the passage in Jeremiah.

Bibliography: Dillmann, Conun. on Gen., Engl, transl., p.
327 ; C. I. O. T. ii. 293 ; see also the commentaries of

Jjgjj

■

- p

t ii

'■)

■

■i

,'t

■ - •

-t/

Ashkelon Besieged by Rameses II. (See p. 19uq

(After Lepsius, “Denkmaler.”)

cording to Saadia, the Slavs are meant. Josephus
identifies Ashkenaz with the Rhegines, a people
otherwise unknown. Modern scholars since Bochart
have connected Ashkenaz with Ascanius, which oc-
curs as the name of a Mysian and of a Phrygian
prince, and in Homer as the name of a river also;
there was likewise a district Ascauia inhabited by
Phrygians and Mysians ; and an Ascanian lake was
located in Phrygia and in Bithvnia. Accordingly,
Ashkenaz is said to be the old name of a people who

Gunkel, Strack, Franz Delitzscli. etc., on Gen. x.; Neu-
bauer. La Geoqraphie du Talnuid, p. 423; Friedrich
Delitzsch, no Lau das Parodies ( p. 246; Jastrow, Diet.
p. 270.

J. sr. M. L. M.

ASHKENAZ: Germany: name applied gen-
erally in medieval rabbinical literature to that
country. Its origin in this particular is obscure.
Among the sources quoted by Zunz (“Ritus,” p. 66)
the ritual of Amram Gaon (about 850) is perhaps
the oldest. Its mention there proves nothing, as the

193

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ashkenaz

Ashkenazi

work has been interpolated by later authors. Ref-
erences to Ashkenaz in Yosippon and Hasdai’s letter
to the king of the Chazars would bring the inquiry
down to the tenth century, as would also Saadia
Gaon’s Commentary on- Dan. vii. 8. The epistle
of Hasdai is, however, of disputed authenticity,
while the commentary of Saadia is certainly a work
of much later date (see Rapoport, in “Bikkure ha-
‘Ittim,” ix. 34, Vienna, 1828; Steinschneider, “Cat.
Bodl.” col. 2195). In a genuine work of Saadia the
word, however, is also used, as it seems, in the same
sense (Harkavy, “Measef Nidahim,” pp. 1, 90).

In the first half of the eleventh century Hai Gaon
refers to religious questions that had been addressed
to him from Ashkenaz, by which latter term he un-
doubtedly means Germany (“Sha'are Zedek.” No.
99, Leipsic, 1858). Rashi in the latter half of the
eleventh century refers to both the language of Ash-
kenaz (Commentary on Deut. iii. 9; idem on Suk.
17a) and the country of Ashkenaz (Hul. 93a). Dur-
ing the twelfth century the word appears quite fre-
quently. In the “ Mahzor Vitry ” (ed. S. Hurwitz,
pp. 112, 392, Berlin, 1892), a liturgical work, the
kingdom of Ashkenaz is referred to chiefly in regard
to the ritual of the synagogue there, but occasion-
ally also with regard to certain other observances
(ib. p. 129).

Eliezer ben Nathan, in his history of the persecu-
tion during the Crusades (“ Quellen zur Gesch. der
Juden in Deutschland,” ii. 36, Berlin, 1892), men-
tions a mob of Zarfatim (French) and Ashkenazim
(Germans). The same words are used by Solomon
ben Simson (ib. p. 1). German as the language of
Ashkenaz is frequently referred to in the anonymous
work on ritual, called “ Asufot” (Giideinann. “Ge-
schichte des Erzielmngswesens und der Cultur in
Frankreich und Deutschland,” 1880, pp. 113, 131;
see also pp. 50, 276).

In the literature of the thirteenth century refer-
ences to the land and the language of Ashkenaz
often occur. See especially Solomon ben Adret’s
Responsa (vol. i., No. 395): the Responsa of Asher
ben Jehiel (pp. 4, 6); his “Halakot” (Berakot, i. 12,
ed. Wilna, p. 10); the work of his son Jacob ben
Asher, “Tur Orah Hayyim ” (lix. ) ; the Responsa of
Isaac ben Sheshet (Nos. 193, 268, 270). It is strange,
however, that Meir of Rothenburg, a prominent
German rabbi of the thirteenth century, does not
seem to employ the word at all, while he quotes the
German word Putz as the language of Canaan (Re-
sponsum, No. 30, p. 8, ed. Bloch, 1891 ; see also
p. 10, where the word Ullp is evidently a misprint),
and speaks of “ our kingdom ” [“be-maikutenu as
distinguished from England and Normandy. His
contemporary Samuel ben Samuel, however, em-
ploys this word in a letter addressed to R. Meir in a
context which renders it difficult to decide what he
meant by it (“ Monatsselirift,” xviii. 209). It is also
curious that Meir ben Solomon of Perpignan, who
was a younger contemporary of MeiT of Rothenburg,
speaks of the latter as the greatest of all the rabbis
in Zarphat (“Bet ha-Behirah,” 1854. p. 170) — a usage
which may have originated in the age of Charle-
magne, when Germany was part of the Frankish
kingdom.

The reason for this rather peculiar identification
II— 13

of Ashkenaz, who is one of the descendants of Ja-
plieth (Gen. x. 3), is found in the Midrasli, where R.
Berechiah says: “Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togar-
mah are «"p':t3V ” (Gen. R. xxxvii. 1), which evi-
dently means German tribes or German lands. It
would correspond to a Greek word Tipuavnaa that
may have existed in the Greek dialect of the Pales-
tinian Jews, or the text is corrupted from “ German-
ica.” This view of R. Berechiah, again, is based on
the Talmud (Yoma 10a ; Yer. Meg. 716), where Gomer,
the father of Ashkenaz, is translated by “ Germamia,”
which evidently stands for Germany, and which was
suggested by the similarity of the sound. The ex-
planation of N’OO'U as a Mesopotamian district ( Neu-
bauer, “La Geographic du Talmud,” p. 421. Paris,
1868; Furst, “Glossarium Grseco-Hebraium, ” p. 92,
Strasburg, 1891; Krauss, “ Lateinische und Grie-
chische Lelinwrorter ”) is forced. Not better is the der-
ivation b3‘ Elijah Levita from the Talmudic p*o =
“ fair ” (see Tishbi, s.».,and “ Monatsselirift,” xxxviii.
260). A peculiar usage of the word is found in the
dictionary of Samuel ben Solomon of Urgenj, who
interprets Ashkenaz as Khwarizm(see Bacher, “Ein
Hebraistic Persisclies Worterbuch.” pp. 19, 31. Buda-
pest, 1900).

In later times the word Ashkenaz is used to desig-
nate southern and western Germany, the ritual of
which sections differs somewhat from that of east-
ern Germany and Poland. Thus the prayer-book of
Isaiah Horowitz, and many others, give the piyyutim
according to the Minliag of Ashkenaz and Poland.
The neo-Hebraic writers, mostly of Russian and
Polish origin, have coined a verb, TJX’Nnn. “to ape
modern social manners.”

ASHKENAZI, ABRAHAM: Chief rabbi of
Palestine (JVX? JUl’N'D. born at Janishar, near Salo-
uica, in 1813; died at Jerusalem Jan. 22, 1880. At
the age of fifteen he was taken by his father to
Jerusalem, where he studied rabbinical literature in
the various colleges. The Turkish rabbis, in con-
sulting him at the age of thirty-five on matters of
religious law, addressed him as “ Gaon.” In 1850 he
was appointed dayyan of the Jewish community of
Jerusalem ; and in 1869 the rabbis of Jerusalem
elected him as their chief in succession to David
Hazan, who died in that year. The sultan, in con-
firming Ashkenazi’s election, conferred upon him the
title of “ Hakam Baslii,” whereby he became chief
rabbi of Palestine, which post lie held for about
twelve years. The sultan also bestowed upon him
the medal of the Medjidie : and Emperor Franz Josef
of Austria, when at Jerusalem, decorated him with
the Franz Josef medal. Ashkenazi was very popular
among Christians and Mohammedans as well as
among Jews; and at his funeral most of the foreign
consuls were present.

Bibliography: Hcibazelet, 1880, No. 16; Ha-Zeftrah , 1880,

No. 7.

s. H. R.

ASHKENAZI, AZRIEL B. JOSEPH (called
also Gunzenhauser) : Printer at Naples, 1491—
92. From his printing-house the first editions of
Avicenna’s “ Canon” and Bahya’s “Hobot ha-Leba-
bot ” were issued.

Ashkenazi, Azriel
Ashkenazi, David

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

194

Bibliography: De Rossi, Antiales IIcbraeo-Typographui ,
etc., p. 177; Mortara, Indice Alfabetico, s.v. ; Stein-
sckneider. Cat . Bodl. col. 2843.

G. I. Br.

ASHKENAZI, AZRIEL B. MOSES LEVI :

Preacher at Tarnogrod, government of Lublin, Po-
land, in the seventeenth century. He was the author
of “Nahalat ’Azriel ” (The Inheritance of Azriel),
Frankfort-on-tlie-Oder, 1691, a work comprising
homilies and comments upon parts of the Bible.
Bibliography: Steinsohneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 754.

h. k. I. Br.

ASHKENAZI, BAERMANN or BAER

(Hebrew name, Issachar ben Naphtali ha-
Kohen) : Polish commentator on Bible and Midrash ;
lived in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Though the foremost of all Midrash commentators,
the only fact known about him is that he lived in
Szczebrzescin. It is also certain that he died in this
place (after 1608), and not, as is maintained by all
scholars from Conforte to Zunz, in Hebron.

Ashkenazi is the author of the following works:
(1) “Mar’eh Kohen” (Appearance of the Priest),
Cracow, 1589; Amsterdam, 1673. This work is di-
vided into two parts: the first on seventeen topics
of Jewish theology, chiefly of a moral and exegetic
character; and the second is an index to all Scrip-
ture passages outside the Pentateuch that are men-
tioned in the Zohar. (2) “Mattanot Kehunnali”
(Priests’ Gifts), Cracow, 1586; revised edition, Cra-
cow, 1608; and in most editions of the Midrash Rab-
bali. This is a commentary on the Midrash Rabbah.
Ashkenazi’s epitaph refers to a lengthy commentary
of his on the Bible, not elsewhere mentioned, and
very probably lost.

Ashkenazi’s great merit lies in the fact that he
was the first and almost the sole commentator of the
Midrash Rabbah (on the Pentateuch and the five
Megillot)who combined extensive knowledge of the
subject with sound critical judgment. He consid-
ered it of primary importance to render the Midrash
text as correct as possible. The material upon
which he applied his critical acumen consisted not
alone of the texts that had been printed up to that
time, but also of a number of manuscripts. Thus,
he had three different manuscripts of the Jerusalem
Talmud, one of which was provided with vowels-
Ashkenazi also cites Midrashim on Isaiah, Job, and
the minor prophets, of which nothing further is
known, but which probably came from the Yalkut
Makiri. Moreover, he availed himself of a text of
the ‘Aruk essentially differing from the usual one.

Next to the correctness of the text, Ashkenazi de-
voted his attention to the “peshat,” or simple expla-
nations of the subject and the meaning of the words,
without indulging in the prolix discussions then
customary. As regards subject-matter, Ashkenazi’s
explanations were usually correct; but they were
less happy in linguistic questions. He often went
astray, especially when he tried to elucidate obscure
passages in the Midrash by means of Arabic. In
this he was frequently misled by some one who was
believed to know Arabic.

Ashkenazi seems also to have occupied himself
with medicine and physics; and possibly he pos-
sessed the book “ Asaf,” so that many of his state-

ments from the DlN'lSI '1SD (Medical Books) may
have come from this source.

Ashkenazi was a brother of Isaac Cohen of Ostrog,
author of “ Kizzur Mizrahi ” and great-grandfather
of Abraham b. Eliezer ha-Kohen.

Bibliography : Briill, in Cjzar ha-Sifrut , i. 18-20; Buber, ih.

87-90; Reifmann, ih. 2-18.'

k. L. G.

ASHKENAZI, BAERUSH (DOB) : Rabbi at

Slonim, Lithuania, later at Lublin, Poland; boru
about 1801; died in Lublin March 6, 1852. He was
the author of : (l)“Noda‘ ba-She’arim” (Known in
the Gates), containing responsa on the “Eben he-
'Ezer”; novelise on the Talmudical treatise Gittin ;
rules concerning the laws of Majority and Posses-
sion ; and, at the end, homilies arranged in the order
of the Sabbatical sections. This work was published
by the brother of the author, Abraham Aryeh, War-
saw, 1849. (2)“Sha‘are Yerushalaim” (The Gates
of Jerusalem), containing a commentary on the Seder
Zer'aimof the Jerusalem Talmud ; notes and novellae
on various treatises of the Jerusalem Talmud; notes
and novelise on different treatises of the Babylonian
Talmud and on the work of Isaac Alfasi. This
also was published by Abraham Aryeh, Warsaw,
1866.

Bibliography: Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 178; Benjacob,

Ozar ha-Sefarim , p. 393; Nissenbaum, Lc-Korot ha-

Yehudim be-Lublin , pp. 126, 127.

l. g. I. Br.

ASHKENAZI, or D’ALMEYDA, BEHOR

(better known under his popular name of Behor Ef-
fendi) : Government official in the employ of the
Ottoman empire ; born 1840. He received his early
education at the Institution Camondo, and, after
filling several subordinate positions, was appointed
by Sultan Aziz, in 1869, a member of the council of
state (Choumi-Devlet), which contained two Jews in
a membership of forty. On the accession of the
present sultan, Abdul Hamid II., Ashkenazi became
a member of the Ottoman parliament, as a delegate
of the Jews. He then became “ vice-prefect ” of Con-
stantinople, a position which he held for several
years, making, however, many enemies by reason of
liis steadfast integrity. In 1896, in recognition of his
services, the sultan again made him state councilor;
and only lately (1899) he has been placed upon the
retired list after thirty years of loyal and efficient
service.

Ashkenazi has repeatedly been president of the
central consistory of the Jews of Constantinople;
also, by reason of his public position as vice-prefect,
he has frequently been able to render considerable as-
sistance in the collection of the communal revenues
derived from the sales of meat, wine, brandy, etc.
Bibliography : M. Franco, Histoire des Israelites.

s. M. Fr.

ASHKENAZI, BENJAMIN: Russian com-
munal worker and philanthropist; born in 1824;
died at Grodno in 1894. He was the son of Joshua
Heschel Ashkenazi, rabbi of Lublin, who was a de-
scendant of Hakam Zebi. Ashkenazi settled at
Grodno, where he became the leading spirit in com-
munal affairs. On his initiative a hospital was built
and, later, a home for the aged. The government,
in recognition of his services, bestowed upon him

195

THE .JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ashkenazi, Azriel
Ashkenazi, David

and his children hereditary honorary citizenship.
In 1882 Ashkenazi was sent as delegate to the rab-
binical convention at St. Petersburg; and in 1883
he was one of the few Jewish representatives who at-
tended officially the coronation of Alexander III. at
Moscow. In 1884 he was appointed chairman of the
committee on prisons of the government of Grodno.
Bibliography: Aliiasaf, 1894-95.

II. K. ' M. B.

ASHKENAZI, BENJAMIN B. AARON
ABRAHAM. See Solnik, Benjamin ben Aaron
Abraham.

ASHKENAZI, BEZALEL : One of the lead-
ing Oriental Talmudists and rabbis of his day;
born toward the end of the sixteenth century. De-
scended from a family of German scholars, he was
probably born in Palestine. The greater part of his
life was spent in Egypt, where he received his Tal-
mudic education from David b. Solomon Ibn Abi Zim-
ra and Israel de Curial. During the lifetime of his
teachers, Ashkenazi was regarded as one of the high-
est authorities in the Orient, and he counted among
his pupils such men as Isaac Luria and Solomon
Adeni. The reputation of Ashkenazi in Egypt was
so great that he could take it upon himself to abro-
gate the dignity of the nagid, which had existed for
centuries and had gradually deteriorated into an
arbitrary aristocratic privilege. When, in 1587, a
dispute occurred in Jerusalem over the point whether
scholars not engaged in business should contribute
to the taxes paid by the Jewish community to the
pasha, and to what extent, Ashkenazi, together with
several other rabbis, took the stand that Jewish
scholars, being usually impelled by love alone to
emigrate to Palestine, and being scarcely able to
support themselves, should be relieved from all
taxes.

In the same year, Ashkenazi himself traveled to
Palestine and settled in Jerusalem, where he was
recognized as their chief by both the Sephardim and
the Ashkenazim. The conditions in Jerusalem were
at this time very critical; and it was mainly due
to Ashkenazi’s influence that the congregations of
the city were not dissolved. The German Jews,
who ordinarily did not recognize the jurisdiction of
the Sephardim, and who, being largely scholars, re-
fused to pay the Jews’ tax, nevertheless bowed to
Ashkenazi’s authority. The Ashkenazim had to
contribute to the Jews’ tax one-sixth of the sum
that was sent from Europe for their support (com-
pare Halukah); otherwise the Sephardim, who
were on the verge of penury, could not have re-
mained in Jerusalem under the merciless exploitation
of the Turkish pashas. This peaceable arrangement
between the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim was
due solely to the personal influence of Ashkenazi ;
for immediately upon his death the Ashkenazim
refused to keep their pledge (Responsa of Yom-Tob
Zahalon, No. 160).

To posterity Ashkenazi is known principally as
the author of the “ Shittah Mekubbezet ” (Gathered
Interpretation). This work, as its title indicates, is
a collection of glosses on the greater part of the
Talmud, after the fashion of the Tosafot; and in it
Ashkenazi combined much original and foreign ma-

terial. The great value of the “ Shittah ” lies princi-
pally in the fact that Ashkenazi gives therein nu-
merous excerpts from Talmudic commentaries which
have not otherwise been preserved.

The “ Shittah ” contains expositions of the Talmud
taken from the works of the Spaniards Nahmanides,
ben Adret, and Yom-Tob of Seville, and from those
of the Frenchmen Abraham b. David, Baruch b. Sam-
uel, Isaac of Chinon, etc. The study of the “ Shittah,”
is particularly valuable for understanding the Tosa-
fists, because the work contains some of the older
and inedited Tosafot; besides, glosses of R. Asher*
b. Jehiel and of the disciples of R. Perez are partly
contained in it. Ashkenazi designed the “Shittah”
to cover the whole Talmud; but only the following
tracts were interpreted: Bezali, the three Babot,
Ketubot, Nedarim, Nazir, Sotah, and the order of
Kodashim (excepting Hullin) — the last-mentioned in
the Romm edition of the Talmud. Ashkenazi is
also the author of a collection of responsa, which
appeared after his death (Venice, 1595). His “Meth-
odology of the Talmud,” and his marginal notes to
the Yerushalmi, which were still extant at the time
of Azulai, are preserved in manuscript at Jerusalem.

Bibliography: Azulai. Shem ha-Gednlim, ed. Benjacob, 1.

36; Conforte, Kore ha-Dorot (see index in Cassel ed.) ;

Frumkin, Eben Shcmnel, pp. 67 ct srq., 125 et xeq., Wilna.

1874 ; Michael, Or ha-Hayyim , No. 612 ; Luncz, in Jerwa-

lem, ii. 23-27.

D. L. G.

ASHKENAZI, DAVID TEVLE B. JACOB :

Moravian rabbi and author; born at the beginning
of the eighteenth century ; died July 16, 1734. Ash-
kenazi was rabbi of the communities at Aussee and
Gewitsch, and lived at Aussee, the home of his
father-in-law, Israel Aussee, one of the wealthiest
and most influential Jews in Moravia. But this
very wealth of his father-in-law gave rise to active
hostility toward Ashkenazi in his congregation.
The following episode is characteristic of the state
of affairs at that time in many small Jewish com-
munities in Moravia. Ashkenazi was so little re-
spected by his people that he had to apply to the
authorities to enforce his rights. He secured an
order threatening the congregation with a large fine
if they did not show their rabbi the honors due to
his station. Next day, when Ashkenazi went to the
early morning service, he found his seat framed with
the handles (called “ears” in German) of broken
pottery. In Judseo-German “Elire” (honor) sounds
the same as “ Oehre ” (ears), and these were the
“honors” shown him. It is not known whether
Ashkenazi gave up his position after this. He died
at Boskowitz, where bis son-in-law was ecclesias-
tical assessor.

Ashkenazi wrote a curious little book entitled
“Bet David” (House of David). Wilhelmsdorf, 1734.
The first part contains casuistic expositions of the
Talmud, and illustrates better than almost any other
work the degeneration of casuistry. The second
half is a collection of popular cures and incantations,
which is of great value for the study of Jewush
folk-lore.

Bibliography : Broda Abraham b. Mordekai, Megillat Se-

tarim , 1895. pp. 28, 29.

L. G.

Ashkenazi, Eliezer
Ashkenazi, Joseph

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

196

ASHKENAZI, ELIEZER (LAZER) B. ELI-
JAH : Talmudist, rabbi, physician, and many-sided
scholar; born in 1512; died at Cracow Dec. 13, 158o.
Though of a German family (according to some, the
relative of Joseph Colon ; seeMortara, “ Indice Alfa-
betico,” s.v.), he was probably born in the Levant,
and received his Talmudic education under Joseph
Taitazak in Salonica. Ashkenazi first became rabbi
in Egypt 1538-60, probably at Fostat. where, by his
learning and wealth, he became widely known.
Compelled by circumstances — doubtless of a polit-
ical nature— to leave Egypt, he went to Cyprus, re-
maining there for two years as rabbi at Famagusta.

A desire to visit foreign lands and to observe for-
eign peoples impelled him to give up this position
and to travel. He went first to Venice ; but a dis-
agreement with the rabbis, Mei'r Padua and his son
Judah Katzenellenbogen, caused him to leave the
city' and in the same year to take up his residence at
Prague (1561). Here — either because he was a rabbi,
or, at all events, because he was a leading authority
— his was the first signature appended to the consti-
tution of the burial society of the congregation.
After leaving Bohemia and proceeding eastward as
far as the Crimea. Ashkenazi returned to Italy, not
before 1570. While rabbi of Cremona he published
there (1576) his work, “Yosef Lekali” (Increases
Learning; compare Prov. i. 5), dedicated to Joseph
Nasi, duke of Naxos, which was several times re-
printed. Four years later he was again in eastern
Europe, as rabbi of Posen. In 1584 he left that city
to take up his abode in Cracow.

Ashkenazi’s printed works, besides the “Yosef
Lekali,” are the following: (1) A commentary on the
Book of Esther : (2) “ Ma'ase ha-Shem”
His (The Works of God ; Venice, 1583 ;
Works. several other editions), a commentary
on the historical portions of the Penta-
teuch, written for the instruction of his son Elijah,
and containing also a complete commentary on the
Passover Haggadah, which has frequently been pub-
lished separately: (3) eight “selihot” (penitential
prayers), included in the Bohemian liturgy; (4) a
“ tokahah ” (homily), published by his son. His
supercommentary to Nahmanides, and his critical
marginal notes — said to number one thousand — on
Joseph Caro’s “ Bet Yosef,” have not been preserved.

Though Ashkenazi can scarcely be said to have
exercised an influence either on his own or on later
times, his personality was an extraordinary one for
that age. He may be called the last survivor of a
most brilliant epoch in the history of the Sephardim.
During a period when, in Germany and Poland, the
hair-splitting dialectics of Jacob Polak could achieve
a triumph, and, in Egypt and Palestine, the mysti-
cism of Isaac Luria could confuse the clearest intel-
lects, Ashkenazi preserved an impressive independ-
ence of thought. Although educated by a fanciful
cabalist, and a fellow-pupil of Moses
His Indi- Alshech. yet he was a student — if not
viduality. a deep one — of philosophy and phys- |
ics. As a Talmudist, such men as I
Joseph Caro, Moses Isserles, and Solomon Luria
considered him of equal authority with themselves; |
but when the rabbinical decisions of the old rabbis j
ran counter to sound judgment, he never sought a [

sophistical justification for them, as was then the
custom, especially in Poland.

Valuable material for a correct estimate of Ash-
kenazi may be found in several of his decisions pre-
served in the responsa literature of the time. In
Venice he decided that a man could be forced to a
divorce, if, by immoral conduct, he had incurred his
wife’s aversion (Isserles, Responsa, No. 96). It was
probably this decision which brought upon him
the opposition of the above-mentioned Venetian
rabbis, though he was connected with them; for
Ashkenazi's son was Ivatzenellenbogen’s son-in-law.
From the standpoint of strict Talmudic interpreta-
tion, Ashkenazi's opponents were in the right; since
his sentence contravened that of the Tosafists, who
for the German -Italian Jews constituted, as it were,
a court of last resort.

The Jews of Poland were still less capable of com-
prehending such a personality than were those of
Italy. The following occurrence affords a striking
instance of this fact: The “ roslie yeshibot ” (heads
of academies) had forbidden their pupils to estab-
lish a rival academy in close proximity to their own.
Ashkenazi declined to assent to this resolution,
when requested. At the same time, he complained
in a letter to Joseph b. Gershon ha-
Misunder- Kolien, the “ rosh yeshibah” at Cracow,
stood by that, although the decision of the Po-
Polish. lisli rabbis was based upon the author -
Rabbis. ity of Maimonides, yet he considered
it irreconcilable with freedom of in-
struction among Jewish rabbis. How little he was
understood by his Polish colleagues is fully dis-
played in the reply of the rabbi of Cracow, who at
great length vindicates Maimonides’ standpoint by
erudite and astute references to the Talmud (Joseph
b. Mordecai Gershon, “Slie’erit Yosef,” No. 19).
Consequently, J. S. del Medigo is justified in his
remark that Ashkenazi remained unknown to the
Poles, and he applies to him wittily, if somewhat
audaciously, the verses: “Thou hast brought a vine
out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and
planted it,” etc. (Ps. lxxx. 9 [A. V. 8] to 13 [14]).
Ashkenazi had come from Egypt and had to live
among the uncultivated Poles.

Ashkenazi's wife, Rachel, died at Cracow April
3, 1593. Her epitaph, still extant, bears witness to
her piety and benevolence (“ Monatsschrift; ” xliv.
360). His son Elijah published the liturgic collec-
tion, “Ziblie Shelamim,” and wrote a short elegy on
his father, which was used as the latter’s epitaph.

Bibliography: Carmoly, in Literaturhlatt des Orients, ii.
444; idem, in Bei'ite Orientate, ii. 144,192,193: idem, in
Ha-Karmel, vi. 94, 95; B. Fried berg, Lnhot Zikltnmii, p.
82; Landshuth, 'Ammude lia-Ahodah, i. 19; Michael, Orlia-
Hayyim, No. 418 ; Perles, in Monatsschrift, xiii.361, 371, 372;
Steinschneider. Cat. Bodl. col. 954 ; J. M. Znnz, Mr ha-
Zedek, pp. 20-23, 175, and supplement, pp. 28, 29.

L. G.

ASHKENAZI, ELIEZER B. SOLOMON:

Rabbinical scholar; born in Poland about the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century, and resided after-
ward in Tunis. He published at Metz in 1845,
under the title “Dibre Hakamim” (The Words of
the Wise), a selection of eleven ancient manuscripts:
(1) “Midrasli Wayosliab” on the Pentateuch; (2)
Joseph Caro’s Commentary on Lamentations; (3)

197

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ashkenazi, Eliezer
Ashkenazi, Joseph

Maimonides’ “Hokmat lia-Tbbur,” a treatise on the
computation of the intercalary month; (4) Abraham
bar Hiyyah’s seventh “gate” of the third treatise on
tiie computation of the intercalary month, with a
responsum by Hai Gaon on the calculation of the
years since the Creation; (5) Moses Narboni’s “Maa-
marba-Behirah,” a treatise on free-will; (6) “Nussah
Ketab,” a letter from Joshua Lorki on religion; (7)
Isaac Ardotiel’s “Melizah ‘al lia-‘Et,” a prose poem
on the pen; (8) David b. Yom-Tob's “ Yesodot ha-
Maskil,” thirteen articles of belief of an enlightened
man; (9) “RaMBaM,” a letter from Maimonides ad-
dressed to Rabbi Japhet the Dayyan ; (10) a letter by
Elijah of Italy, written from Palestine to his family
at Ferrara, in 1438; (11) Jacob Provencal’s “Be-
Debar Limmud ha-Hokmah,” on the study of science.

S. Munk has written an introduction to this col-
lection, which contains also, as an appendix, a
French translation of “Yesodot ha-Maskil” by
“II. B.”

Ashkenazi published also “Ta'amZekenim” (The
Taste of Old Men), edited by R. Kirchheim, a collec-
tion of old manuscripts and prints dealing with Jew-
ish literature and history in the Middle Ages(Frank-
fort-on-the-Main, 1854).

Bibliography; Zedner, Cat,. Hchr. Bonks Brit. M us. pp.

50, .r)7 ; Zeitlin, Bibliotheca Hchraica , p. 7.

G. I. Bli.

ASHKENAZI, ELIJAH. See Levita, Eli-
jah.

ASHKENAZI, GERSHON : Polish Talmud-
ist; born in the second decade of the seventeenth
century; died at Metz March 20, 1693. His family
name was really “Ulif,” “ Olive ”(?), the sur-

name “ Ashkenazi ” being usually bestowed in Poland
upon families of German extraction. Gershon Ash-
kenazi was also named “ Poss ”■ — not “ Fass ” — after
his rich father-in-law, Loeb Poss, of Cracow. He
was dayyan in Cracow, possibly his birthplace, at
all events the place where he obtained his Talmud-
ic education from Joel Sarkes and Joshua Harif.
From 1649 to 1659 he was rabbi at Prossnitz, from
1659 to 1660 at Hanau, and from 1661 to 1664 at
Nikolsburg, where he succeeded his father-in-law,
Menaliem Mendel Krochmal. For the next live
years he was rabbi at Vienna, but was forced to
leave owing to the banishment of the Jews. Thence
he went to Metz in 1670, where he remained until
his death.

Although rabbi of large communities and head of
a yeshibah, Ashkenazi found time for literary activ-
ity. Of his numerous works, the following have
been printed : (1) “ ‘ Abodat lia-Gershuni ” (Gershon’s
Service), containing his responsa to the piincipal
Talmudists of his day. The number of these re-
sponsa is 124 ; and they contain much information
upon the condition of the Jews in Poland, after the
persecutions by the Cossacks; (2) “Tiferet ha-Ger-
shuni ” (Gershon’s Ornament), midrasliicaud cabalis-
tic expositions of the Pentateuch. Both books were
published at Fraukfort-on-tlie-Main in 1699. (3)

“Hiddushe lia-Gershuni” (Gershon’s Novell:®),
Frank fort-on- the- Main, 1716, containing remarks
and explanations concerning the third and fourth
books of the Shulhan ‘Aruk, in which the author
severely criticizes the Aharonim.

Even in his lifetime Ashkenazi was recognized as
an authority in Talmudic lore, and especially as a
most eminent dialectician. His works scarcely jus-
tify this opinion ; for they are not much above the
general average of the rabbinical literature of his
time. His influence was, nevertheless, considerable,
and was due to his personality. The many ritual
inquiries directed to him while rabbi of Metz from
western Germany and Alsace-Lorraine show that
after his advent in that city he was really the spiri-
tual and intellectual authority for the Jews of those
countries. It was mainly in Metz that he exer-
cised a many-sided influence as teacher. Ashkenazi
was deeply revered and loved by a large number of
pupils whom he had the power to attract to himself.
Chief among these wTas David Oppenheim(er).

Ashkenazi was the father of four learned sons,
Moses, Nathan, Nahum, and Joel, of whom the
first-named gained prominence as a Talmudist and
cabalist. He died March 22, 1691, at Nikolsburg.

Bibliography: ('alien, in Rev. Et. Juives. viii. 255-357;
Dembitzer, Kelilat Yofi, ii. 92«-107b, llla-112a; Kaufmann,
Letztc Vertreihunu tier Juden aus Wien , pp. 224-228; Mi-
chael, Or ha-Hamiim , No. 074.

L. G.

ASHKENAZI, ISAAC BEN JACOB : Rabbi
at Byeltzy, Bessarabia; lived in the middle of the
eighteenth century. He is the reputed author of a
cabalistic work, “Berit 'Olam ” (Everlasting Cove-
nant), containing cabalistic explanations of the let-
ters. with some concluding chapters on ethics. This
work, found among Ashkenazi’s papers, was pub-
lished under his name by Isaac Hayyiin of Bialostok,
Wilna, 1820.

Bibliography: Walden, She in ha-Geilolim he-Hadash, i. 35,
ii. 15 ; Zedner, Cat. Hchr. Books Brit. Mils. p. 57.

K. I. Bll.

ASHKENAZI, ISAAC BEN ZEBI: Rabbi
and author; born in Russia about the middle of the
eighteenth century, and officiated as rabbi in Chodo-
rowand Lemberg, in which latter place he died May
5, 1807. He was the author of the Hebrew works,
“ Or lia-Ner ” (Light of the Lamp), a commentary
on the Haggadah, Lemberg, 1788, and “Torat. ha-
Kodesh ” (Law of Holiness), a commentary on Zeba-
him, ibid. , 1792.

Bibliography: Walden, Shem ha-Geilolim he-Hadasli. No.
224, who erroneously gives the date of Ashkenazi's death
as 1811; Buber, Anshr Shem , p. 122, Cracow, 1895; Stein-
schneider. Cat. Bndl. col. 1094.

H. R.

ASHKENAZI, ISRAEL BEN SAMUEL.

See Israel of Sklow.

ASHKENAZI, JACOB ISRAEL BEN ZEBI
HIRSCH. See Embden, Jacob Israel.

ASHKENAZI, JOSEPH : Critic of the Mish-
nah; resided at. Safed, Palestine, and died there be-
tween 1575 and 1582. Though Ashkenazi came to
Palestine from Verona — for which reason he was
also called Joseph of Verona — it is by no means im-
possible that he was born and bred in Germany.
This is attested, not by his surname, “Ashkenazi”
(this being a family name adopted by many families
of German origin), but by the fact that he was the
son-in-law of Rabbi Aaron of Posen. Kaufmann
surmises that he is referred to in the following coup-
let of the Judoeo-German song, in which as the most

Ashkenazi, Joseph
Ashkenazi, Meir

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

198

learned Jew he is mentioned with Mordecai Meisl, a
Jew of Prague of princely wealth:

“ Icli rnucht so wol lernen a!s Rabbi Josef Ashkenas,

Oder mucht also reich sein als Meislein was."

The epithet “ Divine Tanna,” conferred upon Ash-
kenazi by his contemporaries and by men of later
times, clearly indicates the main point in which his
strength lay. Next to Elijah b. Solomon of Wilna,
Ashkenazi is probably the most careful student of
the Mishnah, itself the spiritual product of the “Di-
vine Tannaim.” Even Isaac Luria, the creator of
the new Cabala, did not disdain to receive instruc-
tion from him upon the Mishnah. When Teblin of
Jerusalem, a pupil of Ashkenazi, went to Europe
he imparted to the well-known Mishnah commenta-
tor Yom-Tob Lipman Heller many of his teacher’s
explanations of the Mishnah.

Some insight into Ashkenazi’s mental activity is
gained from his brief anil fragmentary glosses to the
Mishnah, as published in Solomon Adeni's work,
“Meleket Shelomoli," in which Ashkenazi’s emenda-
tions are considered. In these glosses Ashkenazi
displays great critical ability. He treats the text in
a wholly unprejudiced and purely scientific man-
ner and, disregarding tradition, deletes unsparingly
whenever, in Ins opinion, such elision is justified by
the import of the text, and in similar manner sep-
arates compound words into their component parts.
In his opinion the vocalization and the accentuation
of words are not side issues, but worthy of the spe-
cial attention that he bestowed upon them. Ash-
kenazi’s observations are of especial value, being
based upon a manuscript Mishnah in his possession,
dating from about 700. He is said to have written
critical comments also on the Babylonian and Jeru-
salem Talmuds.

Bihuography: Azulai. Sliem lia-Gedolim, ed. Benjacob, i.

39; Kaufmann, in Monatssehrift, xlii. 38-49; Sambari, in

Neubauer’s Medieval Jewish Chronicles, i. 151 ; Shihhe ha-

Ari, ed. Leghorn, 44b, from which it appeal’s that Ashkenazi

lived and taught in Egvpl too.

L. G.

ASHKENAZI, JOSEPH BEN, OF PADUA.

See Sciialit, Joseph.

ASHKENAZI, JOSEPH EDELS : Palestin-
ian commentator and cabalist; lived at the beginning
of the nineteenth century at Jerusalem and Padua;
died at Safed. He was sent as European agent (“ me-
sliullah ”) from Palestine to collect money for the Pal-
estinian poor. On his travels he remained at Padua,
Italy, for a certain time, where he became the teacher
of Mordecai Samuel Ghirondi. According to this
source, Ashkenazi was a prolific commentator of Bib-
lical and Talmudical subjects, but published nothing
beyond a small commentary on the “Sefer Yezirah,”
to which he appended many of his observations on
Bible and Talmud.

Bibliography : Nepi-Ghirondi, Tnledot Gednle Y Israel, p. 312.

L. G. M. B.

ASHKENAZI, JOSEPH B. ISAAC HA-
LEVI: Talmudist and rabbi; born in Germany
about 1550; died at Frankfort -on-the-Main 1628.
His first teacher was the Frankfort rabbi Eliezer
Treves, after whose death (about 1567) he completed
his Talmudic studies under Hayyim b. Bezalel,

Jacob b. Hayyim of Worms, Joshua Moses b. Solo-
mon Luria, and David Blum of Sulzberg.

From Bonn, where Ashkenazi held his first posi-
tion as rabbi, he went to Metz (about 1595). Here
the prohibition against the residence of Jews, which
had been in force for two hundred years, had been
removed, and a community of 120 persons had re-
cently been formed. The subsequent growth of
this community was in no slight degree due to the
activity and devotion of Ashkenazi, its first rabbi.
By 1618 it had increased threefold; and in that year,
through the efforts of Ashkenazi, a synagogue was
erected. He also bent his energies toward obtaining
a Jewish cemetery, in connection with which he
founded a “ hebra kaddisha ” which was also a study-
circle.

Ashkenazi is specially known through his dispute
with one of the first rabbinical authorities of the time,
Meir b. Gedaliah of Lublin. Ashke-

His Dis- nazi was a type of the rigorism cliarac-
pute with teristic of the German rabbis. On a

Melr b. certain occasion Ashkenazi gave the
Gedaliah. decision that geese whose entrails had
not been examined after slaughter
must he accounted “ trefali ” (forbidden), because
such an examination, though unknown to the Tal-
mud, was customary in Germany and Poland. This
decision was disputed by the rabbi of Worms, Moses
b. Gad Reuben, and was finally submitted to Meir
of Lublin. The Polish rabbis, holding themselves
the superiors of their German colleagues, considered
Ashkenazi’s opinion extreme; and Meir of Lublin
insisted that he should avow his error openly.
Though Ashkenazi was by nature mild and yield-
ing. he could not prevail upon himself to act con-
trary to the custom of his teachers. The dispute
now became general; and the scholars of Posen,
Cracow, Brest-Litovsk — in short, all the Talmudists
of Poland, Lithuania, and Russia — were drawn into
the conflict.

Since Ashkenazi abided by his opinion, in spite of
the decision of so many prominent rabbis, and thus
unintentionally created the wide-spread impression
that the latter had yielded, Meir sent a very abusive
letter concerning Ashkenazi to the community at
Worms. He denounced Ashkenazi as impertinent,
presumptuous, and ignorant, and requested the Jews
of Worms to remove him from his position, adding
that he himself could have had him removed through
the Council of Four Lands were it not beneath
him to have dealings with such a man.

Ashke- Ashkenazi’s answer (onlyrecently pub-
nazi’s Rare lished) shows his true magnanimity.

Mag- He does not indulge in one word of per-
nanimity. sonal reproach against the man who
had so grievously insulted him, but
contents himself with merely defending his own
standpoint.

The dispute lasted from about 1610 to 1618, and
ended with Meir’s death. A source of satisfac-
tion to Ashkenazi was the decision of Isaiah Horo-
witz, author of the “Shelah” and a pupil of Meir,
who declared himself against his own teacher, and
ordered the omission from the collection of Meir’s
responsa of the passages insulting Ashkenazi. The
Venice edition (1618), in which these passages are

199

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ashkenazi, Joseph
Ashkenazi, Meir

obliterated, affords a rare instance of Jewish censor-
ship.

Ashkenazi also had a dispute with his congrega-
tion, which ended seriously for him. He was as
severe and uncompromising in his decisions of civil
affairs as he was rigorous in the decision of ritual
questions; and, since the community of Metz con-
sisted of a few large families, he demanded that,
to avoid partiality, outside judges should be called
in in civil suits. The community resisted; and the
breach finally brought about his dismissal (1627),
Moses ha-Kohen of Prague becoming his successor.
Ashkenazi considered the procedure against him
illegal ; and in a letter dated Dec. 14,
Is 1627, and addressed to the governor of

Banished. Metz, Prince de la Yallette, he asked
the latter to sanction his plan regard-
ing the judges. The prince did not act with impar-
tiality, but referred the matter to the dayyanim
Alexander Levi and Mordecai (Maliaram) Zey, whose
hostile attitude toward Ashkenazi was known. They
decided that if Ashkenazi and his followers contin-
ued in their opposition, they should be banished from
the city. On Jan. 24, 1628, the governor carried this
decision into effect, and Ashkenazi went to Frank-
fort-on-the-Main, where he died the same year.

Bibliography : Cahen, in Rev. Et. Juwes , vii. 108-116,204-

216; Carmoly, in Jost’s Annalen, 1840, p. 62; Kaufraann, in

Rev. Et. Juives. xxii. 93-103.

d. L. G.

ASHKENAZI, JOSHUA HESHEL B. ME-
SHULLAM : Russian Talmudist and rabbi of the
nineteenth century; died Feb. 10, 1867, at Lublin.
From 1852 till his death he was rabbi of Lublin, his
predecessors being first his father, and afterward his
cousin Baerusli Ashkenazi. The community owed
much to Joshua Ashkenazi, who was indefatigable
in promoting its spiritual as well as its material well-
being. His house was open to every needy person.
Because of his philanthropy he was also highly es-
teemed by his Christian fellow-citizens and distin-
guished by the government with the title of an hon-
orary citizen, a rank which carried with it certain
privileges.

Ashkenazi left ten posthumous works on both
haggadic and lialakic subjects, which, however,
were destroyed in a conflagration some years ago at
Grodno. Several of his responsa are contained in
Baerush Ashkenazi’s “Noda‘ ba-She‘arim.”

Bibliography: Nissenbaum, Le-Knrot ha-Yehudim he-

Lublin, 1899, pp. 127, 128.

L. G.

ASHKENAZI, JUDAH B. JOSEPH ; Turk-
ish Talmudist; born at Smyrna, where he became
chief rabbi; died there about 1812. He wrote; (1)
“Mahneh Yehudali ” (Judah’s Camp), Salonica, 1793
—discussions on the “Tur” and on “Bet Joseph,
Hoshen Mishpat”; (2) “Yad Yehudali” (Judah’s
Hand), Salonica, 1816 — notes on the Talmudic trea-
tises Shebuot and partially on Megillali. Yoma,
Pesahim, and Baba Batra: (3) “Gebul Yehudali”
(Judah’s Boundary), Salonica, 1821— on the trea-
tises Gittin, Ketubot. Baba Kamma; (4) “Kehal
Yehudali” (Judah’s Congregation), Salonica, 1825 —
novelise on the Sliulhau ‘Aruk, Yoreli De'ah, and

several Talmudic treatises. See also Ashkenazi,
Raphael ben Judah.

Bibliography: Zedner, ('at. Hehr. Boohs Brit. Mns. p. 58;

Walden, Shem ha-Gedolim he-Hadasli.

L. G. M. B.

ASHKENAZI, JUDAH SAMUEL B. JA-
COB: A commentator, ritualist, and liturgical edi-
tor; born in the second half of the eighteenth cen-
tury ; lived at Tabareeyeh (Tiberias), Palestine,
whence he was sent as communal traveling agent to
Europe. He afterward settled at Leghorn, where
the following of his works were published: “Yissa
Berakah” (He Shall Receive a Blessing), a commen-
tary on Jeruham b. Meshullam’s “Sefer Mesharim”
(1822); “Geza‘ Yishay ” (The Stem of Jesse), a col-
lection of rites and laws, alphabetically arranged, of
which the first volume alone, containing the letters
R to ’, was published (1842). He further edited and
annotated a prayer-book according to the Spanish
rite, “Tefillot lekol ha-Shanah” (Prayers for the
Whole Year), divided into five parts: (1) “Bet
‘Obed ” (The House of the Serving), containing the
prayers for the week-days; (2) “Bet Menuhah”
(The Houseof Rest), for Sabbaths; (3) “Bet Mo’ed”
(The House for the Feasts), for the three festivals
Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles; (4) “Bet
Din ” (The House of Judgment), for New -Year; and
(5) “Bet ha-Kapporet” (The House of Forgiveness),
for the Day of Atonement (Leghorn, 1843-1855).
I. Costa edited and arranged Ashkenazi’s work. He
is the author, also, of “Gebul Yehudali” (Judah’s
Territory), containing novella: on the Talmud.

Bibliography: Zedner, Cat. Hehr. Boohs Brit. Mus.. p. 58;

Nepi-Ghirondi, Toledot Gedole Yisrael , p. 214.

L. G. M. B.

ASHKENAZI (TIKTIN), JUDAH B. SIMON
SOFER FRANKFURT: Polish commentator on
the Sliulhau ‘Aruk; officiated as “dayyan ” (assistant
rabbi) at Tikotzin, Poland, in the first half of the
eighteenth century. He wrote 30'n tJO(“ Explain-
ing Well ”), which comments briefly on the first three
parts of the Sliulhau ‘Aruk. A similar commen-
tary on the fourth part of the Sliulhau ‘Aruk —
that is, on the “ Hoshen Mishpat ” — was written
by Moses Frankfurter, dayyan of Amsterdam.
Ashkenazi’s work was appended to the Shulhan
‘Aruk in the editions of Amsterdam, 1753 and 1760,
and went through many editions.

Bibliography: Benjaeob, Ozar ha-Sefaviin, p. 586; Furst,

Bihl. Jitil. i. 62, 63; Steinschneider, Cat. BoiU. col. 1292.

L. G. M. B.

ASHKENAZI, MEIR, OF KAFFA (CRI-
MEA) : Envoy of the Tatar khan in the sixteenth
century; killed by pirates on a voyage from Gava
(near Genoa) to Dakliel (probably Dakhel or Dakleli
in the western oasis of Upper Egypt), between the
ISthand the25tli day of Tammuz (July), 1567. From
the testimony of the witness Elias ben Nehemiah,
given before the board of rabbis in Safed in the case
of the widow and heirs of the slain Meir Ashkenazi,
it was made evident that he w'as an inhabitant of
Kaffa ; that his parents were still living there : that
he had a brother who was a student in the rabbinical
college (“yeshibah”) of Brest-Litovsk ; that he had
brought to Gava prisoners of war from Egypt ; that
he was appointed envoy of the khan of the Tatars

Ashkenazi, Meir
Ashkenazi, Zebi

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

200

to the king of Poland ; and that on the way from
Gava to Dakliel he was slain by pirates with all the
passengers on the ship.

Bibliography : Moses of Trani, Responsa, part 2, § 78.

s. H. R.

ASHKENAZI, MEIR BEN MOSES (CO-
HEN), also called KaZ, the initials of “Kohen
Zedek” (priest of righteousness): Polish Talmudist;
born about 1590 at Frankfort-on-the-Main ; died
about 1645 at Moliilev on the Dnieper. His father
was dayyan at Frankfort and, later, rabbi at Dan-
hausen, Bavaria. When a youth Meir went to Lub-
lin, Poland, where he was the pupil of Meir Lublin.
He became rabbi at Amstebowy, and afterward at
Moliilev, thus reaching White Russia, at that time
forming the eastern limits of the Polish kingdom.

In Poland, Meir was considered a Talmudic au-
thority; but to posterity he is known chiefly as the
father of Shabbetliai Cohen, author of the the
initials of the words “Sifte Kohen” (The Lips of the
Priest). Nine of Meir’s responsawere published by
Isaac, a great-grandson of Meir, as a supplement to
a work of Shabbethai Cohen, “Geburat Anashim.”
Most of them deal with marital questions. In his
teachings Meir based his opinions on the most recent
authorities (Aharonim); only in the case of an
‘Agunaii he was very liberal (‘‘Geburat Anashim,”
32a, 33 a).

Meir also wrote some verses (preface to “Sifte
Kohen ”) in honor of his well-known son Shabbethai.
In his poetry as well as in his responsa he displays
a good style, and employs the pure Biblical lan-
guage of a thorough master. This talent was shared
by his son Shabbethai.

Meir is the earliest Jewish author in the province
of White Russia.

Bibliography: Friedherpr, Keter Keliunah , pp. 4-6, Droho-

bycz, 1898; Fuenn, Kiri/ah, Ne'ernancih , p. 74; Dembitzer,

Kelilat Yofl, ii. lib; Harkavi, Ha-Ychudim u-Sefat ha-

Selawim , p. 33.

L. G. I. Ber.

ASHKENAZI, MESHITLEAM ZALMAN:

Polish rabbi and man of letters; born in the second
half of the eighteenth century; died at Lublin, Po-
land, May 1, 1843. He was the son of Rabbi Me-
shullam Zalman of Pomarin, whose family name was
Orenstein, under which appellation his brother,
Rabbi Mordetfti Zebi of Lemberg, is also known.
Mesliullam Zalman the elder, who died before the
birth of his sot., was a grandson of Hakam Zebi.

Mesliullam the younger held the office of rabbi at
Cazimir and Naselsk, and from 1826 until his death,
at Lublin. He wrote glosses to the Mislinah, pub-
lished in the Wilna edition, 1869.

11. R.

ASHKENAZI, MOSES. See Spaethe, Peter.

ASHKENAZI, MOSES DAVID: Talmudist
and author; born in Galicia about 1778; died at
Safed, Palestine, in 1857. After holding the office
of rabbi at Tolcsva, Hungary, from 1803 to 1843,
he emigrated to Palestine, settling permanently at
Safed. In 1844 he published at Jerusalem his chief
work, “Toledot Adam” (Generations of Adam;
“ Adam ” [DIN] being the initial letters of his name),
containing novella* on several treatises of the Baby-
lonian Talmud and two decisions on complicated

legal questions. “ Toledot Adam ” is prefaced with
an approbation by Jacob of Lissa, and with another
by Jacob Orenstein. Both of these eminent Tal-
mudists regarded Ashkenazi as their peer; Orenstein
speaks of him as “schoolmate.”

Ashkenazi’s second work, “Beer Sheba' ” (Well of
the Oath), is a collection of homiletic disquisitions
on the Pentateuch (Jerusalem, 1852). In the preface
he says that he had been in the Holy Land for nine
years, consequently the date given by Benjacob
(“Ozar ha-Sefarim,” p. 618) is incorrect. An appro-
bation to it was written by Abulafia, hakam bashi
of Jerusalem.

Ashkenazi’s father, Asher, was a prominent Tal-
mudist; and the two sons of Ashkenazi, Joel and
Solomon, were rabbis in Galicia. The former son,
who left no work, is quoted in “Toledot Adam,” 2a
and 98a ; while Solomon wrote a book entitled “ Kot-
not Or ” (Garments of Light). Solomon died in Jeru-
salem, February, 1862.

Bibliography : Benjacob, Ozar ha-Sefarim , p. 618.

L. 6. L. Gru.

ASHKENAZI, MOSES ISAAC. See Tede-

schi, Moses Isaac.

ASHKENAZI, NAPHTALI B. JOSEPH:

Preacher at Safed in the sixteenth century ; died at
Venice in 1602. He wrote a work, entitled “Imre
Shefer” (Words of Beauty), containing homiletic
and exegetical dissertations on the Bible. The edi-
tion of this work published at Venice, 1601, includes
several funeral sermons by him.

Bibliography: Steinsebneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 2020; Oonforte,

Kore ha-Dorot , ed. Cassel, p. 43b.

K. I. Br.

ASHKENAZI, NISSIM ABRAHAM: Tal-
mudic author; lived in the first half of the nine-
teenth century in Smyrna, where he officiated. He
was the author of “Nehmad le-Mareh” (Graceful
of Appearance), which contains methodological
rules on the treatises Berakot and Seder Zera'im in
the Jerusalem Talmud, as well as decisions of the
older and later authorities concerning the Halakot
treated therein (Salonica, 1832-46).

Bibliography : Benjacob, Ozar ha-Sefarim , p. 397.

L. G. M. B.

ASHKENAZI, RAPHAEL BEN JUDAH

(known also as Raphael Naphtali Ashkenazi) :

A rabbi of Smyrna, where he died in 1830. He
wrote: (1) “Mareh ‘Enayim ” (Sight to the Eyes),
Salonica, 1816 — an index to the Talmud and to
Rashi and Tosafot, after the model of Beuvenisti’s
“ Sefer Keneset ha-Gedolah ” ; (2) “ Mareh ha-Gadol”
(The Great Vision), Salonica, 1829 — containing hom-
ilies on the Pentateuch; (3) “Doresh Tob” (Seeking
the Good), a continuation of the preceding work,
Salonica, 1831 ; appended to it is Judah Ashkenazi’s
work, “Seride Yehudah” (Judah’s Remnant); (4)
“March ha-Nogah ” (The Vision of Glory), contain-
ing observations on the works of Maimonides, Salo-
nica, 1840.

Bibliography: Benjacob, Ozar ha-Sefarim. p. 370; Nepi-

Gbirondi . Toledot Gedole Yisrael, p. 314; Franco, Histairo

des Israelites de V Orient", Mortara, Indite Alfabetico, s.v. ;

Fiirst, Bibliotheca Judaica, ill. 127.

L. G. M. B.

201

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ashkenazi, Meir
Ashkenazi, Zebi

ASHKENAZI, REUBEN SELIG BEN
ISRAEL ELIEZER : Rabbi and author ; lived in
Russia about 1780. He published “ Mahaneh Reu-
ben ” (Camp of Reuben), a commentary on the Tal-
mud, Leghorn, 1777.

Bibliography: Benjacob. Ozar ha-Sefarim, p. 321; Stein-
schneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 2139 ; Zedner, Cat. Hehr. Books
Brit. Mus. p. 656.

L. G. H. R.

ASHKENAZI, SABBATHAI BEN MEIR.

See Sabbathai Cohen.

ASHKENAZI, SAMUEL B. ELIESER ;

Author of novelise to the Talmud ; lived at Opatow,
Poland, in the second half of the sixteenth century.
He was a pupil of Meir b. Gedaliah of Lublin and
wrote “Hiddushim,” novelise on the Talmudic trea-
tises Ketubot and Kiddushin, especially on Raslii
and the Tosafot. Ashkenazi’s novelise were culled
from the responsa literature (Prossnitz, 1602).

Bibliography: Burst, Btbl. Judaica , i. 64; Benjacob, Ozar
tia-Sefarim , p. 183.

L. G. M. B.

ASHKENAZI, SAUL COHEN : Religious
philosopher of German descent, as his name indi-
cates; born in Candia 1470; died at Constantinople
May 28, 1528. He was a disciple of Elijah del
Medigo, who induced him to devote his attention to
philosophy. His principal works are: (1) “Shee-
lot,” a philosophic treatise, in the form of questions
addressed to Isaac Abravanel, published together
with the latter’s replies and with philosophic essays
by various other authors, Venice, 1574, and (2) an
epilogue to his master’s chief work, “Beliinat lia-
Dat,” Basel, 1629.

Bibliography: Geiger, Mclo tfofnayim, xxii. 64, 66, 72, Ber-
lin, 1840; Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 2507.

I).

ASHKENAZI, SIMON, OF GALICIA :

Rabbi of Dobromil and Jaroslav (Galicia) at the end
of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nine-
teenth century. He was a disciple of R. Jacob Isaac
of Lublin (died 1815), and carried on a learned corre-
spondence with Jacob Meshullam Orenstein, chief
rabbi of Lemberg (died 1839). Ashkenazi wrote
“Nahalat Shim'On” (Simon’s Inheritance), a series
of cabalistic dissertations on the Pentateuch (1815;
2d ed., Lemberg, 1848).

Bibliography: Benjacob, Ozar lia-Sefarim, p. 397; Walden,
Shem lm-Gedolim hc-Had'ash , i. 128.
k. M. B.

ASHKENAZI, SOLOMON BEN NATHAN :

Court physician of King Sigismund II., Augustus
of Poland (1548-72), and Turkish diplomat; born
probably about 1520; died 1602. A descendant of a
German family settled in Udine (Italy), he came in
his early youth to Cracow, probably in the train of
the Italian wife of Sigismund, Bona, and owing to
his ability obtained the position of first physician
to the king. Later he removed to Constantinople,
where he displayed great skill in diplomatic affairs
as member of the staff of Grand Vizier Mahomet
Sakolli, who entrusted him with many delicate com-
missions. During the Turkish war with Venice
for the possession of Cyprus (1570), Ashkenazi was
engaged in the preliminaries for a treaty of peace.
At the election of the Polish king in 1572, Turkey

had powerful influence. Ashkenazi, who then prac-
tically managed the foreign affairs of Turkey, de-
cided in favor of Henry of Anjou, and won over the
grand vizier to his side. When Henry, afterward
King Henry III. of France, became king of Poland,
Ashkenazi wrote to him : “ I have rendered to your
Majesty most important service in securing your
election. It was I who effected all that was done
here” (Charriere, p. 932, note). It was partly due
to Ashkenazi’s influence that the decree of banish-
ment of Jews from Venice was revoked, July 19,
1573. In 1576 he was appointed envoy extraordi-
nary of the Porte to Venice, with full power to con
elude peace. But the republic was unwilling to
receive the Jew, Ashkenazi ; and not until the grand
vizier insisted was he finally acknowledged. There-
after the Venetian authorities paid him great honor
and attention. He was received in state audience
and signed the act of peace in behalf of Turkey.
He left three sons; Nathan, Samuel, and Obadiah.
His wife seems to have had some knowledge of
medicine. After Ashkenazi’s death she was called
to the sick-bed of Sultan Mehemed III., and cured
him of smallpox. Ashkenazi’s son Nathan came
from Constantinople to Venice in 1605, and was
treated by the doge Grimaui with great consid-
eration.

Bibliography: The data for the biography of Ashkenazi are
to be found chiefly in the reports of the French ambassador to
the Porte, and of M. de Ferriers, French ambassador to
Venice (published by Charriere, Negotiations de la Frame
dans Ic Levant, vol. iii., passim), as well as in the reports of
the Venetian ambassador Marcantonio Barbara (Albert, He-
lazioni degli Ambasciatori Veneti, vol. xvi., Florence,
1863). See also Joseph ha-Kohen, 'Fun k ha-Baka, ed. I.et-
teris, Cracow, 1895, p. 167. Zunz, *fr tia-Zedek, confounds
the subject of this notice with Solomon of Kalahorra <pp. 68 et
seq. ) . Gratz, Gesch. dcr Judcn, ix., passim, and note 7 (also
the Hebrew translation by Rabinowitz, vol. vii. 426) ; M. A.
Levy, Don Joseph Nasi, etc., Breslau, 1859, 8.
d. H. R.

ASHKENAZI, ZEBI HIRSCH (HAKAM
ZEBI) B. JACOB - Rabbi; born 1658 in Moravia;
died May 2, 1718, at Lemberg. He was descended
from a well-known family of scholars. When a boy
he received instruction from his father
Early and from his grandfather, Ephraim ha-
Life and Kolien, then rabbi at Alt-Ofen, and
Education, later went to Salonica, where for some
time lie attended the school of Elilm
Cobo. There, also, he witnessed the deplorable aber-
rations which had grown out of the schisms engen
dered by the Shabbethai Zebi movement ; and this
experience became a determining factor in his whole
career. During his stay at Salonica, Ashkenazi de-
voted himself mainly to an investigation of the
Sephardic methods of study. Upon his return jour-
ney to Alt-Ofen he seems to have stayed some time
(probably till 1679) at Constantinople, where his
learning and astuteness made such an impression
that, though a Polish scholar, he was termed “ha-
kam,” which Sephardic title he thenceforth retained
and by which he is known in history. Shortly after
his return he married the daughter of a prominent
citizen of Alt-Ofen.

When, in 1686, Alt-Ofen was invested, Ashkenazi,
after seeing his young wife and daughter killed by
a cannon-shot, was compelled to flee; thus becom-
ing separated from his parents, who were taken
captive by the Prussians. Proceeding to Sarajevo,

Ashkenazi, Zebi Hirsch
Ashkinasi, Mikhail Osipovich

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

202

he received an appointment as rabbi, in which post
he remained until 1689. He probably resigned on
account of some contention with certain members
of his congregation, and left Sarajevo
Arrival in for Germany. In Berlin he married
Germany. Sarah (died at Lemberg Jan. 23, 1719),
the daughter of Meshullam Zalman
Mirels Neumark, chief rabbi of Altona, Hamburg,
and Wandsbeck.

On the advice of his father-in-law he went in 1690
to Altona, where the leading members of the con-
gregation founded a study-house {Klaus) and in-
stalled Ashkenazi as rabbi. His school became
celebrated, and pupils assembled from all parts to
hear him; but his income as rabbi of the Klaus was
only 60 thalers annually, so that he was compelled
to defray his living expenses by engaging in various

Zebi Hirsch Ashkenazi.

(From the “ Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society,” Loudon.)

business pursuits (dealing in jewelry, etc.). After
the death of his father-in-law, whom Ashkenazi had
latterly aided in his official duties, one party in the
Jewish community wished to have Ashkenazi in-
stalled as rabbi of the three congregations; while
another party favored the election of Moses b. Alex-
ander Rothenburg. Finally it was decided that both
candidates should serve, but alternately, each for a
period of six months. Naturally, friction and strife
over religious questions ensued, and finally became so
intense that in 1709 Ashkenazi deemed it advisable
to resign and resume his duties as rabbi of the Klaus.

Ashkenazi was not, however, destined to remain
in Altona long; for on Jan. 10, 1710, he received a
letter of appointment to the chief rabbinate of the
Ashkenazim congregation of Amsterdam. In addi-
tion to free residence, the office carried with it a
yearly salary of 2.500 Dutch guilders — a sum the

magnitude of which becomes evident in view of the
fact that fifty years later 375 guilders was the usual
salary of the chief rabbi of Berlin. Unselfish and
independent by nature, Ashkenazi renounced the
perquisites of his office, such as fees in civil suits,
etc., in order to maintain his independence, and ac-
cepted the high position only upon
Becomes the condition that under no circum-
Chief stances was he to be required to sub-
Rabbi of ordinate himself to the congregation,
Am- or to be obliged to receive gifts, and

sterdam. that he should be permitted to pre-
serve absolute freedom of action on all
occasions. From the very beginning he encountered
in Amsterdam a hostile party, whose principal leader
was a certain Aaron Polak Gokkes. Indeed, the
difficulties with the directors became so serious that,
on May 26, 1712, it was decided to dismiss the chief
rabbi at the end of the term (three years) mentioned
in his letter of appointment. Ashkenazi announced
that he would not under any circumstances accept
this dismissal, which he regarded as unjust. Seri-
ous difficulties arose. The rabbi’s salary does not
seem to have been paid, for in the register of the rec-
ords of the congregation the present writer has found
an entry to the effect that on Saturday, Nisan 4,
5472 (April 12, 1712), the parnasim sent a secretary
and two attendants of the congregation to Ashkenazi
to inform the latter that upon the return of the let-
ter of appointment he would be paid the money to
which he was still entitled. Ashkenazi, however,
naturally declined to return this piece of evidence,
a copy of which has been preserved among the offi-
cial documents of the congregation.

But worse was still to come. On June 30, 1713,
Nehemiah Hiyya Hayyuu arrived at Amsterdam and
requested permission of the Portuguese congrega-
tion to circulate his writings, which
Congre- had been published at Berlin. Ash-
gational kenazi thought Hayyuu was an old
Differences, enemy of his from Sarajevo and Salon-
ica, and at once requested Solomon
Ayllon.liakam of the Portuguese congregation, not to
accord patronage to the stranger, who was unfavor-
ably known to him. Ashkenazi believed himself
justified in making this demand, as the Portuguese
congregation and its rabbi had, from the beginning,
treated him most courteously, and had already, dur-
ing lus term at Altona, repeatedly sent to him from
the Sephardim of Hamburg, Amsterdam, and Lon-
don religio-legal questions for his decision. Hay-
yun thereupon called on Ashkenazi personally and
made an explanation; whereupon the rabbi retracted
his accusation, stating that it was a case of mistaken
identity. Meanwhile several members of the Portu-
guese congregation had submitted Hayyun’s wri-
tings to the judgment of Moses Hagis, a messenger
from Jerusalem then sojourning at Amsterdam, who
immediately discovered their Shabbethaian prin-
ciples and tendencies and gave the alarm. He also
called the attention of Ashkenazi to the dangerous
doctrines published in Hayyun ’s book, whereupon the
rabbi again warned the directorate of the Sephardim
congregation not to support the author. Ashkenazi
rejected a proposition to designate the objectionable
passages, and declined to act as member of a com-

203

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ashkenazi, ?ebi Hirsch
Ashkinasi, Mikhail Osipovich

mittee of investigation, because lie did not regard
Ayllon, the rabbi of the Sephardim, as a competent
authority on such questions. Thereupon a fierce
contention ensued, during the progress of which
Hagis fought valiantly beside Ash-
Opposition kenazi. A great number of pamphlets,
to Hayyun. some of them now quite rare, were
issued by both sides, in which the con-
testants indulged in the most vehement abuse of
each other. On July 23, 1713, Ashkenazi placed
Hayyun under the ban, because the investigating
committee appointed by the Sephardic directorate
had not yet made its report. In consequence of
this measure, both Ashkenazi and Hagis were sub-
jected to street attacks, more particularly at the
hands of the Portuguese, who threatened to kill
them. In the midst of the constantly increasing
bitterness and animosity, the report of the commit-
tee, which had been prepared by Ayllon alone, was
publicly announced. It was to the effect that the
writings of Hayyun contained nothing which could
be construed as offensive to Judaism. It was pub-
licly announced in the S3rnagogue that Hayyun was
to be exonerated from every suspicion of heresy, and
on the following day a public reception was ten-
dered him at the synagogue, on which occasion un-
paralleled honor was shown him. Naturally, the
Sephardic opponents of Ashkenazi had found excel-
lent support among the rabbi’s adversaries in his
own German congregation. The controversy was
now waged so fiercely that even the family -life of
the community became affected, and all peace van-
ished from the otherwise model congregation of
Amsterdam. Ashkenazi was deserted, except for a
few friends that remained faithful to him. When,
finally, lie was summoned by the directors of the
Portuguese congregation to appear before their tri-
bunal— which, of course, had no jurisdiction — he re-
fused to do so, as he anticipated that he would be
asked to retract and to praise and recommend Hay-
yun. Through a Christian advocate the directorate
again summoned Ashkenazi to appear, Nov. 9, 1713;
and when he again refused, he and Moses Hagis
were formally placed under the ban

Placed by the Portuguese community. Ash-
Under the kenazi was temporarily placed under
Ban. arrest in his own home — probably to
protect his life — by the municipal au-
thorities, who had been influenced against him by
Ayllon and the Portuguese leaders ; and the whole
matter was brought before the magistracy in order
to secure Ashkenazi’s deposition and banishment
from Amsterdam. The magistrates thereupon sought
the opinions of certain professors at Leyden, Utrecht,
and Harderwyk, including Willem Surenhuis and
Adrian Reland, on the dispute; but their decision,
if given, has not been made known.

Ashkenazi forestalled the magisterial action by
resigning his office and fleeing, in the beginning of
1714, from Amsterdam, perhaps secretly, with the
aid of his friend Solomon Levi Norden de Lima.
After leaving his wife and children at Emden, he
proceeded to London at the invitation of the Seph-
ardic congregation of that city. In 1705 he was
invited to pronounce a judicial decision concerning
the orthodoxy of the rabbi David Nieto, who, in j

a certain sermon, had given utterance to Spiuozistic
views. In London Ashkenazi found many friends,
and received many tributes of regard. Even before
this he had been invited to take the rabbinate of the
Sephardic congregation, but refused.

His It seems that his portrait in oil was
Sojourn in painted here, after lie had refused, on
London, account of religious scruples, to have
his bust stamped on a coin. In the
following spring he returned to Emden, and pro-
ceeded thence to Poland by way of Hanover, Halber-
stadt, Berlin, and Breslau, stopping at each place
for some time. After roaming about in the vicinity
of Opatow, Poland, he was called to Hamburg to
serve as member of a judicial bod}' convened to
settle a complicated legal question.

Upon the death of Simliah Cohen Rapoport, in
1717, Ashkenazi was called as rabbi to Lemberg,
where he stood in high repute, both in his congre-
gation and in the community at large. Four months
after entering upon this office, he died.

Of a firm and unselfish but abrupt and passionate
disposition, Ashkenazi everywhere aroused the dis-
content and hatred of the rich and the scholarly.
Extensive learning, keen intelligence, and excep-
tional linguistic attainments, all combined to make
him one of the most distinguished men of his day.

All his contemporaries, even those
Praised by who knew him only as the head of the
Contem- Klaus at Altona, unite in praising his
poraries. profound learning, his astuteness, his
clearness of exposition, which never
degenerated into the subtleties of the pilpul, and his
absolute disregard for the influence of money. He
would suffer serious deprivation rather than accept
pecuniary assistance; and this characteristic, inter-
preted by the wealthy of that day as obstinacy and
arrogance, became to him a source of much suffer-
ing and enmity.

Of his works, only a part of his responsa have
been priuted, under the title “Responsa Hakam
Zebi” (Amsterdam, 1712, and since frequently re
published). They are distinguished by lucidity of
treatment and an undeviating adherence to the
subject.

Bibliography: Buber, Anshe Shein , pp. 187-102 ; Kaufmann, in
Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England,
lii. 102 et seq. ; Gratz, Qesch. tier Jutlen, x. 352 et seg. and
note 6; Jacob F.mden, Total ha-Kcnaoth : idem, MegUlaJt
Sefer\ H. A. Wagenaar, beginning of Toledot Yu'hez ; .1.
M. Schiitz, appendix to Mazebet Kotlesh : Dembitzer, Keli-
lat Yofi, i. 01 et seq.: Fuenh, Kiryah Neimanah , pp. Ht; et
sea.; Mulder, in Kedcrlandsch-Israelietisch Joarhoekje,
5620, pp. 42 et seq.: idem. Jets over tie Bcyraafplaatsen ,
No. 18, p. 17; inscriptions on the tombstones of two of Ash-
kenazi’s children, who died in 1712-1713.

L. G. J. Ylt.

ASHKINASI, MIKHAIL OSIPOVICH:

Writer in French and Russian ; born at Odessa
April 16, 1851. Having graduated from the Odessa
High School, he studied medicine at the Academy
of St. Petersburg and at the University of Kiev.
Ill health forced him to discontinue his studies.
While recuperating he visited, in turn, Italy, Swit-
zerland, and Nice. In the early eighties he published
in “Nedyelya” and in “ Novorossiski Telegraf”a
series of articles on the Jewish question, in which
he advocated a change in the economic mode of Jew-
ish life, and suggested agriculture as a means of

Ashmodai

Ashteroth

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

204

livelihood. At that time Ashkinasi conducted the
Jewish trade-school “Trud” of Odessa. Later he
established a model farm-school for Jewish children
at Fiodorovka, near the same place.

In 1887 he settled permanently in Paris, where he
contributed — either in his own name or under the
pseudonym “ Michel Delines ” — -articles on Russian
literature to various publications, principal among
which were the “Athenaeum,” “Siticle,” “Indepen-
dance Beige,” and many others. At the same time
he published at Paris: “La Terre dans le Roman
Russe”; “La France Jugee par la Russie ” ; “L’Alle-
mague Jugee par la Russie ” ; “ Nos Amis les Russes.”

The western European public became acquainted
with Russian literature through Ashkinasi’s trans-
lations into French of several of Tolstoi’s works —
“ Enfance et Adolescence ” and “ Napoleon et la Cam-
pagne de Russie,” besides Shchedrin’s “Za Rube-
zliom,” under the title, “Berlin et Paris”; Gon-
charov’s “ Obryv, ’’under the title “La Faute de la
Grand’mere,” 1885; and Dostoyevski’s “Podrostok,”
under the title “Mon Pere Naturel,” 1886; some
novels by Garscliin ; “Samson the Powerful,” by
Orzhesko ; and Lazhechnikov’s “ Le Palais de Glace,”
1889.

Among original novels in French by Ashkinasi
are: “ En Russie,” in the “ Bibliotheque Universelle,”
1885; “La Cliasse aux Juifs”; and “Les Victimes.”
He is a frequent contributor to the Russian period-
icals “ Nedyelya,” “Novosti,” and others, and since
1889 has been a regular contributor to “Paris,” under
the pen-name “Michel Reader.”

Bibliography: Vengerov, K rit ico-Biograflcheski Slovar Russ-
kikh Pisatelci , s.v. : s. G., Literaturnaiia Spravlta , in
Vosk) tod, 1889, xi.-xii. 37-38.

H. R.

ASHMODAI. See Asmodeus.

ASHMUN or ESHMUN ([»£>«): The name of
a Phenician god worshiped at Sidon and Carthage,
in Cyprus and in Sardinia. A trilingual inscription
from the latter island (“C. I. S.” 143) identities him
with vEsculapius, the Greek god of healing. Near
Sidon, Eshmunazer built for him a temple on a moun-
tain, and consecrated to him a spring and a grove (“ C.
I. S.” 3). This is the -Esculapius grove of Strabo
(xvi. 2, 22). The large number of proper names in
the inscriptions from Citium and Idalium in Cyprus
into which Ashmun enters prove the popularity of
his worship there. At Carthage, Tanith (Ashtarte)
and Baal were worshiped in his temple (“ C. I. S.” p.
252); and the inscriptions from North Africa contain
many names compounded of his, which also prove
how extensively lie was worshiped. His close connec-

tor Tammuz, who, from the epithet “Adon,”
“Lord,” was called by the Greeks “ Adonis. ” See
Tammuz and Hi siim a.

Bibliography : Baethgen, Beitrilge zur Sem. lieligions-

gesch. pp. 44 et seq.

J. JR. G. A. B.

ASHMURAH: A special term (compare “ a
watch in the night,” Ps. xc. 4) in the synagogal rite
of Avignon, denoting the early morning service on
Hosliana Rabbah, the seventh day of the Feast of
Tabernacles.

Bibliography: Zunz, Ritas dcr Sgnagoge von Avignon , in

Allg. Zcil. des Jud. 1839, p. 118.

A. D.

ASHPENAZ: Chief of the eunuchs of Nebu-
chadnezzar (Dan. i. 3).

j. jk. G. B. L.

ASHRE (YOSHEBE BETEKA): The open-
ing words of Ps. lxxxiv. 5 [4] : “ Blessed are they wTho
dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee.
[In A. V.] Selali.” This verse, interpreted by Joshua
ben Levy to signify that those who sit pondering on
the greatness of God before offering their prayer in
the house of God are the really “ blessed ones ” (Ber.
326), is, together with (the closing words of Ps. cxliv.
15) “Aslire ha-'Am,” “Happy the people to whom
this is allotted [A. V., “that is in such a case”],
happy the people whose God is the Lord,” recited
three times a day, twice in the morning and once in
the afternoon prayer before Ps. cxlv., concerning
which it is said: “Whosoever recites Psalm cxlv.
three times a day may feel certain of having a portion
in the life to come ” (Ber. 45). The three Aslire or
beatitudes in the two introductory verses — some
added also the Ashre of Ps. cxix. 1, and more verses
beginning with Ashre (see Tosafot Ber. 326, and Beer,
prayer-book “ Abodath Yisrael,” p. 68, note; Zunz,
“Ritus,” 59) — were selected to express the idea of
being thrice blessed by the recitation of a Psalm
containing so fervent a praise of God before offering
prayer as does the one hundred and forty-fifth Psalm.
See Tanya ii. in the name of Rashi. K.

ASHRE The initial word of the verses

Ps. lxxxiv. 5 [A. V. 4] and cxliv. 15, which verses
are always prefixed to Ps. cxlv. in its recital in the
synagogal service. In the northern liturgies these
opening verses are associated with a chant trans-
ferred direct from the Sabbath cantillatiou (where
it forms the coda, or concluding strain, of each read-
ing in the lesson) as illustrated below :

a. F. L. C.

Con moto.

ASHRE

—

0 0

Ash - re yo - she - be. . . . be - te - ka, ‘od ye - ha - la - lu - ka:' se - lah!

How hap - py the dwellers in Thy tern - pie, for for - ev - er they may praise Thee!

tion at Sidon and Carthage with Baal and Ashtarte,
his importance where worshiped, and the fact that in
many proper names, especially in Cyprus, he is des-
ignated “Adonis ” (compare “ C. I. S.” 10, 42, and 44),
indicate that Ashmun may have been a local name

ASHRE HA- ‘AM (DJ?n nCK): Ps. lxxxix. 16,
prefixed to “Ashre” on the Day of Memorial, or
New-Year, immediately after the sounding of the
Shofar. It is then associated in Ashkenazic con-
gregations with a beautiful and typical melody, of

205

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ashmodai

Ashteroth

medieval origin, iu the fourth (Hypoplirygian) mode
of the Gregorian plain-song, ranging from the fourth
degree below the mediant to the fifth above. This
melody is now one of the “representative themes”
(see Music, Synagogal) of the penitential season ;
being heard as an anticipatory announcement in the
chanting of the Seliliot which precede it, and again
in the Confession of Faith (Siiema1), which closes it at
the end of the Day of Atonement. It affords one
of the best examples of that characteristically Orien-
tal cadence, descending the interval of a fourth on
to the final note, which so frequently closes with their
own peculiar tiavor many of the older medieval
chants in the German and Polish tradition.

a. F. L. C.

tament period only one city, known variously as
“ Ashtaroth,” “ Ashteroth Karuaim,” and “ Karnaim,”
and that the statement of Eusebius is due to the inter-
change which some of the names of the region under-
went in the later time. This conclusion seems justi-
fied from the fact that the sources which are really old
(the inscription of Thothmes III. [ W. Max Muller,
“Asien und Europa,” p. 162], and El-Amarna let-
ters; compare Schrader, “Iv. B.” v. (see p. 206) Nos.
142, 237; and Sayce, “Patriarchal Palestine," pp.
133, 153) mention but one place, and that the Bib
lical material is all of such a nature as to make the
supposition of two places unnecessary. The ques-
tion can not be actually determined till the sites are
explored.

ASHRE HA-‘AM.

Andante con moto.

Ash - re ha - ‘am yo - de - ‘e te - ru -

How hap - py the peo - pie that know the joy - - ful

9-rp 1

-H

— 3--*—

m — j ^ S—

• •

J =J-=! - s s

-(S’ ^ -

-i — X

> z ^ m

* * *

• • V «

* J

‘ah; ... A - do - nai... be - or pa - ne - - ka ye - hal - le - kun.

sound , 0 Lord , in the light of Thy coun - te - nance they shall ev - er walk.

Ash - re yo - she - be be - - - - te - ka;

How hap - - - py they that dwell in Thy house:

t H 1 -| - s *

H ~\ Is S

_ —

* m Li i “I "

q 1]

E5v1/ • -J -(0 m m

, — ---

* «

i 1 —

^ * u

‘od ye hal - - la - lu - ka. Se lab.

they shall aye be prais - - ing Thee Se lah.

ASHTAROTH : A city east of the Jordan on
the table-land of Gilead. It was the capital of the
kingdom of Og, king of Bashan (Josh. ix. 10),
though it would seem from other passages (Dent,
i. 4; Josh. xii. 4, xiii. 12 and 31) that Edrei shared
that honor. The two cities seem to have constituted
his kingdom. Afterward Ashtaroth was one of the
Levitical cities (I Chron. vi. 56 [A. V. 71]). Its name
appears in the Old Testament as a plural, but it was
no doubt originally simply “Aslitart,” derived from
the old Semitic goddess, whose temple it no doubt
contained. The relation of Ashtaroth to Ashteiioth
Karnaim is obscure. Eusebius (“ Onomastica, ” ed.
Lagarde, ccix. 61, ccxiii. 39) gives two trans-Jordanic
places called Aslitart. Buhl (“ Geographic,” pp. 248
et seq.) holds that there were two places, and identi-
fies Tell-Ashtereh with Ashtaroth, and El-Muzerib
with Ashtoreth Karnaim. Similarly, G. A. Smith in
1895 (“Historical Geography,” map) identified Ash-
taroth with Tell-Ashtereh, and Ashteroth Karnaim
with Tell- Ashary, but has since found reason to dis-
card this view.

It seems probable that there was in the Old Tes-

Bibliography : Schumacher, Across the Jordan, pp. 121-147;

Merrill, East of Jordan, 329 et seq.; ami the bibliography

under Ashtorkth.

•i. JR. G. A. B.

ASHTEROTH KARNAIM (D'Jip mnCMI?) :

A town east of the Jordan (Gen. xiv. 5; “Onomas-
tica,” ed. Lagarde, 209, 61, 213, 39); called simply
“ Karnaim ” in Amos vi. 13 (so Wellhausen, Nowack,
and G. A. Smith, ad loc.), in I Macc. v. 43, and II
Macc. xii. 21, 26. The first element in the name was
derived from the goddess Aslitart, whose temple was
situated in the town (II Mace. xii. 26). The last
part of the name has been variously explained.
Stade (“Zeitschrift,” vi. 323) understands “the
horned Astarte” to be a moon goddess, the horns
referring to the crescent of the moon; Barton in 1894
(“Hebraica,” x. 40) explained it as an Aslitart rep-
resented by some horned animal, a cow, bull, or ram ;
Moore (“Jour. Bibl. Lit.” xvi. 155 ), on the basis of
Baal-Karnaim, whose temple near Cartilage was on a
mountain formed by two peaks separated by a gorge,
interprets the name as “ the goddessof the two-peaked
mountain.” This last is the probable solutiou.

Ashtoreth

Ashura

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

206

The town was very old. It is mentioned by
Thothmes III. (thirteenth century b.c. ; compare W.
Max Muller, “ Asien und Europa,” p. 162) and in the
El- Amama tablets (fourteenth century b.c. ; compare
Schrader, “K. B.” v.. Nos. 142, 237; Sayce, '‘Patri-
archal Palestine,” pp. 133, 153). It has been identi-
fied by Dillmann (on Gen. xiv. 5) with the mound
of Tell Ashtcreh; by G. A. Smith (“Hist. Geog.”
map) with Tell Ashary; and by Buhl (“Geog.” pp.
248 et seq.), whom Gunkel (on Gen. xiv. 5) follows,
with El-Muzerib (see also Buhl, “Zur Topographie
des Ostjordanlandes,” pp. 13 et seq. ; “Zeit. Deutsch.
Palast. Ver.” vols. xiii., xv.). The real site can
not be determined until some of these mounds are
excavated. See Ashtaroth.
j. jr. G. A. B.

ASHTORETH : The name given in the Old Tes-
tament to the old Semitic mother-goddess, called in
Phenicia, Ashtarte; in Babylonia, Ishtar; and in
Arabia, Athtar. (For her worship among the He-
brews, see Astarte.) Ashtoreth is derived from
Aslitart by a distortion after the analogy of “Bo-
sheth” (compare Jastrow, “Jour. Biblical Litera-
ture ” xiii. 28, note).

Ashtarte was the chief goddess of the Sidonians,
among whom she was worshiped as an independent
divinity, and also under the name
The “Ashtarte of the name of Baal,” as a
Goddess in counterpart of Baal (compare “ C. I. S. ”
Phenicia. i. 3 and “Hebraica,” x. 33). A frag-
ment quoted in Philo Biblos connects
the worship of Ashtarte with Tyre (compare also
Josephus, “Ant.” viii. 5, § 3; “Contra Ap.” i. 18,
who quotes Menander), while Lucian (“De Syria
Dea,” §§ 6-9) describes in some detail her worship
at Gebal (Byblos), in which the wailing for Tammuz
was a prominent feature. As a part of this ritual,
women were obliged to sacrifice either their hair or
their chastity. A shrine of this goddess was found
also in the city of Askelon in Philistia (Herodotus,
i. 105), in which the armor was hung after the battle
of Gilboa (I Sam. xxxi. 10).

The Phenician colonies carried the worship of
Ashtoreth into the Mediterranean. In Cyprus she
had important temples at Citium and
In Paphos, and left a deep impression
Phenician on its civilization (compare “Heb.” x.
Colonies. 42-46 and “Jour, of Hellenic Studies,”
1888, pp. 175-206). It also left its
impress in Malta and Sicily (“ Heb.” x. 46-49). From
Cyprus her cult found its way to Corinth and other
parts of Greece, where it corrupted the simple
purity of the old Greek family life (compare Far-
nell’s “Cults of the Greek States,” xxi.-xxiii.).
From Sicily it made its way to some extent into
Italy.

In North Africa, Ashtoreth was known as Tanith
(see Barton, “Semitic Origins,” p. 253, note 6), to
which is frequently attached the epithet “ Face of
Baal,” showing that she was often regarded as sub-
ordinate to that god. She was also called Dido
(Love), and was, as Augustine says (“De Civit-ate
Dei,” ii. 4), worshiped with obscene rites (compare
“Heb.” x. 48-53).

In Babylonia and Assyria she was worshiped as

Ishtar at several different shrines, in each of which
the goddess possessed slightly varying character-
istics. Erech was one of t he oldest and
In most important of these shrines, where
Babylonia, she was called also Nana, and gen-
erally appears as the goddess of sex-
ual love and of fertility.

At Agade she was worshiped as the spouse of
Sliamash (“ Heb. ” x. 24-26), and at Babylon as that of
Marduk. At the latter shrine, where she was called
Zarpanit, she was the goddess of fertility for both
plants and animals. According to Herodotus (i.
199), every Babylonian woman once in her life was
compelled to offer her person at Zarpanit’s shrine
(compare “Heb.” x. 15-23).

From Babylonia, emigrants carried her worship
to Assyria, as represented in the Assyrian inscrip-
tions. In Assyria, at Nineveh, and Assur she was
regarded as the spouse of Assur and the mother
of gods and men. With the god Assur she was
supreme, although other gods were worshiped.
Another shrine of hers of high antiquity was at
Arbela. From the reign of Sennacherib onward the
Ishtar of Arbela is regarded as distinct from the
other Islitars. She had no spouse, was mother, and
a goddess of war. Probably her worship there had
never been united with that of a male deity (com-
pare “Heb.” ix. 131-155).

In Arabia she was known as Athtar, and in southern
Arabia at least was changed into a masculine deity.
An interesting inscription (“Jour. Asiat.” 8 ser. , ii.

256 et seq.) exhibits this transition in
In Arabia, process (compare “ Heb.” x. 204). As
a goddess Athtar was a mother, and
was bifurcated (rather than transformed) into a mas-
culine and feminine deity, the father and the mother
of mankind (compare Mordtmann, “ Himyaritisclie
Inschriften und Alterthumer,” No. 869). The father
was known as Athtar, or by such epithets as “ Ilmaq-
qahu,” “Talab Riyam,” etc. ; the mother, as Shams
(compare Barton, “Semitic Origins,” pp. 129 et
seq).

As a god, Athtar was the god of fertility. From
southern Arabia his worship was transferred to Abys-
sinia, where he was known as Astar, and where many
features of his worship still survive
In in the rites of the Abyssinian church
Abyssinia, (compare “Epigraphisclie Denkmiiler
aus Abessinien ” ; Bent, “ Sacred City
of the Ethiopians ” ; and Glaser, “ Die Abessinier in
Arabien und Africa ”).

In northern Arabia the name Athtar does not ap-
pear; but there are two goddesses, Al-Uzza and Al-
Lat, who are shown elsewhere as goddesses of fertil-
ity scarcely disguised under these epithets (compare
“ Heb. ” x. 58-66). Al-Uzza was worshiped especially
at Nakhlaand Mecca, and Al-Lat at Taif and by the
Nabataeans (compare “C. I. S.” ii. Nos. 170, 182,
183). She is mentioned by Herodotus, iii. 8.

This cult thus presents an underlying unity
throughout the Semitic world, with many local dif-
ferences. Various animals were sacred to this deity
in different places, while she was frequently pictured
in their form. Thus, at Eryx she was thought to
assume the form of a dove, and of a dove and a
gazelle at Mecca. At Arbela she was conceived by

207

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ashtoreth

Ashura

Assurbanipal as a warrioress, behung with bow and
quiver (“Hebraica,” ix. 162); while Zidonian coins
picture her standing on the prow of a galley and
pointing forward as though guiding the vessel on
its way. Other local circumstances gave her many
other forms. Thus, in Sabaea she was identified
with the sun and the morning star; at Mecca and
in Assyria, with Venus; and at Zidon, with the
moon.

Schrader (“C. I. O. T.” 2d ed.), Sayce (“Hibbert
Lect.” 252), and Driver (Hastings’ “Diet, of the
Bible ”) hold to the non-Semitic origin of this cult.
Patti Haupt (“Z. D. M. G.” 34, 758 et set/.), Zimmeru
(“Bab. Buss.” 38), Friedrich Delitzsch (“Assyrian
Grammar,” p. 181), Moore (“Eneyc. Bib.”), G. Hoff-
mann (“ Ueber Einige Phonizische Inschriften,” 22«),
and Barton (“ Heb.” x. 69 et seq.) have argued on the
other side. It is hardly possible that the most uni-
versally worshiped of Semitic divinities should have
been of non-Semitic origin. It appears plausible
to assume that the goddess originated in Arabia in
primitive Semitic times in connection with the cul-
ture of the date-palm, and that, as the Semites mi-
grated, she was transplanted to the different countries
(compare Barton, “ Semitic Origins,” ch. iii.-v.). See
Astarte.

Bibliography : Movers, Die PhOnizier, 1850, i. .559-050;
Baethgen, Beitr/igc zur Sem itischen Religionsyeschichte ,
1888; W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites , 2(1 ed., 1894, pp.
310. 355, 471 et seq. ; Barton, Aslitoretli and Her Influence
in the Old Testament, in Journal of Biblical Literature,
x. 73 et seq. ; idem. The Semitic Islitar Cult, in Hebraica,
ix. 133-163. x. 1-74 ; idem. Sketch of Semitic Origins, 1902.

J. ,jr. G. A. B.

ASHTUMKAR, REUBEN DHONDJI : Beni-
Israel, soldier; born near Bombay, India, about 1820;
He entered military service in the Eighth Regiment
native infantry on March 5, 1839. He participated
in the pursuit of the rebel army under Tantia To-
pee in Gujarat, 1857-58. He was present at the
engagement of Hykullze, and served with a field
force against the Niakara Bheels in the Rewa
Kanta district in 1857-58. He served in the Sind
campaign in 1842, including the march to Kanda-
har. He was also in Abyssinia. Aslitumkar was
appointed jemidar Jan. 1, 1856; subedar on June 7,
1858; and was raised to the rank of subedar-major
Jan. 1, 1870. He was decorated with the Order of
British India of the second class, with the title of
bahadur on Oct. 27, 1872, and the same Order of
the first class with the title of sirdar bahadur from
Jan. 1, 1877.

J. J. llY.

ASHURA (the “tenth” day): A fast-day among
the Mohammedans, observed on the tenth day of the
month Muharram, and derived from the Jewish Day
of Atonement, celebrated on the tenth of Tishri
(Lev. xvi. 29, xxiii. 27). The name is an Aramaic
form of the Hebrew word ‘“Asor” (the tenth), still
to be found in a liturgical poem for the Day of
Atonement (non TlS3^ M. Sachs, “Fest-

gebete der Israeliten,” 4th ed., pt. iv. 88).

Mohammedan tradition is a unit on the assertion
that the Prophet knew nothing of the Atonement
Day until he came to Medina in 622. “ When Mo-

hammed came to Medina, he saw that the Jews fasted
upon the day Ashura. Said he, ‘What is this?’

They answered, ‘It is an “excellent day,” the day
on which God saved Israel from their enemy, w here-
upon Moses fasted.’ Said he, ‘ I have a nearer claim
to Moses than you have ’; then he fasted and com-
manded others to fast also” (Bukhari, ed. Krelil, i.
497).

Mohammed fixed upon the tenth of Muharram as
the Ashura day. This leaning toward the Jews was
evidently displeasing to some of the followers of the
Prophet. “They said. ‘ O Prophet, it is a day cele-
brated by Jews and Christians’ (the last two words
are a senseless addition of later times). He an-
swered, ‘ Then, let us celebrate it on the ninth, in
order to distinguish ourselves from the Jews’; but
the next year at this time the Prophet was already
dead.” Some say that, in order to distinguish it
from the Jewish fast, Mohammed said, “ Fast on the
ninth and the tenth”; according toothers, “Fast on
Ashura, but fast also on the day before and the day
after.” Another tradition is that he
Conflicting did not want it celebrated in as joyous
Traditions, a manner as did the Jews, who were
accustomed to deck out their wives,
with their finest jewelry and dresses.

But there were those who, according to the com-
mentators to the Koran (sura ii. 46), connected the
original celebration of Ashura with Noah, who was
said to have landed on Mt. Judi on the tenth of
Muharram and, out of thankfulness, to have fasted
on that day (Baidawi, Comm, on Koran, i. 435;
Zamahsliari, “ Al-Kaslishaf , ” i. 614). Still others,
according to traditions gathered by Al-Biruni, said
that on this day God took compassion on Adam;
Jesus was born; Moses was saved from Pharaoh,
and Abraham from the fire of Nebuchadnezzar;
Jacob regained his eyesight; Joseph was drawn out
of the ditch ; Solomon was invested with the royal
power; the punishment was taken away from the
people of Jonah; Job was freed from his plagues;
the prayer of Zacharias was granted, and John was
born to him (Al-Biruni, “Al-Athar al-Bakiyyali,” ed.
Sachau, p. 326).

When Mohammed, at a later period, turned away
from the Jews and instituted the Ramadan fast as a.
counterpart of the Christian Lent, the Ashura be-
came a non-obligatory fast-day. As such it is still
celebrated in Mohammedan countries,
Becomes and is called “The Little Fast.” In
non- Egypt the “ blessed storax ” is sold on
Obligatory, the streets, and the venders cry, “A
New Year and a blessed Ashura! ” It
is the season for giving alms; and the belief is that
“Upon him who gives plenty to his household on
the day of Ashura, God will bestow plenty through-
out the remainder of the year.” The day is held in
especial honor by the Shiites as the anniversary of
the battle of Kerbelah (680), on which day the proto-
martyr Al-Husain was killed, and the moon shone
for seventy-two hours (Browne, “New History of
the Bab,” 1893, p. 195).

Bibliography : Buhari. Al-Jami' al-Sahih, ed. Krehl, i. 286,
472, 473, 497 : Muslim, Main al-Sahih'. iii. '98-103, Cairo. 1867 ;
Malik ibn Anas, AV-Muwatta', p. 91, Lucknow, 1879: Al-
Kastalani, Irsha/lal-Sari, iii.' '482, Bulak, 1868; Al-Tirmidhi,
Shdma'il al-Nabi, i. 145, Bulak, 1875; Al-Biruni, Al-Athar
al-Batf iyyah, ed. Sachau, pp. 329 et seq. (Eng. transl. pp. 326
et seq'.), reproduced by Al-Kazwini, Athar al-Bilad, i. 67 et
seq. (German transl. by Etbe, pp. 139 et seq.). Compare

Ashyan

Asia

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

208

Geiger, Wan hat Mohammed aus item Judentliume Auf-
genommen‘1 p. 38; Hirschfeld, lie it rage zur Erkld.ru ng des
Koran , p. 77; Sprenger. Dun Lelien Mohammeds , iii. 55;
Grimme, Mohammed , i. 55; Pautz, Muhammad's Lehre
von der Offenbarung, p. 131 : and especially Goldziher. in
Revue Etudes Juives, xxviii. 82 et seg. For the modern
celebration, see Lane, Modern Egyptians, i. 348, ii. 185
et scq.

K. G.

ASHYAN : The name of several Palestinian
amoraim and of one, probably Babylonian, amora.
1. Ashyan, “the Carpenter (Naggara),” of the third
century, who handed down certain utterances of
Johanan (Yer. ‘Ab. Zarali iii. 426; Gen. R. lxxxii. 5,
in which latter passage the name has been cor-
rupted) 2. Amora in the fourth century, belonged
to Aha’s circle, and handed down utterances of

The earliest record that makes mention of the
Hebrew people — the triumphal stele of Pharaoh
Meneptah, of about the middle of the thirteenth cen-
tury b.c. — shows Israel installed in some district of
southern Syria, which can not now be precisely
located, among peoples and cities of varying impor-
tance— Hittites, Canaan, Gezer, Aske-
The Ion, Yenu'amu. Three centuries later,
Jews in in the list of cities of Judea taken by
Palestine. Shisliak, Israel reappears among the
conquered. Momentous events had
occurred in the meantime, of which only the Bib-
lical books give an account. Palestine had been con-
quered by the various tribes; a relatively powerful
kingdom having Jerusalem for its capital had been

Jonah (Yer. Ter. i. 41a; Yer. Yoma viii. 456). 3.
Ashyan bar Jakim, of the end of the third century,
who belonged to Assi’s circle (Yer. Yeb. xi. 12a) and
is perhaps identical with the Ashyan named in Ber.
14a, as the father of R. Isaac. 4. Ashyan b. Nid-
bak, probably of Babylonian origin, whose father-in-
law, Yeba, transmitted an utterance of Rab (B. B.
226), and who himself repeated another of Iiab’s
teachings (Men. 29a, according to the better reading,
Rabbinowicz, “ Dikduke Soferim,” ad lor., note 60,
while Zeira taught in his name (Yer. Meg. i. 71c,
where Nidbali stands- for Nidbak).

Bibliography: Frankel, Meho, 65 a et seq.

•i. sr. W. B.

ASIA ; The largest continent, and the most an-
cient seat of civilization, constituting the greater
part of tin- Eastern hemisphere.

established ; and, during the very lifetime of Shisliak,
the rupture of the union that had existed but a short
time under David and Solomon, and the separation
of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, had occurred.
Menaced in turn by the Canaanites and the Ara-
means of Syria, by Egypt, and, above all, by tile-
powerful Semites of the valleys of the Tigris and
the Euphrates, the two states successively disap-
peared— the northern one in 722 b.c., under the at-
tacks of the Assyrians ; the southern, 135 years later,
under those of the Babylonians.

Sargon transported 27,000 inhabitants of Samaria
to the Balikh and the Khabur, and to the frontiers
of Media. Nebuchadnezzar carried off from Jeru-
salem some 20,000 Jews who in the land of exile
awaited the fall of the second Chaldean empire.
During the reign of the first king of the dynasty of

209

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ashyan

Asia

the Achaemenidae, a small select number of poor,
fervent Jews were allowed to reenter Palestine,
where they organized a community
Exile with the restored Temple as a center,
and Res- Under the guidance of a hierarchy of
toration. high priests the people enjoyed wide
internal liberty ; but, disturbed at the
outset by religious reform, they did not always bear
Persian domination with patience, and, about 350,
Artaxerxes Ochus deported a group of Jews that
had revolted to Hyrcania.

The Macedonian conquest (332 b.c.) put an end to
the empire founded by Cyrus. In the partition that
followed the death of Alexander, Palestine fell to
the share of the Ptolemies, who retained it during
the third century. Clever politicians,
Greek they knew how to deal witli national
and Roman sentiment and to render Greek civili-
Dom- zation accessible to a sensitive people,
ination. The Seleucidae, succeeding the Ptole-
mies in 198 b.c., desired to hasten the
work of Ilellenization. Antiochus Epiphanes, by
his fanaticism, provoked the revolt of the Maccabees,
whose success was the triumph of the cause of inde-
pendence after more than four centuriesof subjection.

This independence, however, lasted but a short
while. From 63 b.c. the intestine quarrels of the
Hasmoneans, who had become kings, placed the lit-
tle state at the mercy of the Romans. Pompey en-
tered Jerusalem, and Gabinius placed Judea under
tribute. However, a century had to pass before defi -
nite annexation could take place. Rather than ad-
minister the ungovernable and stricken country di-
rectly, the Romans handed it over to the Idumean
Herod and his descendants.

In the course of this last period Judaism had
overstepped the limits of its ancient centers and had
spread over the whole of western Asia.
Western During the first century of the eom-
Asia. mon era it not only kept the positions
in the region of the Euphrates, which,
apparently, it had not ceased to possess since the
exile, but also scattered thence in all directions. To
the south it reached Mesene; and around Nehardea,
during the reign of Tiberius or thereabouts, Jewish
influence had been strong enough to permit the
maintenance for some thirty years of t he open revolt
of Anilai and Asinai against the Parthian king. To
the north, with Nisibis as its capital, Judaism con-
quered Adiabene through the conversion of the royal
house. In the extreme north it penetrated Armenia ;
to the east, Media. It is singular that from Mesopo-
tamia, under Antiochus the Great (200 b.c.), went
forth the first Jewish colony having Asia Minor as
its destination. The colony must have been fol-
lowed by a number of emigrants, who formed flour-
ishing communities in nearly every important city
of the country.

Northern Syria, too, was invaded by numerous
Jewish colonies, especially at Damascus and An-
tioch ; and the petty dynasties of Emesa and Cilicia
were influenced by Judaism. In the epoch of the
Mislinah, Jews existed among the nomad Arabs: a
little later, through immigration and especially
through conversion, the Jewish religion penetrated
into the center and to the south of the Arabian peniu-
II.— 14

sula. When in the course of the early centuries of
the common era these movements were completed,
Asiatic Judaism embraced a domain that has not
since been exceeded to any extent.

In contrast with this expansion was the simulta-
neous disappearance of the centers of Jewish national
and religious life — Jerusalem and the Temple. When
the Romans decided to place Judea under the direct
jurisdiction of the empire, incompatibility between
suzerain and subject induced the formidable re-
volt (6T-70) that was terminated by the systematic
destruction of the capital, followed by the edict
forbidding Jews to return thither, and by the estab-
lishment in the country of Greek and Roman colo-
nies, which were destined to destroy all possibility
of reconstruction. Despite these precautions, there
occurred under Hadrian (131-135) the sanguinary
revolt of Bar Ivokba. Depopulated and politically
enslaved, Judea played a smaller and smaller role in
the destiny of Judaism.

The religious center — rather than the national —
gradually shifted its location. The schools first
placed at Jabneh (Jamnia), south of Joppa (Jaffa),
were afterward removed to Galilee ; that is, to Usha,
Seppharis, Shefar‘am, and especially to Tiberias;
and in these schools the Talmud known as the Jeru-
salem Talmud was elaborated during

Epoch of the third and fourth centuries. The
the triumph of Christianity must have

Talmud, been fatal to Galilean Judaism, that,
with the suppression of the patriarch-
ate (about 425), lost the autonomy which it had pre-
served till then

The communities beyond the Euphrates gained in
importance what Palestine lost. The foundation of
the Academy of Sura (219) nearly coincides with the
advent in Mesopotamia and Iran of a new dynasty,
that of the Sassanids. At first hostile, this dynasty
became quite tolerant toward Judaism, which gained
adherents even in the royal house. Then rivals of
the Academy of Sura sprang up and flourished — the
schools of Nehardea. Pumbedita, and Mahuza: and
from them proceeded the Babylonian Talmud. In
the sixth century the Jews on both sides of the Eu-
phrates were persecuted; but a new religion, arising
in central Arabia, was destined to deprive Byzan-
tines and Sassanids of domination in western Asia
(see Academies in Babylonia. Academies in Pal
estine).

A Jewish population of real importance had been
established in the Arabian peninsula. Proselytism,
rather than immigration, had introduced Judaism
into the tribes of northern Hijaz, about

Arabia. Taima, Khaibar, Fadak, and Yathrib
(now Medina), and those speaking the
Sabean language and inhabiting the present Ye-
men. Among the last -mentioned, according to a
somewhat doubtful tradition, Judaism, under the
Himyaritic king Du Nuwas, obtained political su-
premacy.

In his early discourses Mohammed made advances
to the Jews of Hijaz, whose religion had furnished
him with the essential elements of the one he him-
self founded. But he experienced a repulse, which
explains the hostility displayed by him toward
the Jews after the battle of Badr, and which was

Asia

Asia Minor

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

210

destined to have far-reaching consequences. As soon
as he became victor, Mohammed expelled from
Ilijaz the greater number of his adversaries (who
went to Syria); issued severe decrees against Jews
and Christians; declared war without quarter upon
those refusing to submit to Islam; and
Under Mo- ordered a special tax, the “ jizyah,” to
hammedan be imposed on the vanquished. The
Rule. inferior position of the Jews resulting
from these acts was unregulated till
later. To one of the immediate successors of Mo-
hammed, the calif Omar, is generally ascribed the
decree (“kanun ”)— unfavorable to the Jews- — that
precisely defined their status (see Mohammed Omar,
Rescript of). The decree is probably of later date.
It must be remembered that Islam assured the Jews
a “guarantee” (“dhimma”), conferring the right of
free worship.

In general, the Moslem conquest of Syria, Meso-
potamia, and Iran was at first advantageous to Juda-
ism. The prohibition against residence in Jerusa-
lem was maintained but a short time. At Bagdad,
under the Abbassid califs, who, with rare exception,
were not fanatical, the Jewish communities, full of
vitality, enjoyed real prosperity. Though troubled
by internal religious dissensions that originated and
developed out of Karaism in the seventh and eighth
centuries; by personal and local dissensions, such as
those which in 940 led to the suppression of the
exilarchate; by Messianic preachings in Syria in
727, and, four centuries later, by David Alroy in
northern Persia: yet Asiatic Judaism threw out one
last gleam in the epoch of the final efflorescence of
the schools at Sura and Pumbedita under the geonim
Saadia, Sherira, and Hai. Unlike Islam, the Chris-
tianity of this period instigated violent persecutions.
In the eighth and ninth centuries the Byzantine
emperors forced conversion upon the Jews of Asia
Minor; and in 1099 the Crusaders, on entering Jeru-
salem, massacred the Jewish population.

From the domains under Abbassid rule various
migrations carried Judaism to the confines of Asia.
A community in India, the Beni-Israel at Bombay,
was founded by David Rabban, who
India. left Bagdad in 900. Another group,
distinct from this one, exists at Bom-
bay and at Cochin. It is divided into blacks and
whites, the blacks being the offspring of intermar-
riage. Despite their assertions to the contrary, these
communities do not seem to have been of much
earlier date than the Beni-Israel.

According to a tradition, the Jews in China emi-
grated from Palestine, after the fall of the Temple,
during the reign of Ming-tse (70-75); but this is
highly improbable. Other sources of information
more reliable but not altogether trustworthy state
that in 879 there were Jews at Han-
China. kow, a village no longer to be located
with certainty, but probably on the
Yang-tse-Iviang. But it is only in the time of the
Song dynasty (960-1126) that Jews, coming from
India, brought to the Chinese court as a tribute
tissues from the western seas. It is to be noted that
the Jews (the first whose arrival in China is histori-
cally established) came by sea and not by land.

From Benjamin of Tudela and Pethahiah of Re-

gensburg it is evident that a part of the Caucasus
had been conquered by Judaism toward the end of
the twelfth century. The Persian or-
The igin of the colonies is attested not only
Caucasus, by local tradition, but by the Persian
dialect preserved to the present day
among Jewish mountaineers in the Caucasus.

The closing of the academies at Sura and Pumbe-
dita (1040), nearly coincident with the end of the
temporal power of the Abbassids, marks the point
at which Asia ceased to be an intellectual and na-
tional center of J udaism. Among the Arabs began
oppressive and restrictive legislation, summed up in
the so-called “kanun ” of Omar. In all countries in
which Arabic or Persian was spoken, Jews led an
obscure, dependent, and humiliating existence. It
is of little significance that, at the end
End of of the thirteenth century, a Jewish
the Middle physician became prime minister to
Ages. the khan Argun, sovereign of Persia
and Irak, inasmuch as the khan was
a Mongol, a stranger to the ideas controlling Islam.
The establishment of Ottoman supremacy, however,
in regions where the central authority was effective,
induced notable improvement in the situation of
the Jews: its first result, after the conquest of Asia
Minor by the Byzantines, was the permission of the
free reconstitution of the ancient communities.

This humane and tolerant policy displayed itself
most brightly at the time when the expulsion of
the Jews from Spain brought to the Orient large
numbers of refugees, of whom Asiatic Turkey re-
ceived her share. In the course of the sixteenth
century many communities, with the

Modern help of this fresh element, regained
Times. some of their old importance, as at
Smyrna, Manissa, and other cities in
Asia Minor; at Damascus, Safed, Tiberias, and Jeru-
salem, in Syria and in Palestine.

Later arrivals from Europe modified further the
physiognomy of Judaism in some of these cities. In
the eighteenth century began a constant immigra-
tion of Jews — especially from Poland — speaking
Jiubeo-German, who superimposed Ashkenazic on
Sephardic communities, and in time became numer-
ically preponderant in Jerusalem, Hebron, and Safed.
A last wave from the same source, in the latter half
of the nineteenth century, brought to the coast
plains of Palestine and to parts of Galilee, Russian,
Rumanian, Galician, even Bulgarian, immigrants,
who created the villages of Rishon le-Zion, Zikron
Ya'akob, and Rosh Pinah.

Formed of diverse elements — some native; others,
the minority, of European origin, and subject to
the historic influences of their respective countries —
Asiatic Judaism presents a wide variety of aspects.

The communities of Yemen, of northern Syria,
and of the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates
employ Arabic as the vulgar tongue. In Kurdistan
and around the lakes of Van and Urmiali a Neo-
Aramaic dialect is preserved, spoken especially at
Zaklio, Urmiali, Salamas, and Bash-Ivala. It is a
valuable relic of the dialects peculiar to the popula-
tions prior to the Arabian conquest. In Asia Minor
the chief language is Ladino, or Judaeo-Spanisli,
which in Palestine is employed along with Judaio-

211

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Asia

Asia Minor

German anti Arabic. Persian is the language of the
Jews not only in Persia proper, but in a part of
Turkestan and in the Caucasus, with
Lan- the exception of a small Georgian

guages. group which uses Kartvelian. In

these countries the knowledge of He-
brew has persisted up to the present time — chiefly
in Yemen and Palestine, where in certain places it
bids fair to become a living language. The case is
quite different in farther Asia. In India, Maliratti is
the language of the ritual; in China, about the mid-
dle of the century, no one knew how to read the
Bible, and the name "Israel” was corrupted to
" Yeseloni.”

Owing to the absence or the scarcity of precise
statistics on the subject, it is impossi-
Dis- ble to give definite information con-
tribution cerning the different groups of Jews
of Jews in in Asia. The figures in the follow-
Asia. ing table are approximately correct:

Jews in Asia.

65,000

Syria and Palestine

90,000

Mesopotamia, Irak

70,000

60,1X10

Total in Asiatic Turkey

285,000

Caucasus (1897)

58,471

Siberia (1897)

34,477

8,500

Bokhara

9,000

2(000

Total in Asiatic Russia

112,248

2,800

British India

14,400

Total in British possessions in Asia

17,200

2,000

Persia

25,000

China

1,000

Other countries

500

—

28,500

Total Jewish population in Asia

442,948

The descendants of European immigrants are di-
vided into Ashkenazim and Sephardim. Alongside
of these in Palestine are the remnants of the sect of
the Samaritans (in Nablus), and some Karaites (in
Jerusalem). In eastern Asia the form of worship
and the beliefs have been influenced by neighboring
religions. In India this influence is notable among
black Jews; and among the Jews of China religious
sentiment has become obliterated to the extent that
a memberof the Jewish community has been known
to exercise the functions of a Buddhist priest.

As the greater part of Asia is under the rule of
European powers, the political status of the major-
ity of Jews is regulated by the general
Political laws of Russia, Turkey, and Great
Status. Britain. In Siberia, Transcaucasia,
and Turkestan the government of
Jews of European origin must be distinguished from
that of native Jews. The former are controlled by
the restrictive measures in force in the country of
their origin; the latter, under Russian rule, have
obtained the benefits of a regular government and of
protection from Mussulman fanaticism, and have
even, to a large extent — especially in the Caucasus —

been associated with the local administration. Since
1892, however, their situation has trended toward
that of their European coreligionists. In Asiatic
Turkey the reforms called "tanzimat” have gradu-
ally effaced the differences that law and ancient
usage had established between Jew and Mussulman ;
and the constitution of 1876, by proclaiming that
all subjects of the empire are without distinction
called Osmanlis, abrogated the stipulations of the
decree of Omar. Moreover, in the course of recent
centuries, the Porte has frequently taken Jews into
its service ; and some of them had attained to high
offices. It should be added that in regions where
the sultan’s authority has not been uncontested, as,
for example, Yemen and Kurdistan, the condition
of the Jews has remained precarious and wretched.
In Persia till within the last few 3' ears, Jews were
subject to many disqualifications, and were com-
pelled to follow sordid, disreputable trades: a series
of edicts of the present shah, Muzaffar-ed-din,
granted them civil rights (see Afghanistan, Ara-
bia, China, etc.).

Bibi.ioorapiiy : Fiirst, Kultur- und Literatur-CIesch. der
Juden in Aden. 1849, passim; .1. J. Benjamin. Add Jahre
in Azienuml Afrika, ii., Hanover, 1859; Isidore Loeb, La
Situation des Israelites en Tuniuie. etc., Paris, 1877.

G. I. LY.

ASIA MINOR: The western extremity of Asia,
which seems to have been known to the Jews at a
relatively early date ; for to this region belong the
greater number of the sons of Japhet mentioned in
the ethnographic lists in Gen', x. Von Gutschmid
believes that there was a dispersion of Jews in Asia
Minor in the middle of the fourth century b.c. ; but
it is probable that Jewish colonization did not ante-
date the Seleucids, though Josephus mentions the
existence of relations between Jews and the inhabi-
tants of Pergamus, extending back to the time of
Abraham.

Toward the end of the third century, at the time
that Greek communities began to be formed in the
villages along the coast, Antiochus the Great (223—
187 b.c.) installed in the more thinly populated dis-
tricts of Phrygia 2,000 Jewish families from Meso-
potamia (Josephus, “Ant.” xii. 3, §4). The Jews
formed military colonies at these places, the princi-
pal of which seem to have been Apamea, Laodicea,
and Hierapolis. The name Karotx'ia (colony), which
Hierapolis retained for four centuries, attests the
nature of the settlement.

Before the death of Antiochus, Asia Minor passed
forever out of the grasp of the Seleucids. Their suc-
cessors, the Romans, followed the same
The favorable policy toward the Jews;
Roman Oc- at first protecting them in the va-
cupation. rious states in which the country
remained divided (“Letter of the Ro-
man Senate to the Kings of Pergamus, Cappadocia,”
etc., 139-138 b.c.); and, later, defending them from
the ill will of the Hellenic population among whom
they lived, when, after the year 133, these states
were successively annexed by Rome. The Greek
towns regarded with disfavor the settlement among
them of this strange element, which, while claiming
to participate in communal life, still adhered to its
peculiar customs and organization. Hence, there
developed a sentimeDt of hostility which in the

Asia Minor
‘Asiyah

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

212

second half of the first century before the common
era provoked at Tralles, Laodicea, Miletus, aud
Ephesus irritating measures, such as the seizure of
moneys collected for the Temple, the prohibition of
the exercise of the Jewish religion, and even threats
of expulsion. Caesar and Augustus, however, as-
sured to the Jews the rights of sojourn and of free
worship; yet it is improbable that in the Greek
towns they possessed the right of citizenship and a
corresponding share of public honors. On the other
hand, they enjoyed freedom from conscription, the
exemption from which was conferred on them by
Dolabella, proconsul in Asia (43 b.c.). Roman offi-
cials seem to have departed from their benevo-
lent policy in only oue instance — when, in 62 b.c.,

L. Valerius Flaccus confiscated at Laodicea, Apamea,
Adramyttium, and Pergamus money intended for
Jerusalem. He had to answer for the illegal act be-
fore the courts.

If the sums seized by Valerius Flaccus really rep-
resented the didraclima tax for one year, it might
be concluded, according to the calculation of Theo-
dore Reinach, that there were at that time 180,000
Jews in Asia Minor. But this number is possibly
ten times too large: for, among nearly 20,000 Greek
inscriptions found in Asia Minor, scarcely twenty
can be attributed doubtless to Jews.

From the beginning of the common era, popular
hatred toward the Jews seemed to diminish, doubt-
less through their gradual assimilation with Hel-

lenism. At the end of the first century Ptolenueus
of Tlos offered to the Jewish community, as a thank-
offering for having raised him to the dignity of
arclion, a burial-ground, which bore
The the pagan name of “lieroon.” This
Birth of wTas in conformity with the practise
Hellenism, known as the “ honorarium decurio-
nati ” (present of one who has become a
decurion), modeled after the political organization of
the city. Only the ordinary formulas of Greek epig-
raphy are seen in the epitaph of Rufina of Smyrna
and in the inscription of Tation of Pliocaea, who
erected a synagogue, in return for which he received
a crown of gold from the community. Record ex-
ists of the marriage of a Jewess to a Greek at Lystra.

As Judaism became affected by outside influences,
and in turn influenced the surrounding society, vari-
ous hybrid groups grew up side by side with the
relatively orthodox elements. Such were the Juda-
izing pagans: Julia Severa of Akmonia, benefactress
of the synagogue and high priestess of the imperial
religion; the Porphyrabaphoi of Hierapolis, who
mixed practises of entirely Hellenic origin with the
observance of the feasts of Passover aud Pentecost;
and the Hypsistarians, or Adorers of the Supreme
God. The Sabbatists of Cilicia and the followers of
Sambathe at Thyatira were also more or less under
the influence of Judaism.

Powerful though the effect of the surrouuding
Hellenism was, the Jewish communities displayed

(Drawn especially for “ The Jewish Encyclopedia.”)

213

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Asia Minor
‘Asiyah

a remarkable vitality. Even in the third century,
the Jewish colonies of Smyrna and Hierapolis pre-
served a racial feeling sufficiently strong to cause
them to call themselves “laos” or “ethnos ’’(people)
of the Jews. About the same time,
Strong the colony of Apamea invokcdapar-
Racial ticular statute, administered under a
Feeling of law (“ nomos ”).

Jews. These groups of Jews, however,
seem to have lost all connection with
the .Jewish centers of Palestine and of Babylonia.
The Talmud ignores them completely. According
to a doubtful tradition, R. Akiba and R. Mei'r went
to Mazaca in Cappadocia; and, according to the
Pesikta, an obscure haggadist, Nahum, preached
at Tarsus. M. Jastrow disagrees with Kohut and
Neubauer, in identifying the Biblical Ludim witli
the Lydians. Joseph Halevv has raised strong ob-
jections to the identification of Phrygia with Pru-
gita, the wine of which, says the Babylonian Tal-
mud, separates the Ten Tribes from their brethren.
Cappadocia seems to have been an exception to the
rule, and not to have lost all contact with Talmudic
Judaism. Two scholars, Samuel and Judah, are
styled “ of Cappadocia ” ; and in an inscription at
Jatfa occurs the name of a Cappadocian Jew called
Jacob, at a time when members of the Asiatic com-
munities generally bore Greek names.

Christianity at first affected these little Jewish
colonies less than one would have expected. The
preaching of Paul, himself a Jew of
Advent of Tarsus, does not seem to have been
Christi- very successful, save, possibly, at Ico-
anity. nium. Where defections occurred,
they were merely individual cases.
The texts of the third century, cited above, show
that the Jewish elements continued, without serious
impairment, up to the triumph of the new religion
and the establishment of the Christian empire.

Information concerning events later than this
epoch is very scarce. The Jews of Asia Minor
probably shared the vicissitudes of their coreligion-
ists in Oriental Christendom ; undergoing, like them,
the changes of an increasingly harsh legislation, and
the persecutions of Justinian, Justin, Phocas, and
lleraclius. A false tradition makes certain Jews of
Syria who had fled to Isauria the instigators of the
struggle of Leo II. with the Iconoclasts. It is, how-
ever, certain that Leo in 722 forced the entire body
of Jews to embrace Christianity. The measure must
have been merely nominal in its effects; for in the
following century various emperors passed many
similar ordinances.

Turkish rule initiated an era of comparative toler-
ance for the Jewish communities, though they had
doubtless become greatly reduced in numbers. In
the reign of Sultan Orklian (1326-1360) a group of
immigrants from Syria reinforced the
In population of Brusa ; and at the end of
the Middle the fifteenth century and later, the com-
Ages. munities of Amasia, Tokat, Magnesia,
Syria, and Smyrna were augmented
by a fresh contingent of immigrants, refugees from
Spain, whose language soon superseded Greek,
which had probably remained from ancient times
the language of the old indigenous communities.

The colonies thus formed have passed through the
last few centuries without either disturbance or dis-
tinction; having lived in accord with the Turks,
but at times less harmoniously with the Greek Chris-
tians. The only noteworthy incident in modern times
was the excitement aroused by Siiabbetiiai Zebi.

Official statistics give the following figures for
the Jewish population of Asia Minor, including the
Armenian provinces:

Jewish Population of Asia Minor.

Vilayets of Trebizond, Erzerum, Angora, Seevas, Konia,

Diarbekr, and Kastamuni 3,170

Vilayet of Van 5,000

Vilayet of Brusa 3,225

Vilayet of Constantinople (Asiatic dependencies) 6,670

Vilayet of Smyrna 22,516

Sanjik of Imidt 2,500

Sanjik of Biga 2,988

Total 46,069

The Jews form an active, industrious class, fol-
lowing minor trades and handicrafts. The founda-
tion of the agricultural school, “Or Israel,” near
Smyrna, by the Alliance Israelite Universelle and
the Jewish Colonization Society will doubtless cause
the migration into the agricultural regions of a num-
ber of Jews concentrated in cities. The Alliance
lias contributed also to the moral and
Trades and material improvement of the Jews in
Schools, the provinces bordering on the HSgean
Sea, by the erection of schools and
workshops for apprentices in Smyrna (1878), Darda-
nelles (1878), Cuscunjuk (1879), Brusa (1886), Mag-
nesia (1892), Aidin (1894), Pergamus (1896), Casaba,
and Syria (1897).

Bibliography : Vital Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie ; Schiirer,
Gesch. des J lid. Volkes, 3d ed., i. 3; Th. Mommsen, Prov-
inces of the Roman Empire ( Riimisehe Geschichte , v. viil.);
Ramsay, Historical Commentary on Galatians-, Joseph
Halevv, Memoire sur Quelques Noms Geographiques de la
Palestine, embodied in the annual of Luncz, Jerusalem ; J.
Schenk, in Byzantinisehe Zeitschri.ft, 1896, p. 272 : T. Franco,
Essai sur VHistoire des Juifs de l' Empire -Ottoman ; M.
Jastrow, Lcs Ludim on Luddi. in Revue Etudes Juires,
x v ii. p. 308 : Ramsay, Cities and Bisluiprics of Phryyia, i. 2 ;
idem, St. Paul.

G. I. Ly.

ASIEL : 1. Found only in the genealogy of

Simeon (I Chron. iv. 35). 2. One of the five skilled

writers who wrote the law for Ezra (II Esd. xiv.
24). 3. Ancestor of Tobit (Tobit i. 1, R. V. ; A. V.
reads “ Asael”).

j. jr. G. B. L.

‘ASIYAH (“world of making”): The last of the
four spiritual worlds of the Cabala — Azilut, Beriah,
Yezirali, ‘Asiyah — based on the passage in Isa. xliii.
7. According to the “Maseket Azilut,” it is the
region where the Ofanim rule and where they pro-
mote the hearing of prayers, support human en-
deavor, and combat evil. Their ruler is Sandalphon.
According to the system of the later Palestinian
Cabala, ‘Asiyah is the lowest of the spiritual worlds
containing the Ten Heavens and the whole system
of mundane Creation. The light of the Sefirot ema-
nates from these Ten Heavens, which arc called the
“Ten Sefirot of ‘Asiyah ”; and through them spiri-
tuality and piety are imparted to the realm of matter
— the seat of the dark and impure powers (Cor-
dovero, “Pardes Rimmonim,” chapter [initials

Askanazy

Asmakta

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

214

of Azilut, Beriah, Y'ezirali, ‘Asiyah]). (Vital, “ ‘ Ez
Hayyim,” chapter y"'3S«.) Compare Azilut.

' k.‘ P. B.

ASKANAZY, MAX: German physician : born
at Stalluponen, East Prussia, Feb. 24, 1865. He re-
ceivedhis education at the gymnasium inKonigsberg,
Prussia, and at tlie university in that city, studying
medicine at the latter, and graduating in 1890. In
the same year he became assistant at the patholog-
ical institute of his alma mater, and in 1893 was ad-
mitted to the medical faculty of the university as
lecturer. Askanazy is the author of several essays
on clinical and pathological-anatomical subjects,
among which are : “ Kasuistisches zur Frage der Alo-
pecia Neurotica,” in “Arcliiv fur Dermatologie uud
Syphilis,” 1890, xxii. 523: “ Ueber Bothriocephalus-
Anaemie und die Prognostische Bedeutuug der Me-
galoblasten im Aniimischen Blute.” in “Zeitsclirift
fur Klinische Medizin,” 1895. xxvii.. parts 5 and 6;
“Ueber den Wassergelialt des Blutes und Blut-
serums bei Kreislaufstorungen, Nephritiden, Auae-
mien uud Fieber Nebst Vorbemerkungen iiber die
Untersuchungsmethodeu und iiber den Befund uuter
Physiologischen Verthiiltnissen,” in “Deutsches Ar-
chie fur Klinische Medizin.” 1897. lix. ; “Ueber die
Diagnostische Bedeutuug der Aussclieidung des
Bence-Jones’schen Ivorpers durch den Urin,” ih.
1900, lxviii.

s. F. T. H.

ASKANAZY, SELLY : German physician;
born Sept. 8, 1866, at Stalluponen. East Prussia.
He attended the Kneiphof Gymnasium at Kouigs-
berg, Prussia, and later the university in that city,
graduating as doctor of medicine in 1892. Joining
the staff of the university medical hospital as junior
assistant in the same year, he became in 1894 first
assistant. He held this position until 1899. when he
resigned owing to his increasing private practise.
In 1897 he was appointed lecturer in the university.
Askanazy has contributed several essays to the med-
ical journals on the examination of patients for ac-
cident insurance, clinic d diagnostics, etc.

s. F. T. II.

ASKENAZY, SIMON : Polish historian : born
in 1867 at Zawichwost, government of Saudomir,
Russian Poland ; studied at the universities of War-
saw and Gottingen, graduating from the latter with
the degree of doctor of philosophy. In 1897 he was
appointed lecturer, ami in 1902 professor extraor-
dinary on universal history to the University of
Lemberg. His principal works are: “Die Letzte
Polnische Konigswahl,” Gottingen: “Studja His-
toryczno-Krytyczne,” Cracow, 2d ed.. 1897: “ Dzia-
laluosc Ministra Lubeckiego,” 1897; and “Minister-
jum Wielliorskiego,” 1898.

Many of Askenazy’s historical treatises were pub-
lished in the “ Biblioteka Warzawska ” and in “ Kwar-
talnik Historyczny.” They deal mainly with Polish
history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

BiBr.ioGR.vPHY: S. Orgelbrancl, Encuklopedja Powszechna,
Warsaw, 1898, s.v.

H. R.

ASKNAZI, ISAAC LVOVICH : Russian
painter; born at Drissa, government of Vitebsk, Jan.
28, 1856. He entered the St. Petersburg Academy |

of Fine Arts in 1870 as a day-scholar, and was regis-
tered as a student in 1874. In the latter year he was
awarded the second silver medal for a sketch, and
in 1875 the silver medal for a drawing. In 1877 he
received the first silver
medal for a sketch, and
the second gold medal
for a study, “ Abraham
Expelling Hagar with
Her Son Ishmael. ”

Asknazi was awarded
in 1879 a silver medal
for a sketch, “ The Pub-
lican and the Pharisee,”
and the first gold medal
for a study, “The Wo-
man Taken in Adul-
tery.” “The Pub-
lican ” represents the Isaac Lvovich Asknazi.
Pharisees surrounding

Jesus, as pious. God-fearing Jews, each wrapped
in a “tallit”and with head -ornaments (“tefillin”).
For this work the artist was granted a traveling
scholarship for four years to enable him to complete
his studies.

Before his departure from St. Petersburg in May,
1880, Asknazi completed his painting “ The Wife of
the Marano.” This work he left with the academy
for exhibition at the Art Exposition in Moscow ; but
it was first exhibited at the St. Peters-
Early burg Academy in 1881, under the

Works. changed title “ In Prison. ” The alter-

ation of title was probably due to the
anti -Jewish riots of 1881, at which period the au-
thorities did not consider it politic to bring the mar-
tyrdom of a Jewess before the eyes of the public.

In November, 1880, Asknazi, on his way to Italy,
visited the galleries and studios of the capitals of
Austria and Germany. While in Vienna he began
his painting “ Maria of Egypt Reflecting upon the
Sins of Her Life,” and his sketches “John the Bap-
tist in Prison,” “John the Baptist’s Head on the
Charger,” and “The Poet Jeliuda Halevi,” after
Heine’s well-known poem. Here he profited greatly
by the advice of Hans Makart, who admired his tal-
ent and took a great interest in his art. In Decem-
ber Asknazi arrived in Rome, where
Influence he began his painting “Moses, the
of Hans Shepherd of Jethro, in the Desert,”
Makart. which, together with “John the Bap-
tist’s Head,” he sent in June, 1885,
to the St, Petersburg Academy, and for which he
was granted the degree of Academician of Arts.
Both pictures were exhibited at the exposition of
the academy in 1886; the latter picture being pur-
chased by the academy, and “ Moses ” by the well-
known collector and art-patron S. M. Tretiakov, of
Moscow. At the same exposition four other paint-
ings by Asknazi were exhibited; “Playing Dice,”
a picture of two Italian boys; “Snow and Frost,”
representing a thinly clad and shivering Italian boy;
“Head of an Italian Woman,” and “A Woman
Knitting.” All four paintings show the influence
of the old Italian masters on Asktiazi’s work.

In 1886 Asknazi exhibited in St. Petersburg “The
Old Shoemaker ” ; in 1887, “ Bad News,” a picture of

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Askanazy

Asmakta

Jewish life, and the “Portrait of L. P.”; and in
1888, “ Sabbath Eve,” representing a Jewess praying
over the Sabbath tapers. This latter painting merits
description here. The light of the candles, mingled
with the twilight, illuminates the table with its snow-
white cloth. The emblematic buds and flowers em-
bossed on the Sabbath lamps are reflected on the
shining surface of the stove. The attitude of the
woman, clad in her holiday dress; the expression of
her face, full of devotion and piety; and every de-
tail of the painting — all suggest the
Influence glory of the approaching day of rest.

of Op- In this work the influence of Oppen-
penheimer. heimer is distinctly noticeable. The
picture was exhibited at the Colum-
bian Expositionat Chicago in 1893, and is now (1902)
in the St. Louis (Mo.) Museum of Art.

In 1890 Asknazi produced “The Bridegroom Ex-
amined by the Rabbi.” A young Talmudist is being
examined by the rabbi in the presence of the future
father-in-law and mother-in-law. He is clad in a
long coat, after the old Polish fashion ; and two long
curls, hanging down from under his cap, encircle his !
pale face. He seems to be quite certain of success 1
in this examination; yet it is evident that his heart
is palpitating, and bashfulness is expressed on his
face, he being aware that all his utterances and
movements are closely watched by his future rela-
tives, although the joy in their faces is proof of their
great satisfaction as the examination nears its end.
Asknazi exhibited with this painting “ Old Age ”
and “The Female Friends.” In 1891 lie painted
“ Am ram and Jocliebed, Parents of Moses.” In 1892
lieexhibited “ Asking a Favor,” “The Morning Call,”
and “In Hesitation,” and in the following year “A
Jewish Wedding.” The wedding occurs in a small
Polisli-Russian town. The bridegroom, in a high
hat, with a long overcoat, and the bride in a white
dress, her head' covered with a thin veil, are just
coming out from under the canopy, accompanied by 1
groomsmen, bridesmaids, and wedding-guests. The
rabbi and the servant of the synagogue turn to the
right, all the rest walking in the middle of the
street. Preceding them are four Jewish musicians:
an old cellist, another old man, evidently the leader
of the band, playing the cymbal — a
His large kind of zither — and two young

“ Jewish men, one playing the fiddle, the other,
Wedding.” a retired soldier, playing the flute.

The “badclian,” or merrymaker, in
front is directing the music; while the little sexton
drives away the street-boys from the route of the
procession. Especially effective are the merry faces
of the three women that are dancing in the throng.
Other paintings of this same period are: “Youth
and Old Age” and “The Last in Church.”

In 1897 Asknazi produced “The Cellist.” repre-
senting a handsome old man with a violoncello be-
tween his feet, sitting in the middle of a luxuriously
furnished room, and playing from notes lying open
on a magnificently carved stand. The strong light
thrown on the figure, the richness of the furniture,
the graceful face of the attentive old musician, all
produce a striking effect. In 1898 Asknazi exhib-
ited: “Boy Preparing His Lesson,” “Housewife
Grinding Coffee,” and “Over the Last Crumbs”;

and in 1899, the portraits of the architect A. Ham-
merschmidt, of Miss P., and of I. Rabbinovicz, the
translator of the Talmud into French.

Asknazi’s latest and best work is “ Ecclesiastes ” or
“Kohelet,” which was exhibited at the Paris Ex
position of 1900. It represents Kohelet ben David,
king of Jerusalem, sitting on his throne, lost in the
dismal thought, “ Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
Kolielet’s face expresses complete resignation: he
has evidently no solution for the difficult question,
“ What profit hath he that worketh in
“ Kohe- that wherein he laboreth?” Lonely
let.” sits the king, long deserted by his
children, to whom he had said, “ Re-
joice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart
cheer thee,” etc. But two loyal servants from his
body-guard and his secretary remain with him,
bound to him by genuine affection. They are pay-
ing the closest attention to every whisper coming
from his mouth. The secretary is writing down on
a tablet the utterances of the wise king; and the
servants, lying on the floor near the throne and lean-
ing on their elbows, are looking at the king, who
relates to them episodes of his life.

Asknazi is considered to be the most devout Jew
among the Russo-Jewish painters. While at the
Academy of St. Petersburg, he was the only student
who was excused by the authorities from working
on the Jewish Sabbath and on holidays. Most of
his paintings deal with Jewish life and history; and
on several occasions the authorities of the academy
made him feel their dissatisfaction with his pro-
nounced emphasis of national Judaism.

Bibliography: Bulgakov, Naslii Khudnzlniiki , i.; Sobko,
Leksiknn Russkikh Khudozhhikov , s.v. : Vyestnik Izyo-
shchnykh Iskusstv, 1886, v. 418-419; Niva , 1892, No. 16; Re-
port of the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts tor
1879 % : Catalogue of the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine
Arts for 1881-93: David Maggid, Asknazi in Sefer Ha-
shandh, Warsaw, 1901, pp. 66-72.

H. R.

ASMA : Arab poetess, contemporary with Dio
hammed ; daughter of Marwan ; was married to an
Arab of the tribe of the Banu Hat mail. After the
murder of the Jewish poet Abu ‘Afak, who, in spite
of his great age, had instigated the members of his
tribe against Mohammed, Asma composed some
verses condemning the deed. Mohammed despatched
‘Umair, the only member of her tribe who had em-
braced Islam, to punish her; and he assassinated her
while asleep, surrounded by her children.

Some Moslem traditionists, in order to excuse the
murder, make Asma a Jewess. It is, however, very
doubtful that she was one. although Griitz (“Gesch.
del- Juden,” v. 144) accepts this assertion as a fact.
Bibliography: Ibn Hlsham, Das Leben Muhammeds , ed.
Wiistenfeld, p. 995; Hirschfeld, in Revue Etudes Juices,
x. 16.

G. II. IIlR.

ASMAKTA (tsmDDK): A word meaning “ sup-
port.” “reliance” (Ket. 67a); hence it is used to
designate a Bible text quoted in support of a rab-
binical enactment (Hul. 64/<: see Jastrow, “Diet.”
s.v.).

In civil law Asmakta (surety) is a contract where-
in one of the parties promises without consideration
to suffer a certain loss, or obligates himself to pay
an unconscionable penalty, upon the fulfilment or

Asmakta

Asmodeus

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

216

non-fulfilment of a certain condition ; which prom-
ise or obligation is not enforceable at law. “An
asmakta does not give title,” is the principle adopted
for the Halakah (B. B. 168a). The reason is that the
one who binds himself is presumed to have done
so because he certainly expected that
Legal the condition, upon the happening of
Meaning, which the obligation was to be com-
plete, would not happen ; and, from
the nature of the obligation, the law presumes that
the serious deliberate intention to be bound by it is
lacking. An Asmakta may be made a perfectly
valid contract if it is made clear that it was intended
to be one ; and the manner in which this may be
done will be set forth hereafter.

Maimonides is of the opinion that every contract
in which the condition is expressed by the use of the
word “if"(DK)> even though reduced to writing
and attested, is an Asmakta (Yad lia-Hazakah, Meki-
rah, xi. 2, 3, 6). The contract takes effect only from
the time when the condition is fulfilled; and this
shows that the obligation was not assumed with seri-
ous intent, but that the promise was given only be-
cause the promisor certainly hoped that the contract
would be nullified by the non-performance of the
condition (Shulhan ‘Aruk, Hoslien Mislipat, 207, 2).
For instance, if A says to B, “ I will give you my
house if [dx] on a certain day you accompany me
to Jerusalem,” or “if you bring me a certain thing,”
even though B fulfils his condition, the contract is
void, because it is an Asmakta (Mekirah, l.c.).

A sells goods to B and receives money on account,
and they agree that if B does not complete the pur-
chase, the earnest-money shall be forfeited to A, and
that if A does not deliver the goods, he shall pay
double the amount of the earnest-money to B. If
B is in default, the earnest-money is forfeited to A,
because he already has it in his posses-
Asmakta sion ; and if A is in default, he must
Not return the earnest-money to the pur-
Binding. chaser, but need not give him double
the amount, because it is an Asmakta
(B. M. 486; Mekirah, xi. 4; Hoslien Mislipat, 207,

Ill-

According to Rashi the earnest- money gives the
buyer the right to claim an equivalent portion of
the goods sold (B. M. 486).

If a debtor has paid a portion of the debt, and he
and the creditor deposit the instrument of indebted-
ness (“ slietar ”) in the hands of a third person with
this condition ; If the debtor does not pay the bal-
ance of the debt within a certain specified time, the
creditor shall be entitled to possession of the slietar
and to the entire amount of the debt, without al-
lowing any credit to the debtor for the amount al-
ready paid on account — in such case, even though
the debtor does not pay within the time specified,
the creditor is not entitled to possession of the in-
strument of indebtedness. Nor is the debtor obliged
to pay that portion of the debt which he has already
paid ; because this is an Asmakta, since the debtor
is presumed to have consented to the condition only
because he was certain that he would be able to pay
the money within the time specified (Misli. B. B. x.
5, opinion of R. Judah ; Mekirah, xi. 5 ; Hoslien Mish-
pat, l.c. 12). The early Talmudists still considered

this a debatable question, but Rab, following the
opinion of R. Judah, decided as above (Ned. 276).

As stated above, Maimonides considers that every
condition introduced by the word “if” constitutes
the contract an Asmakta ; but later authorities dis-
tinguish three classes of conditions (Gloss to Shulhan
‘‘Aruk, Hoslien Mislipat, l.c. 13):

(1) If the fulfilment of the condition depends in
part, but not entirely, upon him who assumes it, it
is an Asmakta; as, for instance, if A agrees to pur-
chase goods for B and binds himself that if he does
not buy them he will pay B a certain sum. The

fulfilment of thiscondition not depend-
Three ing entirely upon A, he must be pre-
conditions sumed to have known that it might be
of In- impossible for him to buy the goods,

validity, because the owner might refuse to sell
them to him (B. M. 736; Tosafot to B.
M. 74a, s.v. “Haka,” and to 666, s.v. “Wei”; see also
Tos. to Sanh. 246, s.v. “ Kol.”)

(2) If the fulfilment of the condition depends en-
tirely upon the person who assumes it, and it is not
unconscionable, it is not an Asmakta ; as, for instance,
if A leases a piece of ground to B, to be farmed on
shares so that a definite share of the product shall be
turned over to A, and B promises that, if he allows
the field to lie fallow, he will pay to A the complete
value of his lease, this is no Asmakta; because the
working of the field lies entirely in his own power,
and he has only bound himself to pay the actual
damage to A resulting from the neglect to till the
field (Misli. B. M. ix. 3). If, however, he has bound
himself to pay a penalty far exceeding the value of
the lease, it is inequitable and will not be enforced
(Hoslien Mislipat, 328, 2).

(3) If the fulfilment of the condition depends on
chance, the contract is no Asmakta: this is the case
in games of chance. But the contract is valid only
so far as the amount at stake is concerned ; any loss
exceeding the amount actually staked can not be
claimed by the winner (based on Sanh. 246).

Asmakta may be validated (1) by the use of the
form “ from now on ” (“ me‘aksliaw ”) ; (2) by the
use of the form “on condition that”

Asmakta (“ ‘al menat ”) ; (3) by actual posses-
Validated. sion; (4) by judicial act; (5) by the
disgrace suffered by one if the other
refuses to perform the contract; (6) by a vow, etc.

(1) If the words “from now on ” (me‘aksliaw) are
used, there is no Asmakta. For instance, if A mort-
gages his field to B upon condition that if the loan
be not repaid within three years, the field shall be-
long to B “ from now on ” — i.e., from the date of the
mortgage — then if the money is not repaid, the con-
dition is fulfilled, and, as it is retroactive, B is con-
sidered the owner of the field, not from the date of
the fulfilling of the condition, but from the date of
the mortgage (B. M. 656, 666; Mekirah, xi. 7; Ho-
shen Mishpat, 207, 9, 14). If A had not intended to
enter upon the contract seriously, he would not have
expressed his intention by the use of the retroactive
words “from now on.”

(2) The form “on condition that” is the legal
equivalent of the form “from now on.” According
to the opinion of Rabbi Solomon ben Adret, the
mere use of the form “ on condition that ” does not

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Asmakta

Asmodeus

determine the question; and lie distinguishes the
case in which it is used for the purpose of consum-
mating the contract from the case in whicli it is for
the imposition of a penalty for the breach of the con-
tract (Gloss to Hoshen Mishpat, l.c.). If A gives his
house to B “ on condition that ” lie marry a sister of
A, the intention of A is that B shall receive the house
only after he has married his sister; and therefore
the phrase “on condition that” is equivalent to
“ from now on,” and there is no Asmakta. If A and
B are adjoining landowners and A wishes to buy B's
land for the purpose of preventing it from falling
into the hands of a third person, but B refuses to
sell, and, for the purpose of pacifying A, declares
that he will not sell his land without first offering it
to A, “on condition that” if he breaks this promise
he will pay A a certain sum of money, this condition
is merely a penalty for breach of promise, and is not
like the form “from now on,” but is like the form
“if” and it is an Asmakta (“Bet Yosef” to Hoshen
Mishpat, 207, 14; responsa of Solomon ben Adret,
Nos. 917 and 1149).

(3) If the subject of the contract is real estate, and
possession of it is taken at the time of the contract,
in such case, even if the condition is in the form
“if,” there is no Asmakta (Mekirah, xi. 3, according
to Kesef Mishneh, ad loc.).

(4) If the contract is concluded with Kinyan (cer-
emony of symbolic seizure) in the presence of a tri-
bunal of three judges learned in the law, and the doc-
ument is deposited in court on condition that it is
to be delivered to the debtor in case the creditor is
not able, within a certain specified time, to establish
his claim, then there is no Asmakta, no matter how
the condition is expressed. Unless the creditor is
prevented from appearing within the time fixed, by
sickness or some other unavoidable occurrence, the
debtor is entitled to delivery of the document (Ned.
27 b\ Mekirah, xi. 13, 14; Hoshen Mishpat, l.c. 15).

A case is cited in the Talmud in which two parties
had a lawsuit, and A moved the court to grant a
continuance of thirty days in order to enable him to
bring his proofs. The court suspected that the de-
mand for continuance was merely for delay, and
granted it only on condition that A should deposit
in court all the documentary evidence which he had,
with the understanding that if he did not appear
within thirty days, the continuance was to be con-
sidered null and void. The thirty days passed, and
A did not appear. The question arose as to the
legality of the condition made by the court, it being
argued that this was an Asmakta, inasmuch as the
condition was only accepted by A because he cer-
tainly hoped to be able to appear in time. The
Talmud answers this problem by saying that in this
case, inasmuch as the proofs were deposited in
court, the non-fulfilment of the condition was tanta-
mount to a relinquishment of the claim, and there
was no Asmakta ; and it was established as a general
proposition of law that if the contract is concluded
with Kinyan in the presence of a learned court of
three judges, and the creditor is not prevented from
fulfilling the condition by an unavoidable occur-
rence, there is no Asmakta (Ned. 27 a, b).

(5) It is customary to fix certain penalties for
breach of contract of marriage. In such cases, even

though the penalty is an exceptionally large one, it
is not to be considered an Asmakta ; and it may be
collected by law as damages for the shame suffered
by the innocent party, for which no amount may be
considered too high. And furthermore, in this case,
as in the case of gambling contracts, the conditions
are mutual and reciprocal, and hence there is no As-
makta (Hoshen Mishpat, l.c. 16).

(6) A conditional promise strengthened by a vow,
an oath, or a hand clasp is not an Asmakta (ib. 19);
hence the rule of Asmakta does not apply where
objects are conditionally dedicated to religions or
charitable uses, these being considered as vows (ib.
19, gloss; Shulhan ‘Aruk, Yore De'ah, 258, 10).

If a contract is an Asmakta, a notice in the deed
that “this shall not be considered an Asmakta ” is of
no effect (Hoshen Mishpat, l.c. 18): the substance
of the contract determines its legal character, irre-
spective of what the parties choose to call it.

Bibuography: Moses Mendelssohn, R itualgesetze derjuden ,
iv. 3, §5; Z.Frankel, Dcr Oerichtlichc Beiveis nacli Mo-
saic h - Ta l mud ischem Rechte, pp. 476 et seq. ; M. Bloeh, In r
Vertrag nath Mosaisch-Talmudischem Rechte , pp. 29 et seq.
j. sk. D. W. A.

ASMODEUS, or ASHMEDAI [ASHMA-
DAI] (’AffpoJatof, ■’N'IEiE’N) : Name of the prince of
demons. The meaning of the name and the identity
of the two forms here given are still in dispute.

Asmodeus first appears in the Book of Tobit. Ac-
cording to Tobit iii. 8, vi. 14, the evil spirit Asmo-
deus— “king of the demons,” in the
In the Hebrew and Chaldaic versions, is a
Book of later addition — fell in love with Sarah,

Tobit. the daughter of Raguel, and for that
reason prevented her from having a
husband. After killing seven men successively on
the nights of their marriage to her, he was rendered
harmless when Tobias married her, following the
instructions given him by the angel Raphael. As-
modeus “fled into the utmost parts of Egypt and
the angel [Raphael] bound him” (ib. iii. 8, vi. 14 et
seq. viii. 2-4).

Akin to this representation in Tobit is the descrip-
tion of Asmodeus in the Testament of
In Solomon, a pseudepigrapliie work, the
Testament original portions of which date from
of Solomon, the first century. Asmodeus answered
King Solomon’s question concerning
his name and functions as follows:

“ I am called Asmodeus among mortals, and my business is to
plot against the newly wedded, so that they may not know one
another. And I sever them utterly by many calamities ; and I
waste away the beauty of virgins and estrange their hearts. . . .

I transport men into tits of madness and desire when they have
wives of their own, so that they leave them and go off by night
and day to others that belong to other men ; with the result that
they commit sin and fall into murderous deeds.”— Test, of
Solomon, transl. in “Jewish Quarterly Review,” xi. 20.

Solomon obtained the further information that it
was the archangel Raphael who could render Asmo-
deus innocuous, and that the latter could be put to
flight by smoke from a certain fish’s gall (compare
Tobit viii. 2). The king availed himself of this
knowledge, and by means of the smoke from the
liver and gall he frustrated the “unbearable malice”
of this demon. Asmodeus then was compelled to
help in the building of the Temple; and, fettered in
chains, he worked clay with his ieet, and drew

Asmodeus

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

218

water. Solomon would not give him his liberty
“because that tierce demon Asmodeus knew even
the future ” (ib. p. 21).

Thus, in the Testament of Solomon, Asmodeus is
connected on the one hand with the Asmodeus of
Tobit, and possesses on the other many points of
contact with the Ashmedai of rabbinical literature,
especially in his relation to Solomon and the build-
ing of the Temple. The Hag gadali relates that Sol-
omon, when erecting the Temple, did
Haggadic not know how to get the blocks of
Legend, marble into shape, since, according to
the law (Ex. xx. 26), tliejr might not
be worked by an iron tool. The wise men advised
him to obtain the “sliamir” (VD5?), a worm whose
mere touch could cleave rocks. But to obtain it was
no slight task; for not even the demons, who knew
so many secrets, knew where the sliamir was to be
found. They surmised, however, that Ashmedai,
king of the demons, was in possession of the secret,
and they told Solomon the name of the mountain on
which Ashmedai dwelt and described Iris manner of
life. On this mountain there was a well-head from
which the arch-demon obtained his drinking-water.
He closed it up daily with a large rock, and secured
it in other ways before going to heaven, whither he
went every day in order to take part in the discus-
sions in the celestial house of study (“Metibta”).
Thence he would presently descend again to the
earth in order to be present — invisibly — at the de-
bates in the earthly houses of learning. Then, after
investigating the fastenings of the well, to ascertain
if they had been tampered with, he drank of the
water.

Solomon sent his chief man Benaiali ben Jehoia-
dali to capture Ashmedai. For this purpose he pro-
vided him with a chain, a ring on which the Tetra-
grammaton was engraved, a bundle of wool, and a
skin of wine. Benaiali drew off the water from the
well through a hole that he bored, and, stopping
up the source with the wool, filled the
Benaiah well with wine. When Ashmedai de-
Captures scended from heaven, to his astonish-
Ashmedai. ment he found wine instead of water
in the well, although everything
seemed untouched. At first he would not drink of
it, and cited the Bible verses against wine (Prov. xx.
1, and Hosea iv. 11), in order to inspire himself with
moral courage. At length Ashmedai succumbed to
his consuming thirst, and drank until his senses
were overpowered and he fell into a deep sleep.
Benaiah then threw the chain about the demon’s
neck. Ashmedai on awaking tried to free himself,
but Benaiah called to him : “ The Name of thy Lord
is upon thee.”

Though Ashmedai now permitted himself to be
led off unresistingly, he acted most peculiarly on the
way to Solomon. He brushed against
Ashmedai’s a palm-tree and uprooted it; he
Journey knocked against a house and over-
to Solomon, turned it; and when, at the request
of a poor woman, he was turning aside
from her hut, he broke a bone, and asked with grim
humor: “Is it not written, 'A soft tongue [the
woman’s entreaty] breaketh the bone ’? ” (Prov. xxv.
15). A blind man going astray he set in the right

path, and a similar kindness he did for a drunkard.
He wept when a wedding company passed them,
and laughed at one who asked his shoemaker to make
him shoes to last for seven years, and at a magician
who was publicly showing his skill. Having finally
arrived at the end of the journey, Ashmedai, after
several days of waiting, was led before Solomon,
who told him that he wanted nothing of him but
the shamir. Ashmedai thereupon informed the king
where it could be obtained.

Solomon then questioned him about his strange
conduct on the journey. Ashmedai answered that
he judged persons and things according to their real
character and not according to their appearance in
the eyes of human beings. He cried when he saw
the wedding company, because he knew the bride-
groom had not a month to live; and he laughed at
him who wanted shoes to last seven years, because
the man would not own them for seven days; also
at the magician who pretended to disclose secrets,
because he did not know that under his very feet
la}- a buried treasure.

Ashmedai remained with Solomon until the Tem-
ple was completed. One day the king told him that
he did not understand wherein the greatness of the
demons lay, if their king could be kept in bonds by
a mortal. Ashmedai replied that if Solomon would
remove his chains and lend him the magic ring, he
(Ashmedai) would prove his own greatness. Solo-
mon agreed. The demon then stood before him with
one wing touching heaven, and the other reaching
to the earth. Snatching up Solomon, who had
parted with his protecting ring, he flung him four
hundred parasangs away from Jerusalem, and then
palmed himself off as the king.

After long wanderings Solomon returned to re-
claim his throne. At first the people thought him
mad ; but then the wise men decided it would be
well to regard Ashmedai more closely. It appeared
on inquiry that not even Benaiah, the first in the
service of the king, had ever been admitted to his
presence, and that Ashmedai in his marital relations
had not observed the Jewish precepts. Moreover,
the declaration of the king’s women that he always
wore slippers, strengthened suspicion; for demons
proverbially had cocks’ feet. Solomon, provided
with another magic ring, at length suddenly ap-
peared before Ashmedai, who thereupon took flight
(Git. 68; parallel passages, Midr. Teh. on Ps. lxxviii.
45; Yalk. ii. 182; compare Num. R. xi. 3; Targ. on
Eccl. i. 12, and the extract from a manuscript Mid-
rash in “Z. D. M. G.” xxi. 220, 221).

Although the number of incidents concerning
Ashmedai related by this Haggadah is fairly large,
the fact must not be disregarded that
Elements many details grouped about him are
of the of later origin and do not pertain to
Ashmedai- Ashmedai at all. Ashmedai, as the
Solomon false Solomon, is a Babylonian elabo-
Legend. ration of the Palestinian Haggadah
concerning Solomon’s punishment for
his sins, which punishment consisted in the assump-
tion of the throne by an angel; Solomon meanwhile
having to wander about as a beggar (Yer. Sanh. ii.
6; Pesik., ed. Buber, 169c/ ; Tan., ed. Buber, iii. 55;
Eccl. Ii. ii. 2; Simon b. Yohai of the middle of the

219

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Asmodeus

second century is quoted as the authority). Simi-
larly, Aslimedai’s service in the construction of the
Temple is probably an echo of the elaborate legend
in the Testament of Solomon, according to which
the demons were the chief laborers at the building
of the Temple. This cycle of legends in the Testa-
ment of Solomon is the source also of the myth con-
cerning the wonderful ring whose inscription tames
the demons, as well as of the incident that by virtue
of the ring the demons were forced to assist in erect-
ing the Temple. (Test. Solomon v. ; compare vi. :
“Throw this ring at the chest of the demon and say
to him, ‘ In the name of God, King Solomon calls thee
hither.’ ”)

Furthermore, it is improbable that the shamir
legend was originally an element of the Aslimedai
legend. The Testament of Solomon (ix.) narrates
how a demon, forced by Solomon to hew stones for
the Temple, wasafraidof the iron instruments ; and,
as Conybeare rightly observes (“Jew. Quart. Rev.”
xi. 18), the fear of iron on the part of evil spirits is
a feature common to both old and recent folk-lore.
In the Talmud this fear is given a Jewish setting by
connecting it with the legal precept against the use
of iron tools, and by causing the demons to render
the blocks of stone fit. for use in the Temple struc-
ture without the use of iron.

A comparison of the Aslimedai legend with the
Testament of Solomon reveals also that many other
points in the representation of demons by the former
are general characteristics of demons. Thus Ash-
medai's wings correspond to the wings of Ornias in
the Testament (x.). Ornias likewise daily visited
heaven ; and just as Aslimedai learned the fate of
human beings in heaven, so, according to the Testa-
ment (cxiii. ), did all the demons. Consequently,
Ornias could laugh at the king who was on the point
of condemning a youth to death who was destined
to die at the end of three days(cxi.), just as Ashme-
dai laughed at the man who ordered shoes to last
seven years, when he had not seven days to live.

Hence it follows that the passage in the Talmud
provides little information concerning the more par-
ticular characteristics of Aslimedai. That he over-
turned a house and uprooted a tree indicates noth-
ing ; for with any demon, however insignificant, such
things are trifles. Aslimedai is not represented as
doing these things from a mere desire to destroy,
but apparently through carelessness. The common
opinion that in the Talmud, Aslimedai is depicted as
particularly lustful and sensual, has no sufficient
basis. The Talmud simply states that Ashmedai,
while playing the part of Solomon, did not observe
the Jewish precepts pertaining to the separation of
women (m3), and that he attacked Batli-sheba, Sol-
omon’s mother. These facts, in reality, were to
prove only that Ashmedai was not Solomon.

The question now arises whether Asmodeus and
Ashmedai may be considered as closely allied with
each other, and identical with the Persian arch-
demon, HUshma or ^Eshma-dseva, as was first sug-
gested by Benfey, and developed by Windisclimann
and Kohut.

In regard to JEslima, very frequently mentioned
in the Zend-Avesta and the Pahlavi texts, Darmes-
teter says :

“Originally a mere epithet of the storm flend, yEshma was
afterward converted into an abstraction, the demon of rage and
anger, and became an expression for all wick-
Asmodeus, edness, a mere name of Abriman [“ Intro-
Ashmedai, duction to Vendidad,” iv.22]. This description
and of yEsbrna, as he appears in the Zend-Avesta,
.aSshma. tallies with the dominant conception in Pah-
lavi writings. Thus in Dabistan, i„ Dink,
xxxvii. 164: ‘The impetuous assailant. Wrath (yEshm), when
he does not succeed in causing strife among the righteous,
flings discord and strife amid the wicked : and when he does
not succeed as to the strife even of the wicked, lie makes the
demons and the flends tight together.’ ”

In “Shayast ha-Sliayast” (xviii.) vEshm is de-
scribed, quite unlike Abriman, as the “ chief agent of
the evil spirit [Abriman] in his machinations against
mankind, rushing into his master’s presence in hell
to complain of the difficulties lie encounters.”

A consideration of the linguistic arguments does
not support the hypothesis of an identification of
Ashmedai with HCshma dceva, as “dai” in Ash-
medai hardly corresponds with the Persian “daeva,”
in view of the Syriac form “dawya” (demon) with
the consonant “ w ” ; nor is there any instance of the
linking of “iEshma” and “dceva” in Persian texts.
The Asmodeus of the Apocrypha, and JEshma. how-
ever, seem to be related. In the Testament of Solo-
mon Asmodeus appears as seducing man to unchaste
deeds, murder, and enmity, and thus reveals many
points in common with TEshtna. The “ Bundehish ”
(xxviii. 15-18) furnishes the most striking resem-
blance: “There, wherever yEslim lays a foundation,
many creatures perish.”

Ashmedai of the Solomonic legend, on the other
hand, is not at all a harmful and destructive spirit.
Like the devil in medieval Christian folk-lore, lie
is a “king of demons” (Pes. 110a), degraded and
no longer the dreaded arch-fiend, but the object of
popular humor and irony. The name
Ashmedai “ Ashmedai ” was probably taken as
and signifying “the cursed,” not;’ (com
Shamdon. pare Noldeke, in Euting’s “Naha
titische Inschriften,” pp. 31, 32), just
as “la‘in ” (the cursed), is the Arabic name of Satan.
Thus the name Shamdon (pOK’b is found in Pales-
tinian Midrashim.

It is related of Shamdon that at the planting of
the first vine by Noah he helped with the work, but
said to Noah : “ I want to join you in your labor and
share with you; but have heed that you take not of
my portion lest I do you harm ” (Gen. R. xxxvi. 3);
in the legend in Midrash Abkir, and cited in Yalk. i.
61, Satan figures as the chief personality. The sec-
ond thing told of this Shamdon is that in the Golden
Age he had an encounter with a new-born child
wherein he was worsted (Lev. R. v. 1, according to
the reading of the ‘Aruk, s.v. 1C’)-

In later sources, Shamdon is held to be the father
of Ashmedai, whose mother they say was Naamah,
sister of Tubal Cain (Nahmanides on
Aslimedai Gen. iv. 22; from this comes the same
in Later statement in Bahya b. Asher, Zioni,
Sources. and Recanati in their commentaries,
ad loc.). This legend of Aslnnedai’s
birth tallies with the assertion of Asmodeus in the
Testament of Solomon : “I was born of angel’s seed
by a daughter of man” (xxi.). In the Zohar, Ash-
medai is represented as the teacher of Solomon, to

Asmodeus

Ass

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

220

whom he gave a book of magic and medicine (Zohar
Lev. pp. 19«, 43a ; ib. Num. 1996, ed. Wilna). In a
more recent Midrash Ashmedai is identified with
Shamdou (Midr. Shir ha-Shirim, ed. Griinhut, 296;
a story similar to the one here given of Solomon’s
ring and the fish is found in “Emek ha-Melek,” 14 a-
15 a, and in the Jud:eo-German “ Maasebuch ” ; the
story is reprinted in Jellinek, “B. H.” ii. 86). A
recent source gives the following legend cited by the
Tosafists in Men. 37 a from an anonymous Midrash,
which has probably been lost:

“ Ashmedai brought forth from the earth a two-headed man,
who married and produced both normal and two-headed chil-
dren. When the man died a quarrel arose among the children
concerning their inheritance, the two-headed ones demanding a
double portion.” (This legend is given at length in Jellinek,
“B. H.” iv. 151, 152.)

Later cabalists held the theory that Ashmedai was
king of the demons for only a limited time, and that
on his death — demonsare mortal (Hag. 16a) — he was
succeeded by Bildad, who in turn left his domin-
ion to Hind (see Jos. Sossnitz, “Ha-Maor,” p. 84).
Benjamin of Tudela (ed. Margolin, 63, 65) mentions
a certain local legend about Baalbek, whose temple
was erected by Ashmedai, on Solomon’s bidding,
for the king’s favorite, the daughter of Pharaoh.

Concerning the many points of resemblance of the
Ashmedai-Solomon legend with Persian and classic
legends, see Shamir, Solomon in Legend and
Folk-Lore, and HUshma.

Bibliography: Benfey, Monatsnamen, p. 201; Eisenmenger,
Entdecktes Judenthum, i. 350-360, 823; Gfrorer , Jahrhun-
dert des Heils, i. 414 et sea. ; Griinbaum, in Z. D. M. G. xxi.
202-224, 317-321 ; idem, Neue Beitrttge zur Semitischen
Saaenkunde , 1893, pp. 221 et set]. ; Hamburger, R. Ii. T. ii.
74-76; Halcvy, in Revue Semitique, viii. 43; D. Joel, Der
Aberglaube und die Stellung des Judenthums zu Demsel-
ben, 1881, p. 83,; Alex. Kohut, Ucber die Jtldische A ngelolagie
und Dtimonologie, pp. 72-80 (here the identification of
Samael with Ashmedai is derived from Elijah Babur’s Tistibi ,
s.v., and is quite erroneous); idem, in Geiger’s JUd. Zeit. x.
52; idem, in 'Aruch Cnmpletum, s.v.; Rapoport, 'Erek
Millin, pp. 242-250; Stave, Einfluss des Parsismus auf das
Judenthum, p. 263; Windischmann, Zoroastrische Studien.
pp. 139-147 ; Weber, JUdische Theohtgie, pp. 254, 257 ; and
concerning ^Esbma, the indexes to volumes v., xviii.. xxili.,
xxiv. of Sacred Books of the East, containing the Zend-
Avesta and the Pahlavi texts.

k. L. G.

ASMONEAN. See Periodicals.

ASNAPPER : A person who transplanted the
mixed multitude of tribes from Babylon to Samaria
after the fall of the latter city (Ezra iv. 10). It has
been conjectured that this word is a misreading for
Assurbanipal, though the reference in Ezra iv. 2
is to Esarhaddon. The reading Asbacaphath in
I Esdras v. 69 suggests that a 3 (“bet”) has fallen
out. If this conjecture is correct the word “As-
napper ” contains the only reference to the Assyrian
king Assurbanipal in the Bible. In the Revised
Version the form “Osnappar” is preferred.

J. jr. J.

In Rabbinical Literature : The Talmud iden-
tifies Asnapper with Sennacherib, who is said to
have had eight names, like his opponent Hezekiah
(Sanh. 94a).

J. sr. L. G.

ASOLO : Town in the province of Treviso, Italy.
A Jewish congregation existed there in the middle
of the sixteenth century, perhaps even at the end of
the fifteenth. In 1547 there were in Asolo 37 Jews,

who lived in six houses close together in the center
of the town. In the house of one Marco Koen a
room, furnished with some scrolls of the Law, was
devoted to religious meetings. Of the 37 Jews in
question, 14 had attained their religious majority
(see Bar-Mizwah); and as there were also several
Colianim (see Cohen), the divine services of this
small congregation were as well arranged as they
could be. The Asolo Jews possessed a cemetery,
of which only two tombstones remain now preserved
in the public gallery. There were at least four
Jewish pawnbrokers: Anselmo, Marco, Jacob, and
Moise.

On Nov. 22, 1547, while Francesco Nani was
mayor of Asolo, and Renier of Treviso was governor
of the surrounding district, 30 men, armed with
cudgels, axes, clubs, and knives, and led by one An-
tonio Parisotto, attacked the Jews in broad daylight,
killed 10 of them, wounded 8 others, and, having
taken rich booty, fled in great haste. Five Jewish
families were left entirely destitute. Some of the
robbers were brought to justice, and were either
put to death or exiled. Of the Jews who survived
this attack some remained in Asolo, while others
emigrated to safer places.

The Cantarini family, which gave to Italian
J udaism many prominent rabbis and physicians, had
its origin in Asolo.

Bibliography : Marco Osimo, Narrazione della strage corn-
pita n el 1547 contra gli Ebrei d'Asolo e Cenni Biografici
della Famiglia Koen-Cantarini originata da un ucciso
Asolano, Casale-Monferrato, 1875.

D. F. S.

ASPALATHTJS : A word found only in the
Apocrypha (Ecclus. [Sirach] xxiv. 15). From the
context it appears to be the name of a fragrant
wood. It is impossible, however, to identify the
plant.

j. jr. G. B. L.

ASPHAR: A pool in the wilderness of Tekoah,
where Jonathan and Simon Maccabeus pitched their
tents when they fled before the army of Bacchides
(I Macc. ix. 33; compare Josephus, “Ant.” xiii. 1,
§ 2). The identification of the place is uncertain,
though the evidence points in favor of associating
the pool with the modern Bir-Selhut (Smith, “ His
torical Geography of Palestine,” s.v. ; see, however
Buhl, “Geographic des Alien Palastina,” p. 158).
j. jr. G. B. L.

ASRIEL : Eponym of the family of Asrielites,
found in the genealogy of Manasseh (Num. xxvi.
31 ; Joshua, xvii. 2). In I Chron. vii. 14 the A. V.
reads “ Ashriel. ”

j. jr. G. B. L.

ASS. — Biblical Data : The Bible knows both
the wild and the domestic Ass. (1) The wild Ass
(“ pere " or “ ‘arod ”) generally roamed about in herds,
and is associated with the wilderness (Job xxiv. 5).
The character of the wild Ass gave occasion for ap-
plying the term figuratively (“ wild ass ”) to one who
in unbridled opposition had his hands ever turned
against his fellows (Gen. xvi. 12, R. V.).

(2) The domesticated Ass (“liamor,” “aton”
[fern.], ‘“ayir” [young Ass]) was put to various
uses; (a) for riding (Num. xxii. 21; II Kings iv. 24;
Judges x. 4, xii. 14), in which the young Ass and

221

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Asmodeus

Ass

slie-ass were mainly employed ; (b) for carrying bur-
dens (Gen. xxii. 3, xlii. 26); and (c) for plowing (Isa.
xxx. 24; Deut. xxii. 10), in which the young Ass and

Syrian Ass, Showing Manner of Hiding.

(From a photograph by Bontils.)

lie-ass were utilized. The Deuteronomic code for-
bids the harnessing of the Ass with the ox (Deut.
xxii. 10); the explanation usually offered being that
as their strength and weight are so unequal, the
harnessing of the two would entail annoyance and
suffering on both. It may be, however, that back
of the curious prohibition lies some obsolete super-
stition, the in junction resting on an omen that was
no longer intelligible to the compiler of the code,
j. jk. G. B. L.

In Rabbinical Literature : “ The ox for

plowing, the ass for carrying burdens,” is the reason
given in the Talmud for the creation of these ani-
mals (‘Ab. Zarali 5 6; Tanna debe Eliyahu R. ii.).
As regards species, a distinction is drawn between
the wild and the domesticated Ass, the former,
‘“arud,” being reckoned among the wild beasts of
the field (Kil. viii. 6); hence the Biblical precept is
applied to it (Kil. i. 6) forbidding it to be crossed
with the domestic variety. The most valuable spe-
cies is declared to be the Libyan, distinguished for
its size and strength (Bek. 56); but which, on ac-
count of its fiery character, must be driven with a
powerful bit (Shab. 516). However, Immanuel
Low asserts that this description applies not to the
Libyan Ass, but to the Lycaonian variety, which is
mentioned in old sources (Mislmah Shab. v. 1). and
which, according to the testimony of Greek and
Latin writers, was frequently partially tamed for
crossing with the mare (Ivrauss, “ Lelinworter,” ii.
3017). The meat of the Ass is said to have the
same specific gravity as human flesh (‘Ar. 196); and
the blood of a foal is held to be a remedy for jaun-
dice (Shab. 1106). The bite of an Ass was accounted
more dangerous than that of a dog, for it might
break a bone (Pes. 496), a ease being cited where an
Ass completely crushed with its bite the arm of a

child (B. K. 84«). The Ass is not particular in its
food, eating such things as brush and thistles, and
when hungry it has been known to eat fish (B. K.
196); nevertheless, baled provender for a young Ass
should be opened out, a labor permissible on the
Sabbath (Shab. 155«). The slie-ass produces no
young before her third year (Bek. 196). A strap
made either from ass-hide or calf-hide was employed
in judicial scourgings, a fact which was thus wittily
applied by an itinerant preacher in expounding the
well-known words of Isaiah (i. 3): “The ass kuow-
eth his master’s crib, but Israel doth not know;
therefore, let him that doth not know be chastised
by the hide of him that doth know ” (Mak. 23e).

No other animal is perhaps so frequently men-
tioned in popular proverbs as the Ass. “ Where our
forefathers were angels, we are but
In men ; where they were men, we are
Proverbial only asses ” (Shab. 1126 and often else-
Use. where), a saying which shows that
even in those days the Ass was con-
sidered an example of stupidity (B. B. 74n). Its
stupidity and insensibility are expressed in the prov-
erb, “The ass freezes even in July” (Shab. 53 a).
To be called “an ass” was therefore an insult : “If
one hath called thee ass, go and get a halter for
thyself” (B. K. 926). A variation of this is found
in the Palestinian saying, “If a man say unto thee,
thou hast asses’ ears, pay no heed to him : but if
two say it to thee, go and get thee a saddle right
away” (Gen. R. xlv. 7). Other proverbs are, “The
pace of the ass depends upon its barley [its food] ”
(Shab. 516); and “Many young asses die and their
skins serve as trappings for their mother” (Lev. R.
xx. 10; Gen. R. Ixvii. 8). Concerning the color of
asses, the following is found: “Thou sayest thou
hast seen a black ass ? Then thou hast seen neither
a black one nor a white one, for there are no black
asses ” (“ Alphabet ” of Ben Sira, letter 8).

The Ass employed by Abraham when he traveled
to the sacrifice of Isaac was declared to be the same
animal which later bore Moses’ wife and her sons into

Ass with Panniers.

(From a Phenician terra-cotta in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.)

Egypt (Ex. iv. 20); and it is declared that the same
animal is also to serve the Messiah, who is to come
“ riding upon an ass ” (Zech. ix. 9). The mother of this
Ass is said to have been the one upon which Balaam

Ass-Worship

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

222

rode, and which was created at the close of the sixth
day of Creation at dusk (Pirke If. El. xxxi.). The
old sources, as Abot v. 6, speak only of the creation
of the “ mouth of the ass ” (Ginzberg, “ Die Hag-
gada bei den Kirchenvatern,” pp. 49, 50; see Ba-
laam).

When the Ass of Phinehas b. Jair, or, some say,
of Hanina b. Dosa, was once stolen, she refused to
eat the fodder laid before her because the tit he upon
it had not been paid to the priest, whereupon the
thieves set her free and she returned to her master
(Yer. Dem. i. 21 d, below; compare also Hul. 76;
Ab. R. N. viii. for variations of the legend). The
Ass of Rabbi Jose would not enter his stall until a
pair of shoes which were lying upon his back, and
which did not belong to his master, had been re-
moved (Ta‘an. 24a).

Ass drivers were held in small repute; the current
opinion being that the majority of them were rascals
(Kid. iv. 14, 82a; but see Niddah 14a). An “ass-
driver’s question” is equivalent to a “stupid ques-
tion” (Yer. Sanh. vi. 236).

Bibliography : Lewysohn, Die Zoologie dcs Talmud*, pp. 22,

23, 140-143; Rutiin, Teh Mat ha-Kcsilim, pp. 47-53.

L. G.

ASS- WORSHIP: The accusation that Jews
worshiped the ass was for four centuries persistently
made by certain Greek and Latin writers.

(1) Mnaseas of Patras (second century b.c.) is
quoted by Josephus (" Contra Ap.” ii. 9) as claiming
that the Jews worshiped the head of a golden ass
(xpvaijv . . . roil Kowduvoc Ke<paXi/v). The word savduv,

instead of the usual ovoq, suggested by

Various its similarity to the sav&wpoc (the scar-
Authors of abs), worshiped in Egypt, betrays the
the Egyptian standpoint of the author, it

Calumny, being also used to denote the sign upon
the tongue of the Egyptian god Apis.

(2) A similar charge is made by Damocritus (Sui-
das, s.v. AafioKpirog), whose period is undetermined,
but who certainly preceded Josephus. In his book
“About the Jews” Damocritus asserts that the Jews
reverenced the head of a golden ass ( xpvorjv ovov
Ke<pa%r/v Trpncenvvovv), to which every seven years they
sacrificed a foreigner, whom they seized for that
purpose, and cut his flesh into small pieces. Suidas
(s.v. ToaJaf /cot ’lovfiaios) places the interval between
these ritual-murders at three years instead of
seven.

(3) The next writer is Plutarch (46-120), who, in
his “Quaestiones Conviviales,” iv. 5, states that the
Jews abstained from eating the flesh of the hare be-
cause it resembled the ass, which is an animal wor-
shiped by them.

(4) Julius Florus, who lived under Antoninus
Pius, speaks of the conquest of Jerusalem by Pom-
pey, and mentions a secret place discovered in the
Temple on that occasion, which contained, he says,
an ass under a golden vine (“sub aurea vitecillum ”).
But the word “cillum,” the most important word in
the passage, is only a guess at a very much disfig-
ured tyxt. which, in its received form, gives no sense
at all. This author’s testimony, therefore, hardly
deserves consideration.

(5) Quite different from these accounts is that in
Diodorus, “ Eclogae,” £ 34, by Posidonius of Apamaea

(died about 51 b.c.), that when Antiochtis Epiphanes
conquered Jerusalem in the year 168 b.c. and en-
tered the Temple, he found in the Holy of Holies the
image of a man sitting upon an ass (mdr/pevov Err' ovov )
and holding a book in his hand; the king understood
the statue to represent Moses. In addition to the
association of this story with an historical personage,
Autiochus Epiphanes, and to the mention of a statue,
this account is further distinguished by the element
that not the head alone but the whole animal is re-
ferred to, justasin Plutarch. Apion combined these
accounts in stating that the Jews had in their Tem-
ple an ass’s head set up, which was discovered when
Antiochus Epiphanes penetrated into the sacred pre-
cincts (Josephus, “ Contra Ap.” ii. 7; all the passages
referred to are given by Tli. Reinach, “ Pontes Re-
rum Judaicarum,” i., Paris, 1895). Reinach (p. 131)
remarks that it is clear from Josephus that Apollo-
nius Molon, too, was acquainted with the calumny.

As was the case with many another calumny
against the Jews, Christianity, the daughter-relig-
ion of Judaism, was likewise charged
Same with Ass- Worship (see Minucius Felix,

Accusation “Octavius,” ix., xxviii.). As Ter-
Against tullian (“Apologia,” xvi.) remarks
Early tersely and truthfully, the same accu-
Christians. sation was made against Christians
because theirs was the nearest to the
Jewish religion (“ ut J udaicae religionis propinquos ”).
Writing against the heathens, Tertullian further
sa3’s, “Certain people out of your midst have
dreamed that an ass’s head is our God ” (see also
“Ad Nationes,” i. 11). He quotes Tacitus, who, as
is well known, contributed most to spread false
reports concerning Judaism. Tacitus’ story runs
(“Historiae,” v. 3) that the Jews suffered from thirst
in the wilderness, and that they followed a herd of

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Ass-Worship

wild asses which led them to a spring of water; in
recognition of this benefit they made the domestic
ass — its nearest congener— -the object of their wor-
ship. A similar account is found in Plutarch (l.c.
iv. § 5). These accounts are essentially different
from the preceding ones, for they endeavor to
supply some cause for such a remarkable form of
worship.

Josephus knows nothing of any such alleged rea-
son. He takes (“Contra Ap.” ii. 7) the whole story
as a stupid calumny, all the more des-
Josephus’ picable as it seeks to detract from the
Disproof sanctity of the celebrated Temple.

for With clever irony he remarks that it
the Jews, ill befits Apion the Egyptian to bring
forward such an accusation, for noth-
ing can be more absurd than the Egyptian animal-
worship. The falsity of this shameful charge is es-
tablished by facts : for Antiochus Epiplianes (Theus),
Pompey the Great, Licinius Crassus, and lastly
Titus, who all entered the Temple, found nothing
there of that kind, but found, instead, the purest
forms of divine adoration. Tacitus, as quoted by
Tertullian, expressly states that Pompey found no
image or idol in the Temple. Although this dis-
proof seems quite sufficient as defense, it gives no
clue concerning the origin of such a report. Ter-
tullian indicates that he considers the calumny as
simply the offspring of malevolence, for it was in
like manner, he relates in his “Apologia,” xvi., that
a rascal in his town (in “Ad Nationes,” i. 1.4, he is
described as a Jew), who had to take care of the wild
animals intended for the arena, would carry around
an image with the inscription “ Onokoites, the God
of the Christians.” The image had ass’s ears, a hoof
on one foot, and it carried a book and
Mockery a toga. The meaning of the word
of Chris- “ Onokoites ” is not clear. But it is
tianity. very evident that the image must have
been intended for the amusement of
the crowds, and that the intended mockery of Chris-
tianity must have been understood as referring to
one of the best-known dogmas of Christianity. The
word bvoKonys, formed after the analogy of napaKohric
— though not strictly according to philological rules
— caused Tertullian to observe “ risimus et nomen ”
(the very name of it made us laugh). It prob-
ably hints at something like ex concubitu asini (et
femiiue ) procreatus, and is thus a malicious insult
upon the Christian God, claimed to be a compound
being, both God and man (H. Kellner, “Ausge-
wahlte Schriften des Septimius Tertullianus,” i. 62,
1871). This anecdote, however, can not be taken
as indicating that the Jews transferred the reproach
under which they had suffered from themselves to
the Christians; for it is simply the silly wit of a
coarse hireling that had deserted the Jewish faith
to become champion fighter with wild beasts, as
Tertullian himself states.

The Rabbis explain “tartak” (II Kings xvii. 31) as
the image of an ass (Winer, “ B. R. ” ii. 605); but Tar-
tak is not described as a god of the Samaritans, and
the Samaritans therefore are not accused by the Jews
of worshiping the ass, as is wrongly stated In' Roesch
(“ Theol. Studien und Kritiken,” 1882, p. 523). That
the Christians were accused by the Jews of this cult

is also without foundation, for neither Justin (“ Dia-
logus cum Try phone,” pp. 10, 17, 108, and 117)
nor Origenes (“Contra Celsum,” vi.
Real 27) mentions anything of .the kind.
Foundation On the other hand, it is quite true
in a that the Christians accused some Gnos-
Gnostic tic sect of their own of Ass-Worship,
Sect. and, it appears, with full justification.

The supreme spirit is called Onoel
(dror, ass + fc. God) by the Gnostics. According to
the Gnostic work Tevva M apiag (Epiphanius, “ Haeres. ”
xxvi. 12), Zachariah saw in a vision a man in the
Temple at Jerusalem who had the form of an ass.
Some Gnostics ascribed to the demon Sabaot an ass’
shape, others that of a pig (ib. xxvi. 10). Here may
also be mentioned that according to a baraita in
Yoma 196, a Sadducean high priest is said to have
died in the Temple, and the imprint of a calf’s foot
to have been found between his shoulders.

Now all these varying accounts are remarkably
illustrated by a graffito found in Rome in 1856, rep-
resenting a man bearing the head of an ass, and
nailed to a cross, before whom another man kneels
in the attitude of adoration (E. S. Kraus, “Das
, Spottcruzifix,” Freiburg, i. Br. 1872).
Origin in Another graffito, found likewise on the
the Palatine in Rome, depicts the same
Egyptian man, and designates him as“fidelis”
Typhon- (faithful); so that this is not intended
Worship, for a caricature, as usually claimed,
but for an earnestly intended symbol
of faith (Wiinsch, “ Setliianische Vcrfiucliungstafeln
aus Rom,” p. 112, Leipsic, 1898). From the circum-
stance that at the right of the ass’s head (see p. 222)
there stands a Y, Wiinsch deduces that it is a symbol
of the Typhon-Seth worship, for on the numerous
curse-tablets in Rome the same symbol always stands
at the right of the ass’s head of Typhon-Seth. It is
the religious symbol of the Gnostic sect of the Seth-
inai (from Seth, son of Adam; but also from Seth,
the surname of the Egyptian god Typhon); and
they in their turn derived the ass’s head — as shown
in the above-cited quotation from Epiphanius — from
the representation of the “Jewish god Sabaoth.”
Wiinsch is therefore inclined to consider the cult of
the ass as having foundation in fact and not merely
in calumny.

It is of course quite correct to say that the ass-cult
is connected with the Egyptian god Typhon (zElian,
“V. II.” x. 28). Plutarch relates (“De Iside et Osi-
ride,” ch. xxx.) that in Egypt the ass
Jews was considered of “demoniac ” nature
Can Not Es (daipovinov, on account of its resem-
Connected blance to Typhon (compare ib. xxxi. ;

with M. Wellmann, “ /Egy ptisches,” in
Typhon- “Hermes,” 1896, xxxi. 242). But this
Worship, would not- explain the story of its
adoption by Jews. Plutarch brings
the Jews into direct connection with Typhon by ma-
king him beget “ Hierosolymus ” (Jerusalem) and
“Judaeus,” after having tied upon an ass subse-
quently to the war with Jupiter (“De Iside et Osi-
ride,”ch. xxxi.; Reinacli, l.c. p. 137). Roesch, refer-
ring to the Talmudic account, that in the Second
Temple the so-called foundation-stone (WU? J3X)
took the place of the Ark of the wilderness, thinks that

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224

this stone is meant by Posidonius and others by
their “ass’ statue.” The upper millstone being also
metaphorically called “the ass,” the enemies of the
Jews took advantage of this circumstance to accuse
them of worshiping a veritable ass. He claims also
that a four-cornered stone is the determinative for
Typlion in the hieroglyphs. But this explanation is
too far-fetched to be acceptable; besides, it must not
be forgotten that Mnaseas, the oldest authority for
the legend, does not call the ass orof, but savdov. An-
other suggestion, that of Michaelis, that the enemies
of the Jews may have seen a cherub in the Temple
with an ass’s head, is negatived at once by the fact
that the cherubim were certainly never so repre-
sented. None of these attempted explanations is
based on facts. Nor are Philo’s statement (i. 371)
that the Jews’ golden calf represented Typlion (see
Winer, “B. R.,” s.v. “Kalb”), and the connection of
the ass-cult with that of Seth-Typhou asserted by
Movers (“Die Phonizier,” i. 297, 365), and by W.
Pleyte (“La Religion des Pre-Israelites,” Leyden,
1865, p. 143).

For explanation of the supposed Ass-Worship, the
Dionysos-cult must be taken into consideration.

Dionysos, or Bacchus, was, under the

Origin of name of Sabazios, worshiped by the
Accusation Phrygians; according to some, Dionys-
in Alleged os himself was Sabazios, according to

Bacchus- others Sabazios was his son. Dionys-

Worship. os was identified with the Semitic di-
vinity Adonis, which easily suggests
the name of the God of the Hebrews. It is said that
Dionysos encountered Aphrodite and Adonis in
Lebanon; he loved their daughter Beroe (Nonnus,
“ Dionysiaca,” xlvi.). Dionysos is identified with
pretty nearly all Oriental deities, as, for example,
with Moloch, Baal, Melkart, and Hadad. F. Leuor-
mant says, therefore, in the “ Dictionuaire des Anti-
quites,” s.v. “Bacchus”: “The disposition was so
marked to identify the son of Semele (Bacchus) with
the various deities of the Orientals that it was even
pushed to the extreme of asserting that the Jews
likewise worshiped Dionysos (Plutarch, ‘ Sympo-
siaea, ’ iv. 6), an assertion based upon nothing fur-
ther than the similarity of sound between the name
Jehovah, Sabaoth, and that of Sabazios (Valerius
Maximus, i. 3, § 2; other passages at Lenormant),
likewise upon the existence of the golden vine in
the Jerusalem Temple (Josephus, ‘Ant.’ xv. 11,
§ 3).” The similarity of the names Sabaoth and Sa-
bazios, and the existence of the golden vine in the
Temple, were then sufficient to suggest to the hea-
thens, who knew very little about Jewish worship,
that the Jews, like many other nations, cherished
some kind of a Dionysos- worship. It is known that
the excessive hilarities at the so-called “ Feast of the
Water Drawing ” at the Festival of Tabernacles gave
cause to the accusation that the Jews celebrated Bac-
chanalia (see Z. Frankel,“ Juden und Judenthum nach
RomischerAnschauung,”iu“ Mouatsschrift,”1860.ix.
125 et seq., and Bitchier, in “ Rev. Et. Juives,” xxxvii.
181). Now, the ass was sacred to Bacchus and an
unfailing member of his train; the god is often rep-
resented as riding upon one. Note the alleged statue
in Jerusalem of Moses riding upon an ass. mentioned
above. Silenus, Bacchus’ constant companion, also

rides upon an ass. Creuzer (“Symbolik,” i. 480)
remarks that Silenus is the ass. The ass was con-
sidered a phallic animal, and when once the Jews
were accused of the cult of Dionysos, it was not
going very much further to accuse them of sexual
excesses, as Tacitus does, holding them capable of
every shamefulness. One charge involves the other,
and calumniators of the Jews would not be likely to
hesitate at an additional falsehood or two.

The fables additionally connected with the ass-
cult, such as the fattening of a Greek every seven
years for an offering to the ass-god ; the attempt of
Zabid of Dora to rob the Jews of this god; Tacitus’
story of the finding of the water-springs by the wild
asses: all of them follow from the idea that the
Jews worshiped Dionysos. Everything additional
is the offspring simply of the hatred that the world
of antiquity bore to the Jews. For this hatred there
is no explanation.

[Tacitus’ story of the finding of the water-springs
rests on a genuine Idumean narrative found in Gen.
xxxvi. 24, according to which “ ‘Anah (— the ass),
son of Zibeon the Horite, found the hot springs
(D’D’) in the wilderness while feeding the asses of
his father.” The whole story, accordingly, points
to Idumaea, where the first ass-cult legend as told by
Josephus (“Contra Ap.” ii. 10) originated according
to Mnaseas. Apollo, the god of the Idumean city of
Dora, represented by Zabidus the Idumean, carrying
the golden head of an ass at the battle of Dora, is
Baal Anah, who probably became afterward the
Gnostic god Anael. It was the identification of the
Jews with the Hyksos by Manetho that occasioned
the Jews to be accused of Ass-Worship — that is,
Seth-Typlion worship. See J. G. Muller, “Des
Flavius Josephus Schrift Gegen Apiou,” p. 258;
Scliurer, aud “Gesch.” i. 3, iii. 104. — k.]

Bibliography: Bochart. Hiernzoicon, sive de Animalilms
Scripturce .Sacra’, 1793, i. 199 ; Jablonski.Pa/if/ieoii Eyyptien,
Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 1750; Eckhel, Doctrina Nummorum
Veterum, viii. 173, Vienna, 1798; Michaelis, Da* Mosaisclie
Recht, 1770-1776. iv. 184; Movers, Die Phonizier: Pleyte.
Z.c. ; Gratz, in Moiiatssclwift , xxi. 193; Renan, L'Eylise
Chretienne , 3d ed., 481; Marc-Aurele , 64; Ewald, Gesch.
des Volhes Israel, 3d ed., vii. 84 ; Harnack, Gesch. der All-
christlichen Literatur, i. 167; Schiirer, Gesch. iii. 104, 416.
Compare also Smith. Dictionary Christian Antiquities, art.
Asinarii : and the description of an Ass Festival in the Mid-
dle Ages, in Protest., R. E., 3d ed., s.v. Eselsfest.

K. S. Kr.

ASSABAN (JX3VX), MORDECAI : Rabbi and
author; born at Morocco in 1700 and died at Aleppo
about 1760. He was chief rabbi of Leghorn, and
emigrated to Jerusalem about 1729, where he dwelt
for thirty years. He was the author of a “ Widdui ”
(confession of sins), entitled “Zobeah Todah.” As-
sabau was renowned as a cabalist.

Bibliography: Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim (Vienna, 1864), ii.
19a.

G. M. Fr.

ASSAULT AND BATTERY : An English law
term for injury to the person— a crime recognized
from the earliest stages of human law. Disputes
about property, about contracts, or about the rights
of man in the family or in society, arose later in the
course of social evolution ; but from the earliest times
personal injuries gave rise to disputes which had to
be settled by some tribunal or arbiter.

In ancient law, redress for injuries to the body

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Assault and Battery

takes the form of compensation to the person
wronged, not of punishment in the name of the
state; and this principle is found throughout the
Talmudic jurisprudence. Many nations of antiq-
uity and the Germanic tribes as late as the earlier
Middle Ages allowed even the guilt of the slayer to
be atoned by the payment of “wergild” — that is,
man-money — to the heirs of the slain; but here the
Mosaic law calls a halt with its stern command,
“Ye shall take no ransom for the life of a manslayer ”
(Num. xxxv. 31, R. V.).

The passages of Scripture from which the law of
Assault and Battery is derived arc Ex. xxi. 18, 19
and 22-25; Lev. xxiv. 19, 20; Deut. xix. 21 (indi-
rectly), and xxv. 11, 12. According to the literal
interpretation, these passages teach
The Law the law of retaliation: eye for eye,
ofRetalia- tooth for tooth, as the redress for
tion. mutilation or, technically speaking,
mayhem ; bruise for bruise, stripe for
stripe, etc., as the redress for the infliction of pain;
and cutting off the offender’s hand as the punish-
ment for disgracing another by violent means. It
seems that the Sadducees, when in power, conform-
ably to their love for the letter of the law in all mat-
ters, followed these passages literally. At least the
Megillat Ta’anit (ch. iv.) ascribes this practise to
the “Boethus men,” with whom the Sadducees are
often identified; and the varied efforts of many
sages to give good Scriptural grounds for their own
theory (B. Iy. 835) indicate that there were some who
dissented from the Pharisaic interpretation. The
liability for bodily violence is stated in the Mishnah
(B. K. viii. l)as follows:

He that injures his neighbor is liable to him on
five grounds; (1) damage; (2) pain ; (3) stoppage of
work; (4) cost of cure ; and (5) shame.
Five In dealing with this proposition the
Grounds of Gemara(B. Iy. 835 et Heq. ) first discusses
Liability, why the literal rule of eye for eye
must yield to the more humane law
of compensation in money. Referring to the pas-
sage iu Lev. xxiv. 17 et seq., where the smiting of a
man is treated along with the smiting of an animal,
it is argued that, as payment is made for the latter,
so payment should be made for the former, except
in the special case in which the man is killed, inas-
much as the Lawgiver says (Num. xxxv. 31), “Ye
shall take no ransom for the life of a manslayer”;
which shows that for the murderer there is no ransom
or satisfaction, but that there is a ransom for him
that takes anything less than life, as, for instance,
the principal limbs, which, when removed, never
grow again. Again, if a blind man put out the eyes
of a man possessing sight, what can be done to the
offender iu the way of retaliation ? Nevertheless the
Law says, “ Ye shall have one manner of law ” (Lev.
xxiv. 22); hence redress must beadjudged in money
against all alike. Further, stress is laid on the term
“tahat” (for, in place of) which is applied to ani-
mals, as, “he shall surely pay ox for ox ” (Ex. xxi.
36), and again iu the phrase “ eye for [in place of]
eye” (ib. 24); still greater stress is laid on the verb
“natan” (to give), which is used in Ex. xxi. 22,
where nothing but a money reward can be meant,
and is again used in the rule in Lev. xxiv. 20, which
II.— 15

literally translated reads, “as he givetli a blemish
upon man, so shall it be given upon him.” The in-
terpretation of “eye for eye ” being thus established
to the satisfaction of the rabbis, there is no reason
for them to doubt that “bruise for bruise” means
money for the pain suffered, and does not mean the
infliction of like pain. However, the position is
strengthened by tiie passage in Deut. xxii. 28, 29,
where he who forcibly seizes a damsel not betrothed
and lies with her, is mulcted in the sum of fifty shek-
els, because (tahat asher) “he hath humbled her.”

The separate elements of liability are:

Damage Proper (Nezek): The Mishnah says
the damage is appraised by ascertaining how much
the person injured would have been worth as a slave
in the market before the infliction of the injury and
how much he is worth after it; the difference repre-
sents the damage. But if the result

Damage, of the injury has been to render its
How victim deaf, he is considered worth
Appraised, nothing whatever, and the damage
is accordingly equal to the whole of
his former value.

Pain, “as when he has singed him with a spit or
spike, even on his finger-nail, where no mark is left.”
Here the question arises, should the judges ask them-
selves (a) how much money would “such a man " —
that is, one as strong or as delicate as the injured
man — be willing to take to submit to the pain, or
rather ( b ) how much would lie be willing to pay
to forego the pain? The former measure, though
named in the Mishnah, is in tiie Gemara deemed in-
admissible; for many people would not take all the
money in the world and willingly submit to the
pain : the latter measure is held to be more reasona-
ble. Where the pain is incident to a mutilation, the
judges should say: “Suppose the wounded man to
have been sentenced to have his hand cut off. how
much would he be willing to pay to have it taken
off under the influence of a drug [an anesthetic],
rather than have it rudely hacked off; and this
amount would serve to represent the damage ” (B.
K. 85ci).

Stoppage of Work : The Mishnah allows to the
injured man his wages only as a “wateherof cucum-
bers ” — that is, such wages as he can earn in his dis-
abled condition — “ because he has already been paid
the value of his eye or the value of his hand ” ; for
the action might be brought at once when the injury
was done, and the judges would estimate the loss of
time beforehand. This estimate should be paid iu
full, though the injured man should recover sooner
than was expected (B. Iy. 855).

An example is put, where violence may bring
about stoppage of work alone, without mutilation or
pain or need for cure : it is in the case of unlawful
imprisonment (ib.).

Cost of Cure: As the Scripture says, he “shall
cause him to be thoroughly healed” (Ex. xxi. 19),
the inference is that the guilty party shall pay for
the services of a physician. He may not offer his
own services, no matter what his skill may be; nor
can he avoid the outlay of money by finding a phy-
sician that will do the healing work free of charge.
Should ulcers arise in consequence of a omul, the

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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

226

cost of healing such ulcers also falls on the assailant ;
but if ulcers arise from other causes — for instance,
because the wounded man disregards the orders of
his physician — the cost of healing these is not to be
assessed. The wound may disappear and break out
again and again : the cost of cure will still rest on
the assailant; but if it be once fully healed (literally,
“to its full need”), the liability comes to an end
(B. K. viii. 1). The occasion for cost of cure may
exist without any of the other elements of damage;
for instance, where one has forcibly thrown chemicals
upon another, giving to his skin the whiteness of
leprosy, it is his duty to pay the cost of having the
skin restored to a healthy color (B. K. 85 6).

Shame or Humiliation: Here it is impossible
to lay down hard and fast rules; for, as the Mislinah
says, ‘‘it all depends on who is put to shame and
who it ig that puts him to shame.” But for certain
acts of violence that involve very little pain and
no permanent disablement, but mainly disgrace, the
sages fixed a scale of compensation, namely : for a
stroke with the fist, one sela or shekel (nominally 60
cents); for a slap with the open hand, two hundred
zuzin (1 zuz = 15 cents); for a back-handed slap,
or for pulling a man’s ear or hair, or
Scale of tearing off his cloak or a woman’s
Compensa- headgear, or spitting at a person if the
tion. spittle reaches his flesh, four hundred
zuzin (860 nominal) (B. Iy. viii. 6). A
kick with the knee costs three selas; with the foot
five selas; a stroke with an ass’ saddle thirteen
(B. K. 276, Rashi l.c,.). According to Maimonides
(Yad ha-Hazakah, Hobel u-Mazzik, iii. 8-10), each
slap, kick, or stroke counts separately. But he also
says (following B. K. 366) that these sums are not
meant for the full-weight or Tyrian coins, but for
the “country currency,” worth only one-eighth of
the Tyrian.

These liquidated damages cover only pain and
shame: if sickness ensue, stoppage and cure have to
be paid for separately.

Although R. Heir’s opinion (B. K. 86a), that all
Israelites are to be treated as freemen and as free-
women, as “ the descendants of Abra-
Israelites ham, Isaac, and Jacob,” and are there-
to Be fore entitled to the same compensation
Treated as for disgrace, has not been accepted
Freemen generally, yet where the sum has been
and Free- fixed by the sages, as shown above,
women. no reduction is made on account of
the poverty or low degree or even of
the lack of self-respect of the party insulted.

There is a sixth element (which arises, however, but
rarely) ; namely, the “ price of children ” (Ex.xxi.22):
“ If men strive together and hurt a woman with child,
so that her fruit depart, and yet no mischief follow,

. . . he shall pay as the judges determine.” Some-
thing is to be paid over and above damage, pain,
etc., which is hard to determine; for a woman de-
livered of her child is, generally speaking, not made
the worse thereby; though in the special case she
may be much debilitated. Her loss of health and
strength would fall under the head of damage proper
(“ nezek ”).

Another view is, however, expressed in the Mish-
nah to the effect that the “deme weladot,” the price

of the child or children that were destroyed by the
miscarriage, should be paid to the husband of the
woman by the man causing the damage. The
standard authorities are almost silent on the subject
(B. K. v. 4; Gemara, 49a).

A human being is always “ forewarned ” ; that is,
he is, like a “ forewarned ox,” liable for full damage,
whether awake or asleep, whether willing or unwill-
ing. But if a man in his sleep or unwillingly (as
by falling from a roof) hurl another person, he is
not liable for the “ disgrace ” that
Human might result, say, if such person’s
Beings Are clothes should be torn from him; and
“Fore- if A hurt B by pure accident — for in-
warned.” stance, if he be thrown upon him from
a roof by a sudden gust of wind — he
is liable only for damage, but not for pain, healing,
or stoppage (B. Iy. viii. 1 ; Gemara 866).

Deaf-mutes, insane persons, and infants are “ pe-
gi’atan ra’ah ” (bad to meet); he who hurts them is
liable for full compensation; but if they commit an
assault, they are not liable at all (ib. viii. 4). How-
ever, no compensation for shame is made to the in-
sane (ib. 866). When an injury is done to an infant
girl, the compensation for “damage” and loss of
time is payable to her father (ib. 87 a et se<j.).

A married woman or a slave is also “ bad to meet,”
as full compensation must be paid for any injury
done to either of them. According to the better
opinion, the assailant of a slave must pay even for
the disgrace put upon him. The compensation for
injury to a married woman, for pain and shame, is
paid to her; for loss of work and healing, to her hus-
band ; for damage proper, according to one opinion,
to her, according to another, to her husband. For
an injury to a slave the whole com-
Persons pensat.ion goes to the master. When
“ Bad an injury is done to an infant boy still
to Meet.” at the father’s board, the compensa-
tion should be invested in land, of
which the father will receive the rents and profits
till the boy attains full age (thirteen). When a
father injures his infant daughter, he pays pain,
cure, and shame to her at once, but neither damage
nor loss of time. A married woman is excused from
payment only because she has no property under
her own control ; a slave, because he can not own
property : hence, when the woman, by the death of
her husband or by divorce, comes to her own, or
when the slave is manumitted, she or he may be
sued for the injury done while under disability (ib.
viii. 4).

When a man does an injury to his own wife, he
is bound to pay her for her damage, pain, and shame
at once, in such a manner as to give her the free dis-
position of the money. He needs not pay for loss
of work ; and for her healing he is bound as her hus-
band. The wife, if she injure her husband, is liable
for full compensation (Maimonides, “Yad,” Hobel
u-Mazzik, iv. 16-18). For the manner of its collec-
tion see Ketubah.

A master is not responsible for assaults committed
by his bondman or bondwoman, nor for injuries done
by them to the property of another. A master in-
juring a Hebrew servant is liable for all the elements

227

T1IE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

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Asser, Carel

of damage except that of stoppage of work, that
beiDg a loss to him only (B. K. viii. 8).

Self-defense is a full justification for an assault
that is not continued after the necessity has ceased.

But if two men strike each other at the
Self- same time, each is liable to the other.
Defense a and the excess in damages must be
Justifica- paid (Shulhan 'Aruk, Hoshen Mish-
tion. pat, 421, 13).

Where one enters upon the grounds
of another without his permission, the owner of the
ground may order him off, and may even remove
him by force; but if he strike him or harm him
otherwise than in forcing him away, he is liable like
any other assailant (B. K. 48«).

Should the injured party die before he recovers
judgment for the assault, the right of action is cast
upon his heirs; and in like manner if the assailant
die before satisfaction is made or before it is ad-
judged, the action for the wrong done may be
brought against the heirs, and it may be satisfied
out of the estate descended to such heirs.

To this rule there is one very rare exception ;
namely, where one puts a disgrace upon a sleeping
person (say, by exposing his nakedness), and the
sleeper dies without finding it out, the action for
the disgrace does not pass to his heirs (B. K. 866).

The maxim of the common law, that a felony
merges the civil remedy, was also known to the Rab-
bis. When a man strikes his father or mother so as
to leave a mark (“liabburah ”), or when he wounds
any one on the Sabbath, he can not be sued for com-
pensation ; for he is deserving of death. While it
was very unlikely that the offender would be put to
death — for long before the days of the Mishnah cap-
ital punishment under the Mosaic law had ceased
— still this excuse of the lesser offense by the greater
was held good. But where the act is punishable by
stripes only, such as wounding a person on the Day
of Atonement, the civil remedy is available (B. K.
viii. 3, o).

The payments for damage and for pain are in the
nature of penalties, and can be adjudged only upon
proof by witnesses. But in the absence of witnesses
the assailant can, upon his own confession, be or-
dered to pay for loss of work and cost of cure —
which elements are in the nature of a debt — and for
the disgrace suffered, on the ground that by his own
confession he publishes the humiliation of his vic-
tim (Maimonides, “Yad,” Hobel u-Mazzik, v. 6, 7).

Only a court of “ordained” judges could try an
action for injury to the person, according to the
rules laid down above, and give judgment for a
definite sum; and as judges could not be lawfully
ordained, except in the Holy Land, judgments for
damage and pain could not be col-
Procedure lected, even in Babylonia (B. K. 84u).
in But, as a matter of necessity, a system

Assault was worked out which soon spread
Cases. over all countries in which the Jews
enjoyed any sort of autonomy. W hen
parties complained ofin juries, the judges, after hear-
ing their allegations and the testimony of witnesses,
indicated the sum that in their opinion the assailant
should pay, and, upon his refusal, would threaten

him with excommunication (“nidduy”); and this
course would generally have the desired effect. But
loss of time and cost of cure, being elements sound-
ing in money, and not in the nature of penalties,
can only be determined by judges having ordination
(Maimonides, “Yad,” Sanh. v. 10, 17).

Although the remedy for assaults was altogether
pecuniary, yet to strike a fellow-Israelite was al-
ways deemed a sinful and forbidden action. As
the Law strictly forbids the giving to a convicted
criminal a single blow beyond the lawful number
(Deut. xxv. 3), the sages concluded that a blow
given to any one, except by authority of law, was
forbidden by Scripture; and they held that, though
the assailant had paid all damages, he should ask
forgiveness from the injured party, and that it was
the duty of the injured, when earnestly entreated,
not vindictively to withhold his forgiveness (B. K.
viii. 7).

When damages which usually follow a striking
arise without actual contact with the body of the in-
jured person — for instance, if one frighten his neigh-
bor, or yell into his ears in such a way as to deafen
him or otherwise make him ill — the wrong-doer is
“free from human judgment,” but liable to the pun-
ishment of heaven (B. K. 91«)-
The passages in Scripture on which the law of As-
sault and Battery is grounded speak of a man and
his brother, ora man and his neighbor;
These hence they can not be and were not
Laws Not applied toaffairs in which either party
for was a Gentile. Whatever redress was
Gentiles, given in such cases by Jewish courts
was only a matter of equity, or, as
the Rabbis say, by reference to Prov. iii. 17, “ for the
sake of the ways of peace.”

Bibliography: Nearly all of tbe Talmudic law collected In
this article is to be found in the eighth chapter of Baba
Kamrna. the Gemara on which runs from p. Klb to 9;la. The
subject is treated by Maimonides in Yad lia-Hazakah , Hobel
u-Mazzik , in the fur, and in the Shulhan 'Aruk, Hoshen
Mishpat , under the title Hobel ba-Habe.ro, ch. 430-424.

.1. SR. L. N. D.

ASSEMBLY, THE GREAT. See Synagogue,
the Great.

ASSER, CAREL: Dutch jurist; son of Moses
Salomon Asser; born at Amsterdam, Holland, Feb.
15, 1780; died Aug. 3, 1836. He Studied law and
philology at the Athenaeum at Amsterdam. After
obtaining a doctor’s degree, July 3, 1799, Asser
devoted himself to the practise of law in Amster-
dam; he and his friend Jonas Daniel Meyer being
the first Jews to become lawyers after the establish-
ment of the Batavian republic.

The defense of a certain Mascel of Dordrecht, ac-
cused of blasphemy for having manifested doubts
concerning the divinity of Jesus and
Early the Trinity, brilliantly conducted by
Success. Asser and Meyer, drew upon the young

men the attention of M. C. F. van
Maanen, chief attorney and, later, minister of justice.

In spite of his absorbing professional duties, relig-
ious matters did not fail to receive Asser ’s consider-
ation. When he was only sixteen, he and his father
shared in the founding of the Felix Libertate, a soci-
ety which had for its aim the emancipation of the
Dutch Jews; and he was among the signers of a

Asser

Asshur

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

228

petition to the States General (March 26, 1796), pray-
ing for their emancipation. This step was vigor-
ously opposed by Daniel Cohen d’Azevedo, rabbi of
the Portuguese, as well as by Jacob Moses b. Saul
Lowenstamm, rabbi of the Ashkenazim, who were
afraid that political emancipation would result in
the disintegration of Judaism. As a result, the Na-
tional Assembly passed a law conferring on them
citizens’ rights. In the struggle that
Active now began between the Orthodox
in Jewish, party, led by the rabbis, and the more
Com- progressive generation of the conimu-
munity. nity, Asser took a prominent part ; and
when the differences led finally to the
formation of a new congregation, Adat Jesnrun, he
became a leading member.

In 1807 Asser was one of three delegates sent by
the new congregation to the Sanhedrin in Paris.
On his return home he was commissioned by Napo-
leon to write a report of the condition and wishes of
the Jews in Amsterdam, having regard to the possi-
bility of the reunion of the two congregations. On
the recommendations contained in this report, a cen-
tral consistory for the Jews in Holland was author-
ized by royal decree Dec. 17, 1808. In the same
year Asser was appointed director of the second di-
vision of the Ministry of Public Wor-
In Public ship, and in the following year, after
Office. the abrogation of that office, he became

chief of the bureau in the Board of
Accounts. In 1811 Asser was made justice of the
peace in the first district of Amsterdam, and soon
became an authority in matters relating to the office.
He translated from the French J. J. Barbedette Cher-
melais’ work, “Traite des Attributions des Juges de
Paix ” (2 vols., 1812), which exerted great influence
in Holland.

In the mean time he had become a member of the
consistory of Amsterdam ; and after Holland had re-
gained her independence (1813), he was appointed a
member of the commission to draft regulations for
the Jewish community.

For twenty-one years Asser held the post of refer-
endary of the first class in the Department of Justice
at The Hague, to which he was appointed in 1815;
and for five years before his death he performed the
duties of secretary to the Department of Justice.
The decoration of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
was conferred upon him.

His wife was Rose Levin, sister of the well-known
Rahel Varnhagen von Ense. For the latter lie wrote
“Precis Ilistorique sur l’Etat des Israelites du Roy-
amne des Pays-Bas,” 1827, a historical
His _ review of the condition of the Jews
Works. in Holland, not yet published. Asser
was also the author of the following
works : “ Vcrliandeling over de Verantwoordelijkheid
der Ministers, volgens het Ncderlandsche Strafregt,”
The Hague, 1828, an anonymous treatise on the re-
sponsibilities of ministers according to Dutch con-
stitutional law; “Apologie de la Peine de Mort,”
Brussels, 1828; “ Verhandeling over de vraag, of
bij liet Wetboek van Strafregt tegen het snoeijen
van geldmunten straf is bepaald?” The Hague,
1836, a treatise on the penalty attached to the clip-
ping of coin; and “ Yergelijkend overzigt tusschen

het Fransche en Nederlandsclie Burgerlijk Wet-
boek.” The last, Ids largest work, was published
after his death by his son Louis Asser and his nephew
C. D. Asser.

Bibliography : Algemeene Konst en Letterbnde , 1836, Nos.
xli., xlii., xliii. ; ’ sGravenliaaqsche Studs en Residentie Al-
manah , 1838; Carraoly, in Revue Orientate, iii. 413 et seq. ;
Jost's Annalen, 1839: Koenen. Geschiedenis der Joden in
Nederland, p. 383 ; Slays and Hooflen, Geschiedenis der
Joden, iii. 531 et seq., 545; Griitz, Gesch. der Juden, xi. 207
et seq.-, A. J. van der Aa. Bioqraphish tVoni-dcnboek iter
Nederlanden, pp. 129-130; Winkler Prins, Ge'Ulustreerde
Encyklnpitdie, 1884, s.v.

s. J. Vn.

ASSER, CAREL ; Dutch jurist and scholar;
born at The Hague, June 1, 1843; died at Leyden,
Dec. 10, 1898. He was a son of Louis Asser, judge
of the district court at The Hague, and grandson of
Carel Asser, referendary in the Department of Jus-
tice at The Hague. He received his education at
the gymnasium in his native city, and at the Uni-
versity of Leyden, obtaining a doctor’s degree at the
age of twenty -three. Appointed judge of the dis-
trict court of The Plague in 1878, he retained the
position until 1892, when he was made professor
of civil law at the University of Leyden. The esti-
mation in which he was held by the Dutch govern-
ment is shown by the fact that he was appointed on
a commission to investigate the need for the revision
of the national statutes and to prepare a plan for
this purpose. Asser married a Christian, but he re-
mained in touch with the Jewish community and
continued to display an interest in his coreligionists.

Among Asser’s works are: His doctor’s disserta-
tion, “De Telegraphie en hare regtsgevolgen,”
1866 (awarded a gold medal by the Groningen Uni-
versity); “Wetenschap en Wetgeving,” 1892; and
“Handleiding tot de beoefening van het Neder-
landsch Burgerlijk Reclit,” an unfinished work on
civil law. Pie also contributed to periodicals many
technical articles of legal interest. Asser was not
only known as a scholar and writer, but also as a
musician.

Bibliography: Students' Almanak, Leyden, 1900.

s. J. Vr.

ASSER, MOSES SALOMON: Dutch jurist;
born in Amsterdam Aug., 1754; died there Nov.
4, 1826. Although originally intended for trade, he
took up the study of commercial law; and so suc-
cessful was he in his new career, that on becoming
procurator in Amsterdam he gained the reputation
of being one of the best lawyers in Holland. In
1798 he was appointed member of the legislative
commission which met in Amsterdam for the pur-
pose of readjusting the laws of Holland to the new
conditions arising from the change of the LTnited
Provinces into the Batavian Republic, under the
protectorate of France. In 1808, when Napoleon
insisted upon the adoption of his code throughout
his dependencies, Asser, together with Johannes van
der Linden and Arnoldus van Gennep, was commis-
sioned by King Louis Bonaparte to draft a commer-
cial code as a part of the uniform system of laws
projected for the kingdom.

Soon after the Restoration Asser took an active
partin the commission of 1814; and his work ulti-
mately formed the basis of the commercial code of
1838, the greater part of which is still in force. In

229

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Asser

Asshur

recognition of liis services he was decorated by Will-
iam I. in 1819 with the Order of the Netherlands
Lion, being the first Jewish recipient of such a dis-
tinction.

Asser was the founder of the Felix Libertate —
a society having for its object the emancipation of
the Jews — and the author of the memorial addressed
to the States General, March 26, 1796, urging the
removal of Jewish disabilities. A leader of the op-
position which resulted in the splitting up of the
Jewish community of Amsterdam, Asser’s name was
the first mentioned at the election of wardens by the
members of the new community, Adat Jesurun. He
took an active part in the progressive movement,
at the head of which stood his son Carel (see Assets,
Caret,).

Bibliography: Dis Kursen (in Yiddish), relative to the
struggle between the two communities ; Roest's Letterhmle,
i., ii. : Notices from a family chronicle; Winkler Prins, Geil-
luatreerde Enciiklopiidie , 1884, s.v.

s. A. S. C.

ASSER, TOBIAS MICHAEL CAREL ;

Dutch jurist; born at Amsterdam April 28, 1838.
His father was Carel Daniel Asser (1813-85). His
mother was a sister of Godefroi, Dutch minister of
J ustice.

Asser studied jurisprudence at the Athenaeum at
Amsterdam, and as early as 1857 was awarded the
gold medal offered as a prize by the university at
Leyden for a competitive thesis on “Over het Staat-
huishoud kundig begrip van Waarde ” (On the Eco-
nomic Conception of Value). In 1860 lie received
a doctor’s degree, after defending his dissertation
on “Het Bestur der Buitenlandseh betrek kingen
volgens het Nederlandsclie Staatsrecht. ” In the
same year the government appointed him a member
of the international commission to negotiate concern-
ing the abolition of tolls on the Rhine. He wrote
on the subject the following two pamphlets: “lets
over den Ryntol ” and “De Kluisters van den Rijn,”
in “De Gids,” 1861.

In May, 1862, he was called to the chair of jurispru-
dence at the Athenaeum, and delivered an inaugural
address on “ Handelsreclit en Han-
Appointed delsbedrijf.” When the Athenaeum
Professor became a university (1876), Asser con-
of Juris- tinued his teaching there; though, in
prudence, order to retain his practise as attorney
to a number of trade companies, he
remained only in the capacity of extraordinary pro-
fessor of the department of international and com-
mercial law. From 1862 Asser took an active part
in conferences on international law, and, together
with Rolin Jacquemyns, afterward Belgian minister
of the interior, and the English jurist, JohnWestlake,
he founded, in 1869, the “Revue de Droit Interna-
tional,” which he edited. In 1875 he became assist-
ant secretary of state, and performed the duties of
the office, along with those of his professorship, until
May 5, 1893, when he was appointed
Member of member of the Council of State, the
Council highest body in the Dutch administra-
of State, tion. The high estimate of Asser’s
authority in the domain of interna-
tional law is attested by the fact that he is perma-
nent chairman of the diplomatic congress on inter-
national civil law, established chiefly through his

instrumentality. Asser was delegate to the Peace
Conference held at The Hague in 1899, in conse-
quence of the appeal made by Czar
Delegate Nicholas II., and presided over the
to Peace second division of the second section.
Conference. He has been the recipient of the fol-
lowing decorations, viz. : Cross of a
Commander of the Order of the Netherlands Lion ;
of the Order of Orange-Nassau ; and of the Baden
Order of the Lion of Ziihringen ; Order of the Crown
of Italy ; and the Luxemburg Order of the Oak
Crown. He is also officer of the Belgian Order of
Leopold, and Knight of the Legion of Honor.

His wife is the daughter of Louis Asser, only son
of the elder Carel Asser, and sister of Prof. Carel
Asser of Leyden.

Besides the works already mentioned, Asser has
written “Legislation Uniforme sur la Lettre de
Change,” 1864; and “ Handelsrechtelyke Aanteeken-
ingen,” “Remarks on Commercial Law,” 1868-69;
and has contributed many articles to legal journals.
But his two principal works are “Schets van het
Internationaal Privaatrecht,” 1879; and “Schets van
het Nederlandsch Handelsreclit,” 1873. The first of
these has been translated into nearly every European
language, and the last reached its seventh edition
in 1897.

Bibliography : Winkler Prins, Geilluatrcerdc Encykloptiiiie ,
1884.

S. J. V R.

ASSESSMENT OF TAXES. See Finta,
Revenue of.

ASSHUR.— Biblical Data: N ame of a city
once the capital of Assyria. Asshur was apparently
the first important town built by the early colonists
of the country, who probably came from Babylonia.
One of the earliest known rulers of Assyria, Sham-
shi-Adad I. (about 1820 b.c.), erected in the city of
Asshur a temple dedicated to Anu and Adad ; and
Asshur may be regarded as having been, even at
that early date, the capital of the newly founded
principality of Assyria. About 1300 b.c. the capital
was removed by Shalmaneser I. to Calah, and two
centuries later the supremacy of Asshur had vanished
so completely that the city had to be rebuilt when
Tiglath-pileser I. again made it the capital. When
the capital was finally removed to Nineveh, the city
fell into an honorable decay, revered as the ancient
metropolis, and dignified as the site where the na-
tional god Asshur had his famous temple E-Kharsag-
Kurkurra. The city is now buried beneath a mound
known as Kalali Shergat on the Tigris, which here
divides into three arms. The ruins of its ancient
temple rise high above the remaining mound, and
have been slightly pierced by excavations under-
taken especially by Rassam and Ainsworth; but the
site has never been systematically explored. See
Assyria and the bibliography there given,
j. jr. ' R. W. R.

In Rabbinical Literature : Asshur was one

of the few pious men of the generation of the Tower
of Babel. In order to avoid participation in that
sinful project, he left the land of his fathers and
settled in the neighborhood of Nineveh, in reward
for which action he received the cities mentioned in

Asshurites

Assignment

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

230

Gen. x. 11, 12 (Gen R. xxxvii. 4). The Targum
Yeruslialmi on the passage considers the name “ As-
shur” not as that of a person, but as meaning “As-
syria,” and takes “ Nimrod ” to be tlie subject of the
sentence. See Ginzberg, “Die Haggada bei den
Kircbenvatern,” pp. 88, 89.

j. jr. L. G.

ASSHURITES.— Biblical Data : A nation de-
scended from Abraham and Keturah (Gen. xxv. 3).
In prophetic literature the natiou is mentioned as
being engaged in making benches of ivory for Tyre
(Ezek. xxvii. 6). The Asshurites in II Sam. ii. 9can
not refer to the same people as Gen. xxv. 3, or to the
Assyrians. Either we have here a text corruption
for Geshurites (Ewald, Wellhausen), or the name is
to be explained according to Targum Jonathan as
the Asherites.

j. jr. G. B. L.

In Rabbinical Literature : The Palestinian

exegetes consider Asslnirim. and also Letushim and
Leummim in the passage Gen. xxv. 3, to be appel-
latives of the nations recorded as the children of
Dedau; and explain Assliurim as “merchants,” or
more exactly as “those who travel with their wares
from place to place ” (“aslmr” = footstep). Simi-
larly, Letushim are those who sharpen weapons,
from “latasli,” to whet; Leummim are the chiefs
of peoples (“ leum ” = people), or island-inhabitants
(Targumim on the passage Gen. R. lxi. 5). In the
Onkelos passage, according to Jerome, ad loc.,
(for should be read (see Ginzberg,

“Haggada bei den Kircbenvatern,” p. 111).

j. sr. L. G.

ASSI (Assa, Issi, Jesa, Josah, Jose, sometimes
’D3T, a contraction of Rab or Rabbi Assi): A pne-
nomen of several amoraim, which, with its variants,
is a modification or diminutive of “ Joseph ” (compare
Bacher," Ag.Tan.” ii.371 : “ Ag.Pal. Amor.” ii. 151,8).

“Assi” is of Babylonian origin, while
Name. other forms are Palestinian. Hence
in the Babylonian Talmud, except in
cases of clerical error, “ Assi ” is the only form used ;
whereas in the Palestinian Talmud and Midrashim
all forms are used indifferently, two or even more
appearing in a single passage (for instance, Yer. Kil.
ix. 326) or in parallel passages (compare Yer. ‘ Er. vi.
23d; Yer. Slick. ii. 46 d, vii. 50c; Yer. Naz. iv. 536).
As to the bearers of the name, most of those hav-
ing additional patronymics or cognomens are better
known by the appellation of “ .Tose.” The two that
are best known by their simple praenomen, without
further designation, are considered here. Great care
is requisite in determining the authorship of doc-
trines and sayings bearing the above name. Both
the Assis are halakic authorities, are native Baby-
lonians, and are cited in both Talmudim, and they
flourished within about half a century of each other.
They can therefore be distinguished only by observ-
ing the persons with whom they are associated or
who transmit their opinions. Thus, where Assi ap-
pears in company with Rab, with Samuel, or with
their contemporaries, Assi I. is meant ; but where the
associates arc members of a later generation, it is
Assi II. Again, where Huna I., Judah b. Ezekiel, or
their contemporaries or predecessors cite the name, it

is Assi I. ; but where their disciples', or their younger
contemporaries or successors (particularly in the Pal-
estinian Talmud and Midrashim) report, it is most
frequently Assi II. Where, finally, none of these
landmarks is present, a positive determination is
well-nigh impossible, nor can the presence or absence
of the titles Rab and Rabbi, on which (according to
Tos. Hul. 19a, s.v. Amar) many rely, be accepted as
a clue.

Assi (Assa, Issi) I., Rab : A Babylonian amora
of the first generation, third century; contemporary
of Rab (Abba Arika) and his equal in dialectics,
though inferior to him in general knowledge of
the Halakah (Sanli. 366)- But even

Status. in the latter branch Rab manifested
great deference for Assi’s opinions,
often adopting these in preference to his own (Meg.
5a; Kid. 456; Sanli. 296; B. B. 62a). Socially, also,
Rab treated Assi as an equal (Sliab. 1466). Mar
Samuel, also, treated Assi with great respect (B. K.
80 a et seq.). Rab Assi is better known in the field
of the Halakah than in that of the Haggadah, where
he is found in association with Kahana and putting
questions to Rab (Git. 88a; compare Lam. R., In-
trod. 33; Yoma 10a).

According to a Talmudic narrative combining fact
and fiction, Assi’s end was precipitated by grief.

Commissioned by his dying teacher

Death. and friend, Rab, to bring about Shela
b. Abuua’s retraction of a certain de-
cision on the ritual, Assi visited the latter, when the
following conversation took place: Assi: “Retract
thy decision because Rab has retracted his opinion
on which thy decision was based.” Shela: “Had
Rab renounced his opinion he would have told me
so himself.” Assi, misunderstanding the instructions
of Rab, thereupon excommunicated his colleague.
Shela: “Does the master not fear the fire for abu-
sing a scholar? ” (compare Ab. ii. 10.) Assi : “ I am a
mortar [“ Asita,” a play on his name] of brass, over
which decay has no power.” Shela: “And I am an
iron pestle that may break the brass mortar.” Assi
soon after sickened and died; whereupon Shela, to
prevent nis adversary from carrying evil reports of
him to Rab, prepared his own shroud and died also.
At the double funeral it was observed that the myrtle
branches which lay on the two biers leaped from one
to the other, whence it was inferred that the de-
parted spirits had become reconciled (Niddali 366 et
seq. ; the names Isi b. Judah, etc., used in Assi’s reply
to Shela are a glossator’s interpolation borrowed from
Pes. 1136). Of Assi’s last hours the Midrash relates
the following: As Rab Assi was about to depart
from this world, his nephew entered the sick-room
and found him weeping. Said the nephew: “My
master, why weepest thou? Is there any part of the
Torah which thou hast not learned or taught? Look
at the disciples before thee. Is there any one good
deed that thou hast not practised? And does not
above all thy noble traits stand the fact that thou
hast never acted as judge and hast never permitted
thyself to be appointed to public office? ” Then an-
swered Rab Assi: “My son, this is just the reason
why I am weeping. Perhaps I shall be required to
answer for being a'ble to administer justice and not
doing so, thus exemplifying in myself what the

231

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Asshurites

Assignment

Scripture means by saying (Prov. xxix. 4), ‘ The
king by judgment established the earth ; but the man
that holdeth himself aloof [“ terumah ” = separa-
tion] overthroweth it ’ ” (Tan. , Mishpatim, 2). Some
writers regard this scene as occurring at the death of
Assi II. ; but the concluding words of the visitor’s
address, as well as the dj'ing teacher’s reason for his
anxiety, are entirely inconsistent with the career of
Assi II., whose activity as judge is a prominent fea-
ture of his life. (Yer. Shab. i. 3a; Yer. Shek.vi. 506;
Yer. Suk. i. 52 a; Yeb. 166; Ned. 216; Yer. Ned. iii.
37 d; Yer. Git. ix. 50d; B. B. 126a; Shebu. 26a, 41a;
Hul. 19a, 20a).

Bibliography : Heilprin, Seiler ha-Dorot, ii. s.r.: Weiss, Dor,

iii. 97, ib. 154; Halevy, Durot lia-RUhonim, ii. 228.

Assi (Assa, Issi, Jesa, Josah, Jose) II., R.:

A Palestinian amora of the third generation, third
and fourth centuries; one of the two Palestinian
scholars known among tlieir Babylonian contempo-
raries as “the Palestinian judges” and as “the dis-
tinguished priests of Palestine,” his companion being
R. Ammi (Git. 596; Sanli. 176). Assi was born in
Babylonia, where he attended the college of Mar
Samuel (Yer. Ter. i. 40a; Yer. ‘Er. vi. 23d), but
later emigrated in consequence of domestic trouble.
On his arrival in Tiberias, Assi had an adventure
with a ruffian, which ended disastrously for the lat-
ter. Assi was making his way toward the baths,
when he was assaulted by a “scorner.” He did not
resent the assault, except by remarking," That man’s
neck-band is too loose,” and continued on his way.
It so happened that an archon was at that very hour
trying a thief, and the scoffer, still laughing at the
adventure with Assi, came to witness the trial just
when the judge interrogated the culprit as to accom-
plices. The culprit, seeing the man laughing, thought
that it was at his discomfiture, and to avenge him-
self pointed to the ruffian as his accomplice. The
man was apprehended and examined. He confessed
to a murder he had committed, and was sentenced to
be hanged with the convicted thief. Assi, on return-
ing from the baths, encountered the procession on
its way to the execution. His assailant on seeing
him exclaimed, “The neck-band which was loose
will soon be tightened ” ; to which Assi replied, “Thy
fate has long since been foretold, for the Bible says
(Isa. xxviii. 22), ‘ Be ye not scorners lest your bands
be made st rong ’ ” (Yer. Ber. ii. 5c).

Assi became a disciple of R. Johanan, and so dis-
tinguished himself that R. Eleazar called him “the
prodigy of the age ” (“ mofet ha-dor” ; Hul. 1036), and
as such legend pictures him. Concerning the futile
longings of many to communicate with the departed
spirit of R. Iliya the Great, legend relates that R.
Jose fasted eighty days in order that a glimpse of
R. Iliya might be granted him. Finally the spirit
of the departed appeared; but the sight so affected
R. Jose that his hands became palsied and his eyes
dim. “Nor must you infer from this,” the narrator
continues, “ that R. Josah was an unimportant indi-
vidual. Once a weaver came to R.

Legend, Johanan and said, ‘ In a dream I have
etc. seen the skies fall, but one of thy dis-
ciples held them up.’ When asked
whether he knew that disciple, the weaver replied
that he would be able to recognize him. R. Johanan

thereupon had all his disciples pass before the weaver,
who pointed to R. Josah as the miraculous agent ”
(Yer. Kil. ix. 326; Eccl. R. ix.'lO). Another adven-
ture, which, however, bears the impress of fact, is
related of him, wherein he was once abducted in a
riot and given up as lost, but R. Simon ben Lakisli,
the former gladiator, rescued him at the risk of his
own life (Yer. Ter. viii. 466).

Assi’s professional career in Palestine is so closely
intertwined with that of R. Ammi that the reader
may be referred to the sketch of the latter for infor-
mation on that subject. R. Assi was very method-
ical in his lectures, making no digressions to answer
questions not germane to the subject under discus-
sion; and whenever such were propounded to him,
he put off reply until he reached the subject to which
they related (Yer. Shab. xix. 16 d; Yer. ‘Er. vi. 24a).

R. Assi is frequently quoted in both Talmudim
and in the Midrashim. Profound is his observation :

“At first the evil inclination is like
Wisdom of a shuttle-thread (or spider-web), but
Assi ; eventually it grows to be like a cart
His Death, rope, as is said in the Scriptures (Isa.

v. 18), ‘Wo unto them that draw in-
iquity with cords of vanity, and sin as if it were with
a cart rope ’ ” (Suk. 52a). An anecdote characteristic
of rabbinical sympathy for inferiors and domestics is
thus related: The wife of R. Jose had a quarrel with
her maid, and her husband declared her in the wrong ;
whereupon she said to him, “Wherefore didst thou
declare me wrong in the presence of my maid ? ” To
which the rabbi replied, “Did not Job(xxxi. 13) say,

‘ If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of
my maidservant, when they contended with me, what
then shall I do when God riseth up? And when
He visiteth, what shall I answer Him?’” (Gen. R.
xl viii. 3). When Assi died. R. Iliya b. Abba, who
had been his associate as judge and as teacher, went
into mourning as for a relative (Yer. Ber. iii. 6a).
The day of his death is recorded as coincident with
a destructive hurricane (M. K. 266).

The suggestion may here lie offered that R. Assi, before Ids
emigration to Palestine, was known as Assi (Issi. Jose) b.
Nathan, the one that is met with in an halakic controversy
with Ulla (b. Ishmael, Ber. 62a), propounding a ritual question
to Hiya b. Ashi (Shab. 53a), and seeking an interpretation of a
Baraita from the mouth of Rab Sheshet (Ned. 78a ; B. B. 121a).
Bibliography : Griitz, Ges eh. Her Judev, iv. 3(K'-307, 2d ed. ;
Frankel, Mcbo, 100a (here some of the references undoubt-
edly point to Assi 1.) ; Weiss, Dor, iii. 97 ; Baeher, A<j. Pal.
Amor. ii. 143-173 (here some sayings of Assi 1. are attributed
to Assi II.); Halevy Dorot ha-Rishonim, ii. 232.

,T. SB. S. M.

ASSIGNMENT : According to common law,
“ the transferring and setting over to another of
some right, title, or interest in things in which a
third party, not a party to the assignment, liasa con-
cern and interest ” ( J. Bacon ’s “ Abridgment, " p. 329).
Strictly speaking, according to Jewish law there can
be no Assignment of claims or rights in a thing, but
only an Assignment of the thing itself (Slnilhan
‘Aruk, Hoslien Mislipat, 66, 1). In this respect the
early Jewish law and the common law agree, al-
though they differ in their reason for the rule.

The common law assigns as a reason that to allow
the granting or Assignment of a “ chose in action ” (a
right to receive, or recover a debt, or money, which
can not be enforced without action) to a third person

Assignment

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

232

would be the occasion of multiplying contentions
and suits. According to the Jewish law, the rela-
tion of debtor and creditor gives the latter rights
against the person of the former ( jus in personam)
secured by rights against his property ( jus in rem).
The right of the creditor to seize the person of the
debtor can not be assigned ; and the debtor is justi-
fied in resisting the claim of the creditor’s assignee,
upon the ground that he, the debtor, was willing to
give his creditor certain rights against his person
which he would have refused to give to the creditor’s
assignee (Me’irat ‘Enayim to Hoshen Mishpat, l.c. 23).

Originally a “shetar” (an instrument in writing)
of indebtedness was not assignable, according to
Biblical law, because it is not a thing, but merely evi-
dence of a right (Maimonides, “Yad,” Mekirali, vi.
12). With the beginning, however, of commercial
life, the strictness of this ancient rule of law had
to be modified. Therefore, if the Assignment of the
claim was made by the creditor in the presence of
the debtor and assented to by him, it was valid (Git.
136). This rule, however, was felt to be a conces-
sion, and could not be used as a basis for the further
extension of this principle (Mekirali, vi. 8). If the
debt which had thus been assigned in the presence
of all three parties interested was secured by a shetar,
it was held, even by the later authorities, that, al-
though the Assignment was valid, the assignee could
not compel the creditor to deliver the shetar to him
(Hoslien Mishpat, l.c. 19); although if the debtor
paid the assignee, he (the debtor) could compel the
creditor to surrender the shetar (ib.).

The shetar of indebtedness can be assigned only
by “ writing and delivery ” ; that is to say, it must
be delivered by the creditor to his as-

Method signee together with another instru-
of Assign- ment in writing, setting forth the fact
ment. of the Assignment (ib. 1 ; and see the
cases mentioned in §§ 2, 3, 4, 5, 13).

This question was debated in the Talmud ; and
the opinions of the authorities differed to such an ex-
tent that the question as to what constituted a valid
Assignment was long left in doubt. Rabbi Judah
lia-Nasi was of the opinion that the mere delivery
constituted a valid Assignment of the shetar (Sanh.
31a) ; and the amora Amemar was of the same opin-
ion (B. B. 77«). The majority of the sages, how-
ever, were of the opinion that a shetar could not be
legally assigned without writing (ib. 76a), the reason
for which is given by Rab Aslii, who called attention
to the fact that there was a great difference between
the shetar of indebtedness and other things, because
a shetar is, after all, only a promise to pay — mere
words — and “words can not be acquired by words”;
they must be written down (ib. 77a). According to
Rab Papa, the instrument of Assignment must con-
tain these words, “acquire it [the shetar of indebt-
edness] and all rights under it ” (Kid. 476).

Maimonides sums up the matter thus: A shetar of
indebtedness can not be assigned merely by delivery
to the assignee, because the shetar is simply evidence
of a debt; it is not the thing itself; and “evidence”
can not be lawfully acquired by the process of
manual seizure (Mekirali, vi. 10). The mere inten-
tion, therefore, to transfer or assign a claim or con-
tract, and the actual delivery of the instrument,

which was the best evidence of the claim or contract,
do not suffice to give the assignee title; and the law
required a formal Assignment in writing. Thus,
early in the Talmudic era are encountered the un-
derlying principles of the law relating to negotiable
instruments which occupies so large a part of mod-
ern legal systems, and has such an important bearing
on modern commercial activity.

In the case of a shetar of pledge, where the debtor
has given the creditor possession of a piece of land
as a pledge or security for a debt (the creditor to re-
pay himself out of the fruits of the land), and has
accompanied the delivery of the land by an instru-
ment setting forth the debt and the
Classifica- fact that the land is pledged for it,
tion of As- this instrument or shetar may be as-
signments. signed in the same manner as a simple
shetar of indebtedness. This rule,
however, was modified by the Geonim to this extent,
that if the creditor gives the assignee a written in-
strument setting forth the Assignment, and also gives
him possession of the pledged, or, as we should say
in modern legal phraseology, mortgaged land, the
Assignment is valid even though he retain posses-
sion of the original shetar of pledge (Hoshen Mish-
pat, l.c. 8).

In the case where movable property" is pledged
for the debt, the rule is still further modified, so
that the debt may be assigned simply by transfer-
ring to the assignee possession of the movables
pledged ; and this constitutes a valid Assignment of
the debt, even though the shetar of pledge be not
delivered or any instrument in writing given to the
assignee (ib.).

A woman who owns a shetar and who afterward
marries and delivers the shetar to her husband as
part of her marriage portion, need not execute an
instrument of Assignment to him (ib. 12).

Where a shetar of indebtedness is assigned by the
creditor on his death-bed, the usual formalities are
dispensed with (ib. 42). This modification of the
rule was made in order that the sick man might not
be distressed by doubts as to the legality of the As-
signment thus made by" him, and that lie might be
comforted by the assurance that his purpose, al-
though not expressed with the usual legal formali-
ties, would be carried out (B. B. 1476).

A further modification of the rule exists in the case
where the creditor, in addition to assigning the shetar
of indebtedness, also transfers real estate to his as-
signee, the transfer of the real estate and the Assign-
ment of the instrument being simultaneous. Rab
Huna was of the opinion that the title to the instru-
ment passed to the assignee without a deed of Assign-
ment, provided that the title to the land passed law-
fully to him at the same time (B. B. 77 a et seq. ;
Mekirali, vi. 14); and although there were some
opinions to the contrary among the later authorities,
the Shulhan ‘Aruk states this rule of Rab Huna to
be the law ; provided, according to Rab ben u Asher,
the assignor uses the words, “acquire this shetar
and all rights under it,” at the time when he hands
it to the assignee, and when, at the same time, the
assignee is acquiring possession of the land (Hoshen
Mishpat, 66, 10; see Sifte Ivolien, ad loc. 26).

As stated above, the essential words of Assignment

233

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Assignment

are “acquire it and all rights under it.” The fol-
lowing form: “I, , sell to you, , this

shetar of indebtedness against , and all rights

under it,” is suggested in Me’irat ‘Enayim to Hoshen
Mislipat (l.c. 1).

Where the original shetar of indebtedness con-
tained the words, “I am indebted to you and to any
one producing this,” it was equivalent to a modern
instrument of indebtedness made payable to bearer,
and could be assigned by delivery without writing
(gloss on Hoshen Mislipat, l.c.).

In case the Assignment is defective — as, for in-
stance, where the instrument is delivered to the as-
signee without any accompanying
Defective writing — and the assignee has paid its
As- value to the assignor, he is entitled to
signment. have the Assignment set aside, and
have his money refunded to him ; and
lie may retain possession of the shetar until the
money is refunded. In case the assignor is unable to
refund to the assignee, the money is taken from the
debtor and paid over to the assignee, even though
the latter has not lawfully acquired the instrument
(gloss, ib.). If the assignor has undertaken to guar-
antee the payment of the shetar in case the assignee
is not able to collect it from the debtor, he is bound
by his guarantee, even though the Assignment has
not been legally perfected (gloss, ib.).

If the assignee has lost the deed of Assignment,
but still has possession of the original document of
indebtedness, he must prove the As-
Lost Deed signment : if the debtor claims that he
of As- has paid the debt, he may call upon the
signment. creditor to take an oath. If the cred-
itor swears that the debt has not been
paid, the debtor is obliged to pay the assignee. If
the creditor refuses to take the oath, the debtor is
released and the creditor must pay the assignee. If
the creditor be dead at the time when the assignee
claims payment from the debtor, the heirs take the
“oath of heirs” (that their father has not told them
that the debt was settled), and the debtor must pay
the assignee (Hoshen Mislipat, l.c. 11).

In case the assignee claims that the deed of Assign-
ment was lost, but that a valid Assignment had been
made to him by the creditor, and the creditor meets
this by taking an oath that there was no Assignment,
both the debtor and the creditor are released (ib.).

If the shetar has been properly assigned, the as-
signor can not raise the claim of “ overreaching ” (see
Acceptance) on the ground that the price paid for
it was inadequate. Some authorities, however, are
of the opinion that if the inadequacy of considera-
tion amounts to a sum greater than half the value
of the shetar, the Assignment may be set aside on
that ground (ib. 38).

A shetar executed in a non-Jewish court of law,
but drawn so as to be valid according to Jewish law,
may be acquired by writing and de-
Assign- livery in the same manner as a shetar
merits in executed under rabbinical supervision ;
Gentile and likewise, a deed of Assignment
Courts. drawn in a non-Jewish court, if it con-
tains language equivalent to that re-
quired by the Jewish law, is valid (ib. 6).

The privity of contract existing between the orig-

inal debtor and creditor is not transferable, and al-
though the creditor is allowed, under certain regu-
lations, to transfer the right in the claim which he-
has against the debtor, the original re-
Release of lation of debtor and creditor is not en-
Debtor by tirely dissolved ; and according to the
Assignor, opinion of Samuel, the creditor or his
heirs may, in spite of the fact that he
has sold and assigned his claim, release the original
debtor. If he does exercise this right, lie is respon-
sible to his assignee not merely for the amount which
the assignee paid to him in consideration of the As-
signment, but for the entire amount of the debt set
forth in the shetar which has been assigned (Ket.
856 et seq. ; Hoshen Mislipat, l.c. 23, 32).

Maimonides is of the opinion that this right of the
creditor to release the debtor continues, because the
right to assign the shetar is merely the result of
rabbinical legislation, which modified but did not
repeal the older Biblical law, according to which a
shetar is not assignable (Mekirah, vi. 12).

Rabbi Abraham ben David (RABaD II.) is of the
opinion that the reason for this right of the creditor
to release the debtor consists in the fact that the
privity of contract which exists between them is
non-assignable. The debtor may say that he con-
tracted the debt only with the creditor, and not with
any third person to whom the creditor may choose
to assign the claim ; and therefore, if the Assignment
is made without the consent of the debtor, it has not
perfect legal effect. For instance, the assignee can
not levy upon the property of the debtor which is
no longer in the debtor’s possession, but which has
been transferred to a third person, whereas the orig-
inal creditor would have had this right (Rabad on
Mekirah, l.c.).

Rabbi Jacob Tam assumes the following legal
fiction for the purpose of explaining the right of
the creditor to release the debtor after he has as-
signed his claim:

The creditor has a double right against the debtor
— a right to seize his person and a right to levy on
his property. The right to levy on his property is
subsidiary, the property being simply surety for
the person; but the right of property is assignable,
and the right against the person is not assignable:
hence the creditor may release the debtor because he
still retains the right to the debtor’s person. Since
by such release he practically releases the debt, it
cuts the ground from under the feet of the assignee,
who by the Assignment became owner merely of
the subsidiary right against the creditor’s property
(Asheri to Ket. 85, 86).

According to some later authorities, the creditor
can not release the debtor if the creditor is without
means and unable to reimburse his assignee ; and they
hold that the debtor is responsible to the assignee in
the first place, because the assignee is the creditor
of his creditor. They invoke the rule of Rabbi
Nathan : “ If A has a claim against B, and B has a
claim against C, take the money from C and give it
to A” (Ket. 19/7) ; but other authorities deny this ap-
plication of the rule of Rabbi Nathan (Frankel, “ Der
Gerichtliche Beweis,” p. 375).

In order to provide against the danger of a release
of the original debtor by the creditor in disregard of

Assignment

Asson

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

234

the rights of the assignee, it was ordained that at
the time of the Assignment the assignee must ask
the debtor to give him a shetar directly

Declara- acknowledging him to be the creditor,

tion of No or to acknowledge him as creditor
Set-Off. by the ceremony of Kinyan, or in
the presence of two witnesses. This
procedure was equivalent to a declaration on the
part of the debtor that he had no set-off to the cred-
itor’s claim; and it prevented him from afterward
setting up a release of the claim bj’ the creditor, as
against the claim of the assignee. No agreement
between the creditor and assignee could bind the
debtor, unless the latter joined in any one of the
methods which are mentioned above (Hoslien Mish-
pat, l.c. 23).

Although the law provides that the creditor must reimburse
his assignee in case he has released the debtor, yet, if the
debtor refuses to pay the assignee, in reliance on political pro-
tection, or on the plea that he is too poor, or on the claim that
the shetar is a forgery, the creditor is not obliged to reimburse
the assignee, because, even though the creditor had not released
the debtor, the assignee would not have been able to collect the
claim because of the other defenses set up by the debtor (ib.
33).

In the following cases the creditor loses the right
to release the debtor:

(1) If the Assignment is made in the presence of
the debtor (ib. 29).

(2) If the debtor acknowledges the
Loss assignee to be his creditor (ib. 23).
of Right to (3) If the debtor himself executes a

Release, shetar in favor of the assignee (ib. ,
based on Ivet. 86rt).

(4) If the original shetar of indebtedness reads that
the debtor is bound to his creditor or h is assigns
( Rabad to Mekirah, vi. 12, based on Git. 13 b).

(5) If the creditor is in possession of a pledge
which at the time of the Assignment he gives to the
assignee (Hoslien Mislipat, l.c. 30).

(0) If the creditor is a married woman who has
brought the shetar of indebtedness to her husband
as a part of her marriage portion (ib. 28).

(7) If the creditor is a non-Jew and he assigns the
shetar to a Jew. The reason assigned is that, accord-
ing to the law of the Gentiles, the creditor has no
right to release the debtor {ib. 25).

(8) If the creditor assigns the shetar on his death-
bed, his heir loses the right to release the debtor.
The reason given in this case is that the sick man
may die in peace, knowing that his will will be car-
ried out (ib. 27).

(9) If the assignee assigns the shetar to another,
or reassigns it to the assignor, he can not release the
original debtor, because the privity of contract ex-
isting between the original debtor and creditor does
not exist between the original debtor and the credi-
tor’s assignee; and therefore, when the latter has
assigned the claim to a second assignee, he has no
such interest as will enable him to release the debtor
(ib. 31).

The following is the form commonly used for a
deed of Assignment of an instrument of indebtedness
(“shetar mekirat shetar hob ”);

A memorial of the testimony deposed before us, the witnesses

hereunto subscribed this day of , in the year .

There appeared before us A, the son of B. and he said unto us,
“ Be ye witnesses that I have sold unto C, the son of D, this in-

strument of indebtedness against E, the son of F, absolutely and
freely ; and that henceforth neither I nor my heirs or repre-
sentatives have any rights in this instrument
Form of of indebtedness against E, the son of F ; but
Deed of that it henceforth belongs absolutely to C, the
Assignment, son of D, and his heirs, together with all rights
under it, and that no man shall hinder him
therein.” And, furthermore, the said A, the son of B, said unto
us, the subscribing witnesses, “ I bind myself under penalty of
the ban of excommunication, and by the oath of the law, as to
a completed contract which can not be disturbed or set aside,
made publicly, and especially for the benefit of C, the son of D,
who buys this instrument of indebtedness, that neither I nor my
heirs will give anv acquittance or release to the debtor or his
heirs for any portion of the debt, under this instrument of in-
debtedness: and this shall not be considered an Asmakta or a
mere form ” ; and thereupon we (the witnesses) took Kinyan of
A, the son of B, for all that is above set forth, by the use of a
garment by means of which Kinyan may lawfully be taken.
And all is established and fixed and determined.

(Signed by two witnesses.)

Bibliography: J. G. C. Adler, Sammlung von Gerichtlichen
JUdischen Contracted, Hamburg and Biitzow, 1773 ; Frankel,
Dcr Gerichtliche Beweis , Berlin, 1840: Bloch, Der Vert rag,
Budapest, 1893.

j. sn. D. W. A.

ASSING, DAVID ASSUR (generally known
as David Assing) : German physician and poet;
born at Konigsberg in 1787; died April 25, 1842.
He studied at the universities of Tubingen, Halle,
Vienna, and Gottingen. He received liis doctorate
from the University of Gottingen Aug. 26, 1807 (ac-
cording to some authorities, from Konigsberg Univer-
sity); his thesis being “Materiae Alimentaria; Line-
amenta ad Leges Chemico-Dynamicas Adumbrata”
(Foods and Their Relation to Chemico-Dynainical
Laws). This was published at Gottingen in 1809.
Three years later lie went to Hamburg with the in-
tention of settling there as a practising physician;
but hardly a year passed before the war occurred
for the liberation of Germany from Napoleonic rule,
and he entered the army, joining a regiment of cav-
alry in the capacity of physician. He served first in
the Russian, then in the Prussian, army. In 1815
he returned to Hamburg on account of his love for
Rosa Maria Varnhagen, the daughter of a physician
of that city, and sister of the famous author. He
married her the following year. About this time,
Assing embraced Christianity and discarded his mid-
dle name Assur. He was known as a student of
Greek medicine, making a special study of Hip-
pocrates. He also contributed lyric poems to the
“Musenalmanach,” published by his friends Kerher
and Cliamisso ; to the “ Tubinger Morgenblatt ” ; in
“Isidorus Hesperiden.” After the death of his
wife, June 22, 1840, he published, “Rosa Maria’s
Poetischer Nachlass,” Altona, 1841. The last years
of his life were passed in solitude.

Bibliography: Ally. Deutsche Biographic, i. 634; Brock-
haiis, ConvermtUms-Lexicnn, ii. 81; Wernich and Hirsota,
Hervorragende Aerzte Alter Zeiten und Vtilker, i. 313;
Briimmer, Deutsches Dichter- Lexicon, p. 23; Schroder,
Lexicon der Hamburger Schriftsteller, p. 105.

S. W. S.

ASSING, LUDMILLA: German authoress;
born in Hamburg Feb. 22, 1821; died March 25,
1880, in Florence, Italy. She was the daughter of
Dr. David Assing and Rosa Maria Assing, sister of
Varnhagen von Ense. After the death of her par-
ents she removed to Berlin to reside with her uncle
Varnhagen. While in his house she formed the

235

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Assignment

Asson

acquaintance of several noted men and women of that
time, among whom were Alexander von Humboldt,
Prince Piickler-Muskau, Bettina von Arnim, and
many others. In 1861 she took up her residence in
Florence, where she passed the rest of her life. She
married a lieutenant of the Italian army, Cavaliere
Grimelli, from whom she was divorced two years
later (1875). Ludmilla founded in Florence a pub
lie school, in which instruction in German was com-
pulsory. Toward the close of her life she became
afflicted with brain trouble, from which she never
recovered, her death occurring in the insane asylum
of San Bonifazio, Florence.

As a writer, Ludmilla Assing belonged to the
school of Varnliagen. Her literary activity was
chiefly directed toward biography. She translated
from the Italian Mazzini’s works (Hamburg, 1868,
2 vols.), and the works of Piero Cironi. She wrote
also in Italian. The posthumous works of her uncle
were edited by her, and for this she was sentenced,
in 1863, to eight months’, and again, in 1864, to two
years’, imprisonment by the Prussian government
for disrespect to the king and queen, because the
works of Varnlmgen that were published under her
direction disclosed some scandals of the court. As
she was residing in Florence at that time, the intended
punishment did not affect her. She was pardoned,
however, in 1866, but she preferred, nevertheless, to
remain in Italy. Her biographical works include the
lives of: “Grafin Elise von Ahlefeldt,” Berlin, 1857;
“Sophie von La Roche, die Freundin Wieland’s,”
Berlin, 1859; “Fiirst Hermann Piickler-Muskau,”
Hamburg, 1868, 2 vols. ; “Piero Cironi, ein Beitrag
zur Geschichte der Revolution in Italien,” Leipsic,
1867; “ Biograpliische Portrats,” Leipsic, 1871. She
published in Italian: “Vita di Piero Cironi,” Prato,
1865; "La Posizione Sociale della Donna,” Milan,
1866; “In Memoria di Giovanni Grilenzoni,” Genoa,
1868.

Biuliography : Bornmuller, Bioqraphisches Lexicon, i. 2!);

Brockliaus, ConversatUms-Lexicon, ii. 81; Larousse, Dic-

tionnaire , 2d supplement, xvii. 376: (j. Vapereau, Diet, rte.s

Cnntemporaim , p. 78; Meyer, Conversations-Lcxicon ,

ii. 15.

s. W. S.

ASSIR: 1. A son of Korah, a Levite (Ex. vi.
24, and in the list of I Cliron. vi. 7). 2. Son of

Ebiasaph and great-grandson of Assir, son of Korah
(I Cliron. vi. 8, 22). 3. Son of Jeconiah, found in

the genealogical lists of the kings of Judah (I Cliron.
iii. 17). “ Assir ” is interpreted by the R. Y. as “ cap-

tive”; but the rendering “Jeconiah the captive ” is
most improbable.

.1. .tr. G. B. L.

ASSIZE OF JEWRY : An expression used in
the thirteenth century in England for the laws and
customs regulating the relations between Jews and
Christians in that country, and especially binding
upon the decisions of the Exchequer of tiie Jews.
Like most early English law, it was never officially
compiled, being derived partly from written and
partly from unwritten sources. The former consisted
of church ordinances, and of agreements between the
king and the Jews, formulated in specific charters.
An attempt at reconstructing the Assize of Jewry
for the twelfth century will be found in Jacobs,

“Jew's of Angevin England” (pp. 329-386). The
assize for the thirteenth century has not yet been
collected. j

ASSON, MICHELANGELO: Italian physi-
cian and medical author; born at Verona June 21,
1802; died at Venice Dec. 2, 1877. Asson’s father
dying while his son was still an infant, the family
was left in such straitened circumstances that an
uncle undertook Asson’s education. The latter at-
tended the academy of his native town and the uni-
versities of Padua and Pavia, taking a postgraduate
course at Milan. After graduating as doctor of
medicine in 1825, Asson returned to Verona and
practised there as a physician until 1831, when he
removed to Venice. There he built up a large prac-
tise, becoming one of the leading surgeons of north-
ern Italy. During the cholera epidemic in 1835 he
opened an auxiliary hospital at St Toma, and was
oneof the organizers of the municipal hospital there,
the chief surgeon of which he became in 1840 in suc-
cession to Rimas.

During the rebellion against Austria in 1849 Asson
was exceedingly active in medical work, being ap-
pointed chief surgeon of the military hospital of
Chieri, and doing medical duty at the battle of No-
vara, and in the war between Italy and Austria,
1859-60. From 1857 he had been professor of anat-
omy at the Academy of Art, Venice, and in 1863 was
appointed professorof surgery in the newly founded
medical and surgical school of the municipal hospi-
tal in that city. His long and very successful med-
ical career was ended in 1872 by a paralytic stroke,
after which lie lingered for five years.

Asson was a member of several medical societies,
both native and foreign, including those of Genoa,
Bologna, Constantinople, and Berlin.

Asson was a prolific medical author, having writ-
ten about 120 essays and books. He was not. how-
ever, very original, and his works, though very in-
teresting— as they give an insight into the medical,
especially the anatomical and surgical, knowledgeof
the Italy of his times — are not of lasting importance.
He translated into Italian Bichat’s “Anatomie” and
contributed articles to Falconetti’s “Enciclopedia
e Dizionario di Conversazione.” Among his many
essays and works the following may be mentioned:

(1) “Storia Singulare di un Calcolo Yescico Ure-
trale,” in “Annales Univ. di Mediehe,” June, 1827,
No. 126; (2) “ Considerazioni Teoretico-Pratiche
sull’ Arteriotomia, ” Venice, 1831; (3) “Sopra un
Caso di Spostamento della Lento Cristallina,” in
“Autologia Medica,” April, 1834, Venice; (4) " Dizi-
onario Enciclopedico delle Scienze Mediehe,” Venice,
1834;. (5) “Intorno alia Prima Invasione del Cholera
Morbus in Venezia,” a report on the cholera epi-
demic, jointly with Cortese, Fario, and Pancrazio,
in “ Ann. Univ. di Mediehe,” Milan, 1836 ; (6) “ Osser-
vazioni Anatomo-Patologiche e Cliniclie Intorno all’
Arteriasi Cronica o Arterolitiasi,” in “Memoriale
della Medica Contempor.,” Nos. 3-6, Genoa, 1839;
(7) “ Bibliografia Chirurgica,” in “Memoriale della
Medica Contempor.,” Genoa, 1841 ; (8) “ Osservazioni
sopra un Angina di Petto: Ossificazione dell’ Arteria
Coronaria sinistra con Alcune Riflessioni Intorno
1’ Arterolitiasi ed Altri Casi Practici,” in “Giornale

Assumptio Mosis
Assyria

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

236

per Servire al Progressi della Patologia e della Tera-
pia,” 1842; (9) “ Annotiazioni Anatomo, Patologiehe
e Praticlie Intorno le Cliirurgiche Malattie,” Venice,
1842-44; (10) “ Considerazioni Anatomiche, Fisiolo-
giche, Patologiehe e Cliirurgiche Intorno la Milza,” in
“ Giornale Veneto di Scienze Mediche,” Venice, 1848 ;

(11) “Sulla F rat t ura del Collo del Femure,” ib. 1855;

(12) “Sull’ Ernia dell’ Intestino Cieco,” ib. 1860;
“Casi Pratici ed Osservazioni di Clinica Chirurgica, ”
in “ Atti del Reale Istituto Veneto,” vii., viii., Venice,
1862-65; “Sulla Piemia,” in “Giornale Veneto di
Scienze Mediche,” Venice, 1867-68.

In addition to his medical studies and practise he
devoted himself to classic literature, and at times
published essays, especially on Horace and Dante.

Bibliography: Minicb, in Giornale Veneto di Scienze
Mediche , Venice, 1878, series :S, xxix. 318~;i.59 ; Cantani, in
Hirsch, Bioyraphvtchea Lcxtkon der Hervorragenden
Aerzte Aliev Zeiten und VOlher , s.v., Vienna, 1884; Pavel,
Biographisches Lexicon Hcrvorragender Aerzte des Nean-
zehntcn Jahrhunderts , s.v., Vienna, 1901.

s. F. T. H.

ASSUMPTIO MOSIS. See Apocalyptic Lit-
erature, §4.

ASSYRIA : The name “ Assyria ” is the Greek
form of the native “ Asshur,” the city on the west of
the Tigris, near its confluence with the Lower Zab,
from which the kingdom, and Anally the empire, of
Assyria was named. Assyria’s rela-
Name tions to the people of Israel are of chief
and Origin, concern in this article; yet a brief
statement is necessary regarding its
position among the nations of the ancient East, in
whose history it is such an important factor.

After the city of Asshur had been founded at an
unknown early date, perhaps by colonists from Baby-
lonia, the settlement gradually spread till it ex-
tended to the mountains of Kurdistan forming the
historical eastern boundary of the kingdom, which
stretched along both sides of the Tigris. During the
long period when Babylonia controlled the whole of
the region from the Persian gulf to the Mediterra-
nean sea, Assyria was its dependent. But about the
sixteenth century b.c. it rose into independence as a
rival of Babylonia; and thenceforth Syria and Pal-
estine were left free from the aggressions of either
power. Thus Egypt was given opportunity to se-
cure a footing in Asia, which she maintained for the
greater part of three centuries, though toward the
end of the fourteenth century she had to relinquish
Syria to the Hittites. At length the dominion of
both Egyptians and Hittites in western Asia was
ended, partly through invasion from
Rise the northern coastlands of the Medi-
of Assyria, terranean ; but, on account of mutual
hostility, neither Assyria nor Baby-
lonia was in a position to occupy the country. In
consequence, the Arameans “from over the river”
made a permanent settlement in Syria; and the He-
brews, having escaped from Egypt, reclaimed their
old tribal seats in Palestine, and at last became mas-
ters of most of the Canaanite territory. After the
settlement, Israel was not disturbed by any power
greater than the small countries of the neighborhood,
whose attacks mark the period of the Judges. Thus
arose the possibility of the Hebrew monarchy, as
well as of the powerful Aramean kingdom of Damas-

cus. But the subjection of Syria and Palestine to
an Eastern power was only a question of time. From
aboutllOOB.c. Assyria’s superiority became evident,
and for nearly flve centuries Babylonia ceased to be
a power in Asia. Assyria, however, was not in a
position to subdue Syria completely till the middle
of the ninth century; and then the conquest was
not permanent. Palestine proper was not invaded
till 738 b.c. The history of Assyria may accordingly
be treated for the present purpose under the follow-
ing periods: A. To 1500 b.c., period of quiescence.
B. To 745, period of extension. C. To 607, period
of supremacy. The flrst period was of no signifi-
cance for Israel ; the second was of much direct im-
portance; the third was of supreme importance,
direct and indirect. This division should be sup-
plemented by one having special regard to the history
of Israel, as that history was affected by the policy
of Assyria, and dealing only with the latter part of
Band with C. These divisions arc: (1) Epoch of
the Syrian wars; (2) decline and fall of the northern
kingdom; (3) vassalage of the kingdom of Judah.

(1) a. Aliab, son of Omri, while usually subject
to Damascus, gains some relief through an Assyrian

invasion under Shalmaneser II. about
Epoch 854 b.c., which causes a temporary
of Syrian league among the western states, Aliab
Wars. and Ben-liadad II. of Damascus fight-
ing side by side against the invader.
b. Jehu, the usurper, submits to Assyrian suzerainty
about 842, but gains only a brief advantage ; for As-
syria, which has been pressing Damascus, after 839
retires for a time, and gives Hazael of that kingdom
opportunity to ravage most of Palestine, c. Joash
of Samaria (799) is successful against Damascus be-
cause the Assyrians have reappeared. They take
Damascus in 797, and receive the homage of Pheni-
cians, Philistines, and northern Israel, d. The pros-
tration of Damascus is followed by the quiescence of
Assyria for forty years, during which time both
Israel and Judah expand under Jeroboam II. and
Uzziah.

(2) a. Tiglath-pileser III. (Pul) reorganizes the
Assyrian empire, and carries out the policy of pro-
gressive reduction of western Asia. Subject states
are spared complete extinction only on condition of
submitting to severe terms of probation to test their
fidelity to Assyria’s rule. Northern and middle
Syria are annexed (743-738 b.c.). Uzziah of Judah,
their ally, is humbled ; while Menaliem of Israel buys
off Tiglath-pileser with a heavy price. In 734 Aliaz

seeks help from Tiglath-pileser against
Fall of Samaria and Damascus, and becomes
Kingdom of an Assyrian vassal. Galilee is annexed;
Israel. and some of its people are deported.

Pekali of Samaria is dethroned and slain
in 733, and Hosea is made vassal king. Damascus
is taken in 732. b. Hosea, instigated by Egypt,
now under the Ethiopic dynasty, rebels in 724 against
Shalmaneser IV. of Assyria. Sargon II. , who comes
to the throne at the end of 722, takes Samaria and
deports 27,290 of the people to Mesopotamia and
Media.

(3) a. Sargon II. (722-705 b.c.) consolidates the
Assyrian power. In 711, when Ashdod revolts (Isa.
xx.), Judah is threatened for intriguing with Egypt

237

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Assumptio Mosis
Assyria

and the Philistines, b. The policy of Ilezekiah (719—
690) is to treat with Egypt and assist in a general
combination against Assyria after the accession of
Sennacherib (705-681). In 701 Sennacherib invades
Palestine, devastates Judah, and deports many peo-
ple, hut is diverted from the siege of Jerusalem by
a plague in his army, so that he leaves
Vassalage Palestine and does not return, c. Esar-
of haddon, the best of the Assyrian kings
Judah. (681-668), conquers Egypt. It rebels
and is reconquered by Assurbanipal
(668-626), but regains its freedom about 645. Judah
and the West generally remain quiescent. In 650 a
great revolt against Assyria rages from Elam to the
Mediterranean, in which Manasseh of Judah joins
(according to II Chron. xxxiii. 10-13), and is made
captive for a time. d. Assyriadeclines rapidly. Cim-
merians and Scythians invade the empire. The Me-
dians, assisted by the Chaldeans, finally
Destruc- destroy Nineveh and di vide the empire
tion between them. Before the catastro-
of Assyria, phe. Pharaoh Neclio II. of Egypt in-
vades Syria. Josiah of Judah (639-
608), who proceeds against him, is slain at Megiddo.

The official and to some extent the popular religion
of Judah was greatly affected by Assyrian influence,
especially under Ahaz and Manasseh.

Assyria occupies a prominent place both in the
historical and in the prophetical literature of the Old
Testament. The narrators were well informed as to
the Assyrian events to which they refer; and are
most discerning and explicit in regard to occasions
on which the religion of Israel was in-
Assyria fluenced by Assyria, as in the iunova-
and tions introduced by Ahaz and Manas-
tlie O. T. seh (II Kings xvi. 18; xxiii. 11, 12), or
Literature, when a great deliverance was wrought,
as under Plezekiah (II Kings xviii.,
xix.), or when Israel’s independence or actual exist-
ence was imperiled (II Kings xv. 29, xvii.). Since
the historians wrote under the influence of the view
of Hebrew history taken by the Prophets, Assyria is
regarded by them from the prophetic point of view.
But the Hebrew narrative is usually so objective that
any higher purpose involved in the part played by
the Assyrians is not specially indicated, except in the
general statement with regard to the guilt of Samaria
(II Kings xvii. 7 et seq.).

The Prophets, on the other hand, are international,
or rather world wide, seers, and connect all events as
they occur with the controlling divine purpose. In
their theory of affairs, while Israel as
Assyria the chosen people was always the spe-
and the cial object of the Lord’s care and iu-
Prophets. terest, the other nations are not beyond
His regard ; and their political and mil-
itary movements which concern the weal of Israel
are made to subserve His purpose and the establish-
ment of His kingdom. This general conception ex-
plains the watchfulness with which the Prophets
viewed the gradual advance of the Assyrian empire
to the secure possession of Syria and Palestine. In-
deed, it may be said that in a certain sense the As-
syrian policy occasioned Hebrew written prophecy.

Amos, the first of the literary prophets who pro- •
claimed the active sovereignty of the Lord over the

nations of the earth (Amos ix. 7), based his warn-
ings to his people on the ground that God was to raise
up against them a nation that would carry them cap-
tive beyond Damascus and lay waste their whole
country (v. 27, vi. 14); indicating that the Assyrians
were to take the place in the discipline of Israel for-
merly held by the Arameans of Damascus, and to
outdo them in the work of punishment. This atti-
tude toward Israel with its threat of a national catas-
trophe was consistently maintained by succeeding
prophets until the end of the Assyrian empire.

As political complications increased, the Prophets
were led to play not merely a theoretical but a prac-
tical part. In their capacity as political mentors they
rebuked their people for intriguing with Assyria
(Hosea v. 13, viii. 9), and foretold the
Amos, consequence (viii. 10; ix. 3, 17; x. 5 et
Hosea, and seq.). They thus assumed a twofold
Micah. attitude toward the great Assyrian
problem. On the one hand, it was nec-
essary to warn their people against entanglement
with Assyria, because (1) it would only result more
surely in their absorption by the stronger power, and
(2) it would bring Israel under religious as well as
political subjection to the suzerain power. On the
other hand, it was equally necessary to point out the
inevitable loss of home and country at the hands of
the Assyrian invaders. When the prophetic lessons
had been thrown away upon northern Israel, and
Samaria had become an Assyrian province, the ad-
monition was impressed more strongly than ever
upon the kingdom of Judah (Micah i. ; Isa. xxviii.).
When, under Tiglath-pileser 1. , Sargon, and Sennach-
erib, Judah, after the first false step of Ahaz (II
Kings xvi. 7), became bound hand and foot to As-
syria, and her end seemed near, it was the task of
Isaiah to show how these antithetic points of view
were reconciled in the great doctrine of God’s justice
supreme overall. That is to say, divine justice was
bringing Israel under the Assyrian rod, and would
finally call the oppressor himself to ac-
Isaiah and count when his allotted work should
Nahum. be done (Isa. x. 5 et seq.). The scour-
ging of Judah and Jerusalem by Sen-
nacherib, and the retreat of his plague-stricken army
(II Kings xviii., xix.), were partial demonstration of
the truth of the prophetic word, which was fully
vindicated at last by the destruction of Nineveh and
the fall of Assyria (Nahum). See the articles As-
SYRIOLOGY AND THE OLD TESTAMENT ; ARCHEOLOGY,
Biblical.

Bibliography: Geography: Schrader. K. G. F. Giessen. 1878;
Delitzsch, Wo La g das Parodies ! Leipsic, 1881; Delattre,
L'Asie Occidentals dans les Inscriptions Assyriennes .
Brussels, 1885; A. Billerbeck, Das Sandschak Suleimana,
Leipsic, 1898. History: Tiele, BahyUmisch - Assyrische
Oesch. Gotha, 1886-88; Hommel, Gesch. Babyloniens und
Assvriens. Berlin, 1885-88; Winekler, Gescli. Babyloniens
und Assyriens, Leipsic, 1892; Robert W. Rogers, History of
Babylonia and Assyria. New York, 1900. Relations to Old
Testament: Schrader, ('. I. O. T. 2 vols., London, 1885;
Winekler. Keilinschriftliches Tcxthuch zum Alten Testa-
ment, Leipsic, 1892; McCurdy. History. Prophecy, and the
Monuments, 3 vols.. New York, 1894-1900; F.vetts, New
Light on the Holy Land, London, 1894; ('. J. Ball, Light
from the East, London, 1899; idem, The Old Testament in
the Light of Assyrian Besearclies, London, 1897; Price,
The Monuments and the Old Testament, Chicago, 1899;
S. R. Driver, in Hogarth, Authority and Archeology, Lon-
don, 1899. Religion: Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia
and Assyria, Boston, 1898. Translations of texts: Records
of the Past, 10 vols., edited by S. Birch, London, 1873-81;

Assyriology

Astarte

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

238

second series, edited by A. H. Sayoe, 6 vols., London, 1888-

93; Schrader, K. B. Berlin, 1889-1900.

J. JR. J. F. McC.

ASSYRIOLOGY AND THE OLD TESTA-
MENT : The science of Assyriology (the interpre-
tation of the cuneiform inscriptions), which has orig-
inated and developed with such marked rapidity
within the past fifty years, stands in intimate rela-
tions with the Old Testament. The history, philol-
ogy, and archeology of Assyria are valuable aids to
the student of the ancient Hebrews. The most sa-
lient allusions in Assyriology to events and customs
mentioned in the Old Testament may most conve-
niently be divided into the following periods: viz.,
the antediluvian, t lie patriarchal, the Egyptian, the
early regal, the last century of Assyria, and the new
Babylonian.

The Antediluvian Period: The Genesis records
of the antediluvian period are paralleled by a num-
ber of traditions and customs found in the cuneiform
records of Mesopotamia. These are : (1) Thoroughly
Semitic traditions of the creation of the world and of
life; (2) traces of the observance of a seventh day,
not unlike the Hebrew Sabbath; (3) references to a
sacred garden ; (4) possible similarities between the
cherubic guardians of Eden and the colossi of Baby-
lonia ; and (5) remarkable resemblances between Gen
esisand the Babylonian traditions of the Deluge.

The Patriarchal Period: The remarkable list of
nations enumerated in Gen. x. is helpfully elucidated
by the ethnological revelationsof the cuneiform rec-
ords. Ur of the Chaldees has been definitely located
at the modern mound Mugheir, on the right bank
of the Euphrates, about one hundred and fifty miles
above the Persian gulf, though in ancient times it is
supposed to have been a seaport city. The patron
deity of Ur, as of Harran, to which Abram migrated,
was the moon-god Sin. Abram’s journey to the
West-land was made along one of the regular cara-
van routes of that day. The fourteenth chapter of
Genesis has also received interesting confirmation of
its historical basis in the facts: (1) That such raids
as are there mentioned were made many centuries
before Abram’s day, and (2) that names discovered
on the monuments, if not identical with those of this
chapter, contain some of their elements.

The Egyptian Period : The discovery at Tell
el-Amarna in 1887 of more than three hundred cunei-
form documents — correspondence between the kings
of Asia and Egypt — belonging to the fifteenth cen-
tury b.c. has disclosed some startling facts. It is
learned from these that the civilization of Babylonia
had swept westward as far as Egypt, and had so
impressed itself upon its western subjects that its
language was adopted as the medium of diplomacy.
These letters also reveal with considerable detail the
political and social conditions and relations in west-
ern Asia in this hitherto obscure period. A glimpse
is obtained of the peoples who were sett led in Ca-
naan, and who constituted the background of the
earliest settlements of Israel in this land. Joshua’s
conquests were made in the face of strong cities and
great fortifications.

The Early Regal Period : Though the early in-
fluence of Babylonia- Assyria is evident in the life and
customs of the Hebrews in Canaan in the time of

David and Solomon, its first direct and potent bear-
ing is seen in the treaty made by Ahab with Ben-
hadad (I Kings xx. 26-34). This was a wise stroke
of statesmanship on the part of Ahab, in that it put
the Syrian army in the foreground to withstand the
invasion of the oncoming hosts of Shalmaneser II.
of Assyria. Damascus and the Syrian army now be-
came Ahab’s advance guard. The full import of
this mysterious league is seen within a few years at
the battle between Shalmaneser II. and the combined
allies of the West. At the famous battle of Karkar
(854 b.c.) Shalmaneser II. had to face among other
forces “1,200 chariots, 1,200 horsemen, 20,000 men of
Ben-hadad of Damascus, . . . 2,000 chariots, 10,000
men of Ahab of Israel.” The Old Testament does
not mention this battle, nor is any intimation given
of its disastrous results. This same Assyrian king,
in his records of a campaign twelve
Shal- years later (842 b.g.), says: “At that
maneser II. time I received the tribute of the Syr-
ians, the Sidonians, and of Jehu, the
son of Omri.” According to this statement, the
kingdom of Israel was probably still paying the trib-
ute originally levied on the defeated Ahab. “Jehu,
the son of Omri,” was doubtless used in the sense of
“ successor ” on the throne of Israel.

Within a few years Shalmaneser II. turned his at-
tention to other quarters; and the new king of Da-
mascus, Hazael, entered upon ambitious designs in
the West. It was not until 797 b.c. that another
Assyrian king, Adad-uirari III., grandson of Shal-
maneser II., set out on a western campaign. He
conquered Damascus, and brought to his feet Sama-
ria, Edom, and Philistia, and made them tributary
provinces of Assyria. The power of Syria was so
broken by this campaign that she never recovered
her former strength, nor thereafter proved so formi-
dable an enemy of Israel. Assyria’s political power
gradually receded toward the Tigris; and the two
kingdoms of Israel and Judah were left free to ex-
pand until they reached the limits of the Solomonic
kingdom.

The Last Century of Assyria : After forty
years of comparative peace and prosperity (783-743),
the two kingdoms heard a rumor of the approach of
Assyrian hosts. Tiglath-pileser III. (Pul) crossed
the Euphrates; and he recounts “ nineteen districts
of the city of Hamath, together with the towns in
their circuit, situated on the sea of the setting sun
[the Mediterranean], which in their faithlessness had
joined faith with Azariah, I restored to the terri-
tory of the land of Asshur.” In another fragment it
is stated that this was “ Azariah the Judean.” In
his list of kings paying tribute are found Hiram of
Tyre, Rezon of Damascus, and Menaliem of Samaria
(II Kings xv. 19). In one of these campaigns, at
the end of a two years’ siege, Damascus fell (732
b.c.), and Samaria likewise experienced the venge-
ance of the Assyrian king. One of the king’s
records says: “Pekah, their king, they overthrew ;
Ilosliea, I appointed over them ” (compare II Kings
xv. 30). In a list of petty tributar}' kings of the
east coast of the Mediterranean sea, Tiglath-pileser
mentions Ahaz of Judah. In all, this monarch of
Assyria mentions in his fragmentary annals three
kings of Israel and two kings of Judah.

239

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Assyriology

Astai’te

The next definite statement relating to the Old
Testament is found in the records of Sargon II. In
the first year of his reign (722 b.c.) he
Records of says: “The city Samaria I besieged,
Sargon II. 27,290 of its inhabitants I carried away
captive; fifty chariots in it I took for
myself; but the remainder [of the people] I allowed
to retain their possessions. ” The depopulated terri-
tory was repopulated, according to his own records
as well as those of the Old Testament (II Kings
xvii.), by the importation of peoples from several
foreign countries. This combination of strange races
formed the basis of the later Samaritans. This Sar-
gon II., mentioned but once in the Old Testament
(Isa. xx. 1), was a shrewd and powerful monarch.
He carried out a successful campaign against Aslidod
of Philistia, as one of the chief cities involved in a
wide-spread coalition to throw off the yoke of As-
syria (compare Isa. xxxix.). The foe was completely
routed; and Sargon proceeded to Babylon and com-
pleted bis victory.

Upon the death of Sargon II. (705 b.c.), hissonSen-
naclierib ascended the throne. His first movement
affecting Palestine occurred in 701
Sennach- b.c. ; and he gives an admirable record
erib. of the whole campaign. He pressed
forward from Nineveh to the Mediter-
ranean sea, and thence down the coast-line to Philis-
tia, where he encountered determined resistance.
He overran the land of Judah, captured forty-six of
its strong fortresses, and carried off 200,150 captives.
Hezekiah, king of Judah, was shut up in Jerusalem.
Lachish and Libnah were taken after siege, and the
Egyptian ally of .1 udah appeared on the scene. Sen-
nacherib met, and claims to have defeated, their
great army, but apparently took no advantage of his
victory. Strangely enough, Sennacherib’s next state-
ment is to the effect that Hezekiah sent tribute, etc.,
after him to Nineveh. No mention is made of any
disaster or of his return. It is interesting in this con-
nection to note that, although Sennacherib reigned
twenty years after this (to 681), he records no fur-
ther movements toward the west. In a Babylonian
chronicle it is recorded that “ Sennacherib, king of
Assyria, was murdered by his own son in an insur-
rection” (compare Isa. xxxvii. 38). As a result of
this uprising, Esarliaddon seized and held the throne,
and ruled from 681 to 668 b.c.

In a list of twenty-two vassal kings on the Medi-
terranean coast, Esarliaddon mentions Manasseh of
Judah. His son and successor, Assurbanipal (668-
626 b.c.), likewise mentions the same king in his list
of vassals. In 647 a general revolt against the king
of Nineveh probably included Manasseh, who was
carried to Babylon (II Chron. xxxiii. 11-13). Upon
his submission he, like Neclioof Egypt, was restored
to his throne. This closes the contact between As-
syria and Judah, and leaves upon the known docu-
ments of Assyria the names of ten kings of Israel and
Judah.

The New Babylonian Period : The great
founder of the new Babylonian empire was Nebu-
chadnezzar. The inscriptions amply confirm the
Old Testament pictures of his greatness and devo-
tion to the gods of his land. He was a shrewd gen-
eral, a wise administrator, and a world-wide con-

queror and ruler. Babylon was his throne, and the
civilized world his realm. The captive Jews were
his subjects, and served as his menials and vassals.
The close of his forty-three years’ reign was fol-
lowed by a period of anarchy, until Nabonidus (555—
538 b.c.), the last king of the declining Babylonian
monarchy, secured the throne.

The rise of Cyrus in the East presented a new prob-
lem. Tribes, peoples, and kingdoms fell before him
until he reached the walls of Babylon. Its popula-
tion, weary of neglect during the reign of Naboni-
dus as well as of his faithlessness to the great gods
of the city, threw wide open the city gates to wel-
come the advent of so benevolent and liberal a ruler.
Cyrus paid his devotions to the gods of the land, and
implored them to aid and promote his plans. Cyrus’
decree, authorizing the Jews to return to Jerusalem,
was in full accordance with the general policy in-
augurated throughout his realm — a policy designed
in every way to conciliate his subjects.

Other Points of Contact: In addition to this
vast mass of historical data illustrative of the Old
Testament, there is found much valuable material.
The archeological facts of the Old Testament are in-
vested with a new interest; the geography of those
old lands is now a new theme; the chronology of
Israel’s history, always difficult, has lost some of its
uncertainties; and the ethnography of the early set-
tlements has already become a fascinating study.
The linguistic and exegetical value of the cuneiform
documents is far beyond the most sanguine expecta-
tions of scholars. Altogether the science of Assyri-
ology has opened up to the student of the Old Tes-
tament a new world which he must explore before
he can appreciate many of its most interesting parts.

Bibliography : For discoveries: Botta. Monument ilc
Ninive, 1847-50; I.ayard, Nine'veh and Its Remains, 1849;
Nineveh and Babylon, 1853; Loftus, ChaUicea and Susiana,
1857; G. Smith, Assyrian Discoveries, 1875; Ausgrabunqen
in Sendschirli, 1893; J. P. Peters, Nippur, 1897-98; Rassam,
Asshur and the Land . of Nimrod, 1897 ; Rogers, History
of Babylonia and Assyria, 1901, i. 1 348. On Monuments
relative to the Old Testament : J. F. McCurdy, History,
Prophecy, and the Monuments. 1894-1901 ; Sayce, Higher
Criticism and the Monuments, 1894; F. Vigouroux, La
Bible et les Decouvertes Modemes, 5th ed., 1889; Ball, Lipid
from the East, 1899; Price, The Monuments and the Old
Testament, 3d ed., 1902; Schrader, Die Keilinsehriften und
das A. T. 2d ed., 1901 ; Delitzsch, Babel uml Bibel, 1902.

J. JR. I. M. P.

ASTARTE WORSHIP AMONG THE HE-
BREWS : Astarte is the Phenician name of the

Astarte as a Sphynx.

(From Prisse d’Avennes, “Histoirede l’Art Egyptien.’*)

primitive Semitic mother-goddess, out of which the
most important of the Semitic deities were devel-
oped. She was known in Arabia as “ Atlitar, ” and in

Astarte

Astrology

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

240

Babylonia as “Islitar.” Her name appears in the
■Old Testament (I Kings xi. 5; II Kings xxiii. 13) as
“Asli tore tli,” a distortion of “Aslitart,” made after

Astarte as the Goddess of Love.

(From Ball, “ Light from the East.’*)

the analogy of “ Bosheth ” (compare Jastrow, in
“Jour. Bibl. Lit.” xiii 28, note). Solomon is said to
have built a high place to her near Jerusalem, which
was removed during Josiah's reform (I Kings xi. 5,
33 ; II Kings xxiii. 12). Astarte is called in these pas-
sages “ the abomination of the Zidonians,” because, as
the inscriptions of Tabnith and Eshmunazer show,
she was the chief divinity of that city (see Hoffmann,
“Plionizische Inscliriften,” 57, and “C. I. S.” No.

3). In Phenician coun-
tries she was the female
counterpart of Baal, and
was no doubt worshiped
with him by those He-
brews who at times be-
came his devotees. This
is proved by the fact that
Baalim and Aslitaroth
are used several times
(Judges x. 6; I Sam. vii.
4, xii. 10) like the As-
syrian “ ilani u ishtarati ”
for “gods and god-
desses. ”

Astarte, wherever wor-
shiped, was a goddess
of fertility and sexual
love. A trace of this
among the Hebrews ap-
pears in Deut. vii. 13,
xxviii. 4, 18, where the
lambs are called the
“ashtarot” of the flock.
It is usually assumed that
Astarte Worship was
always a foreign cult
among the Hebrews ;
but analogy with the de-
velopment of other Sem-
itic deities, like the Phe-
nician Baal, would lead
to the supposition that
Astarte Worship before
the days of the Prophets
may have somewhat prej -
udiced that of Yhwh.
The problem is a difficult one, the references to the
cult in the Old Testament being so few and so vague.
The reaction against Baal and Astarte, inaugurated

Astarte with Dove.

(From a Phenician terra-cotta in the
Musee du Louvre, Paris.)

by the Prophets, had a profound effect upon the
moral life of Israel (see “Jour. Bibl. Lit.” x. 72-91;
Budde, “Religion of Israel,” cli. ii.-v ). Jeremiah
(vii. 18; xiiv. 17, 18) and Ezekiel (viii. 14) attest vari-
ous forms of this worship in their time, which may
refer to a direct importation from Babylonia. The
sacrificial use of swine’s blood (Isa. lxv. 4, lxvi. 3)
may be a reference to a form of the cult similar to that
known in Cyprus, where swine were sacred to Astarte
(“Jour. Bibl. Lit.”x. 74, and “ Hebraica, ” x. 45, 47).

Bibliography : E. Meyer, Astarte, in Roseher, Lev ikon tier

Griechisctien unci Rtimischen Myttiologie; Barton, in

Hebraica , ix. 133-165, x. 1-74; idem, Semitic Origins, ch.

vii.; W. Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, Index.

See also Ashtoreth.

j. jr. G. A. B.

ASTI : Town in the province of Alessandria,
Italy, on the left bank of the Tanaro ; population
32,000. Although now of no great importance, in
the Middle Ages Asti was a center of commerce and
the capital of one of the most powerful republics of
northern Italy. Owing to the relative freedom that
prevailed in Asti, the major part of the French Jews
expelled in 1322 by Charles IY. (compare Isidore
Lob, in “ Gratz-Jubelschrift,” pp. 39 et seq.) took ref-
uge there, and adopted the French ritual called (from
the initials of Asti, Fassauo, and Monclavo, where it
is employed) “Rite Afm,” which has been retained
to the present day. The eighteenth of Iyyar is es-
pecially celebrated in Asti, on which day hymns
composed by Joseph Conzio are recited. A special
Seder for Passover evening service for Asti was writ-
ten by Elia Levi.

Asti was the birthplace of many Jewish scholars,
among whom were: Isaac Santon d’Hugeli (1576),
Judah b. Jacob Poggetto (sixteenth century), Elijah
b. David Finzi (1643), Joseph b. R. Gehereseia Con-
zio and Joab b. Isaac Gallico (seventeenth century),
David Mordecai Terracina (nineteenth century).

Bibliography: Griitz, Gescli. tier Juden, 3d ed. viii. 70;

Luzzatto, Meho le-Mahzor Minting Bene Roma, p. 7;

Zunz, Ritus, p. 64.

G. I. Br.

ASTRAKHAN : Capital of the government of
the same name in Russia, situated on the left bank
of the Volga, about sixty miles from the Caspian
sea. It is generally supposed to have been built
near the site of Atel (or Itil), the ancient capital of
the Chazars.

The only fact known concerning the Jews of As-
trakhan, from the destruction of the kingdom of
the Chazars by Prince Svyatoslav of Russia (969) to
1804, is that Jejvish merchants carried on a consider-
able trade there.

In 1804 Emperor Alexander I., by the “Regula
tions” of Dec. 9, permitted Jewish agriculturists,
artisans, etc., to settle in the province of Astrakhan;
but the law was repealed under Nicholas I. in 1825.

In 1883, probably as a result of the May Laws.
the authorities of Astrakhan issued an order hence-
forth limiting to three days the sojourn in the city
of all Jewish merchants not of the first gild. The
Christian merchants applied to the governor, urging
him, in the interests of the commerce of Astrakhan,
to repeal the order. They showed that the sales of
fish to Jews amounted to more than five million
rubles a year ; that the Russian importers numbered

241

THE JEWISH EXCYCLOPEDIA

Astarte

Astrolog-y

not more than 5 per cent; that the Jews bought
large quantities of special kosher tish called “Jew-
ish fish,” which could uot be sold to any one else ;
and that without the Jews the business of Astrakhan
would be ruined. The governor extended the time
limit for the Jewish merchants to a month, but many
of them had already left the city. The price of fish
fell 50 per cent, and many of the Astrakhan fish
merchants were ruined (“ Ha-Zefirah,” 1883, No. 23).

In the city of Astrakhan the births among Jews
were 49 males and 62 females in 1897 ; deaths, 28
males, 13 females; the excess of births over deaths
being 70, while that in the general population was
but 6 per cent. The general death-rate was 45 per
thousand, while that of the Jews was but 27 per
thousand. The marriages among Jews numbered 13.

In 1899 the Jewish population of Astrakhan was
1,575 in a total population of 117,772. The Jewish
population in the whole government, including the
city, was 1,667. In addition, there were 15 Karaites
in the city, and 10 in the government (“ Pamyatnaya
Knizhka Astrakhanskoi Gubernii,” 1900).

There are two synagogues: one for the Ashkena-
zim. the other for the Sephardim. The rabbi of both
synagogues is Boris Moisejevich Schucher.

Bibliography: Pamyatnaw Knizhka Astrakhanskoi Gu-
bernii, 1899, 1900.

H. R.

ASTROLOGY. — Biblical. See Astronomy,

Biblical.

In the Apocrypha and in the Talmud :

Neither D'DK’ ,_Qn (Isa. xlvii. 13), which the Greek
translation renders “astrologers,” nor (Dan. ii.
27 et seq. ), the technical designation for the Chaldean
casters of horoscopes, nor 'inn
Ter- (Dan. iii. 27), explained “astrologers”
minology. (Cant. R. to vii. 9), is found in ancient
Jewish traditions. Even the Hebraic
name D'3333 ntn,“ star-gazer ” (Isa. xlvii. 13), occurs
only in the commentaries on the Talmud. The cus-
tomary names are D'0'6'nDD^^• (“astrologer”) in Pal-
estinian and (“Chaldeans”) in Babylonian

sources — expressions originating in the Greco-Roman
world, where Xa?Aaloi and “ Chald;ei ” are found
as early as the beginning of the common era, exclu-
sively applied to astrologers. Whether any etymo-
logical relation exists between DUI^ritODN and the
appellation pJtOXN, or poDX, a word used in connec-
tion with the Egyptian rulers (njTlQ 'rjlDVN. Sotah
126) and identical in meaning, can not be definitely
ascertained. The art itself goes by the name of
(Astrologia).

These foreign terms suffice to show that the “ Chal-
dean science ” was not introduced into Judea directly,
but through the medium of syncretic
Dis- Hellenism, wherein, in the course of
tribution. centuries, it met with an ever-widen-
ing acceptance. The Sibylline Books
praise the Jewish nation because it “ does not medi-
tate on the prophecies of the fortune-tellers, magi-
cians, and conjurers, nor practise Astrology, nor
seek the oracles of the Chaldeans in the stars” (iii.
227); and Josephus censures the people for ignoring
the visible signs and indications foreshadowing the
destruction of the Temple (“ B. .1. ” vi. 5, § 3). There
II.— 16

were actually no Jewish astrologers either in the
Holy Land or in Babylonia; and the art, together
with those who practised it, was condemned, al-
though its reality was as little questioned then as it
was by the rest of the world up to the seventeenth
century. It was indeed considered of celestial ori-
gin, and as having been revealed to mankind by the
rebellious angels. Barakel (Rakiel: Greek text)
taught star-gazing; Kokabel (the Star of God), As-
trology; Shehakeel, the science of the clouds; Arkiel
(the Earth of God), the signs of the earth; Samsiel
(the Sun of God), the signs of the sun; and Scuriel.
Sahriel (the Moon of God), the signs of the moon
(Enoch viii. 3).

The admiration for Astrology was due not so much
to its importance for reckoning times and seasons —
although as such held in high esteem — as to its sup-
posed power of forecasting the future. Enoch or-
dained the jubilees, year-weeks (“ Jahrwoclien ”),
months, Sabbaths (weeks), and days, and “all that
was, that is, and that will be he saw as in a vision,
even the destiny of the children of man from gener-
ation to generation to the Judgment Day: every-
thing he foresaw and apprehended, inscribing his
testimony upon the earth for the benefit of mankind
and all their posterity ” (Jubilees iv.

Chro- 19). According to the same book (viii.
nology and 3), such prediction is inscribed upon
Astrology, the rocks. The same view, with a Jew-
ish monotheistic coloring, is expressed
in the rabbinical legend, according to which God
showed to Adam all the future generations, inclu-
ding their scribes, scholars, and leaders (‘Ab. Zarali
5a). Abraham, the Chaldean, bore upon his breast
a large astrological tablet on which the fate of every
man might be read; for which reason — according to
the haggadist— all the kings of the East and of the
West congregated every morning before his door in
order to seek advice. It is to this tablet that the
words (Gen. xxiv. 1), “the Lord had blessed Abra-
ham in all things,” are said to allude (Tosef., Kid.
v. 17; B. B. 166). Abraham himself saw in it that
he would have no second sou, but God said unto
him, “Away with your astrology; for Israel there
is no planet ! ” (Shab. 156a). Elsewhere it is declared
that Abraham was not an astrologer at all, but a
prophet, inasmuch as only those beneath the stars
could be subject to their influence ; but that Abra-
ham was above them (Gen. R. xliv. 12). It is also
stated that Joab refused to join the conspiracy of
Absalom, because he had seen David’s favorable
nativity (Sanh. 49a and elsewhere).

Like the Assyrio-Babylonian monarchs, who re-
ceived from their astrologers a monthly forecast of
coming events (Isa. xlvii. 13andcunei-
Astrology form inscriptions; e.r/-, Rawlinson,
in “Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western
the Roman Asia,” iii. 51), the Roman emperors

Empire. believed in the all-powerful influence
of the stars upon the destinies of man
and nature. Tiberius was a master in the art of cast-
ing a horoscope, and regulated all his actions in ac-
cordance with his astrological deductions (Josephus,
“Ant." xviii. 6, § 9). The Roman empire boasted a
complete system of Chaldeo-Greek literature, which
was zealously cultivated by the members of the

Astrology

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

242

astrological schools; all public and private life being
under the influence of these pseudo-prophets, who
received substantial rewards in gold.

These conditions are reflected in the parables of
the Talmud, which vividly illuminate the astrolog-
ical belief from every point of view. Jethro advises
Moses (Mek., Yitro, ‘Amalek, 2) to select the men
whom he wishes to cooperate with him by means
of the mirror into which the kings are accustomed
to gaze.

“ A king who had no son said to his attendants, ' Buy pen and
ink for my son ’ : and the people took the king to be a great as-
trologer ; for how could he have ordered pen and ink for his son,
had he not beheld beforehand that he was to have one 1 The
same applies to God, who foresaw that He would, at some future
time, give Israel the Torah ” (Gen. R. i. 4).

“ The question is asked, ' Why did God proclaim His law amid
Are and darkness (Dent. v. 20), and not by the light of day ’ ?
And the answer is given in the form of a parable: ‘A king,
who was a great astrologer, gave his son in marriage, and hung
black curtains before the bridal chamber, saying, “ I know that
my son will not abide by his nuptial promises longer than forty
days : let not the people, in days to come, say that an astrologer
such as I did not know what was to happen to his son.” ’ The
astrologer is God, his son is Israel: and the bride is the Torah,
by which Israel abode no longer than forty days (from the
revelation to the making of the golden calf) ” (Pirke R. El. xli.).

“A ruler sentenced a man to death by fire: but when he per-
ceived by means of astrology that the condemned would beget
a daughter destined to become the king's wife, he said, ‘ This
man must be saved for his daughter’s sake.’ Thus did God
save Abraham from the fiery furnace, because of Jacob ” (Lev. R.
xxxvi. 4).

“ A man to whom a son was born was met by an astrologer
who, on seeing the child, declared that he was destined to be-
come a bandit-chief (apx‘A>)CTTr)?) and must be put out in the
desert. The father of the child refused until the astrologer's
father told him to do just as his son had ordered. The father
of the astrologer is God; the astrologer is Sarah ; the child is
Ishmael : and the father of the child is Abraham ” (Deut. R. iv
5, referring to Gen. xxi. 10-12).

When Pharaoh made Joseph vice-regent, his as-
trologers asked, “ Would you elevate this slave, pur-
chased for twenty pieces of silver, to
Court As- be ruler over us?” and Pharaoh an-
trologers. swered, “ I see the colors of rulership
in him ” (Sotali 366). Here, as else-
where, colors play an important part in Astrology.

In reference to a request of King Solomon for labor-
ers on the Temple, Pharaoh directed his astrologers
to select workmen who were to die within the year,
and send them lo the Jewish monarch, who, however,
seeing the ruse through the medium of the Holy
Spirit, sent them back again clad in shrouds (Pesik.
iv. 34a).

Mesha, king of Moab, asked his astrologers, “ Why
am I unable to vanquish the Jews?” and tliej^ an-
swered, “Because of the merit of Abraham, who
was ready to sacrifice his own son ” ; whereupon the
king did likewise ( ib . ii. 13a).

When a pagan wanted to buy a slave, he first con-
sulted an astrologer. It was through this art that
the wife of Potiphar learned that she
As- was to have a son by Joseph ; and it
trological was for this reason that she regarded
Errors. him with favor. It was an error,
however; for the prognostication re-
ferred to her daughter, who subsequently became
Joseph’s wife (Gen. R. lxxxv. 2, lxxxvii. 4).

Pharaoh’s astrologers perceived that the mother
of the future redeemer of Israel was with child, and
that this redeemer was destined to suffer punish-

ment through water. Not knowing whether the re-
deemer was to be an Israelite or an Egyptian, and
being desirous to prevent the redemption of Israel,
Pharaoh ordered that all children born henceforth
should be drowned ; but when the Egyptians remon-
strated against this edict, lie restricted it to Israelitish
infants. But the astrologers erred in their deduc-
tions ; for the reference was to the waters of Meribah
(Num. xx. 13), and not to the Nile (Ex. R. i. 18;
Sanh. 1016 ; compare also Ber. 4a).

The conviction that the astrologers could control
the planets prevailed everywhere among the nations
of antiquity. Thus Hainan regulated the time for
the extinction of the Jews by means of astrological
calculations (Pirke R. El. 1.). A barber, who was
also an astrologer, perceived that the Jews would
shed his blood ; consequently he murdered 80 or,
according to some, 300 of those who visited him pro-
fessionally. But he erred ; for the reference was to
the blood which he was to lose at circumcision on
his conversion to Judaism (Yer. ‘Ab. Zarah ii. 41a).

The astrologers were wont to sit at the entrance
to the harbors and predict how every parcel of mer-
chandise would be disposed of (Eccl.

Special R. i. 14; Midr. Pauim Aherim to Esth.

Features, iii. 7, ed. Buber, p. 46). They could
determine by lot under what planet
and in what month and on what day a people was
to be attacked (Sanh. 95a). On one occasion they
prophesied to a non-Hebrew that his fortune would
fall into the hand of a pious Jewish Sabbath ob-
server. The fortune was thereupon invested in a
diamond and worn by the possessor; but it fell into
the water and was later found by a Jew in the stom-
ach of a fish that he had bought for the Sabbath
meal (Shab. 119a). An astrologer predicted of a
new-born male infant that he was destined to become
a thief; for which reason the mother always kept the
head of the child covered in order that “ the fear of
the heaven be upon him,” and admonished him con-
stantly to pray for divine grace. In spite of all, the
covering fell from his head upon one occasion, after
he had grown to manhood and had attained to the
dignity of a teacher of the Law, and he fulfilled the
sinister prediction by plucking and devouring the
fruit of a tree which did not belong to him (Shab.
1566). Another teacher of the Law declined the
proffered position of head of the school because a
Chaldean had predicted that he should occupy the
chair for only two years; and this proved true, when
he finally accepted the position twenty-two years
later (Ber. 64a). Two students of the Talmud went
out to fell timber, and an astrologer declared that
they would never return ; but they were saved be-
cause of a benevolent action which they performed
(Yer. Shab. vi. 8 d). An astrologer became a proselyte
and consequently abandoned his art; but he relied
on God, and in a critical moment he was saved (ib.).

To resist the influence of the “Wisdom of the
Orient ” was not an easy task. Never-
Talmudists theless there was but one teacher of
and the Talmud, Samuel of Babylonia
Astrology, (about 250), who became an adept in
Astrology, and even he, quoting the
words (Deut. xxx. 12), “It [the Law] is not in the
heavens,” says, “Torah can not go together with

243

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA .

Astrology

the art that studies the heavens” (Dent. R. viii. 6).
A similar remark is made by the Babylonian Jose of
Huzal : “We are not permitted to appeal to the Chal-
deans, for it is written (Deut. xviii. 13), ‘ Thou slialt
be perfect with the Lord thy God ’ ” (Pes. 1136). In
accordance with Jer. x. 2 is another declaration by R.
Johanan, the Palestinian amora, to the effect that
“there are no planets for Israel, but only for the na-
tions which recognize the validity of astrology.”
This opinion is shared by Rab (Abba Arika, Shab.
156a). These utterances, however, do not go undis-
puted ; and it may be added that, more particularly
during the fourth century, the belief in the influence
of the constellations at conception and birth was gen-
eral (ib.). Every person had a particular star as a
guardian spirit, with which his fate was closely inter-
woven. The stars of the proselytes were already
witnesses of the revelation on Sinai (Shab. 146a).
Animals have no stars, and are therefore more liable
to injury (Shab. 536). On the other hand, every
blade of grass has its own particular star which bids
it grow (Gen. R. x. 6). Causeless fear in man is a
sign that his star sees danger (Meg. 3a). The first
day of illness is concealed from mankind in order
that the influence of one’s star may not be weakened ;
and the setting of one’s star betokens that one’s
death is near (Ber. 556). Raba (lived 350) says,
“ Duration of life, progeny, and subsistence are de-
pendent upon the constellations ” (M. K. 28a). God
tells Eleazar ben Pedat, an indigent teacher of the
Talmud, that He would have to overturn the world,
were He to release him from poverty, lie having been
born in an unlucky hour (Ta'an. 25a).

The most popular form of astrological superstition
— and one which still survives among uncultured
people — is the selection of propitious
Selection days. According to it, certain periods,
of Days, years, months, days, and hours are re-
garded as lucky or unlucky. Akiba
contends against the superstition that the year be-
fore the jubilee is exceptionally blessed. The belief
is also condemned that no business should be begun
on the new moon, on Friday, or on Sabbath even-
ing (Sifre, Deut. 171 ; Sifra, Kedoshim, vi. ; Sanli.
65). Despite these authoritative doctrines, however,
an announcement is found to the effect that it is
dangerous to drink water on Wednesday and Friday
evenings (Pes. 112a). Samuel, teacher of the Law,
physician, and astrologer, taught that it was danger-
ous to bleed a patient on Monday, Tuesday, or Thurs-
day, because on the last-mentioned day Mars reigns
at the even-numbered hours of the day, when demons
have their play. It was considered equally danger-
ous to undergo this operation on a Wednesday fall-
ing on the fourth, the fourteenth, or the twenty-
fourth of the month, or on a Wednesday occurring
within less than four days of the new moon. The
new moon was likewise regarded as an unfavorable
season for bleeding, as were also the third of the
month and the day preceding a festival (Shab. 1296).

Inconsequence of religious anti-Biblieal influences,
some of these pagan views gradually acquired a
Hebraic tinge. Of two horoscopes which have been
preserved, however, only the earlier bears a Jewish
stamp. On Joshua b. Levi’s “ tablets” (third century)
it is stated that men born on Sunday will be distin-

guished, on Monday wrathful, on T uesday wealthy
and sensual, on Wednesday intelligent and enlight-
ened, on Thursday benevolent, and
Two Horo- on Friday pious; while those born
scopes. on Saturday are destined to die on
that day. Only four of these predic-
tions are based upon the days of Creation; from
which it would appear that the conclusions here are
not those of Joshua b. Levi, but originated rather
with Amoraim, who add other remarks. Rabbi
Hanina said to his pupils: “Go to the son of Levi,
and tell him that the fate of a person is not decided
by the constellations of the day, but by those of the
hour ” — in other words, it is not the birthday, but
the natal hour, that decides. Those born while the
sun rules in the heavens have a brilliant career be-
fore them, and they will eat and drink of their own
substance; but their secrets will be divulged, and
they will never prosper by theft. Those born under
the dominion of Venus are destined to wealth and
sensual enjoyment, because fire is suspended on this
star; while birth under the planet Mercury fore-
tokens intelligence and enlightenment, Mercury be-
ing the scribe of the sun. The hapless born under
the reign of the moon, however, will suffer much
sorrow ; they will build and demolish, demolish and
build, and they will eat and drink not of their own
substance; but their secrets will be safe, and should
they steal, they will escape detection. The plans of
those born under the reign of Saturn will be des-
troyed; while the righteous or the charitable
(“zaddikim”) are born under the reign of Jupiter
(“ Zedek ”), and the shedder of blood under Mars;
but this prognosticon, says Ashi, may also refer to
surgeons and butchers (Shab. 156a).

When the Vernal equinox occurs during the hour
of Jupiter, the power of the fruit-trees is broken;
and when the winter solstice falls within this hour,
the seeds of the field dry up. In this case, however,
it is necessary also that the new moon should appear
during the moon or Jupiter hour (‘Er. 56a). An
eclipse of the sun is an evil omen for the nations,
while an eclipse of the moon is a particular fatality
for Israel, Jewish reckoning of time being based
upon the phases of this planet (Mek., Bo, i. ; Suk.
29a; G. Breclier, “ Das Transcendeutale, Magic und
Magisclie Heilarten im Talmud,” p. 157, Vienna,
1850).

Bihuography : G. Brecher, as above ; L. Low. Die Astroloaie
bet den Juden, in Ben Chananja, 1863, vi. 401-408, 431-435;
idem, (icnammeltc Schrtften, ed. T. Low, ii. 115-131, Szeg-
edin, 1890.

j. sr. L. B.

— — In Medieval Times: Astrology, called “hok-
mat ha-nissayon ” (wisdom of prognostication), in
distinction from “hokmat ha-hizzayon” (wisdom of
star-seeing, or astronomy), was practised by Jews
throughout the Middle Ages, both as a professional
art and as a science. Coming from the East, they
were looked upon as heirs and successors of the
Chaldeans, and, probably for this reason, were re-
garded by the Occidental world as skilful masters of
the art of Astrology; their supposed power over
destiny filling the multitudes with awe and fear
(Bedarride, “Les Juifs en France,” pp. 49, 454, note
21; Basnage, “Histoire des Juifs,” iv. 1212; P.
Cassel, “Juden,” in Erscli and Gruber’s “Encyc.”

Astrology

Astronomy

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

244

pp. 16, 17; 52, note 78; 67, notes 50 and 51; 115,
171, 224).

Jewish cosmology in the Middle Ages, therefore,
accords to Astrology a distinct place, as may be
learned from the “ Sefer Yezirah,” v. 4, vi. 2-4, where
the zodiac and the dragon as “ the king ” are repre-
sented as cosmic factors; and from the astrological
Baraita of Samuel, belonging to the
beginning of the ninth century (Zunz,
in Steinschneider, “Hebr. Bibl.” 1862,
pp. 15 et seq.). Afterward, the Cabala, in the Zohar
and in the Book of Raziel, exhibits a thorough knowl-
edge of Astrology
Kalir and
Ibn Gabi-

Masters in
Astrology.

and liturgical poetry, through

i uu \jtaui

rol (“Keter
Malkut”), Jli

gives it rec- />

ognition (S. ^

Sachs, “ Ha-
Yonah,” i. 59-
93; M. Sachs,

/oi

“DieReli- ,

giiisePoesie,” /o

off M

1845, p. 250).

Indeed, in the
eighth and
ninth centu-
ries, Jews
were the N
foremost
masters in
Astrology.

Jacob ibn
Tarik, called
by Ibn Ezra
an astrological
a u t li o r i t y, i s
recorded by the
same writer as liav
iug imported the as-
tronomical tables of the
Hindus to Bagdad under
Almansur in 777 (“Z. D. M.

G. ” xxiv. 332-354). His contem-
porary was Mashallah, the famous
court astrologer of Almansur and Ma-
mun (about 800), some of whose works
Ibn Ezra translated from the Arabic into
Hebrew (Steinschneider, “Hebr. Uebers.” pp. 599-
603). Another Jewish astrologer of note was Sahl b.
Bishr al-Israeli in 820, called also Ilabban al-Tabari,
“rabbi of Tabaristan, ” whose astrological works still
exist partly in the original, and were translated into
Hebrew and Latin (ib. pp. 603-607; idem, in “Jew.
Quart. Rev.” xiii. 108-109). Ibn Ezra mentions
also as the greatest Jewish astrologer Andruzagar
ben Zadi Faruk, probably a Persian (Steinschnei-
der, in “Monatssclirift,” 1884, p. 479; idem, “Hebr.
Uebers.” p. 854, note 546). As a matter of fact,
most of the works on Astrology composed by
Mohammedan scholars — those ascribed to Ptolemy,
and those of Abu Maashar, Al-Kabisi, and Abu al-
Rijal — were translated by Jews into Hebrew and
partly into Spanish (Steinschneider, “Hebr. Ue-
bers.” pp. 525-578), or they composed compendi-

An Astrolabe.

(From “ Ma'ase Tobia,” 1707.)

urns of such, waiting under their own names as
“Astrologers.”

Thus, Shabbethai Donolo, 913-970, acquired fame
both as physician and astrologer; and his commen-
tary on the “Sefer Yezirah” is declared by him to
be the result of extensive astrological studies (Gratz,
“ Gesch. der Juden,” iii. 292 et seq.). Abraham b.
Hiyya, the great mathematician and astronomer of
Barcelona, of the twelfth century, was also a be-
liever in Astrology, and intended to write a work on
it; though, on account of its lypothetical character,
he would not accord it the rank of a science (see his
“Zurat ha-Arez,” Introduction, and Freimann’s In-
troduction to “ Hegyon lia-Nefesh ”).

Abraham ibn Ezra was the most
enthusiastic follower and
propagandist of Astrolo-
gy, which he calls “a
sublime science.”
Besides transla-
ting Masliallah’s
“Questions”
and another
wrork of this
author on the
eclipse of the
moon from
the Arabic
into He-
S brew, he
wrote “ Na-
tivity,” “Elec-
tions, ” “ Sen-
tences of the
Constella-
tions,” “ Resli-
it Hokmah ”
(Beginning
of Wisdom),
“Book of the
World.” a
treatise on
the “Planets,”
a treatise on
the “Lu-
minaries, ”

one on the “ Causes ” (‘ Ha-Te'amim ’),
and finally a horoscope, see Steinschnei-
der, “Berlin Cat. Hebr. MSS.” pp. 136-
150; “Hebr. Uebers.” pp. 600 et seq. ; Rosin, in
“Monatssclirift,” 1898, p. 250). He often refers to
Astrology in his Bible commentaries. To him heaven
with its constellations is “the book of life,” in which
man’s destiny is written, and against which there is
recourse to God as “the Almighty,” who overrules
all these influences (commentary to Ps. lxix. 29;
Gen. xvii. 9; Ex. vi. 3, xxxiii. 21; Rosin, l.c. p. 251;
Zunz, “G. S.” iii. 93). Abraham ben David of Pos-
quieres, in his critical notes to Maimonides’ “ Yad,”
Teslmbah, v. 5, also asserts the influence of the
stars upon destiny, while contending that by faith
in God man may overcome this influence. Judah
lia-Levi (“ Cuzari, ” i v. 9), Abraham ibn Daud (“ Emu-
nali Ramali,” p. 86; see Kaufmann, “Geschichte
der Attributenlelire in der Judischen Religionsphilo-
sopliie desMittelalters,” p. 247), and Albo (“ Ikkarim,”

245

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Astrolog-y

Astronomy

iv. 4) could not free themselves altogether from the
belief in the “decrees of the stars”; nor could Nah-
manides (commentary to Gen. i. 16; Lev. xxiii. 24,
and elsewhere), Isaac Arama (“Akedat Yizhak,”
xxxiv., Introduction to Ex.), Solomon b. Adret
(Responsa, No. 652), and others. As-
The trology was made the basis of Mes-
Basis of sianic calculations in almost every
Messianic century (see Ibn Ezra to Dan. xi. 29;

Cal- Abravanel, “ Mashmia* Yesliu'ah”;
culations. Azariah dei Rossi, “Meor Enayim,”
cli. xliii. ; Zunz, l.c. ; Steinschneider,
“Jiidische Literatur,” in Ersch and Gruber’s “En-
eye.” p. 441, notes 80, 81).

Maimonides was the only authority that opposed
Astrology energetically. He found it forbidden by
the Law in the verse, “Ye shall not observe times”
(“ lo te'onenu ”) Lev. xix. 26, in accordance with R.
Akiba, Sank. 68 b (“Yad,” ‘Akkum, xi. 8), and de-
clared it, Talmudical utterances notwithstanding, to
be bordering on idolatry, “a disease, not a science, a
tree under the shadow of which all sorts of supersti-
tions thrive, and which must be uprooted in order
to give way to the tree of knowledge
Opposed and the tree of life” (“Letter to the
by Mai- Men of Marseilles”; Steinschneider,
monides. “Cat. Bodl.” col. 1903; idem, “Hebr.

Uebers.” p. 931). However, the belief
was too deeply rooted to be abandoned by the great
majority of thinkers (see Low, in “Ben Chanauja,”
1863, pp. 430-434). As the last important prominent
follower of Astrology may be mentioned David
Gans, the astronomer and historian, and friend of
Tycho de Brahe, the contemporary of Wallenstein,
whose historical work, “Zemah David ’’(see intro-
duction to vol. ii.), lays great stress upon the influ-
ence of the constellations upon history.

Modern science has abolished Astrology. Only
the formula of congratulations, “ Mazzal tob ” (Good
luck), is a survival of the old belief, as is the rejec-
tion of certain days in the week or the month for
weddings or new ventures (see Shulhan ‘Aruk,
Yoreli De'ah, 179, 2).

Bibliography : Steinschneider, Jiidische Literatur. in Ersch
und Gruber’s Encyc. pp. +41-442; idem, Die Hebrdischen
TJ eber set zany en des Jlittelalters, pp. 186, 501-649, 666, 846,
856-858, 931 ; idem , in Jem. Quart. Rev. xiii. 107-109 ; Zunz,
O. S. iii. 93-95; Schmiedl, Studien ilber Jiidische ReH-
gUmsphilnsryphie, pp. 299-316, Vienna, 1869; L. Low, Die ,4s-
trologie in dcr Bihlischcn , Taimudischen und Nachtal-
mudischen Zeit. in Ben Chanauja, 1863, pp. 401, 431 et seq .;
idem, Gesammelte Schriften, ii.; Rosin, Die Ethik des Mai-
monides, 1876, pp. 65 et seq.: idem , in Mtmatsschrift, 1898, pp.
447 et seq. ; Senior Sachs, Ha-Yonah, i. 59-93, Berlin, 1851.

ASTRONOMY. — Biblical Data: Biblical As-
tronomy, in the broad sense, includes the views taken
in the books of the Bible of the position of the earth
in the universe, the designation of the stars, planets,
fixed stars, and the views held regarding them.
The material for the subject, except so far as the
earth is concerned, is very meager, dependence for
the most part having to be placed on ambiguous
references chiefly in the poetical sections. In the
present article the stars, planets, and fixed stars in
general are dealt with. (For the earth, sun, and moon,
see Cosmogony, Sun, Moon.) The sky, the abode of
the stars, is described as a “rakia‘ ” (JPp"i, a plate);
that is, a rigid, broad, solid plate possessing a certain

thickness. According to Gen. i. 6, this rakia’ was
set iu the midst of the waters, and it divided the
waters above from those beneath. God “ made ”
it of matter already existing at the time of Crea-
tion ; that is, He did not “ create ” it at that time.
The rakia' representing the sky in Ezek. i. 22 re-
sembled ice ; therefore it is quite possible that the
author of Genesis, like Ezekiel, regarded the sky as
being composed of solidified water or ice. Such a
sky, being transparent, would permit the stars, whiek
are located above its vault, to be seen through it.

The heavenly bodies, according to Gen. i. 16, were
also made (not created) from existing material, after
light had come into existence. They
The Four were certainly made of the material of
Elements light, just as the vault of the sky
in Genesis, was made out of water-material, and
the human soul from air (Gen. ii. 7),
and all things living upon earth from earth (Gen. i.
24). All these were made of the four elements,
light (or fire), water, air, and earth; only those
creatures which subsist in air and water — that is, in
other elements than those of which they are com-
posed— were created; while man, the image of God,
although living on earth and being of the earth, was
“created and made” (Gen. i. 26, 27; but see ii. 7).

The stars were supposed to be living creatures.
If the difficult passage (Judges v. 20) may be re-
garded as other than a poetical figure, the stars
“walk on the way ”; they “come out” in the morn-
ing, and “go in ” at night. By a miracle, sun and
moon are made to stand suddenly still (Josh. x. 12).

They fight from their courses like
Stars warriors on the march (Judges ib. ) ;
the Hosts the poet perhaps thinks of falling
of Heaven, stars. In later times the stars are
spoken of as “the hosts of heaven.”
This conception is accurately paralleled among the
Assyrians, kinsmen of the Hebrews, who likewise
conceive of the stars as soldiers serving the god of
heaven, Anu, and probably also the somewhat
similar god Ninib, whose abode was the planet
Saturn. Eabani (?) is compared iu the Gilgamesh
epic (tab. i. col. 5, 28, 40; see Schrader, “K. B.”
vi. i. 130 et seq.) with an army of Anu and falling
stars or (tab. i. cols. 11, 33, 35; see ib. p. 120) with
the army of Anu and Ninib. The stars stand in
God’s presence, to the right and the left of His throne
(I. K. xxii. 19; II Chron. xviii. 18); they serve Him
(Neh. ix. 6; Ps. ciii. 21), and praise Him (Ps. ciii. 21),
cxlviii. 2). Like the kings of earth, they may be
consigned by God’s judgment to the nether world
(Isa. xxiv. 21 et seq.); and God will in future exe-
cute judgment among them as among the nations of
earth (Isa. xxxiv. 4 et seq.). Reverence is offered
to them as living creatures, even in later times (Jer.
viii. 2), and quite naturally upon the housetops
(Jer. xix. 13, xxxii. 29; Zepli. i. 5), in the same man-
ner as the Assyrians worshiped the sun (Gilgamesh
epic, iii. 2, 7 (15); Schrader, “K. B.” vi. 1, 146).

At the head of this starry host stands a “ captain
of the army” (N3VH “ICL Josh. v. 14; Dan. viii. 11);
according to the passage in Daniel, he was the star
highest in altitude as well. By this designation
probably Saturn was intended, the farthest removed
from earth and therefore the highest in the heavens,

Astronomy

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

246

aud which is Held by the Assyrians to be the “bell-
wether ” of the flock. This starry army belongs to
Yhvvh; hence the frequent expression
“Captain “Yiiwh of hosts ” or “ God of hosts ”
of Army.” (niN3V[n] TI^N- mN3i?[n] ',) indi-
cates that He is the actual leader of the
heavenly array. According to a later view, however
(Zech. iv. 2, 10), the seven planets are evidently
termed the “seven ejres of God” (Smend, “Alttesta-
mentliche Religionsgesch. ” p. 343, note), just as the
planet Saturn was the eye of Auu, lord of heaven
among the Babylonians. It would appear, there-
fore, that they were no longer considered independent
beings, and of course the other stars likewise. This
passage has probably no reference whatever to the
seven-armed candlestick of the Temple ; and it has
no connection with what the Hebrews may or may
not have conceived concerning the planets.

As regards the individual stars, current opinion
holds to-day that four to six, perhaps seven, are
named in the Old Testament. Such are: “Kesil”
Isa. xiii. 10; Amos v. 8; Job ix. 9, xxxviii.,

31) , understood generally to be Orion; “Kimah”
(nD’3. Amos l.e. ; Job l.c.), identical with Sirius or
the Pleiades; “ ‘Ash ” or “ ‘Ayisli ” (£”]}, £>J), Job ix.
9, xxxviii. 32), possibly the Great Bear, possibly the
Hyades or Pleiades ; “ Mazzarot ” (miTD. Job xxxviii.

32) , either the Pleiades or Hyades, or possibly the
Northern and Southern Crown. Another is men-
tioned," Hadre Teman ” (p’n ’Tin, Job ix. 9) butit

is doubtful whether or not a constella-
Individual tion is meant by this at all ; see G.

Stars. Hoffmann, in “Zeitschr. Alttestament-
liclie Wissenschaft,” ii. 107, who holds
that Kesil is Orion; Kimah, Sirius; ‘Ayisli, the Hy-
ades; Mazzarot, the Pleiades; and that p'D ’Tin is
to be amended to read pDXn ’Tin (“chambers of the
Twins,” Gemini).

According to this view, all the fixed stars and con-
stellations mentioned in the Old Testament would
lie in one region of the stellar hemisphere ; and ac-
cording to Stern (Geiger’s “Jud. Zeit.” iii. 258),
these, and these only, are mentioned because they
serve to indicate the seasons of the calendar. These
identifications, however, admit of no positive proof ;
for a disconnected tradition can hardly be considered
a demonstration. The only case in which anything
approaching proof can be adduced is that of ‘Ash or
‘Ayisli by means of the Talmudic word NtH’, “yuta”
(mentioned with this star and perhaps etymologic-
ally related to it) — in Syriac, NJYiy; in Arabic, D'J?
(“rain”) — which would agree with the idea of the
constellation of the Hyades, the “rain-stars.” It
should then be punctuated to read “ ‘ayusli” (Hoff-
mann).

“Mazzarot,” in Job xxxviii. 32, may perhaps, by
comparison with Job xxxvii. 9, where “mezarim”
(D'ttD) is paralleled by “heder” (nn, “chamber”),
be explained as identical with “ Hadre Teman” (cham-
bers of the south) (Job ix. 9) or etymologically re-
ferred to the Assyrian “ massartu” (Babylonian “ maz-
zartu ”), a place where something is watched. But
it is just as likely to be, as tradition already has it,
a variation of “ mazzalot ” (JTl^TD. II Kings xxiii. 5)
— a word also of uncertain meaning, varying as its
explanations do between “planets,” “constellations

of the zodiac,” and “stations of the moon.” If the
word were indisputably of Assyro-Baby Ionian origin
and related to “manzaltu” or “mazaltu,” either of
the two latter significations would probably be the
correct one, seeing that “manzaltu ” means “stand ”
or “station,” is also applied to stars, and, like its
synonym, “ manzazu,” denotes probably some one or
other of the zodiacal constellations.

“ Kesil,” remarkably enough, is found in the plural
in Isa. xiii. 10, where “ the stars of heaven and its [or
their] kesilim ” are spoken of. This is commonly
translated “their Orions,” and is explained as mean-
ing “ their larger constellations ” ; but the plural of
such a proper name is very hard to understand.
One would hardly speak of “the Siriuses” or “the
Greater Bears ” of the heavens. It is probably to be
understood as a generic term, not a proper name at
all, and to be translated “ stars ” instead of “ Orions.”
A corollary herefrom would be that “ ‘Ayisli ” and
“ Kimah ” would then also be generic names and not
proper ones, a supposition which their exclusive oc-
currence in the singular would not disprove (compare
the generic singulars in Isa. xxx. 0). Aud when God,
in Job xxxviii. 31 et seq., is said to bind Kimah, open
Kesil, and lead ‘Ayisli, these proper names may well
in reality mean nothing more than planets, meteors,
or comets, and thus the word “ Kesil ” (fool) be a not
inappropriate name for the vagrant comet, the roving
planet, or the headlong meteor. It is true, however,
that difficulties would arise when considering the
“ children of ‘Ayisli ” and various other points in
connection with these names; and altogether this
remarkable plural of Kesil in Isaiah, with its usual
translation, must remain a bone of contention.

That “ nahasli barial.i ” (m3 3TIJ, “ ttyiug serpent ”),
Isa. xxvii. 1 and Job xxvi. 13, denotes a constella-
tion, as has been claimed, rests upon no evidence.

Of planets, as far as ascertainable with any degree
of certainty, only two are mentioned in the Old
Testament: Saturn, called by his Assyrian name
“Kevan” (]V3) in Amos v. 26; and “Meleket ha-
Sliamayim” (D'OEYI 713^0), “the queen of heaven,”
Jer. vii. 18, xliv. 17, 25, etc. That the

Planets. latter means Venus is shown by the
cakes which are said to liave been baked
for her. Among the Assy ro-Babylonians the cake-
offerings were called “the bread of Islitar” (Venus).

It is usually claimed that by the word “Helel”
6^.1), “ son of the morning,” in Isa. xiv. 12, the
morning star, or, more correctly, one
Helel, of the two morning stars, is meant;
Son of the and the analogy with (“to glit-
Morning. ter ”) seems to favor the view. Closely
considered, however, there is little
foundation for the supposition, since Isaiah gives
no intimation whatever that Helel is a star (Gunkel,
“Schopfuug und Chaos,” pp. 132 et seq.).

The supposition that “Gad” (AH) in Isa. lxv. 11
means “ Jupiter, ’’the god of Fortune, and that “ Meui”
(’JO), in the same verse, means “Venus” (if these
readings be correct), rests upon mere hypothesis.

If it were not that the late-Hebrew name “ Zedek ”
(piV = “ justice ”) for “Jupiter” betrays, not an
Assyro-Babylonian origin, but rather a late Jewish
one — for among the Assyro-Babylonians Saturn is
the star of justice — it might be accepted as an early

247

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Astronomy

Jewish name for that planet; but to endeavor to
connect this with the Old Testament proper names
“Meichizedek ” and “Adonizedek” is, to say the
least, hazardous.

The Old Testament contains no more than the pre-
ceding concerning Hebrew Astronomy. Of Hebrew
astrology before the Babylonian exile, it contains not
a word ; for the passage Isa. xlvii. 13, wherein as-
trologers are evidently meant by “the astrologers,
the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators,” is re-
garded by most scholars as post-exilic. This may
perhaps indicate that the ancient Hebrews possessed
no astrology; at all events, what is known of the
astrology of the later Hebrews shows Assyro-Baby-
louiau influence, as is illustrated by the fact that
Mercury, for instance, is called “the star,” just as
the Assyro-Babylonians designate him simply as
“ the planet. ”

Bibliography: Gunkel’s recent Commentary on Gen. (No-
wack Series! may be consulted for incidental references to
Biblical Astronomy; for the Babylonian views, see Jensen,
Kosmologie der Bahylonier, Strasburg, 1890, passim ; Jas-
trow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, xx.-xxii.; Ep-
ping-strassmaier, Astronomisches aim Babylon, Freiburg,
1889.

J. JR. P. J.

- — In the Talmud : The study of the universe as
a whole was, like all other sciences in olden times,
held in closest connection with religion, and was
cultivated in the interest of the latter. The star-
world was to the heathen an object of worship, but
not to the Jews, whether national or Hellenized.
With this reverence there was connected a supersti-
tion that the stars determined the destiny of man.

The computation of time also depends
Ancient upon a knowledge of the heavenly
Conception bodies; and this again was closely con-
of As- nected with religion. It is obvious,
tronomy. therefore, that the Astronomy of the
Talmudists could not be an independ-
ent science any more than that of the Babylonians,
the Egyptians, the Greeks, or of all other nations of
antiquity or of the medieval ages: it was a depart-
ment of knowledge belonging to theology. Only
those data which are purely astronomical are dealt
with here ; for the rest see Astrology, Calendar,
and Idolatry. Nor can those cosmological specu-
lations which were prevalent among all nations of
antiquity be discussed in this article.

The facts handed down form, however, only a
fraction of the astronomical knowledge of the Tal-
mudists; for in their academies they touched upon
scientific problems only so far as they related to re-
ligious questions, and exercised great reserve regard-
ing their stellar investigations, so as not to betray
the secrets of the festival calendar, an important
privilege of the house of the Palestinian patriarch
and of liis tribunal. For these two reasons the fol-
lowing account will naturally give only an inade-
quate idea of the knowledge of Astronomy among
the Jews during the first centuries of the common
era. Furthermore, these fragments do not emanate
from one homogeneous system, as they are the ac-
cumulations of at least four centuries, and are trace-
able to various authors, Palestinian and Babylonian,
among whom some were inclined to mysticism.

The high value of astronomical knowledge is

already demonstrated by the astronomical section of
the Book of Enoch (about 72-80), as well as by such
sayings as those of Eleazar Hisma (about 100), a
profound mathematician, who could
Astronomy “count the drops in the ocean” (Hor.
a Re- 10«), and who declared that “ ability to
ligious compute the solstice and the calendar is
Study. the ‘ dessert [auxiliaries] of wisdom ’ ”
(Ab. iii. 18). Among the sciences that
Jolianan ben Zakkai mastered was a knowledge of
the solstices and the calendar; i.e., the ability to
compute the courses of the sun and the moon (Suk.
28«). Later writers declare that “to him who can
compute the course of the sun and the revolution of
the planets and neglects to do so, may be applied the
words of the prophet (Isa. v. 12), ‘ They regard not
the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation
of his hands.’” To pay attention to the course
of the sun and to the revolution of the planets is a
religious injunction; for such is the import of
the words (Dent. iv. 6), “This is your wisdom and
your understanding in the sight of the nations”
(Shab. 75«).

Despite the general importance and religious sig-
nificance attached to Astronomy in the Holy Land,
no scientific discoveries were made there. Astro-
nomical observatories and instruments are nowhere
mentioned, unless among the latter are included a
chart illustrating the various phases of the moon(R.
II. ii. 8), and a sort of telescope for the calculation
of air line distances (“mezofot,” Yer. ‘Er. v. 22d;
“shefoferet,” Bab. ‘Er. 43^). The starry heavens
of Palestine interested the Jews, indeed, as creations
of God, as means to determine the
No holidays; but for a better knowledge
Scientific of them the Jews were undoubtedly
Discoveries indebted to the Babylonians and their
in Pal- Hellenic pupils, as evidenced by the
estine. foreign term “gematria,” used to des-
ignate the computation of the calen-
dar. Possibly this word represents a transposition
of ypappareia — “arithmetic, mathematics” (Sachs,
“Beitrage,” ii. 74) — “a sister science of astronomy
from the earliest times, but destined as the mathe-
matical element to obtain adequate importance only
in later periods ” (Pauly-Wissowa, “ Realencyklopii-
die der Classisclien Alterthumswissenschaft,” 1831,
ii.). Most of the observations of a scientific nature
were transmitted by Samuel (250), who attended the
schools of the Babylonians, and who claimed to pos-
sess as exact a knowledge of the heavenly regions
as of the streets of his own city Nehardea. Certain
rules must nevertheless have existed; for the pa-
triarch Rabban Gamaliel (about. 100), who applied
the above-mentioned lunar tablets and telescope,
relied for authority upon such as had been trans-
mitted by his paternal ancestors (Yer. R. II. ii. 585;
Bab. R. H. 25a).

As in the Bible, so also in the Talmud, heaven and
earth designate the two borders of the universe.
The former is a hollow sphere covering the earth.
It consists, according to one authority, of a strong
and firm plate two or three fingers in thickness, al-
ways lustrous and never tarnishing. Another tan-
naitic authority estimates the diameter of this plate
as one-sixth of the sun’s diurnal journey ; while

Astronomy

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

248

another, a Babylonian, estimates it at 1,000 para-
satigs. According to others, the diameter of the fir-
mament is equal to the distance covered in 50 or 500
years; and this is true also of the earth and the large
sea (“Tehom”) upon which it rests (Yer. Ber. i. 2 c;
Targ. Yer. Gen. i. 6). The distance of the firma-
ment from the earth is a journey of 500 years — a
distance equivalent to the diameter of the firma-
ment, through which the sun must saw its way in
order to become visible (Yer. Ber. i. 2c, bot. ; Pes.
94a). The firmament, according to some, consists
of fire and water, and, according to
Con- others, of water only; while the stars
eeptions of consist of fire (Yer. R. II. ii. 58a).

Heaven East and west are at least as far re-
and Earth, moved from each other as is the fir-
mament from the earth (Tamid. 32a).
Heaven and earth “ kiss each other ” at the horizon ;
and between the water above and that below there
are but two or three fingerbreadtlis (Gen. R. ii. 4;
Tosef., Hag. ii. 5). The earth rests upon water and
is encompassed by it. According to other concep-
tions the earth is supported by one, seven, or twelve
pillars. These rest upon water, the water upon
mountains, the mountains upon the wind, and the
wind upon the storm (Hag. 12 5; Yer. Hag. ii. 77a).
The nations of antiquity generally believed that the
earth was a disk floating on water. There is also
mentioned the terrestrial globe, “ kaddur, ” though
it may also be translated as “disk.” When Alexan-
der the Great attempted to ascend to heaven he rose
even higher and higher, until the earth appeared as
a globe and the sea as a tray (Yer. ‘Ab. Zarah iii.
42e, bot.). The earth is divided into three parts,
viz., habitable land, desert, and sea.

It was assumed that our present earth was pre-
ceded by many others which were not good in the
eyes of the Creator, who traverses in all 18,000 worlds,
and for this reason is frequently styled “ Lord of the
Worlds” (Gen. R. iii. 7, ix. 2; Midi1. Teh. xxxiv.).
The ocean also is mentioned in the Talmud, and the
whole world is said to drink of its waters (Ta'an.
9b). According to mystic speculation there are seven
heavens, the first of which is called “ velum ” (cur-
tain); the second, “firmament,” etc. (Hag. 125).
Whether these worlds are similar to ours is not
stated. The correct impression concerning the in-
finitude of the starry host is expressed in the follow-
ing sentence of R. Simeon b. Lakish (about 250):
“There are twelve mazzalot [signs of the zodiac],
each having thirty armies; each army, thirty camps
[XIDDJ = cantra] ; each camp, thirty legions [com-
pare Matt. xxvi. 53]; each legion, thirty cohorts;
each cohort, thirty corps [compare Krauss, “Lehn-
worter,” s.v. JltOm | ; and each corps has 365, 000 myr-
iads of stars entrusted to it ” (Ber. 325).

The Talmud subscribes, as do all astronomers be-
fore the time of Copernicus, to the geocentric world -
conception, according to which the stars move about
the earth. The conceptions of this motion were
various. Aristotle believes that the stars have no
motion of their own, being firmly attached to circles
of rotation ; and he further ascribes to every circle
containing a star a sphere of motion whose cen-
ter is the earth (Pauly- Wissowa, “ Realencyklopadie
der Classischen Alterthumswissenschaft,” 1841, ii.).

Perhaps the wonderful Baraita Pesahim 945 gives
expression to this idea in the following: “The
learned of Israel say, ‘ The sphere
Motions stands firm, and the planets revolve ’ ;

of the the learned of the nations say, ‘ The
Heavenly sphere moves, and the planets stand
Bodies. firm.’ The learned of Israel say, ‘ The
sun moves by day beneath the firma-
ment, and by night above the firmament’; the
learned of the nations say, ‘ The sun moves by day
beneath the firmament, and by night beneath the
earth.’” The patriarch Judah I. (about 200) believed
that in the first instance the Jewish, and in the
second the non-Jewish, conception was correct. The
sun travels in four directions. During Nisan,
Ivyar, and Siwan (spring) it travels in the south,
in order to melt the snow ; during Tammuz, Ab, and
Elul (summer), directly above the earth, in order to
ripen the fruit ; during Tishri, Heshwan, and Kislew,
above the sea, in order to absorb the waters; and in
Tebet, Sliebat, and Adar, over the desert, in order
that the grain may not dry up and wither (zb. ).

The sun has 365 windows through which it
emerges; 182 in the east, 182 in the west, and 1 in
the middle, the place of its first entrance. The
course described by it in a year is traversed by the
moon in 30 days. The solar year is longer by 11
days than the lunar year (Yer. R. H. ii. 58a). The
sun completes its course in 12 months; Jupiter, in
12 years; Saturn, in 30 years; Venus and Mars, in
480 years (Gen. R. x. 4) ; however, an objection
is raised here (in a gloss) against the last-mentioned
number. King Antoninus asked the patriarch why
the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. At
the time of the Deluge it traveled in the opposite
direction (Sanh. 915, 1085). Every 28 years it re-
turns to its original point of departure, and on Tues-
day evening of the spring solstice it is in opposition
with Saturn, although Plato maintained that the
sun and planets never return to the place whence
they started. This is the cycle of 28 }-ears (Ber. 595) ;
the moon-cycle of 19 years may have been meant in
the Targ. Yer. Gen. i. 14.

The four solstices (the Tekufot of Nisan, Tammuz,
Tishri, and Tebet) are often mentioned as determin-
ing the seasons of the year; and there are occasional
references to the rising-place of the sun (‘Er. 56a).
Sometimes six seasons of the year are mentioned
(Gen. R. xxxiv. 11), and reference is often made to
the receptacle of the sun ( vapdf/mov ), by
Six means of which the heat of the orb is
Seasons, mitigated (Gen. R. vi. 6, and else-
where). The revolutions of the moon
were undoubtedly known ; for “ Israel computes by
the moon, the other nations by the sun” (Suk. 29a,
and elsewhere). God expressly prohibits the reveal-
ing of the secrets of chronology (Ivet. 112a). Samuel
sent to R. Johanan a list of the leap-years for sixty
years, which the latter did not regard as exhibit-
ing any remarkable mathematical skill (Hul 955V
“ The moon begins to shine on the 1st of the month ;
its light increases until the 15th, when the disk | DlpDI
(AV/cof)] is full ; from the 15th to the 30th it wanes;
and on the 30th it is invisible” (Ex. R. xv. 26).

From the names of the seven planets were derived
the names of the days of the week ; and each day

249

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Astronomy

was consecrated to the particular planet that ruled
during the early hours of the morning. The Tal-
mudists were familiar with the planets
Seven and their characteristics (see Astrol-
Planets. ogy); but only the week-days were
counted, while the Sabbath had a name
of its own. The names of the seven planets are : (1)
“Shabbetai,” Saturn; (2) “Zedek,” Jupiter; (3)
“Maadim,” Mars; (4) “Hammah,” the sun; (5)“Ko-
kebet” or“Nogah,” “ Kokab-Nogah, ” Venus; (6)
“Kokab,” Mercury ; (7) “ Lebanah,” the moon. Ac-
cording to the first letter of each of their names, they
are called “SheZaM HeNKaL” (Shab. 129/;, 156a;
Pesik. R. xx. ; Pirke R. El. vi.). The worship of
Venus is mentioned (Pesik. R. xxxi., ed. Friedmann,
p. 143a), and warning is given not to confuse it with
the dawn (XintlT Yer. Ber. i. 2c).

The twelve constellations of the zodiac are: Aries
(“Taleh”), Taurus (“Slior”), Gemini (“Teomim”),
Cancer (“Sarton”), Leo(“Ari”), Virgo (“Betulali”),
Libra (“ Moznayim ”), Scorpio (“‘Akrab), Sagitta-
rius, Archer (“Kasshat”), Capricornus (“Gedi”),
Aquarius (“ Deli ”), and Pisces (“ Dagim ”). Accord-
ing to the first letter of each, they are collectively
called “TeSHeT,” “SaAB,” “Ma'AK,” “GeDaD”
(Pesik. R. l.c., and Pirke R. El. l.c. ; Raslii on B. M.

1066, and elsewhere). The first three
The Zodiac, are in the east, the second three in the
south, the third three in the west, and
the last three in the north; and all are attendant on
the sun. According to one conception, Aries, Leo,
and Sagittarius face northward; Taurus, Virgo, and
Capricornus westward; Gemini, Libra, and Aqua-
rius southward; and Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces
eastward (Yalk., Ex. 418; Kings 185). According to
the tannaitic view, Taurus (“ ‘Eglali ”) is in the
north and the Scorpion in the south ('Er. 56« ; Pes.
94a). [Some read ‘“Agalah” (Wagon = Charles’s
Wain), see Tos. to Pes. Z.c.] Each constellation
rules for one month; viz., Aries in Nisan (March),
Taurus in Iyyar (April), etc. (Pesik. R. xxvii.,
ed. Friedmann, p. 1336; Pesik. R. K. xiii. 1 16a).
That the zodiacal circles were generally known is
evident from the frequency of their interpretation in
sermons and from their liturgical application in post-
Talmudic times. An allusion to Aquarius is found
also in a Babylonian incantation (Git. 69a).

The Milky Way is called “Fire-Stream,” a name
borrowed from Daniel vii. 10 (“Nehar di-nur”),
where it may possibly have had the same signification.
The statement is also made that the sting of Scorpio
may be seen lying in the Milky Way
Other (Hag. 136 ; Ex. R. xv. 6, S*’K “inj;
Stars and Ber. 586). Samuel said We have it
Comets, as a tradition that no comet ever passed
across the face of Orion [“ Kesil ”] ; for
if this should happen the earth would be destroyed.”
Wiien his hearers objected to this statement, saying,
“Yet we see that this occurs,” Samuel replied: “It
only appears so; for the comet passes either above
or below the star. Possibly also its radiance passes,
but not its body.” Again, Samuel says: “But for
the warmth of Orion, the earth could not exist, be-
cause of the frigidity of Scorpio ; furthermore, Orion
lies near Taurus, with which the warm season be-
gins (Yer. Ber. i.\. 13c; Bab. Ber. 586). The comet,

because of its tail, is called “ kokba de-shabbit ” (rod-
star). Joshua b. Ilananiah, the famous teacher of
the Law (about 100), declared that a star appears
once every seventy years and leads mariners astray ;
hence they should at such time lay in a larger store of
provisions (Hor. 10a). Rapoport endeavors to prove
that the path of Halley’s comet had been computed
by a wise rabbi (Epistle to Slonimski in “Toledot
ha-Shamayim,” Warsaw, 1838). Samuel said: “I
know all the paths of heaven, but nothing of the
nature of the comet.”

The following Biblical names of constellations are
mentioned and explained: TO'D = DK03. Pleiades [a
cluster of] about a hundred stars, and for the much-
disputed tl'Jl, its equally obscure Aramaic equiva-
lent NDV (MS. M. XHN), Syriac Knvy, is given (Ber.
586). The following two sagas also have reference
to natural phenomena. When R. Jacob died, stars
were seen by day ; when R. Hiyva died, stones of fire
fell from heaven (M. K. 256). The latter may pos
sibly be a reference to meteors.

Bibliography : Winer. IS. It. ii. 526-529, Lelpsic, 1848; Ham-
burger, R. B. T. ii. 77-81, s.t'.

J. SR. L. B.

In Post-Talmudic Times : With the revival

of Greek science which took place in Islam, Jews
were intimately connected, and the “Almagest” is
said to have been translated by Salial ibn Tabari as
early as 800, while one of the earliest independent
students of Astronomy among the Arabs was Ma-
shallah (754-873?). Jews seem to have been partic-
ularly concerned with the formation of astronomical
tables of practical utility to astronomers. Sind ben
Ali (about 830) was one of the principal contributors
to the tables drawn up under the patronage of the
Sultan Maimun. No less than twelve Jews were
concerned in the Toledo tables, drawn up about
1080 under the influence of Ahmad ibn Zaid, and the
celebrated “ Alfonsine Tables” were executed under
the- superintendence of Isaac ibn Sid, while Jews
were equally concerned in the less-known tables
of Pedro IV.

Isaac al-Hadib compiled astronomical tables from
those of Al-Rakkam, Al-Battam, and Ibn al-Kam-
mad. Joseph ibn Wakkar (1357) drew up tables of
the period 720 (Ileg.); while Mordecai Comtino and
Mattathia Delacrut commented upon the Persian and
Paris tables respectively ; the latter were commented
upon also by Farissol Botarel. Abraham ibn Ezra
translated Al-Mattani’s Canons of the Khowarezmi
Tables, and in his introduction tells a remarkable
story of a Jew in India who helped Jacob ben Tank
to translate the Indian astronomical tables according
to the Indian cycle of 432,000 years. Other tables
were compiled by Jacob ben Makir, Emanuel ben
Jacob, Jacob ben David ben Yom-Tob Poel (1361),
Solomon ben Elijah (from the Persian tables), and
Abraham Zacuto of Salamanca (about 1515).

The earliest to treat of Astronomy in Hebrew or:
a systematic plan was Abraham bar Hiyya, who
wrote at Marseilles, about 1134. Discussions on
astronomical points, especially with regard to the
spheres, and disputed points in calculating the cal-
endar occur frequently in the works of Judah ha-
Levi, Abraham ibn Ezra, and Maimonides, while a
new system of Astronomy is contained in the “ Wars

Astronomy
Astruc, Elie-Aiistide

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

250

of the Lord ” (“ Milhamot Adonai ”) of Levi ben
Gerson.

Jews were especially helpful in the progress of the
science by their work as translators: Moses ibu Tib-
bon translated from the Arabic Jabir ben Allah’s
acute criticisms of the Ptolemaic system, an antici-
pation of Copernicus, and thus brought them to
the notice of Maimonides. Ibn al Haitliam’s Arabic
compendium of Astronomy was a particular favorite
of Jewish astronomers; besides being translated into
Spanish by Don Abraham Faquin, it was turned into
Hebrew by Jacob ben Makir and Solomon ibn Pater
Cohen and into Latin by Abraham de Balmes. Other
translations from the Arabic were by Jacob Anatoli,
Moses Galeno, and Kalonymus ben Ivalonymus, who
thus were the means of bringing the Greco-Arabic
astronomers to the notice of western Europe. Jacob
Anatoli, for example, translated into Hebrew both
the “ Almagest” and Averroes’ compendium of it, and
this Hebrew version was itself translated into Latin
by J. Christmann. Other translators from the He-
brew into Latin were Abraham de Balmes and Ka-
lonymus ben David of Naples, while David Kalouy-
mus beu Jacob, Ephraim Mizrahi, and Solomon
Ahigdor translated from the Latin into Hebrew.
The well-known family of translators, the Ibn Tib-
bons, may be especially mentioned. In practical
Astronomy Jewish work was even more effective.
Jacob ben Makir (who is known also as Profiat
Tibbon) appears to have been professor of Astronomy
at Montpelier, about 1300, and to have invented a
quadrant to serve as a substitute for the astrolabe.
Levi beu Gershon was also the inventor of an astro-
nomical instrument, and is often quoted with respect

great Jewish name, that of Sir William Heksciiel
(1738-1822), whose Jewish origin is acknowledged
by his biographer. His systematic survey of the
heavens, continued and completed by his sou John,
his catalogues of nebulae and clusters, and his discov-
ery of the planet Uranus, may be classed among the
greatest exploits in the history of Astronomy. He
also started the investigation into the constitution
of the universe, determined the path of the sun
toward the constellation Vega, and in innumerable
ways started this science along the lines on which it
developed up to the time of the discovery of spec-
trum analysis. He was assisted throughout his
work by his sister Caroline Herschel (1750-1848).
Since his time no very great Jewish name has been
connected with the development of astronomical
science, but no less than fourteen of the asteroids
were located by H. Goldschmidt (1802—66) — at a time
when the discovery of an asteroid was by no means
so easy a task or so frequent an occurrence as it is
nowadays — and W. Beer (1797-1850), the brother of
Meyerbeer, was the first to draw an accurate map
of the moon. Of contemporaries, the most distin-
guished is Moritz Loewy (b. 1833), director of the
Paris Observatory, and the inventor of the coude or
elbow telescope, by which the stars may be observed
without bending the neck back and without leaving
the comfortable observatory.

The following list of Jewish astronomers of the
Middle Ages, with the approximate periods of their
activity, arranged in alphabetical order of first
names, some of whom are mentioned elsewhere in
this work, maybe of service in drawing attention
to the minuter details:

under the name of Leon de Banolas. Bonet de Lattes
also invented an astronomical ring. Abraham Za-
cuto ben Samuel was professor of Astronomy at Sala-
manca, and afterward astronomer-royal to Emanuel
of Portugal, who had previously been advised by a
Jewish astronomer, Rabbi Joseph Vecinho, a pupil
of Abraham Zacuto, as to the project put before him
by Columbus, who, in carrying it out, made use of
Zacuto’s “Almanac ” and “Tables.”

With the Renaissance. Jewish work in Astronomy
lost in importance, as Europe could revert to the
Greek astronomers without it. The chief name con-
nected with the revival of astronomical studies on
the Baltic is that of David Gans of Prague (d. 1613),
who corresponded with Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and
Regiomontanus; he was acquainted with the Coper-
nican system, but preferred that of Ptolemy, while
as late as 1714 David Nieto of London still stood
out against the Copernican system. Altogether, in
reviewing Jewish Astronomy in the Middle Ages,
one can not claim that Jews themselves made many
contributions to the science; but by making the
Greco- Arabic Astronomy accessible to Europe, they
aided in keeping the interest in the subject alive,
and prepared the way for the revival of the science
in the sixteenth century. On the practical side of
the science, their chief contributions were of more
value: almost all the tables used by astronomers and
navigators were their work, while they introduced
several improvements in astronomical instruments.
See also Calendar.

The modern epoch of *he science begins with a

Abraham de Balmes.

Abraham ibn Ezra (1093-1168).
Abraham bar Hiyya (1130).
Abraham ot Toledo (1278).
Abraham Zacuto ben Samuel
(16th cent.).

Andruzagar ben Zadi Faruch.
Augustinius Ricius (1521).
Baruch Sklow (circa 1777).
Baruch ben Solomon ben Joab
(1457).

Bianchino (15th cent.).

Bonet de Lattes (1506).

Caleb Afendopolo (15th cent.).
David Gans (died 1613).

David Kalonymus ben Jacob
(1464).

David ibn Nahmias.

David Nieto (died 1728).
Dayyan Hasan (972) .

Elia Misrahi (died 1526).
Emanuel ben Jacob (1346-65).
Ephraim Mizrahi.

Farissol Moses Botarel (1465).
Hananeel ben Hushiel (died
1020?).

Hayyim Lisker (1612-36).
Havvim Vital Calabrese (died
' 1620).

Isaac ben Aaron (1368).

Isaac Abu al-Khair ben Sam-
uel (1340).

Isaac Albalia ben Baruch
(1035-94).

Isaac ibn al-Hadib (1370).
Isaac Israeli ben Joseph (1310—
30).

Isaac ben Meir Spira.

Isaac ben Moses Efodaeus,
Proflat Duran (1362-1403).

Isaac ibn Sid (1252).

Israel Lyons (died 1775).

Israel Satnosc (died 1772.)

Jacob Anatoli (1232).

Jacob Carsi (Jacob al-Corsono
ben Abi Abraham Isaac, 1376).

Jacob ben David ben Yom-Tob
Poel (1361).

Jacob ben Elia.

Jacob ben Judah Cabret (1382).

Jacob ben Makir, Proflat Tibbon
(1289-1303).

Jacob ben Samson (1123-42).

Jacob ben Tarik (9th cent. ?).

Jeremiah Cohen of Palermo
(1486).

Joseph ben Eleazar (14th
cent.).

Joseph ben Isaac ben Moses
ibn Wakkar (about 1357).

Joseph ben Israeli ben Isaac
(died 1331).

Joseph ibn Nahmias (1300-30).

Joseph Parsi.

Joseph Taytazak (about 1520).

Judah Farissol (1499).

Judah ha-Levi (1140).

Judah ben Israeli (1339).

Judah ben Moses Cohen (1256).

Judah ben Rakuflal (before
1130).

Judah ben Samuel Shalom (15th
cent.).

Judah ben Solomon Cohen
(1247).

Judah ibn Verga (1457).

Kalonvmus ben David of Na-
ples (1528).

Kalonvmus ben Kalonymus
(130-723).

251

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Astronomy
Astruc, Elie-Aristide

Levi ben Abraham ben Hay-
yim (1399-1316) .

Levi ben Gershon (Leon de
Banolas), (1337-44).

Maimon ol Montpellier.

Manoah ben Shemariyah (died
1613).

Mashallah (754-813).

Mattatbia Delacrut (cir. 1530-
50).

Meier Neumark (1703).

Meir Spira (14th cent. ?).

Menabem (Emanuel) Zion
Porto (1636-40).

Meshullam Kalonymus.

Mordecai Comtino (1460-
85).

Mordecai Finzi (1440-46).

Moses ben Abraham (Nismes).

Moses Almosnino (d. about
1580).

Moses Galeno ben Elia (16th
cent.).

Moses Goli ben Judah.

Moses Handali.

Moses Isserles (d. 1573).

Moses ibn Tibbon (1344-74).

Nathan Hamati ben Eliezer
(1379-83).

Raphael Leki Hannover (1734).

Sahal (Rabban) al-Tabari (800).

Samuel ibn Abbas ben Judah
(1163).

Samuel Abulafla (1378).

Samuel Ha-Levi (1380-84).

Samuel ben Judah of Marseilles
(1331).

Shalom ben Joseph (1450-60).

Shalom ben Solomon Yerusbal-
mi (1483-87).

Sheshet ben Isaac ben Gerundi
(1330).

Sind ben Ali (839-833).

Solomon Abigdor ben Abraham
(1399).

Solomon Davin of Rodez (14th
cent.).

Solomon ben Elijah (1344-86) .

Solomon Esobi (Azubius), (1633).

Solomon ben Moses Melgueil
(1350).

Solomon ibn Pater Cohen of
Burgos (1333).

Solomon Shalom ben Moses
(1441-86).

Tobias Cohen (1708).

William Raimund de Moncada
(end 15th cent.).

Bibliography: Steinschneider, Jewish Literature , §§31,30
(includes astrology and calendar): Uebersetzungen, pp.
503-649.

G. J.

ASTRUC : A praenomen used frequently by Jews
in southern France and eastern Spain; used to this
day as a family name in France. It is derived from
the Provencal astruc, “ happy ” (compare benastruc
and malastruc, and the Spanish astrugo, from the
Latin aster, a star). In the dialect of Languedoc, As-
truk signified “born under a favorable star ” (Genin,
“Recreations Philologiques,” ii. 79, Paris, 1856).
This confirms the supposition of Dukes that the
name represents the Hebrew 31D (“ good luck ”) ;

and a MS. which formerly belonged to the Almanzi
collection was written by a “Rabbi “O, who is called
Astruc bar Jacob” (Steinschneider, “Hebr. Bibl.”
v. 47). Even in its Roman form, Asterius ("Aa-epii;,
’Aaripia), it occurs not only on Christian inscriptions
■of Spain (Hlibner, “Inscript. Hispan. Christian.
.Supplem.” Berlin, MCM. , p. 70) and of Gaul (Le
Blunt, “Inscript. Cret. de la Gaule,” ii. 445), but also
•on the Jewish catacombs of Rome (Garucchi, “ Cimi-
tero degli Antichi Ebrei,” 1862, p. 24; Schiirer,
“ Gemeindeverfassung der Juden in Rom,” 1879,
p. 14; Berliner, “ Gescli. der Juden in Rom,” i. 74).
In a Latin-Jewish inscription the name of “ Claudia
Aster” of Jerusalem occurs (Mommsen, “Inscr. Nea-
pol. Lat.” No. 6467). A certain Bonastruc Abige-
dor translates his name into “Fortunio Avigdor” in
MS. 2232 of the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Neu-
bauer, “Catalogue,” col. 770; compare Stein-
schneider, “Hebr. Uebers.” pp. 965, 977). In He-
brew MSS. the name is written pVinCf’N. plIDDX
(Steinschneider, “Hebr. Bibl.” l.c.), jnnt^N. plinth,
“innDJ. pnnK’J. and 'pnnco (“Ecrivaius Juifs,”
p. 549) ; in non-Hebrew documents, Astruch (“ Revue
Etudes Juives,” iv. 68), Astrug (ib.), Astruz (Zunz,
“Zur Gescli.” p. 473), Astrugo (Jacobs, “Sources,”
Index, s.v.), Astrugon (Gross, “Gallia Judaica,” p.
342), Asdrach (“Revue,” iv. 6), Nastrucli (Kayser-
ling, “Juden in Navarra,” p. 161), Strug (“Jew.
'Quart. Rev.” viii. 493), Struch (Ivayserling, l.c. p.

161), and Struclius(“ Revue Etudes Juives,” xl. 170).
In a document of the year 1661 relating to certain
Jews in Mannheim, “Abraham and Moi'se Astroucg ”
occur (Lowenstein, “Gescli. der Juden in der FI ur-
pfalz,” p. 80 ; compare Kalman Astruc in the Worms
Memorbuch, ed. Berliner, p. 48). The name occurs
in Italian in the form Astruccio (Vogelstein and
Rieger, “Gescli. der Juden in Rom,” ii. 438). The
feminine form of the name is Astruga (“Revue
Etudes Juives,” xxxix. 265). In composite names
we have the forms Bon Astruc (compare Bonenfant,
Bonfil, Bonisac, etc.) and Sen Astruc.

Among the martyrs of Cologne in 1096, the name
of a certain Astorio (VninB'X) occurs, which may
possibly be a form of the Latin Asterius (Salfeld,
“ Niirnberger Memorbucli,” p. 110). It is doubtful
whether the name Estori ha-Parlii (lived in Provence
and Palestine, fourteenth century) ought to be cited
in this connection (Steinschneider, “Hebr. Bibl.” xv.
108; “Hebr. Uebers.” 977, note 45).

The earliest mention of the name Astruc seems to
be that of Mai- Astrug (i.e., Miles Astrug) of Mar-
seilles in the year 1040. A document of the year
1231 mentions a Solomon “ filius Astruc ” of Megueil.
Abba Mari ben Abraham (d. about 1240) was called
Don Astruc des Gabbai (Gross, “Gallia Judaica,"
p. 103). Judah ben Astruc is mentioned in a Barce-
lona document of the year 1287 as interpreter of
King Alfonso of Murcia. In 1435 a Rabbi Astruch,
“Maitre de la Synagogue,” was burned at Palma in
the Balearic Islands.

During the Middle Ages the Astruc family seems
to have lived chiefly in the comtat of Avignon.
When in 1550 permission was given the Portuguese
Jews to settle in Guienne, the Astrucs were among
the first to avail themselves of the privilege. The
earliest ancestor of the modern Astruc family in
Bordeaux was Israel bar Josuan Astruc. about the
year 1660. The sketch pedigree given on page 253,
in which, however, some of the branches have not
been indicated, will show the descent of the family.

Bibliography: Kiirting, Lat.-Rnmanisclies WOrterhuch, p.
78, 1891 ; Zunz, Namen der Juden, p. 43; Dukes, Salomon
ben Gabirol , p. 61 ; Kayserling, Die Juden in Navarra, p.
161: Briill, JahrbUclier, i. 95; Steinschneider, Hebr. Bibl.
xii. 6(1, xv. 108; Lob, in Revue Etudes Juives, iv. 68; Salfeld,
Das Martyrolhgimn des Niirnberger Memorbuehes, p. 387 ;
Jacobs, Sources of Spanish-Jeu'ish History, Index, s.v. ;
Cardozo de Bettencourt, Notes Historiques et Genealogiques
sur la Famille Astruc, Paris, 1895.

ASTRUC CRESCAS. Sec Crescas.

ASTRUC EN-DURAN. See Abba Mari ben
Moses oe Lunel.

ASTRUC, ELIE-ARISTIDE; French rabbi
and author; born at Bordeaux, Nov. 12. 1831.
He received his early education in his native city
and took a course of study at the rabbinical college
of Metz, to which he was sent with a scholarship by
the community of Bayonne in 1852. On the com-
pletion of his studies in 1857, he was appointed
assistant to the chief rabbi of Paris, and became
chaplain of the Paris lyeeums of Louis le Grand,
Vanves, and Chaptal. He was one of the six found-
ers of the Alliance Isratdite Universelle (1860), and
in 1865 was delegate from Bayonne to the convention
for the nomination of chief rabbi of France. In
] 1866 he was elected chief rabbi of Belgium, and was

Astruc, Elie-Aristide

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

253

authorized by a special decree of the emperor to ac-
cept the office though remaining a French citizen.
While holding this position, he took part in the
synod of Leipsic (June 29 — July 4, 1869).

During the Franco-Prussian war (1870-71), Astruc
distinguished himself both as a French patriot and

as a Jewish minister.
He was a member of
the comite du pain,
whose chairman, the
Comte de Merode,
leader of the Belgian
Catholic party, cared
for the wounded. In
his capacity of secre-
tary to the “Belgian
committee for the lib-
eration of the territory
(Alsace and Lorraine),”
Astruc revisited Metz
after an absence of
twenty years.

In 1879 Astruc re-
signed the chief rab-
binate of Belgium to
return to his native
country. Before his departure the King of the
Belgians created him a knight of the Order of
Leopold. After officiating as chief rabbi of Bay-
onne from 1887 to 1891, he retired to private life.

Astruc is a successful writer. The first of his
works was a French metrical translation of the prin-
cipal liturgical poems of the Sephardic ritual, en-
titled “ 'Olelot Eliahu ” (Elia’s Gleanings), published
in 1865. In 1869 he published “ Histoire Abregee
des Juifset de Leurs Croyances,”asmall book which
caused a sensation at the time, on account of the au-
thor’s boldness. As Astruc said, he wished “ to sep-
arate the kernel from its shell ” ; that is, to disengage
the great ideas of Judaism from venerable but par-
tially legendary traditions. A second edition of the
work was issued in 1880.

In the pulpit Astruc displayed the same inde-
pendent yet moderate views, and always boldly
proclaimed his moral convictions and his attachment
to the Jewish faith. His more important sermons
were collected and published under the title “En-
tretiens sur le Judaisme,” 1879. In 1884 he wrote
“Origines et Causes Historiques de l’Anti-Semi-
tisme,” which was translated into German and Hun-
garian. He contributed to various reviews — among
others, the “Revue de Belgique,” “Revue de Peda-
gogic,” and the “Nouvelle Revue” — a number of
articles in which he endeavored to impress non-Jews
with correct views of the history and doctrines of
Israel; also essays on the political societies of Bel-
gium, on Pope Leo XIII. , etc.

s. J. W.

ASTRUC DI1S GABBAI, or ABBA MARI
BEN ABRAHAM: Provencal scholar; lived at
Beziers toward the end of the thirteenth century and
the beginning of the fourteenth. Nothing is known
of his life and his scientific activity. His name was
transmitted by his relative, or perhaps by his grand-
son, Abraham Bedersi, who in an elegy composed on

the occasion of the death of Don Bonafos Roguet
bewails also Astruc dtis Gabbai, who died several
years before.

Bibliography : Itenan-Neubauer, Lcs Rabbins Frangais ,

p. 713 ; Gross, Gallia Judaica , p. 103.

G. I. Br.

ASTRUC, JEAN : Physician and founder of
modern Pentateuch criticism ; bom at Sauve,
France, March 19, 1684; died in Paris May 5, 1766.
His father was a Huguenot, but became a Catholic.
He studied medicine and became professor of anato-
my in Toulouse, in Montpellier, and finally in Paris.
Astruc owes his prominent place in Biblical litera-
ture to his work entitled “Conjectures sur les Me-
moires Originaux dont II Paroit que Moyse s’est
Servi pour Composer le Livre de la Genese,” pub-
lished anonymously at Brussels in 1753, which fur-
nished the starting-point for the modern criticism of
the Pentateuch.

Long before Astruc, certain Jewish scholars —
among them Ibn Ezra and Baruch Spinoza — not be-
ing satisfied with the summary reply of the rabbin-
ical commentators, “ The Torah does not arrange its
facts chronologically ” (mm3 miXDl DIpIO Yer.
Sotali viii. 22 d), had dealt more or less critically with
the anachronisms and chronological incongruities of
the Pentateuch. Astruc’s immediate predecessors
were Le Clerc (Clericus), Richard Simon, Fleury,
and Francois; but none of these went beyond the
generalization that the Pentateuch was composed of
different documents. Astruc was the first to offer
an explanation of the character and mutual rela-
tions of these documents.

Struck by the fact that in some portions of Gene-
sis the divine name “ Elohim” (Engl, version, “God”)
was used, and in others the divine name “ Yhwh ”
(Engl, version, “ the Lord ”), lie advanced the hy-
pothesis that there had originally existed a num-
ber of isolated docu-
ments, the materials
of which Moses sep-
arated and then re-
arranged, and into
which confusion was
subsequently intro-
duced by copyists.

Thus (from the meth-
od of Moses and the
work of the copyists)
he accounted for the
two lines of narrative
(Elohistic and Jah-
vistic) and for the
repetitions and au-
tichronisms. Astruc
assumed two princi-
pal documents: the
Elohim narrative, A ;
the Yhwh story, B, Jean Astruc.

and some ten frag- (After a drawing by Virfe in “ Biographie
® Universefie”)

mentary ones. On

the basis of this conjecture he rearranged (in twe
columns, A and B) Genesis and the first two
chapters of Exodus. To the Elohim narrative he
assigned Gen. i.-ii. 3; v. ; vi. 9-22; vii 6-10, 19,22,
24; viii. 1-19; ix. 1-10, 12, 16, 17, 28, 29; xi. 10-26;

Elie-Aristide Astruc.

Genealogical Tree oe the Astruc Family.

Astruc

Asusa

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

254

xvii. 3-27; xx. 1-17; xxi. 2-32; xxii. 1-10; xxiii. ;

xxv. 1-11; xxx. 1-23; xxxi. 4-47, 51-54; xxxii. 1-3
(1, 2), 25(24)-33; xxxiii. 1-16; xxxv. 1-27; xxxvii. ;
xl.-xlviii. ; xlix. 29-33; 1. ; Ex. i. ; ii. To the Yetvvh
source belong ii. 4-iv.; vi. 1-8; vii. 1-5, 11-18, 21,
24; viii. 20-22; ix. 11, 13-15. 18-29; x. ; xi. 1-9,
27-32; xii. ; xiii. ; xv.-xvii. 2; xviii.-xix. 28; xx.
18; xxi. 1, 33; 34; xxii. 11-19; xxiv. ; xxv. 19-34;

xxvi. 1-33; xxvii.-xxviii. 5, 10-22; xxix. ; xxx. 24-
43; xxxi. 1-3, 48-50; xxxii. 4-24 (3-23); xxxiii. 17-
20; xxx viii. ; xxxix. ; xlix. 1-28. To a third column,
C, he assigned various repetitions (vii. 20, 23, 24;
xxxiv. [?]). A fourth division, D, supposed to con-
tain material foreign to Hebrew history, he subdi-
vided into eight columns, as follows: E, xiv. ; F, xix.
29-38; G, xxii. 20-24; H, xxv. 12-18 (and perhaps
1-7); K, xxvi. 34, 35; xxviii. 6-9; I, xxxiv.; L,
xxxv. 28, 29; xxxvi. 1-19, 31-43; M, xxxvi. 20-30.
He assumed also a few additions by the compiler,
and some glosses. As authors of the documents he
suggested Amram (who drew perhaps from Levi,
and this last from Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham),
Joseph, the Midianites (for the genealogies in
H,K,L,M), and the Moabites and Ammonites(for F).

Astruc’s hypothesis was accepted (or, perhaps, in-
dependently reached) and further developed by Jo-
hann Gottfried Eiclihorn, who made it the founda-
tion of what he was the first to designate as “the
Higher Criticism.” The chief advance of modern
Pentateuch criticism has been to divide Astruc’s
Elohistic source into two — one of which (P) is the
latest constituent of the Hexateuch — to distinguish
the Deuteronomistic writings, and to define the lit-
erary characters and the historical and religious
points of view of the documents. While certain
of the details of Astruc’s analysis have not stood
the test of time, his general critical principles have
been retained substantially as he held them.

Bibliography: Herzog, Real.-Encyc. ; Carpenter and Hart-
ford, Hexateuch , London, 190(1, pp. 33 et seq. ; Cheyne,
Founders of Old Testament Criticism, London, 1893; Briggs,
Higtier Criticism of the Hexateuch , 2d ed„ New York, 1897.
T. M. B.

ASTRUC KALONYMUS. See Kalonymus.

ASTRUC HA-LEVI OF DAROCA : Tal-
mudic scholar; lived in Spain at the end of the four-
teenth and at the beginning of the fifteenth century.
He was a delegate to the famous disputation at
Tortosa, in 1413, under the presidency of Pope Ben-
edict XIII., at which he displayed great energy and
breadth of mind. Attacks having been made on the
Talmud, based on some extravagant haggadic sen-
tences, Astruc handed to the assembly a written dec-
laration, in which he denied any authority to the
Haggadali, and utterly renounced it.

On another occasion, Astruc dared even the anger
of the pope. Benedict XIII. having pointed out the
improbability of the haggadic legend that the Mes-
siah was born on the day of the destruction of the
Temple and was now in paradise, Astruc said:
“ Lord and Pope, you believe so many improbabili-
ties about your Messiah, let us believe this single
one regarding ours. ”

Bibliography: Ibn Verga, Shehet Yehudah, ed. Wiener, He-
brew text, pp. *8, 74, 76, 77 : Kobak’s Jeschurun , vi. 45 et seq. ;
Gratz, Gesch. 3d ed., viii. 120, 121, 406.

L. G. I. BR.

ASTRUC DE PORTE. See Nahmanides.

ASTRUC RAIMUCH (FRANCISCO GOD-
FLESH, DIOSE CARNE). See Raimuch.

ASTRUC, ZACHARIE : French sculptor,
painter, and author; born at Angers, department of
Maine-et-Loire, in 1839. While still a boy he left
his native city to seek his fortune in the French
metropolis. In 1859 he founded, in collaboration
with Valery Vernier, the “Quart d'Heure Gazette
des Gens a Demi Serieux ” ; devoting himself, at the
same time, with great zeal to the study of art. He
was commissioned in 1874 to make a reproduction of
the famous statue of St. Francis of Assisi, which had
been jealously guarded from the envious eyes of all
artists in a shrine of a monastery in Toledo. He was
thus enabled to carry out of Spain the first sculp-
turally exact and faithful copy of Alonzo Cano’s
masterpiece. It was exhibited in 1875 at the Exposi-
tion des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and the numerous copies
taken from that exquisite model have made it a fa-
miliar subject with all lovers of art.

Astruc is a member of the Society of French Art-
ists, and has been for many years a faithful and
prolific contributor to the Salon of the Champs Ely-
sees, where his works have always called forth fa-
vorable comment. His talents are as varied as
they are excellent, and he wields a brush as readily
as a chisel. Particularly noteworthy among his
paintings are his large panels in water-color, of
which a series of six was purchased by the state and
placed in the museum of St. Etienne. As a sculptor
liis reputation is even greater, and won him a promi-
nent place among the best modern French artists.
Rewarded at the Salons of 1882, 1884, 1885, 1886, as
well as at the Universal Exposition of 1889, he is
now “ hors de concours.” In 1890 he was decorated
with the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

The principal art works of Astruc are: “Mars et
Venus,” plaster group, 1886; “Hamlet,” 1887; “Le
Roi Midas,” statue in bronze, 1888; “Portrait de M.
le Comte Fabre de l’Aude,” bust in bronze, 1888;
“ Perce-neige,” statue in plaster, 1889; “Portraits
Masques,” 1889; “Le Repas de Promethee,” plaster
statue, 1891; “Le Moine: L’Extase dans le Som-
meil,” marble statue, 1893 (bought by the govern-
ment); “Barbey d’Aurevilly,” bust in bronze;
“ L’Enfant Marchand de Masques — now in the gar-
dens of the Luxembourg; “Le Saint-Fran^ois d’As-
sises,” statue — copy of the original of Alonzo Cano
described above; “Manet,” bust in bronze; “L’Au-
rore,” bronze relief, now at the Ecole de Saint Cyr;
“Le Sar Peladan,” salon of 1899; decorative figures
for the exposition at Nice, etc.

Astruc is, moreover, a litterateur of no mean repu-
tation. Besides his early venture as editor of the
“Quart d’Heure,” he has written: “L’Histoire Fu-
n&bre de Faubert”; “Les Onze Lamentations d’Eli-
acin ” ; “ Le Recit Douloureux ” ; “ Les Quatorze Sta-
tions du Salon de 1859,” a collection of art criti-
cisms published in one volume, with a preface by
George Sand. He has also contributed, as an art
critic, to “Le Pays,” “ L’Etendard,” “L’Echo des
Beaux-Arts,” “Le Peuple Souverain,” etc. He is
the author of several novels, short stories, and
plays, among which may be mentioned: “Bug-

255

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Astruc

Asusa

Mug,” a short story which appeared in the pages
of the “Opinion Nationale”; “Soeur Marie Jesus,”
a novel published in the “Revue Germanique”;
and “L’Arme de Femme,” a comedy published in
the “Revue Internationale.” In 1863, in collabora-
tion with the great writers of the day, Astruc found-
ed “Le Salon,” a journal devoted exclusively to
art, and which appeared daily during the annual ex-
position. It lasted only for a short time. In 1870
he founded in Madrid another art journal, “L’Es-
pague Nouvelle,” and wrote several sketches for
different contemporary reviews, descriptive of his
sojourn in Spain. Astruc was the author of a novel
entitled “Romancero de 1’Escurial,” which he wrote
in Spanish, and which was published in Paris by
Charpentier in 1884, followed by its sequel, “Le
Generalite.” He is also the author of a volume of
Spanish poems, “Les Alhambra.”

Bibliography: Dictionnaircs Departementaux ( Departe -
went de Maine-et-Loire), 1894; La Grande Encyclopedie,
s.v.

s. A. S. C.

ASUFOT : “Collection”; that is, the name of a
medieval compilation of laws, customs, habits, and
practises of a religious character, similar to other
medieval compendiums of a legal character. It is
preserved in a unique manuscript (No. 115) in the
Montefiore College Library, Ramsgate, England.
The author, who lived at the beginning of the four-
teenth century, collected from numerous authors, of
whom he mentions a large number, a rich store of
information from lialakic decisions, special “min-
hagim,” and popular customs; and the collection
throws light upon the ordinary life of the Jews in
the Rhine country during the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. The manuscript is almost throughout en-
dowed with vowel-signs. It is probably the only
non-liturgical and non-Biblical text that has these
signs.

The author had at his disposal very rich literary
resources, and displays more interest in every
branch of religious life than the majority of similar
compilers. He has a peculiar gift for
Character, noting down local customs and even
superstitions, a feature that greatly
enhances the value of the book. Another impor-
tant characteristic is the accuracy with which he
indicates the sources of his information. Many
fragments of literature and many a name have been
preserved by these quotations.

From a philological point of view the book pos-
sesses considerable interest, from the fact that nu-
merous German glosses are found in the text that
explain difficult or obscure terms, and some that
show, incidentally, the intimate knowledge of Ger-
man possessed by the Jews of that time.

The contents are, in brief, as follows: the laws
relating to the ritual slaughtering of animals; laws
concerning the observance of Passover, with a de-
scription of the ritual of the Seder;
Contents, laws relating to the New-Year, the
fast-days, and to all the feasts, inclu-
ding the semi-festivals ; laws concerning the observ-
ance of the Sabbath ; laws about proselytes; a string
of medical prescriptions and charms; mourning and
burial customs ; marriage ceremonies and laws, in-

cluding directions for the ceremony under the can-
opy ; laws and formulas of divorce ; mezuzot ; a con-
densed form of the prayer-book ; formulas and types
of numerous commercial and religious contracts, and
of various forms of excommunication as well as of
repentance, followed by short chapters recapitula-
ting and supplementing the subjects already treated.

The vocalization of the manuscript is also impor-
tant, showing, as it does, that the pronunciation of
the Jews of that period was much akin to the so-
called Sephardic pronunciation.

Bibliography : A full description of the work, as well as bibli-
ographical references to the writers that have had access to
it and made use of it, together with a series of abstracts of
tlie more important passages, such as the Seder ritual, the
short prayer-book, superstitions, customs, etc., is given by M.
(raster In Report of the Judith Montefiore CuVieye for the
Year 1832-93, London, 1893, pp. 31-74.

L. G 31. G.\.

ASUSA, ASUTA ( ND1 DS = “ health ! ”) : A sen-
timent expressed toward one who is sneezing. In
Tosef. , Shah. vii. (viii.) 5 it is declared to be a forbid-
den heathen (Amorite) practise to wish one health
(“ marpe ”), whereas R. Eliezer b. Zadok, of the first
century, says : “ It is forbidden only in the school-
house, as causing a disturbance during study”; to
which is added : “ Those of the house of Rabban
Gamaliel would not say ‘ marpe. ’ ” In Ber. 53a the
reading is : “ Those of the house of Rabban Gamaliel
avoided saying ‘ marpe ’ in the sehoolhouse.” Mai-
monides (Talmud Torah iv. 9) follows the Talmud,
prohibiting the saying of “ refuali ” (healing) only
during study. So also Shulhan ‘ Aruk, Yoreh De'uli,
246, 17 ; but the later annotators are inclined to per-
mit it during study. InYer. Ber. v. lOtf, R. Mana
teaches that while eating one should not say D’\ ex-
plained by Frankel, Levy, Kohut, and Krauss as iaaic
(“ healing ”) or as 'D' (“ may He heal ! ”). ‘Aruk reads
t3T- interpreted by Frankel and Kohut as (" may
he live ” !) ; both readings explained by Jastrow as ab-
breviations either of 'lyD (“ the Lord my help”) or
of rQUD^ 'I'll (“ my sneezing be for good ! ”), as there
is the danger of choking. In Pirke R. El. lii. and Ye-
lamdenu to Toledot, quoted in ‘Aruk, s v. Jl’Dy (com-
pare Yalk., Gen. 77), the story is told that until Ja-
cob’s time man, at the close of his life, sneezed and in-
stantly died; but Jacob prayed to God to grant him
time to prepare for his death by making his will.
This, to the surprise of all, was granted to him ; and so
it was told Joseph, “ Behold thy father is sick ” (Gen.
xlviii. 1). Henceforth it became the rule that illness
should precede death. For this reason when one
sneezes lie should wish himself “hayyim ” (for life!)
or “hayyim tobim” (for a happy life!); so that the
sign of death was transformed into a sign of life,
according to Job xli. 10 [A. V. 18],

The wish “ Asuta ” is often given in the vernacu-
lar, “ Your health ! ” or “ God bless thee ! ” “ God help
thee!” To children, people would say, “Good and
old and fair until your hundredth year! ” The one
who sneezes usually cites from Gen. xlix. 18, “For
thy salvation I wait, O Lord ! ” and in response to
the wishes offered by his neighbor, he would say in
Hebrew, “ Be thou blessed ” (“ baruk tiheyeh ” ; see
Solomon Luria, “Yamsliel Shelomoh”; B. K. viii.
64; “Magen Abraham Orah Hayyim,” 230, note 6).
The custom of uttering some prayer or wish at

Asverus

Asylum

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

256

sneezing was universal among ancient and is also
observed among modern nations; it originated in the
belief that it was the work of the spirits, good or evil
(see section on “ Sneezing ” in Tylor, “ Primitive Cul-
ture,” i. 97-102).

Bibliography : A. Lewysohn, Mehore Minhaginu 1846, pp. 111-
112; Tendlau, SprlichwOrter und Redensarten Deutxcli-
Jlldlschcr Vnrzeit, 1860, p. 142; Berliner, Aus dem Leben
der Deutschen Juden im Mitt clatter , 1900, p. 95; Frankel,
Talmud Jerushalmi Seder Zera'im , i. 390; I.evy, Neuhe-
briiisches und ('halddischen W/irterhuch, and Jastrow, Diet.
s.v. o'l and at; Kohut, ‘ Aruk , s.v. NO'l ; Blau, Dan Altju-
dische Zauberwesen , pp. 163, 164.
j. sr. K.

ASVERUS. See Severus.

ASYLUM. — Biblical Data (&avXov, “inviola-
ble”): A place of refuge for slaves, debtors, polit-
ical offenders, and criminals ; a sacred spot, a sanctu-
ary, altar, or grave, protected by the presence of a
deity or other supernatural being, and sharing his
inviolability. In many cases there was attached to
the sacred place a larger or smaller area within
which it was forbidden to shed the blood of man or
beast or to cut down trees or plants (so in the harem
or sacred enclosure of Mecca), and where the fugi-
tive might dwell in comfort. The custom was one
of the earliest developed in society; it is found
among very low tribes (Australian and others), among
some of whom the guilt or innocence of a fugitive
was determined by a tribunal. It is
Origin and probable that this character of refuge
Character, belonged originally to all sacred places,
the degree of security being in pro-
portion to the sanctity of the spot, the shrines of the
more powerful deities naturally having greater po-
tency. Into such a system, abuses, of course, crept:
some shrines were nurseries of criminals; and it
often became necessary to limit the number of asy-
lums. In Athens only certain sanctuaries were
recognized by law as refuges (for example, the tem-
ple of Theseus for slaves); in the time of Tiberius
the congregations of desperadoes in shrines had be-
come so dangerous that the right of Asylum was
limited to a few cities (in the year 22). The sanc-
tuary did not always protect a refugee: if the law
were not explicit, or if the man were already con-
demned or believed to be guilty or dangerous, he
was sometimes taken from the sacred spot, or even
put to death there ; such cases were, however, ex-
ceptional.

In Israel the custom of Asylum probably existed
from the earliest times, but there is no record of it
before the days of Solomon. Possibly an allusion
to it is involved in the story of Cain
Early (Gen. iv.): Cain, as murderer, would
Hebrew in any case be exposed to the attack
Custom, of the avenger of blood, but his situa-
tion is made harder by the fact that
he is banished from the land and the worship of
Yhwh, and therefore can not take refuge in a sanc-
tuary. Absalom, after the murder of Aninon, fled
the country (II Sam. xiii. 37), and took refuge with
his mother's father. The first distinct notice of the
right of Asylum is contained in the narrative of the
attempts to place Adonijah on the throne (I Kings
i., ii.): Adonijah flees to the altar and refuses to
come forth till he has Solomon’s word that his life

shall be spared; Joab, on the other hand, refusing
to leave the altar, is slain, by special command of
Solomon, on the sacred spot. There was thus at
this time a recognized right of Asylum for offenders
(in this case political offenders), which, however,
was not absolute. The right was denied Joab,
probably, not because he had murdered Abner and
Amasa (I Kings ii. 29-34), but because he was a dan-
gerous conspirator, and Solomon had absolute au-
thority over the royal shrine of Jeru-

Josiah’s salem. Doubtless every sanctuary in
Attempts the land was an Asylum (Ex. xxi. 14,
at Reform, compared with Ex. xx. 24), and this
state of things continued down to
(and probably after) the reform of Josiah, when the
attempt was made to abolish all sanctuaries except
the Temple of Jerusalem. The plan was not car-
ried out at that time; the provincial shrines contin-
ued to exist (Jer. ii. 28; vii. 9, 18; xi. 13; Ezek. vi.
3, 4), and later all reforms were interrupted by the
capture of Jerusalem and the consequent confusion
that reigned throughout the land. It may thus be
assumed that down to the time of the Babylonian
Exile all Levitical settlements had the privilege of
Asylum for certain offenders, such as homicides and
political disturbers, but whether it was also extended
to slaves and debtors is not clear. The area of pro-
tection probably included all the land attached to
the sanctuary.

The right of Asylum was defined gradually by
custom and law. In Solomon's time, as just noted,
a distinction, based on regard for the safety of the
throne, was made between refugees.

Leg- As the legal organization of society

islation. was more and more worked out, the
just distinction between the innocent
and the guilty came to be recognized. This distinc-
tion is made definitely in the earliest law-book (Ex.
xxi. 13, 14, eighth century) : He who slays uninten-
tionally is to be protected from the avenger of blood
by the sanctuary, but the wilful slayer is to be ta-
ken from the altar and put to death (that is, deliv-
ered over to the avenger of blood). Further details
are not given — nothing is said of a tribunal to try
the case, or of the duration of the fugitive’s stay in
the sanctuary ; these points were, however, proba-
bly settled by the existing custom. The first modi-
fication of the old usage is made in the Book of Deu-
teronomy (xix. 1-7, 11-13). As the rural shrines
were abolished by the law of that book, it became
necessary to make other provisions for the innocent
homicide that lived too far from Jerusalem to find
shelter there; and accordingly three cities were ap-
pointed (their names are not given in the text) to
which such a person might flee and within their
boundaries be safe. In any one of these a homi-
cide might take refuge and remain secure till his
case was decided. The decision was made by the
elders of the refugee’s city : in general, it may be
supposed, bv the legal authorities [elders] of the
place where the homicide was committed. If he
proved to be innocent, he was, of course, under the
protection of the authorities of the city of refuge;
but it is not said whether or when he was allowed
to go home. If he was found guilty, the elders of
his own city sent and fetched him, and he was put

257

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Asverus

Asylum

to death by the avenger of blood. The three cities
referred to in Deut. xix. were, no doubt, on the
west of the Jordan. The measure was preliminary
or tentative, and the trans-Jordanic region, at that
time — toward the end of the seventh century — loosely
connected with the west (which was really the seat
of the nation), was either not thought of, or was
left for future legislation. At a later time, probably
during or after the Exile, the sense of the ecclesias-
tical unity of the land grew stronger, and it was
thought proper to set apart three cities on the east
of the Jordan ; or it may be that this step was merely
the natural completion of the first measure. The
first intimation of this extension of the law is found
in Deut. xix. 8-10, which, as it stands, is an inter-
ruption of the legal statement, and is manifestly an
interpolation by a scribe who wished to bring the
Deuteronomic law up to the later usage. In this
paragraph it is merely said that three additional
cities are to be appointed, but their names are not
given; we find them, however, in Deut. iv. 41-43,
which, likewise, is an exilic or post-exilic editorial
addition to the text, intended, perhaps, as the his-
torical sequel to xix. 8-10. The regulation is stated
more fully in Josh. xx. (post-exilic): The fugitive,
standing at the entrance of the city -gate, is to la)'
his case before the elders, who then protect him till
he can be tried before the congregation. If he is
adjudged innocent by the congregation, he is at lib-
erty, on the death of the high priest of the time, to
go to his own house, and can not then be called to
account by the avenger of blood. Presumably, if
he is adjudged guilty, he is handed over to the
avenger. It is expressly stated, in accordance with
the humane spirit of the period, that this law is to
apply to the resident alien as well as to the native
inhabitant. The two new points in the regulation
of Joshua (the congregation as tribunal, and the
death of the high priest as ushering in the period of
liberty for innocent homicides) belong to the post-ex-
ilic ecclesiastical organization of the Jewish commu-
nity. Substantially the same form of the law is
given in Num. xxxv. 11-32, where also the fact is
emphasized that, up to the death of the high priest
within whose reign the offense was committed, the
fugitive is safe only within the borders of the city
of refuge. It thus appears that the movement of
legislation was in the direction of exact justice; the
object was to take the decision respecting homicide
out of the hands of the angry avenger — whose func-
tion was doubtless necessary in a certain stage of
society — and assign it to an impartial tribunal. The
important specifications in the latest form of the law
are : The abolition of the right of Asylum in sanctua-
ries, and the appointment of cities, in which presu-
mably an innocent fugitive might have a house and
live comfortably with his family ; the determination
of the tribunal that was to try the case ; and the
fixing a day when the man might go freely and
without fear to his own home. The six cities of
refuge named are Ivedesh in Naphtali, Schechem
in Ephraim, Hebron in Judah, and, on the east
of the river, Bezel- in Reuben, Ramotli in Gad,
and Golan in Manasseh. The first three were old
sacred places, and so, probably, were the second
three. In the texts referred to there is no mention
II.— 17

of a right of sanctuary for fugitive debtors and
slaves; the reference in Deut. xxiii. 16 [15] is to
foreign fugitives, and these are protected by resi-
dence anywhere in the land.

As to how far this post-exilic law was actually in
force there is no definite information. Under the
rule of the Persians, the Greeks, and the Hasmoneans,
the Judean state never had control of
Later the whole of the old territory. If the
History, statement may be trusted (I Macc. x.

43; Josephus, “Ant.” xiii. 2, § 3) that
the Seleucid Demetrius I. (about 152 b.c.) offered to
make the Jerusalem Temple an Asylum, the natural
inference will be that it was not then so regarded ;
the offer seems, however, not to have been accepted.
The custom of Asylum doubtless continued, though
the function of the avenger of blood ceased; the six
cities may have retained their legal privilege, and
possibly the right of Asylum was extended to the
other Levitical cities. Under the Greek and Ro
man rule a number of cities in Syria enjoyed this
privilege (lists are given in Barth. “De Gra'corum
Asylis ”).

Bibliography : S. Baeck, in Monatsschrift , xviii. 307-312 and
565-572; A. P. Bissell, The Law of Asylum in Israel, 1882;
commentaries on Makkot ; Farbstein. in Nerha-Ma'arahi,
ii. 35-38, 101-106; N. M. Golubov, Institut Ubye-Zhishcha u
Drevnykh Yevreyev, St. Petersburg. 1884; S. Ohlenburg,
Die Bihlischen Asyle in Talmudischem Gewande, 1895.
On Greek anti Roman asylums, see Pauly-Wissowa, Real.-
Eneyrl. des Classisehen Alterthums , s. v. Agyl.

,T. JR. T.

In Rabbinical Literature : The Biblical or

dinances on Asylum are formulated anil developed
into a complete system in the tannaite tradition.
As in many other instances of the Halakah, the law
on Asylum is in its main features merely theoretic ;
at the same time the tannaite sources often hand
down actual facts, as, for example, the regulation
of the right of Asylum in the period between 100
b.c. and 30 c.e., especially that which is mentioned
by Eliezer ben Jacob (Tosef., Mak. iii. [ii.] 5; Mak.
10 a et seq.). Eliezer was a tanna who, shortly after
the destruction of the Temple in 70, set himself the
task of studying and arranging the laws and customs
that had lost their force with the fall of the Jewish
state.

Although nothing else is known about Jewish
Asylum in Palestine (Josephus, “Ant.” xiii. 2, § 3,
does not mean Asylum in the Jewish sense, and fur-
thermore the passage is of doubtful historic value
in view of I Macc. x. 31 et seq.), the authority of
Eliezer is sufficient to prove its existence in Palestine
at the beginning of the common era, especially since
the validity of his statements is proved by the ac-
count of actual conditions in the cities of refuge
handed down by tannaim of Akiba’s school (Mak.
ii. 6). Jewish tradition fixes upon the year 30 as
the time when the Jewish courts were deprived of
their power to inflict capital punishment (Sanh.
41 a). From the remark found in a Baraita (Sotali,
486), that after the destruction of the first Temple
the Levitical cities ceased to exist, it does not follow
that the cities of refuge, which formed part of them,
also passed away; the remark simply means that
there were no longer any Levitical cities laid out in
the manner prescribed in Num. xxxv. 2-5 (compare
also Sifre, Num. 161, where it is expressly stated

Asylum

Atarah

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

258

that the cities of refuge are not dependent on the
existence of the Temple).

Changed political conditions, it is true, occasioned
a modification also in the location of the cities of
refuge. The country east of the Jordan was in la-
ter times no longer looked upon as Israelite terri-
tory ; nor could Shechem (Sebaste), the seat of the
Samaritans, or the Idumean Hebron — which even
after its capture by Judas Maccabeus was not really
a Jewish city — be considered a city of refuge.

It was therefore resolved, and perhaps also partly
carried out, that not only the six cities of refuge
named in the Bible could be regarded as asylums,
but also all the forty-eight Levitical
Cities cities enumerated in I Chron. vi. 39-66
of Refuge. (A. V. 54-81). The difference between
the six cities expressly mentioned in
the Bible and these forty-eight cities lay in the fact
that the Levitical cities could be used as asylums only
with the consent of the inhabitants (njTP, Mak. 10a
is to be explained this way, not as Rashi has it ; com-
pare Jastrow, “ Dictionary,” s.v., where several ex-
amples are given of this meaning of the word njn).
while the cities of refuge always afforded protection.
Nor did these six cities of refuge always need to re-
main the same as designated in the Biblical law;
others might be substituted, provided the nunjber
were kept up, and their situation conformed to the
Biblical law with regard to distances and geograph-
ical relations (Tosef., Mak. iii. [ii.J 4). Forinstance,
the distance between the southern boundary of Pales-
tine and its nearest city of refuge was exactly the
same as that between the northern boundary and the
city of refuge nearest to it, and the same distance
was maintained between every northern and south-
ern city of refuge and those lying between, so that
they were evenly distributed over the country and
easily reached. It is even asserted (Tosef . , Mak. iii.
[ii. ] 2; Sifre, Deut. 180) that the cities of refuge on
the east of the Jordan and those on the west were
parallel to each other — an assertion that does not
exactly conform to the facts.

Corresponding to the care for the proper location
of these cities were the other ordinances referring to
them. The roads leading to them were marked
by sign-posts at the crossroads, with the inscription
“Miklat” (Refuge); the roads were very broad — 32
ells, twice the regulation width — smooth and level,
in order that the fugitive might not be hindered in
any way (Sifre l.c. ; Tosef. l.c. 5; Mak. 106; B. B.
1006). The cities chosen must be neither too small
nor too large : in the former case a scarcity of food
might arise, and the refugee might consequently be
forced to leave his Asylum and imperil himself ; in
the latter case the crowds of strangers would make
it easy for the avenger of blood to enter undetected.
There were other measures of precaution in favor
of the refugee. Dealing in weapons or implements
of the chase was forbidden in the cities of refuge.
Furthermore they had to be situated in a populous
district, so that a violent attack by the avenger of
blood might be repelled, if necessary (Sifre, Num.
159; Tosef., Mak. l.c. 8; Mak. 10a).

Besides the six cities of refuge mentioned in the
Bible and the forty-eight Levitical cities, the rab-
binic law, basing upon Ex. xxi. 14, also recognized

the altar as an Asylum, although only for the offi-
ciating priest who had accidentally committed man-
slaughter; but compare Yer. Mak. ii. 31d, where R.
Johanan denies that the altar can afford protection.
The priest could not remain at the altar, however,
but had to be taken to a city of refuge (Mak. 12a).
The altar — according to the Talmud only the one at
Jerusalem — afforded in a way more protection than
the cities of refuge ; since a political refugee became
inviolable as soon as he had touched the altar (Mai-
monides, “Yad,” Rozeah, v. 14, probably after an
old source, based on I Kings ii. 28, that, however,
is not found in extant literature).

The rabbinical law concerning Asylum devotes
much space to an exact determination of the cases
in which the Asylum shall offer protection to the
manslaver, and of those in which he must flee to
and remain in it. Deliberate murder is of course
excluded: that crime can be atoned

TJnpre- for only by the blood of the murderer.

meditated The following three grades are distin-

Homicide, guished in unpremeditated homicide:

Accident. (1) grave carelessness ; (2) contributory
negligence; and (3) complete inno-
cence. Only in the second case is exile to the cities
of refuge prescribed. Complete innocence — that is,
a mere accident or an extraordinary occurrence that
could not be foreseen — needs no atonement; but
grave carelessness is not sufficiently punished by
such exile. The Talmud gives many examples illus-
trating these grades of homicide, among them the
following:

“ Any one who neglects the necessary precautions in a court-
yard or a shop, so that a person entitled to admittance there
is killed, can not atone by going to the city of refuge [i.e.,
banishment is not sufficient) ( B. K. 326) ; but if he who was
killed was a trespasser and had no right in such a court or shop,
the owner goes free, as he can not be held responsible for acci-
dents on his private property when he did not anticipate the
possible presence of strangers” (Mak. ii. 2, 8a).

Next to the cases of innocence that do not require
atonement are those where death has been occasioned
in the course of professional or other duties. A
teacher punishing his pupil, a father compelling
the obedience of his son in learning a trade or in at-
tending to the study of the Law, a servant of the
Law scourging an offender according to the instruc-
tions he has received (Deut. xxv. 2 et seq.), are not
banished to the city of refuge in case the person dis-
ciplined should die under their hands ; for they were
but fulfilling a duty incumbent upon them (Mak. ii.
2, 8a et seq.). Only in such cases as those mentioned
in Deut. xix. 4 et seq., where one negligently commits
homicide during an act that is permissible but not
commanded by law, does an atonement become nec-
essary.

Although many of the rabbinical ordinances re-
garding the asylums are directed chiefly to securing
protection for the refugee, the Asylum is, neverthe-
less, according to the rabbinical law, not a place of
protection, but one of expiation. If the homicide
die after receiving his sentence, but before reaching
the city of refuge, his body must be taken there.
If he die before the high priest he must also he
buried there until after the high priest’s death. Asy-
lum (“galut”= exile) and death of the high priest
have together the atoning power (“ kapparali ”) which

259

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Asylum

Atarah

is to relieve the homicide’s conscience (Mak. 116;
compare Tosafot, s.v. ’TO). Therefore the banish-
ment to the Asylum must not be inter-

Asylum rupted : the condemned man may not
a Place of leave the Asylum under any circum-
Expiation. stances, not even should the interests
of the state demand it (Mak. 116). The
consciousness of having taken a human life must
never leave the homicide. When, therefore, the inhab-
itants of a city of refuge wish to honor such a man,
he must declare to them that he is a homicide and
unworthy such honor; but should they still persist,
he may accept it (Mak. ii. 8; on the confession of
crime as part of the atonement, compare Confes-
sion). Even the death of the high priest does not
entirely wipe out the homicide’s guilt; for a man
condemned to Asylum may never fill an office, since
he has been the cause of an accident (l.c. ; compare
the opinion of R. Judah b. Il‘ai, which Maimonides,
Hilkot Rozeah, vii. 14, thinks the correct one).

The Rabbis so strongly emphasized the guilt of a
man who became a homicide against his will, not
only because they held that a man is responsible
even for his involuntary actions (compare Sin), but
also in accordance with the following theories as
expressed by Philo:

“ God, the all-merciful and gracious, neither delivers a wholly
innocent man up to death nor will He suffer a man who com-
mitted a deed entirely against his will to go into exile. The
ordinance of Ex. xxi. 13 must be interpreted as follows : When
a murderer has escaped from human justice, God assumes the
office of judge, and brings it about that the murderer is killed
inadvertently by some one else. God chooses as His execu-
tioner a man who has also sinned in some way and is in need
of atonement. This homicide is therefore exiled to a city of
refuge, where he must remain until the death of the high priest,
in expiation of some sins that he must have committed, because
an entirely innocent man is never chosen as the instrument of
another man’s death” (“De Specialibus Legibus,” § 20; ed.
Mangey, ii. 319; compare "De Profugis,” 6 13; ed. Mangey, i.
555 et xeq.).

The Biblical Asylum law is explained in almost
the same words as these of Philo in Mekilta (Mish-
patim iv.) and the Talmud (Mak. 106).

The Talmudic sources agree also with Philo in ex-
plaining why the death of the high priest releases
the exiled homicide. Philo says that, since the high
priest was immaculate and sinless, it
Death is fitting that he should abhor ( i.e .,
of the High not suffer in his presence) those who
Priest. had even involuntarily killed a man,
since they themselves were not entirely
sinless (“ De Specialibus Legibus,” xxiii., xxiv. ; ed.
Mangey, ii. 322). Rabbi gives the following expla-
nation : “ The murderer pollutes the land, and drives
away the Shekinah ; but the high priest brings it
about that the Shekinah dwells in Israel. It is there-
fore not fitting that he who pollutes the land should
appear before him who brings the Shekinah among
the people ” (Sifre, Num. 160). This explanation,
however, does not tally with that given by the Ha-
lakah, that even the death of a dispensed high priest
releases the exile (Mak. ii. 6); and the phrase, fre-
quently recurring in the Talmud, “the death of the
high priest atones” (Mak. 116), really shows that,
according to the opinion current among the Rabbis,
the chief factor was the death with its atoning power.

This is easily explainable from the point of view

of rabbinical theology, since in general the death of
the pious acted as an atonement for Israel (Yer.
Yomai. 386; M. K. 28u; and the many parallel pas-
sages in Bubers’ Tan. iii. 66, notes 140-142), and
the death of the high priest all the more possesses
power of atonement (approximate^’ so, Ibn Ezra on
Num. xxxv. 25). Maimonides’ explanation (Moreli
iii. 40), that the death of the high priest was an
event that moved the entire people so much that no
thoughts of vengeance could arise in the avenger of
blood, conforms as little to the spirit of the early
rabbis as to that of the Bible.

The tradition found in the Mishnah may be men-
tioned ; namely, that the mother of the high priest
supplied food and clothing to homicides, in order
that they might not wish for the death of her son
(Mak. ii. 6). The Talmud thinks (Mak. lid) that
such wishes might have been efficacious against the
high priests, because they had omitted to implore
God’s mercy for their contemporaries, that no such
hapless events might occur. Compare Avenger
of Blood.

Bibliography: The MishtuOi, Tmefta and both Talmudim of
the treatise Makknt ii.; Maimonides, Fad, Rozeah, v.-viii.;
Baeck, in Monatsschrift , xviii. 307-312, 565-572 ; M. Bloch, Tina
Mosaixch-Talmudische Pnlizeirceht, p. 17, Budapest, 1S79;
Fassel, Do* Moxaixch-Rabbinische Strafgesetz , pp. 29-31,
Gross-Kanisza, 1870; Ohlenburg, Die Bihlixclien Aspic (in
Talmudixchen Oewande, Munich, 1895; Ritter, Phuo und
die Halacha, 1879, pp. 29-32; Saalscbiitz, Das Moxaixchc
Reclit, ii. 535; Salvador, Hixtoire dex Institutions dc MiHse.
p. 13.

J. SR. L. G.

ASYLUMS (CHARITABLE INSTITU-
TIONS). Sic Charity.

ATAD : A place on the eastern side of the Jor-
dan where Jacob’s funeral cortege stopped and
mourned for him (Gen. 1. 10, 11). Tradition (Gen.
ib. ) assigns to this circumstance the change in the
name of the place to Abel Mizraim, “mourning
of Egypt,” though in reality the element “ Abel "
signifies “meadow.”

J. jr. G. B. L.

ATARI : Town in the province of Bessarabia,
Russia, on the right bank of the Dniester, opposite
Mohilev. Of the 1,000 families composing its pop-
ulation, 832 are Jews, that have a synagogue and
three prayer-houses. Formerly Ataki was a flour-
ishing town ; but the opening of the Novoselitz rail-
road in 1893 destroyed all its business, while the
population was increased by the expulsion of Jews
from surrounding villages and their settlement in
Ataki. Those who had the means emigrated to the
United States of America. During the famine of
1900 the Jewish Relief Committee of St. Petersburg
gave assistance to 109 families of Ataki; but a
far greater number remained destitute. See Bes-
sarabia.

Bibliography : Entziklopedichcski Slovar, 11., St. Petersburg,
1893; Voskhod , 1900, No. 27.

H. R.

ATARAH. — Biblical Data : A wife of Jerah-
meel and the mother of Onam (I Chron. ii. 26). If
Jerahmeel, as seems probable, is the name of a clan,
the expression “ wife ” might point to an alliance (or
in the case of “ wives ” alliances) with other clans.

J. jr. G. B. L.

Atargatis

Athanasius

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

260

In Rabbinical Literature : Atarali was a

Canaanite woman of rank, whom Jeralimeel mar-
ried in order “ to be crowned ” through her ; that is
to say, to be raised to nobility ( mcT- “crown,”
“decoration”). But she brought evil upon him,
and was therefore called “the mother of Onam”;
that is, “the mother of mourning” (DJ1N = plN.
“ mourner ”). On account of this irregular marriage,
a portion of the tribe of Judah did not recognize
the children of Jeralimeel as of pure descent (Yer.
Sanh. ii. 20 b\ Ruth R., end),
j. sr. L. G.

ATARGATIS : A Syrian divinity referred to in
the Apocrypha. A temple of Atargatis existed in
Carnion or Carnaim (I Macc.v. 24; II Macc. xii. 26),
on the east side of the Jordan. Just what goddess
is meant by the name has not as yet been definitely
ascertained. The first element of the name is evi-
dently the Aramean equivalent of Astarte ; the second
element may be the name of another goddess, Athe or
Athah, who has been found in Pheuician inscrip-
tions. The chief temple of Atargatis in Palestine was
the one in Ascalon. At Carnaim she had another,
and it was in that sanctuary that Judah Maccabeus,
without regard for the sanctity of the place, slew
the inhabitants that had fled there for refuge. The
temple with all its objects used in the cult was
burned by him.

Bibliography : Bathgeu, Beitriige zur Semitischen Reli-
gionsgeschic,hte, pp. 68 et seq., 256 et se y. ; Baudissin, Atar-
gatis. in Herzog-Plitt, Reat-Encyklopiidie fllr Protestan-
tische Theologie ; Robertson Smith, Religio)i of the Semites ,
2d ed„ pp. 172-175.

,J. JR. G. B. L.

ATAROTH : District in Palestine, east of the Jor-
dan. This place is mentioned along with Dibon and
Jazer as a very fertile tract of land and good for
raising cattle. Reuben and Gad both asked for the
land. Gad received it (Num. xxxii. 3) and built a
city there (ib. 34).

j. jr. G. B. L.

ATAROTH : The name of several towns in Pales-
tine: 1. A city on the eastern side of the Dead Sea
in the land taken from Moab and given to Gad
{Num. xxxii. 3). From Num. xxxii. 34 it appears
that the city was rebuilt by the Gadites: a fact
which the Moabite Stone (line 10) confirms. It
has been identified with the modern Attarus (Buhl,
“ Geographic,” p. 267).

2. A town on the border line between Ephraim
and Benjamin (Josh. xvi. 2), though Buhl (ib. 172)
disputes the site.

3. Ataroth Addar : A border town of Ephraim
(Josh. xvi. 5, xviii. 13), perhaps the same as Atar-
oth, 2.

4. Ataroth beth Joab : Mentioned in the list of
the descendants of Caleb (I Cliron. ii. 54).

5. Ataroth Shophan: A city in the domain of
the Gadites (Num. xxxii. 35).

j. jr. G. B. L.

ATBASH. See Gematria.

ATEL (Idl, Itil, Etel) : The capital of theClia-
zars in the tenth century ; situated about eight
English miles from Astrakhan. Together with the
city of Balanjara. which was equally renowned in
ancient times, it is now buried under the highest of

the numerous mounds covering the right bank of the
Volga, called also Atel 6ns. “Sefer ha-Kabbalah,”
in “Med. Jew. Cliron.” i. 78, 190).

According to the Arabic writers, Ibn Fudlan. lbn
Haukal, Ibn Kaldun, Mas'udi, and others, Atel was
situated about sixty miles from the mouth of the
Volga. The western part of the city was surrounded
by a wall with four gates, one of which led to
the river, and the others to the steppes. Here lived
the liakam of the Chazars, whose palace was the
only building of brick in the city. The rest of the
inhabitants dwelt in huts, or in tents of felt. Mas-
‘udi, however, states that the palace of the liakams
was situated not in the western part of the city, but
on an island, and the city consisted of three parts.
The eastern part, called Khazaran, was inhabited by
merchants of various nationalities.

Atel had a large population of Mohammedans,
Christians, Jews, etc. The Turkish and Chazar
languages predominated. Some of the inhabitants
were called “blacks,” and the others “ whites,” ac-
cording to their complexions. The hakan and his
staff were Jews. His suite, numbering fully 4,000
persons, was composed of representatives of differ-
ent races. In 969 the Russians destroyed the city.

Bibliography : D. I. Chwolson, in Zhurnal Ministerstva
Narndnavo Prosvyeshcheniya, 1868, cxI. ; Vostok, 1866, No.

1, 1867, No. 2; Astrakhanski Spravochny Listok, 1869, Nos.
24, 27, 52, 131, 133 ; Astrakhanskiya Gubernskiya Vyedo-
rnosti, 1884, No. 80; Regesty i Nadpisi, etc., Nos. 145, 150,
151, 153-155, St. Petersburg, 1899; Entziklopedieheski Slovar.
ii., St. Petersburg. 1893 ; Cassel, Magyarische AUkerthUnwr,
p. 311.

g. H. R.

ATER : 1. A family that returned with Zerub-
babel (Ezra ii. 16; Nell. vii. 21), the head of which
signed the covenant with Nehemiali (Nell. x. 18).
In I Esd. v. 15, Ater is called Aterezias.

2. Doorkeepers of the Temple, who returned
with Zerubbabel (Ezra ii. 42; Nell. vii. 45); called
“sons of Jatal” in I Esd. v. 28.

j. jr. G. B. L.

ATHACH : A town in Judah, to the inhabitants
of which David sent a part of the spoil taken from
the Amalekites (I Sam. xxx. 30). It has not been
definitely identified. Several scholars consider Ath-
ach (ini?) the same as Ether Cinjl: Josh. xv. 42);
but if it be Ether, it is quite impossible to decide
which reading is correct. The manuscripts of the
Greek versions to the passages in question furnish ad-
ditional variants.

Bibliography: Wetlhausen, Text der Bttcher Samuelis ;
Budde, Josua und Richter ; Driver, Notes on the Books of
Samuel.

J. JR. G. B. L.

ATHALIAH : Daughter of Aliab (II Kings viii.
26) and, presumably, of Jezebel; also called the
daughter of Omri (II Chron. xxii. 2). The polit-
ical alliance of Jehoshaphat, fourth king of Judah,
with Ahab. king of Israel (I Kings xxii. 2-4; II
Chron. xx. 35), resulted in a domestic alliance also
between his son Jelioram and Ahab’s daughter Ath-
aliah (II Kings viii. 18-27; II Chron. xxi. 6). The
death of Ahaziah, the only surviving son of Jelio-
ram and Athaliah (II Chron. xxi. 16, 17), at the
hand of Jehu (II Kings ix. 27; II Chron. xxii. 9),
opened the way for the queen-mother to assert her-
self. She immediately slew “all” of royal blood

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(II Kings xi. 1; II Chron. xxii. 10), and made herself
queen of Judah. Her influence, since her marriage
with Jehoram, had fostered Baal-worship in Judah,
and temporarily thrust into the background the
worship of Yhwh (II Chron. xxiv. 7). Her six
years (842-836 b.c.) of rule doubtless led to a vigor-
ous cultivation of the Baal cult. But in her seventh
year the stalwart high priest Jehoiada brought
from his hiding-place a young claimant to the
throne, Joash, son of Ahaziah (see Joash). Atlia-
liah, being apprised of the great and enthusiastic
coronation-assembly at the Temple, rushed into the
edifice, apparently unattended by her guard. As
soon as she saw the newly crowned king, she rent
her clothes in despair, and cried defiantly, “ Treason !
Treason ! ” Jehoiada ordered that she be taken forth
through the ranks, and he also pronounced a death-
sentence upon any who should espouse her cause.
“ So they made way for her, and she went to the entry
of the horse-gate by the king’s house: and they slew
her there ” (I I Kings xi. 4-20; II Chron. xxiii. 1-15).

J. -m. I. M. P.

ATHANASIUS: Bishop of Alexandria; born in
293, probably in Alexandria ; died there May 2, 373.
Athanasius was the greatest combatant of the Old
Church. No less than twenty out of the forty-seven
years of his official life (he was made bishop in
326) were passed in exile, owing to the activity of
enemies — personal, religious, and political — he had
made. With the extremes of courage and of ob-
stinacy, he united a certain pliability of character,
which naturally made him one of the foremost
leaders in the religious contests of his time.

His writings resembled his life; for the greater
part of his literary productions have the polemic
character strongly marked. His very first works,
an “ Address Against Heathens ” and
A Writer of an “Address on the Incarnation of the
Polemics. Logos,” are devoted to an attack upon
heathenism and a refutation of Juda-
ism. From the outbreak of the Arian disputes — to
the campaign against which and all kindred here-
sies Athanasius devoted his life — he concentrated his
literary activity upon one field, that of the defense
of orthodoxy, thus earning for himself the title of
“the Father of Orthodoxy.” Of his work of this
nature may be mentioned his “ Defense Against the
Arians,” his “Pastoral Letter,” and “Four Speeches
Against the Arians.” Of his other writings, his so-
called “Exegetical Essays on the Psalter,” in expla-
nation of the Psalms; “A Letter to Marcellinus,”
and “Arguments and Explanations of the Psalms ”
are worthy of mention.

Athanasius’ historical importance is neither as
an author nor as a theologian ; his works were for
the most part born of passing circumstances and
filled no literary want; and his dogmatics can not
he considered original, as they are almost identical
with those of Alexander, his predecessor in the bish-
opric of Alexandria. It was Athanasius neverthe-
less who actually enabled Nicene Christianity to tri-
umph over Arianism and kindred heresies, and who
for more than a thousand years shaped the course of
the Christian Church so absolutely that he rightly
deserves the titles of “the Great” and “the Father

of Orthodoxy,” bestowed upon him by grateful
Catholicism.

Athanasius, as the chief representative of Nicene
Christianity, removed from Cliristology every trace
of Judaism and gave to it a Hellenic cast; so that,
curiously enough, at the very time
Attitude that the Greek world was surrendering
Toward its earthly dominion to Christianity,
Judaism. Hellenism was asserting itself spiritu-
ally. The Cliristology, which began
with John’s doctrine of the Logos and reached logical
completion in the Nicene confession, and was opposed
to the Monarchian Sabellian idea of the person of
Jesus which attained fulness in the doctrines of Arius,
reflects fundamentally the identical opposition be-
tween the strictly Jewish conception of the Messiah
as a human, moral ideal, and the Hellenic, according
to which Jesus is a metaphysical religious principle.
In illustration of Athanasius’ position, the following
sentences placed by him at the head of his polemic
against the Arians may serve: “He, whom we ac-
knowledge, is an actual and genuine and real Son
of the Father, whose Being belongs to him likewise.
He is neither creature, nor made, but the product of
the Essence of the Father; wherefore is he truly
God, because of similar being with the true God ”
(“Orationes Contra Arianos,” i. 9). Jesus is for
Athanasius not only the true and real Son of God,
but he is also of similar essence ( honioimo *) and of
like eternity, but in such fashion as to permit of a
duality of the divine personages. This, of course,
is contradictory not only to the ruling idea of strict
monotheism among the Jews, but also to the teach-
ings of the Old Testament; and the Arians therefore
rightly asked {ib. iii. 7) how Athanasius could har-
monize his doctrine with such words of Scripture as
“The Lord ourGodis one Lord” (Deut. vi. 4); “See
now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with
me” (Deut. xxxii. 39), and similar passages.

A lack of all critical sense marked both Athana-
sius and Arius, and prevented them from realizing
that their mutually contradictory conceptions of
the person of Jesus lay in the diver-
The O. T. gent presentation of the same by the
with Jewish synoptic gospels contrasted
Atha- with that of the Greek writer of the
nasius. fourth Gospel and of the Epistle to the
Hebrews. Athanasius did not per-
ceive how far removed he really stood from the Old
Testament conception of God. In his controversy
with Arius he had no scruple in making the fullest
use of the Old Testament. The following are illus-
trations of his explanations and applications of such
passages. Proof of the eternity and infinity of the
Logos is found by him in Isa. xl. 28, “ the everlast-
ing God,” and in Jer. ii. 13, “they have forsaken
me, the fountain of living waters” (ib. i. 19). The
immutability of the Logos he finds expressed in
Deut. xxxii. 39, “See now that I, even I, am he,”
and in Mai. iii. 6, “I am the Lord, I change not.”
In such fashion, by simply applying to the Logos-
Christus all Bible passages relating to God, it was
not a very difficult task for him to found his whole
system of dogmatics upon the Old Testament — at
least to his own satisfaction. The unity of revela-
tion in both Testaments is an essential principle with

Athanasius

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262

Athanasius; and lie therefore stigmatizes their sepa-
ration as “Maniclieau” and “Jewish” ( ib . iv. 23).

This peculiar method of Old Testament exposi-
tion, which was the customary one in the Christian
Church even before Athanasius, was also employed
by him in replying to Jewish attacks upon Chris-
tianity by means of Old Testament teachings. In
a polemic against the Jews upon the incarnation of
the Logos (“De Incarnatione Dei Verbi”), he en-
deavors to reply to the arguments of the Jews against
the Incarnation, as being something
Chris- unworthy of the God-Logos, and par-
tianity ticularly against the Crucifixion (ch.
Versus xxxiii.), by observing that nothing is
Judaism, easier than to confute the Jews; “Out
of their own Holy Scriptures in which
they daily read, they can be controverted.” It is
true, he promises more than he performs; for when
he discovers the doctrine of the Incarnation of the
Logos in Num. xxiv. 5 and Isa. viii. 4, or finds that
the Virgin’s conception is predicted in Isa. vii. 14,
it is easily understood why his Jewish opponents
were so “prejudiced that they prefer their own ex-
position of the passages” (ib. ch. xl.). Athanasius
nevertheless sets up the reasonable hermeneutic
principle, that both the time and the person to
which a passage applies, as well as the circumstances
originating such passage, must always be taken into
consideration (“ Orationes Contra Arianos, ” i. 546) in
expounding it. This rule seems to have been de-
rived by him from Jewish sources where it was long
recognized, for it is frequently noticeable that he
willingly has recourse to Jewish authority in Scrip-
ture explanation, just so soon as his dogmatics per-
mit him to do so. His canon of Old Testament
books (“Festal Letters,” ii. 1176) excludes Wisdom
of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, and Tobit, which cer-
tainly is an approximation to the authoritative Jew-
ish canon. He gives the Jewish view concerning
the collection of the Psalms and their superscrip-
tions, that a Bah\' Ionian prophet, living in the Exile,
collected them, and put them together as he received
them. The anonymous psalms were written by this
prophet. Although called “the Psalms of David,”
many of them are not by the Jewish king; but their
authors were chosen by him to write them, and the
whole may thusbe considered as originating with him.

Contact with Jews made Athanasius acquainted
with many rabbinic legends, as for instance that of
Isaiah being sawn asunder (“ De Incarnatione Dei
Verbi,” ch. xxiv.), as well as with the interpreta-
tion of many proper names, such as David “ the be-
loved.” Athanasius did not understand Hebrew;
thus, for instance, he had only “ heard ” that the num-
ber of letters in the Hebrew alphabet was twenty-
two (“Festal Letters,” l.c.).

Bibliography: Best edition Migne, Patrnloffia Grreco-Lat-
ina, xxv.-xxix. ; German translation in Sdmmtliche It'erhe
der Kirch envilter, xiv.-xviii., Keir.pten, 1836; partly also in
Biblinthek der Kirchenvliter, 1872; English translation,
Athanasius, Select Writings and Letters, by Archibald
Robertson, in Nicene anil Post-Nicene Fathers, 2d series,
iv.; J. A. Mahler, Athanasius der Grasse, Mayence, 1827, 2d
ed., 1844; H. Voigt, Lehredes Athanasius, Bremen, 1861 ; E.
Fialon, St. Athanase, Paris, 1877; K. Hass, Studien liber
■ . . Athanasius, Freiburg in Baden, 1899. Compare the
copious bibliographic lists in the Real-Kncyhlain'idie fiir
Protestantisclie Theolngie v.r.d I-'irehe, 3d ed., under Atha-
nasius and Arianismus.

G. L. G.

ATHEISM : A term derived from the Greek,
meaning literally the “disbelief in a God.” As or-
iginally used in the writings of the people that
coined it, it carried the implication of non-recog-
nition of the God or the gods acknowledged as su-
preme, and therefore entitled to worship by the state.
It was in this sense that Socrates was accused and
convicted of Atheism. The same note is dominant
in the oft-quoted dictum attributed to Polybius, that
reverence for the gods is the foundation of all pub-
lic order and security.

The Hebrew dictionary has no word of exactly
similar import. The reasons for this are not difficult
to establish. Atheism, iu the restricted sense of
the Greek usage, could not find expression among
the Hebrews before they had come into contact and
conflict with other nations. As long as their tribal
consciousness was strong and supreme
Impossible among them, recognition on the part
in of all members of the clan or tribe of

Ancient the god to whom the family clan or

Israel. tribe and people owed allegiance was
spontaneous. Recent researches in
this field have established beyond the possibility of
doubt that this sense of family or tribal or national
affinity is focal to all primitive religion. Sacrifice
and all other features of private or public cult center
iu this all-regulating sentiment. The deity is enter-
tained by the members of the family at the sacrificial
meal. Even some institutions of the Israelitish cult,
such as the Pesah meal, reflect the mental mood of
this original conviction. Denial of the family or tri-
bal or national deity would have amounted to relin-
quishment of one’s family or people ; and such aban-
donment is a thought of which man is incompetent
before a long stretch of historical experience has
changed his whole mental attitude.

In the development of the Jewish God-idea, as
traced by modern Biblical criticism, the conflict
between the Prophets and their antagonists pivots
not so much around the controversy whether God
be or be not, but around the recognition of Yhwh
as the only and legitimate God of Israel. Even they
who opposed the Prophets were not atheists iu the
modern acceptation of the word. They may be so
styled, if the implications of the term be restricted
to the original Greek usage. According to prophetic
preachment, Israel owed allegiance to Yhwh alone.
This is the emphasis of their oft-repeated statement
that it was Yhwh who led the people of Israel out
of Egypt. The first statement of the Decalogue is
not a protest against Atheism in the modern sense.
It posits positively the prophetic thesis that no other
God but Yhwh brought about Israel’s redemption
from Egyptian bondage. The force of this prophetic
contention is well illustrated by the counter or
corresponding claim advanced in behalf of the dei-
ties nationalized by Jeroboam at Dan and Beth-el
(livings xii. 28). With all the strenuousness of their
insistence upon the sole supremacy and legitimacy of
Yhwh as Israel’s God, the Prophets never went the
length to call their opponents atheists. That the
gods whom the followers of the false prophets wor-
shiped were not gods is a conviction that appears
only in later prophets, and then not in a very violent
emphasis. Jeremiah resorts to mild sarcasm (.Ter. ii.

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27, 28). The second Isaiali is more pronounced in his
ridicule heaped upon the worshipers of idols. Yet
the quarrel is not because some or many deny God.
Their censure is evoked by the fact that some or
many worship gods that have no claim upon the
recognition of Israel, the people of Yhwh.

Again, Atheism always is the result of criticism
and skepticism. Both in the individual and in the
race it is, as it were, an afterthought. No people
starts out with Atheism. The original religiousness
of man is always spontaneously theistic in one form
or another. And as long as the religious conscious-
ness of man is in its prime vigor, there is no provoca-
tion for critical analysis of its contents. Periods of
decline in religiousness produce skepticism, which,
in turn, breeds Atheism. Up to the Exile the con-
ditions for Atheism — in this sense — were lacking in
Israel. Even the Exile, though fatal

Atheism to the religious fervor of a great num-
the Result ber — as is apparent by a study of the
of Skepti- “ ‘Ebed Yhwh ” hymns, portraying as
cism. they do the indignities and ridicule to
which a pious minority were exposed
at the hands of their compatriots — brought to bear
upon the minds of the Jews influences much more
potent in the opposite direction. Contact with the
Babylonian-Assyrian, and shortly after with the Per-
sian, civilization had a pronounced tendency to de-
velop an abiding predisposition toward mysticism,
which is always fatal to sober Atheism. In this
connection it is well to remember that Jewish augel-
ology and demonology took their rise in the Captiv-
ity ; and certainly an age susceptible to suggestions
of the order vocalized in the belief in angels and
their counterparts is not very propitious for the cul-
tivation of atheistic proclivities. The literature as-
signed to the Exile evidences the prevalence of the
very opposite inclination. It is safe to hold that
anterior to the Greek period there was but little
cause among the Jews to pa}r attention to atheistic
enunciations. This fact accounts for the absence of
a term to denote both the professor and the system
of Atheism.

Psalm liii., preserved in a double version (in Ps.
xiv.), mentions the speech of one who maintains
that there is no God. The professor of this belief is
styled “ nabal , ” and in the context is contrasted with
the “maskil ” (verse 3); wherefore the word was un-
derstood to be “fool.” or, as Ibn Ezra has it in his
commentary, the contrary of “hakam” (wise). This
meaning the Targum to Psalm xiv. also accepts,
rendering it by “shatya.” Other commentators
hold that the psalm does not register a general prop-
osition, but records the utterances of some definite
person — Titus or Nebuchadnezzar. From the char-
acter of these men it may be inferred that the inter-
preters who refer the expression in the Psalm to them,
took the word “ nabal ” in the secondary sense of
“knave,” implying that foolishness which always
characterizes a corrupt or pervert mind. “Nabal ”
would thus be a synonym of “raslia1” or “zed.”

The nearest approach to a phrase which might be
considered the equivalent of our modern “atheist ” is
the rabbinical “kofer be'ikkar,” one who denies a
fundamental tenet of the Jewish religion ; namely,
the existence and then the unity of God. Of all

the other designations applied in rabbinical wri-
tings to heretics, none other seems so directly to sug-
gest or to stand for avowed and open
Talmudic negation of the Deity’s existence and
Des- supremacy (B. B. 156; Pesik. p. 163).
ignations. Atheism is included among the heresies
charged against the “ minim ” (Shab.
1166; and Maimonides, Yad ha-Hazakah, Teshubah,
iii. , where he enumerates among the heretics “ minim,”
“ those that declare that there is no God and that the
world has neither governor nor leader ”).

But as in the case of the Biblical “nabal,” so in
the descriptions of the atheist by the Rabbis it
would appear that Atheism was much more a matter
of perverse and immoral conduct than of formulated
philosophical or metaphysical assertion and convic-
tion. At least it is from the conduct of man that his
Atheism is inferred. Observance of the Sabbath
was regarded as evidence of belief in the Creator;
while neglect to keep the day of rest holy gave
point to the presumption of atheistic leanings. The
passage in Sifra, Behukkotai, iii. 2. shows that the
observance or the rejection of the “laws and ordi-
nances” was the decisive factor in the attribution
of Atheism, according to rabbinical understanding.
Adam is said to have been an atheist ; for in hiding
himself to escape, he gave proof of his belief that
God was not omnipresent (Sanli. 386).

How far the term “Epicurean,” Dnip'SN (see An
koros), served to denote an atheist, is not very clear.
It is patent that by this name were designated men
who denied the doctrine of resurrection and revela-
tion. As both of these may be said to be involved
in the (rabbinical) doctrine concerning the Godhead,
the appellation “ Epicurean” may in a loose way have
been synonymous with the ki>r-day atheist. Con
necting this Greek word with the Aramaic root “ pa-
kar” (to free oneself), the rabbinical sources— even
Maimonides — assumed as the characteristic trait of
an Epicurean’s conduct disregard of all that made
for reverence and decency. “ Scoffer ” might, there-
fore, be suggested as the best rendering in English.
As one that would scoff at the words of the learned
and wise, of the God-fearing and pious (Ned. 23 a;
Sauh. 996), the Epicurean naturally created the im-
pression by his conduct that he shared the views of
the “nabal ” and was under suspicion that in his inso-
lence he would go so far as to deny the existence of
God and to stand in no awe of His providential guid-
ance of life and the world. Hence the advice always
to be ready to refute the arguments of the Epicu-
rean (Abot ii. 14).

Strange to say, the Jews often had to defend them-
selves against the charge of being atheists, though,
in the conception of the Prophets. Israel’s history
was the convincing proof of God's providence. Is-
rael was chosen to be His witness. The prime solic-
itude of Moses (Ex. xxxii. 12, 13) lest the “Egyp-
tians ” should put a wrong construction on the events
of Israel’s career and become confirmed
Jews in their false conceptions of Israel’s
Accused of God, is also, as it were, the “ leitmotif ”
Atheism, of the theology of later Biblical w li-
ters. The appeal of the Seventy-ninth
Psalm is for God to manifest Himself in His aven-
ging splendor, lest, from the weakness of Israel, the

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264

“nations" might infer that He had abdicated in
favor of their idols. Psalm cx v. 2 seq. — undoubtedly
of the Maccabean period — expresses the same anxiety
but on a higher and more spiritual plane. It reflects
the arguments and conceits of even the enlightened
among the Greeks. The invisible God of the Jews
was beyond the range of the ancient world’s intelli-
gence. A visible God alone was entitled to recog-
nition.

Greek thought may not have gone so far as Pha-
raoh did — according to the Midrash (Ex. R. v.), re-
flecting certainly the anti-Jewisli attitude of the
Greco-Roman period — in refusing to recognize YTiwii
for the reason that his name was not included in the
official list of deities, yet it did erect an altar to
“the unknown God” (Acts xvii. 23), as, in fact,
the hospitality of the Pantheon was elastic enough
to admit every new deity. Still, two considerations
dominated the judgment of the Greek world on the
religion, or, according to them, irreligion, of the
Jews. The Jews believed in an invisible God ;
therefore, according to the Greek mode of thinking,
in no God. Secondly, the Jews refused to join them
in their worship, though the Greeks were prepared
to pay honor to the gods of other nations. These
two complaints are at the bottom of the accusation
of Atheism against the Jews which is very frequent
and violent in the writings of Alexandrian detractors
and Roman historians. The philosophers among
the Greeks, indeed, furnished many an argument in
defense of the excellence of Jewish monotheism ;
but the vast multitude was still addicted to the
grosser notions. If the Jews were citizens of the
towns where they resided, as they claimed to be, why
did they not join in worshiping the communal gods?
This was the burcer of the popular prejudice
against them; and Apion (Josephus, “Contra Ap.”
ii. § 6), Posidonius, and Apollonius Molo made them-
selves the willing mouthpieces of popular distrust.
Here was proof that the Jews were really atheists.
In the Roman empire they refused to pay religious
honors to the statues of the emperors. This fact
sufficed, in the eyes of Tacitus and Pliny, to accuse
them of despising the gods and to describe them as
atheists, as a people void of all virtue (Tacitus, “ His-
toric,” v. 5; see Sclnirer, “Gesch.” 3d ed., iii. 417).

The same feeling that led the Greek and Roman
enemies of the Jews to accuse them of irreligion is
potent in the modern charge brought against them
of unbelief. Atheism is indeed a relative term.
The Mohammedan regards both the Christian and
the Jew as infidels; and the Christian is not slow
to return the compliment to the follower of the
Prophet. Refusing to accept the construction of his
history that Christian theology puts on it, and decli-
ning to subscribe to many of the Christological inter-
pretations of his Bible, the Jew is under the suspi-
cion of irreligion and Atheism. The “amixia,” the
stubborn defense of his historical identity, and his
right to maintain his religious distinctness, which
puzzled and angered the Greeks (compare Haman’s
argument in Esther iii. 8, the precipitate of the Mac-
cabean era), is still a pretext for denying to the
Jew genuine religious feeling, and a provocation to
class him among the wanton deniers of God.

The attitude toward the Jews in the Koran illus-

trates the same fact. Mohammed, incensed at the
refusal of the Jews to acclaim him as the expected
final prophet, pours out over them the
Attitude of vials of his wrath and abuse. Though
Mohammed “ the people of the book, ” they have
and Philo, falsified it. They claim to believe, and
still are unbelievers. They disavow
him, simply because he believes in God and they do
not (Koran, suras ii. 70-73, 116; v. 48, 49, 64-69;
ix. 30).

That there were atheists among the Jews stands to
reason, and is made evident among other things by
the tenor of the Book of Ecclesiastes, which, with-
out the later addition of the saving concluding
verses, is really an exposition of the skepticism that
had impregnated the minds of the higher classes
during the Greek fever preceding the Maccabean re-
bellion. In Alexandria, too, Jews must have been
openly or tacitly inclined to accept the philosophy
of negation. Philo takes occasion to discuss Athe-
ism. He quotes the arguments advanced in its de-
fense by those who maintain that nothing exists but
the perceptible and visible universe, which had never
come into being and which would never perish, but
which, though unbegotten and incorruptible, was
without pilot, guardian, or protector (“ De Somnis,”
ii. 43). He does not state that they who advance
these theories are Jews; but as he mentions others
who embrace a pantheistic interpretation, and de-
scribes them as Chaldeans (“ De Migratione Abra-
hami,” p. 32), it is not improbable that “the others”
may have been of his people. To Atheism he op-
poses the doctrine of Moses, “ the beholder of the
invisible nature, and seer of God ” (“ De Mutatione
Nominum,” § 2), according to which the Divine ex-
ists, and is neither the cosmos nor the soul of the
cosmos, but is the supreme God.

The religious philosophy of the Middle Ages has
no occasion to deal directly with formulated Athe-
ism. Its preoccupation is largely apologetic, not so
much against the attacks of formal and formidable
Atheism as against certain theistic or semitheistic
schools or other controverts: first Karaite, then Ara-
bic, and, still later, Christian theologians. But in
their discussions of the fundamentals of faith the
problem of theism versus Atheism in one way or
another is involved. The contentions of the Dahri,
Mohammedan atheists, believing in the eternity of
matter, and the duration of the world from eternity,
and denying resurrection and final judgment, as well
as the theories of the Motazilites, the Mohammedan
freethinkers, rejecting all eternal attributes of God,
furnish the text for a large portion of the specula-
tion of the Jewish philosophers. The one objective
point of all medieval Jewish philosophy is the clarifi-
cation of the concept of the Godhead by the removal
of every form of anthropomorphism and anthropop-
atliism, and to vindicate to human reason concord-
ance with the true intents of the revealed word of
God. The question which Mohammedan Atheism
raised regarding the eternity of matter is in the very
center of polemic debate. But in the later specula-
tion, the system of Crescas, for instance, the eternity
of matter, is admitted without reservation.

This throws light at once on the problem whether
Spinoza should be classed among the atheoi. From

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the Jewish point of view this must be denied. Un-
der close analysis, Spinoza does not go beyond the
positions maintained on some points by Maimonides,
on more by Crescas. He carries to its furthest con-
sequences the Jewish solicitude to divest the idea of
the Godhead of anthropomorphic associations (on
this point see Joel, “Zur Genesis der Lehre Spino-
za’s,” Breslau, 1871).

In modern Judaism, as is evinced by printed ser-
mons and other publications, Atheism of every kind
has found voice and adherents. The influence of the
natural sciences, and the unwarranted conclusions
now recognized as such by none more readily than
by the thinkers devoted to the exploration of na-
ture’s domain, have also left their mark on Jewry.
Both the idle Atheism of conceit and the more serious
Atheism of reaction against the dogmatism of ante-
rior days have had exponents in the circles grouped
around the synagogues. As elsewhere, evolution
was invoked to dethrone God, and therefore, depart-
ing from the met hods of scholasticism, the arguments
based on evolution were not ignored by the defenders
of theism in the pulpit. In the discussion two lines
were more especially followed. Atheism was tested
as to its rationality, and was found of all irrational
theories of the world and life the most irrational.
Mind presupposes mind. The gap between thought
and matter has not been bridged by natural selection
or by evolution. Du Bois-Reymond’s agnosticism
left the domain of faith- to religious cultivation.
Whatever difficulties from a materialistic point of
view the doctrine of God as the Creator and guide of
world and of man, as the Author of life, and as the
Ultimate Reality underlying the All may present and
must present — for to know God as He is man would
have to be God — the divine element in man, his
conscience and self-consciousness, his moral power
and experiences, are inexplicable and unreadable rid-
dles to the materialist. Materialism has no key for
their solution. History, especially the history of
the Jews, witnesses to a will which is not ours, but
may be made ours ; to the potency of purposes which
are not ours, but may be followed by us; to laws in
harmony with which alone man can attain unto hap-
piness and preserve his dignity. To these facts and
factors the Jewish tlieist has pointed in defense of
his theistic interpretation of life and its phenomena,
while always ready to modify the symbolism into
which he would cast the supreme thought. The old
demonstrations of God’s existence indeed, after Kant,
can not be said to be cogent. But the moral proof of
theism in refutation of Atheism has taken on new
strength in the very searching by Kant’s master
criticism. The theism of Israel’s religion has been
verified by the facts and forces of Israel’s history, as
the “witness to Yhwh.”

Bibliography: S. Hirsch, DU Human it(it als Religion, lecture
ii, Trier 1858; I. M. Wise, The Cosmic God, Cincinnati, 1876.

k. E. G. H.

ATHENIANS in Talmud and Midrash : The

Jewish folk-lore of Palestine was fond of contrasting
the inhabitants of Athens and of Jerusalem, and of
opposing the Rabbis to the Attic sages. Greek phi-
losophy and esthetics did not greatly impress the
Jewish people, who thought themselves far superior
to the Greeks in wit and wisdom.

In the Haggadah occur a number of wit-combats
between Jews and Athenians, in which their quick-
ness at repartee and skill in propounding and solv-
ing problems are displayed in rivalry. Thus an
Athenian arriving at Jerusalem met a child, and,
giving him a small piece of money, asked him to buy
him something to eat, from which he could satisfy
himself and yet have enough left for the rest of his
journey. The child brought him salt. Another
Athenian coming to Jerusalem and visiting a school
found the children in recess, and amusing themselves
with guessing riddles. Requested to ask him a rid-
dle, they put to him the following enigma: “Nine
pass by, eight come, two pour out, one drinks, and
twenty-four serve.” The Athenian declared him-
self unable to solve the riddle, of which the solution
is “ Nine months of pregnancy, eight days until cir-
cumcision, two breasts, the boy’s mouth, and the
twenty-four months until he is weaned ” (Lam. R. to
i. 1, ed. Buber, p. 48).

Two anecdotes of this cycle have passed into the
literature of the Arabs, the Persians, and a number
of European peoples. The first of these is about an
Athenian’s one-eyed Jewish stable-boy who, despite
his infirmity, could tell what kind of camel was
passing at a distance of four miles, and what it was
carrying (Lam. II. l.r. 12). The second tells of the
wisdom of four men of Jerusalem who came to
Athens, and of their acuteness in guessing at the
true character of the objects and persons about them
(Lam. R. l.c. 4). These two anecdotes, with the
details adapted to Arabic taste, occur in many Per-
sian and Arabic works; and the Italians learned
them from the Arabs. This latter fact is attested by
the appearance of the anecdotes in “ II Novellino ”
or “Cento Novelle,” a collection of stories of the thir-
teenth century. Either through the Italians or
through D'Herbelot they became known to Voltaire,
and were used by him for the first chapter of his
“ Zadig.”

An Athenian wanted to make sport of a tailor at
Jerusalem, and handed him a broken mortar, asking
him to sew it. The tailor gave him a handful of
sand, asking him in turn to spin thread out of it
with which he might sew the mortar (Lam. R. l.c.
8). Again, an Athenian asked a boy of Jerusalem,
who had brought him eggs and several balls of
cheese, to tell him which cheese was of the milk of
a white and which of a black goat. The boy prom-
ised to answer if the Athenian, being the older,
would first tell him which was the egg of a white
and which of a black hen (Lam. R. l.c. 9; compare
also ‘Ab. Zarali 175).

The last two witticisms, slightly changed, occur
also in the Talmud in the account of the disputation
between Joshua ben Hananiali and the wise men or
elders of Athens, “ Sabe de-be Atuna ” (Bek. 85). It
may be assumed as tolerably certain that “be atuna ”
is merely an Aramaic form for Athens, and does not
refer to the Atheneum at Rome, as Dubsch, Gratz,
and Berliner believe.

The Talmud (Bek. l.c. et seq.) gives an account of
the disputation between these wise men of Athens
and Joshua ben Hananiah. The Caesar (Hadrian),
when discussing a point of biology with Joshua,
mentioned that the sages of Athens held a different

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266

opinion from the Rabbis. Joshua declared the Rabbis
wiser than the Greeks, and promised to prove this
to the emperor. Joshua, going to Athens, went to a
butcher as he was dressing the head of an animal.
“ What will you sell your head for? ” asked Joshua.
When the butcher told him the price, which was
agreed to, the rabbi insisted that the butcher had
sold his own head. Joshua, however, agreed to
cancel the bargain if the butcher would show him
the way to the wise men.

Now, the wise men had forbidden any one, on
penalty of death, to point out where they lived.
When the butcher remonstrated that the wise men,
surrounded by a strong guard, had given orders to
kill any Athenian that should betray their meeting-
place, Joshua taught him a trick by which he could
signalize the place without being exposed to danger.
When Joshua after another trick had safely passed
the guard and surprised the Athenian sages, the con-
test of wit against wit was undertaken on condition
that the defeated party should be left entirely to the
mercy of the victor. Joshua, in the first place, had
to answer various philosophical questions put to
him by the sages. This he did to their satisfaction.
They then tried to drive him to bay by proposing
riddles to him. Their first question was: “If salt
has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted ” (that
is, be made fit for use; compare Matt. v. 13)? His
answer, “ With the afterbirth of a mule,” shows that
to an impossible query he had ready an equally
impossible answer (compare Ahikar).

Joshua won the contest, and then conveyed the
wise men on a ship to Hadrian. The emperor deliv-
ered them into the hands of Joshua, who poured into
a vessel some water taken from a whirlpool and
having the peculiar quality of absorbing other water
(y^2, “ swallow "). He then directed the sages to fill
the vessel, and they proceeded to do so; but after
wearying themselves vainly in their attempted task,
had to give it up in despair (probably an echo of the
Dauaid myth).

In later times, when it was thought impossible
that a sacred book like the Talmud should contain
anything amusing, much ingenuity was displayed
in order to read into these jests a deep and secret
significance.

Besides the commentaries to the Haggadot in the
Talmud (see Jacob ibu Habib, “En Ya'akob,” ed.
Wilna, ad loc.% there are about a dozen works de-
voted to the “Sabe de-be Atuna ” (elders of Athens).
Bibliography': Barber, in Mnnataschrift. xix. 68-72; Perles,
ibid. xxii. 62-67 ; Berliner, Gesch. tier Juden in Rom, i. 31 ;
Dubsch, in He-HaUtz. ii. 160, 161 ; (iratz, in Levy’s Neuhebr.
Wnrterhueh, iii. 463b : Gratz .Die Jlidischen Proselyten, p.
28 ; Rapoport, "Erel t Mill in. pp. 252, 253; Wiinsche, Die R Oth-
selweisheit bei den Hebrllern, pp. 39 et seq., pp. 42 et seq.

.r. sr. L. G.

ATHENS, ANCIENT : The principal city of
Greece, situated five miles from its seaport, Piraeus,
on the Saronic gulf. When, as a result of the Per-
sian wars, Athens attained the hegemony of the east-
ern Mediterranean, it was already one of the most
important commercial cities of antiquity. It re-
tained this commercial supremacy in times of polit-
ical decay, far into the period of the Roman emper-
ors. Hence numerous foreign merchants did business
in Athens, and some of them settled there, form-

ing close corporations which mutually supported
each other, and at the same time retained their
respective national religions. The practise of their
religions and the building of temples were not per-
mitted in the city of Athens, but these privileges
were allowed in the Piraius. As early as 333 b.c.,
the Egyptians possessed a temple of Isis there.
There, too, permission was given to the Kmeif (mer-
chants from the city of Citium in Cyprus) to build a
temple to Aphrodite ; and somewhat later the Sido-
nians erected one to their god, Baal-Sidon (Schiirer,
“Gescli.” iii. 58).

Together with the wealthy Egyptian and Pheni-
cian Yvholesale merchants, maujr Jews settled in
Athens for commercial reasons and organized a com-
munity. The residence of Jews in At-
First Jews tica in general is testified to by Philo
in Athens. (“ Legatio ad Cajum,” p. 36 ; ed. Man-
gey, ii. 587). From the Acts of the
Apostles (xvii. 17) it is certain that there was a Jew-
ish synagogue in Athens. Among the Greek inscrip-
tions found in Athens are some of Jewish origin.
“Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum,” iii. 2, contains
three, numbered 3545, 3546, and 3547 respectively.
In the first two the seven-branched candlestick is
depicted. No. 3545 reads: “This is the resting-place
of Eutycliia, mother of Athenaos and Theoktistes ” ;
No. 3546 : “ This is the resting-place of Theodula and
Moses”; and No. 3547: “ [Jacjob and Leontius, de-
scendants of Jacob of Caesarea. ” This Jacob probably
came from Palestine ; for Caesarea means either Caesa-
rea Stratonis or Caesarea Philippi. The Jews not
only worshiped in their accustomed manner in Ath-
ens, but appear to have made proselytes among the
heathen population there. Just as the Egyptians
and Plienicians successfully introduced their partic-
ular cults in Athens, so the Jews gained many adhe-
rents in the chief city of Greek culture by their
preaching of the spiritual adoration of the one true
God who must be without pictorial representation.
These “devout persons” (aefSo/ievoi, Acts xvii. 17)
joined themselves to the Jewish community as a first
step. They attended the Jewish sendees, but did
not observe the Law in its entirety, only obeying
certain of the more elementary commands, such as
Sabbath -observance and the most important laws
of purity.

As far back as the first century b.c., there existed
official relations between the authorities of Athens
and certain Jewish princes. Among the documents
preserved by Josephus is an interesting decree by
the people of Athens in favor of the Jewish high
priest Hyrcanus (Josephus, “Ant.” xiv. 8, § 5).
Omitting the introduction, it reads:

“Since Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, high priest and
ethnarch of the Jews, continues to bear good-will toward the
people [the Athenians] iu general and to each one of the citi-
zens in particular, and treats them with great consideration
and most kindly welcomes those Athenians
Hyrcanus who come before him, either as ambassadors
Honored or on their own private affairs, and displays
by Athens, thoughtful care concerning the safety of their
return ; now, therefore, having had several
former testimonies and on the report of Theodosius [other
manuscripts have “ Dionysius”], son of Theodoras of Sunium,
who has reminded the people of the virtues of this man, and
that he has always endeavored to do all the good that lay in his
power, be it resolved, that this man be honored with a golden
crown according to the law, that a statue of him in bronze be

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set up in the district where was the temple of Demos and of the
Graces, and that announcement of this be made at the Dio-
nysian festival in the theater, at the representation of the new
tragedies, and at the Panatheusean and Eleusiuiau games,” etc.

From its introductory formula, this decree appears
to have been issued under the archon Agathocles.
If he ruled, as many modern authorities think, to-
ward the end of the second century b.c., this resolu-
tion must have referred to Hyrcanus I. But it is
not at all certain that Agathocles is correctly as-
signed to that time. Besides, Hyrcanus is therein
styled “son of Alexander”: but only Hyrcanus II.
was a son of Alexander ; and there being no reason
to doubt the correctness of the received text, it is
more probable that the Athenian resolution had ref-
erence to Hyrcanus II. (see especially Th. Reiuach,
in“ Revue Etudes Juives,” 1899, xxxix. 16-27). This
would bring it to about 47-40 b.c., at which time
Hyrcanus, by Caesar’s appointment, was “ high priest
and ethnarch of the Jews.” It appears, then, that
ambassadors from the Athenians and Athenian mer-
chants were in the habit of coming to Judea and
were wrell received by Hyrcanus, and that the Athe-
nians expressed their appreciation by voting to him
a gold crown and a bronze statue.

Similar friendly relations existed in the time of
Herod and his descendants. Josephus (“B. J.” i.
21, § 11) mentions Athens among the cities which
“ are full of gifts from Herod. ” The Athenians seem
to have honored the latter in a manner similar to that
in which they honored Hyrcanus; for it is probable
that an inscription which describes the erection of a
statue in honor of Herod refers to Herod the Great.
It reads: “The People [the Athenians] honor,
through the erection of this monument, the king
Herod, the friend of the Romans, for kindly acts
performed by him and for his friendly disposition ”
(“C. I. A.” iii. 1, No. 550). Another inscription
which deserves notice on account of the variation
in the title refers to another Herod, probably Herod
of Chalcis, a grandson of Herod the Great, who
ruled over the little kingdom of Chalcis in the Leba-
non about 41-48. It reads : “ The people honor King
Herod the Pious, the friend of Caesar, on account of
his virtue and benevolence” ( l.c . No. 551).

The last Jewish princess, Berenice, whose name is
associated with that of Titus, w'as honored in a simi-
lar way: “The Council of the Areopagus and the
Council of Six Hundred and the peo-
Other Jews pie of the Athenians honor, by the

Honored, erection of this statue, Julia Berenice,
the great queen, daughter of King Ju-
lius Agrippa, and descendant of great kings who
were benefactors of the city. Erected under the su-
pervision of the governor of the city, Tiberius Clau-
dius Theogenes of Pseania” {l.c. No. 556). The de-
scription of Berenice as the “descendant of great
kings who were benefactors of the city ” corresponds
with the statements of Josephus and with other in-
scriptions.

g. E. Sen.

ATHENS, MODERN : The Jewish community
of Athens is hardly thirty years old. One of the
oldest families, if not the oldest, is that of Max Roths-
child, a Bavarian Jew, who went to Greece in 1833
with King Otho. The community had neither

synagogue nor rabbi, but a Turkish “hakarn” held
services in very unsuitable quarters. The majority
of the Athenian Jew's are of Levantine-Spanish ex-
traction, and reside close together; the}- are mostly
artisans or pedlers. Those in better circumstances
are mainly of German descent, though some of those
from Chalcis and Zante have means. In 1899 the
Jews of Athens, on the initiative of M. Haim Cohen
of Smyrna, appointed a committee to revise the com-
munal constitution, and, if possible, to find means to
erect a modest synagogue. He succeeded in hiring a
hall for prayers and obtained from the government a
concession of land for a separate cemetery. The Jews
had previously been buried in a corner of the ordi-
nary cemeteiy. Mention may be made in this con-
nection of the celebrated duchess of Plaisance. This
rather eccentric woman — who, though not of Jewish
origin, had a strong interest in Judaism— in 1855 left
as a legacy to the community a large tract of land
for the erection of a “temple to the God of Israel.”
Either because the land was far from the city — close
to the Olympia grounds — and of small value then,
or possibly because the community was not at that
time actually organized, the legacy was forgotten ;
and, remaining unclaimed for thirty years, it was for-
feited by law. [Paul Lucas, who wasat Athensearly
in the seventeenth century, found only 15 or 20 Jew-
ish homes (“Rev. Et. Juives,” xviii. 105). — g.]

d. M. C.

ATHIAS, ATIAS, or ATHIA : A Spanish fam-
ily distinguished by the great number of its scholars
and promoters of learning. The name is spelled in
Hebrew variously, rvoy. DN'Dy. DN'oy, E'N'By,
D”Dy, tyy’tON. my. rVTIN (from an Arabic word mean
ing “ present,” “ gift ”). As early as the sixteenth cen
tury some of its members lived in Italy and Pales-
tine; while another branch settled in the cities of
Hamburg, Amsterdam, and London. In addition to
those mentioned below, the following names are
found in the list of the members of the Portuguese
community at Amsterdam in 1675: Abraham Atlas,
Abraham Atias, “el viejo,” Hayyim Franco Arias,
Isaac de Semuel Atias, Isaac de David Atias. Jaha-
cob Atias, Jahacob Costa Atias (De Castro, “ De
Syn. der Portug. -Israel. Gem. te Amsterdam,” pp.
xlviii. et seq.\ Steinschneider, in “Jewish Quarterly
Review',” xi. 480).

Abraham Athias : Publicly burned, together
with Jacob Rodriguez and Rachel Nunez Fernandez,
on July 9, 1667, by the Inquisition at Cordova on
account of his religion (Kayserling, “Sephardim,”
p. 263; Gratz, “Gesch. der Juden,” x. 27(5).

Abraham ben Raphael Hezekiah (Hisquia)
Athias: A printer in Amsterdam, 1728-41 (Stein-
schneider, “ Jiid. Typographic” in Ersch and Gruber,
“Encyklopadie,” II. sec. J. 28, p. 67; idem, “Cat.
Bodl. ” No. 7830).

David Israel Athias : Hakarn of the Portuguese
community at Amsterdam from 1728 till his death
March 22, 1753.

David ben Moses Athias : Merchant, born at
Leghorn. He w'as master of several modern lan-
guages, among them Servian, Russian, and Turkish,
which lie learned during his short stay at Constanti-
nople. He wrote a book containing proverbs, fables,

Athias

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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

268

and sympathetic remedies, which was published in
Hebrew characters under the title “La Guerta de
Oro, o sea Tratamiento Gustoso, Saberoso y Prove-
ohoso,” Leghorn, 1778. The book also contains “Let-
tres-Patentes du Roi Confirmatives des Privileges,
dont les Juifs Portugais Jouissent en France Depuis
1550,” with a Ladino translation ; and the outlines of
a method of learning Italian and Greek in a short
time contains also “sympathetic” remedies, a trea-
tise on physiognomy, etc. (“Hebr. Bibl.” xvi. 114).

Immanuel Athias : Printer at Amsterdam till
1707; son and business successor of Joseph Athias.
The most elegant editions of Hebrew works, among
them Maimonides’ “Yad ha-Hazakah,” etc., were
issued by his office (Steinschneider, in Ersch and
Gruber, “ Encyklopadie, ” II. sec. J. 28, p. 66).

Isaac Athias : Hakam of the first Portuguese-
Jewish congregation in Hamburg, and after 1622
at Venice, where he died. He was a pupil of Isaac
Uzziel, and wrote in Spanish “Tesoro de Preceptos
Donde se Encierran las Joyas de los Seyscientos y
Treze Preceptos que Encomendb el Sefiora su Pueblo
Ysrael,” Venice, 1627; second edition, Amsterdam,
1649.

The first edition is dedicated to Elijah Aboab at
Hamburg, and contains also “ Dinim de Degollar por
un Estilo Facilissimo y Breve.” In 1621 he translated
“ Hizzuk ’Emunah,” a polemical work in defense of
Judaism by Isaac Troki, a Karaite, which translation
still exists in manuscript (see Gratz, “Gescli. der Ju-
den,” x. 20, 23).

Isaiah Athias : A prolific Italian writer on
halakic, exegetical, and homiletical topics. His
works, seven in number, were published at Leg-
horn-1793, 1821, 1823, 1825, and 1831.

Isaiah ben Hayyim Athias: Wrote notes to
the ritual codes and sermons of Caro, and published
them under the title “Bigde Yesha'” (Garments of
Salvation), Leghorn, 1853. On another Isaiah Athias,
see Jellinek, “Kontres ha-Maspid,” p. 28.

Jacob Athias : Rabbi at Bayonne, France, during
the first half of the nineteenth century. He died in
1842. See “Voice of Jacob,” i. 198.

Jacob Hezekiah Athias : Member of the Tal-
mudical academy “ ‘Ez Hayyim ” at Amsterdam from
the year 1737. He was a son of David Israel Athias.

g.‘ M. K — G.

Joseph b. Abraham Athias : Printer and pub-
lisher ; born in Spain, probably at Cordova, at the
beginning of the seventeenth century ; died at Am-
sterdam, May 12, 1700. When very young he was
sent by his father to Hamburg in order to receive a
Jewish education. Somewhat before 1658 he seems
to have gone to Amsterdam, where he established
himself as a printer and publisher; for
His in the following year there was issued

Printing- from his press “ Tikkun Sefer Torah ”
Press. (Order of the Book of the Law), with
an introductory poem by Solomon de
Oliveyra. During the next two years he was en-
gaged on his well-known edition of the Bible, the
proof-reading for which was entrusted to John Leus-
den, professor at Leyden. As Steinschneider says,
the admirable mechanical execution of the edition
entitles it to rank among the most beautiful speci-

mens of Hebrew presswovk; and it won for Athias
so great a reputation that he was thereupon taken,
into the Printers’ Gild (March 31, 1661).

Printer's Mark of Joseph Athias.

Other works published by Athias were: Penta-
teuch, with Megillotand Haftarot,1665; the Psalms,
with a Dutch translation (proof-reader J. Leusden),
1666-67 ; the second edition of his Bible, 1677, more
carefully prepared than the first, and with still more
beautiful type and decorations. For this edition the
States General of the Netherlands awarded him a
gold medal and chain worth 600 Dutch florins. On
the title-page is a cut of the medal. This edition
gave occasion for a small broadside by Athias, enti-
tled “ Coccus de Coloribus, contra Reprehensiones
Sam. Maresii de ed. Bibl. ” Amsterdam, 1669. Athias
published also “En Ya'akob” (1684—85), as well as
prayer-books and liturgies according to the Portu-
guese and German rituals.

Athias’ printing-establishment was one of the
best equipped in Amsterdam. His wealth enabled
him to lavish money on the cutting and casting of
type, and to demand artistic work of his designers
and die-sinkers. The edition of Maimonides’ Yad
ha-Hazakah, with “ Lehem Mislineh,” 5 vols., Am-
sterdam, 1702-3, begun by Athias and completed
after his death by his son Emanuel, is, as Steinschnei-
der says, one of the most elegant and most admired
products of the Hebrew press. At the end of the
work the fact is mentioned that on July 9, 1667,
Athias’ father was burned as a Marano at an auto
da fe at Cordova. The molds and letters used by
Athias came into the possession of the printing-house
of Proofs.

One ugly feature in Athias’ business career was
the circumstance connected with a Judseo-German
edition of the Bible. The printer Uri Phoebus,
grandson of Moses Uri Levi, the first Sephardic
rabbi at Amsterdam, employed a certain Jekutiel
Blitz to write a Judseo-German translation of the
Bible; and, before he began to print it, he obtained
from the Polish Council of the Four Lands the privi-
lege that for ten years all reprints were to be pro-
hibited and laid under ban (Nisan, 1671). The rab-
bis of the Portuguese and German congregations of
Amsterdam and elsewhere confirmed this privilege.
Phoebus, whose entire fortune was risked in the
undertaking, felt himself under the necessity of

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Athletes

taking two Christian partners, the alderman Wilhelm
Blau and the jurist Laurens Ball. Through their
influence he obtained from John III.

Judseo- Sobieski of Poland the further priv-

German ilege that this Judseo-Germau transla-

Bible. tion was to have copyright in Poland
for twenty years (Oct., 1677). The
work was not completed, when one of his composi-
tors, impelled by envy, robbed him of the fruits of his
labor. This compositor, Josel (Joseph) Witzenliau-
sen, himself made a translation for which he secured
Athias as printer and publisher. Athias through
his wealth possessed certain advantages over his
rival, and was also able to obtain privileges for his
translation from Holland and Zealand, and even suc-
ceeded, through a Jewish agent of the Polish crown
in Holland, Simon by name, in gaining still more
favorable protection from the Council of the Four
Lands (Jaroslaw, Sept. 21, 1677 ; Lublin, April 27,
1678). Although Witzenhausen was warned not to
•compete with Phoebus and Blitz (Oct. 13, 1676),
neither he nor Athias paid any attention to the in-
junction, and they began to print as early as Dec. 5,
1678. The edition of Phoebus appeared at Amster-
dam in 1678 ; that of Athias, in its complete form
in 1679. The latter contained a Latin preface dedi-
cated to the Great Elector, in which Athias praises
the condition of the Jews in Prussia.

A justification for Athias’ conduct was claimed
in the fact that ten years had elapsed between the
first and second approbations given by the Council
of the Four Lands. Whether Meyer Stern, first at
Frankfort-on-the Main, then chief rabbi of the Ger-
man community at Amsterdam, was proof-reader
for Athias’ edition as well as for that of Phoebus, and
whether he thus lent his countenance to the un justi-
fiable wrong done to the latter, is uncertain, despite
Witzenliausen’s mention of him as proof-reader for
Athias. The matter has been so fancifully dis-
cussed, and so much that has been written concern-
ing it is such pure invention, that nothing can now
be accurately determined. The literature on the
affair is now rare, having consisted mainly of loose
leaflets and broadsides.

Bibliography: Wolf, Bibliotheca Hehrcea , iii. 944: Stein-

schneider, Cat. Bodl, Nos. 5886, 7828; Kayserling, Bibl.

Espan.-Portug.-Jud. p. 14; Gratz, Oesch. der Juden , 3d

ed., x. 244, 299; T. Tal, in TT'o ord en Be eld , Sept., 1897, pp.

316 et seq.: Jaarboeken voor de IsraVliten , 1835, iv. 29;

Koenen, Geschiedeins dcr Juden in Nederland, p. 326.

G. J. Vr.

Menahem Athias : Rabbi at Leghorn, Italv, in
1728.

g. M. K.

Michael Athias : Jewish merchant ; born at
Constantinople, 1853. Though engaged in com-
merce, he applied himself to literary pursuits. He
is the author of a Jewish-Spanisli translation from
the Arabic of a novel entitled “Saif Dliu-1 Yazan,”
treating of the manners and customs of the Arabs
and Abyssinians (Constantinople, 1873).

Bibliography : Franco, Histoire des Israelites.

S. M. Fr.

Mordecai ben Isaac Athias : Author of “ Mor
Deror ” (Pure Myrrh), a commentary on the Talmud,
Smyrna, 1730. He was a contemporary of Mena-

hem Athias (see Steinselmeider, “Cat. Bodl.” No.
6215).

g. M. Iv — G.

Moses Israel Athias : Was the first rabbi of the
Marano congregation in London ; that is, of the se-
cret synagogue which existed in 1658 in Cree Church
Lane, where he and his wife Sarah resided. He was
a cousin of the wealthy and respected Antonio Fer-
nandez Carvajal, who mentioned him generously
in his will (“Transactions of the Jewish Historical
Society,” i. 55).

Samuel Athias : A contemporary of Joseph Caro
and Moses de Trani, with whom he corresponded ;
lived at Nicopolis, Bulgaria, about 1550. He wrote
indices to Maimonides’ Yad ha-Hazakali, Mantua,
1563 (see Steinschneider, “ Cat. Bodl.” No. 7008). He
was contemporary of Sliem-Tob Athias.

Solomon ben Shem-Tob Athias (Athia, n'ny) :
Lived in Jerusalem during the sixteenth century.
He was a brother of Samuel Athias, and disciple of
Joseph Fazi of Salonica, Abraham Shamsuli, and
Levi ibn Habib. For several years he followed a
mercantile career, but did not succeed and became
reduced to poverty.

He then returned to the pursuit of learning, and
wrote a commentary on the Psalms which is, in the
main, a compilation of Rashi and David Kimlii (Ven-
ice, 1549). In the preface he tells of his travels in
Turkey and Italy, as well as of the scholars with
whom he had come in contact. His contemporary
was Yom-Tob Athias.

Bibliography: Rossi, Dizionario Storico, transl. by Hatii-
berger, p. 50; Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl, No. 6900; Zedner,
Cat. He hr. Books in Brit. Mus. p. 126; Azulai, Shim
ha-Gedolim, i. 171, 176; Cod. Oxford 1208 on Rieger, Geseli.
der Juden in Bom, ii. 80, 97.
g. M. Iv — G.

Yom-Tob ben Levi Athias : One of the editors
of the Spanish translation, from the Hebrew, of the
Pentateuch, known as the Ferrara Bible, which
was printed at Ferrara, Italy, in 1553, lie having,
together with Abraham Usque, established there a
printing-office. On the colophon of the work, his
name is given in full as “Yom-Tob Atias, hijo de
Levi Atias, Espanol.” Nothing is known of him
beyond the fact that he helped defray the cost of this
Bible. Grfitz (“Geseli. der Juden,” ix. 562) and,
following him, Steinschneider and Kayserling iden-
tify Athias with Jeronimo de Vargas, another name
mentioned in some of the copies of the Ferrara Bible ;
but such an identification is entirely unwarranted.
g. W. M

ATHLETES, ATHLETICS, AND FIELD-
SPORTS : Men who perform feats of strength, or
practise games and sports the pursuit of which de
pends on physical strength ; the feats, games, and
sports themselves.

Biblical Data ; Long before the Greeks made

Athletics a compulsory branch of their curriculum,
“ giants ” and “ mighty hunters,” whose achievements
the Greeks even with their training could not excel,
are mentioned in the Bible, such as Nimrod, the son
of Cush, “a mighty hunter before the Lord” (Gen.
x. 9); and Esau, “a cunning hunter, a man of the
field” (Gen. xxv. 27). In his “Jewish Life in the
Middle Ages,” Israel Abrahams says (p. 375):

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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

270

“Already in the Bible the figures introduced as
devoted hunters— Nimrod and Esau — are by no
means presented in a favorable light. ”

Notable Of Esau it is safe to assume, from the
“Mighty” characterization of him recorded in
Men. Gen. xxv. 27, that he was regarded as
more crafty in the chase, though less re-
nowned, than Nimrod. Jacob, Esau’s brother, al-
though a quiet man dwelling in tents (Gen. ib.), is
represented as having possessed great strength ; for
when he saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, come to
water her flock, he rolled away a great stone that
was upon the well’s mouth (Gen. xxix. 10). It
was he who also wrestled with a man “until the
breaking of the day ” (Gen. xxxii. 25 [A. V. 24]).

Undoubtedly the greatest of all the mighty men
of Biblical times was Samson, who, soon after he
had reached man’s estate, rent a lion “as he would
have rent a kid ” in the vineyards of Timnath
(Judges xiv. 6). His might is attributed to spiri-
tual strength, not to “brute natural strength” (Faus-
set, “Bible Cyclopedia,” s.v.). This is shown in the
Book of Judges, which introduces his achievements
with the words “and the spirit of the Lord came
mightily upon him ” (xiv. 6) ; and the same words
are used in verse 19 (A. V.).

Other Biblical mighty men were Shamgar (Judges
iii. 31), Saul, Jonathan, David, Joab, Abishai, Asa-
hel, Jashobeam the Haclimonite, Eleazar, and Sliam-
nali. Saul is said to have gathered around him strong
and valiant men, and encouraged physical develop-
ment among his subjects.

The career of Jonathan embodies a noteworthy in-
cident of his entering the camp of the Philistines ac-
companied only by an armor-bearer. I lore on a “ half
acre of land which a yoke of oxen might plow,” he
and his companion fell on the enemy, “ and that first
slaughter, which Jonathan and his armorbearer
made, was about twenty men ” (I Sam. xiv. 14).
Jonathan is also described as an expert archer
(I Sam. xx. 20), where he says to David: “I will
shoot three arrows on the side thereof [of the stone
Ezel], as though I shot at a mark,” and again in the
lamentation of David (II Sam. i. 22): “From the
blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the
bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of
Saul returned not empty.” His skill was also
acknowledged in David’s words, “ How are the
mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!”
(ib. i. 27).

In his youth David showed himself “ mighty, val-
iant,” and withal “prudent” (I Sam. xvi. 18). Be-
fore he set out against the Philistine Goliath, David
said to Saul, in reply to the latter’s warning that he
(David) was but a youth, and his op-
Jonathan ponent a man of war: “Thy servant
and David, kept his father’s sheep, and there came
a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out
of the flock: And I went out after him, and smote
him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he
arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and
smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both
the lion and the bear” (I Sam. xvii. 34-36). Of his
fleetness and strength David himself sang praises to
God. “ He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet, and set-
teth me upon my high places. He teaclieth my hands

to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms ”
(Ps. xviii. 33, 34).

Biblical references to running point to the swiftness
of the Israelites. In II Sam. i. 23 David laments the
deaths of Saul and Jonathan, who were “ swifter than
eagles”; in Ps. xix. 6 [A. V. 5] the reference is “re-
joiceth as a strong man to run a race”; but the
Preacher declares “ that the race is not to the swift ”
(Eccl. ix. 11).

After the defeat by Joab of Abner’s army at Gib-
eon, as Abner retreated, he tried in vain to deter
Asahel, Joab’s brother, from pursuing him, as he
shrank from a blood-feud with Joab. Asahel, how-
ever, would not be deterred ; and Abner “ with the
hinder end of the spear smote him under the fifth
rib, that the spear came out behind him” (II Sam.
ii. 23).

Jehu was an expert archer who “drew a bow with
his full strength and smote Jelioram between his
arms, and the arrow went out at his heart ” (II
Kings ix. 24). The tribe of Benjamin was re-
nowned for the dexterity of its left-handed slingers,
of whom “ there were seven hundred chosen men,

. . . every one could sling stones at an hair breadth,
and not miss ” (Judges xx. 16), and for the efficiency
of its archers (I Chron. xii. 2).

Swimming was known among the ancient Hebrews
and practised by them (sometimes with the aid of
skins) according to the liand-over-liand method (see
Isa. xxv. 11). “And he shall spread forth his hands
in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spread-
eth forth his hands to swim,” which Fausset [Z.c.
under “ Swimming,” p. 667, col. 2] interprets “ the
swimmer beating down with his hands bringing

down each hand forcibly.”

Evidence that racing also was practised is found
in Jer. xii. 5: “If thou hast run with the footmen,
and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou
contend with horses?”

e. c. F. H. Y.

Post-Biblical, Medieval, and Modern

Times: The origin of Athletics is to be traced to the
Greeks, among whom bodily strength and agility
were so highly esteemed that in their society the
athlete held a prominent position.

With the spread of Hellenism among the Jews the
first to feel its effects were the upper classes, whose
more ambitious members strove to remodel Jewish
life according to Hellenistic principles.

The first attempt in this direction seems to have
been made by Menelaus, brother of Jason, the high
priest (170 b.c.), who, in order that he might ingra-
tiate himself with the king Antiochus Epiphanes,
established a gymnasium, modeled on

A Gym- the Greek plan, close to the Temple at
nasium at Jerusalem, where men and boys might
Jerusalem, practise wrestling, boxing, ball-play-
ing, throwing, slinging, archery, jump-
ing, riding, swimming, diving, etc., under the super-
vision of a gymnasiareh.

The opposition of the conservative element among
the Jews to the gymnasium became, however, so
strenuous that devout Jews began to look upon the
exercises with horror, especially because most of
them were practised “in puris naturalibus,” and the
Covenant of Abraham had become an object of deri-

271

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Athletes

sion. Nevertheless, for a time at least, the rage for
Athletics spread even to the priests, who, Hamburger
says (“R. B.T.” ii. 436, 1220), neglected spiritual du-
ties to take part in gymnastics. Indeed, so far did
the contestants go that it is said they wore the broad-
brimmed petasus of Hermes, the pagan god of gym-
nastic science, as an emblem of their prowess.

Much of the strength of the Hasmonean rebellion
has been attributed to the bitter opposition which
the introduction of the gymnasium in Jerusalem
brought about. “ Pugilism,” says Hamburger (l.c.),
“has perhaps never exercised a greater influence in
the development of spiritual life than it did at Jeru-
salem.”

The Hasmonean rising wiped out every vestige of
Hellenism, but scarcely a century passed before the
influence of the Romans was felt; instead, however,
of the gymnasium, the circus was introduced, and
with it the gladiatorial contests, which no doubt of-
fended the religious feelings of the Jews, for the Rab-
bis piohibited attendance at both circus and theater
(Targ. Yer. Deut. xxviii. 19; Pesik., ed. Buber, 1195;
Lam. R. 36c; ‘Ab. Zarali 185). Indeed, a rabbi of the
first century decreed that any one who attended a
circus was a murderer (Yer. ‘Ab. Zarah 40a).

Herod the Great was responsible for the reintro-
duction of Athletics to Jewish life ; “ for, in the first
place, he appointed solemn games to be celebrated
every fifth year in honor of Caesar, and built a
theater at Jerusalem, as also a very great amphi-
theater in the plain” (Josephus, “Ant.” xv. 8, § 1).
These were both costly works, erected by Herod for
the purpose of securing the good-will of Emperor
Augustus (7 b.c.) ; but even though Herod strove to
dazzle the Jews by the magnificence of the sports,
and though he appointed every fifth year for the
celebration of Olympic games, yet these were “ looked
on by the sober Jews as heathenish sports, and tend-
ing not only to corrupt the manners of
Herod the Jewish nation, and to bring them
Reintro- in love with paganish idolatry and
duces paganish conduct of life, but to the

Olympic dissolution of the law of Moses, and

Games. accordingly were greatly and justly
condemned by them” (Josephus, ib.,
note). But this was not the universal opinion.
Some rabbis, who considered Athletics as a part of
“Greek wisdom,” learned to appreciate the value
of gymnastic exercises for the physical development
of Jewish youth; and among them was Gamaliel II.,
the patriarch, who favored the introduction of the
gymnasium as a means of preparing the Jews for
their intercourse with the Roman rulers (Sotali 49 5;
B. K. 83a). Notwithstanding the fact that some
looked on Athletics with favor, and that amphithea-
ters had been built at Jericho, Tiberias, and Tari-
cliese, shortly after the Roman wars the sports be-
came repugnant to the Jews, and ultimately they
were no longer followed. Resli Lakish was noted
however for his gladiatorial skill and strength ; and
instances of Jews hiring themselves to the masters
of the games for exhibition were not rare (see Jas-
trow, “Diet.” s. v. D't6).

The lifting of heavy weights was practised at
an early date by the Jews, as is attested by Jerome
(cited by Israel Abrahams, “Jewish Life in the Mid-

dle Ages,” p. 375), who relates that when visiting
Judean towns in the fourth century he saw “large,
heavy stones which Jewish boys and youths handled
and held aloft in the air to train their muscular
strength. ”

That archery was practised is seen from the record
of Herod’s achievements cited by Josephus (“B. J.”
i. 21, § 13) : “ They saw him throw the javelin directly
forward, and shoot the arrow upon the mark. ” Abra-
hams (l.c.) says: “ The Palestinian Jews were wont to
practise archery, probably as a form of recreation
and he cites in a note W. Bather’s article. “Une
VieiileControverseau Sujet de N1L2E (Lam. iii. 12),”
in “Revue Etudes Juives,” xxvi. 63-68. Here
Baclier challenges the interpretation of tODO. which
he claims should be translated as “arrow ” and not
as “javelin,” which view is maintained in the Au-
thorized Version (“and set me as a mark for the
arrow ”), and does not admit the correctness of
Levy’s (“Neuhebr. Worterb.” i. 1305) interpretation,
“ I was set there as a buckler to be pierced by the
javelin. v

Juggling also was known among the Jews and
practised by the Rabbis; for of Simon ben Gamaliel,
who perished at the destruction of the Temple by
Titus in 70, it is said that on the occasion of one of
the Tabernacle feasts he astonished those present by
juggling with eight burning torches. Rabbi Judah I.
witnessed a similar feat with eight knives, which was.
performed by Levi b. Sisai. Samuel, the physician-
astronomer, exhibited his dexterity in this direc-
tion before Sapor with eight goblets; and Abaye
was able to juggle with four eggs (Tosef.,Suk. iv. 2;
Yer. Suk. v. 55c.; Tosef., Suk. iv. 4; Bab. Suk.
53 a).

That the Jews were strong swimmers is proved by
Josephus, who relates that in his twenty-sixth year
he “came to Rome, though it were through a great
number of hazards by sea; for, as our ship was-
drowned in the Adriatic sea, we that were in it, be-
ing about six hundred in number, swam for our lives
all the night,” and “I and some others, eighty in
all,” were taken aboard a ship of Cyrene (Josephus,
“Vita,” § 3). According to some tannaim, it is the
duty of every father to teach his son to swim (Kid.
29 «); the amora Simeon ben Lakish was a noted
swimmer (B. M. 84a).

Although permitted to bear arms and to hold im-
portant military offices during the fourth century,
the Jews were prohibited from doing so, and, in
fact, were excluded from all military service in 418.
Under the Assize of Arms issued in England by
Henry II. in 1181, by which every freeman was com-
pelled to serve in defense of the realm, Jews were
prohibited from keeping with them mail or hauberk,
and were ordered either to sell them or to give them
away (Stubbs, “Select Charters,” pp. 155-157; see
also Jacobs, “Jews of Angevin England,” p.75).

With the notable exceptions of the cities of Worms
and Prague, where the Jews were efficient in the
bearing of arms, these restrictions seem to have been
put upon them wherever they dwelt; so that possi-
bly such restrictions were chiefly responsible for the
neglect of hunting, in which weapons were needed.
Abrahams quotes Mei'r of Rothenburg as opposed to
hunting. Mei'r declared that “he who hunts game

Athletes

Atlas

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

272

with dogs . . . shall not partake of the joy of the
Leviathan” (Mei'r of Rothenburg, Resp., ed. Mekize
Nirdamim, p. 7, §27). ‘Ab. Zarali (186) forbids hunt-
ing; nevertheless, there were Jews who disregarded
the prohibition and were reproved for it (Or Zarua‘,
Alfab. No. 47). Of their actions in this regard
Abrahams (ib. p. 376) says: “Jews did at least occa-
sionally participate in hunting. Nor are indications
wanting that this was the case . . . throughout the
Middle Ages. Zunz cites an instance” (“Z. G.” p.
173). Abrahams, citing Nowaclc (“Lelirbuch der
Hebraischen Arcliaologie,” i. 367) as authority, says
the ancient Jews were never noted riders: but. quo-
ting Berliner (“Aus dem Iuneru Leben.” p. 17), he
adds that in Provence “the Jews possessed trained
falcons, and used them in hawking, themselves ri-
ding on horseback.”

Joseph Jacobs (“Jewish Ideals,” p. 226) cites from
the Forest Roll of the county of Essex for 1277, a
document in which reference is made to an impro-
vised hunt near the city of Colchester in 1267, in
which several Jews took part, but afterward suffered
for having thereby been guilty of a breach of the
forest laws. Abrahams {op. cit.), in a note on this
event, refers the reader for other records of Jewish
hunters to “Hatam Sofer,” resp. xiv., §§ 52, 53; J.
Reischer, “Sliebut Ya'akob,” ii. 63.

Among other exercises popular with the Jews
were ball-playing, the tourney, and dueling. The
first was chiefly practised by the young women, and
in some measure resembled tennis; but it brought
upon them the displeasure of certain rabbis, who
condemned its indulgence, especially on the Sab-
bath, as one of the causes of the destruction of the
Temple (see Lam. R. ii. 4), and probably because it
distracted attention from the more serious duties of
life (Yer. Ta'anit, iv. 5).

The tournament was not altogether unknown to
the Jews, especially to those of Spain and Italy. In
those countries it was the custom of the Jewish boys
to attend mimic tourneys, at which they fought on
foot, while the men, mounted on horses, rode to the
tilt-yard and there displayed their skill in tilting
with blunted wooden lances at suspended effigies.
Sometimes at these sports the cavaliers were escorted
by mounted buglers, and their approach was heralded
by a fanfare of trumpets. It has been suggested
that in the fourteenth century the Jews also took
part in actual tourneys, the suggestion being based
on a fracas that occurred at Weissenfels in 1386;
but according to Berliner (“Aus dem Innern Leben,”
p. 16) and Zunz (“Z. G.” p. 184) the incident was a
genuine case of attack by marauders against the
Jews, who merely defended themselves (Abrahams,
l.c. xxi. 378).

That Athletics were not always unpopular with
the Rabbis is shown by the various references found
in rabbinical literature. In Gen. R. (lxxvii. 2) there
is a comparison of “an athlete engaged in battle with
the son of a king,” and in Ex. R. (xxi. 10) is another:
“as two athletes, one weak and one strong : one over-
comes the other and places a wreath on his head.”

The persecutions to which the Jews were subjected
in almost every country during the Middle Ages re-
stricted their movements and their liberty to such a
degree that most of their time was given up to the

transaction of such business as the laws of the coun-
tries in which they dwelt allowed, and to the pro-
tection of their lives. Under such conditions ath-
letic exercises and sports did not flourish among
them ; but toward the close of the eighteenth cen-
tury in tolerant England a small band of Jewish
pugilists stepped into the ring, and once more the
Jew took an active part in the athletic life and exer-
cises of the country in which he dwelt. The most
notable of the English fighters of this period were
Jews, and among them were Daniel Mendoza, cham-
pion of England from 1792 to 1795; Solomon Sodic-
key, Isaac Bittoon, and Samuel Elias, better known
as “Dutch Sam.” For nearly thirty years these
men and their descendants (Samuel Evans, “Young
Dutch Sam,” Abraham and Israel Belasco, and
others), steadily maintained the position of their race
in the prize-ring; and they were succeeded in the
nineteenth century by others equally skilful.

But it is not in the prize-ring alone that Jews have
become prominent. Muscular Judaism has asserted
itself also in field and athletic sports. Athletic clubs
and “Turnvereine ” have been formed in most of the
large cities where there are many Jews. A special
journal devoted to Jewish Athletics is published in
Berlin, and nearly all Jewish papers devote space to
the reporting of events in the fields of gymnastics,
sports, and games. The spirit of physical develop-
ment has so permeated the Jew of modem times
that there is now no branch of Athletics in which he
does not take a part. On the roll of fame may be
noted the names of Jewish men who have defeated
all comers in open competition when they met the
Athletes of the nations of the world, as at the recent
revival of the Olympic Games in Greece and at the
Paris Exposition of 1900.

A Jewish athletic association has been formed
recently in London, England, which embraces all
sports. The membership rolls of the principal yacht-
clubs bear many Jewish names. In the boating-clubs
are to be found many expert Jewish oarsmen. The
Jew is an enthusiastic cyclist, and has shown his
dexterity at tennis, baseball, and cricket. There are
few cricket-clubs in England that have not one or
two Jewish members. In the United States one of
the prominent baseball teams has a Jewish president,
while a number of Jews play the game throughout
the country. On the football field the Jew has
shown his strength and nimbleness, and on the run-
ning-track his fleetness. Recently a Jewish student
at Cambridge University, Raphael, was selected to
play football for England in the International games
and cricket in the inter-university sports. As a
jumper few competitors can excel the Jew; in fact,
the world championship at the running jump was
held by Meyer Prinstein, a Jew. The holder of the
world’s amateur record for heavy-weight lifting is
E. Lawrence Levy. There have been, and probably
there are still, Jewish jockeys. David Adler, who
died in 1900 at Buluwayo, South Africa, proved con-
clusively that the Jewish jockey is a capable horse-
man.

As a swimmer the Jew’s power andeudurauce are
probably not so marked as his quickness in covering
short distances ; nevertheless, there are many strong
swimmers among the Jews, and there is little

273

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Atlas

doubt that in this number are to be found men who
would hold their own in competition with non-
Jews.

Bibliography: A. Henriques Valentine, Athlete s of the
Bible ; Israel Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Age*,
1896, pp. 375, 376 ; Hamburger, R. B. T. ; Nowack, Lelirbuch
der Hebrdischen Archltologie ; Berliner, Aus dent Inner n
Lehen ; Zunz, Zur Geschichte ; R. K. Fox, Sporting An-
nual; Young Israel , London, 1897 ; Jewish Chronicle, Lon-
don, 1900: Jewish World, London, 1901; JUdische Turn-
zeitung. Nos. 1-3, Berlin, 1901.
a. F. II. Y.

ATHRIBIS : A city, during the Ptolemaic pe-
riod, in Lower Egypt on the Damietta arm of the
Nile near the present Benha (Benha al-Asi), south-
west of Zagazeeg. On the hill near Benha there are
vestiges of the old city of Athribis. A Jewish col-
ony must have dwelt here, as is proven by two Greek
inscriptions which were discovered on the hill in
1876. The first reads, “ In honor of King Ptolemy
and of Queen Cleopatra, Ptolemy, son of Epicydus,
chief of the guards, together with the Jews resident
in Athribis [consecrate] this place of prayer to God
the Most High.” The second inscription reads, “In
honor of King Ptolemy and of Queen Cleopatra and
of their children, Hermias and his wife Philoteraand
their children [consecrate] this exedra and this place
of prayer.” It seems probable that all the persons
mentioned here were Jews. The expression “God
the Most High ” is the equivalent of the Hebrew “ El
‘Elyou ” (compare Eusebius, “Prsep. Evan.” i. 10, ’Elb-
ow 6 vel'ioroc). The word used for “ a place of prayer ”
(irpoaevxv) occurs in this same sense in other Jewish
inscriptions, in the New Testament, Josephus, Philo,
etc. The exedra mentioned in the second inscription
was probably a hall or an arcade used for religious
or philosophical discussions (=~0»n, LXX. to Ezek.
xlii. 4; “the hall of the sclioolhouse, ” B. B.

11* ; see Jastrow, ’’Diet.” s.v. NVTDDN). It is impos-
sible to tell the exact date of these inscriptions, as
Ptolemy V., VI., and VIII. had each a wife whose
name was Cleopatra. S. Reinach thinks it probable
that Ptolemy Y. is intended, who died in 181 b.c.

Bibliography : Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique,
1889, xiii. 178 et seq.; S. Reinach, Rev. Et. Juives, xvii. 235
et seq.

K. G.

ATHRONGES : Leader of the Jews during the
insurrection under Archelaus (4 b.c. -6 c.e.). A shep-
herd and bold adventurer, without an}- other claim
to power but that of gigantic strength and stature,
he managed, in common with his four brothers of
equal size and vigor, to rally large bodies of men
around him, and, after assuming the royal title, to
wage war both on the Romans and on the forces of
Archelaus. After a protracted and brave struggle,
he and his brothers were defeated. Rapoport has
explained the name “ Athronges ” by the Hebraized
Persian word Jnnx, NJinnX. “orange,” or “melon ”
(see Fleischer in Levy, “Neuhebr. Worterb.” i. 77),
and identified it with Ben Batiah, “Son of the Cu-
cumber” (that is, like a cucumber), the popular hero,
the size of whose fist [SjnJN] has become proverbial
in ancient rabbinical literature (Kelim xvii. 12 ;
Tosef., Kelim, B. M.vii. 2); the form of his hand hav-
ing, as Rapoport thinks, given rise to both terms.
At a later time, legend identified him with the leader
II.— 18

of the insurrection, Abba Sakkara, the nephew of
Johanan ben Zakkai.

Bibliography: Josephus, ^4nt. xvii. 10, § 7; B.J.ii.i, §3;

Schurer, Gesch i. 348; Rapoport, ‘Ere/ c MiUin, s.v.

G. K.

ATLANTA : Since 1868 capital of the State of
Georgia in the United States. The city' was cap-
tured and burned by the United States troops in
1864, and all of the civic and congregational records
were destroyed.

From the best tradition obtainable, it appears that
the first Jewish resident of Atlanta was Jacob Haas,
who, with his family, settled there about 1846, to
be followed soon after by Moses Sternberg. The
daughter of Jacob Haas was the first Jewish child
born in the place. She manned her cousin, also
named Jacob Haas.

The Hebrew Benevolent Congregation was formed
during the war, and held services on holidays in the
Masonic Temple, located on Decatur street. It is
now the leading Jewish congregation in the place.
Other religious organizations are the Ahawat Achim
and Gemilath Chesed. In 1867 a social organization,
the Concordia, was founded, in 1870 the Hebrew
Ladies’ Benevolent Association, and later the Hebrew
Relief Association.

In 1889 there was established here, by District
Grand Lodge No. 5 of the Independent Order of
B‘nai B'rith, the Hebrew Orphans' Home, of which
the Hon. Simon Wolf of Washington is president.
In 1900 it cared for sixty-eight inmates.

The rabbis of the community have been the Revs.
Borclieim, Henry Gersoni, E. B. M. Brown, J. S.
Jacobson, Leo Reich, and David Marx.

Atlanta has furnished two Jewish members to the
Georgia legislature ; namely. Col. Samuel Weil and
Adolph Brandt. David Mayer, one of the earlier
settlers, was instrumental in the organization of the
public-school system of Atlanta, and was commonly
known as “the father of the public schools.”

In a total population of 100,000 there is an esti-
mated Jewish population of 1,500 to 2,000. Jews
are engaged on a large scale in the manufacture of
paper boxes and other goods made from paper, also
furniture, machinery, and cotton goods. A cotton
mill owned by a Jewish family has the unique dis-
tinction of making bags from cloth woven in the
same building, in which the cotton was also spun.
Jews are also engaged in the manufacture of harness,
candy, crackers, paints, mattresses, spring beds, iron
bedsteads, clothing, stationery, and leather.

ATLAS, ELAZAR (LAZAR) : Literary critic;
son of David Atlas; born March 5, 1851, in Beise-
gola, in the government of Kowno, Russia. His
early years were spent at Novo Zhagory in the study
of the Talmud. In 1884 he arrived at Warsaw and
became one of the chief contributors to the year-book
“ Ha- Asif, ” which N. Sokolow then published. In
1888 he edited the year-book “Ha-Kerem,” of which
only one number appeared. Next, he collected a
number of literary essays, which he had published
from time to time in “Ha-Zefirah,” and issued them
under the title TinN^ HOI HD (“What Is Pro-

gressive and What Retrogressive,” Warsaw, 1898).

Atlas

Atonement

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

274

In 1900 lie again contributed to Sokolow’s “ Sefer ha-
Shanah.”

Atlas’ occupation is that of a bookkeeper. In 1895
he settled at Byelostok.in the government of Grodno,
Russia. When practically unknown in the liter-
ary world, he was entrusted with the criticism of
such important works as Herzberg’s “ Handel sge-
scliichte der Juden des Alterthums” and the third
volume of I. H. Weiss’ VKHH1 in in (History of
Jewish Tradition), besides six other works of minor
importance (“Ha-Asif,” i. 24-37, 229-250). This
work brought him into prominence.

The review of Herzberg’s book is practically a
sketch of the progress of trade among the ancient
Hebrews, following in the main the outline of Herz-
berg, but showing, nevertheless, independent reason-
ing and fearless criticism, and proving that the critic
was as much at home in the subject as the author.
His criticism of Weiss showed that he was in his
element when dealing with Talmudic literature.

Atlas’ critical studies in the second year of the
“Ha-Asif” range over works widely divergent in
character. The “ Bet Talmud ” of Weiss, a Hebrew
periodical devoted to rabbinic lore ; the “ Ha-Shaliar ”
of Smolenskin, a periodical of a general character;
two Russian monthlies (“ Voskhod ” and “Evreiski
Obozrenie”), and Griltz’s “ Monatsschrift, ” all pass
his review. The wide learning, the critical acumen,
the lucid style, and the sound reasoning displayed in
these studies at once place him among the foremost
living critics in Hebrew literature.

He next ventured on editorial ground, and his
“ Ha-Kerem ” showed that he had a following, for
we lind among his coworkers such men as Epstein,
Mandelkern, and Reifmann. Of his own contribu-
tions to that volume we may say that they all attest
to his originality and erudition. Whether recon-
structing the order of Isaac ben Shesheth’s Re-
sponsas (“Ha-Kerem,” pp. 6-9), or treating of the
Masoretic work (*’6. PP- 27-32), he shows

that he has the whole rabbinic literature at his com-
mand. His review of S. J. Fuenn’s DD7D, the

first comprehensive biographical dictionary in Heb-
rew, is worth the study of all editors of similar works
(ib. pp. 258, 259). His criticism of Radner’s transla-
tion of Cassel’s “ History of the Jews ” proves how se-
vere one may be in criticism without being offensive.
He hoped to continue the publication of the “Ha-
Kerem” (ib. p. 24), but his hopes were not fulfilled.

In the writings thus far discussed, as well as in his
criticism of Ha-Levy’s D'WfcOn nil'll (iUBTI nSD.
pp. 102-124), Warsaw, 1900, Atlas appears only as
the student of history. It is in his article on the
yeshibah of Wolozyn (“Ha-Kerem,” pp. 77-82), and
especially in his collected essays, that he shows him-
self the man of the world. His views on current
questions are stamped with the same originality as his
discussions in history. The study of Jewish history
is to him not an end in itself, but a means of getting
at the proper system of education (“Essays,” pp.
62-64). Hence lie advocates the establishment of a
premium by some representative Jewish body for the
encouragement of historic work done with this end
in view (“Essays,” p. 74). Zionism is an economic
question with him (“Ha-Asif,” i. 245). Religious
reform should not be the product of a few scholars,

who would fashion the law after their own heart.
The true reformers are the people themselves. When
a certain law has been hopelessly infringed by the
people, it is time then for the rabbi to find a legal
fiction as an excuse for the infringement. Such was
the origin of many reforms, which are now accepted
by Orthodox Judaism, e.g., lending money on inter-
est and the like ("Essays,” pp. 22-26).

Bibliography; Sokolow, Sefer Zikkaron, p. 6; Lippe, Bihii-
oaraphteches Lexicon , 2d series, pp. 15, 16; Goldin, Ha-
Zeman pp. 182, 183, Warsaw, 1896.

L. G. I. D.

ATOMISM (from Greek arogog = indivisible):
The theory concerning atoms. Two opinions of the
nature of matter were professed in the Greek philo-
sophical schools. The Eleatic school asserted that
matter is infinitely divisible. Democritus, Leucip-
pus, and Epicurus maintained, on the contrary, that
in the repeated division and subdivision of anything
a point is reached when, by no conceivable means,
can it be divided in two ; the molecule being a real
unity, not compounded of separable parts; in other
words, it is an atom. On this idea of indivisibility
of matter, Democritus founded his cosmological sys-
tem. In his opinion, nothing exists but atoms of
different shapes and forms, and a vacuum in which
the atoms move. The atom possesses, besides the
property of solidity, that of movement. The vac-
uum is nothing by itself; it is only the absence of
any impediment to the movement of the atoms. Gen-
esis and destruction proceed from the aggregation
and disaggregation of atoms that existed from all
eternity (compare Lucretius, “De Rerum Natura,”
i. 601 et seq.).

This theory — which in ascribing the existence of
the whole universe to a fortuitous combination of
atoms was intended to exclude all intelligent princi-
ple from the world-formation — was later adopted,
with many amendments, by the Mote-
Th.e Mote- kallamin as the basis of their dogma
kallamin. of creation ex ni/tilo. The universe,
they asserted, is composed of atoms

(-O-4-^ or ), which, on account of

tlieir smallness, are indivisible. An atom has no
magnitude ; but when several atoms combine the sum
has a magnitude, and thus forms a body. Atoms were
created, and are not — as was supposed by the Greek
atomists — always numerically the same in the order
of things; but are created anew whenever it so
pleases the Creator; their annihilation being impos-
sible. According to Maimonides, the Motekallamin
extended the theory of atoms even to space and
time. Having seen that Aristotle had proved that
space, time, and motion could be divided into parts
standing in such relations to one another that if one
be divisible the others must be correspondingly di-
visible, they maintained that space could not be con-
tinuous, but that it was composed of indivisible ele-
ments; and that time likewise was reducible to
corresponding indivisible time-elements.

Although the Kalam exercised a great influence
on the earlier Jewish philosophy, At-
Saadia. omism found nothing but adversaries
among the Jewish philosophers. Saa-
dia rejects the theory of atoms on the ground that
it is impossible to imagine that atoms, having no

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Atlas

Atonement

magnitude, could become dimensional bodies (“Al
Imanftb weal-I’tikadat,” ed. Landauer, p. 43; He-
brew text, ed. Slutzki, p. 23).

Maimonides devoted a whole chapter in liis “Guide
of the Perplexed” to combating the theory of atoms
as that theory had been elaborated by the Motekal-
lamiu. If every motion, he says, is to be resolved
into a series of successive motions of
Maimon- single atoms of substance, through one
ides. atom of space, and these atoms are
supposed to be equal, the velocity of
all moving bodies must be the same, which is absurd.
In the revolution of a millstone, for example, each
point in the extreme circumference of the stone de-
scribes a large circle in the very same time in which a
point nearer the center describes a smaller circle; the
velocity of the outer circle is therefore greater than
that of the inner circle (“Moreh, ” I. lxiii.).

Among the Karaite philosophers Atomism found
no moreadherents thanamongthe Rabbinites. Aaron
ben Elijah of Nicomedia fully explains the views of
the atomists ("ipnon 'EJOtO; and, except Levi ben
Jefet, who may possibly have been an atomist, all
other Karaite philosophers quoted by Aaron ben Eli-
jah were against Atomism (“Ez Hayyim,” ed. De-
litzsch, iv.).

Bibliography: Lafaist (Lafaye), Philosophic AtomistUpie,
pp. 20 ct seq., Paris, 1840; Munk, Melanges dc Philosophic
Juil'e et Aratte, p. 322 ; Moreh , I., cb. lxxiil.

K. I. Bit.

ATONEMENT : The setting at one, or reconcili-
ation, of two estranged parties — translation used in
the Authorized Version for “kapparah,” “kippu-
rim.” The root “iD3 (“ kipper to make atonement,
is explained by W. Robertson Smith (“ Old Testament
in the Jewish Church,” i. 439), after the Syriac, as
meaning “ to wipe out. ” This is also the view taken
by Zimmern (“ Beitriige zur Kenntniss der Babylo-
nischen Religion,” 1899, p. 92), who claims Babylo-
nian origin for both the term and the rite. Well-
liausen (“Composition des Hextateuchs,” p. 335)
translates “kapparah” as if derived from “lcapper”
(to cover). The verb, however, seems to be a deriv-
ative from the noun “ kofer ” (ransom) and to have
meant originally “to atone.”

Just as by old Teutonic custom the owner of a
man or beast that had been killed was to be pacified
by the covering up of the corpse with grain or gold
(“Wergeld”) by the offender (Grimm, “Deutsche
Rechts-Alterthumer,” p. 740), so Abimelech gives
to Abraham a thousand pieces of silver
Original as a “covering of the eyes,” in order
Meaning, that his wrongdoing may be over-
looked (Gen. xx. 16, R. V. ; A. V., in-
correctly “ he ” for “ it ”). “ Of whose hand have I

received any [kofer] bribe [A. V. , “ taken a ransom ”]
to blind my eyes therewith?” says Samuel (I Sam.
xii. 3).

“ Kofer ” was the legal term for the propitiatory
gift or ransom in case a man was killed by a goring
ox : “ If there be laid on him a [kofer] ransom [A.
V., inaccurately, “a sum of money”] (Ex. xxi. 30);
but this “kofer nefesh ” (ransom for the life) was
not accepted in the case of murder (Num. xxxv. 31,
32). The dishonored husband “ will not regard any
ransom” (“ kofer ” ; Prov. vi. 35). No man can give a
kofer for his brother to ransom him from impending

death (Ps. xlix. 8, Hebr. ; A. V. 7). At the taking
of the census “they shall give every man a ran-
som for his soul unto the Lord . . . half a shekel ”
(Ex. xxx. 12, Hebr.). Similarly, Jacob, in order to
make his peace with his brother Esau, says, “I will
appease [“ akapperah ”] his [angry] face with the
present ” (Gen.xxxii. 21, Hebr. [A. V. 20]) ; that is, " I
will offer a kofer. ” When the blood of the murdered
Gibeonites cries to heaven for vengeance, David says :
“Wherewith shall I make atonement [“bammah
akapper ”] ? ” that is, “ With what kind of kofer shall
I make atonement?” (II Sam. xxi. 3). “The wrath
of a king is as messengers of death : but a wise man
will [by some propitiatory offering or kofer] pacify
it” (Prov. xvi. 14). Every sacrifice may be consid-
ered thus as a kofer, in the original sense a propitia-
tory gift; and its purpose is to “make atonement
[“le kapper”] for the people” (Lev. ix. 7, x. 17).

In the priestly laws, the priest who offers the
sacrifice as kofer is, as a rule, the one who makes
the Atonement (Lev. i.-v., xvi., etc.); only occasion-
ally is it the blood of the sacrifice (Lev. xvii. 11), or
the money offering (“ kesef kippurim,”
Connection Ex. xxx. 15, 16; Num. xxxi. 50), that
with makes Atonement for the soul; while
Sacrifice, the act of Atonement is intended to
cleanse the person from his guilt (“ me-
hatato,” Lev. iv. 26, v. 6-10).

In the prophetic language, however, the original
idea of the kofer offering had become lost, and, in-
stead of the offended person (God), the offense or
guilt became the object of the Atonement (compare
Isa.vi. 7, Hebr. : “ Thy sin [“ tekuppar ”] is atoned for
[A. V., “purged ”] ”; Isa. xxvii. 9, Hebr. : “By this,
therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be atoned for
[A. V. , “ purged ”] ” ; I Sam. iii. 14 : “ The iniquity of
Eli’s house shall not be atoned for [A. V.,“ purged ”]
with sacrifice nor offering for ever ” ; Prov. xvi. 6:
“By mercy and truth iniquity is atoned for [A. V.,
“purged”]”); and, consequently, instead of the
priest as the offerer of the ransom, God Himself be-
came the one who atoned (Deut. xxi. 8, “ Kapper
le'amka Israel,” “Atone thou for thy people Israel ”
[Driver, Commentary, “Clear thou thy people”;
A. V., “Be merciful, O Lord”]; compare Deut.
xxxii. 43, “And he will atone for the land of his
people” [Driver, Commentary, “Clear from guilt”;
A. V., “will be merciful unto his land, and to his
people”]; see also Jer. xviii. 23; Ezek. xvi. 63; Ps.
lxv. 4, lxxviii. 38, Ixxix. 9; II Chron. xxx. 18).

Thus there is in Scripture a successive spirituali-
zation of the idea of Atonement. Following the
common view, David says (I Sam.
Atonement xxvi. 19): “If the Lord have stirred
Idea thee up against me, let him accept
Spiritual- an offering [to appease the anger of
ized. God].” But while this cruder view of
sacrifice underlies the form of worship
among all Semites (see Robertson Smith, “Religion
of the Semites,” pp. 378-388), the idea of Atonement
in the priestly Torah is based upon a realizing sense
of sin as a breaking-away from God, and of the need
of reconciliation with Him of the soul that has sinned.
Every sin — whether it be “het,” a straying away
from the path of right, or “‘avon,” crookedness of
conduct, or “ peslia',”— rebellious transgression — is a

Atonement

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

270

severance of the bond of life which unites the soul
with its Maker. “The soul that sinneth, it shall
die,” says Ezek. xviii. 20 (compare Deut. xxx. 15-19;
Ps. i. 6; Jer. ii. 18). It is the feeling of estrange-
ment from God that prompts the sinner to offer ex-
piatory sacrifices — not only to appease God’s auger
by a propitiatory gift, but also to place his soul in a
different relation to Him. For this reason the blood,
which to the ancients was the life-power or soul,
forms the essential part of the sacrificial Atonement
(see Lev. xvii. 11). This is the interpretation given
by all the Jewish commentators, ancient and mod-
ern, on the passage; compare also Yoma5«; Zeb.
6a, D“I3 mS3 j’K=“ There is no Atonement ex-
cept with blood,” with the identical words in Heb.
ix. 22, R. Y. : “Apart from shedding of blood there
is no remission [of sins].” The life of the victim
was offered, not, as has been said, as a penalty in a
juridical sense to avert Heaven’s punishment, not to
have man’s sins laid upon it as upon the scapegoat
of the Day of Atonement, and thus to have the ani-
mal die in his place, as Ewald thinks (“ Alterthu-
mer,” p. 68), but as a typical ransom of “life by
life”; the blood sprinkled by the priest upon the
altar serving as the means of a renewal of man’s
covenant of life with God (see Trumbull, “ The Blood
Covenant,” p. 247). In Mosaic ritualism the ato-
ning blood thus actually meant the bringing about of
a reunion with God, the restoration of peace between
the soul and its Maker. Therefore, the expiatory
sacrifice was accompanied by a confession of the
sins for which it was designed to make Atonement
(see Lev. v. 5, xvi. 21 ; Num. v. 7 ; compare Mai-
monides, “Yad,” Teshubah, i. 1); “no atonement
without confession of sin as the act of repentance,”
or as Philo (“De Victimis,” xi.) says, “not without
the sincerity of his repentance, not by words merely,
but by works, the conviction of his soul which healed
him from disease and restores him to good health.”

The sacrificial Atonement, based as it was on the
symbolic offering of life for life, assumed a more
awful or somber character when a
Atonement whole community was concerned in
for the blood-guiltiness to be atoned for.
the Whole While, in the time of David, people in

People. their terror had recourse to the pagan
rite of human sacrifice (II Sam. xxi.
1-9), the Deuteronomic law prescribed in such a case
a mild and yet rather uncommon form of expiation
of the murder; namely, the breaking of the neck of
a heifer as a substitute for the unknown murderer
(Deut. xxi. 1-9). To the same class belongs the goat
in the annual Atonement ritual (Lev. xvi. 7-22),
which was to carry away all the sins of the children
of Israel into an uninhabited land and was sent out
to Azazel in the wilderness, while another goat was
killed as usual, and its blood sprinkled to make
Atonement for the sanctuary, cleansing it of the un-
cleanness of all the transgressions of the children of
Israel. In the case of the one goat, the doom ema-
nating from unknown and therefore unexpiated sins
of the people was to be averted: in the other case
the wrath of God at the defilement of His sanctuary
— which often implied the penalty of death (Num.
i. 53) — was to be pacified. The very idea of God’s
holiness, which made either the approach to Mt.

Sinai, the seat of God (Ex. xix.12), the Ark (II Sam.
vi. 7), or even the mere sight of God (Isa. vi. 5;
Judges xiii. 22). bring death, rendered the ritual of
the Day of Atouemeut the necessary culmination of
the whole priestly system of expiation of sin.

Yet, while the sacrificial rites were the only means
of impressing upon the people God’s holiness and
the dreadful consequence of man's
Repent- sinfulness, the idea of the Atonement
ance and assumed a far deeper and more spiri-
Atone- tual aspect in the lives and teachings of
ment. the Prophets. Neither Hosea, Amos,
and Micali, nor Isaiah recognizes the
need of any means of reconciliation with God after
estrangement by sin, other than repentance. “ Take
with you words, and turn to the Lord : say unto him,
Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously:
so will we render as bullocks the offerings of our
lips” (Hosea xiv. 2, Hebr. ; compare Amos v. 22-24;
Isa. i. 13-17, and the well-known passage, Micali vi.
6-8) ; “ Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves of a year old? . . . Shall I give my first-
born for in)- transgression, the fruit of my body for
the sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, O man,
what is good ; and what doth the Lord require of
thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with thy God?”).

But the prophet Ezekiel — a priest and therefore
more deeply penetrated with the sense of sin and
purity than other prophets — is not satisfied with the
mere negation of ritualism. Repudiating, like Jere-
miah, the idea held by his contempo-
Ezekiel. raries that men undergo punishment
on account of their fathers’ sins, he
lays the greater stress on the fact that the fruit of
sin is death, and exhorts the people to cast away
their sin and, returning to God, to live (Ezek. xviii.
4-32). For him Atonement is wrought by acquir-
ing “a new heart and a new spirit” ( ib . 31). In
striking contrast with the other prophets, Ezekiel
combines the belief in a complicated atoning ritual
(as mapped out in Ezek. xl.-xlvi.) with the pro-
phetic hope in the redeeming power of God’s spirit
which shall cleanse the people from their impurities
and endow them with “ a new heart and a new spirit ”
(xxxvi. 26).

In no one, however, does the most elaborate ritual-
ism of the Atonement sacrifice appear so closely in-
tertwined with the profoundest spiritual conception
of God’s atoning powers as in Moses
Moses. the lawgiver himself. When the
worship of the Golden Calf had pro-
voked God's wrath to such a degree that He said to
Moses, “Let me alone . . . that I may consume
them; and I will make of thee a great nation” (Ex.
xxxii. 10), the latter, desirous of making an Atone-
ment for their transgression, asked the Lord to for-
give the people’s sin, or else to blot Moses’ own
name out of His book (the book of life); and he
persisted in imploring God’s pardon even after He
had said, “Whosoever hath sinned against me; him
will I blot out of my book,” until finally, in an-
swer to Moses’ entreaty, the full glory of God, His
compassionate mercy, His long-suffering and for-
giving love, were revealed and Moses’ prayer for
the people’s pardon was granted (Ex. xxxiv. 1-9;

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Atonement

Num. xiv. 17-20). There Moses’ own self abnega-
ting love, which willingly offered up his life for his
people, disclosed the very qualities of God as far as
they touch both the mystery of sin and the divine
forgiveness, and this became the key to the compre-
hension of the Biblical idea of Atonement. The ex-
istence of sin would be incompatible with a good and
holy God, but for His long-suffering, which waits
for the sinner’s return, and His condoning love,
which turns man’s failings into endeavors toward
a better life. Each atoning sacritice, t herefore, must
be understood both as an appeal to God’s forgiving
mercy, and as a monition to the sinner to repentance.
“ Let the wicked forsake his way and the unright-
eous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the
Lord, and he will have mercy upon him ; aud to our
God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isa. lv. 7).

It was quite natural that, during the Exile, when
no sacrifice could be offered, other means of obtain-
ing forgiveness and peace should be
Substitutes resorted to. First of all, prayer rose
for in value and prominence. As Moses
Sacrifice, interceded for his people, praying and
fasting for forty days and forty nights
in order to obtain God’s pardon (Ex. xxxii. 30 ; Deut.
ix. 18, 25), so did every prophet possess the power
of obtaining God’s pardon by his prayer. Abraham,
as a prophet, prayed for the life of Abimelech (Gen.
xx. 7); Pharaoh, after a confession of his sin, asked
Moses and Aaron to pray to God for the withdrawal
of the plague of hail (Ex. ix. 27, 28); acknowledging
their sin, the people ask Samuel to intercede for
them (I Sam. xii. 19); and Jeremiah is expressly
warned: “Pray not thou for this people, neither
lift up a cry or prayer for them ” (Jer. xi. 14; com-
pare ib. xv. 1). See Prayer.

The great dedication prayer of King Solomon re-
quires on the part of the sinner only a turning of
the face in prayer in the direction of the Temple in
order to meet with a response from heaven and with
forgiveness of his sin (I Kings viii. 30, 33, 35, 48-50).
The very idea of sacrifice is spurned by the Psalmist
(Ps. 1. 8-14, li. 12-20 [A. V. 11-19]); “Sacrifice and
offering thou dost not desire ”(xl. 7 [A. V. 6]); “The
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit” (li. 18 [A. Y.
17]). Throughout the Psalms sincere repentance and
prayer form the essentials to Atonement. Prayer is
“as incense” and “the evening sacrifice” (Ps. cxli.
2); with the Lord is forgiveness, “He shall redeem
Israel from all his iniquities ” (Ps. cxxx. 4-8). Fast-
ing especially appears to have taken

Fasting, the place of sacrifice (Isa. lviii. 1-3;
Alms- Zach.vii. 5). Another means of Atone-
giving, ment in place of sacrifice is offered
Suffering, to King Nebuchadnezzar by Daniel:

“Break off thy sins by almsgiving
[“zedakah” (A. V., “righteousness”)], and thine
iniquities by showing mercy to the poor” (Dan. iv.
24, Hebr. [A. Y. 27]). Most efficacious seemed to be
the atoning power of suffering experienced by the
righteous during the Exile. This is the idea under-
lying the description of the suffering servant of God
in Isa. liii. 4, 12, Hebr. :

“ The man of sorrows and acquainted with grief ... he hath
borne our pains [A. V., “griefs”], and carried our sorrows.
. . . But he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for
our iniquities ...”

"The chastisement for [A. V., “of”] our peace was upon
him ; and with his stripes were we [A. V., “ we are ”] healed.”

" All we like sheep had [A. V., " have”] gone astray ; we had
[A. V., “ have ”] turned every one to his own way.”

“And the Lord bath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

“ He was cut off out of the land of the living : for the trans-
gression of my people was he stricken.”

“ He bare the sin of many and made intercession for the trans-
gressors.”

Whoever may have formed the subject of this
tragic song — whether Zerubbabel or some other
martyr of the Babylonian Exile — the seer, in em-
bodying it in his message of comfort to his people,
desired to assure them that of greater atoning power
than all the Temple sacrifices was the suffering of
the elect ones who were to be servants and witnesses
of the Lord (Isa. xlii. 1-4, xlix. 1-7, 1. 6). This
idea of the atoning power of the suffering and death
of the righteous finds expression also in IV Macc.

vi. 27, xvii. 21-23; M. K. 28u; Pesik. xxvii. 1746;
Lev. R. xx. ; and formed the basis of Paul’s doctrine
of the atoning blood of Christ (Rom. iii. 25). It was
the inspiration of the heroic martyrdom of the Hasi-
dim or Essenes (Ps. xxix. 2, exvi. 15; Philo, “Quod
Omnis Probus Liber,” § xiii. ). The principle of
Atonement by sacrificial blood was, on the whole,
adhered to during the second Temple. Job’s inter-
cession on behalf of his friends is accompanied by
their burnt offering, which is to atone for their sins
(Job xlii. 8; compare i. 5). In the Book of Jubilees
Noah and Abraham make Atonement for the earth
and for man by means of sacrificial blood (vi. 2, vii.
3, xvi. 22). In Sibyllines iii. 626 etseq., the heathen
are told to offer hecatombs of bulls and rams to ob-
tain God's pardon for their sins (compare Ps. lxxvi.
12; Isa. lvi. 7); but in Sibyllines iv. 29, 161, the Es-
sene view, deprecating sacrifice, seems to be ex-
pressed. Nevertheless, the conception of Atonement

underwent a great change. The men
Post- of the Great Synagogue — disciples of
Biblical the Prophets and imbued with the
Atone- spirit of the Psalms — had made prayer
ment. an essential element of the Temple
service ; and whereas the Hasidean lit-
urgy, accentuating divine forgiveness and human
repentance, took little notice of sacrifice, the Levites’
song and the prayers introduced as parts of the wor-
ship lent to the whole sacrificial service a more
symbolic character. Accordingly, each of the two
lambs (“kebasim”) offered every morning and eve-
ning as a burnt-offering (Num. xxviii. 3, 4) was de-
clared by the school of Shammai to be “kobesh,”
intended “to subdue” the sins of Israel (see Micali

vii. 19: “Yikbosh ‘avonotenu ” = “ He will subdue

our iniquities,” A. V.) during the year until the
Day of Atonement should do its atoning work. By
the school of Ilillel the lamb was to be “kobes,” “to
wash Israel clean” from sin; see Isa. i. 18; Jer. ii.
22; Pesik. vi. 616; Pesik. R. 16 (ed. Friedmann, p.
84) and 81, p. 195; and more especially the notes by
Buber and Friedmann, ad loc. Compare also the
expression “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketli
away the sin of the world ” (John i. 29). “ The morn-

ing sacrifice atoned for the sins committed during
the previous night, the afternoon sacrifice for the
sins committed in the daytime” (Tan., Pinlias, 12).

The whole idea of sin was, in fact, deepened. It
was regarded rather as a breaking-away from the

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278

original sinless state of man as the child of God —
which state must be restored— than as a wrong com-
mitted against God needing covering up. The ex-
pressions “temimim” (spotless) and “ben shanali”
(of the first year) (Num. xxviii. 8), suggested the
thought that sin-laden man should become “spotless
like a child of one year” (Pesik. R. l.c. ; compare
Sliab. 896). Of course, as a symbolic rite, this mode
of cleansing oneself from sin could be, and actually
was, replaced by daily baptism and fasting such as
were practised by the Hasidim — those heroes of
prayer who in time of national distress made inter-
cession for the people far more effectively than did
the priests in tiie Temple (Josephus, “Ant.” xiv. 2,
§ 1; xviii. 8, § 4; compare Ta'anit 19a, 20a, 23a).

Still the words of Simon the Just, “The world
rests on the Law, worship, and works of benevo-
lence ” (Ab. i. 2), retained their validity likewise for
the Hasidim, who felt the need of an atoning sacri-
fice (Ned. 10a; Ker. vi. 3). It was especially owing
to the assistance offered by the “ ma'amadot,” the
chosen representatives of the people, with their fasts
and prayers, that the daily sacrifice assumed a more
spiritual character, so that to it was applied the pas-
sage (Jer. xxxiii. 25): “If my covenant be not main-
tained day and night [by the service] I would not
have made the ordinances of heaven and earth”
(Meg. 316; Ta'anit 276).

The cessation of sacrifice, in consequence of the
destruction of the Temple, came, therefore, as a shock
to the people. It seemed to deprive them of the
divine Atonement. Hence many turned ascetics,
abstaining from meat and wine (Tosef., Sotah, xv.

11; Ab. R. N. iv.); and Joshua ben
After the Hanauiali, who cried out in despair,
Fall of the “Wo unto us! What shall atone for

Temple, us?” only expressed the sentiment of
all his contemporaries (IV Esd. ix. 36:
“We are lost on account of our sins”). It was then
that Johanan b. Zakkai, pointing to Hosea vi. 6 (R.
V.), “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” to Prov.
xvi. 6, “By mere}- and truth iniquity is purged
[atoned for],” and to Ps. lxxxix. 3 (A. V. 2), “The
world is built upon mercy,” declared works of benev-
olence to have atoning powers as great as those of
sacrifice.

This view, however, did not solve satisfactorily for
all the problem of sin — the evil rooted in man from
the very beginning, from the fall of Adam (IV Esd.

iii. 20. viii. 118). Hence a large num-
Christian her of Jews accepted the Christian
Idea faith in the Atonement by the blood
of Atone- “ shed for many for the remission of
ment. sins” (Matt. xxvi. 28; Heb. x. 12; Col.

i. 20) or in Jesus as “the Lamb of
God” (John i. 29; Apoc. of John vii. 14, and else-
where). It was perhaps in opposition to this move-
ment that the Jewish teachers, after the hope for the
rebuilding of the Temple in the second century had
ended in failure and wo, strove to develop and deepen
the Atonement idea. R. Akiba, in direct opposition
to the Christian Atonement by the blood of Jesus,
addressed his brethren thus: “Happy are ye, Israel-
ites. Before 'whom do you cleanse yourselves, and
who cleanses you? Your Father in heaven; forit is
said : ‘ I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye

shall be clean; from all your filthiness . . . will I
cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and
a new spirit will I put within you ’ ” (Ezek. xxxvi.
26) ; and again it is said that the Lord, “ the hope of
Israel” (Jer. xiv. 8), is also a “fountain of water” (a
play on the Hebrew word “mikweh”). “As the
fountain of water purifies the unclean, so does God
purify Israel ” (Yoma viii. 9). This doctrine, which
does away with all mediatorsliip of either saint, high
priest, or savior, became the leading idea of the Jew-
ish Atonement.

Accordingly, Atonement in Jewish theology as de-
veloped by the Rabbis of the Talmud,
Elements has for its constituent elements: (a)
of Atone- on the part of God, fatherly love and
ment. forgiving mercy; (6) on the part of
man, repentance and reparation of
wrong. The following exposition will serve to
enlighten the reader on these elements :

(a) While God's quality of justice (“middat lia-
din ”), which punishes the wrong-doing, would leave
no hope for man, since “there is not a righteous man
upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not ” (Eccl.
vii. 20, R. V.), God’s quality of mercy (“middat ha-
rahamin ”) has from the very beginning provided
repentance as the means of salvation (Gen. R. i., xii. ;
Pesik. xxv. 1586; Pesik. R. 44; Pes. 54a.) “Thou
hast mercy upon all; thou condonest the sins of
men in order that they should amend” (Wisdom
xi. 23). “ Wherever there are sins and righteous

deeds set against each other in the scale of justice,
God inclines it toward mercy” (Pesik. xxvi.
167a).

Far from being merely judicial compensation for
an outward act, as Weber (“ System der Alt-Syna-
gogalen Theologie,” pp. 252, 300-304) asserts, the
divine mercy is expressly represented by Hillel as
working in favor of pardoning those who have no
merit: “He who is plenteous in mercy turns the
scale of judgment toward mercy” (Tosef., Sanli.
xiii. 3; R. H. 17a). This quality of mercy is sure to
prevail as soon as it is appealed to by
Divine the mention of the thirteen attributes
Mercy. with which the Lord appeared to Moses
in response to his prayer for forgive-
ness after the sin of the Golden Calf (R. H. 176). No
matter how vile the sinner — be he as wicked as
Mauasseh or as Ahab — the gate of repentance is open
to him (Pesik. xxv. 1606, 162a).

“ Human Wisdom, when asked, ‘ What shall he done with the
sinner V’ replieth, ‘Evil pursueth sinners’ (Prov. xiii. 21).
Prophecy, when asked, ‘ What shall be done with the sinner?’
replieth, ‘The soul that sinneth, it shall die’ (Ezek. xviii. 4).
The Law, when asked, ‘ What shall be done with the sinner?’
replieth, ‘Let him bring a guilt-offering and the priest shall
atone for him ’ (Lev. i. 4 [Hebr.]). God himself, when asked,
‘What shall be done with the sinner?’ replieth, ‘Let him re-
pent, and he will be atoned for ; was it not said : “ Good and
upright is the Lord : therefore will he teach sinners in the way
of repentance’’ (Psalms xxv. 8). For, my children, what do I
require of you? "Seek me and live’”” (Pesik. xxv. 158b;
Yer. Mak. ii. 31(f) .

Upon these ideas, which cau be traced through
the entire Apocryphal literature, was based the
liturgy of the fast-days, and that of the Day of Atone-
ment in particular; they are probably best expressed
in the NeTlah prayer of the latter, which, going
much further back than the second century (see

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Yoma 876, where Rab of Babylonia and R. Johanan
of Palestine refer to some portions of it), contains
such sentences as the following:

“ Thou offerest thy hand to transgressors, and Thy right hand
is stretched out to receive the repentant” (Pes. 119a). “Not in
reliance upon our merits do we lay our supplications before
Thee, O Lord of all the world, but trusting in Thy great mercy.
Thou dost not And delight in the perdition of the world, but
Thou hast pleasure in the return of the wicked that they may
live.”

The saying of the Rabbis, “Higher is the station
of the sinner who repentetli than that of him who
has never sinned ” (Ber. 346; see Pes. 119a; Lukexv.
10), emanates from the same principle of God’s re-
deeming grace :

“ God says, ‘ Open for me a gate no wider than a needle’s
eve, and I will open for you a gate through which camps and
fortifications can pass ’ ” (Pesik. xxv. 163b) . “ When the angels
wanted to shut the windows of heaven against the prayer of
Menasseh, saying, ‘Can a man who set an idol in the Temple
repent?’ God said, ‘If I receive him notin his repentance, I
shut the door upon all penitents ’ ; and He bored a hole under His
throne of Glory to hear his supplication ” (Pesik. lb. 162b).

(6) On the part of man Atonement is obtained in
the first place by repentance, which consists of an
outward Confession of Sins (“widdui,” Lev. v. 5;

xvi. 21) prescribed for the high priest
Re- on the Day of Atonement (Yoma 366),
pentance. and for the criminal before his execu-
tion, to expiate his sins (Sanh. vi. 2);
and recited on penitential and fast days and by prose-
lytes at the time of their admission into the Jewish
fold (see “Prayers of Asenath,” xiii.-xiv.) also by
the dying (“Ebel Zuttarti,” in Briill’s “ Jahrb.” i. 11).
This is to be the expression of self-reproach, shame,
and contrition. “ The}' must feel shame throughout
their whole soul and change their ways ; reproaching
themselves for their errors and openly confessing all
their sins with purified souls and minds, so as to ex-
hibit sincerity of conscience, and having also their
tongues purified so as to produce improvement in their
hearers ” (Philo, “ De Execratione,” viii.). The verse.
“He who sacrifices thank-offerings [A.Y., “praise ”]
glorifies me ” (Ps. 1. 23), is taken by the Rabbis as sig-
nifying, “ He who sacrifices his evil desire while offer-
ing his confession of sin [“zobeah todali”] honors
God more than if he were praising Him in the world
that now is and in the world to come ” (Sanh. 436).
“ He who feels bitter shame and compunction over his
sins is sure of obtaining pardon ” (Ber. 126; Hag. 5a).

But the main stress is laid upon the undoing of the
wrong done. “No sin that still cleaves to the hand
of the sinner can be atoned for; it is as
Reparation if a man would cleanse himself in the
of Wrong, water while holding the contaminating
object in his hand; therefore it is said,
‘ He that coveretli his sins shall not prosper, but
whoso confessetli and forsaketh them shall have
mercy” (Prov. xxviii. 13; Ta'anit 16a). If a man
steal a beam and use it in building, he must tear
down the building in order to return the stolen thing
to its owner: thus of the men of Nineveh it is said,
“ Let them turn every one from his evil way, and
from the violence that is in [cleaves to] their hands”
(Jonah iii. 8; Yer. Ta'auit ii. 656; Bab. B.Iy. 666).

Further, repentance consists in abandoning the
old ways, and in a change of heart ; for it is said
“ Rend your heart and not your garments, and turn

unto the Lord your God ” (Joel ii. 13); that is to say,
“If you tear your heart, you need not tear your gar-
ments over a loss of sons and daughters” (Pesik. xxv.
1616; Yer. Ta'auit, Z.c.). “They poured out their
hearts like water before God” (Yer. Ta‘anit ii. 65d).
“He who says, ‘I will sin and repent; I will sin
again and repent again,’ will never lie allowed time
to repent ” (Yoma viii. 9). Repentance restson self-
humiliation. “Adam was too proud to humiliate
himself, and was therefore driven from Paradise”
(Num. R. xiii. 3). “Cain who humbled himself was
pardoned ” (Pesik. xxv. 160a6; Gen. R. xi., xxii.).
“Great is the power of repentance; for it reaches up
to the throne of God ; it brings healing (Hosea xiv.
5 [A. Y. 4]); it turns sins resulting from ill-will into
mere errors (according to Hosea xiv. 2 [A. Y. 1]);
nay, into incentives to meritorious conduct ” (Yoma
86a6). “ He who sincerely repents is doing as much

as he who builds temple and altar and brings all the
sacrifices ” (Lev. R. vii. ; Sanh. 436).

Hand in hand with repentance goes prayer. “It
takes the place of sacrifice” (Pesik. xxv. 1656, accord-
ing to Hosea xiv. 3 [A. Y. 2]). When
Prayer, God appeared to Moses after the sin
Fasting, of the Golden Calf, He taught him how
and to offer prayer on behalf of the sin-
Charity. laden community (R. H. 176). That
prayer is the true service (‘ Abodah) is
learned from Dan. iv. 24. there having been no other
service in Babylonia (Pirke R. El. xvi. ; Ab.R. N. iv.).
“As the gates of repentance are always open like the
sea, so are [holds R. ‘Anan] the gates of prayer”
(Pesik. xxv. 1576).

But repentance and prayer are as a rule combined
with fasting as a token of contrition, as is learned
from the action of King Aliab recounted in 1 Kings
xxi. 27, of the men of Nineveh referred to in Jonah
iii. 7, and of Adam in Vita Ada; et Eva;, 6: Pirke
R. El. xx. ; ‘Er. 186. Fasting was regarded like
“offering up the blood and fat of the animal life
upon the altar of God” (Ber. 17a; compare Pesik.,
ed. Buber, p. 1656, note). With these is, as a rule,
connected charity, which is “more acceptable to the
Lord than sacrifice” (Prov. xxi. 3). On every fast-
day charity was given to the poor (Sanh. 35a; Ber.
66). “Prayer, charity, and repentance, these three
together, avert the impending doom ” (Yer. Ta’auit
ii. 656). “Repentance and works of benevolence
are together the paracletes [pleaders] for man be-
fore God’s throne (Shah. 32a), and a shield against
punishment” (Abot iv. 11).

Another thing considered by the Rabbis as a means
of Atonement is suffering. Suffering is more apt than
sacrifice to win God’s favor and to
Suffering atone for man (Mek.,Yitro, 10; Sifre,
as Means of Dent. 32; Ber. 5a). Poverty also, in
Atone- so far as it reduces man’s physical
ment. strength, has atoning power (Pesik.

xxv. 165a). Similar power was as-
cribed to exile (Sanh. 376); also to the destruction of
the Temple, which was held as a security — a play on
the word pti’O — for Israel’s life (Gen. R. xlii. ; Ex. R.
xxxi.; Lev. R. xi.). Above all, death atones for sin
(Sifre, Num. 1 12 ; Mek., Yitro,7). “ Let my death make
atonement for all my sins,” say men wdien dying or
in peril (Ber. 60a ; Sanh. vi. 2). Particularly the death

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280

of the righteous atones for the sins of the people.
“ Like the sanctuary, he is taken as security [“ mash-
kon ”] for the life of the community ”
Suffering (Tan., Wayakhel 9; Ex. R. xxxv. 4;
or Death of Lev. R. ii.). That the death of the
the righteous atones is learned from II
Righteous. Sam. xxi. 14, which says that after
the burial of Saul and Jonathan “ God
was entreated for the land” (Pesik. xxvii. 174 6).
“ Where there are no righteous men in a generation
to atone for the people, innocent school-children are
taken away ” (Shah. 33 6). So also does the suffering
of the righteous atone; as in the case of Ezekiel
(Sanh. 39a) and Job (Ex. R. xxi.). R. Judah ha-
Nasi’s suffering saved his contemporaries from
calamities (Gen. R. 96). God is the King whose
wrath is, in Prov. xvi. 14, referred to “as mes-
sengers of death,” and the wise man who makes
Atonement for it is Moses, who pacifies Him by
prayer (Ex. R. xliii.). The death of Israel at the
hands of his persecutors is an atoning sacrifice
(Sifre, Deut. 333).

Atoning powers are ascribed also to the study of
the Law, which is more effective than sacrifice, espe-
cially when combined with good works (R. H. 18a;
Yeb. 105a; Lev. R. xxv.). The table from which
the poor received their share atones for
Study of man’s sins in place of the altar (see
the Torah. Altar) ; the wife being the priestess
who makes Atonement for the house
(Ber. 55a; Tan., Wayishlah, vi.). The meritorious
lives of the Patriarchs especially possess a great
atoning power (Ex. R. xlix.). The Holy Land itself
has atoning qualities for those who inhabit it or are
buried in its soil, as is learned from Deut. xxxii. 43,
which verse is interpreted “ He will make His land
an Atonement for His people” (see Sifre, Deut. 333;
Gen. R. xcvi. ; Ket. 111a; Yer. Kil. ix. 32c). On the
other hand, the descent of the wicked (heathen) into
Gehenna for eternal doom is, according to Isa. xliii.
(A. Y. ), an atoning sacrifice for the people of Israel
(compare Prov. xxi. 18). “I gave Egypt for thy
ransom [kofer], Ethiopia and Seba for thee” (Sifre,
Deut. 333; Ex. R. xi.).

The whole idea underlying Atonement, according
to the rabbinical view, is regeneration — restoration
of the original state of man in his relation to God,
called “tekanali” (R. H. 17a; ‘Ar. 156). “As vessels
of gold or of glass, when broken, can be restored
by undergoing the process of melting, thus does
the disciple of the law, after having
Atonement sinned, find the way of recovering his
Is state of purity by repentance” (R. Ak-
Regenera- ibain Hag. 15a). Therefore he who as-
tion. sumesaliigh public office after the con-
fession of his sins in the past is “ made
a new creature, free from sin like a child ” (Sanh. 14a ;
compare Midr. Sam. xvii., “Saul was as one year
old”; I Sam. xiii. 1, A. V. “reigned one year1” R.
V. “ was thirty years old ”). In fact, the Rabbis de-
clare that the scholar, the bridegroom, and the Nasi,
as well as the proselyte, on entering their new station
in life, are freed from all their sins, because, having
by confession of sins, fasting, and prayer prepared
themselves for the new state, they are, as it were,
born anew (Yer. Bik. iii. 65c, d; Midr. Sam. 1. c.).

This is the case also with the change of name or lo-
cality when combined with change of heart (Pesik.
xxx. 191a; R. H. 166). The following classical pas-
sage elucidates the rabbinical view as taught by R.
Ishmael (of the second century; Yoma 86a):

“ There are four different modes of Atonement. If a man
fails to fulfil the duty incumbent upon him in case of a sin of
omission, for him repentance suffices, as Jeremiah (iii. 22) says,

‘ Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your back-
sliding.’ If he has transgressed a prohibitory law— a sin of
commission— the Day of Atonement atones: of him the Law
says, " On this day He shall atone for your sins to cleanse you ’
(Lev. xvi. ISO). If he be guilty of crimes such as entail the
death penalty and the like, repentance and the Day of Atone-
ment can not expiate them unless suffering works as a purify-
ing factor : to this the Psalmist refers when he says, 1 1 will visit
(heir transgressions with the rod and their iniquities with
stripes’ (Ps. lxxxix. 33 [A. V. 32]). And if the crime amount
to a desecration of the name of God and the doing of great
harm to the people at large, nothing but death can be the
penalty; as Isaiah (xxii. 14) says, 'Surely this iniquity shall not
be atoned for you [A. V. “purged from you”] till ye die, saith
the Lord God of Hosts’ ” (compare Misbnah Shebu. i. 1-6).

Whether the Day of Atonement atoned only for
sins committed in error and ignorance or involunta-
rily (Heb. ix.7), or also for those committed wilfully
with a high hand (Num. xv. 26, 30), whether only
after due repentance or without it, is discussed by
the Rabbis (Shebu. 13a; Yoma 856); and the result-
ing opinion is that just as the scapegoat atoned for all
the sins of the nation, whether committed involun-
tarily or wilfully (Shebu. i. 6), so also does the Day
of Atonement, true repentance having the power of
turning all sins into mere errors, such as are forgiven
to the whole congregation according to Num. xv.
26. All the greater emphasis is laid on sincere re-
pentance, without which the Day of Atonement is
inefficient (Maimonides,“ Yad,” Tesliubah, i. 3).

All the various elements effecting Atonement are
in a marked degree combined in the Day of Atone-
ment, to make it the occasion of the great annual re-
dintegration of man. It is called “Sliabbat Shab-
baton,” the holiest of rest-days as the Shabbatli of
the Sabbatical month (Lev. xxiii. 32),
Annual because it was to prepare the people
Redinte- for the festival of harvest joy, the
gration of Succoth feast at the close of the agri-
Man. cultural season (Ex. xxiii. 16, xxxiv.

22; Lev. xxiii. 34, xxv. 9,10; Ezek. xl.
1). Whereas Ezekiel (xlv. 18-20) intended to have
the first and the seventh day of the first month ren-
dered days of Atonement for the year, the Mosaic
law ordained that the new moon of the seventh
month should be a Sabbath (Lev. xxiii. 24), heralding
forth with the trumpet in more solemn sounds than
on other new- moon days (Num. x.10) the holy month ;
and this was to be followed by the day which was
to consecrate both the nation and the sanctuary by
imposing atoning rites. These rites were of a two-
fold character. Atonement for the people was made
in a form without any parallel in the entire sacrificial
system, Lev. xvi. 7-22, or Deut. xxi. 4, perhaps ex-
cepted. A scapegoat, upon which the
Day high priest laid the sins of the people,
of Atone- was sent forth into the wilderness to
ment. Azazel (a demon, according to Ibn Ezra

on Lev. xvi. 10, related to the goat-
like demons, or satyrs, referred to in Lev. xvii. 7 ; com-
pare Yoma 676) ; and its arrival at the rock of Hadudo,

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where it was cast down the precipice, was signalized
as the moment of the granting of pardon to the peo-
ple by the waving of a wisp of snow-white wool in
place of one of scarlet, over the Temple gate, crowds
of young people waiting on the hills of Jerusalem to
celebrate the event by dancing (Yoma iv. 1-8; Ta‘a-
nit iv. 8).

Obviously this primitive rite was not of late origin,
as is alleged by modern critics, but was a concession
rather to ancient Semitic practise, and its great pop-
ularity is shown by the men of rank accompanying
it, by the cries with which the crowd followed it,
and by tales of a miraculous character related in
the Mishnah and the Gemara (Yoma 66«, 67 a, 68/p.
On the other hand, the sprinkling by the high priest
of the blood of the bullock, the ram, and the second
goat, consecrated to the Lord, was in full keeping
with the usual Temple ritual, and distinguished itself
from the sacrificial worship of other days only by the
ministrations of the high priest, who, clad in his fine
linen garb, offered the incense and sprinkled blood
of each sin-offering upon the Holy of Holies and the
veil of the Holy Place for the purification of the
whole sanctuary as well as of his own household
and the nation. The impressiveness of these func-
tions, minutely described in Mishnah (Yoma ii.-vii. ),
has been vividly pictured by Ben Sira, whose words
in Ecclus. (Sirach) 1. were embodied in the syna-
gogue liturgy at the close of the ‘Abodali. But
while, according to Scripture, the high priest made
Atonement (Lev. xvi. 30), tradition transferred the
atoning power to God, as was expressed in the high
priest’s prayer commencing, “Kapper na” (O Lord,
atone Thou for the iniquities, the sins, and the trans-
gressions,” Yoma iii. 8, iv. 2, vi. 2); interpreting the
verse (Lev. xvi. 30): “Through that day He, the
Lord, shall atone for you ” (Yoma iii. 8; Sifra, Ahare
Mot, viii.).

Great stress was laid on the cloud of incense in
which the high priest was enveloped when entering
the Holy of Holies; and many mystic or divinatory
powers were ascribed to him as he stood there alone
in the darkness, as also to the prayer he offered, to
the Foundation Stone (“Eben Shetiyah”), on which
he placed the censer, and to the smoke of the sacri-
fice (Yoma, 53«, b etseq. ; Tan., Ahare 3 ; Lev. R. xx.,
xxi. ; compare Book of Jubilees xii. 16). The prayer
offered by the high priest (according to Yer. Yoma
v. 2; Tan., ‘Ahare 4; Lev. R. xx.) was that the year
might be blessed with rain, heat, and dew, and might
yield plenty, prosperity, independence, and comfort
to the inhabitants of the land.

In the course of time the whole Temple ritual was
taken symbolically, and more stress was laid on the
fasting, the prayers, and the supplications, to which
the people devoted the whole day, entreating pardon
for their sins, and imploring God’s mercy. This at
least is the view expressed by Philo (“ De Septenario, ”
23), even if it was not yet shared by the people in
general, when the Epistle to the Hebrews (ix.) and
that of Barnabas (vii.) were written. It was after
the destruction of the Temple, and through the syn-
agogue, that the Day of Atonement assumed its
high spiritual character as the great annual regen-
erator of Jewish life in connection with New-Year’s
Day.

Down to the first century, in Apocalyptical as well
as in New Testament writings, the idea of the divine
judgment was mainly eschatological
Day in character, as deciding the destiny of
of Sealing the soul after death rather than of men
God’s on earth. But under the influence of
Decree. Babylonian mythology, which spoke
of the beginning of the year — “zag-
muk” — on the first day of Nisan, as the time when
the gods decided the destiny of life (Jensen, " Kos-
mologie,” pp. 84-86, 238), the idea developed also in
Jewish circles that on the first of Tishri, the sacred
New-Year’s Day and the anniversary of Creation,
man’s doings were judged and his destiny was de-
cided; and that on the tenth of Tishri the decree of
heaven was sealed (Tosef., R. H. i. 13; It. II. 11a,
16a). a view still unknown to Philo (“ De Septenario, "
22) and disputed by some rabbis (R. II. 16a). Thus,
the first ten days of Tishri grew to be the Ten
Penitential Days of the year, intended to bring
about a perfect change of heart, and to make Israel
like new-born creatures (Pcsik. xxiii., xxiv. ; Lev.
R. xxix.), the culmination being reached on the Day
of Atonement, when religion’s greatest gift, God’s-
condoning mercy, was to be offered to man. It was
on this day that Moses came down from Mount Sinai
with the Tables of the Law received in token of
God’s pardon of the sin of the golden calf, while
the whole congregation fasted and prayed. The
Day of Atonement was thenceforth made the annual
day of divine forgiveness of sin, when Satan, the
accuser, failed to find blame in the people of Israel,
who on that day appeared pure from sin like the
angels (see Seder ‘Olam R. vi. ; Tan., Ki Tissa, 4;
Pirke R. El. xlvi.). According to Pirke R. El. xxix.,
the circumcision of Abraham took place on the Day
of Atonement, and the blood which dropped down
on the very spot where the altar afterward stood in
the temple on Moriah is still before the eyes of God
to serve as means of Atonement.

Far from being the means of “ pacifying an angry
God,” assuggested by Cheyne (“Encyc. Bibl.” s.v.),
or from leaving a feeling of uncertainty and dread
of suspense concerning God’s pardoning love in the
heart, as Weber (“ Altsynagogale Tlieologie,” p. 321)
maintains, these ten days are the days of special grace
when the Sliekinah is nigh, and God longs to grant
pardon to His people (Pesik. xxiv.). The Day of
Atonement is the “one day” prepared from the be-
ginning to unite the world divided between the light
of goodness and the darkness of sin
A Day of (Gen. R. ii., iii.), “aday of great joy to-
Confiding God” (Tanna debe Eliyaliu R.i.). “Not
Joy. depressed and in sombergarmentsasthe
suppliant appears before the earthly
judge and ruler should Israel on New-Year’s Day
and on the Day of Atonement stand before the Ruler
and the Judge on high, but with joy and in white
garments betokening a cheerful and confiding spirit ”
(Yer. R. H. i. 576). Only later generations regarded
these white garments, the Sargenes — in which,
also the dead were dressed in order to appear be-
fore the Judge of all flesh full of gladsome hope
— as shrouds, and considered them as reminders of
death (Yer. Ii. H. l.c. ; Eccl. R. ix. 7 ; Gen. R. l.c. ;
Brueck,“ Pliarisaische Volkssitten,” 1368). “ The first

Atonement

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282

day of Succotli is called the first day [Lev. xxiii. 35]
because on it a new record begins, the sins of the
year having been wiped off on Atonement Day ”
(Tan., Emor., 22). The sins of the preceding year
therefore, unless they have been repeated, should
not be confessed anew (Tosef., Yoma, v. 15; Yoma
866; Ex. II. lii. ).

“ He who says, ‘ I will sin, and the Day of Atonement shall
make atonement for me,’ for him the Day of Atonement is of
no avail. Only such sins as concern man’s relation to God will
be pardoned. Sins committed by man against his fellow man
are pardoned only after his fellow man’s pardon has been ob-
tained ; for it is said : ‘ From all your sins before the Lord ye
shall be cleansed’ (Lev. xvi. 30), thus excluding sins before
man ” (Yoma viii. 9).

The Day of Atonement has thus a double charac-
ter; it is both a fast-day and a festal day. It com-
prises the elements of the great fast-day of the year,
on which are prohibited all those things from which
the people abstained on any other public fast-day,
such as eating and drinking, bathing and anointing,
the wearing of sandals or shoes, etc.
Both Fast- (Yoma 766 and 77c). Any other mode

Day and of affliction or penitence, however,
Festal Day. is prohibited (Yoma 746; Sifra, Al.iare,
vii.). There were likewise embodied
in the liturgy of the Day of Atonement all those
forms of supplications and portions of the liturgy
used on public fast-days (Ta'anit iv. 1), including
the most characteristic portion recited at sunset,
Ne'ilah (“the closing of the gates of the sun”).
Of these the confession of sins forms the oldest and
most prominent part of each portion of the day’s
liturgy, the alphabetical order in the catalogue of sins
having originated in Hasidic circles (Rom. i. 29 et seq. ;
Didaehe v. ; Sliab. 54c) rather than in the Temple
liturgy (Sifra i. ; Yoma iii. 8). This is to be followed
by the “Selihot,” the appeals to God’s forgiveness
as expressed in the thirteen Attributes of God as He
appeared to Moses on Sinai, promising “Salaliti,”
“I have forgiven” (Num. xiv. 18-20). The reading
from the Law of the chapter on the Atonement
sacrifice in Lev. xvi., in the morning portion, is
followed by the reading from the prophet Isaiah (lvii.
15— 1 viii. 14) as Haftarah, which has been signifi-
cantly chosen to impress the worshipers with the
lesson that the external rite of fasting is valueless
without the works of righteousness and beneficence.

Differing in this respect from any other fast-day,
and resembling all Sabbath and festival days, the
celebration of the Day of Atonement begins in the
synagogue on the preceding evening, in conformity
with Lev. xxiii. 32 (Yoma 816). It probably did so
during the time of the Temple (Yoma 196), but not
in the Temple itself (Yoma i. 2). This evening serv-
ice-called Kol-Nidke from its opening formula,
which canceled rash vows — with its strongly marked
melodies and songs, assumed in the course of time a
very impressive character. On the Day of Atone-
ment itself, the noon or“musaf” (additional) service
— presenting as its chief feature the ‘Abodaif, a
graphic description of the whole Atonement service
of the Temple — is followed by the afternoon or
“ Minhah ” service, which begins with the reading
from the Law of the chapter on incestuous marriages,
with a side-reference, as it were, to Azazel, the

seducer to lewdness (Meg. 31«; Tos. ad loc. ; Yoma
676), and as Haftarah, the Book of Jonah, containing
the great lesson of God's forgiving love extended to
Gentiles as well as to Jews. This is followed by the
NeTlah service, in which the main ideas of the day
are especially emphasized — repentance conditioning
forgiveness, and God’s sealing the decree of man for
the ensuing year. The service ends with a solemn
invocation of God ’s name, the Shema ’, and the seven-
fold exclamation, “The Lord, He is God ” (compare I
Kings xviii. 39), forming the climax of the continu-
ous devotions of the day. As a signal of the close
of the sacred day, so that the people may know that
tkejr can work or eat (Tos. to Sliab. 1146), or for other
reasons (see Kol Bo, lxx. ; Shullian ‘Aruk, Orah Hay-
yim, 623, 6; Tur Orah Hayyim, 624), the trumpet
is blown once, or, as in Palestine, four times —
“Teki’ali, Sliebarim, Teru'ali, Teki'ali” (see Malizor
Vitry, pp. 345, 356; Abudrahim, “ Seder Tef. Yom
Kippurim ”). Either in the Kol-Nidre service, as in
Jerusalem, before the main prayers (Schwartz, “ Das
Heilige Land,” p. 336), or after the morning service
(Malizor Vitry, n. 353; Sliulhan ‘Aruk, Orah Hay-
yim, 621, 6), the dead are commemorated, and gifts
are offered for their salvation (see Tan., Haazinu, i.
ed. Vienna, 1853, p. 28; Pesik. xxvii. 1746, and Ro-
keah, quoted in Beth Joseph to Tur Orah Hayyim,
l.c.) — a custom which in the Reform liturgy has been
made a more prominent part of the service. In
preparation for the Day of Atonement it is usual
to offer gifts of charity, according to Prov. x. 2,
“Righteousness [charity] deliveretli from death,”
and to go to the cemetery to visit the graves of the
dead, a practise taken over from the fast -days (Ta-
'anit 16a ; Yer. Ta'anit ii. 65a).

The custom of bringing candles to burn in the
synagogue the whole day, in memory of the dead,
may have originated in the desire to light up the
otherwise dark synagogue for the recital of prayers
and psalms by the pious during the entire night.
This is the one view expressed in Kol Bo lx viii. ; but
other reasons of a mystic nature are given for it
there as well as in Malizor Vitry, p. 340 ; Abudrahim,
l.c. ; and Shullian ‘Aruk, Orah Hayyim, 610.

Very significant, as showing a deep-rooted desire
for some form of atoning sacrifice, is the custom —
known already in the time of the Geonim, and found
in Asia and Africa (see Benjamin II., “Aclit Yalire
in Asien und Africa,” 1858, p. 273), as well as in
Europe (Aslieri Yoma viii. 23; Malizor Vitry, p. 339;
Kol Bo lx viii. ; Shullian ‘Aruk, Orah Hayyim, 605),
though disapproved by Nal.imanides, Solomon ben
Adret, and Joseph Caro (Tur Orah Hayyim, l.c.) —
of swinging over one’s head, on or before the eve of
Atonement Day, a fowl, usually a rooster or lieu;
solemnly pronouncing the same to be a vicarious sac-
rifice to be killed in place of the Jew or Jewess who
might be guilty of death by his or her sin. Fishes
and plants, also (see Raslii, Sliab. 816), perhaps orig-
inally only these, were used in the gaonic time. The
slaughtered animal or its equivalent was then given
to the poor (see Ivappakot). Another custom of
similar character is the receiving on the eve of Atone-
ment Day, either in the synagogue or at home — the
latter is usually the place in Jerusalem (see Schwartz,
l.c.) — of thirty-nine stripes at the hand of a neighbor

283

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Atonement

as penalty for one's sins, according to Deut. xxv. 3,
while reciting the Confession of Sins. (See Mabzor
Vitry, p. 344; Kol Bo, lxviii. ; Shulhan ‘Aruk, Orah

man may appear pure in both body and soul before
God on “tlie great day.”

The Karaite Day of Atonement with its liturgy

Hayyim, 607.) According to Benjamin II., l.c., peo-
ple in Persia strip themselves to the loins in order to
receive these stripes on the naked body (see Malkut
Schlagen). This is followed by bathing, so that

Ritks ox Preceding Day (Surrounding).

4. “Zedakah ” in graveyard. 5. “ Kapparah.”

chliche Yerfassung.)

is to a great extent similar to that of the Rabbinite
Jews. It also begins half an hour before sunset of
the preceding day. and lasts until half an hour after
sunset of the day itself (see Karaites).

Day of Atonement in the Synagogue (Center).
1. Malkut. 2. Teshubah. ” 3. Visiting the graves.

(From Bodenschatz, “ Kii

Atonement, Day of

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284

The Samaritans, also, adopted the custom of pre-
paring for the day by a purificative bath and of
spending the night and the day in the synagogue
with prayer and fasting, singing hymns, and reading
from the Law (see Samaritans).

Bibliography : Hamburger, R. B. T. i., under VersShnung
und Vers6hnungstag ; Zunz, S. P. pp. 76-80; Sachs, Die
Religiose Poesie der Juden in Spanien , 1845, pp. 172 et seq. ;
Brueck, Pharistiische Volkssitten , 1855, pp. 135-146.

ATONEMENT, DAY OF (D'nMn Dl\ Yom
ha-Kippurim).— In Bible, Talmud, and Liturgy :

The term "HDD DV, “Yom Kippur,” is late rabbinic.

The Biblical laws relating to it are
Biblical found in Lev. xvi. (ceremonies); ib.

Data. xxiii. 26-32 (list of holidays) ; ib. xxv.

9 (ushering in the jubilee); Num.
xxix. 7-11 (sacrifices).

The Day of Atonement, according to Biblical tra-
dition, is one in the cycle of holidays instituted by
Moses. It occurs on the tenth day of the seventh
month, and is distinguished by abstaining thereon
from food (“ afflicting one’s soul ” ; compare Isa. 1 viii.
3, 5) and by an elaborate ceremonial. The details
of the ritual, in accordance with rabbinical interpre-
tation (Sifra and Raslii on Lev. xvi. ; Mishnah and
GemaraYoma; “Yad ”Hil. ‘Abodat Yom ha-Kippu-
rim ; Aslieri), proceed about as follows ; In the early
morning the high priest, in his robes
Ceremonies of office (described Ex. xxviii., xxxix.),
According offered the daily morning sacrifice
toBibleand (Num. xxix. 11; Ex. xxix. 38 et seq.)
Mishnah. and performed the ordinary morning
rite of dressing the lamps, which was
accompanied by an offering of incense (Ex. xxx. 7).
Next in order was the festival sacrifice of a bullock
and seven lambs (Num. xxix. 7 et seq.). Then
began the peculiar ceremonies of atonement, for
which the high priest put on special vestments of
linen (Lev. xvi. 4). With his hands placed on the head
of a bullock (contributed from his own means), he
made confession of his own sins and of those of his
nearer household (verse 6, see Raslii). The two goats
contributed by the people (verse 5) were placed be-
fore him, being designated by lot, the one for a sin-
offering “ for the Lord, ” and the other to be sent away
into the wilderness “ for Azazel ” (verses 7-10). Once
more the high priest made confession over his own
bullock, for himself and his wider household — his
brother priests (verse \\a). After killing the animal
(verse 116) and receiving its blood into a vessel, he
took a censer full of live coals from the altar of
burnt offering (Ex. xxvii. 1-8) and two handfuls of
fine incense into the sacred recess behind the cur-
tain, the Holy of Holies; there he placed the incense
on the coals, the cloud of incense enveloping the so-
called “ mercy -seat ” (verse 12 et seq.), and offered a
short prayer (Yoma v. 1). He returned for the ves-
sel containing the blood of the bullock and reentered,
sprinkling some of it with his finger eight times be-
tween the staves of the Ark (verse 14; Ex. xxv. 13-
15). He then left the sacred compartment to kill the
people’s goat (marked “ for the Lord ”) ; with its
blood he reentered the Holy of Holies, there to per-
form the same number of sprinklings in the same
place (verse 15).

By these rites the most holy place was rendered
free from all impurities attaching to it through the
intentional or unintentional entrance
Process of unclean persons into the sanctuary
of Purifica- (verse 16, see Raslii; Num. xix. 13,
tion. see Raslii). By sprinkling the bul-
lock’s blood and similarly that of the
goat eight times against the curtain, the entrance to
the Holy of Holies was purified (verse 166, see Raslii).
No one was permitted to remain in the sanctuary
while the high priest officiated in the Holy of Holies
(verse 17). The high priest then mixed the blood of
the bullock and goat, and put some of it on the four
corners of the altar of incense (Ex. xxx. 1-10); he
furthermore sprinkled some of it with his finger
seven times on the surface of the altar, cleaned of
its coal and ashes (verse 18 et seq.), while the re-
mainder was poured out at the base of the altar out-
side (Lev. iv. 7). The live goat was now brought
forward. The high priest laid his hand upon its
head and confessed ,l all the iniquities of the Israelites,
and all their transgressions, even all their sins,”
which were thus placed upon the goat’s head. Laden
with the people’s sins, the animal was sent away into
the wilderness (verses 20-22). The high priest then
took those portions that belonged on the altar out of
the bodies of the bullock and the goat, and placed
them temporarily in a vessel ; the carcasses of the ani-
mals were sent away “ to the place where the ashes
are thrown out ” (Lev. iv. 12) and burned there (verse
27 ; Yoma vi. 7). Clothed in his ordinary robes, the
high priest offered another goat for a sin-offering
(Num. xxix. 11), and two rams for a burnt offering,
one of which was contributed by himself (verse 24).
The altar portions of the bullock and goat were now
burned on the altar (verse 25; Yoma l.c. ; see Berti-
noro), and the daily evening sacrifice was offered
(Num. xxix. 11 ; Ex. xxix. 41). Once more the linen
garments were put on, for the high priest again re-
paired to the Holy of Holies in order to remove
thence the censer; the sacred vestments were then
deposited in the sanctuary. In his ordinary robes,
the high priest closed the service with the evening
rite of lighting the lamps, which was accompanied
by an offering of incense (Ex. xxx. 8; Yoma vii. 4).

In the Mishnah the ceremonial is further enriched
by elements having no Scriptural basis. Thus, be-
fore removing his linen garments for the first time,
the high priest read to the people portions from the
Pentateuch relating to the Day of Atonement (Yoma
vii. 1). The Mishnah reproduces the exact wording
of the three confessions (iii. 8, iv. 2, vi. 2); it states
also that as often as the high priest
Talmudical uttered the divine name (Tetragram-
Amplifi- maton), the assembled multitudes out-
cations. side, while prostrating themselves, re-
sponded : “ Blessed be the name of the
glory of His kingdom for ever and ever ” (vi. 2).
Much is also said about the preparations which the
high priest was to undergo during the week prece-
ding the fast-day, and the night previous to the great
day in particular; especially how he was to guard
against pollution (i. 1-7). So great, according to the
Mishnah (vii. 4), was the dread that some mishap
might befall the high priest while officiating in the
Holy of Holies, that at the conclusion of the service

Day of Atonement— Gkrm an Hite.

(From Plcart, 1723.)

Atonement, Day of

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286

lie was escorted home and congratulated by his
friends, whom in turn the priest was wont to enter-
tain iu the evening at a feast. Mirtli was indulged
in by the people in general; the young men and
maidens enjoyed themselves by dancing in the vine-
yards (Ta’anit iv. 8).

The Day of Atonement is the keystone of the sac-
rificial system of post-exilic Judaism. In the be-
lief that the great national misfortunes of the past
were due to the people’s sins, tile Jews of post-exilic
times strove to bring on the Messianic period of re-
demption by strictly and minutely guarding against
all manner of sin. The land being defiled by the sin
of the people, the pollution must be removed lest
the Divine Presence withdraw from among them.

Hence the sacrificial system with its
Place in sin- and guilt-offerings. While pro-
Post-Exilic vision was made for the expiation of
Judaism, the wrong-doings of individuals by
private offerings, the public sacrifices
atoned for the sins of the community. Especially
dangerous seemed the errors unwittingly committed
(Ps. xix. 13). On the Day of Atonement such sins
as may not have been covered by the various private
and public expiatory sacrifices were to be disposed
of by a general ceremony of expiation. In this
elaborate ceremonial, as described, the ordinary rites
of the sin-offering are to be discerned in an intensi-
fied form. In every sacrifice there is the idea of sub-
stitution; the victim takes the place of the human
sinner. The laying of hands upon the victim’s head
is an ordinary rite by which the substitution and the
transfer of sins are effected ; on the Day of Atone-
ment the animal laden with the people’s sins was
sent abroad (compare the similar rite on the recovery
of a leper, Lev. xiv. 7; see Azazei,). The sprin-
kling of the blood is essential to all sin-offerings. By
dipping his finger in the victim’s blood and apply-
ing it to a sacred object like the altar, the priest re-
establishes the union between the people that he rep-
resents and the Deity.

In rabbinic Judaism the Day of Atonement com-
pletes the penitential period of ten days ('O' mtf’J?

mitl'D) that begins with New-Year’s
Place in Day, the season of repentance and
Rabbinic prayer; for though prayerful liumilia-
Judaism. tion be acceptable at all times, it is pe-
culiarly potent at that time (R. II. 18a;
Maimonides,“ Yad,” Teshubah, ii. 6). It is customary
to rise early (commencing a few days before New-
Year); the morning service is preceded by litaniesand
petitions of forgiveness (nin'^D, “selihot”) which,
on the Day of Atonement, are woven into the liturgy
(Shulhan ‘Aruk, Orah Hayyim, 581; Zunz, “S. P. ”
76 at seq.). New-Year’s and Atonement days are
days of serious meditation (D'NTiJ D’D\ “awful
days,” Zunz, “S. P.” 82, note). The former is the
annual day of judgment (pH DVO- when all creatures
pass in review before the searching eye of Omnis-
cience (R. H. i. 2). According to the Targum, the
day of the heavenly session in Job i. 6 et seq. was no
other than the first of the year (Nn‘iP resli

shatta ; see also Zoliar Ex. 326, ed. Wilna, 1882).
Accordingly, the Divine Judge receives on that day
the report of Satan, arch-fiend and accuser in heaven ;
the other angels, it is presumed, are friendly to the

accused, and plead their cause before the august
tribunal. The sounds of the “shofar” are intended
to confuse Satan (R. H. 166). There is, indeed, in
heaven a book wherein the deeds of every human
being are minutely entered (Abot ii. 1, iii. 16; a
book of record, “book of remembrance,” is alluded
to, Dial. iii. 16). Three books are opened on the first
day of the year, says the Talmud (R. II. 166) ; one
for the thoroughly wicked, another for the thor-
oughly pious, and the third for the large intermedi-
ate class. The fate of the thoroughly wicked and
the thoroughly pious is determined on the spot; the
destiny of the intermediate class is suspended until
the Day of Atonement, when the fate of every man
is sealed (R. II. 16«). In the liturgical piece “Une-
tanneli Tokef,” ascribed to R. Amnon of TMayence
(Zunz, “ Literaturgescli.” p. 107), a still weirder scene
is unfolded :

“God, seated on His throne to judge the world, at the same
time Judge, Pleader, Expert, and Witness, openeth the Book of
Records ; it is read, every man’s signature being found therein.
The great trumpet is sounded ; a still, small voice is heard ; the
angels shudder, saying, this is the day of judgment : for His very
ministers are not pure before God. Asa shepherd mustereth his
flock, causing them to pass under his rod, so doth God cause
every living soul to pass before Him to flx the limit of every
creature’s life and to foreordain its destiny. On New-Year’s
Day the decree is written ; on the Day of Atonement it is sealed
who shall live and who are to die, etc. But penitence, prayer,
and charity may avert the evil decree.”

All depends on whether a man’s merits outweigh
the demerits put to his account (Maimonides, “ Yad,”
Teshubah, iii. 3). It is therefore desirable to multi-
ply good deeds before the final account on the Day
of Atonement (ib. iii. 4). Those that are found
worthy are entered in the Book of Life (Ex. xxxii.
32; Isa. iv. 3; Ps. lxix. 29 [A. Y. 28] ; Dan. xii. 1;
see Charles, “Book of Enoch,” pp. 131-133). Hence
the prayer: “Enter us in the Book of Life” (UDrD,
“inscribe us”; but lionri, “seal us,” that is, “seal
our fate ” — in the closing prayer on the Day of
Atonement). Hence also the formula of salutation
on New-Year’s Eve: “May you be inscribed [in
the Book of Life] for a happy year.” In letters
written between New-Year and the Day of Atone-
ment, the writer usually concludes by wishing the
recipient that God may seal his fate for happiness
(ruiO TO’Tin IDJ). Thus, in late Judaism, features
that were originally peculiar to New-Year’s Day
were transferred to the Day of Atonement. The be-
lief that on the first day of the year the destiny of
all human beings was fixed was also that of the As-
syrians. Marduk is said to come at the beginning
of the year(“rish shatti”) and decide the fate of
one’s life (Schrader, “K. B.” iii., second div., 14 et
seq.).

The Day of Atonement survived the cessation of
the sacrificial cult (in the year 70). “ Though no sac-

rifices be offered, the day in itself ef-
Rabbinic fects atonement” (Sifra, Emor, xiv.).
Aspects of Yet both Sifra and the Mislmali teach

Atone- that the day avails nothing unless
ment. repentance be coupled with it (Yoma
viii. 8). Repentance was the indis-
pensable condition for all the various means of atone-
ment. Repentance must unquestionably accompany
a guilt- or sin-offering (Lev. v. 5 ; Maimonides, “ D ad, ”
Teshubah, i. 1). Penitent confession was a requisite

Day of Atonement Before Metz, 1870, as Observed by the Jewish Soldiers in the German Army. p. 387

Atonement, Day of
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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

288

for expiation through capital or corporal punishment
(Sanli. vi. 2; Maimonides, ib. ). “The Day of Atone-
ment absolves from sins against God, but not from
sins against a fellow man unless the pardon of the
offended person be secured ” (Yoma viii. 9). Hence
the custom of terminating on the eve of the fast-
day all feuds and disputes (Yoma 87 a; Maimonides,
f&.ii.9 etseq. ). Even the souls of the dead are included
in the community of those pardoned on the Day of
Atonement, It is customary for children to have
public mention made in the synagogue of their de-
parted parents, and to make charitable gifts on be-
half of their souls (Slmlhan ‘Aruk, Orali Hayyim,
621, 6). But no amount of charity will avail the
soul of a wicked man (Ture Zahab to Skulhan ‘Aruk,
Yoreli De'ali, 249, note 5).

hatred, ill-feeling, and all ignoble thoughts, seeks to
be occupied exclusively with things spiritual. How-
ever rigorously the rabbinical law may insist on the
outward manifestation of contrition, the corrective
is provided for in the lessons from the Prophets (Isa.
lviii. ; Jonah; seeTa‘anit ii. 1), which teach that the
true fast-day in which God delights is a spirit of de-
votion. kindliness, and penitence. The serious char-
acter impressed upon the day from the time of its
institution has been preserved to the present day.
No matter how much else has fallen into desuetude,
so strong is its hold upon the Jewish conscience that
no Jew, unless he have cut himself entirely loose
from the synagogue, will fail to observe the Day of
Atonement by resting from his daily pursuits and
attending service in the synagogue. With a few

Jews Confessing Their Sins in the Prayer "ashamnu’’ in a New York (East Sioe) Synagogue.

(From a photograph by Mandelkern.)

The service in the synagogue opens in the evening
"with the Iyol Nidre. The devotions during the
day are continuous from morning until
The evening. Much prominence is given
Liturgy, to the liturgical pieces in which the
Temple ceremonial is recounted (‘ Ano-
dau service; Zunz, “Literaturgesch.” pp. 27 et seq.,
64 et seq.). Ibn Gabirol’s JTD^D m3 (“Crown of
Royalty ”) skilfully deals with the problem of sin ; it
is appended to the Sephardic liturgy for the evening
service, and is also read by the more devout in the
Ashkenazic synagogues. In the center of the older
liturgy is the confession of sins. “For we are not so
bold of face and stiff-necked as to say to Thee, We
are righteous and have not sinned; but, of a truth,
we are sinners. . . . May it be Thy will that I sin
no more ; be pleased to purge away my past sins, ac-
cording to Thy great mercy, only not through severe
chastisements.” The traditional melodies with their
plaintive tones endeavor to give expression alike to
the individual’s awe before the uncertainties of fate
and to a people’s moan for its departed glories. On
the Day of Atonement the pious Jew becomes for-
getful of the flesh and its wants, and, banishing

exceptions, the service even of the Reformed syna-
gogue is continuous through the day.

Critical View : The Pentateuclial references to

the Day of Atonement cited in the preceding belong
to the Priestly Code, but by no means to one and the
same stratum. Lev. xvi., which is entirely devoted
to the subject of the fast -day, is apparently composite
in origin, as is shown by the incongruity at the be-
ginning: “Aaron shall not enter the Holy of Holies
at all times” (verse 2); he may, liow-
Analysis of ever, it may be inferred, go in at stated
Sources, intervals. But the immediate sequel
(verses 3 et seq.) rather says : With such
and such ceremonies Aaron may go in; only toward
the end (verses 29-34) reference is made to the annual
celebration of a Day of Atonement. The rabbinical
interpretation is obviously harmonistic (see Rashi on
verses 2 et seq.); yet there are dissenting voices (see
Lev. R . § 21; Ex. R., § 38) which maintain that,
while entering the Holy of Holies is obligator}- on
the Day of Atonement, the high priest may go in at
all times provided he carry out the ceremonies pre-
scribed. Observe also the repetitions in verses 6 and
1 la ; hence the duplicated confession in the Mishnah,

289

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Atonement, Day of
Attar, Ibn

verses 29 a and 34rt. According to the analysis of
Benzinger(in Stade’s “ Zeitschrift, ” 1889, pp. 65—89),
the chapter is made up of three dis-
Analysis of tinct strata: (1) verses 1-4, G, 12, 13, 34 b
Lev. xvi. (omitting several glosses), dealing with
the manner (no matter what the occa-
sion) of Aaron’s entering the Holy of Holies; (2)
verses 29J-34«, a law very much like that of Lev.
xxiii. 26 et seq., prescribing the annual observance
of a day of fasting and rest, on which the sanctuary
aud the people are to be purified, presumably by such
simple rites of atonement as those carried out on the
occasion of the dedication of the tabernacle (Lev. ix. ;
the Day of Atonement is thus an annual occasion of
rededication) ; (3) verses 5, 7-10, 14-28, of later date
than (2), ordaining a more elaborate ceremonial.
With (3) goes Ex. xxx. 10. Lev. xxv. 96 is probably
a gloss (the surrounding text mainly belongs to II).
No mention is made of the Day of Atonement in the
older codes, J, E, and D (Ex. xxiii. 14-17; xxiv. 18,
22 et seq. ; Deut. xvi. 1-17).

it assumed in the times subsequent to Ezra. Sec also
Liturgy, Sin.

Bibmoorapht : Yoma: Mishnab, Talmud, and Asheri; Mai-
raonides, am' mtap, inry nmats-. and : Tut and Slntl-
han 'Aruk.Orah ffayyim , 602-624 ; Nowack, 'Hehr. Arclut-

ologie, 1894, ii. 183-194 ; Driver, Leviticus, English transla-
tion and notes, in S. Ii. (). T.\ Jastrow, in American Journal
of Theology , 1898, i. 312 et seq.; B. Weohsler, Zur Oeschichte
tier Verslih nun gsf e irr, in Geiger’s Jlhl. Zeit. 1803, pp. 113
125; S. Adler, in Stade’s Zeitschrift, ii. 178 et seq., 272.

J. JK. M. L. M.

ATTAH HORE’TA (nxin nnX) (Deut. iv. 35):
The first of a series of versifies, seventeen in num-
ber, chanted on the Rejoicing of the Law in the
Northern ritual, before the scrolls are taken from the
Ark for the “ hakkafot ” or processional circuits.
The chant resemblesa Gregorian psalm-tone in struc-
ture, and falls in the first ecclesiastical mode (I) to
Don the natural notes). But the intonation, media-
tion, and ending of the Hebrew chant diverge from
the rules of the plain-song, and show that it is sim-
ply another utilization of that antique and peculiarly
Oriental cadence around the fifth degree of the minor

ATTAH HORE’TA

At - tab hore’ta la - da - ‘at Ki Adonai hu ha-elo - him, en ‘od mil-l’ba-do.

The beginnings of the institution may in the crit-
ical view be sought for in Ezekiel. In addition to t he
festivals of Passover and Tabernacles,
History of the prophet ordains two days in the
the In- year on which the sanctuary may be
stitution. cleansed, by the sprinkling of a bul-
lock’s blood, from all impurities occa-
sioned through inadvertence: the first day of the
first month, and the first day of the seventh (so read
with LXX; Ezek. xlv. 18-20); that is, with the be-
ginning of both the civil (in the spring) and the ec-
clesiastical year (in aut umn). It appears (from Lev.
xxv. 9; Ezek. xl. 1) that the new-year was then
made to begin with the tenth day of the month. In
the Pentateuchal legislation the second alone of Eze-
kiel's Days of Atonement is kept; it is at the same
time transferred to the tenth day of the month, while
the first day is made into New-Year’s Day, the two
days changing places. From the simple rites pre-
scribed by the prophet of the Exile to the elaborate
ceremonial of the latest strata in P, there is, how-
ever, a lengthy process. Stated days of fasting,
mentioned for the first time by Zechariah (vii. 1-5),
clearly refer to the anniversaries of national calami-
ties (the murder of Gedaliah took place in the seventh
month ; Jer. xli. 1). No other regular day of fasting
was known to the prophet; otherwise he would have
mentioned it when he reiterated the indifference of
the old prophets to outward ceremonial. Even when
Ezra comes to Palestine in the year 444, a day of
fasting is observed, not on the tenth but on the
twenty-fourth of the seventh month, and by no
means according to the ceremonial of Lev. xvi. (Nell,
ix. 1). The law of Ezra may have contained the
simpler prescription of Lev. xxiii. 26 et seq., and the
corresponding stratum in chapter xvi. ; the day was
certainly not considered then of the importance that
II.— 19

scale which is closely associated with the Feast of
Tabernacles; and it appears also in the melody sung
by the cantor while waving the palm-branch (Lt i.ab)
during the Haller on the first days (see Music,
Synagogal), and in the melody for the Rain-Prayer
(Geshem) introducing the Musaf of the eighth day
(Shemini ‘Azeret). By some Polish cantors this
characteristic cadence is further freely employed in
the services of the Days of Penitence.

a. ' F. L. C.

ATTAI : 1 . Son of the Egyptian Jarha, to whom
Sheshan the Jerahmeelite gave his daughter to wife
(I Chron. ii. 35, 36).

2. A Gadite chieftain who joined the forces of
David at Ziklag (I Chron. xii. 11).

3. A son of Rehoboam, and Maachah, the daugh-
ter of Absalom (II Chron. xi. 20).

J. jr. G. B. L.

ATTAR, IBN : A family name among the Seph-
ardic Jews. In Arabic the word “attar” means
“apothecary” or “spice-dealer”; but it is found
Hebraized, and applied in its original sense as an
epithet, as early as 1150 (Harkavy, “Meassef Nidda-
liim,” p. 83; compare also Zunz, “Z. G.” p. 521;

~IDJ? occurs in Neubauer, “Cat. Bodl. Hebr.
MSS.” No. 2142, 32, “Raba Attare”). From the
fourteenth century (see No. 11, below) the prefix
“ibn” is employed with “Attar,” although “Attar”
alone coexists as the name of a possibly different
family The Attars were especially numerous iu
northern Africa; and among the Sephardim in
Amsterdam, Italy, and Palestine to-day the name is
represented by such forms as “Abenatar,” “Abea-
tar," and “Benattar.” In Hebrew the name usually
takes the form itoj? pX, also “IXIOX'IIX (Halber-
stamm, “Cat. Hebr. Handschrif ten, ” p. 80, line 2),

Attar, Ibn
Attestation

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

290

which latter is not a clerical error, as Steinschneider
thinks, but a form of the name borne by many indi-
viduals, as is evident from the spelling “Abeatar ”
in De Castro’s epitaphs (see his “ Iveur van Graf-
steenen,” pp. 25, 26). The Amsterdam branch of the
family has frequently intermarried with that of
Melo, although the exact relationship of these fam-
ilies is by no means clear. The connection of the
various individual bearers of this name is also at
times obscure, although the majority of them prob-
ably belong to the same family. The following
list enumerates twenty-two Attars distinguished in
literature from the fourteenth to the eighteenth
century :

1. Abraham Abenatar Melo: Student at the
rabbinical academy Iveter Shem-Tob, in Amsterdam,
toward the end of the seventeenth century ; proba-
bly a nephew or a son of Emanuel Abenatar (Kay-
serling, “Sephardim,” p. 175).

2. Abraham b. Jacob ibn Attar: Cabalist
and Talmudist; flourished in Morocco in the begin-
ning of the seventeenth century. He was the grand-
father of Judah b. Jacob ibn Attar I. (Nacht,
“Mekor Hayyim,” p. 34).

3. Amram Meshullam b. Jacob Attar: Al-
gerian payyetan. Luzzato (“Ozar Tob,” 1880, p.
64) calls him “Amar,” for which Steinschneider
reads “Attar,” in “Jew. Quart. Rev.” xi. 342.

4. David Abenatar : Lived in Amsterdam at
the beginning of the seventeenth century (De Castro,
l.c. p. 24). (A David Benattar was rabbi in Tunis
about the middle of the nineteenth century. — Cazes,
“ Notes Bibliographiques,” p. 195.)

5. David Abenatar Melo. See Melo, David
Abenatar.

6. Emanuel Abenatar Melo. See Melo,
Emanuel Abenatar.

7. Hayyim ibn Attar : Moroccan rabbi, fa-
mous for his learning, philanthropy, and piety. He
flourished in Sale toward the end of the seventeenth
century, but left that town, on the occasion of a
rising against the Jews, and settled in Miguenez,
where a college was established for him by the
learned and wealthy Moses b. Isaac de Avila, from
which institution many learned rabbis were gradu-
ated. One of his grandsons was Hayyim b. Moses ibn
Attar (No. 8); compare Nacht, “Mekor Hayyim,”
pp. 2, 3. (A payyetan, Hayyim Abeatar, is men-
tioned in Halberstamm, l.c. p. 88, line 2.)

g. L. G.

8. Hayyim ben Moses ibn Attar : Talmud-
ist and cabalist ; born at Sale, Morocco, in 1696:
died at Jerusalem July 6, 1743. He was one of
the most prominent rabbis in Morocco. Ten years
before his death he left his native city for Eu-
rope, to publish his voluminous manuscripts and, in
accordance with rabbinical usages, to submit them
for approbation (“liaskamah ”) to the leading author-
ities. He was everywhere received with great honor,
due to his wide learning, keen intellect, and unusual
piety. In the middle of 1742 he arrived at Jerusa-
lem, where he presided at the bet ha-midrash Kene-
set Yisrael. One of his disciples there was Hayyim
Joseph David Azulai, who seems to have been com-
pletely overwhelmed by the excellencies of his mas-
ter. In a truly Oriental strain he wrote of him:

“ Attar’s heart pulsated with Talmud; he uprooted
mountains like a resistless torrent; his holiness was
that of an angel of the Lord, . . . having severed all
connection with the affairs of this world.”

He published: (1) “ Hefez Adonai ” (God’s Desire),
Amsterdam, 1732 — dissertations on the four Tal-
mudic treatises Berakot, Shabbat, Horayot, and
Hullin. (2) “Or lia-Hayyim” (The Light of Life),
Venice, 1742 — a commentary on the Pentateuch after
the four methods known collectively as Pardes; it
was reprinted several times. His renown is based
chiefly on this work, which became popular also
with the Hasidim. (3) “ Peri Toar ” (Beautiful Fruit),
novelise on the Shullian ‘Aruk, Yoreli De‘ah, dealing
especially with Hiskiali de Silva’s commentary
“ Peri Hadash,” Amsterdam, 1742; Vienna and Lem-
berg, 1810. (4) “Rishon le-Zion,” Constantinople,

1750 — consisting of novelise to several Talmudic
treatises, on certain portions of the Shullian ‘Aruk,
on the terminology of Maimonides, on the five Me-
gillot, on the Prophets and on Proverbs. (5) Under
the same title were published at Polna, 1804, his
notes on Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Isaiah, etc. See
Kuttower, Abraham Gershon.

Bibliography: Michael. Or ha-Hayyim , No. 894: Benjacob,

Ozar ha-Sefarim, p. 541; Lunez, in Jerusalem, i. 122 (epi-
taphs); Nacht, Mekor Hayyim, Hebrew biography of ‘Attar,

Drohobycz, 1898; Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim; Franco, His-

toire des Israelites cV Orient.

L. G. M. B.

9. Isaac Attar : Talmudist of the eighteenth
century, mentioned by Abraham Ankava in his
“Kerem Hemed,” Nos. 155, 167.

10. Jacob Abenatar : Member of the governing
body of the Spanish-Portuguese congregation in
Amsterdam in the year 1749 (De Castro, l.c. p. 39).

11. Jacob b. Abraham ibn Attar: Earliest
known member of this family. He wrote a super-
commentary upon Raslii to the Pentateuch, com-
pleting it in 1436. The manuscript is preserved in
the Leuwarden Library, Holland (see Neubauer, in
Roest’s “Letterbode,” ii. 83).

12. Jacob ibn Attar: Died March 24, 1583.
Saadia Longo composed a poetical epitaph on Jacob
which was published by Edelman in his “Dibre
Hefez,” p. 14, and which described Jacob as a great
scholar and influential man. He is perhaps identi-
cal with Jacob, the father of Abraham b. Jacob ibn
Attar (Nacht, l.c. p. 34).

13. Joseph ibn Attar: Leader in the Jewish

community of Lisbon shortly before the expulsion
of the Jews from Portugal (Samuel b. Moses de
Medina, Responsa, No. 371). L. G.

14. Judah ben Jacob I. ibn Attar : Rabbi and
author; lived at Fez in Morocco toward the end
of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eight-
eenth century. His name is found attesting a
pamphlet in the year 1700. He was chief rabbi of
Fez and enjoyed the reputation of a profound Tal-
mudist and saintly man. Popularly he was sup-
posed to have wielded miraculous powers; his biog-
rapher, Azulai, narrates that, being thrown once
into a cage of lions, he remained there for twenty-
four hours and then left it unharmed. He wrote in
1715 a work entitled “Minhat Yehudah” (Judah’s
Offering), containing Midrashic explanations to va-
rious passages in the Pentateuch, portions only of

291

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Attar, Ibn
Attestation

which have been published by Judah Koriyyat in
his “Ma’or we-Sliemesh,” 1838.

Bibliography: Azulai, Slietn ha-Gedolim , i. s.v.. ii. s.v.

min' nruD; Steinscbneider, Cat. Boill. No. 5685: the same,

Hebr. Bibl. xvi. 60; Nacbt, Mekor Hayyim, pp. 34-40.

M. K.— G.

15. Judah, b. Jacob II: Equally renowned as a
Talmudist and secular scholar; flourished, probably
at the end of the fourteenth century, in Spain. The
Greek Joseph Kilti (or Kelti) dedicated to him a
philosophical work, “Minhat Yehudali ” (Zotenberg,
“Cat. des Manuscrits Hebr. de la Bibliotlieque Im-
periale,” No. 707, 2). Carmoly (in Jost’s “ Annalen,”
1839, p. 163) designates him as a Spanish exile, but
without reason, for Kilti, in his dedication, speaks
of him simply as “the Sephardi” (compare “Litera-
turblatt des Orients,” x. 708).

16. Mordecai b. Reuben ibn Attar : Ar-
ranged with the printer Proops of Amsterdam to
print the “ Azharot ” of Solomon ibn Gabirol and of
Isaac b. Reuben ; they were accordingly published
in 1721 (Steinsclineider, “Jiidische Typographic,”
p. 72). He is probably distinct from the Mordecai
ibn Attar mentioned in the Responsa, “Mishpatim
Yesharim,” of Raphael Birdugu, p. 102.

17. Moses b. Hayyim : Talmudist of Miguenez,
about 1700. Son of Hayyim (No. 7) and father of
the celebrated Talmudist and cabalist Hayyim (No.
8). His daughter married Samuel b. Moses de Avila.

18. Moses b. Shem-Tob ibn Attar : Talmud-
ist and philanthropist; died in Fez 1725. Moses,
a man of great wealth and learning, distinguished
himself by his philanthropy in founding schools for
poor children, which he maintained. He was the
father-in-law of Hayyim b. Moses ibn Attar and the
son of Shem-Tob, who was the brother of Hayyim.

19. Obed b. Judah ibn Attar: Flourished in
the seventeenth century; sou of Judah (No. 14).
He wrote a preface to his father’s work, “Shir Mik-
tam,” and narrates many details of the latter’s life.

20. Samuel ibn Attar : Published in 1605 the
well-known little book, “ Hibbur Ma’asiyot ” (Collec-
tion of Stories). He is erroneously considered the
author of the work “ Zarzir Mat.nayyim ” (Stein-
schneider, “Cat. Bodl.” col. 2408).

21. Shem-Tob ibn Attar: Talmudist, men-
tioned by Ankava, l.c. No. 235. Perhaps identical
with Shem-Tob ibn Attar, the brother of Hay-
yim ibn Attar, equally renowned as Talmudist and
philanthropist. When he died (1700) the community
of Fez sent a letter of condolence to his brother
Hayyim, which is still existing in the Berlin Library
(Nacht, l.c. p. 8).

22. Solomon ibn Attar : Distinguished and
learned Tunisian ; lived at the end of the eighteenth
century. He is mentioned in Jacob Fetussi’s work,
“Berit Ya’akob,” Leghorn, 1800 (Cazes, l.c. p. 183).
Bibliography : Nacht, Mekor Hayyim , pp. 2, 34 : Stein -

schneuler. Introduction to the Arabic Liteiature of the

Jews , in Jew. Quart. Rev. xi. 341-343.

G. L. G.

ATTESTATION OF DOCUMENTS (Hati-
mah) ; The general rule of evidence is that a fact
can be established only by the testimony of two wit-
nesses. With the introduction of writing and the
custom of making written records of the transac-
tions, the strictness of the rule requiring the actual

presence of the witnesses to deliver their testimony
orally was relaxed, and a written instrument setting
forth the fact and subscribed by two witnesses was
considered evidence of equal validity. In Jewish
law a written instrument by which a person bound
himself to do or pay something was usually pre-
pared by the witnesses or under their direction, and
not by the person charged thereby ; nor did the
debtor or obligor, as a rule, sign the instrument.
The distinction, therefore, between the attestation of
witnesses in Jewish law and in modern law lies in
the fact that in the latter the subscribing witnesses
attest the genuineness of the signature of the debtor,
whereas in Jewish law they attest the fact that the
transaction purported in the instrument to have oc-
curred actually did occur. It is the substance of the
instrument, and not the signature of the obligor, that
is proved by the attestation of the subscribing wit-
nesses. The formula of attestation varies. An ap-
proved formula is the following:

"We [the witnesses] have taken symbolic possession [“Kin-

yan sudar ”] from the son of according

to all which is written and expressed above, with an article that

may be used for taking symbolic possession, this day

of ; and all is fixed and established.

“ the son of a witness.

" the son of a witness."

An older formula reads simply:

“ We have written and signed our names here on this [date] ;
and all is fixed and established."

[Names of witnesses.]

Inasmuch as the testimony of the subscribing wit-
nesses goes to the substance of the instrument, the
formalities required are numerous; and great strict-
ness is observed in enforcing them, although such
strictness is relaxed in the cases of bills of divorce
and bills of manumission of slaves.

The witnesses must read the document word for
word before they sign it. It is not sufficient if some
one else reads it to them, though some authorities
are of the opinion that it may be read to them by two
other persons. If the document is prepared in a lan-
guage unknown to one of the witnesses, and has
been translated for him, the document is valid (Shul-
han ‘Aruk, Hoslien Mishpat, 45, 2).

Mode of The witnesses must know both parties
At- and their names, or have them properly
testation, identified by others, for the obvious
reason that in the absence of the sig-
nature of the party bound, fraud in the preparation
of the instrument would be more possible. In the
case of a bill of sale or an instrument of indebted-
ness, the later law somewhat relaxed the rule, and
provided that the witnesses need know only the
seller or the debtor, these being the persons to be
bound respectively by these instruments ( ib . 49, 2).
According to Maimonides, however, the strict rule
requiring the witnesses to know both parties can
not be relaxed (“Yad,” Malweh, xxiv. 3). The wit-
nesses must sign theirown names; and illiterate wit-
nesses, unable to write, are incompetent; thus, even
if some one have traced the signature for the wit-
ness and the latter have written the letters over the
tracing, it is invalid ; although some authorities are
of the opinion that in such cases the witness is con-
sidered competent, especially so in cases of bills of
divorce.

Attestation

Attorney

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

292

Au attestation in the form “A. B. has authorized
me to sign for him” is invalid, because of the gen-
eral reason that the subscription of the witness is
equivalent to testimony delivered in open court, and
hence must be direct, and not hearsay. In some
communities it became customary for public scribes
to prepare all documents; in such cases the wit-
nesses appeared before the scribe and, if illiterate,
directed and authorized the scribe to sign for them.
The formula in such cases was: “A. B. has author-
ized me to sign this document for him ” ; and where
such custom prevailed, such attestation was consid-
ered valid (Shulhan ‘Aruk, Hoslien Mislipat, 45, 5).

A peculiar rule of the Jewish law was that the
signatures of the witnesses must be affixed at a dis-
tance of less than two lines from the body of the in-
strument. The history of this rule is interesting.
The older Talmudic law, which had no special for-
mula for documents whereby the end of the body of
the document could be fixed beyond
Connection the danger of any addition thereto
with Body after the witnesses had subscribed, at-

of Deed, tempted to prevent the addition of such
matter by the rule quoted by Rah
Amram, “ The last line proves nothing ” (B. B.
162«); meaning that if any matter of importance was
brought into the last line of the document, it signi-
fied nothing, because it was presumed that this last
line had been interpolated, as the witnesses rarely
signed their names so closely to the body of the doc-
ument as not to leave a space wide enough for an
interpolation.

Another rule is cited in the name of Rabbi Jo-
lianan : “ Some of the substance of the document is
repeated in the last line ” (B. B. 1615). Thus, by
summing up what had already appeared in the body
of the document, the last line becomes of no impor-
tance whatever except as an indication of the end of
the instrument. If, therefore, the signature of the
witness is at a distance of a line or a little more than
a line from the body of the instrument, no interpola-
tion could take place. But if the signatures are two
lines distant, then interpolation could take place, be-
cause in the first of these two lines some matter of
importance could be added, and in the second the
formula of repetition could be written. Hence the
necessity for the rule that, in order to prevent any
interpolation of this sort, the witnesses must sign
within the distance of two lines from the body of
the instrument, or the instrument is absolutely void
(Hoslien Mislipat, l.c. 6). The formula “ Everything
is fixed and established ” (D'pl TIES' 73 HI) is univer-
sally recognized as the end of the instrument, and,
as anything appearing thereafter would be imme-
diately recognized as an interpolation, the strictness
of the above rule seems to be unnecessary ; yet the
rule was nevertheless not relaxed, upon the ground
that that which is not done according to the ordi-
nance of the sages is not valid (“Be’er ha-Golah ” on
Hoshcn Mislipat, l.c.).

An instrument of indebtedness duly attested by
two witnesses is in some respects equivalent in its
effect to an instrument which has been made a mat-
ter of public record at modern law. The debt thus
secured becomes a lieu on the property of the debtor;
and the creditor may follow such property for the

purpose of collecting his claim, even though the
property has been transferred to third persons bona
fide, because all persons are presumed

Deeds of to take such property subject to the
Indebted- lien of the debt, since the instrument
ness. of indebtedness attested by two wit-
nesses is deemed to be such publi-
cation of the debt as to be legal notice to all the
world (B. B. x. 8).

The rule of law providing that at least two wit-
nesses must subscribe does not imply that the docu-
ment has greater validity if more than two subscribe.
It is simply a rule providing for a proper form of
attestation ; and two witnesses are sufficient. Au in-
strument attested by only one witness is equivalent
to the oral testimony of one witness; and if the obli-
gation is repudiated by the person bound by the in-
strument, he is obliged to take the oath of purgation
(B. B. x. 1 ; Hoslien Mislipat, 51, 2). For although
the instrument does not create a perfect obligation
by reason of the fact that there is but one witness, it
nevertheless raises the presumption of indebtedness,
which the debtor is obliged to meet by taking the
oath that he does not owe anything.

If a duly signed instrument is delivered in the
presence of two witnesses, even though they are
not the signers of the document, the creditor
may follow the property of the debtor (ib. 7) ; al-
though some authorities do not concede the same
validity to the document that is delivered in the
presence of two as to the one that is subscribed by
two (“Beer Ileteb” on Hoslien Mislipat, l.c.). If a
document is signed by a number of witnesses, some
of whom are incompetent, some authorities require
evidence that the witnesses last subscribing are com-
petent (ib. 45, 12, gloss); but the general rule seems to
be that if there are among the signers two witnesses
who are competent, the instrument is valid, no mat-
ter in what order they have signed, unless it can be
proved that all the signers have been simultaneously
called to sign the document {ib. text). If there are
only two witnesses, and one of them is incompetent,
the instrument is invalid, even if it has been deliv-
ered in the presence of two qualified witnesses (Mai -
monides, “Yad,” ‘Edut, xiv. 6; see Shullian ‘Aruk,
Eben ha-‘Ezer, 130, 17).

According to the Talmudic principle, where Jew-
ish and non-Jewish laws differ, and the Jew is sub-
rogated to the rights of the non-Jew, the case is de-
cided according to the non-Jewish law ; hence, if a
non-Jew has sold an instrument of indebtedness to a
Jew, it is the prevailing opinion of the jurists that
the rights of the Jew are determined according to
the non-Jewish law (Hoslien Mislipat, 66, 25). If
such instrument of indebtedness is signed by the
witnesses at a distance of more than two lines from
the body of the instrument, this does not invalidate
such instrument, if the same is valid according to
non-Jewish law (ib. 45, 17).

As stated above, the strictness of the rules con-
cerning attestation of instruments is somewhat re-
laxed in the cases of bills of divorce and bills of man-
umission of slaves, since these instruments were
always construed liberally in favor of the slave to
be freed from bondage or the woman to be freed
from matrimony. The subscription of the witnesses

293

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Attestation

Attorney

to the Get was ordained by Rabban Gamaliel as a
matter of public policy, in order to facilitate the
proof of legal documents (Git. iv. 3);

Bills but after this ordinance it was still for a
of Divorce long time maintained by the authorities
and Manu- that where there were no subscribing
mission, witnesses, but the get had been prop-
erly delivered to the wife in the
presence of witnesses, it was valid, and could be
proved by the witnesses of the delivery (ib. ix. 4).
Although the general rule required that the witnesses
should be personally acquainted with the parties,
yet in cases where the exigencies of the situation
made it impossible to follow the usual formalities, a
bill of divorce was permitted to be delivered to the
wife, even though the witnesses did not personally
know the parties (Git. 66a). If the witnesses did
not sign their full names, or omitted the words “ a
witness,” following their names, it was nevertheless
presumed that they wrote their names with the in-
tention of being witnesses to the document, and
hence the attestation was deemed valid (ib. ix. 8).

There was one exception to the general rule that
two witnesses are sufficient to attest any instrument:
this was a curious form of a bill of divorce known
as “the folded get.” It was prepared in the fol-
lowing manner: A line was written, the parchment
was then folded and fastened, and a witness signed
on the back of the fold ; then another line was writ-
ten, and the parchment again folded and fastened,
and this fold likewise attested by another witness;
and as there were not less than three folds, there
could not be less than three witnesses (B. B. x. 1, 2),
because of the rule that the folded get must have as
many witnesses as it has folds; and if one fold was
blank, the get was called “ a bald get, ” and was void
(Git. viii. 9, 10). This form, however, was no longer
used in Talmudic times. Such instruments are
declared absolutely void by the later law (Hoslien
Mishpat, 42, 1, gloss).

Bibliography: Frankel, Der Gerichtliche Bcwcis, pp. 399 et
seq.; Bloch, Die Civil-Process-Ordiiuiiy, pp. 53 et seq.;
Klein. Das Gesetz liber das Gerichtliche Bcweisvcrfahren,
pp. 17 et seq. ; Amrain, Jewish Law of Divorce, pp. 171 et
scq. See also the articles Divorce, Deeds, Documents,
Evidence.

j. sr. D. W. A.

ATTIA, ISAAC B. ISAIAH : Talmudic schol-
ar; lived in Aleppo in the nineteenth century. He
was the author of the following works, published in
Leghorn, 1821-31: (1) “Eshet Hayil ” (A Virtuous
Woman), explaining Prov. xxxi. ; (2) “ Wayikra
Yizhak ” (And Isaac Called), annotations on the
Pentateuch, divided into three parts, the last two of
which are entitled “ Doresli Tob ” (He Who Preaches
Well) and “ ‘Ekeb ‘Anawali” (For Modesty’s Sake);
(3) “ Mesharet Mosheli ” (The Servant of Moses), con-
taining novelise on Maimonides’ Yad ha-Hazakah
and its commentaries ; (4) “ Rob Dagan ” (Abundance
of Corn), with an appendix, “ Ot leTobah” (A Sign of
Good), on different lialakic subjects, divided into two
parts and arranged in alphabetical order ; (5) “ Tannia
we-Shayar” (He Taught and Left Unexplained),
and (6) “ Pene lia-Mayim” (The Surface of the Water) ;
two volumes of annotations on the Pentateuch.
Bibliography: Zedner, Cat. Hebr. Books Brit. Mm. p. 62;
Bibliotheca Frieulandiaita , p. 126.

L. 6. I- Br.

ATTORNEY : A legal representative, empow-
ered to plead on behalf of the person represented.
Attorneys at law are unknown in Jewish law. The
examination and cross-examination of the witnesses
were conducted by the judges; and in criminal cases
the law imposed upon the judges the duty of care-
fully guarding the prisoner’s rights. Attorneys in
fact were permitted to appear for their principals and
conduct litigation, subject to certain restrictions.

Attorney for Plaintiff : The Talmudic law on
the subject is found in the treatise Baba Kamma (TO./).
According to this passage, an Attorney was author-
ized to represent his principal only for the purpose
of receiving property from a bailee or trustee, when
there was no dispute concerning its ownership. If
there was a contest as to the title to the property,
the Talmudic law did not authorize an Attorney to
appear.

At the law academy in Nehardea it was taught
that an Attorney could appear only for the purpose
of taking possession of real estate, but not to re-
cover movable property. The Geonim, however,
modified this Talmudic principle, and permitted at-
torneys to appear in contested cases also. Rabbi
Ilananeel of Kairwan, who lived during the elev-
enth century, reports that in his time it was lawful
to appoint attorneys in all cases, whether the con-
troversy was concerning movable or immovable
property, and whether there was a contest or not
(Tosafot, B. K. 70a, J^O^DDN): and this opinion
was generally accepted in the later law (Shulhan
‘Aruk, Hoslien Mishpat, 123, 1).

The power of Attorney had to be in writing, and
to contain the words “ proceed, litigate, acquire, and
possess for thyself and compel the adversary to give
up what is due,” or words to that effect ; and if such
words were not used, the defendant was not obliged
to answrer the Attorney, and could plead in bar of the
Attorney’s right (B. K. l.c. ; Maimonides, “Yad,”
Sheluhin, iii. 1 ; Hoslien Mishpat, 122, 4).

It was at first thought that the relation of Attorney
and client was like that of partners, and that the At-
torney could retain one-lialf of what he collected;

but the final decision was that their
Relation of relation is like that of principal and
Attorney Agent, and that the Attorney was
and obliged to account to his principal for

Client. all that he had done or received (B.

K. l.c.). The principal was obliged
to pay all the expenses of the Attorney and to in-
demnify him for all outlays; and all powers of At-
torney were customarily drawn with a provision to
that effect (Hoslien Mishpat, 122, 6).

Any person could act as Attorney for another.
Even women and slaves could be empowered. The
principal’s own slaves, however, were

Persons not permitted to represent him (ib.
Qualified to 123, 13) ; and, subject to certain regu-
Act. lations, even non-Jews were author-
ized to act as attorneys for Jewish
claimants (ib. 14).

Unless specially authorized to do so, the Attorney
could not appoint another Attorney in his place ; and
the principal could revoke the power of Attorney at
his will (ib. 123, 4; 123, 3).

In case the principal appointed another Attorney,

Attorney-

Attributes

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

294

this was an implied revocation of the power granted
to the first one, unless the second appointment was
simply intended as a precautionary measure whereby
the second Attorney was substituted only in case the
first could not act (ib.).

If the subject of contention was a debt, the death
of the principal revoked the power of Attorney ; but
if it was real estate, or if the Attorney had been
given authority through the ceremony of symbolical
seizure (Kinyan), the death of the principal was not
a revocation of the power (ib. 1).

A husband could act as Attorney for his wife with-
out any special power given to him, in controversies
concerning those portions of his wife’s property in
which he had usufructuary rights ; but he had no
such implied power in matters concerning those por-
tions of her estate the fruits of which she enjoyed
(Git. 48&; Hoshen Mishpat, l.c. 8).

Members of a partnership or heirs of an estate of
which no partition had been made could appear as
attorneys for their copartners or coheirs without any
special power given to them, because, their interest
being joint, each is authorized to act for the oth-
ers. If, however, one of the coheirs or copartners
was absent in another city, and unable therefore to
intervene personally in the case, if he so chose to
do, he was not bound by the action of his coheir or
copartner ; and it was a rule, therefore, that in cases
where a coheir or copartner appeared to represent
tlie estate, the defendant might demand a produc-
tion of the power of Attorney from absent parties
interested (Ket. 94c? ; Maimonides, “Yad,” Shelu-
hin, iii. 3; Hoshen Mishpat, l.c. 9).

Attorney for Defendant : The defendant was
not entitled to be represented at court by an Attor-
ney (Hoshen Mishpat, 124, 1). The only case, it
appears, known to the Talmudists, in which it. was
assumed that an Attorney evToXevg) might

eventually be permitted to appear for the defendant,
was one in which the high priest was sued (Yer.
Sanli. ii. , beginning 19c7).

The principal reason for compelling the defendant
to appear in person seems to have been the feeling
that if he were obliged to face the plaintiff in open
court, there would be a slighter probability of false
plea or concealment of the truth on his part (Hoshen
Mishpat, l.c. ; Beer ha-Golah, ib.).

Women of standing and scholars were respected
to this extent, that they were permitted to make
their statements in their own homes in the presence
of the plaintiff ; and the record of their statements
was taken by the official recorder and presented to
the court (Aslieri Sheb. iv. 2; Hoshen Mishpat,
l.c.). See Agency, and Attorney, Power of.

j. sr. D. W. A.

ATTORNEY, POWER OF (Harshaah) : An

instrument empowering an agent to act on behalf of
a principal. The following formula of a Power of
Attorney is taken from “Nahalat Shib'ah,” chap,
xliv. :

“ A memorial of testimony taken before us witnesses whose

names are subscribed below. On the day of the month

of in the year of the creation, there came before us

A, the son of B, and he said unto us. ‘ Be ye witnesses and ac-
quire from me by symbolic seizure [“kinvan ”] and sign this and
give it into the hands of C, the son of D, that it may be unto him

for a testimony and as proof that I do this voluntarily and of
my own free will. I have given to the said C, the son of D, four
ells of ground, and through them and through the aforesaid
symbolic seizure, I empower and authorize the said C, the son of
D, to be my attorney and representative [“ murshab ’^empow-
ered, and “entelar ”=evToAeus, mandatory], that he may have
power and authority to demand and collect the amount which E,
the son of F, owes me on a certain instrument of indebtedness
which I have transferred to him [my attorney] ; “ and now ac-
quire it for thyself and all rights under it; and thy hand shall
be as my hand; and thy mouth as my mouth; and thy act as
my act ; and thy release as my release ; and everything that
thou shalt do concerning the aforesaid debt shall be done as
though I had done it myself ” ’ ; and thus the aforesaid A, son
of B, said to the aforesaid C, son of D, * Go litigate and acquire
and lay out whatever is necessary for thy expense, and what-
ever shall be decided for thee in court I shall accept whether in
my favor or against me, nor shall 1 have the right to say to
thee I have sent thee to benefit me, and not to harm my cause’ ;
and he shall also have power and authority to summon the debtor
to court or to compromise with him or to extend the time of pay-
ment and to give acquittance. To all the above, the said A, son
of B, bound himself by symbolic seizure and by the four ells of
ground as aforesaid, and by a hand-clasp, and by an audible
statement, and by a lawful oath, and under the sanction of the
heavy ban to approve and ratify everything that the attorney
may do. This letter of attorney shall not be invalidated nor
shall its power be minimized by anything wrongful or detri-
mental forever ; but it shall have permanent force and effect
according to the effect of all letters of attorney that are custom-
arily made among Israelites, according to the regulation of our
sages of blessed memory, not as a mere * asmakta ’ nor as a mere
form. And we have taken symbolic possession from A, son of B,
on behalf of C, son of D, according to everything that is written
and expressed above by an object through which symbolic pos-
session may lawfully be taken; and all is flrmly Qxed and estab-
lished.” (Signed by two witnesses.)

The Power of Attorney is, like most documents in
Jewish law, prepared and signed by the witnesses
and not by the parties. By the ceremony of sym-
bolic seizure and by the conveyance of four ells of
ground to the attorney, the latter became invested
with all the powers specifically defined in the instru-
ment.

The foregoing formula contains all the necessary
and formal words required by the law. It enables
the attorney to expend money on behalf of his prin-
cipal in the prosecution of his claim, and whether
well or ill spent, he is entitled to be repaid; and it
furthermore authorizes the attorney to bring suit, to
compromise, to grant an extension of time of pay-
ment, and to give a receipt or acquittance to the
debtor.

For further explanation of the terms and phrases
used in this formula, see articles Shetarot, As-
makta, Attorney.

j. sr. D. W. A.

ATTRIBUTES : The fundamental and perma-
nent properties of substance, so-called by logicians
in contradistinction to accidents, which are modi-
fications representing circumstantial properties only.
Aristotle makes the distinction between “ fundamen-
tal being ” (ra iv Tit nvaia ovra) and its fundamental
properties (ra av/ificSr/Kura ; “Metaphysics,” iv. 30,
1025a, 30; and “ De Animalium Partibus,”i. 3. 643a,
27). Similarly the Arabian-Jewish philosophers dis-
criminate between -ixin. “attribute,” and mpD,
“accident”; and the typical defenders of the Attri-
butes, the Sifatiya, are called by these philosophers
onxnn “ accepters of attributes.” The theory
of Attributes was always an important problem of
scholasticism, because of its intimate connection
with the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. It came

295

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Attorney

Attributes

into prominence with Saadia’s work, “Emunotwe-
Deot” (ii. 5, 53), in which the doctrine of Attributes
isemployed directly against the dogma of t lie Trinity.
Saadia, who denies the positive attributes of God,
with the exception of existence, unity, power, and
wisdom, places the following alternative before Chris-
tian Trinitarianism: “God is either corporeal or in-
corporeal. If He be considered corporeal, positive
attributes would indeed be possible, but then the
idea of God would be open to the grossest anthropo-
morphism of the ignorant masses. If, on the other
hand, God be considered incorporeal, He can possess
no attributes (positive properties), for with the pos-
session of attributes differences in God must be ad-
mitted, and differences can be predicated of that
alone which is corporeal, not of that which is incor-
poreal.” From this comparatively clear statement
of the problem of Attributes it is apparent that it
touches the very core of scholasticism. It is inter-
esting, therefore, to inquire what attitude is assumed
toward it by Judaism, with its fundamental and con-
stant insistence on the unity of God, who possesses
manifold spheres of work; with its many-sided
forms of revelation; with its all-wise, all-good, all-
powerful, all animating God. Antithetically ex-
pressed, what is the relation of unity to multiplicity?
Logically formulated, what is the relation of the
individual to its species, of the species to its genus?
Sociologically stated, what is the relation of human
personality to the community, and of the commu-
nity, on its part, to the state?

It is evident from the preceding that the question
of the Attributes of substance — be this substance
God, Nature, Atom, Monad (cv icai irav), Idea, Will,
the Unknowable- — concerns the very highest prob-
lems of human intellect; the question being inti-
mately entwined with the fundamental problems,
not only of scholastic, but of all philosophy, with
the problem, indeed, of universals. It is therefore
not surprising that in the Arabian -Jewish philoso-
phy there should be a division between the defend-
ers and the opponents of the doctrine of Attributes;
or that within the field of attribute-conception the
most minutiose attempts at adjustment are evolved,
as was so ably shown in the pioneer literary produc-
tion of David Kaufmann, “ Attributenlelire in der
Jiidischen Beligionsphilosophie,” Gotha, 1877.

Though the problem of Attributes merited the
most earnest consideration of the loftiest minds,
the treatment it actually received was barren and
unsatisfactory in the extreme. How great was the
need for a scholarly consideration of the problem of
Attributes is shown by the fact that as late as the
seventeenth century much of the thought of a Des-
cartes, a Locke, and a Spinoza was devoted to it,
and that even in the nineteenth century there could
occur such a vigorous discussion concerning the
proper interpretation of Attributes as that which
took place between J. E. Erdmann and Kuno
Fischer. Descartes (in his “ Principal Philosophise,”
i. 53, 1644) had drawn the distinction between “attri-
butum” and “modus”; but Spinoza was the first to
set the doctrine of Attributes in the very center of
a system. “By attribute I understand whatever
the mind conceives as constituting the essence of
substance” (“Ethics,” i., def. 4). God therefore is

conceived as containing infinite Attributes, each one
of which expresses His eternal essence (ib. prop,
xi.). Of all of the divine Attributes, however, the
human mind conceives but two, thought and exten-
sion (“Ethics,” ii., prop. 1 and 2). While Erdmann
explained these Attributes of Spinoza as being
merely the modes of cognition in the mind consider-
ing them, Fischer maintained that they were real
and separate forms of the substance’s existence.

This modern example will serve to show that spec-
ulative metaphysics still has its attribute-problem.
Indeed, even the natural sciences of to-day have, on
their metaphysical side, attributive implications.
Witness, for example, Ilackel's naturalistic monism
(see Ludwig Stein, in “Archiv ftir Geschichte der
Philosophic,” ii. 319, 1898; idem, “Sociale Fragen
im Lichte der Philosophie,” p. 516, 1897; idem, “An
der Wende des Jahrhunderts,” p. 894, 1899). The
historical continuity of philosophy is evidenced by
the fact that old problems are continually being re-
vived and modified through the influence of new
ideas. Each succeeding age presents for its own con-
sideration the problem of Attributes — though clad in
its own scientific phraseology. With scholasticism
the problem of Attributes was a theological one;
with Spinoza it was a mathematical one (the relation
of the One to the Many); with Hilckel it is a biolog-
ical problem (the relation of the Organic to the Inor-
ganic). Hackel’s monistic conception of the uni-
verse (calling it “the conception of coming ages”) is
in substance that the forms of organic, as well as
those of inorganic, matter are the necessary products
of natural forces. It is readily seen, however, that
his “natural forces ” of the underlying substance are
in truth just as attributive as any of the fundamental
qualities of a Spinoza or of any section of scholas-
ticism.

Certain basic problems of metaphysics recur at
intervals throughout the ages, clothed always in the
scientific dress of the period, and receive more or
less adequate formulation according to some one or
the other of the dominant scientific tendencies of the
day.

k. L. S.

It is difficult to determine whether it was the in-
fluence of the Motazilites or the desire to convince
his Karaite adversaries of the danger of always ta-
king Biblical words literally, that actuated Saadia in
raising the question of the divine Attributes. He
was, however, the first among Jewish writers to do
so; and the question having been propounded, it
was thereafter considered by all the philosophers,
each making an effort at its solution according to
his respective school.

Saadia, like the Motazilites, denies all Attributes
save those of existence, unity, power, and wisdom,
inasmuch as these four, expressing as they do the
very essence of God, involve neither

Saadia. multiplicity nor variety in Him; and
furthermore because each of these four
essential Attributes being necessitated by, or imply-
ing, the other, they can be reduced to one attribute.
No other divine attribute found in the Bible can be
taken literally without surrender to coarse anthro-
pomorphism (“Kitab al-Imauat Wal 1‘tikadat,” cd.

Attributes
Auer, Leopold

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

296

Landauer, pp. 80-90). But Saadia, iu admitting
these four Attributes, did not foresee the objection
of Maimonides, that these Attributes either add to
the essence of God — and in that case they ascribe to
Him accidents, which ascription is inadmissible — or
are useless repetitions. Indeed these Attributes are
in such predicament that if the question be asked,
“ What is God ? ” it should be answered, “ God is God ”
(compare “Moreh,” i. 52). This objection did not
escape Bahya, whose theory of Attributes is accord-
ingly more precise. The author of “ Duties of the
Heart” divides Attributes into two
Bahya. classes, those that indicate God’s es-
sence (“dhatiyat”) and those that ex-
press His actions (“ fa’iliyat ”). The essential Attri-
butes are those of existence, unity, and eternity,
which, being every one of them necessitated by the
others, are in fact but one. However, iu describing
God by these Attributes, it must be borne in mind
that they do not present Him as an existing, eternal,
and unique being, inasmuch as the sense generally
attached to these expressions can not be applied to
God, who is beyond our conception ; they simply
negative the possibility of His having the opposite
Attributes (“Duties of the Heart,” x.).

With Judah ha-Levi the question changes. While
Saadia admits without reserve four essential Attri-
butes, and while Bahya does not object to three,
provided they be taken negatively, and
Judah. while both refuse to admit any other
ha-Levi. Attributes than these, Judah ha-Levi
sees no harm in Attributes other than
essential, provided they be used negatively. Ac-
cordingly he divides all Attributes found in the
Bible into three classes, namely: into active (“ taziri-
yah ”), such as rich-making (“PL'TD = he maketli
rich), poor-making (t^'HD = he maketli poor), etc. ;
into relative (“idafiyat”), such as blessed (~jv*i3),
merciful (Dim), etc. ; and into negative (“ salbiyali ”),
which comprise all essential Attributes, inasmuch as
all essential Attributes must be taken negatively.
The names of God found in the Bible are all, except
the Tetragranmiaton, Attributes belonging to one or
another of the three classes mentioned (“Cuzari,”
pp. 73 et seq., ed. Hirschfeld).

Abraham ibn Daud, like Judah ha-Levi, admits all
relative Attributes. As for the essential ones, there
are eight by which God can be described, for the
simple investigation of their mutual relations shows
that they have not the same significations as are gen-
erally attached to them. These eight are unity, ex-
istence, immutability, truth, life, knowledge, power,
and will (“ Emunak Ramah,” pp. 54 et seq.).

Maimonides, on this cpiestion, adopts the theory
of Aristotle. He divides the positive Attributes into
four classes: (1) Those that include all the essential
properties of an object. Such Attri-
Maimon- butes, however, can not be applied to
ides. God, because, as all philosophers agree,
God- can not be defined — definition
being established only by giving the genus and the
specific differentia. (2) Those that include only a
part of the essential properties. Neither can these
Attributes be applied to God, who, being incorporeal,
has no parts. (3) Those that indicate a quality.
These latter also are inapplicable to God, who, hav-

ing no soul, is not subjected to psychical affections,
that indicate the relation of one object to another.
(4) Those that express actions or effects. At first
sight the two last-mentioned Attributes can be ap-
plied to God, because, having no connection with His
essence, they do not imply any multiplicity or vari-
ety in Him ; but on closer examination it will be seen
that even these present many difficulties. There is
only one kind of Attributes by which God can be
described, and those are negative Attributes.

Spinoza follows Maimonides to a certain degree.
Like him he says that the essential Attributes of
power and will do not exist in reference to God; for
He can not have power or will as regards Himself
(compare “Cogitata Metaphysica,” part ii. , ch. viii.
§ 2). He agrees with him likewise in declaring that
God’s essence is not complex but simple (ib. v., vi.).
But while Maimonides concludes from this concep-
tion that all positive Attributes must be banished
from God, Spinoza makes a distinction between
proprieties and Attributes, and maintains that God
is conceived by an infinite variety of Attributes,
every one of which expresses His eternal essence
(“Ethics,” part i., prop. x\).

Bibliography : D. Kaufmatm, Attributenlclire in der JU-

dischen Religinmphilosophie.

k. I. Bn.

AUB, HIRSCH : Rabbi and Talmudist ; born,
1807, in Baiersdorf, a small town near Erlangen,
the birthplace of a number of prominent Jews;
died at Munich, 1876. He studied in Prague and
became known as a Talmudist. In 1827 he was
elected chief rabbi of Munich, which position he
filled for forty-nine years. His congregation was
composed both of Orthodox and of Reform Jews,
but lie held its various elements together by his love
of peace, gaining through this strongly marked trait
the name of “ba’al sholom” (peacemaker). In 1848
he was one of the principal workers for the emancipa-
tion of the Jews and the abolition of the law under
which only a limited number of married Jews were
allowed to live in each town. Aub was held in
high esteem and favor by three kings of Bavaria,
Ludwig I., Maximilian, and Ludwig II. The last-
named decorated him, on his seventieth birthday,
with the Cross of St. Michael. S.

AUB, JOSEPH: Oculist; born in 1846; died
May 13, 1888, at Cincinnati, O. He attended the
Talmud Yelodim Institute and the public schools,
and later entered the Ohio Medical College, from
which institution he was graduated in 1866. He
then went to Erlangen, Bavaria, where he received
the degree of M.D. After serving for a short time
in the Austro-Prussian war, he studied at Paris and
Berlin under the eminent oculists Liebreich and
Albrecht von Griife, and then became assistant to
Dr. Knapp in Vienna. On the latter’s removal to
New York, Aub settled permanently in Cincinnati,
where his remarkable success as an operator soon
insured him a large practise. Aub was one of the
first to use the electromagnet for removing foreign
bodies from the eye. He was oculist to the Cincin-
nati Hospital, and for five years professor of oph-
thalmology at the Cincinnati College of Medicine

297

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Attributes
Auer, Leopold

and Surgery. He was a frequent contributor on
this subject to medical periodicals.

Bibliography : Jewish Chronicle , June 1, 1888, p. 7.

A. B. B.

AUB, JOSEPH: German rabbi; cousin of
Hirseli Aub ; born at Beiersdorf, in Bavaria, 1805 ; died
May 22, 1880. He held various rabbinical posts for
fifty years, first in Baireuth (1830-50), then in Ma-
yence (1850-65), and, finally, in Berlin from 1865 until
his death. Joseph Aub was distinguished as one of
the first Bavarian rabbis who delivered their sermons
in German and published them later in pamphlet
form. He was a partizan of the Reform movement,
but without losing the historic ground of Judaism.
He founded a weekly entitled “Sinai” in 1846, but
this independent organ met with mediocre success
only. Among his writings on theological questions
may be mentioned: “ Betrachtungen und Widerle-
gungen,” in two parts, 1839 ; “ Biblisches Sprachbuch
fur den Yorbereitenden Unterricht in der Mosaisclien
Religion,” 1868; “Grundlage zu einem Wissen-
schaftlichen Unterrichte in der Mosiiischen Religion.”

Bibliography: Allgcmeine Zeitung des Judenthums , 1880,

p. 859.

s. A. S. C.

AUB, LUDWIG: Author and poet; born Aug.
4, 1862, in Munich, Germany. He is a grandson
of the rabbi Hirseli Aub, of Munich. When his
father. Max Aub, a lawyer, was recalled to Munich
from the little town of Uffenheim, Franconia, where
he held an office under the government, Ludwig en-
tered the gymnasium of his native city.

From early boyhood he gave evidence of that all-
absorbing love for books which afterward led him
to seek employment with different firms of book-
sellers in Vienna and Leipsic, until he himself be-
came a dealer in rare books. This occupation gave
him a comprehensive knowledge of modern German
literature and, at the same time, put him in touch
with men calculated to stimulate his literary tastes.
Unfortunately a serious affection of his eyes not only
forced him to give up his business, but has seriously
interfered with his literary career. Aub has occa-
sionally championed Jewish interests against anti-
Semitic attacks.

His first attempt as author was with “Abriss
der Deutschen Literaturgeschichte,” Leipsic, 1888.
The “ Miincliner G’stanzl'n,” a book of poems in the
North-Bavarian dialect, which appeared in 1889,
met with pronounced success. In the same year
Aub, in collaboration with Thom, published a col-
lection of aphorisms and epigrams under the title of
“Gnomen und Ivobolde.”

Aub is president of the Orion Literary Association
in Munich, which he founded, and is a regular con-
tributor to German periodicals and newspapers.

Bibliography: Ei-kardt, Die Didahtische Liieratur ; Hin-

riehsen. Das Literarische Deutschland (index); Brunner,

Sehriftstellerlexikon , s.v.

s. A. S. C.

AUBRIOT, HUGUES: A provost of Paris,
France; born at Dijon; died in Burgundy in 1382.
He was in office at the accession of Charles YI.
(1380), when the populace, irritated beyond endur-
ance by the taxes levied upon them, demanded of
the king that “Jews and usurers be expelled from

Paris ” (J. des Ursins, “Histoire de Charles VI.”).
Without waiting for the king’s action, “some of the
lower classes . . . ran about the city, . . . entered
about forty of the Jewish houses, robbing them of
plate, jewels, clothes, and bonds” (ibid.). For four
days the dwellings of the Jews were attacked and
thus pillaged. The mob rushed upon the terrified
Hebrews, cut their throats and tore from the arms of
mothers infants whom they hurried to the churches so
that they might be baptized (Halphen, “Legislation
Concernant les Israelites,” Introduction). Aubriot
earnestly pleaded the cause of the Jews before the
king, and through his influence succeeded in obtain-
ing a royal decree, ordering the restoration of the
children to their mothers and the restitution of all
property taken from the Jews.

For thus championing the cause of the Jews, Au-
briot incurred the hostility of the Church, which de-
nounced him as being secretly a Jew, and accused
him of various crimes, including that of immorality
with Jewesses (J. des Ursins, l.c. ; compare Sauval,
“Antiquites de Paris,” ii. , book x.). Aubriot was
finally compelled to do penance and was condemned
to perpetual imprisonment on bread and water.

He was confined in the Bastile, but about a year
later (1382) was released by the mob, during the riots
of the “Maillotins.” Unfortunately for the Jews, the
rioters, unrestrained in their fury (Felibien, “His-
toire de la Ville de Paris”), fell upon them, massa-
cring great numbers, and pillaging their homes (“ Or-
donnances des Rois de France,” vi.).

Of the survivors of this massacre some fled, while-
others were baptized ; the moneys and other valuable
property being given to the Chapel of Vincennes
(Leon Kahn, “Les Juifs a Paris,” p. 31).

Bibliography: Griitz, Gesch. der Juden, viii. 39; Bddarriries,

Les Juifs en France , p. 248; Deppinpr, Les Juifs dans Ic

Moyen Age , p. 184.

g. S. K.

AUER, LEOPOLD: Hungarian violinist; son
of a poor house-painter; born in Veszprim, Hun-
gary, June 7, 1845. His musical talent manifested
itself early. When only four years old he marched
in front of the revolutionary troops, beating the
drum, and exciting patriotic enthusiasm among the
spectators. He received his first musical education
from Ridley Kolene at the Conservatory at Buda-
pest; then went to the Vienna Conservatory, where
lie studied under Dont (1857-58); and completed his
studies with Joachim at Berlin. He was musical con-
ductor at Diisseldorf from 1863 to 1865, and at Ham-
burg from 1866 to 1868. On the invitation of the St.
Petersburg Musical Society he succeeded Wieniaw-
ski as professor of the violin at the conservatory
there. Appointed soloist of the imperial theaters
(1873), with the title “court-soloist to the Czar.” he
conducted the concerts of the imperial court -singers,-
(1880-81), and later led the concerts of the Russian
Imperial Musical Society (1887-92). Auer still oc-
cupies this last position (1902). From 1881 to 1888
he made a number of tours through Europe as a solo
violinist, and participated in the musical festivals at
Carlsruhe (1885) and Diisseldorf (1888).

His eminence as a talented musical instructor is
attested by the many renowned violin-players that
have been among his more than forty pupils; of

Auerbach

Auerbach, Benjamin

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

298

them Kolakovski, soloist of the Imperial Theater at
Moscow; Erasnokutski, Pusternakov, Galkin, Mly-
narski, Korguyev, and Kruger, the last four soloists
of the Imperial Musical Society of St. Petersburg,
and many more celebrated artists of the imperial
theaters of St. Petersburg. Some of his composi-
tions, among them “Tarantelle de Concert” and
“ Rhapsodie Hongroise ” for violin and piano, and
transpositions for the violin, have been published by
Bote and Back in Berlin, and by Fr. Kistner in
Leipsic.

Bibliography: Entziklopedicheski Sloven \ ii. St. Peters-
burg, 1893; Ebrlich-Legge, Celebrated Violinists, 1897, s.v.;

Riemann, Musiklexikon, 1900. s.v.; Baker, Bioffrapliical

Diet, of Musicians, New York, 1900.

S. H. R.

AUERBACH : A family of scholars, the progen-
itor of which was Moses Auerbach, court Jew to
the bishop of Regensburg, about 1497. One of his
daughters, who went after her marriage to Cracow,
is the reputed ancestress of the celebrated R. Moses
Isserles (V>0~i).

Another branch of the family settled at Vienna.
A near relative. Meshullam Solomon Fischhof-
Auerbach, occupied such an eminent position in
the community of Vienna that he married Miriam,
the daughter of a well-known rabbi and physician
Leo Lucerna (Judah Lob Ma’or-katon). She died
July 29, 1654 (Frankl, “Inscliriften,” No. 202). In
his old age it was his misfortune to be driven from
Vienna and exiled (1670) with his coreligionists. Be-
fore his death (1677) he had the satisfaction of seeing
his sons occupy honorable positions. Nearly twenty
years before, liis son Menahem Mendel Auerbach
was called as rabbi to Reussuitz, Moravia, after hav-
ing officiated as assessor to the rabbinate at Cracow.
The pupil of such men as Lipmann Heller, Joel
Sarkes, Joshua b. Joseph, at the Talmud school in
Cracow, Menahem Mendel attained such a reputation
as a Talmudic authority that the rabbis of large for-
eign communities submitted difficult questions to
him for decision. (For detailed account of his career
see separate article.)

The best known among Mendel’s brothers is Si-
mon. who at the age of 23 wrote a penitential poem,
on the occasion of an epidemic that broke out among
children in Vienna, in 1634. This poem passed
through several editions, under the title “MislTon
(sic) la-Yeladim ” (Support to Children), Frankfort-
on-the-Main, 1711. The author died March 11, 1638,
at Eibenscliiitz. The poem was printed by the
grandson of the author, Meshullam Solomon Fisch-
hof, who added a commentary, “Rab Shalom”
(Much Peace). He also published several prayers
and hymns of Israel Nagara, with additions of his
own (Frankfort-on-tlie-Main, 1712).

Hayyim, a second brother of Menahem Mendel,
settled at Cracow, but later returned to Vienna as
assessor of the rabbinate, dying there Oct. 7, 1665.
A third brother, Benjamin Wolf, settled at Nikols-
burg, and was held in high esteem as elder of the com-
munity, even officiating temporarily as chairman of
the college of the rabbinate. His testament, printed
together with the work “Mekor Hokmah” (Source
of Wisdom), which contains an abundance of
worldly wisdom and pious reflection, was published
by his son, Meshullam Solomon, assessor of the

rabbinate at Nikolsburg, who published an ethical
work at the same time. Menahem Mendel’s succes-
sor as rabbi of Krotoschin was his grandson who
bore the same name (the son of Moses Auerbach-
died May 9, 1739), and was president of the congre-
gation of Krotoschin and of the Synod of the Four
Lands. He was the son-in-law of Rabbi Saul of
Cracow. A son of the Simon Wolf mentioned above
was David Tebele, surnamed “Ha-Kadosh” (the
Holy), who died as rabbi of Prague. His name was
commemorated by his son Samuel, the author of
“ Hosed Shemuel” (Samuel’s Charity), Amsterdam.

A member of the same family was Pliineas Auer-
bach, president of the Jewish court at Cracow
(1695), and author of “Halakah Berurah” (Lucid
Law), a commentary on Orah Hayyim.

Hirsch Auerbach belongs to another branch of
the family. He was first assessor of the rabbinate
at Brody, fleeing thence to Germany with a part of
the community to escape exorbitant taxation and the
machinations of informers. After wandering from
one place to another he settled at Worms, whither
he had been called in 1733 to R. Lob Sinzheim’s col-
lege, and was appointed rabbi iu the same commu-
nity in 1763. He died at Worms May 3, 1778, in the
88th year of his life, his pious wife Dobrescli (daugh-
ter of the president Isaac at Brody) dying a few
weeks before him. His son, born at Brody, Abiezri
Selig, was at first rabbi at Edeukoben, then at Bux-
weiler, where he died 1767 ; his wife was the daughter
of Isaac Sinzheim, rabbi at Trier and Niederelinheim.

d. L. L.

AUERBACH, ABRAHAM BEN ABIEZRI
SELIG : German rabbi ; born at Buxweiler, Alsace,
in the middle of the eighteenth century; died at
Bonn Nov. 3, 1846. Being a descendant of an old
rabbinical family, he was destined from his child-
hood for the rabbinate, and was educated first by his
grandfather at Worms, and later by his uncle, David
Sinzheim, subsequently president of the central con-
sistory at Paris. Under the latter’s direction, Auer-
bach acquired not only extensive Talmudic knowl-
edge, but a secular education as well. When, owing
to the efforts of Cerfberr of Medelsheim. a Jewish
community had been formed at Strasburg, Auerbach
was charged with its administration. At the out-
break of the Reign of Terror in France, Auerbach, on
account of his connection with Cerfberr (who as
former contractor to the royal army was suspected
by the revolutionists), was thrown into prison
where he remained a whole year. On leaving Stras-
burg he was appointed rabbi at Forbach, then at
Neuwied, and in 1809 at Bonn. In 1837 he resigned
the latter position, ostensibly on account of his great
age, but really to have his son succeed him in his
place.

Auerbach was the author of several liturgical
poems and prayers, and of a poem on the abolition of
the poll-tax, entitled “Dibre lia-Mekes we-Betuloh”
(History of the Tax and its Abolition), still extant
in manuscript. The poem was dedicated to Cerf-
berr, who by his intervention brought about the
abolition. A specimen of the poem was given by
Fuenn, who was the possessor of the manuscript.
Auerbach left seven sons, among whom the best

299

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Auerbach

Auerbach, Benjamin

known was Benjamin Hirscli Auerbach, rabbi at
Darmstadt and Halberstadt, who died in tlxe latter
city Sept. 30, 1872.

Bibliography: Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael , p. 277; Allijemeine
Zeitung des Judentliums , JS39, No. 98, p. 593.

I,. G. I. Br.

AUERBACH, BARUCH : Educator and phi-
lanthropist; born in Inoworazlaw, in the province of
Posen, Prussia, Aug. 14, 1793; died at Berlin, Jan.
22, 1864. He was the founder and life-long director
of the Jewish Orphan Asylum, Berlin. Being the
son of a poor rabbi, the days of his boyhood were

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spent in the study of the Talmud and other Jewish
literature. In 1817 he went to Berlin, following his
elder brother, Dr. I. L. Auerbach, who at that time
enjoyed some reputation in the Jewish community
as a minister and preacher. After pursuing his
studies at the university, where he paid special at-
tention to the classical languages, he became, in
1829, principal of a school for Jewish boys in Berlin.

In 1833 he took under his care, into his own house,
four orphan children, for whom no special provision
had been made ; and from this small beginning grew
the noble institution now connected with his name.

In 1843, when 15 boys were under Auerbach’s
care, he took also some Jewish girls left without par-
ents into his house, and ten years later the institu-
tion had grown so much that 50 boys and 26 girls
were housed in a special building in the Oranien-

burgerstrasse, Berlin. The institution has since
been moved to the Schonhauserallee, Berlin. Nearly
300 children were cared for during his lifetime;
and on the day of his death there were 70 orphans in
the asylum, while the total amount of funds collected
by Auerbach’s indefatigable efforts reached the sum
of 600,000 thalers (about $450,000), in addition to the
beautiful and valuable grounds of the asylum.

Nothing gives a clearer insight into both the spirit
of the institution and the character of its founder
than his own oft-repeated words: “Orphans are not
merely poor children, but children without parents;
to raise and bring them up, an orphan asylum should
give those children not merely bread and a shelter,
but parental love also, and practical training.”

s. H. Ba.

AUERBACH, BENJAMIN HIRSCH : One

of the most prominent leaders of modern German
orthodoxy; born at Neuwied in 1808; died at Hal-
berstadt Sept. 30, 1872. His father, Abraham
Auerbach — a descendant of an old rabbinical family
which traced its origin back to Meuahem Auerbach,
one of the exiles of Vienna — was on the maternal
side a nephew of Joseph David Sinzlieim, the first
president of the French Sanhedrin, and after having
held various rabbinical positions became rabbi of the
consistory of Bonn. Benjamin received his first in-
struction from his father, subsequently studying at
the yeshibot of Krefeld and Worms. Well equipped
with Talmudic learning he entered the University
of Marburg, where he studied from 1831 to 1834.
Immediately afterward he was called to the rabbinate
of Hanau, but declined, preferring the call to Darm-
stadt, as chief rabbi (Landesrabbiner) of the grand-
duchy of Hesse, for which office no less a personage
than Zunz was his competitor. His position was,
however, very difficult, as he was strictly Orthodox,
while the majority of the congregation were Liberal.
He remained for twenty-three years, but was forced
to resign in 1857. He went to Frankfort-on -the-
Main, where he busied himself with literary work
until, in 1863, he was called as rabbi to Halberstadt,
in which post he served until his death.

As a scholar and author, Auerbach ranks among
the first in his party. He was among the first Or-
thodox rabbis that preached in pure German ; and
his text-book for religious instruction enjoys de-
served popularity. In the controversy aroused by
the publication of Zacharias Frankel’s “Darke ha-
Mislmah,” he naturally sided with Frankel’s oppo-
nents, defending the view of the divine origin of the
rabbinical law. Besides numerous sermons, he pub-
lished: (1) “Lehrbuch der Israelitischen Religion,”
1839, 3d ed., by his son Sclig Auerbach, Giessen,
1893; (2) “Berit Abraham, oder die Beschneidungs-
feier uud die Dabei Stattfindenden Gebete und Ge-
sange. In’s Deutsche LTebersetzt und mit einer Aus-
fhhrlichen Literarhistorischen Einleitung Verselieu,”
Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1869, 2d ed., 1880; (3) “Ha-
Zofeh ‘al Darke ha-Mislinali.” a criticism of Fran-
kel’s “Introduction to the Mishnah,” Frankfort-on-
the-Main, 1861; (4) “Mishnat R. Nathan,” notes
on the Mishnah, written by Nathan Adler of Frank-
fort, who had been Abraham Auerbach’s teacher,
Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1862; (5) “ Sefer ha-Eshkol, ”

Auerbach, Berthold.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

300

an edition of the ritual code of Abraham of Nar-
bonne, Halberstadt, 1863; and (6) “Gescliichte der
Israelitischen Gemeinde Halberstadt,” Halberstadt,
1866.

Bibliography: Geiger's Jiid. Zcit. i. 127, 195, 253; Ally.
Zeit. d. Jud. 1857, pp. 269, 282; Dr. B. H. Auerbach, ein
Lehenxbihl , in Meyer’s Kalender for .5845, Halberstadt, 1884 ;
various reports in the newspapers of his time ; also private
communications from his grandson. Dr. Isaac Auerbach, at
Leipzig. Fiirst, Bibl. Jud. i. 72; Jost, Annalen, 1839, Nos.
33, 37, 43; Jost, Neuere Gesehichte der Israelite n von 1815
his 18U5, i. 17, iii. 160 ; Fuenn, Kcneset Yisrael, p. 279 ; Zeitlin,
Kiruat Sefer , 8.

s. D.

AUERBACH, BERTHOLD (BARUCH) :

German author; horn in the Black Forest village
of Nordstetten, Germany, Feb. 28, 1812; died at
Cannes, France, Feb. 8, 1882. He was one of eleven

Berthold Auerbach.

children, and received his earliest training from a
well-equipped German teacher named Frankfurter
and from the local Protestant minister. Intended by
his father for the rabbinical profession, Auerbach
was early initiated into Jewish studies, and in his
twelfth year was sent to the Talmud school at Hech-
ingen, and afterward to Carlsruhe, to complete his
rabbinical training. In the latter town, however, he
soon gave up his Talmudical studies entirely, and
devoted himself to secular branches. He attended
the Stuttgart Obergymnasium to prepare for the
university, and at Tubingen (1832) studied law.
Coming, however, finder the influence of David
Friedrich Strauss, author of “Das Leben Jesu”
(whom he ever held in reverence), he exchanged the
study of law for that of history and philosophy, to
which subjects he continued to devote himself
(1832-35) at Munich under Schelliug, and at Heidel-

berg under Daub and Schlosser. Spinoza now be-
came Auerbach’s ideal philosopher and guide, and
remained so throughout the whole period of his
literary activity. Like others among the student-
corps, Auerbach manifested something of the demo-
cratic spirit ; and, as the result of a governmental
investigation, he was imprisoned for three months at
Holienasperg (1837).

The period was one of petty despotism in Ger-
many, and Auerbach suffered the rigors of university
discipline to such an extent as to compel him to aban-
don his university career and to turn to literature
for a livelihood. In 1836, in reply to Wolfgang
Menzel's attack oil the “Junge Deutschland,” for
all of whose literary and political sins he held the
Jews responsible, Auerbach had published his first
pamphlet, “ Das Judenthum und die Neueste Lite-
ratur” (Stuttgart), wherein he pleaded for a fuller
recognition of Jewish ideals ; but the age was hardly
ripe for such progress; the days of '48 had not yet
dawned. He also wrote, under the pseudonym of
“ Theobald Cliauber ” (an anagram of
His his name), a biography of Frederick
Early the Great, Stuttgart, 1834-36, and nu-
Writing-s. merous articles for periodicals. His
early works were romances illustrating
various types of Jewish thought and activity. Thus,
in 1838, together with N. Frankfurter, he continued
the “ Gallerie der Ausgezeichneten Israeliten Aller
Jahrhunderte ; Hire Portraits und Biographicn ” (3d
and 4th instalments), begun by Spazier. Along this
same line was his other book, “Spinoza, ein Histo-
rischer Roman in Zwei Theilen ” (Stuttgart, 1837,
newest edition, with supplement, “Ein Denkerle-
ben,” 1880); half story, half philosophical disserta-
tion, in which his admiration for the Jewish thinker
attained the point of glorification. It was followed
by “Dichter und Kaufmann” (Stuttgart, 1839; 4th
revised ed., 1860; 7th ed., 1871), based on episodes
in the life of Moses Ephraim Kuh, a luckless Breslau
poet, and wherein he drew a lively picture of the
Jews in the time of Moses Mendelssohn.

Auerbach’s idealism, however, was not to limit it-
self to heroes of the Ghetto : he was to enter a broader
field and do his share in arousing the German people
to a sense of national unity long before the battle of
Sedan. To familiarize the German of the North with
the character and temperament of the German of the
South (after having published, in 1841, a German
translation of Spinoza’s works, with biography, in
five volumes, and, in 1842, a popular treatise, “Der
Gebildete Burger, ein Buch fur den Denkenden
Menschenverstand ”), he published his incompara-
ble “ Schwarz walder Dorfgeschieliten,” Mannheim,
1843, which at once gave their author international
fame. It was an epoch-making work in the history
of German literature, and was translated into almost
all European languages. What is particularly note-
worthy therein is the success of Auerbach, a Jew, in
describing all the depth of the religious life of the
Christian peasant. That an atmosphere of “ Spino-
zism ” breathed through these most artless tales did
not materially detract from their charm. In his sec-
ond collection of “ Dorfgeschieliten ” (Mannheim,
1848, 1853), stronger characters and more complex
plots were substituted for the idyllic backgrounds

301

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Auerbach, Berthold

of his former literary attempts. In the interval be-
tween these two works, Auerbach published a trea-
tise descriptive of his literary methods, “ Schrift und
Yolk, Grundziige der Volkstlitimlichen Literatur,”
and from 1845 to 1848 issued a very popular calen-
dar, called" Gevattersmann. ”

In Breslau, in 1847, he married Augusta Schrei-
ber, who died the following year in childbirth. This
bereavement prevented him from taking any very
active part in the Revolution of 1848. He never-
theless went to Vienna, where he witnessed the Oc-
tober days, and described his impressions of those
stormy scenes in his “Tagebucli aus Wien; von
Latourbis Windiscligratz,” Breslau, 1849. He mar-
ried again in Vienna soon after, espousing Nina
Laudesmann, a sister of the poet Hieronymus Lorm,
and in 1849 settled in Dresden, whence, ten years
later, he removed to Berlin, which then became his
permanent abode. There he came into contact with
the foremost writers and artists of the Prussian capi-
tal, and was received at court; but spent every
summer in his native village in the Black Forest,
seeking there recuperation and new inspiration for
his literary labors.

A couple of plays produced by him, a tragedy,
“Andreas Hofer,” and a drama, “Der Wahrspruch,”
Leipsic, 1860, were not at all successful; nor did
he have better fortune with his next novel, a tale of
modern life, entitled “Neues Leben,” Mannheim,
1851. He therefore reverted to his village tales;
publishing “Barfiissele” in 1856 (30tli ed., 1896; il-
lustrated by Vautier, 1872), “Joseph im Schnee” in
1861 (illustrated by Kindler, 1867), and “Edelweiss”
in the same year. From 1858 to 1869 he edited a
“ Volkskalender,” which numbered among its collab-
orators the most famous writers. He then again
essayed a romance of modern life, this time most
successfully; and to-day his “ Auf der Holie,” Stutt-
gart, 1875, and “Das Landhaus am Rhein,” Stutt-
gart, 1868, are numbered among the best works of
German prose fiction.

Auerbach was a fervent German patriot, and took
the deepest interest in the unification of Germany.
During the Franco-Prussian war (1870-71) he was
attached to the headquarters of the
As grand duke of Baden (a great admi-

Patriot. rer of the poet), and gave vent to his
patriotic enthusiasm first in liis“Wie-
der Unser! Gedenkblatter,” Stuttgart, 1871, and
again in his novel, “Waldfried; eiue Familien-
geschichte ” (1874). He again resumed his “Dorf-
geschichten” in “Nach Dreissig Jaliren” (1876).

The productions of the last four years of Auer-
bach’s life show some traces of increasing age. To
this period belong “Landolin von Reutershofen,”
Berlin, 1878; “ Der Forstmeister, ” 1879; “Brigitta,”
Stuttgart, 1880. To complete the list of his wri-
tings, the following may be added: “Deutsche
Abende, ” a number of speeches and lectures, Stutt-
gart, 1866 ; “ Zur Guten Stunde,” illustrated by Men-
zel, Kaulbach, L. Richter, and Meyerlieim, Berlin,
1872; and “Tausend Gedanken eiucs Collaborators,”
1876.

Auerbach’s attitude toward Judaism receives am-
ple illustration from many a character and passage
in his stories. He strove to diffuse the kindliest

sentiments among those of all creeds. His world-
philosophy was a species of exalted patriotism, con-
joined with a pure idealism; but it was destined to
suffer a severe shock when anti-Semitism arose in
Germany, and, despite the triumph of the German
national idea, a wave of pessimism fol-
Attitude lowed closely on the nation’s victories.
Toward Private troubles may have contributed
Judaism, their share to his unrest: his second
marriage had not brought him happi-
ness. He found philosophy and life in ominous
opposition, which, to one of his gentle mold, was a
deep disappointment. For many years Auerbach,
at least publicly, held somewhat aloof from Judaism,
though always a Jew in heart and soul. But
aroused in his last years, by Theodor Billroth's anti-
Semitic work, “ Varum Studiren Unsere Judcn Medi-
zin?” lie openly took up the defense of his core-
ligionists.

When the blood -accusation was revived in Russia,
Auerbach issued an appeal, “ An Alle Milliner der
Wahrheit und Sittlichkeit ” (“To All Men of Truth
and Morality and he also addressed an open letter
of thanks to Dr. von Dollinger, president of the
Academy of Sciences in Munich, for his courageous
speech in behalf of the Jews. In 1880 (July 14) he
had the satisfaction of attending the unveiling of
the Spinoza monument at The Hague. Auerbach,
who had devoted his entire life to the glorification
and realization of German ideals, lived to hear him-
self stigmatized by the Judteopliobes as a foreigner,
without share or interest in anything German. The
anti-Semitic agitation, then centered in Berlin, and
family cares broke down the health of the poet.
In the fall of 1881 he went for his health to Cann-
stadt, but, becoming worse there, he removed to the
milder climate of Cannes. There he died, just as
extensive preparations were being made to celebrate
his seventieth birthday.

The inner life of Berthold Auerbach is abundantly
illustrated by his works; but it receives its fullest
light and interpretation in his “ Briefe an Seinen Vet-
ter, Jacob Auerbach,” issued by the
His latter (in accordance with the author’s
Letters. request) iu 1884, with a preface by
Spielhagen. These letters extend
over a period of 52 years (1830-82), and contain iu
Auerbach's own words “all that was most important
in the development of his general and individual
life.” They form a mirror, in which his every mood
is reflected, and wherein his genuine nature is de-
picted with an artlessness and naturalness typical of
the man. They form the best commentary upon his
philosophy, politics, and religion; and throughout
them all, two points are constantly expressed; viz.,
love for the Black Forest and enthusiasm for Israel.

Auerbach always possessed a love for dramatic
art, and at his death there was found among his pa-
pers a series of studies relating to the stage. These
were published under the title “ Dramatische Ein-
drilcke,” Stuttgart, 1892.

A complete edition of Auerbach’s works in 22 vol-
umes was published at Stuttgart in 1863-64 ; the most
recent edition is that of 1892-95 in 18 volumes. Ilis
posthumous works were acquired in 1897 by the
Scliwiibische Scliillerverein, and deposited in the

Auerbach, Eleazar
Auerbach, Leopold

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

302

archives of Marbach. A biography of Bcrtliold
Auerbach is now (1902) being prepared by Arnold
Bettelheim, of Vienna.

Bibliography: Allg. Zeit. des Jud. xlvi. 126, 157; Friedrich
Theodor Viseher, Berthold Auerbach, ein Nachruf, 1882 ;
Wilhelm Goldbautn, in Westermann’s yionatsheften, No.
305, pp. 606 ct seep ; Zabel, Berthohl Auerbach, 1882; Lud-
wig Solomon, Berthold Auerbach, cine Biographic, 1882;
Ludwig Stein, Berthold Auerbach und das Judenthum,
1882; Ed. Lasker, Berthold Auerbach, cine Gedenkrede,
Berlin, 1882; D. Frischmann, Berthold Auerbach, in Ha-
Yahudi. Hc-Asif, 1889, i. 159-171; Rudolf Krauss, Schwd-
bische Literaturgeschichte, 1899, ii. 288, 299, and passim.
s. A. S. I.

AUERBACH, ELIEZER BEN HAYYIM.

See Auerbach, Isaac ben Hayyim.

AUERBACH, FELIX : German physicist ; born
Nov. 12, 1856, in Berlin. He was only twenty
years old when he graduated from the university of
his native city, and received the degree of Pli.D.
upon the presentation of an excellent thesis, “Unter-
sucliungen uber die Naturdes Vokalklanges,” which
appeared in Poggendorff ’s “ Aunalen der Physik und
Chemie ” for 1876. Continuing his studies at the
University of Berlin until 1879, he was in that year
appointed assistant in the Physical Institute of the
University of Breslau. In 1890 Auerbach was ap-
pointed assistant professor of physics in Jena Uni-
versity, which position he continues to occupy.

Among Auerbach's scientific contributions is a
treatise on hydrodynamics, “ Die Theoretisclie Hy-
drodynamik. Nach dem Gauge der Entwickelun-
gen in der Neuesteu Zeit in Kurze Dargestellt,”
Brunswick, 1881, which received the prize of the
Reale Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti,
and was subsequently translated into Italian (Milan,
1882). Auerbach is also the author of numerous pa-
pers of a more technical nature in the “ Arcliiv fur
Physiologie,” in Poggendorff’s “ Annalen der Physik
und Chemie,” in the “Nachrichten der Koniglichen
Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften und der Georg-
August Universitiit zu Gottingen,” etc. Short no-
tices of his scientific contributions may be found in
the annual “Die Fortschritte der Physik,” G. Rei-
mer, Berlin.

Bibliography: Poggendorff. Bioqraphiseh - Literarisches
HandwOrtcrhuch, Leipsic, 1898; Dcutscher Universitiits-
Kalender, ed. Ascherson, Berlin.

S. A. S. C.

AUERBACH, HAYYIM B. ISAAC: Rabbi
at Leucziza, Russia, and author ; of the first half of the
nineteenth century. He was the contemporary and
friend of R. Akiba Eger of Posen and of R. Solomon
Posner of Warsaw. He wrote “ Dibre Mislipat ”
(Words of Judgment), published at Krotoschin, 1835
— a lialakic work, witli additions by his sons Mena-
hem and Isaac. Compare Auerbach, Isaac b.
Hayyim.

Bibliography : Shem lia-Gedolim he-Hadash, i. letter n.

L. G. P. B.

AUERBACH, ISAAC B. HAYYIM: Polish
rabbi; lived in the first half of the nineteenth cen-
tury; was first rabbi at Dobria, near Kalisz, then at
Plock ; later he succeeded his father, Hayyim Auer-
bach, as rabbi of Lencziza, government of Warsaw,
Poland. He wrote “Dibre Hayyim” (Words of
Life), Breslau, 1852, a pilpulistic disquisition on the
Shulhan ‘Aruk, and on other rabbinical codes (“pos-
kim ”). His work includes a pilpulistic treatise,

“Mayim Hayyim” (Living Waters), by his father,
Hayyim Auerbach, and additions and notes by the
author’s brother Eliezer.

Bibliography: Zedner, Cat. Hebr. Boohs Brit. Mus. s.v. ;

preface to the author’s Dibre Hayyim .

L. G. A. R.

AUERBACH, ISAAC (pTN) B ISAIAH (also
known as Reis) : Grammarian, and exponent of
Rashi; flourished toward the beginning of the eight-
eenth century at Fiirtli, Amsterdam, and Frankfort-
on-the-Main. The works of Auerbach, which are
enumerated below, are particularly interesting be-
cause of the history of their origin, which curiously
illuminates the educational condition of the German
Jews of the period. Auerbach, who, like all Jewish
scholars of his time, devoted himself exclusively to
the study of the Talmud, relates that, as regards
certain passages, Raslii’s commentary on the Bible
was to him a closed book, because even the simplest
elements of Hebrew grammar were unknown to him.

The scholars of Ftirth, however, were not only
incapable of expounding the difficult passages in
Rashi, but ridiculed Auerbach’s peculiar taste for
Hebrew philology. He thereupon left Furtli and
went to Amsterdam, where for ten years he studied
Hebrew grammar with Samuel Posen. As the fruit
of his labors he published (Wilmersdorf, 1718) “ Girsa
de-Yanuka” (The Boy’s Study), an elementary
grammar with paradigms in Hebrew and Judseo-
German. This — one of the first elementary Hebrew
grammars written by a Jew — met with such success,
particularly in Frankfort, where Auerbach had
meanwhile settled, that the author soon afterward
published his second Judteo-German grammar
(Ftirth, 1728), entitled “Shuta de-Yanuka” (The
Boy’s Talk). The Hebrew and German elementary
book of Baruch (Bendet) b. Michael Moses Meseritz
(Altona, 1808; Breslau, 1814), entitled “Girsa de-
Yanukta” (The Study of Childhood), is based on
excerpts from these two works.

Auerbach had not forgotten that he had been first
stimulated to the study of grammar by the works of
Rashi; and he now published his comments and ex-
planations on Rashi’s commentary on the Penta-
teuch (Sulzbacli, 1730; Furtli, 1762), under the title
“Beer Rehobot” (Well of Enlargement); also re-
issued, after the death of the author, by his son
Aaron and extended by him to the Five Rolls. This
book may be ranked among the best supercommen-
taries that have been written on Rashi’s Bible com-
mentary, and has proved of great benefit both to
teachers and to pupils. Auerbach also translated
into Judteo- German the “Behinat ‘Olam” of Jedi-
diah b. Abraham Bedersi, which, under the title
“ Zaphnath-paaneah” (Gen. xli. 45, “revealer of se-
crets ” ; LXX, “ savior of the world ”), was first pub-
lished at Sulzbacli in 1743, and has since been fre-
quently reprinted. Appended to this work is Auer-
bach’s Judaeo-German translation of Bedersi’s
“ Bakkashat ha-Memin. ”

Auerbach’s father was a martyr ; but the occasion
on which he met death is not known.

Bibliography: Furst, Bibliotheca Judaica, i. 72,73; Fuenn,

Keneset Yisrael. p. 589 ; Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 908 ;

idem, B ibliographisches Handbuch, No. 143.

L. G.

303

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Auerbach, Eleazar
Auerbach, Leopold

AUERBACH, ISAAC LEVIN: A German
preacher, educator, and author; bom at lnowra-
claw, Prussia, March 21, 1791; died at Dessau July
5, 1853. He was the son of Levin Isaac Auerbach,
rabbi of Inowraclaw, and brother of Baruch Auer-
bach, the well-known founder of the Jewish Orphan
Asylum in Berlin. Isaac belonged to that small
band of Jewish young men in Berlin who, in the
first quarter of the nineteenth century, paved the
way for reforms in Judaism. After receiving an
education in Bible and Talmud from his father and
at Lissa, he went to Berlin, where he devoted him-
self to the study of languages and science. His at-
tainments and abilities must have been considerable,
for he was appointed preacher at the Jacobsen tem-
ple, in which also Kley, Gtinsburg, and Zunz deliv-
ered their German sermons. His next position was
on the teaching staff of the Jewish girls’ school of
Berlin, and finally he was called to the temple of
Leipsic, where he officiated for more than twenty-
five years.

Auerbach’s activities were chiefly directed toward
a reform of the divine service. He considered it first
an exigency of changed conditions ; secondly, the
most potent factor in the improvement of the whole
religious and ethical life. Likewise he pointed out
the necessity of establishing schools, and pleaded for
a spirit of toleration in all religious and political
matters. These ideas pervade his works and ser-
mons, of which the following were published: (1)
“ Sind die Israeliten Verpfliclitet Ihre Gebete Durch-
aus in Hebraisclier Sprache zu Verrichten?” Ber-
lin, 1818 — arguing on rabbinical grounds for the
introduction of the German language into the serv-
ice; (2) “Die Wichtigste Angelegenlieiten Israels,”
Leipsic, 1828 — containing nine sermons; (3) “Die
Aufnalime Israels in die Grosse Gemeinschaft der
Nationen,” Leipsic, 1833; (4) “ Israels Jiingste Heim-
suchung,” Leipsic, 1840 — on the Damascus affair;
(5) “Das Verstandniss der Zeit,” Leipsic, 1845 — on
the reform tendencies in Judaism.

Bibliography : Kayserling, Bihliothek JUdischer Kanzel-

redner , i. 19-20.

s. M. B.

AUERBACH, JACOB: Educator and author;
born at Emmendingen, Baden, Nov. 14, 1810; died
Oct. 31, 1887. He received his early education in
Carlsruhe, where, in the autumn of 1827, he met his
cousin and, later, brother-in-law, Berthold Auer-
bach, the famous novelist, with whom he formed ties
of close and lasting friendship. When, on account
of straitened circumstances, Jacob was compelled to
abandon his studies at the University of Heidelberg,
Berthold came to his assistance. In Wiesbaden,
where the young scholar was called to occupy the
position of a religious teacher after his graduation
from the university, he became one of the most inti-
mate friends and enthusiastic followers of Abraham
Geiger. Called to Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1842,
his time was occupied for nearly forty years with
his duties as religious teacher in the Jewish commu-
nity and (after 1848) at the gymnasium, and with
occasional sermons at the “ Andachtssaal. ” He was
pensioned by the government in 1879 ; and, in recog-
nition of his services at the Frankfort Gymnasium,
he was decorated with the Order of the Red Eagle.

Among Auerbach’s contributions to Jewish his-
tory and literature are his essay on “ Lessing and
Mendelssohn,” 1867, and a “History of the Jewish
Community of Vienna from 1784.” His most valu-
able work, however, was the publication of the
letters received by him from Berthold Auerbach,
covering the period from the time of the separation
of the two friends at Carlsruhe in April, 1830, to
the death of the novelist, Feb. 8, 1883. These let-
ters, which appeared in two volumes under the title
“ Berthold Auerbach : Briefe an Seinen Freund Jacob
Auerbach,” Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1884, and in
which the whole character and individuality of Ber-
thold Auerbach were unconsciously revealed, form
an excellent autobiography of the writer.

Jacob was also the author of several educational
works and of the “Schul- und Hatisbibel,” 1858,
which had a wide circulation in Jewish communities
in Germany.

s. A. S. C.

AUERBACH, JOSEPH DANZIGER : Au-
thor of “ Darke Yesliarim ” (Paths of the Righteous),
a treatise on ethics and morals in the Yiddish dia-
lect, published in Amsterdam in 1758.

Bibliography: Zedner, Cat. Hehr. Books British Miuscum,

p. 63; Benjacob, Ozar ha-Sefarim , p. 120.

d. A. R.

AUERBACH, LEOPOLD : German physician
and biologist; born at Breslau April 27, 1828; died
there Sept. 30, 1897. He studied in Breslau, Leip-
sic, and Berlin, receiving his doctorate in 1849. The
following year lie began the practise of medicine in
Breslau, and at the same time devoted himself, un-
der the direction of Purkinje, to the study of histol-
ogy and neuropathology. In 1863 he became docent
at Breslau University, and remained in that position
nine years, when he was promoted to the rank of
assistant professor of general biology and histology,
which he held for a quarter of a century.

His chief contribution to science is in the domain
of cellular biology and histology, in which he at-
tained considerable eminence. The results of his-
weighty studies on the cell are embodied in the “ Or-
ganologiselie Studien” (parts i. and ii. , Breslau,
1874), which treats of the structure, chemical consti-
tution, and life-history of the cell-nucleus, and of the
early stages of development of the fertilized ovum.
Auerbach belongs to the class of modern biologists
whose investigations not only paved the way to-
ward the elucidation of important problems in biol-
ogy, but raised wholly new questions regarding t lie-
mechanism of the development and role of the cell
in hereditary transmission. His researches have
materially advanced the knowledge of cell-life and
cell-structure. According to Oscar Hertwig, Auer-
bach established satisfactorily that during cell-divi-
sion the nucleus does not become dissolved, but be-
comes metamorphosed. Auerbach also made the im-
portant discovery that during conjugation the nuclei
of oval eggs rotate so that the axis of the spin-
dle coincides with the longest diameter of the egg.
To his cytological researches must be added his
investigations on the lymphatics of the intestines
as well as his discovery of the cellular structure
of the capillaries and his work on the physiology of
| muscle. Besides his “ Organologisclie Studien,”

Auerbach, Loeb
Auerbach, Simon

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

304

which he published separately, Auerbach contribu-
ted a number of papers to medical and biological
journals and to the transactions of several scientific
societies. During half a century of active scientific
work he published: “De Irritamentis Nervorum,
Studia Critica,” Berolini, 1849; “Ueber Psychisclie
Thatigkeiten des Rlickemnarks,” in Giinsberg’s
'Zeitschrift fur Mediciu,” 1853, iv. ; “Ueber die
Ersclieinung bei Oertlicher Muskelreizung,” in “ Ab-
Iiandlungen der Schlesischen Gesellschaft fur Vater-
landische Cultur,” 1861, pp. 291, 326; “Ueber Per-
kussion des Muskels,” in “Zeitschrift fiir Rationelle
Mediciu,” 1862; “Bau der Blut- und Lympli-Capil-
laren,” in “ Centralblatt fiir die Medicinische Wis-
senschaft,” 1865; “ Lympligefasse des Darmes,” in
Virchow’s “Archiv,” 1865, xxxiii. ; “Ueber einen
Plexus Mesentericus, ” Breslau, 1862; “De Ventri-
culo Carnoso Avium,” 31 pp., Breslau, 1863;
“Walire Muskelhypertrophie,” in Virchow’s “Ar-
chiv,” 1871; “Ueber den Einfluss Erhbhter Tempe-
ratur auf die Nervosen Central Organe,” 28 pp.,
Heidelberg, 1880.

Auerbach is the author also of several scientific
monographs which appeared in the “Zeitschrift fur
Wissensehaftliehe Zoologie,” in Reichert-Du Bois’
“Archiv”; in the “ Verliandlungen der Berliner
Medicinischen Gesellschaft” ; in the “ Verliandlungen
• der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenscliaften zu
Berlin”; and in Ferdinand Cohn’s “Beitrage zur
Biologie der Pflanzeu.”

Bibliography: Anton Bettelbeim, Bioyrapliisches Jahrbucli
und Deutsche)- Nekrulon, 1898, ii. 85; J. Pagel, Bioyra-
phisches Lexicon der Hervorrayenden Aerzte des l'Jten
Jahrhunderts , p. 59; A. Wernieh and A. Hirscb, Biogra-
phisches Lexicon Hervorraye nder Aei-zte Alter Zeiteu und
Vblker , i. 226 ; Jos. Tyson, The Cell Doctrine , 2d ed., Phil-
adelphia, 1876; Ed. B. Wilson, The Cell in Development and
Inheritance , 2d ed., pp. 5, 106, 127, 132, New York, 1900;
Quarterly Journal Microscopical Science, 1876, xvi. 131;
Hertwig-Campbell, The Cell, pp. 199, 218, 219.

s. W. S.

AUERBACH (JUDAH), LOEB B. ISRAEL :
Galician Talmudist of the second half of the eight
eentli century. He is the author of “Meliokek Ye-
liudah” (The Lawgiver of Judah), Lemberg, 1792,
a commentary on those sections of the Orali Hay vim
of Joseph Caro’s Shulhan ‘Aruk which treat of
the regulations for Passover. The work consists of
two distinct parts, entitled respectively (1) “ Hukke
‘Olam” (Eternal Laws), which gives the lialakic de-
cisions briefly, and (2) “Hukke Da‘at” (Laws of
Knowledge), which gives discussions of the prece-
ding.

Bibliography: Filrst, Bibl. Jud. i. 73; Zedner, Cat. Hebr.
Boohs B) it. Mus. p. 337.

L. G.

AUERBACH, MEIR B. ISAAC : Talmudist
and chief rabbi of the Ashkenazim in Jerusalem;
born Feb. 10, 1815, at Dobria near Kalish, Russian
Poland ; died May 8, 1878, at Jerusalem. He was
rabbi at Kalish when, in 1860, actuated by his love
for the Holy Land, he removed to Jerusalem, where
he organized the congregation and yesliibali Oliel
Jacob, and subsequently became chief rabbi of the
Ashkenazim. He also organized an independent
board of Shehitah for the Ashkenazim. This action
was opposed by the “liakam bashi,” David Hazan,
and his Sephardic congregation, who controlled the
.Shehitah. They were upheld by the Mussulmans,

who favored the Jewish mode of killing animals,
which corresponded with their religious belief and
custom, and who would not eat meat slaughtered by
Christians or by Ashkenazic Jews, the latter not
being recognized by them as sons of Abraham. This
greatly hampered the undertaking of the Ashke-
nazim, as none but Christians would buy the surplus
of the Shehitah, and, being excluded from the Mus-
sulmans’ trade, the Ashkenazim found the Shehitah
quite expensive. Auerbach appealed to the liakam
bashi to intercede on behalf of the Ashkenazim, and
requested him to obtain from the Turkish govern-
ment the recognition of the Ashkenazic Jews as sons
of Abraham. The liakam bashi hesitated, and Auer-
bach threatened him with excommunication for re-
fusing to perform his plain duty and to do justice
to the Ashkenazim. At last in 1864 the liakam bashi
was not only obliged to remove his objection, but
actually compelled to establish the fact before the
Ottoman authorities that as regards their religion
there was no difference between the Sephardim and
Ashkenazim.

Auerbach and Rabbi Samuel Salant in 1866 organ-
ized the Central Committee known as the “ Wa‘ad
lia-Kelali” in Jerusalem, as an agency for the dis-
tribution of funds from the cliarity-boxes all over
the world for the Ashkenazic poor in Palestine, the
income from which from the United States alone
amouuts to about 820,000 per annum. In 1875, on
the occasion of the visit of Sir Moses Montefiore to
the Holy Land, Auerbach protested in an open let-
ter addressed to Montefiore (in Hebrew and English,
London, 1875) against the charges of unfair manip-
ulation of the gifts sent to the poor in Palestine.

Auerbach is the author of “ Imre Binali ” (Words
of Understanding), novel he on Orali Hayyim and
Yoreli De‘ah, and responsa on Hosheu Mishpat, Jeru-
salem, 1871-76; of annotations to his father’s “Dihre
Hayyim,” and to Loeb Guenzburg’s “Ture Eben.”
He left many manuscripts on Talmudical subjects,
which are still unpublished. Auerbach was known
as a great pilpulist.

A “bet ha-midrash” has been founded in Jerusa-
lem to perpetuate Auerbach’s memory.

Bibliography: J. Schwartz, Tehuot ha-Arez, ed. Luncz, pp.

500, 501; A. Amshewitz, Moshe we-Yerushdlayim, pp. 81-96,

Warsaw, 1879; M. N. Auerbach, Zehut Abot, Jerusalem,

1895, Introduction; Allyemeine Zeituny des Judentliums,

1878, p. 363.

L. G. J. D. E.

AUERBACH, MENAHEM MENDEL BEN
MESHULLAM SOLOMON : Austrian rabbi,
banker, and commentator; born in Vienna at the be-
ginning of the seventeenth century ; died at Kroto-
scliin, Posen, July 8, 1689. He was descended from
the well-known Auerbacli-Fisclihof family, both his
father, Mesliullam Solomon, and his maternal grand-
father, Rabbi Judah Loeb Rofe, being members of
the Vienna Ghetto.

Auerbach received a Talmudic education, and was
a pupil of Joel Sarkes (n"3), of Joshua ben Joseph
of Cracow, and of Menaliem Mendel Krochmal of
Nikolsburg. He married the daughter of Judah
Loeb Cohn of Cracow (died 1645), and then settled in
Cracow with his brother Hayyim. For many years
Auerbach held the position of dayyan of the Cracow
community, being at the same time engaged in the

305

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Auerbach, Loeb
Auerbach, Simon

banking business with his brother. Later, both re-
turned to Vienna, where Menahem remained after
his brother’s death in 1666, up to the expulsion of
the Jews from Vienna by the emperor Leopold I. in
1670. Benjamin Leb (Wolf) Fiscliliof, probably the
youngest of the brothers, was also expelled at the
same time, and became rabbi in Nikolsburg.

After the expulsion Auerbach became rabbi at
Rausnitz, Moravia, and in 1673 of Krotoschin, where
for sixteen years aud until his death he occupied the
double position of rabbi and parnass of the district
of Posen. In Krotoschin he established a yeshibah.
which soon became known throughout Poland, and
to which he devoted much of his time and energy
(Eliakim ben Meir, “Responsa,” § 61). His son
Moses was parnas of the district of Posen, one of
the leaders of the Synod of Great Poland, and presi-
dent of the Assembly of Ivobylin in 1733. The fol-
lowing pedigree exhibits the relationship of this
branch of the Auerbach family :

Judah Loeb Rofe,

Rabbi of Cracow

Judah Loeb Daughter m. Mesbullam

Cohen m. Lissa Solomon Auerbach

Daughter m. Menahem Mendel Benjamin Leb

Hayyim, Dayyan (Wolf)

at Vienna

Saul ben (d. 1606)

Ezekiel

Daughter m. Moses Miriam m. Moses Isaac ha-Levi,
rabbi of Zlotow

Menahem Mendel,
rabbi of Krotoschin (1732).

Auerbach was the author of “ ‘Ateret Zekenini ”
(The Crown of Old Men; compare Prov. xvii. 6), a
commentary on Oral) Hayyim, a division of the Shul-
han ‘Aruk, printed at Dyhernfurth, 1720, and repub-
lished in most editions of that work. He also left in
manuscript “ ‘Akeret lia-Bayit ” (The Barren Oue of
the House; compare Ps. cxiii. 9), a commentary on
another division of the Shullian ‘Aruk; namely,
Hoshen Mislipat.

Bibliography: Kaufmann, Die Lctzte Vertreibung derJuden
am Wien , pp. 172 et seq., Vienna, 1889; H. N. Dembitzer,
Kr.Ulat Yofi , passim, Cracow, 1888; I. Eisenstadt-S. Wiener,
Da'at Kedoshim, passim, St. Petersburg, 1897-98.
g. H. R.

AUERBACH, MESHULLAM SOLOMON.

See Auerbach, Menahem Mendel, and Auerbach
Family.

AUERBACH, PEREZ B. MENAHEM NA-
HUM : Polish Talmudist ; flourished in the first half
of the eighteenth century. He was the author of
the work, “Peer Halakah” (Ornament of the Hala-
kah), Zolkicv, 1738, which contains novelise to the
Talmud, to the commentaries on the Talmud, and
to Maimonides’ Yad lia-Hazakah. The section in
the treatise Pesahim (14a, 21a), known as the “ section
of R. Hanina, the chief priest,” is treated in a par-
ticularly exhaustive manner.

Bibliography : Benjacob, Ozar ha-Sefarim, p. 455 ; Zedner,
Cat. Hcbr. Banks Brit. Mus. p. 04.

D. L. Cx.

AUERBACH, PHINEAS BEN SIMON
WOLF : Rabbi and Talmudist; lived at the end of
II.— 20

the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth cen-
tury. He was chief of the court of j ustice at Cracow
(“bet din”), but on account of the persecutions of the
Jews in Poland he was forced to leave his native
country (1714), settling later at Frankfort-on-the-
Main, where he married the daughter of the rabbi,
Joseph Samuel. He is the author of “Halakah Beru-
rah ” (The Clear Law), a commentary on the Shullian
‘Aruk, Oral) Hayyim (Wilmersdorf. 1717). This
work contains, mainly, solutions of questions on
which the Aharonim had widely divergent opinions.

Bibliography: Steinsehneider, Cat. Until. Nos. 6750, 7196;
Wolf, Bibliotheca Hebrcea, iii. 1843b; Azulai, She in ha-
Gednlim. s.v. Pinhas ; Auerbach, (resell, tier Israelitischen
Gemeillde Halberstadt , p. 53.

I.. G. A. R.

AUERBACH, SAMUEL B. DAVID
TEBELE : A cabalistic commentator on the Bible;
flourished in the seventeenth century. His father,
David, died as a martyr during the persecution of
the Jews in Poland, and he himself narrowl y escaped
a similar fate, first at Lublin, Oct. 16, 1655, and then
at Reisen, near Lissa. Auerbach was the author of
a work entitled “ Hesed Shemo El ” (Mercy, Its Name
Is God, the letters of “Shemo El” corresponding
with those of “ Samuel,” the author’s name). This
work, published at Amsterdam in 1699, contains
Midrashic and cabalistic explanations of Genesis, of
no value whatever. However, of considerable value
to the historian, as records of an eye-witness, are the
numerous scattered references to the persecution of
the Jews of Poland during the years 1648 and 1655.

Bibliography: Uurland, Fa-Karat ha-Gezernt, v. 75: Steiu-
schneider. Cat. Both. col. 2409; Zunz, Literaturgesch. 439.

K. L. G.

AUERBACH, SIMEON. See Auerbach
Family.

AUERBACH, SIMON (ZE’EB) WOLF B.
DAVID TEBELE: Talmudist and rabbi of sev-
eral large communities; born at Posen about 1550 ;
died Nov. 12, 1631, at Prague. His father was either
rabbi or, at least, an eminent Talmudic authority
in Posen ; and his father-in-law was Solomon b. Jehiel
Luria, whom he succeeded, after the latter’s death,
in the rabbinate of Lublin (1578-84). Before this,
however, he had officiated as rabbi of the communi-
ties of Turbin and Lubomil. Poland. At Lublin he
had a bitter quarrel with the celebrated Talmudist
of that town. Meir b. Gedaliuh (Maharam). The
latter apparently had at this time no official appoint-
ment at Lublin, but was the leader of oue of the
largest yeshibot ; and by virtue of his great Tal-
mudic authority, he had it in his power to make it
very unpleasant for the rabbi of his community.
Although the two men had been friends before
Auerbach entered upon his office (compare MaHa-
Ram, Responsum No. 27), this relation was dis-
turbed when Auerbach, as rabbi of the community,
became the superior of MaHaRam. In addition
there was an ancient feud between Luria and Maha-
ram’s father, which passed over to their sons.

Auerbach left Lublin, in order to accept the rab-
binate of Przemysl, retiring after a few years to
Posen, as he had private means. In 1621 he was
appointed chief rabbi of his native place.

Auerbach’s great reputation is evident from the

Auerbach

Augury

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

306

fact that the community of Posen set aside in his
favor the statutory law under which no native of the
city could be appointed chief rabbi. In Posen, also,
Auerbach’s position was not entirely pleasant; for,
while he was chief rabbi, Benjamin of Morawczyk
was the “rosli yeshibah” (head of the college), and
difficulties frequently arose between the two. Hence
Auerbach, who had refused a call to Vienna as rabbi
in 1628, accepted that position in the following year.
He did not stay there long, however, being appointed
chief rabbi of Prague, and district rabbi of Bohemia.
'While in office at Prague he had a quarrel with his
predecessor, Lippmann Heller, who had been re-
moved from office by the government.

Auerbach wrote several works, none of which
has been preserved, nor are any of the names of his
many pupils known. According to the testimony
of his contemporaries, Auerbach was not only a
renowned Talmudist, as is evidenced by the posi-
tions he held in the largest community of Poland
and of Austria, but a man of inflexible and fearless
character, as his controversies with many of his col-
leagues have demonstrated.

Bibliography : Bloch, Simon Wolf Auerbach, Oberrahhiner
von Grosspolen , in Gedenkhuch zur Erinnerung an David
Kauf mann. Breslau, 1900 ; Lewinstein, in Ha-Goren, i. 41-43
(many ot whose statements are inaccurate ; e.{/., there was in
Amsterdam no Solomon Aboah, who is alleged to have been
the umpire in a controversy between Auerbach and Maharam ) ;
Lieben, Gal-Ed, pp. 75,76 (epitaph), German part, p. 62; Nis-
senbaum, Le-Korot ha-Ychudim he-Luhlin, pp. 23, 24, Lub-
lin, 1699 (see also the remarks therein.of Harkavy, Buber, and
Lewinstein ; it is doubtful whether the period given byNissen-
baum for Auerbach’s activity at Lublin is correct).

k. L. G.

AUERBACH, SOLOMON HEYMANN : He-
brew scholar; born at Posen at the end of the eight-
eenth century ; died there in 1836. He translated
Habakkuk into German with explanatory notes
(Breslau, 1821). He also collaborated in the trans-
lation of the Bible undertaken by Zunz, for which he
furnished the translation of Ecclesiastes, on which
book he wrote also a Hebrew commentary (Breslau,
1837).

Bibliography: Steinsehneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 763; Winter
and Wiinsche, Jildischc Litcratur , iii. 745.

L. G. I. Bu.

AUGSBURG : Capital of the districts of Swabia
and Neuburg, Bavaria. According to tradition, it
is one of the oldest
Jewish communities in
Germany. The first doc-
umentary mention of the
city is in 1259; but indi-
vidual Jews of Augsburg
are spoken of earlier.
Of the six houses belong-
ing to the church-chap-
ter, and mortgaged in
1259 by Bishop Hart-
mann of Augsburg, one
is described as “a Jew-
ish house.”

In 1276 the congregation possessed a synagogue
and a cemetery. The chief occupation of the Jews
of Augsburg was money-lending ; trade in meat and
wine was also permitted with certain limitations.
In 1316 the Jews of Augsburg must have been afflu-
ent, for the city of Munich mortgaged its revenues

Seal of the Jews of Augsburg.1298. .

(From “ Literaturblatt des Orients.”)

to them for six years. Thirteen years later the Jews
(that is, the revenues from them) were pledged, by
the emperor to the counts of Oet-
Affluence tingen, and by the latter to the family
of Jews, of Hoheneck. In 1364 the council of
Augsburg acquired possession of them.
The city owed large sums to the Jews, and to liqui-
date them instituted, in 1341, forced loans from the
citizens. The bishop’s debts to the Jews were can-
celed in part by Charles IV. When the Black Death
raged in 1348, and the Jews in Augsburg were mas-
sacred, the emperor pardoned the burghers for the
crime. In 1349 the bishop again received Jews into
the city, but six years later transferred to the city
council both the duty of protecting them and the priv-
ilege of taxing them. The emperor demanded 10,000
gulden (1 gulden = 41 J cents) from the Jews of Augs-
burg in 1373; and the council vainly sought to pro-
tect them from this amercement. In 1384 they had
to pay to the council 22, 000 gulden; and in 1385 King
Wenzel canceled all debtsowing to the Jews. King
Sigismund, in 1429, pledged them to Count von Pap-
penheim, to whom they had to pay 200 gulden yearly.
The council bought back this right from Pappen-
lieim in 1439. A year later 300 Jews were expelled
from the city, and the gravestones in their cemetery
were used in the construction of a city hall. In 1456
Frederick III. demanded that the city deliver to him
“all his privileges ”; he was appeased by the pay-
ment of 13,000 gulden, for which the city retained
the right to admit or to expel Jews. From that time
no Jews were permitted to dwell in Augsburg. In
1540 the council decided that Jews might stay no
longer than a day and a night in the town; and they
had to pay the officer who accompanied them during
their stay one “ sechser ” for the service. In 1601 it
was forbidden to borrow money of Jews.

During the Thirty Years’ war some Jews came
to Augsburg. These were officially plundered from
time to time under threat of being expelled; in 1649
they were again driven out; and in 1680 the former
edicts of expulsion were revived and intensified.
While the War of the Spanish Succession raged, a
few Jews again ventured into the city;
The Jews and in 1704 there were 62 families res-
Persecuted. ident there. In 1718 even their tem-
porary sojourn was again forbidden.
From 1741 to 1745, Jews were again permitted to
dwell in Augsburg on account of the War of the
Austrian Succession. In 1742 they were 36 fam-
ilies; • but they were driven out again in 1745. The
council made an agreement with the Jews of the
surrounding villages in 1751 to the effect that for the
yearly payment of 1,100 gulden they might have
free admission to the city for trading-purposes. In
the years following, the council endeavored to re-
strict their commercial undertakings; but in 1791
edicts were issued, protecting the Jews against ill-
treatmenffand pillage. They were again in the city
during the French war of 1796.

Of interest is the medieval seal of the congregation,
with its inscription, partly in Latin and partly in
Hebrew, surrounding a two-headed eagle, and with
a conical hat above all (“Literaturblatt des Ori-
ents,” 1842, col. 73). In “ Monatsschrift,” 1861, (p.
280) mention is made of a “Jewish congregational

307

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Auerbach

Augury

dance-house” in Augsburg (1290). Numerous He-
brew books, distinguished for their beautiful
typography, were printed there be-
Ancient tween the years 1514 and 1543.
Congrega- Of the various rabbis of the congre-
tional gatiou of Augsburg mention must be
Dance- made of the venerable Senior, who in
House. 1348, an eighty -four-year-old sage, was
assassinated while poring over his
books. Elijah of Augsburg wrote a commentary
upon Moses of Coucy’s “Sefer Mizwot Gadol”
(Semag), which exists in manuscript in the Vatican
library; Jacob Weil, son of Judah, one of the most
distinguished rabbis in Germany in the fifteenth cen-
tury, was also of Augsburg. The cemetery adjacent
to the town served as the burial-place for five com-
munities of Swabia. The new congregation has been
inexistence since 1861. In 1862 Dr. Hirschfeld was
appointed rabbi ; and he was succeeded by Hein-
rich Gross. The congregation now (1900) numbers
1,156 members.

Hebrew typography is coeval with the study of
the Hebrew language in Germany. In 1514 Erhard
Oeglin printed the Decalogue and several parts of
the New Testament in Boesclienstein’s
Early “Elementale Introductorium in He-
Hebrew brseas Literas,” which is embellished
Printing, with an elaborate border, falsely as-
cribed to Hans Holbein. Actual print-
ing in Hebrew was practised by the traveling printer
Hayyim Schwarz, who in 1533 completed the Me-
gillot and Kashi’s Commentary on the Pentateuch as
the first printed production in Augsburg. On Jan.
19, 1534, the Passover Haggadah was completed ;
and in the same year there was published at Augs-
burg by an anonymous author a guide to correspond-
ence which became very popular during the seven-
teenth century. Previous to 1536 there successively
appeared a daily prayer-book (“ tefillah”), a festival
prayer-book (“ mahzor ”), and a penitential prayer
book (“selihot ”), all according to the German ritual.

With his son Isaac and his son-in-law Josef b.
Yakar, Schwarz in 1540 published the “Turim" of
Jacob b. Asher, and “ Abkat Rokel ” (The Merchant’s
Spiccbo*), a work ascribed to one Makir. These
were followed by the Book of Kings (1543), and the
Book of Samuel (1544), both in Judaeo-German rime.
All of these typographical productions are exceed-
ingly beautiful, and may be classed among the rarest
specimens of the printer’sart. In 1544 Paulus ^Emil-
ios, later professor at Ingolstadt, edited at Augsburg
a Judaeo-German Pentateuch.

Bibliography: Stobtie, Die Juilni in Deutschland WUhreiul
des Mittelalters, Brunswick, 1866; idem, Gesch. der Juden
in der Reichsstadt A ugshurg, Augsburg, 1803; Salfeld,
Martgrolngium des N Umber ger Mcmorbuehcs, p. 344;
Die Augsburger Juden in Mittekilter , in Israelit . 1873,
Nos. 8-13; and the literature collected by Burkhardt, and
Stern, in Ze.it. flir Gesch. der Juden in Deutschland, iii.
109, 110: Steinschneider, Zeitschrift flir die Gesch. der Ju-
den in Deutschland, pp. 283-287 ; idem. Cat. Bodl. col. 1395;
Erseh and Gruber, Encyklopddie. § 2, xxviii. 49.

G-— j. A. F.

AUGURY : Originally, prophesying by the flight
of birds ; but later the term was applied to all forms
of foretelling (augur = avi-gur , oiovdc, niuviarai, etc.).

Augury was first systematized by the Chaldeans.
The Greeks were addicted to it; and among the

Flight of
Birds.

bird of omen.

Romans no important action of state was under-
taken without the advice of the augurs. In fact, the
belief in augury has existed at all times, among the •
uncivilized as well as the most civilized nations, to
the present day, the wish to know the future con-
tinually giving rise to some art of peering into it.

The various species of Augury, however, depend
on the conditions of external nature, race peculiari-
ties, and historical influences. The future was fore-
told by the aspect of the heavens (Astrology); by
dreams, lots, oracles, and such things;
Kinds of or spirits were invoked (Necromancy),
Augury, and the Teraphim and Urim and
Thummim were questioned. As these
forms of prognostication, as well as the pagan
method, Divination, are treated under their several
headings, this article will be devoted to Augury in
the strict sense of the word, including, however, all
predictions dependent on chance happenings. All
signs and intimations coming under the concepts
“nihusli” (whisper) and “siman” (omen) belong to
Jewish Augury, the history of which may be divided
into Biblical, Talmudic, and medieval periods.

In Bible Times: The observation of the flight

of birds for the purpose of prophesying, or as a
prognostication, is not expressly mentioned in the
Bible. That it was not unknown, however, is shown
in Eccl. x. 20, “fora bird of the air shall carry the
voice, and that which hath wings shall
tell the matter. ” This knowledge may
also be assumed in view of the fact
that among the Arabs the raven was a
The Greek version several times trans-
lates “nahash” by oiuvuc; but this word, like the
Latin “augurium,” means any kind of prognostica-
tion, and not merely that by the flight or the cry of
birds. It is nevertheless a curious fact that t radition
also originally applied the prognostication designated
by nahash to the omens derived from animals. Jo-
seph practised hydromaucy. He divined (nahash) the
future by pouring water into a cup, throwing little
pieces of gold or jewels into the fluid, observing the
figures that were formed, and predicting accordingly
(Gen. xliv. 5, according to Dillman’s commentary).
Laban found out in a similar way (nahash) that God
blessed him on account of Jacob (Gen. xxx. 27).
King Manasseli also practised this species of divina-
tion (II Kings xxi. 6; II Chron. xxxiii. 6). Another
method consisted in observing the signs from staves
planted upright or flung on the ground (“Cyril of
Alex.” in Winer, “ B. K.” ii. 673), a
method that is not identical with the
arrow oracle (Hosea iv. 12 ; perhaps
Ezek. viii. 17; compare Num. xvii.
16 et seq.). Ezekiel (xxi. 26 [A. V.
21]) speaks of the arrow oracle of the
king of Babylon ; but the prophet
Elisha also directs the Israelite king
Joash to shoot two arrows through the window in
order to find out whether Joash will vanquish the
Aramaic king (II Kings xiii. 14-19).

Accidental occurrences (ai/ie^n) are of great impor-
tance in divination, and may be taken as omens (cri-
pela = “siman”). Eliezer, Abraham’s servant, said:

“ I stand at the well . . . and the damsel to whom
I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I

Hydro-
mancy,
Rhabdo-
mancy,
and Bel-
omancy.

Augury

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

308

may drink ; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give
thy camels drink also, let the same be the wife ap-
pointed by God for Isaac ” (Gen. xxiv.

Omens, 12-19). Jonathan, when he is about to
Accidental attack the Philistines, says: “Behold,
and Others, we will pass over unto these men, and
we will discover ourselves unto them.
If they say thus unto us, Tarry until we come to
you ; then we will stand still in our place, and will
not go up unto them. But if they say thus, Come
up unto us; then we will go up: for the Lord hath
delivered them into our hand; and this shall be a
sign unto us” (I Sam. xiv. 8-11). The prophet
Isaiah even gives to the pious king Hezekiahasign,
as an indication that he will get well (II Kings xx.
9). The Lord commands Gideon to choose those
warriors who lap the water with their tongues like
a dog, but to reject those who get down on their
knees to drink (.1 udges vii. 5). The diviners advised
the Philistines to send back the Ark of the Lord in
order that the deaths among them might cease:

“ Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milch kine,
on which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to ttie cart,
and bring their calves home from them. And take the ark of
the Lord, and lay it upon the cart ; and put the jewels of gold,
which ye return him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by the
side thereof; and send it away, that it may go. And see, if
it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Beth-shemesh, then
he hath done us this great evil : but if not, then we shall know
that it is not his hand that smote us ; it was a chance that hap-
pened to us. . . . And the kine took the straight way to the way
of Beth-shemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they
went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left ”
(I Sam. vi. 7-12).

King David listens to a sound in the tops of the
trees when he asks God whether he shall go against the
Philistines (II Sam. v. 24), a fact that reminds us of
<pv/.ofiavT£i.a and “ sihat dekalin ” (compare below ; also
“elon me'onenim,” Judges ix. 37; and Baudissin,
“Studien zur Vergleichenden Semitischen Religions-
gesch. ” ii. 194, note 4). The incident of Balaam, who
attempted prognostication on a hill, refers perhaps
to some divination of this kind, since he too uses
the characteristic word “nahasli” (Num. xxiii. 23).
It is highly improbable that the Hebrews prognos-
ticated from the drifting of the clouds, as has been
assumed from piytD (derived from py, cloud); nor
was any attention paid to the lightning flash, which
belonged to Augury among the Romans.

The Law strictly and repeatedly forbade all Au-
gury (Lev. xix. 26; Deut. xviii. 10, etc.). The inter-
pretation of signs, however, as in the case of Eliezer
and Jonathan, where nothing was done in the way
of conjuration, was not considered to be Augury.
The Talmudic Period : Augury is more fre-
quently referred to in post-Biblical times, but it
would be rash to assume therefore that it was more
widely practised. As among the classical peoples
of antiquity and among the Germans to-day, the arts
of Augury proved effective only with the person
who believed in them, and only such a person was
injured by them (Yer. Shab. 8 d; Bab. Ned. 32a ; L.
Blau, “Das Altjiidische Zauberwesen,” p. 77, note 4).
The prohibition in Lev. xix. 26 (ttynin “neither
shall ye use enchantment ”) is referred by Sifra on
that passage (ed. Weiss, p. 90) to divination by means
of weasels, fowls, and stars, meaning the omens found
in the flight and cries of birds and in similar signs;

while Sifre, Deut. 171 takes it in a still more general
sense, saying : “ Who is a menahesh [enchanter] ? He,
for instance, who says: ‘My bread fell out of my
mouth’ ; or ‘ My staff out of my hand ’ ; or ‘A snake
crept to my right ’ ; ‘A fox ran to my left and his
tail crossed my path’; furthermore, he who says:
‘ Do not begin anything to-day, because it is the new
moon ’ ; or ‘ It is Friday’ ; or ‘ It is the Sabbath eve-
ning. ’ ” In the parallel passage, Sanli. 656, other evil
omens are added ; namely, if a man’s son calls after
him; if a raven croaks at him, or a deer gets in his
way; and more explicitly, if one avoids being the
first to pay the tax.

The belief in animal omens was widely spread
among the Babylonians, who also divined by the
behavior of fish, as was well known (Lenormant,
“ Die Magie und Walirsagerei der Chaldaer, ” p. 473;
Blau, l.c. pp. 45 et seq. ; Pauly -Wissowa, “Real-En-
cy klopiidie der Classischen Alterthumswissenscliaft,”
iv. 1397, ixOvo[j.avTeia). Snake and cloud omens were
also known (Levy, “Clial. Worterb.” ii. 1026).

Augury proper was known among the Jews, but
was considered as a foreign Roman or Arabic art.
Josephus narrates (“Ant.” xviii. 6, § 7 ; xix. 8, § 2)
that a bird (an owl) alighted on the tree against which
Agrippa was leaning while a prisoner
Flight and at Rome ; whereupon a fellow pris-
Cries oner, a German, prophesied that he

of Birds, would become king, but that if the
bird appeared a second time, it would
mean he would die. The third of the Sibylline Books
(line 224) says about the Jews: “They do not con-
sider the omens of flight as observed by the augur-
crs.” In the account of the martyrdom of Isaiah
(“ Asceusio Jesaise,” ii. 5) it is stated that in the time
of King Manasseli not only magic and other crimes
increased, but also Augury by the flight of birds,
which is denoted by “we-niliesh” (II Kings xxi. 6).
According to the Aristeas Letter (§§ 165 et seq.), the
weasel is the symbol of the informer. This appar-
ently has some connection with the avspiemm.

Augury and astrology are “the wisdom of the
East,” mentioned in I Kings v. 10 (Pesik. 336, D'jnV
VDI! O'Drijn m^T03). By the “bird of the air”
(Eccl. x. 20) is meant the raven, in Augury, says a
Palestinian teacher of the Talmud of the third cen-
tury (Lev. R. xxxii. 2; compare ‘Aruk, s.v. nt Y’O
[■'T'tan ncora myn ; Blau, l.c. p. 48, note 2). The
Arabic expression itself, as well as the mention of
the raven, the bird of omen of the Arabs, proves
that Arabic Augury is here referred to. When Rah
Tlisli was in prison a man who understood the lan-
guage of the birds interpreted to him the cry of a
raven as meaning “Tlisli” (flee!), “Tlisli” (flee!).
Rab paying no attention — the raven being prover-
bially a liar — a dove addressed him, and wdicn her
cry was interpreted in the same way, he obeyed the
warning and escaped, since the dove means Israel;
that is, the dove is Israel’s bird of omen (Git. 45 a,
bottom). The place where the flight of birds was
observed is also mentioned (XlYi'O ; Targ. Yer. to
Num. xxxi. 10; compare Sifre on the passage, and
Levy, l.c. ii. 157a). With one exception the doves
of Herod cried K vpie, Kvpie (lord, lord !) ; and when
this one was taken to task by the others, she cried
XEtpiE ; that is, “ Herod was a slave ” — -whereupon she

309

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Augury

was killed by the followers of Herod. R. Kaliana
understood this conversation (Hul. 1396; ‘Aruk, s.v.
"Ip; Levy, l.c. ii. 324 a).

Tlie Romans also understood the language of the
birds (Pauly-Wissowa, l.c. i., lxxvii. 51 ; lxxxvi. 29).
Judah does not dare, even in a whisper, to advise
the emperor Antoninus to proceed against the nobles
of Rome; for the birds carry the voice onward (‘Ab.
Zarah 106; compare Lenormant, l.c. p. 451). God
is angry each day for one minute (Ps. xxx. 6) during
the first three hours; that is the time when the comb
of the cock turns white, or when not a single red
stripe is to be found in his comb, and he stands on
one leg. R. Joshua ben Levi, who wanted to seize
this moment to curse a heretic who had offended
him, tied a cock and watched him intently, and in
doing so he involuntarily fell asleep (Ber. 7a; ‘Ab.
Zarah 46; Sanli. 1056).

The Babylonians divined also by flies (Lenormant,
l.c. p. 472). In this connection arose perhaps the
saying that no fly alighted on the table of the prophet
Elisha (see Beelzebub). The language of trees,
which tJie ancient peoples, especially the Babylo-
nians, are said to have understood, was probably
known to the Babylonian Jews as early as the eighth
century (Blau, l.c. p. 47; “Ivnistern des Lorbeers
Gluck bringend,” in Pauly-Wissowa, l.c. i. 66, note
24). Thus Abraham learned from the sighing of the
tamarisk-tree that his end was nigh (see Abraham,
Testament of). Lev. xix. 26, UJiyn is trans-
lated by the Septuagint K/rj^ovi^tcOai ; i. e. , to divine
by sounds and noises (compare Griinbaum, in “Z. D.
M. G.” xxxi. 253 et seq.).

To interrogate Chaldeans (Pes.1136, etc.) or to
practise divination in general is not permitted. He
who abstains from so doing is admitted into a section
of the heavens which even the ministering angels
may not enter (Ned. 32a). But since desire often out-
balances precept, a fundamental difference was made
by setting up the rule: “There is no such thing as
divination, but there are prognostications” (j'Nt^
’D'y'X, JCD K” Km Yer. Shab. 8c; Bacher, “Ag.
Pal. Amor.” ii. 25, note 5). The Romans also distin-
guished between greater and lesser divinations, call-
ing the latter signs (or/iuela, “signa,” JO’D ; see Deren-
bourg-Saglio, “ Dictionnaire des Antiquites Greeques
et Romaines,” ii. 2936, bottom). Such, for instance,
are the signs of Eliezer (Gen. xxiv.), of Jonathan
(I Sam. xiv.), and also Gen. xxxviii. 11, and xlii. 36;
the last-named also leading to the conclusion that
every sign had to be repeated three
Prognosti- times. In consequence of this distinc-

cations. tion even the most eminent amoraim
made use of certain signs. Rab looked
upon it as a favorable omen if the ship that ferried
him came to meet him, but as a bad omen if it was
not ready. Samuel opened his Bible for a chance
intimation. Johanan made a boy recite a Bible verse
with the same purpose. When in passing a school
he heard a boy say “Samuel has died ” (I Sam. xxv.
1), he took it as an omen and did not visit the amora
of that name as he had intended to do. The expres-
sion “a house, a wife, and a child give signs” must
mean that signs may be taken from them, Rashi to
the contrary notwithstanding (Yer. Shab. 8c, bottom;
Hul. 956; Gen. R. lxxxv. 5, commentaries).

Boys were often used by diviners to peer into the
future, being for that purpose bewitched by magic
formulas (Pauly-Wissowa, l.c. iv. 1399). The Tal-
mud says, curiously enough (B. B. 126, where two
cases are cited): “Since the destruction of the Tem-
ple, prophecy has been given into the hands of the
insane and of children.” The Jewish view is not
far removed from the Greco-Roman one; namely,
that the insane were possessed by demons. Bewitch-
ment was strictly forbidden, as was generally the
interrogation of demons, except by means of oil or
eggs, to find a lost article ; but “ the princes of oil and
of eggs lie” (Sanli. 101a; compare Demonology and
Divination). This view of R. Johanan (died 279)
explains that he often sought advice from boys with
the formula, “Tell me thy verse ! ” meaning the verse
which the boy had just learned, or which came into
his mind at that moment (Hag. 15a; Meg. 286; Git..
57a, 68a, etc. ; Horowitz, “Sammluug Kleiner Mid-
rashim,” p. 69, “mail pasukekem ”). The same
teacher of the Talmud says that if any one happens
to remember a verse of the Bible early in the morn-
ing, it is a prophecy in miniature (Ber. 576), the pro-
phetic element being in such cases the accidental.
He looked upon a voice which he heard accidentally
behind him as being a divination, and followed it;
for it is written (Isa. xxx. 21), “Thine ears shall
hear a word behind thee, saying. This is the way,
walk ye in it.” But, says the Talmud, the voice
must be an unusual one, such as a man’s voice in
a city, or a woman’s voice in a desert (Yer. Shab.
8c; Bab. Meg. 32a). Other teachers of the Talmud
also paid attention to this kind of voice, which was
called Bat Kol. Two persons intending to visit a
sick teacher said, “We will be guided by the Bat
Kol,” whereupon they heard one woman say to an-
other, “The light has gone out.” Then they said,
“It shall not go out, and may the light of Israel
never be extinguished” (16.). As among other peo-
ples, the Jews also considered the last words of the
dying as divinations. Thus Eliezer ben Hyrkanus
and Samuel ha-Katan prophesied the martyrdom
of several scholars (Sanli. 68a and 11a; Pauly-Wis-
sowa, l.c. i. 92, note 11).

Some other omens must be mentioned, called
“siman,” although not all strictly belonging to the
subject in hand. It is a bad sign for any person to
make a mistake in his prayers, but a good sign to
know- them fluently (Mishnah Ber. v.,
Other end; compare Talmud 346, bottom,

Omens. and 246, top). It is a bad sign for the
remainder of the year if it rains after
Nisan or at the Sukkot festival; or if the wine does
not turn out well; or if the Feast of Weeks fall on
the fifth of the month. If there is fine weather on
the day of that feast it is a good omen for the world
(Mishnah Ta‘anit 12a, 2a; Ab. R. N. i. 4; Tosef.,
‘Ar. i. 9; seeAb. R. N. ii. 33 and Sifre i. 112, and in
general Levy, “Neuhebr. Worterb.” and Krauss,
“Griechische und Lateinische Lehnwbrter,” under
the word p'D). It is a good sign for sick people to
sneeze (Blau, l.c. p. 163; Tylor, l.c. i. 98-100, Ger-
man ed.). Generally much attention was paid to
omens (KVt NJD'D, an omen is a thing to be

considered). In order to find out if one will live the
year through, one must take a candle during the ten

Augury

Augusti

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

310

days bet ween New -year and the Day of Atonement,
and light it in a house where there is no draft; if the
candle burn to the socket, that one will live the year
through. In order to know if some matter of busi-
ness will succeed, onq must feed a hen; if she grow
fat and plump, the matter in hand will succeed. In
order to know if one will return home from a jour-
ney, one must go into a dark room, and if one see
there the “shadow of the shadow,” one will return.
The Talmud discourages, however, recourse to these
bracks given by R. Ami, as a person becomes low-
spirited if they are unfavorable (Ker. 5b, bottom;
Hor. 12 a). The first form of Augury reminds of
pyromancy ; the second, of the feeding of chickens
(the “tripudium” of the Romans).

— — In the Middle Ages : It may be said in general
that the philosophers were averse to Augury, as
well as to any other form of superstition. This is
true especially of Maimonides, who, although bound
by the Talmudic tradition, was not inclined to make
any concessions on this point (Hilk. ‘Ah. Zarali xi.
4, 5). The Talmudists, again, for whom the Tal-
mud was the decisive authority, could not accept
all the utterances and stories found therein. Hence
a curious discrepancy between theory and practise
arose, as indeed is found in the Talmud itself. While,
on the one hand, everything that at all suggests idol-
atry is strictly forbidden, much, on the other hand,
is permitted, or practised in spite of the interdiction,
probably in consequence of overwhelming popular
opinion (see Tur and Shulhan ‘Aruk, Yoreh De'ah.
178-179, together with the commentaries). Expressly
heathenish practises, however, were mercilessly con-
demned. The mystics readily accepted all such be-
liefs, since all superstitious practises coincided with
their views of the world. Moreover, a part of the
people could never wean itself from these views.

As Giidemann has shown in his “Gescli. der Cul-
tur der Juden in Frankreich und Deutschland,” the
Jews of Europe were greatly influenced by the super-
stitions of the peoples in the midst of whom they
were living. A few examples only may here be
given. Judah the Pious (died 1216 at Regensburg),
who was highly venerated by his contemporaries,
and especially during the thirteenth century, gives
in his “ Book of the Pious ” a mass of superstitious.
He condemns on the whole the “ interpretation of
signs, which to-day is so much practised in Israel,”
and declares that the choosing of a day
Germany (for instance, starting children in their
and France, schooling only on the new moon) is
idolatry. He admits, however, that
there are certain reliable signs, of which he would
rather not speak in order not to lead others into
superstition. Thus the itching of the foot indicates
that one will go to an unknowm place; of the ears,
that one will hear something newr ; of the eye, that
one will see or read something newT; of the hand,
that one will receive money (Giidemann, l.c. i. 200 et
seq., §§ 59 and 162). This superstition is so firmly
rooted as to be given credence to-day. Any one who,
during the night or the day, sees his own shadow or
form with closed mouth and eyes will die soon (l.c.
% 547).

R. Moses of Coucy (about 1250) explains QDp
D'ODp (Deut. xviii. 10) to be a form of divination

still practised in Slavonia at his time. Slivers of
wood, from which the bark had been removed on
one side, were thrown into the air, and according as
they fell on the peeled or on the barked side, the
omen was favorable or unfavorable. Flames leaping
upon the hearth indicated that a guest was coming.
Cup and nail divination was practised. Children
were made to look into glasses filled with water, into
crystals, etc., while invoking a demon, the pictures
they saw being then interpreted. For nail divina-
tion the children looked upon the finger-nail (Giide-
mann, l.c. §§ 82 and 208, note 1). Asher ben Jehiel
thought it permissible to find out a thief by means
of divination (Yoreh De'ah, 179), a proceeding that
elsewdiere is described in detail (Giidemann, l.c.
% 208, note 1). In France and Germany in the thir-
teenth century the future was foretold by means of
the “ name of interpretation ” ( “ shem ha-meforash ”),
a species of the name of God, to the astonishment of
the Spaniard Nahmanides (l.c. § 222).

The book “Nislimat Hayyim, ” by Manasseh ben
Israel, a celebrated Dutch rabbi, is a mine of infor-
mation respecting all kinds of superstition. Al-
though a highly educated man, well versed in the
knowledge of his time, one who could even enter into
negotiations with Cromwell regarding
“ Nishmat the return of the Jews to England, the
Hayyim.” author believed in every superstition.

In the nineteenth chapter of the third
treatise of his book he rejects the opinion of Maimon-
ides, who declared all the black arts to be lies and
deceptions, and refers for the veracity of rliabdo-
mancy even to the Chinese and the wild Africans.
He knows the kinds of divination mentioned above,
and speaks also of chiromancy and others.

The cabalistic works, to which Manasseh’s book be-
longs, include of course also other directions for fore-
telling the future, a practise that obtains even to-day
among the uneducated and among persons given to
mysticism. In Baden, Germany, coins and beans are
used, the diviner prognosticating according to their
position and the stamp on the coins. An earlier form
of divination, for finding a drowned person, was to
let a wooden bowl float on the water. Wherever it
stopped, the corpse lay on the bottom (Griinwald,
“ Mitteilungen,” i. 111). On pagan methods of prog-
nostication (/car' tijoxr/v), see DIVINATION.

Bibliography: Winer, B. B. ii. 672; Hamburger, it. B. T.
iii., supplement 3 ; A. Dillmann, Handbuch der Alttesta-
mentlichen Theologie, Leipsic, 1895; R. Smend, Lehrbucli
der Alttesta/mentlichen Religionsgesch. 1st ed., 1893, 2d ed.,
1899; T. W. Davies, Magic, Divination, and Demonology,
London and Leipsie, 1899 ; D. Joel, Der Aberglaube und die
Stellung des Judenthums zu Demselben, Breslau. 1881; L.
Blau, Das Altjildische Zauberwesen, Strasburg, 1898 ; (jiide-
mann, Gescli. der Cultur der Juden in Frankreich und
Deutschland, Vienna, 1880; Lenormant, Die Magic und
Wahrsagerei der ChaldSer; Daremberg-Saglio, Diction-
naire des Antiquites Grecques et Romaines, i. 550; Pauly-
Wissowa, Real-Encykloptidie der Classischen AUerthums-
wissenschaft, ii. 2313 ; Ennemoser, Gescli. der Magic, p. 142;
E. B. Tvlor, Primitive Culture, s.v. Augury.

k. L. B.

AUGUSTA ; The capital of Richmond county,
Georgia, received its first Jewish settlers about 1825,
when a Mr. Florence arrived with his wife. About
a year later, Isaac and Jacob Moise and Isaac Hen-
dricks and his wife came there from Charleston : their
number was added to by others from the same place,
and subsequent to 1844 Jews from Germany began

311

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aug-nry

Augusti

to find their way to Augusta (Markons, “The He-
brews in America,” p. 113). It lias a congregation,
Children of Israel, organized in 1850. The relig-
ious services were originally held in a hall, where
the Sunday-school children also received their in-
struction. The first rabbi was Rev. H. S. Jacobs,
who held that position from 1860 to 1865. During
the Civil war many Israelites from Charleston came
to Augusta, thus considerably increasing the mem-
bers of the congregation. During that time a ceme-
tery was acquired and a benevolent society formed.
Henry S. Jacobs was called to New Orleans, and
was succeeded by Rev. Fisher-Fux, 1869. Rev. A.
Blum was called to the pulpit, and he succeeded in

Synagogue at Augusta, Ga.

(From a photograph.)

getting a permanent building. Until then the serv-
ices were strictly orthodox, a mixture of the Por-
tuguese and Ashkenazic rites. In the fall of 1870 the
synagogue was completed and dedicated by its min-
ister. Family pews were introduced, an organ and
mixed choir took the place of the old chanting, the
Jastrow prayer-book was adopted, and the Sun-
day-school placed on a modern footing. Rev. Lev-
inson was minister, 1871-76; E. S. Levy, 1876-86;
Leo Reich, 1886-87. In 1887 A. Blum was recalled,
but remained only one year. J. H. M. Chumaceiro
was minister from 1888-94; the present rabbi is J.
Feuerlicht.

The congregation has, besides the benevolent so-
ciety, a ladies’ aid society, and a Sunday-school with
five teachers, attended (1900) by fifty pupils. There
is also a Russian Polish congregation in Augusta,

called Adas Jescliurun; this synagogue is on Tenth
and Greene streets.

Prominent Israelites of Augusta have been: Sam-
uel Levy, who was judge of the probate court from
1866 to 1877; Isaac Levy, who held the position of
sheriff for many years; Hon. Adolph Brand, who
was a member of the Georgia legislature.

The Jewish population of Augusta numbers about
600 in a total of 47,000. The Israelites are mostly
merchants, but there are some cotton brokers and
lawyers.

a. A. Bm.

AUGUSTI, FRIEDRICH ALBRECHT (orig-
inally Joshua ben Abraham Herschel) : German
author; born at Frankfort -on-thc-Oder in 1691 ; died
at Eschberge May 13, 1782. lie received tin* usual
Jewish education of that time. According to a
biograph)', printed anonymously during his life
time and probably inspired by him, he left home
very young in the company of a meshullah, or col-
lector of alms for the poor of Palestine of the name
of Yekutiel, intending to accompany him to the
Holy Land. While on the way Augusti was taken
captive by Tatar robbers and sold as a slave in Tur-
key. He was ransomed and set free at Smyrna by
a wealthy Jew from Podolia, and went to Poland,
spending several years in Pintzov, which is now
in the government of Kiek;e, in Russian Poland.
Here the Jews and Socinians lived on terms of in-
timate friendship, and through them young Au-
gust! became acquainted with secular knowledge,
especially Latin, an uncommon accomplishment for
a Jew in Poland at that time. He visited Cracow
and Prague, and, returning to Frankfort, started
from there on a journey to Italy. While living
in Sondershausen in 1720, he was malt netted by a
gang of robbers that broke into the house in which
he resided, and was found apparently lifeless on
the following morning. He recovered, however,
and during his convalescence became acquainted
with a clergyman of that place, who succeeded in
converting him to Christianity. With much pomp
and ceremony Augusti was baptized on Christmas
day, 1723, in the presence of the duke of Saxe-Co-
burg-Gotha and other notables, and soon after be-
gan to study theology at the Seminary of Gotha.
In 1727 he went to Jena and afterward to Leip-
sic. He was appointed assistant professor at the
Gymnasium of Gotha in 1729, and in 1734 became
minister of the parish of Eschberge, in which posi-
tion he remained until his death. The famous theo-
logian Johann Christian Wilhelm Augusti was his
grandson.

Augusti published several works in Latin and
German, of which ‘‘Das Gelieimniss des Samba-
thian ” (The Mystery of the Sambathian), the fab-
ulous river mentioned in Talmudic literature,
which casts stones during six days of the week
and rests on Saturday, is probably the most curious.
His work on the Karaites, mentioned by Ftirst in
his “Gescliichte des Karaerthums,” vol. iii. 66, 67,
of which the full title is “Griindliclie Nachriehten
von den Karaiten, Hire Glaubens-Leliren, Sitten
und Kirclien-Gebrauche ” (Erfurt. 1752), is full of
inaccuracies and extravagant statements. Baum-
garten, in his “Nachriehten von Merkwiirdigen

Augustine

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

312

Bucliern,” vol. i. 341-351, exposes many of these,
and justly refuses to believe Augusti’s claim that his
sources were rare manuscripts which, after he had
used them, were partly burned and partly stolen,
and of which no duplicates remained. ' The best
proof of his negligence or ignorance of the subject
is that he wholly ignores the OTO IT (Dod Mor-
decai), the full description of the Karaites and Kara-
ism which was written by the Karaite Mordecai
ben Nissim, at the end of the seventeenth century
for Prof. Jacob Trigland of Leyden, and published
with a Latin translation with Trigland’s “De Ka-
raeis” by Johann Christian Wolf in 1714. Augusti
also confuses Judah ben Tabbai, who lived at least
a century before the common era, with Judah ha-
Nasi, who flourished about three hundred years later.

The “ Life of Augusti,” by an anonymous author,
published in 1751 by Weber, is also reviewed and
severely criticized by Baumgarten in the volume
cited above (pp. 337-340). The Christian critic dis-
plays sufficient familiarity with Jewish affairs and
customs to disprove the biographer’s claim that Au-
gusti, before his conversion, was a rabbi at Sonders-
hausen, and proves that in reality he was a school-
master and possibly a slaughterer of animals or
“shohet.” Several other biographies of Augusti
were written, mostly for missionary purposes, one
translated into English by Macintosh, London, 1867.
Bibliography: Delitzseh, in Saatauf Hoffnung , 1866; Mc-

Clintoi k and Strong, Cj/c. Supplement.

G. P. Wl.

AUGUSTINE : The greatest and most important
of the Latin church fathers; born Nov. 13, 354, at
Tagaste^a town of Numidia; died at Hippo Aug.
28, 430. After a riotous youth as a heathen, he be-
came first a devotee of the Manichean confession,
and then after nine years was converted to Christian-
ity by Ambrosius, in 386. He be-
His came presbyter in 392 and bishop in

Complex 395, and eventually the greatest pil-
Character. lar of the Catholic Church. This re-
markable round of religious experience
indicates very well the complexity of Augustine’s
character; for in it were combined qualities the most
opposite, such as overexuberance of fancy- and
sharpest critical acumen; vehement prejudice and
delicate consideration; romanticism and scholasti-
cism; glowing sentimentalism and hair-splitting
casuistry. As a result, Augustine’s writings are
sometimes introspective in the extreme, frequently
soaring into the heights of religious adoration of the
Divine Being; at other times he concentrates atten-
tion upon the Christian dogma, and attacks with
pitiless logic, sometimes indeed with subtle casu-
istry, all deviations from the strict and rigid faith of
the Church. Of introspective writings are his “ Con-
fessions,” a work translated into nearly all the lan-
guages of civilization ; of quite another kind are his
letters and sermons, his dogmatic and exegetical
treatises, and his polemics. These curious psycho-
logical contrasts in Augustine — who was too sensu-
ous for a philosopher and too precise for a poet —
make it impossible to discern any definite system in
his writings, his doctrines having no common foun-
dation, being, indeed, for the greater part mutually
contradictory. On the one side he may be said to

have been a forerunner of Descartes and of the
modern theory of perception and psychology, and
yet, on the other side, he leaned toward mysticism.
One might just as easily find connecting-links be-
tween Augustine and Luther as between the former
and the fathers of the Inquisition. This conflict in
Augustine’s principles is perhaps nowhere more
strikingly revealed than in his attitude toward those
two constituents of Christianity, Hellenism and Ju-
daism. His conception of the Deity reveals through-
out a strongly marked trace of Hellenism, derived
by way of Neoplatonism; and yet, on the other hand,
one can not help noticing his stringently legalistic
Jewish views, which, curiously enough, are most ap-
parent when he is endeavoring to combat Judaism.

The foundation of his doctrine concerning man
was that he is a “massa peccati,” incapable of rais-
ing himself to virtue, and can find the means of ap-
proaching God through the mediation
His Theory of Jesus alone. This doctrine is so for-
of Man. eign to the essential spirit of Judaism
that it may serve to indicate the ex-
treme point in the divergence of Christianity from
its origin in Judaism. 'Yet grace, according to Au-
gustine, is the result of faith and love; and these,
inconsistently enough, he interprets in true Jewish
fashion — faith as involving adherence to the law and
love as combined with fear. “ Quae caritas tunc per-
fecta, cum pcenalis timor omnis abscesserit, ” is his
expression (“Perf. Just.” x. 22), which recalls the
terse saying of the Talmud. “ Where joy [the feeling
of communion with God] is, there also must be fear ”
(Ber. 3(D). Another specifically Jew-
Of the ish conception, dominating Augustine
Church. as none other of the church-fathers, is
his doctrine concerning the Church ; a
conception which indeed has exerted signal and
decisive influence upon the whole development of
Christian theology. The system of Jewish theoc-
racy, by which the welfare of the individual was con-
ditioned by his reception into the community through
the sacrament of circumcision, was turned into a
Christian form by Augustine in the conception of
the holy institution of the Church, upon incorpora-
tion with which the salvation of the individual is
made dependent. Connected with his doctrine of the
Church is also his well-known theory of predestina-
tion. Since the Church is the only means of salva-
tion, it results that ail not belonging to it (“civitas
diaboli,” as Augustine calls it, in contradistinc-
tion to the “civitas dei”)are excluded from salva-
tion. The old particularism of Judaism, without
which the Christian Church would never have spread
among the heathen, thus survives in somewhat mod-
ified form in the teachings of the greatest Christian
genius of all time. The fact that Augustine, in the
presentation of his tenets, very frequently arrives at
conclusions opposed to his principles,
Of is partly owing to his very sweeping
Scripture, theory of inspiration. Scripture, in-
cluding the Greek translation — that
legacy from the Alexandrian Jews to the Church —
has, for Augustine, divine dignity as well as author-
ity. As a consequence he considers a thing true be-
cause it is stated in the Bible, and it is stated in the
Bible because it is true. In this tenet, moreover, he

313

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Augustine

makes no distinction between the Old Testament and
the New Testament: “ Novum testamentum in veteri
latet, vetus in novo patet”; that is, the Old Testa-
ment is the concealed New, the New is the revealed
Old. How little may be expected exegetically from
such a standpoint can be easily understood.

Not infrequently he gives rationalistic explana-
tions of Biblical anthropomorphisms, which approx-
imate closely to the'teachings of both older and later
Jewish scholars. Thus, for instance,
His Ra- the statement that Creation took place
tionalism. all at once, and not in six days —
that, in other words, “before” and
“after” can not be predicated of the Creator, but
only of things created (“ De Genesis a Lit.” iv. 56, v.
12) — is found in Jewish sources (Tan., ed. Buber, i.
2) ascribed to R. Nehemiali, a tanna of the middle
of the second Christian century. He explains God’s
speaking, as a voice “per aliquam imperio suo sub-
ditam creaturam ” ( l.c . ix. 3), and the same is said by
Maimonides (“Moreh,” ii. 33), and similarly before
him by Saadia Gaon (“Emunot we-De’ot,” iii. , ed.
Leipsic, p. 77; compare also Schmiedl, “Studien
iiber Religionspliilosophie, ” pp. 253-256), who is
followed by the majority of Jewish religious phi-
losophers. Rationalism, however, constitutes the
smallest portion of his exegesis, which is super-
abundantly allegorical or typological. Having
learned much of his allegorical conception from Am-
brose, Origen, and Philo, while at the same time he
is not disinclined to allegorize for himself, the curi-
ous result is that he interprets the same image
differently, even contradictorily, iu divers passages.
Thus the moon is indifferently explained as repre-
senting either carnal man, the Church, or mortality ;
the clouds are prophets and teachers, but also dark
superstitions. He gives much room
His to the typological interpretation of
Typology. the Old Testament, which, as men-
tioned, contains and conceals the New
Testament. Biblical history, as well as the laws
contained in it, is transformed by Augustine into a
history of Christianity and its tenets. Thus, Abel,
Seth, and Joseph represent different aspects of
Jesus: as crucified, as risen from the dead, and as
translated to heaven. Noah’s Ark is the Church; in
the two lower stories are Jews and heathens; in the
third, faith, hope, and love.

Augustine’s lack of critical conception of the Old
Testament is shown by his opposition to Jerome’s
undertaking to make a Latin translation of the Scrip-
tures from the Hebrew. To portray as
Augustine vividly as possible the dangers of such
Opposes an innovation, he informed Jerome in
Jerome. a letter of the fierce tumult which had
arisen in an African congregation,
when the bishop adopted the Vulgate, rendering
“ivy ” instead of the Septuagiut “gourd ” (in Jonah
iv. 6); and what was even of deeper importance, as
he narrates, the bishop bad had to declare Jerome’s
translation faulty upon appealing to the authority of
a certain Jewish scholar (“Epist. Aug.” 171). When,
on the other hand, in another letter (82) to Jerome,
Augustine suddenly declares himself convinced of
the necessity for his undertaking, this must not be
considered as a change of conviction on his part, for

in the same epistle he declares that the ruling
Church translation, “gourd,” must be maintained
in spite of its erroneousness. He foresaw that he
would have to yield sooner or later in a struggle
against a man of such upright character and learn-
ing as Jerome was acknowledged to be.

On the other hand, Augustine did not despise as-
sistance from African Jews — who however, were
not among the most learned of the race — upon ob-
scure passages in the Old Testament.
Informa- Although the passages in which he
tion from quotes directly from such Jewish

Jews. sources are few, much that is of hag-
gadic and even halakic origin points
to at least oral communication with Jews. Ilis re-
marks about the material of Jewish tradition are im-
portant, “quasnon scriptas liabent, sed menroriter
tenent, et alter in alterum loquendo transfuudit, quas
Deuteroses vocant ” (c. Advers. leg. ii. ?). This would
indicate that the Jews of Africa iu the beginning
of the fifth century possessed only an unwritten
Mishnah (Deuterosis), and Rabbi’s Mishnah could
not therefore have been written down. The only
two Haggadot mentioned by Augustine as definitely
of Jewish origin are a legend concerning Adam’s sec-
ond wife (see Ginzberg, “ Die Haggada bei den Kir-
clienvatern,” p. 61) and the story of Abraham in ti e
fiery furnace. The latter, however, he may possibly
have drawn from Jerome (“Quaeslio” in Gen. ix.).
Of the many rabbinical traditions that he does not de-
scribe as Jewish, the following examples may serve:
Light created by God on the first day of Creation is not
the earthly light (De Gen. v. ) ; the same view is given
by the Baraita iu Hag. 12 and Gen. R. iii. (1. The
moon was created when full, because God created
nothing imperfect (Gen. ii. 31); wherefore also Adam
was created as a perfectly developed man (l.c. vi.
23), which is identical with an old Haggadah ascribed
in the Talmud (Hul. 30«) to R. Joshua b. Levi, who
flourished about 230. Augustine’s teaching that
Adam was created by God Himself directly, and not
by God’s word as everything else was, is also of
Jewish origin (see Ginzberg, ib. p. 21).

His remarks on the Heptateuch contained much
that is rabbinical, but he may have received it from
the Roman deacon, Hilarius. His rationalistic ex-
planation of the “sons of God” (Gen. vi. 2) by mri
justi is that of R. Simeon b. Yohai (flourished
150; see Gen. R. xxvi. 5). (For the rabbinical
sources of his statements that Noah was a hun-
dred years iu building the Ark; that he, Noah, pos-
sessed such control over the animals therein that
even the lions lived on hay ; that Rebecca before the
birth of her sons inquired of Melcliizedek concerning
herself, see Ginzberg, ib. pp. 75, 77, 118.) Rabbinical
influence is also recognizable in the statement that
Rebecca, by means of her prophetic powers, discov-
ered Esau’s plans of vengeance against Jacob (com-
pare “ Qusest.” 81 with Gen. R. lxvii. 9); and also
in the interpretation in Gen. xxxvi. 31, of the wool
“king,” as meaning Moses (l.c. cxxi.), which coin-
cides with the rabbinical interpretation of Dent,
xxxiii. 5, where also the word “king” is applied to
Moses. Augustine gives interpretations that can
be described as halakic (l.c. Ex. 162); in agree-
ment with the Rabbis (Bab. Pes. 5 b), he interprets

Aug-ustine
Augustus II.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

314

Ex. xxiii. 18 as a prohibition against having leavened
bread in one’s possession when bringing the paschal
lamb into the house. The offense committed by the
sons of Aaron (Lev. x. 1) is understood by Augus-
tine (Lev. x. 31) as being their use, in their sacri-
fices, of Are from some outside source and not from
the altar; following in this interpretation Akiba’s
teaching (Sifra, ad loc.), which is the accepted one
among the Jews. In this same passage Augustine
has a rabbinical interpretation received from his Jew-
ish teachers, which, as now evident, is obviously the
result of a mistake either in writing or in compre-
hension. The Rabbis very ingeniously connect
the passage Leviticus x. 3 with Ex. xxix. 43; but
Augustine’s Jewish teacher confused the word 'mjUl
(“and I will meet”), with which this verse begins,
with the word ’inimn (“Thou hast let me know”),
occurring in Ex. xxxiii. 12; and thus gave founda-
tion for Augustine’s polemic.

His dependence upon Jewish tradition did not,
however, prevent him from reproaching the Jews
for not understanding, or not wishing to understand,
the O. T. In his “Tractatus Adversus
Polemic Jiulieos” he endeavors, as his main
Against object, to prove from Scripture that
Jews. the Law is fulfilled in Jesus, and that
therefore Christians may rightfully
have recourse to the O. T. even if they do not ob-
serve the Law. His endeavor to prove the Messianic
character of Jesus from Psalms xliv., xlviii., and lxx.
is very far-fetched ; as well as his plea for the re-
jection of the Jews, based on Isaiah ii. and Mai. i.
10. 11. He says on this point, “If the Jews in the
Isaiah passage [verse 5] understand ‘ the house of
Jacob’ to be equivalent to ‘Israel,’ because both
names were borne by the patriarch, they only show
how incapable they are of comprehending the true
contents of the O. T. ” “ The house of Jacob ” means
the rejected Jews, while “Israel” designates the
Christians. The results of such polemics — which,
however, belong to the weakest and least impor-
tant. productions of his pen — -were, of course, quite
inconsiderable. Jewish natural intelligence sufficed
to warn them against such conceptions of Scrip-
ture.

In view of the almost exclusively Aristotelian
character of the Jewish philosophy of the Middle
Ages, Augustine’s Neoplatonism remained entirely
unknown to them. As Kaufmann
Jewish (“ Attributenlehre,” p. 41) observes, it
References is highly improbable that Saadia’s
to polemic against the Christians, who
Augustine, desired to prove the Trinity from the
personification of the divine attributes
(Being, Living, Knowing), was directed against the
Augustinian doctrine of the Trinity, the memoria,
intelligentia, and voluntas of God. The agreement
of Saadia and Augustine concerning the creation of
time (Kaufmann, l.c. 307) is based upon the fact
that both depend upon the Platonic sentence, “ Time
came into being with the heavens ” (“ Timseus ”).
Judah Romano (born 1292) and Isaac Abravanel
(died 1508) cite Augustine by name, as do likewise
a number of anonymous writers about the same pe-
riod. For the relation of the Iveneset Yisrael (Jew-
ish Church of the C’abalists) to Augustine’s doc-

trine of the Church, see the articles Cabai.a,
ZOHAR.

Bibliography: In addition to Chevalier, Repertoire ties
Sources HMoriques tiu Moyen-Age , pp. 191-194 and 2432-
2494, Paris, 1877, the following may be of use : Editions— The
best critical edition is the Benedictine, Paris, 1679-1700. The
critical edition in the Corpus Scriptorurn Ecclesiastiorum
LaUnoruin by the Vienna Academy is not yet complete.
Translations— In German, selected writings in the Bihli-
othek tier Kirchenrtlter , Kempten, 1869 (contains transla-
tions of the more important works, upon which see Reul-
Encycl. fiir Protestantische Theoloyie , 3d ed., ii. 258). in
English, Works of Augustine, by Marcus Dods, Edinburgh,
1871-76, in 15 vols. (almost complete; omits only exegetical
writings); P. SehalT, Nicene anil Post-Nicene Fathers,
Buffalo, 1886 (contains some of the exegetical writings).
Biographies and Monographs— Poujoulat, Histoire tie. SI.
Augustin, 3d ed., 2 vols., Paris, 1852; Bindemann, Der
Heilige Augustinus, 3 vols., 1844-1855-1869; Friedrich and
Paul Bohringer, Aurelius Augustinus, 2d ed., Leipsic, 1877-
1878; Nourrison, La Philosophic tic St. Augustin, 2d ed.,
1866, 2 vols.; A. Dorner, Augustinus, Sein Theologisches
System und Seine Religionsphilosophische Ansc.hauung,
1873 ; 0. Rothmanner, Der Augustinismus, 1892.

G. L. G.

AUGUSTINUS RICTUS. Sec Ricius.
AUGUSTOW : District town in the government
of Suvalk, Russian Poland, on the River Netta and
the Lake Biale. In 1887 the Jewish population was
nearly 5,500 — about half the total population.

Bibliography : Entzihlopedichrski Slovar, i., St. Petersburg,
1891 ; Ha-Eshkol, Warsaw, 1887. jj

AUGUSTUS (called later Caius Julius Caesar
Octavianus) : The first Roman emperor that bore
the honorary title of “Augustus”; born Sept. 23, 63
b.c. ; died at Nola, Campania, Aug. 19, 14 c.e. He
was the sou of Caius Octavius. In his attitude toward
the Jews he continued the friendly policy of his uncle,
Julius Caesar, who had made him his sole heir. With
a great anxiety to arouse and to further at Rome in-
terest in the national religion, he combined a broad
tolerance for other faiths. Though lie sanctioned
the course of his nephew Claudius, who, while tour-
ing the Orient, had neglected to sacrifice at the Tem-
ple of Jerusalem, he showed his sympathy clearly on
other occasions, both by sending gifts to the Jewish
sanctuary and by causing the daily sacrifice to be
offered up in his name.

Augustus renewed the edicts which Julius Ciesar
had promulgated in behalf of the Jews
His Edicts, living at Cyrene and in Asia Minor,
granting them perfect freedom of wor-
ship, sanctioning the collection of money for the
Temple, and proclaiming as inviolable their sacred
books and synagogues (Josephus, “Ant.” xvi. 6,
§§ 1-7). Particular regard was paid to their Sab-
bath ; neither on that day, nor on its eve after the
ninth hour, could the Jews be required to appear in
court; while in Rome, if a public distribution of
corn occurred on a Sabbath, needy Jews were en-
titled to claim their share on the day following. The
contemporary Jewish population of Rome was quite
considerable, as appears beyond question from the
several synagogues the origin of which may be
traced to the Augustan age. To one synagogue the
name “of the Augustesians ” ( ovvayuy Avyvorr/oiuv)
was given, in honor of the emperor.

The friendship between Augustus and Herod the
Great began after the victory at Actium (Sept. 2,
31 b.c.), which rendered the former sole ruler of the
Roman domain. Herod lost no time in passing over
to the side of the victor, to whom lie proffered all

315

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Augustine
Augustus II.

the homage and loyalty which thitherto lie had
yielded to Antony. Augustus, accepting the offer,
confirmed the royal position of Herod
Friendship and bestowed upon him, after the
with suicide of Antony and Cleopatra, all the

Herod. provinces of which he had been bereft
through the influence of the latter (Jo-
sephus, “Ant.” xv. 6, § 7). He tried also to aid
the harassed Jewish king in his domestic troubles,
by effecting a temporary reconciliation between him
and the two sous of Mariamne, Alexander and Aris-
tobulus {ib. xvi. 4, § 4). Herod showed his appreci-
ation of his patron’s favors by naming his new cap-
ital, built up out of Samaria, “Scbastfi” (Greek for
“Augustus,” which title the emperor had just then
assumed), in honor of the emperor, and its magnifi-
cent seaport, which occupied twelve years in the
building, “Caesarea” {ib. xv. 8, § 5; 9, § 6).

Under Augustus, moreover, Judea forfeited the
actual or nominal independence it had possessed for
a century and a half, and was made a Roman prov-
ince. After the death of Herod (3 c.e.), an embassy
of fifty prominent men from Jerusalem betook itself
to Rome to protest against the continuance of the
tyrannical rule of the Herodian dynasty, and to plead
with Augustus for the annexation of
Judea Judea to Syria, and the appointment
During His of a mild magistracy which would
Reign. leave to Judea internal autonomy.

About 8,000 Roman Jews joined the
delegation, which was received by the emperor at
the Temple of Apollo. The preliminary result of
this movement was that Augustus divided Herod’s
realm between Arclielaus — whom he appointed eth-
narch, promising him the kingly title if good con-
duct should warrant such reward — and Philip and
Antipas; making liberal provisions, also, for Salome,
Herod’s sister, and for his two daughters {ib. xvii.
11, § 5). At this juncture Augustus rendered an-
other good service to Judea by unmasking and pun-
ishing a pretender to Herod's throne, who, emerging
from Sidon, had passed for Alexander, one of Mari-
amne’s slain sons, and who, on his triumphal journey
from Puteoli to Rome, had gained many a follower
among the credulous Jews {ib. xvii. 12).

The rule of Arclielaus, however, was tyrannous;
and about ten years after his accession another em-
bassy of leading Jews appeared before
Augustus Augustus with an arraignment of his
Banishes cruel despotism. The emperor tliere-
Archelaus. upon summoned him to Rome, and
banished him and his wife, Glaphyra,
to Vienne, a city of Gaul, now in the Isere depart-
ment, France. His wealth was confiscated, while
Quirinius, a prominent senator, accompanied by Co-
ponius, was delegated to Syria and Judea (6-7 c.e.)
for the purpose of taking a census of those provinces
and of introducing the Roman system of poll and
property taxation, as well as of making the proper
disposal of the belongings of Arclielaus.

The census proved highly unpopular, particularly
among the Zealots, a band of resolute republicans
led by Judas the Galilean, or the Gaulanite, and by
Zadok, who saw in this innovation a menace to na-
tional and personal liberty, and opposed it accord-
ingly, though without permanent success. In some

places open resistance even may have occurred
(Josephus, “Ant.” xviii. 1, §1; xx. 5, § 2; idem,
“B. J.” ii. 8, § 1 ; 17. § 8; Luke ii. 1-3; Acts v. 37).
Judea thus became wholly a Roman province of the
second order, not incorporated into Syria, as Josephus
says, but having an imperial representative in the
person of a procurator, who resided at Caesarea.

New marks of loyalty were shown to Augustus
by his Herodian proteges. Antipas fortified Sep-
plioris, the chief city of Galilee, dedicating it to the
emperor; while the new fortress at Bctharamptha
he named “Julias,” after the emperor’s wife. Simi-
larly, Philip built an important city at the head of
the Jordan valley, styling it “Caesarea Philippi,” in
distinction from its namesake built by Herod the
Great ; while he enlarged and embellished Bethsaida,
near the Lake of Gennesaret, and called it also “Ju-
lias,” after the daughter of Augustus (Josephus,
“Ant.” xviii. 2, g 1 ).

Bihi.iography : Gratz, Gesch. der Juden , 4th ed., lii. 229
etseq.; Vogelstein and Rieger, Gexch. der Juden in limn,
i. 11-14: Berliner, Gesch. der Juden in Rom , i. 21, H2;
Mommsen, Rfmische Gesch. v. 5(14 et see/.; Sehiirer, Gescli.
der Juden, i. index, s.v. Oetavianus Augustus.
o. H. G. E.

AUGUSTUS II., THE STRONG: Elector of
Saxony 1694-1733, and from 1697 king of Poland
with the title Frederick Augustus I. ; born at Dres-
den May 12, 1670; died at Warsaw Feb. 1, 1733.
He confirmed the privileges of the Jews, following
the example of his predecessor, John Sobieski (1674-
96); but while that monarch always manifested a
friendly disposition toward them, Augustus II., with
his lavish expenditures — which impoverished Poland
and laid the foundations for her future misfortunes
— was quite indifferent to the condition of the Polish
Jews, who had hitherto always been protected by
the throne. This indifference was in face of the fact
that the Jewish bankers — Oppenheimer of Vienna,
Liebmaun of Berlin, and Meyer and
Assisted Lehmann of Dresden — furnished the
in Election greater part of the 10,000,000 thalers
by Jews, used by Augustus to buy up the Po-
lish nobles for the purpose of securing
the throne. Another Jew, Berend Lehmann (b. 1659
at Halberstadt), furnished the money necessary for
his coronation at Warsaw, and in order to do this he
negotiated the sale of the hereditary estate of Qued-
linburg to Brandenburg for 340,000 1 halers (according
to Vehse and Gretschel). But this indifference with
regard to the protection of the Jews may be ex plained
by the fact that Augustus was also indebted to the
Jesuits of Vienna, who furnished a part of the funds
for the purchase of the Polish throne, taking his jew-
elry as security. With the aid of the Jesuits he at-
tempted to corrupt the inconstant Poles with money,
and by intrigues to keep them in dependency ; for
this purpose he even tried to change the electorate
to a hereditary order.

That he personally favored certain Jews is evident
from his letter dated Sept. 23, 1707, in which he
praises Berend Lehmann for his services, fidelity,
and good character. The same friendly tone marks
a letter of protection dated March 27, 1708, author-
izing Berend Lehmann’s family and servants, and
also his brother-in-law, Jonas Meyer of Hamburg,
to settle at Dresden (see Berend Lehmann).

Augustus II.
Au spitz

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

316

During his reign the discipline in the Polish army
became very lax, and the Jews suffered much from
the violence and robbery of the soldiers. The Cath-
olic clergy ordered the enforcement of the decree of
the Council of Basel instituting conversionist sermons
in the synagogues, which decree had hitherto re-
mained a dead letter. In vain did the Jews ask to
be relieved from such sermons, pointing out their
futility. Often this preaching could be maintained
only with the aid of military force, as, for instance,
at Lemberg in 1721. The land-owners, synods, and
courts took energetic measures against the renting
of inns by Jews. The poll-tax was collected from
the Jews through their “ kahals ” with more energy
than ever before, even after the long wars with
Charles XII. of Sweden had ruined the Jews. At
the Diet of 1717 in Warsaw, the Jew-
Measures isli poll-tax was still more increased.
Against The gentry ( shlyakhta ), the merchants,
the Jews, and the gilds soon observed that the
Jews no longer enjoyed the favor of
the throne, and their attitude toward them became
more and more hostile. The ordinances of the Cath-
olic Church exceeded in hostility to the Jews those
passed in the seventeenth century. The animosity
between the Jews and the Christians at this period
was more of a religious than of an economico-social
nature, as had been the case in the preceding period.
The persecution of the adherents of non-Catholic
creeds, of dissident Christians and Jews, was the
predominating policy of Poland in the time of Augus-
tus II. The Catholic synod of 1720, held at Lovicli,
passed an edict, .“that the Jews shall not dare to
build new synagogues or to repair the old ones,”
threatening them with the courts of the Church.

At the end of his reign Augustus II. abandoned
himself to a life of pleasure, and his last years, char-
acterized as they were by boundless luxury and cor-
ruption of morals, hastened the downfall of Poland.

Bibliography: E. Vehse, Gescli. der Wife des Hauses Sach-
sen, vi. 137-138, Hamburg, 1854: Gretschel, Gesch. des Sttch-
sisclien Volkes und Staates , ii. 575 ; Sidori, Gescli. der Juden
in Sachsen, pp. 55, 56; Emil Lehmann, Der Polnische Resi-
dent Berend Lehmann, p. 13; Alphonse Levy, Gescli. der
Juden in Sachsen, pp. 50-63, Berlin, 1901; S. Dubnow, Yev-
reiskaya Istoriya (Back and Brann), ii. 360-361.

H. R.

AUGUSTUS III. : Elector of Saxony, and as
such Frederick Augustus II., king of Poland; son
of Augustus II. , “ the Strong ” ; born at Dresden Oct.
17, 1696; died there Oct. 5, 1763. Like his father,
lie was brought up in the Protestant religion, but
secretly embraced Catholicism in 1712, although he
did not formally announce his conversion until 1717.
Without the abilities of his sire, he inherited his
passions, and, following his example, distinguished
himself by the splendor of his feasts and the extrav-
agance of his court. Like his predecessors, he con-
tinued the privileges of the Jews iii Poland ; but
under him they became but a dead letter. Neither
he nor his favorite, Count Briilil — who was the actual
ruler of both countries— did anything to protect the
Jews from the attacks of the Catholic clergy and the
Christian merchants.

Soon after Augustus had ascended the throne
(April 4, 1733), he issued an edict, levying, almost
without distinction of age, sex, or state, a special tax

( Leibzoll ) on every Jew passing through Dresden
(Codex Augustus, iii. 10). Only on a petition of the
Jews of Dresden, presented by their delegate, Elias
Berend Lehmann, children under ten years of age
were exempted by virtue of an edict issued Sept. 24,
1733. In Poland, in the same year, the synod of
Plotzk endorsed the medieval dictum, “ that the Jews
ought to be tolerated in Christian countries only to
remind us of the torments of Christ, and with their
wretched position of slaves to serve as an example
of God’s just chastisement of the unbelievers.”

The reign of Augustus was very unfortunate for
the Jews of Poland. Blood-accusations and destruc-
tion of Jewish property, synagogues, and cemeteries
were of frequent occurrence; and in the courts the
cunning lawyers of the Catholic Church always suc-
ceeded in convicting the innocent victims of the
Jesuits. In vain Baruch Yavan, agent of Count
Brllhl, appealed to that obdurate statesman for aid
in behalf of the unfortunate Polish Jews. The min-
ister made liberal promises, but referred Yavan to
the nuncio of the pope. From 1758 to 1760 the pon-
tiff repeatedly instructed his representatives in Po-
land to prevent the spread of these accusations (the
falsehood of similar ones had been stated as early
as the thirteenth century by a bull of Innocent IV.);
but it proved easier to inculcate such prejudices in
the masses than to root them out.

During this reign the Frankists appeared in Po-
land, and caused great disturbances among the Jews,
enjoying the protection of the clergy, and even of
the king himself. At the same time Dembovski,
archbishop of Lemberg, with the aid of the clergy,
police, and the Frankists, began to confiscate copies
of the Talmud and works of rabbinical literature,
which were gathered in Kamenetz-Podolsk, and
burned by the thousands. This hostility to the Tal-
mud, which extended throughout the country as
far as Lemberg, lasted till Dembovski’s death (Nov.
17, 1757). In Dresden an order was issued Aug. 16,
1746, restricting their right to trade in that city and
prohibiting them from building synagogues and from
meeting in any place for prayer. See Frankists.

Bibliography : Alphonse Levy, Gescli. der Juden in Sachsen,
pp. 63-66, Berlin, 1901 ; Sidori, Gescli. der Juden in Sachsen,
p. 73; E. Vehse, Gescli. der Wife des Hauses Sachsen, vi.
Hamburg, 1H54; S. M. Dubnow, Yevreiskaya Istoriya (after
Back and Brann) ii. 360 et seq., Odessa, 1897; Gratz, Gescli.
der Juden, x. 428, Leipsic, 1882.

H. R.

AURANITIS. See IIauran.

AURUM CORONARIUM : A tax paid to the
emperor by all the Roman provinces. Originally it
was a voluntary contribution toward the golden
crown to be offered to those to whom a “triumph”
was given, and to the emperors (compare Cicero,
“ In Pisonem,” xxxvii.) ; but later it became a statu-
tory tax. The emperors who displayed moderation
in it — Augustus (compare Dio Cassius, book 51, p.
458, ed. Hanover, 1606), Hadrian, and Antoninus
Pius — were much praised on that account by the
Augustan historians.

The Romans also applied the term “ Aurum Coro-
narium ” to the yearly tribute paid by the Jews of
Rome for the maintenance of the patriarchate. The
name of the tribute was of itself objectionable to the
Roman emperors, as implying regal rights in the

317

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Augustus II.
Auspitz

patriarch, and they sought in every way to prevent
its payment: even Julian the Apostate, otherwise
friendly to the Jews, asked the patriarch Julus to
absolve the Roman Jews from paying it.

The Aurum Coronarium pressed heavily upon the
Romans, and still more upon the Jews in Palestine,
where the Roman functionaries could impose it arbi-
trarily. The Talmud relates that at the time of the
patriarch Judah I. all the inhabitants of Tiberias
tied in order to avoid the payment of this tax (B. B.
8 n, where it is called ,D"l). See Apostole.

Bibliography: Zornius, Histnria Fisci Judaici, pp. 408 et
seq.\ Codex Theodosius de JudcBis, xvi. 8; Kubitschek, in
Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyhloplldie , s.v.; Gratz, Gescli. der
Juden , iv. 224.

G. I. Br.

AUS OF KURAIZA: A poet belonging to
the Jewish tribe of Kuraiza in Medina. When this
tribe was besieged by Mohammed, the wife of Aus
saved her life by embracing Islam and summoned
her husband to do likewise. He refused to follow
her example, improvising the following verses:

“ When next we met, she bade me turn
My faith to hers, but I declined :

Come back, then, false one, to the fold.

To Israel’s law by God defined !

“ By Moses and his code we live,

In his commandments will we walk :

Mohammed’s faith is bad in sooth ;

’Tis nothing but insensate talk.

“ Both we and he believe our own
To be the truest, straightest road :

That one is right whose natal faith
Doth guide him to the blest abode.”

The second verse now reads, “ How good is the re-
ligion of Mohammed,” but such an alteration is com-
mon in antagonistic poems handed down by Moslem
litterateurs. To the same poet is attributed another
poem of similar character.

Bibliography : Noldeke, Beitrilye zur Kenntniss der Poesic
(ler Altai Araher, p. 70; Hirschfeld, in Rev. Et. Juivcs.
x. 25.

g. II. Hirt.

ical science are: “Anatomie ties Blattern processes,”
in Virchow’s “Archiv,” 1863; “Die I.ehren vom Sy-
philitischen Contagium,” Vienna, 1865; “DieZellen-
Infiltrationen der Lederhaut bei Lupus, Syphilis, und
Skrophulose,” in “Medicin. Jahrbiicher,” Vienna,
1866; “System der Hautkrankheiten,” Vienna, 1881,
besides a great number of papers and articles which
have appeared on the pages of the “ Vierteljahres-
schrift fur Dermatologie und Syphilis” — a journal
founded (1869) and edited by him — find which had
considerable influence on the pathology of skin-
diseases.

His views, often novel and striking, raised no lit-
tle discussion and debate; but it is universal!}’ con-
ceded that dermatology is indebted to him fora bene-
ficial and fruitful impetus, and for many important
and lasting contributions. Especially is this true
in regard to his “System der Hautkrankheiten”
(translated into French by Doyon under the title
“ Traite de Pathologic et de Thera peutique Generates
dcs Maladies de la Peau,” Paris, 1887. The same
excellence of treatment and originality of thought
characterize the chapter (on general pathology and
therapeutics of skin-diseases) that II. Auspitz pre-
pared for Ziemssen’s “Handbuch der Speciellen Pa-
thologie und Therapie ” (vol. xiv.).

Bibliography : A. Hirsch, BioaraphUches Le.rihon der Her-

vorragenden Aerzte.

s. A. S. C.

AUSPITZ, JACOB : Geographical writer ; lived
at Budapest, Hungary, in the first quarter of the nine-
teenth century. He was the author of “Bet'rha-
Luhot” (Explanation of the Tablets), consisting of
five Biblical maps, copied from a Latin source, and of
copious annotations of the same. The maps repre-
sent: (1) The spread of mankind after the Deluge;

(2) the migrations of the Hebrew tribes in the desert;

(3) their camps; (4) the Mediterranean and the pro-
jected division of Palestine; (5) Palestine, according
to Jewish and Gentile sources. The work was pub-
lished at Vienna in 1818.

AUSPITZ, HEINRICH: Austrian dermatolo-
gist; born at Nikolsburg, Moravia, Sept. 2. 1835;

died May 23, 1886, at
Vienna, barely two
years after succeeding
Zeissl. Auspitz ac-
quired his medical
training at the Univer-
sity of Vienna, where
he was a pupil of
Brucke, Skoda, Roki-
tansky, Oppolzer, and
Hebra; and upon being
received as privat-do-
cent, at his alma mater,
in 1863, lectured on
dermatology and syph-
ilis. He was appointed
director of the general clinic of Vienna in 1872, and,
as soon as a vacancy occurred in the faculty of the
university, he was promoted to the position of as-
sociate professor in 1875, having still charge of the
courses in dermatology and syphilis.

Among his most important contributions to med-

Heinrieh Auspitz.

Bibliography: Benjacob, Oznr ha-Sefarim , p. 04.

s. M. B.

AUSPITZ, RUDOLF : Austrian member of par-
liament and leading manufacturer; born at Vienna
July 7, 1837. He is a member of one of the oldest
and most prominent Jewish families of Moravia,
which settled in the city of Auspitz, whence it de-
rived its name. One of his ancestors, Abraham Au-
spitz, was chief rabbi of Moravia during the latter
part of the eighteenth century; his grandfather, La-
zar Auspitz, was the founder of the well-known firm
of L. Auspitz (at present [1901] “Auspitz Enkel”),
manufacturers of woolens, the leading members of
which are Rudolf and his elder brother Karl Au-
spitz, Elder von Artenegg.

Auspitz received his early education in his native
town, attending the Teclinische Hocliscliule. To
complete his education he visited Berlin and Paris,
being interested in the natural sciences, and returned
to Austria in 1858. He has since taken an active part
in the industrial and political life of his country.

When, in the middle of the last century, the manu-
facture of beet-sugar was being introduced into
continental Europe, Auspitz was one of the first

Auspitz

Australia

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

318

large landowners and leading capitalists to encour-
age the industry. Combining business enterprise
with capital and knowledge, he founded in 1863 a
company for the production of sugar from beets.
In this undertaking he was very successful; and in
1862 his company absorbed the great sugar manu-
facturing concern of Count Chorinsky in Bisenz.
By this transaction his firm, under the style of “Die
Rohatetz-Bisenzer Zucker Fabriken Rudolf Auspitz
und Co.,” became the only sugar manufacturers in
northern Moravia. His grandfather having made
the name Auspitz prominent in the woolen trade,
Rudolf has now made it equally prominent in the
sugar trade. Not only in the business world was he
conspicuous, but also in the political field which, he
entered in 1871 as the successful candidate for the
Moravian Landtag, representing the district com-
prising the cities of Gaya, Butschowitz, and Wischau
from 1871 to 1884, and from 1884 to 1900 the cham-
ber of commerce of Bii'inn. In 1873 he was also
elected a member of the Austrian Reiehsrath for the
district Auspitz-Wiscliau. He was also a member
of the chamber of commerce for Lower Austria from
1888 to 1892, and since 1900 he has been trustee of
the Jewish congregation of Vienna.

Auspitz has always belonged to the German Lib-
eral party, in whose caucuses he has taken a prom-
inent part, and whose platforms have been ably ad-
vocated and successfully defended by him. He has
been very active in the meetings of the houses of
which he has been a member.

Auspitz ’s wide knowledge of economics, his sagac-
ity and enterprise as a merchant and manufacturer,
and his manifold connections in the export and im-
port trade have made his advice much sought after in
state and national legislation. During the contro-
versy between Austria and Hungary in 1898 he was
one of the mediators through whose untiring energy
the seemingly irreparable breach between the two
constituents of the dual monarchy was finally and
satisfactorily healed (1901).

In 1899 Auspitz was a member of the house com-
mittee of the Reiehsrath for the investigation of the
anti-Semitic movements in Holleschau and Wsetin,
Moravia; and in 1900 he was chosen speaker of
the committee of leading Jews of Vienna, which
waited on the Austrian minister-president Freiherr
von Ivorber, to protest against the anti-Semitic ex-
cesses in Austria.

Auspitz, in spite of his political and other duties,
has still found leisure for scientific researches, the
fruits of which are embodied in his well-known work
(edited jointly with R. Lieben), “ Ueber die Tlieorie
des Preises.”

Bibliography: Kohut, BcrliUmte Ixraelitische MUnner und

Frauen, No. 17, p. 371 ; private sources.

s. F. T. H.

AUSSEE : Town in Moravia, Austria. It had
a Jewish community in the seventeenth century. In
1622 Emperor Ferdinand II. presented the town to
Prince Karl of Lichtenstein, on condition that none
but Catholics should be permitted to reside there ;
and as late as 1834, out of a population of 4,534, only
24 were Protestants. In 1688 the dean of Milglitz
gave orders for the erection of a synagogue at Aus-
see. This building was destroyed in 1722 under the

following circumstances: During the services on
the eve of Yom Kippura Catholic priest entered the
synagogue and began to preach a missionary sermon
to the people assembled for worship. The officers
of the congregation asked him to withdraw ; but he
persistently refused to do so, and they were com-
pelled to eject him. When the Jews brought charges
against the priest for disturbance of the peace, he
claimed that they had assaulted him. After a pro-
tracted lawsuit a decision was rendered to the effect
that the synagogue be destroyed and that no other
be built. Of those charged by the priest with as-
sault three men were branded with a hot iron and
exiled; while the fourth, a man seventy-four years
old, was sentenced to work upon a Catholic church
then in course of construction. Thirty -two years
elapsed before permission was granted the Jews to
establish three places of worship; and none of these
was allowed to bear the name or to have the appear-
ance of a synagogue. It was not until 1783 that
permission was given to build a regular synagogue
(Abraham Broda, “ Megillat Sedarim ”) ; and when
this was dedicated Abraham Prostiz was chosen
rabbi. Other rabbis were Israel, brother of R. Manli
Fuchs, of Kromau; Loeb Poliak, and M. Duschak.
David ben Jacob Szczebrszyn, author of notes on
the Targumim, is said to have occupied the rab-
binate in the seventeenth century.

Under the law of March 21, 1890, relating to the
legal conditions of the Jewish congregations in Aus-
tria, the community of Aussee was amalgamated
with the neighboring communities; and, through
personal and local considerations, Mahrisch-Sclibn-
berg became the seat of the Jewish communal
district.

Bibliography: Wolny, Die Markgrafsciiaft Miihren, vol. v.
Briinn, 1839; Abr. Broda, Megillat Sedarim. ed. E. Baum-
trarten, Berlin, 1895; N. Briill ,Zur Geschichte der Juden in
Miihren, in Wiener Jalirbuch flir Israelite n, 1867; and
private sources.

D. E. B.

AUSTERLITZ : Town in Moravia, Austria.
Its Jewish congregation is one of the oldest in the
province; according to some historians, dating from
the beginning of the twelfth century. Records seem
to point to a tribute paid by the Jews to King Wen-
zel in 1288, which revenue he presumably turned
over to the Teutonic Knights when they obtained
possession of the domain. The pay-
Jewish. ment of this tribute was continued to
Com- the successors of the Knights, the
munity in counts of Kaunitz. A record in the
Twelfth archives of the present congregation
Century, of Austerlitz shows that the Jewish
tribute for the year 1757 included pep-
per, ginger, and other spices. The Jewish merchants
visited all the Mediterranean ports, and dealt exten-
sively in the natural and artificial products of the
Orient ; and it was for this reason that the tribute
mentioned was exacted from them, not only by the
local secular and ecclesiastical officials, but even by
the papal court itself.

The fact that as late as 1798 the Jewish commu-
nity was ordered, under penalty of legal enforce-
ment, to pay arrears amounting to 503 florins, 3
kreutzers = 8200, indicates that this tribute had been
exacted from them for a considerable period.

319

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Au spitz
Australia

The relations existing between Jews and Chris-
tians were at all times friendly. During the Hussite
movement, which in 1550 had its headquarters at
Austerlitz, no change in the friendly relations be-
tween Jews and Christians had occurred; at least
the movement was not provocative of any ill-feeling
toward the Jews. A striking testimony of this
friendly feeling even at a much later date is the fact
that on the occasion of the closing of the monasteries
by Joseph II. (1780-90), an abbot deposited his valu-
ables with a poor Jew, who later, on finding with
no little difficulty the dwelling of the depositor, re-
turned to him intact all he had received from him.

The main occupation of the Jews was trading,
and the chief articles sold by them were starch and
lime. In connection with this fact it
Known as i$ interesting to note that in Jewish
“ the records still extant Austerlitz is called

White “ 'Ir Laban ” (the White City). The

City.” Jewish inhabitants numbered about
445 individuals, occupying thirty-four
houses, one of which bears the inscription “Moses
Abraham in the year 1523. ”

When Maria Theresa issued the edict restricting
the number of Jewish families in the province of
Moravia to 5,100 (later to 5,400), Austerlitz was per
mitted to shelter 72 Jewish families. Charitable so-
cieties for the sick and needy, and schools, estab-
lished about that time, are still in existence.

According to manuscripts left by R. Josef Weisse,
the following ministers officiated at Austerlitz as
rabbis; in 1560, R. Lob, a contemporary of R. Moses
Isserles, with whom he was in correspondence for
some time; in 1570, Jacob, son of Moses, a contem-
porary of Rabbi Loewe ben Bezaleel ; in 1594, Hay-
yim Meling, son of Rabbi Isaac Meling, of Prague ;
in 1620, Baer Eilenburg; in 1643, Joel Glogau; in
1659, Mordecai; in 1690, Abraham, son of the author
of “Bet Yehudah”; in 1703, Nathan Feitcl ; in 1770,
Simha Leipnik ; in 1780, Elijah Ilirsch Istels; in 1790,
Jacob Gleiwitz; in 1811, Gerson Buchheim, great-
grandfather of Dr. Gustav Karpeles, editor of “ Die
Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums ” at Berlin ; and
in 1845, Hirseh Duschak, who had received a thor-
ough rabbinical training, and possessed wide secular
knowledge.

In 1662 and in 1724 Jewish synods held their ses-
sions at Austerlitz, passing the important resolutions
now embodied in the nilpn N "’t? (311
Jewish regulations) (see Institutions). A
Synods noteworthy incident took place in 1805,
Meet at when a French officer of high rank
Austerlitz. asked the rabbi to summon ten Jews
that he might say “kaddisli ” for a de-
ceased member of his family.

Bihuography : N. BriUl, Zur Gesch. der Juden in Mtlhren , in
Wiener Jahrhuch der Israel iten , 1867 ; David Gans. Zemah
David -, Depping. Die Juden im Mittelaltcr, Stuttgart’, 1831’;
Joseph von Hermann, Gesch. der Israelite)! in Blihmen,
Vienna. 1818; Hieronymus von Seari, Systematische Darst el-
lung der Gcsctze fur die Juden Miihrens und Sclilesiens,
Briinn. 1835; G. Wolf. DieAlten Statute)), 1880; Wolny, Die
Markgrafschaft iltihren, Briinn, 1830; private sources com-
municated by it. Josef Weisse and S. Diamant, Austerlitz.
d. E. Ba.

AUSTERLITZ : Name of a Jewish family. As
is the case with all names derived from places, the
surname “ Austerlitz ” does net necessarily signify

that all the persons so named belong to one family.
It denotes that an ancestor of the person came from
that place or was for some time a resident there. In
the tombstone inscriptions of the old cemetery at
Prague this name occurs after 1620. The name is
also found in Prague among those of Jews banished
from Vienna in 1670, and in other localities in Aus-
tria and Hungary. Of the members of this family
known in literature and communal life, the follow-
ing may be mentioned :

Aaron b. Meir Austerlitz : Secretary to the
rabbinate of Berlin, 1775.

Baruch b. Solomon Austerlitz : Rabbi in Co-
logne and preacher at Prague at the beginning of
the eighteenth century ; grandson of Baruch, an exile
from Vienna. He was son-in-law of the “ primator ”
(president of the congregation), Samuel Tausk, or
Taussig, of Prague. He wrote approbations (“has-
kamot”) to an edition of the Midrash Rabbat printed
at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 1705, and to the ‘Aruk
lia-Kazer, Prague, 1707. One of his sermons was
published in Prague, 1713. His daughter became
the second wife of R. Moses Harif (Brandeis).

Hirschel Austerlitz : A communal leader exiled
from Vicuna in 1670. In 1675 he, together with
Hirz Coma, Max Sclilesinger, Solomon Wolf, and
Solomon Auspitz, signed a petition to Emperor Leo-
pold L, praying that the Jews might be allowed to
resettle in Vienna.

Mayer Austerlitz: Now rabbi in Eperies, Hun-
gary; was one of Hildesheimer’s earliest pupils.

Moses b. Joseph Austerlitz : A scholar and
promoter of Jewish learning; lived in Vienna, but
when the Jews were expelled from that city und
from Lower Austria (1669), he removed to Nikols-
burg, Moravia. His house was the resort of schol-
ars, especially after the fire of Prague in 1689. Thus
he helped to support the cabalist Moses ben Mena-
liem Graf, author of “Wa-Yakhel Mosheh” (And
Moses Gathered); Judah b. Nisim, author of “Bet
Yehudah” (The House of Judah); and Isaac Zoref,
author of “M’ozene Zedek” (Just Scales), all of
whom speak highly of him.

Bibliography: Kaufmann, Die Letzte Vertreihung der Ju-
den aus Wien, Vienna, 188!)-, Stcinselineider, Cat. /hull. col.

772; Hock, Die Familien 1’itui's, ed. D. Kaufmann, l’res-

burg, 1892.

D. -51. B.

AUSTRALIA: The island-continent between
the Indian and Pacific oceans. In more senses than
one it has been a land of sunshine to the Jews.
Nurtured and reared on British traditions, Australia
has inherited the national characteristics of the
mother-country. The spirit of democracy, so strong
in Australia, has always manifested itself as a unified
current that absorbs in itself all the varied ele-
ments of race and religion. Religious freedom ac-
cordingly has always been granted in full measure
as soon as the colonies received legislative independ-
ence. Amid such conditions it was only natural that
the Jews who settled there should find a cordial wel-
come and a hospitable home.

Australia offered its great undeveloped resources
to all who were willing to develop them. Many
Jews embraced the opportunity and prospered.
Though the Jews of Australia have never aggre-

Australia

Austria

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

320

gated much more than 15,000 out of a population
■of three and a half millions, they have appreciably
assisted in the development of the
Social Po- country, and many of them have
sition. gained distinction. A few have de-
voted themselves to agriculture; but
the majority found here as elsewhere that manu-
facturing and trade offered inducements well suited
to their capabilities. Industry has been largely de-
veloped by them; and in the raising of sheep and
cattle they have been particularly prominent. In
science, art, and literature Jews have been active
participants; and in the government of the colonies
they have had an honorable share.

As Australia itself has been developed in but little
more than a hundred years, it is not surprising that
the formation of the earliest Jewish community was
not accomplished before the end of the first quarter
of the nineteenth century. Sydney, the capital of
the mother-colony of New South Wales, contains the
■oldest Hebrew congregation. Its early history is re-
corded in “Sydney in 1848,” which
Earliest states that there were about twenty
Jewish Jews in the colon}' in 1817, and that

Con- these were “little versed in the faith

gregation. of their ancestors.” Nevertheless, they
were sufficiently attached to their re-
ligion to form themselves into a Jewish society for
the purpose of attending to the interment of their
dead. In 1820 the Jews obtained their own “ bet liay-
yim” or burial-ground by applying to the Rev. Dr.
Cowper, who allotted to them the right-hand corner
of the Christian cemetery. The death of one Joel
Joseph prompted the application; and lie was the
first Jew buried there. During the next ten years
there was no great increase in membership ; and the
services of the society were not called for more than
once a year. The account continues:

“In 1827 and 1828 the worldly condition of the Hebrews in
the colony improved considerably, in consequence of the great
influx of respectable merchants; and this, with other circum-
stances, has raised the Hebrews in the estimation of their fellow-
colonists. About this period Mr. P. J. Cohen having offered
the use of his house for the purpose, divine worship was per-
formed for the first time in the colony according to the Hebrew
form, and was continued regularly every Sabbath and holiday.
From some difference of opinion then existing among the
members of this faith, divine service was also performed occa-
sionally in a room hired by Messrs. A. Elias and James Sim-
mons. In this condition everything in connection with their
religion remained until the arrival of Rev. Aaron Levi, in the
year 1830. He had been a dayyan, and, duly accredited, he
succeeded in instilling into the minds of the congregation a
taste for the religion of their fathers. A Sefer Torah [scroll of
the Law] was purchased by subscription, divine service was
more regularly conducted, and from this time may be dated
the establishment of the Jewish religion in Sydney. In 1832
they formed themselves into a proper congregation, and ap-
pointed Jacob Monteflore as the first president.”

In the same year the first Jewish marriage was
■celebrated, the contracting parties being Moses Jo-
seph and Miss Nathan. Three years later a Mr. Rose
came from England and acted as the hazan, shohet,
and mohel. He was succeeded by Jacob Isaacs.
The condition of the Jews improved to such an ex-
tent that in 1844 they erected a handsome synagogue
in York street, in which they continued to worship
for more than thirty years.

Following upon the formation of the Sydney com-
munity, Jews began to assemble in Victoria, and

congregations sprang up in the towns of Melbourne,
St. Kilda, Geelong, Bendigo, and Ballarat (1853).
The congregations of Geelong and Bendigo are now
(1902) extremely small, in fact all but non-existent.
In South Australia, Jews settled considerably later
than in Victoria; and it was not till 1871 that they
were numerous enough to erect a synagogue in the
capital city of Adelaide. Somewhat
Con- later still, the Brisbane (Queensland)
gregations congregation took form. For more
and Syna- than twenty years (1865-1886) they

gogues. continued to hold services in the Ma-
sonic Hall; and at the end of that
period they were able to build a commodious syna-
gogue in Margaret street, with a seating capacity of
400.

The youngest of the Australian communities is
that of Perth, the capital of West Australia, the for-
mation of which in 1892 was due to the great influx
of people into the western colony after the discovery
of gold in the nineties. The Jewish congregation
grew rapidly; five years after the first “ minyan ”
(the minimum of ten males over thirteen years of age
necessary to form a congregation for divine service)
gathered in the colony, a handsome synagogue was
built and consecrated in Brisbane street. Each of the
colonies, except South Australia, has witnessed the
rise and decline of a congregation. In New South
Wales there wasat one time a flourishing community
in Maitland. A synagogue was built there in 1879;
but owing to adverse circumstances most of the
Jews left for other parts, and now little more than
sufficient to form a minyan remains. The same
fate has befallen the congregation of Toowoomba in
Queensland, where in 1879 the Jews built a beautiful
house of worship on their own ground, and under
such favorable conditions that within a few years the
synagogue was entirely free from debt. It is now
used only on the high holy days by the few living at
Maitland. Rockhampton, also in Queensland, has
suffered similarly.

Perhaps the shortest career was that of the Cool-
gardie community in western Australia. In 1896
a number of Jews, attracted by the rich
Decline of gold-fields, were in that city. They at
Con- once obtained a grant of land from the
gregations. government, collected subscriptions,
and forthwith proceeded to build a
synagogue. Within three years, however, such a
tliinning-out had taken place that the remaining
members were unable to pay the debt on the syna-
gogue; and the building was sold by the creditors
to a Masonic body and converted into a Masonic
hall.

Jews have been mayors of nearly all the capital
cities of Australia, as well as of many smaller towns.
The title of justice of the peace, which is only con-
ferred upon men highly respected by their fellow-
citizens, has been gained by an exceptionally large
number of Jews, as many as thirteen receiving that
distinction at one time (1897) in New South Wales
alone. The Hon. H. E. Cohen is on the bench in
Sydney; and the appointment of chief justice was
offered to, but was refused by, Sir Julian Salo-
mons. The agent-generalship of New South Wales,
the premier colony, has been administered by two

321

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Australia

Austria

Jews, Sir Saul Samuel, Bart., K.C.M.G., one of the
most prominent and successful Jews in Australian
politics, and Sir Julian Salomons.
Jews A goodly number of Jews have sat
in Public in the various parliaments ; and, in pro-
Life. portion to the population, a large per-
centage have held ministerial port-
folios. Indeed, the highest office attainable was held
by a Jew, when, for a short time in 1899, V. L. Sol-
omon was premier of South Australia. Sir John
Yogel, whose history, however, belongs to New Zea-
land, was also premier for many years.

The foremost among the Jews that have figured
as pioneers in Australia is Jacob Montefiore, a cousin
of Sir Moses Montefiore. South Australian history
records him as one of the founders of the colon}' ;
and he was selected by the British government to
act on the first board of commissioners, appointed
in 1835 to conduct its affairs. His portrait hangs in
its National Gallery, and his memory is perpetuated
by Montefiore Hill, one of the leading thoroughfares
of Adelaide. Jacob Montefiore’s activity was not
confined to South Australia. With his brother Jo-
seph he gave an impetus to, and left his impress
upon, the progress of New South Wales. Jacob
owned one of the largest sheep-runs in the colony,
and founded and for many years acted as director of
the Bank of Australia. The firm that the two broth-
ers established in Sydney in its early
Dis- days ranked among the first of the
tinguished business houses of that city. The
in Politics, close connection of these brothers wit h
the colony is further evidenced by the
township of Montefiore, which stands at the junction
of the Bell and Macquarie rivers in the Wellington
valley. Joseph Montefiore was the first president of
the first Jewish congregation formed in Sydney in
1832.

The Hon. Y. L. Solomon of Adelaide is remem-
bered for the useful work he achieved in exploring
the vast northern territory of his colony, the inter-
ests of which he represented in Parliament. M. Y.
Lazarus of Bendigo, known as Bendigo Lazarus,
also did much to open up new parts in the back
country of Victoria. The coal industry of Victoria
received a great impetus from the persistent advo-
cacy of the Hon. Nathaniel Levi, who for many years
urged the government of Victoria to develop it. The
cultivation of beet-root for the production of sugar
and spirits likewise owes its existence as an industry
to Levi’s ceaseless efforts. In his labors on be-
half of this industry he published in 1870 a work of
250 pages on the value and adaptability of the
sugar-beet. In western Australia the townships of
Karridale and Boyanup owe their existence to the
enterprise of C. M. Davies, a large lumber merchant.

It is noteworthy that in the theatrical history of
Australia a Jew, Barnett Levy, stands as the pio-
neer. A record of that fact is found in the following
entry in “Sydney in 1848,” a work published in that
year: “In the late twenties His Excellency Sir R.
Bourke granted Barnett Levy a license for dra-
matic performances, with a restriction that he should
confine himself to the representation of such pieces
only as had been licensed in England by the Lord
Chamberlain.” Levy was at that time the owner
II.— 21

of the original Royal Hotel in George street ; and he
fitted up the saloon of that establishment as a theater,
where the first representations of the
Jew Es- legitimate drama in the colony were
tablish.es given. The encouragement that this
the First undertaking received induced the en-
Theater. terprising proprietor to enlarge his
sphere of action. He built a theater
called the Theater Royal, which was opened in 1833.

In the course of the half-century of communal life
in Australia, four important Jewish journals ap-
peared: “The Australian Israelite” was issued from
1870 to 1882 in Melbourne, and was edited by S. Jo-
seph,a practised journalist, who also conducted “The
Tainorortli News”; “The Jewish Herald” of Mel
bourne has been published, first weekly and then
fortnightly, from 1885 onward, under the joint edi
torsliip of Rev. E. Blaubaum and Maurice Benja-
min ; “ The Australian Hebrew,” conducted by Jacob
Goldstein, appeared for only eighteen months in
1*95-96: “The Hebrew Standard” was first pub-
lished in 1897, under the directorship of Alfred
Harris.

In the domain of art two Jews, E. P. Fox and
Abbey Alpon, have done good work. Paintings by
both these artists have been hung in
Journalism the Melbourne National Gallery. In
and Art. the Adelaide Gallery hangs a tribute
to the memory of H. Abrahams for the
services he rendered to the progress of art in Aus-
tralia. Two Jews of Australian birth have attained
to some distinction as writers — S. Alexander and
Joseph Jacobs. During the South African war Jews
contributed their quota to the Australian contingents
to the number of 15. The numbers of Jews in the
Australian coloniesat the census of 1891 were as fol-
lows:

New South Wales. .

Victoria

South Australia

Queensland

... 5,484

Tasmania

. . H4

... 6,459

Western Australia...

. . . 129

... 840

... 1,4*8

KH9

Total

The following estimate has recently been given of
the Jewish population of Australasia for 1899: New
South Wales, 8,140; Victoria, 5,820; South Austra-
lia, 1,110; Queensland, 930; Tasmania, 550; Western
Australia, 850; New Zealand, 2,270. Total, 19.670.
See Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney,
j. D. I. F.

AUSTRIA:* Empire in Europe now united with
the kingdom of Hungary; its territorial extent has
changed considerably during the past thousand
years.

From the Earliest Times to the Charter of
Frederick II. (1238) : The date of the first settle-
ment of the Jews in Austria, like that of almost all
other European countries, is enveloped in obscurity.
Folk-lore speaks of a Jewish kingdom supposed to
have been founded in Austria, 859 years after the
Deluge, by a Jew or pagan called Abraham, who
came from the wonderland “ Terra Ammiracionis ”
to Auratim (Stoekerau) with his wife, Susanna, and

* In the present article no reference is made to Hungary or
to the former Italian provinces of Austria or to the Austrian
Netherlands; Bohemia. Galicia, and the other outlying prov-
inces of contemporary Austria are only treated in so far as they
are connected with the history of the monarchy as a whole.

Austria

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his two sons, Salim and Ataim. This country was
ruled over by seventy-two princes down to 210 b.c.
It is possible that the Jews themselves in Austria, as
in other countries, invented such fables in order to
free themselves from the accusation of having par-
ticipated in the crucifixion of Jesus; but more likely
the whole story is an invention of the chroniclers,
who wanted to present to their readers interesting
tales (Pez, “ Scriptores Rerum Austriacarum,” i. 1046
etseq., quoted by Scherer, “ Rechtsverhaltnisse der
Juden,” 1901, i. 112). The first reliable report of the
existence of the Jews in Austria is found in a law
respecting tolls issued at Raffelstatten during the
reign of Louis the Child, 899-911, article 9 of which
reads: “Lawful merchants — i.e., Jews and other
merchants — whencesoever they come, whether from
this or any other country, shall pay a just toll on
their slaves and on other merchandise, as has been
the case under the former kings” (Pertz, “Monu-
menta Germanise,” Leges, iii. 480). From this state-
ment it would appear probable that Jews lived in
those days in Austria. The first documentary evi-
dence comes, however, from the twelfth century.
Duke Leopold V. (1177-94), who did a great deal for
the development of commerce in Austria, had a
Jewish “mintfarmer” (master of the mint) called
Shlom, who was engaged in a litigation with a
Vienna monastery about the possession of a vine-
yard. Shlom was assassinated by a mob of Cru-
saders, because he had had arrested a servant of his
who had stolen some money and had subsequently
taken the cross (“ Quellen zur Gescli. der Juden in
Deutschland,” ii. 92; “Emek Habaka,” ed. Wiener,
p. 37). A synagogue in Vienna is first mentioned in
1204; somewhat later appear Krems, Wiener Neu-
stadt, Tulin, Klosterneuburg. As in all German
cities, Jewish settlements (“ Judendorf,” “Vicus
Judieorum ”) were found in Austria in those days.
Vienna must have been a considerable community ;
for in the first half of the twelfth century one of the
most prominent rabbis of the time, Isaac ben Moses,
author of the compendium on ritual “Or Zarua‘,”
lived there, as well as Abigdor ben Elijah ha-Kohen
and his brother Eliezer. At the same time Moses ben
Hasdai ipn (ofTachau?) was living
Important in Wiener Neustadt. Othersare men-
Rabbis. tioned in Mordecai ben Hillel’s (died
Aug. 1, 1298) glosses to Alfasi. Dur-
ing the first half of the twelfth century the Jews of
Vienna must have been a very influential factor in
commercial and political life, because Duke Fred-
erick II. the Belligerent (1230-46) prohibited on
their advice the exportation of corn and wine from
Austria during his war with Hungary (Pertz, l.c. ix.
706); and, if the statement of this chronograplier be
exaggerated, it is certainly significant that in the
charter which Emperor Frederick II. granted to the
citizens of Vienna (1237) he should have agreed that
no Jew should henceforth hold office. The emperor,
who was at war with the duke and who naturally
desired to have the good-will of the citizens of
Vienna, must have made this concession upon the
complaint of the citizens. That the sentiment with
regard to the Jews was far from friendly appears
from the fact that the emperor expressly states that
the Jews, because of their crime — i.e., for having

killed Jesus — should be held in everlasting servi-
tude (“cum imperialis auctoritas . . . Iudaeis indix-
erit perpetuam servitutem ”). A year later the em-
peror granted to the Jews of Vienna a charter in
which the Jews are called, for the first
“ Servi time in Germany, the emperor’s serfs

Camerse (“ servi earner* nostra;”) ; and although

Nostrae.” this expression is meant in the first
sense to assert the emperor’s right
over the Jews, it is, with regard to the fact that the
emperor considers them as condemned to eternal
servitude, a matter of some importance.

Charter of Emperor Frederick II. (1238):
The jurisdiction over the Jews, like many other
fiscal rights, was a subject of controversy between
the emperor and the feudal lords. While Emperor
Frederick, when he had conquered Vienna, catered
to the burghers by excluding the Jews from pub-
lic offices, he also wished to attach them to his
cause, and therefore defined their rights in a charter
which is, in its most important features, a repetition
of the one granted to the Jews of Germany in 1236.
The charter contains ten sections, and states first
that the Jews shall be under the emperor’s protec-
tion (“servi earner* nostr* ”). They are exempt
from the duty to furnish vehicles and horses for the
royal retinue (“ hospites ”). If stolen property is
found in their possession, they have merely to swear
how much they have paid for it in order to receive
that sum from the lawful owner. The baptism of
Jewish children without the consent of their parents
is expressly prohibited; and a heavy fine is imposed
on transgressors of this law. Baptism of the slaves
of Jews is similarly prohibited. Converts shall be
given three days during which the sincerity of their
desire to embrace Christianity shall be tested. In
civil law Jews and Christians are treated as equals;
but a Jew can not be forced to the ordeal and can
free himself by oath from any accusation. Jews
can not be condemned on the testimony of Christians
alone. Their lives are under the protection of the
law, and for killing or assaulting a Jew a fine is im-
posed, which, according to the views of the time, is
the reparation for such a crime. In their internal
affairs they have perfect autonomy and shall be
judged by their rabbis and communal officers
( “ coram eo qui preest eis ”) ; only in important mat-
ters jurisdiction is reserved to the emperor. In con-
nection with the commercial activity of the Jews,
dealing in wines, paints, and antidotes is especially
mentioned; some of them must, therefore, have been
physicians.

Charter of Duke Frederick II. of Austria
(1244): After Frederick II. had regained posses-
sion of his country he vigorously asserted his rights,
although he made some concessions to the states
(“ Stande ”). Thus, he confirmed to the citizens of
Wiener Neustadt the privilege that the Jews should
not be placed in office, just as Emperor Frederick
had confirmed it to the citizens of Vienna ; but on
the other hand, he regulated the position of the
Jews, and evidently with a benevolent intention.
He says that he grants this charter in his desire to
give to all those who are living within his dominion
a share in his grace and benevolence. This law is a
classic type of the legislation on the Jews during

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the thirteenth and the two subsequent centuries. It
remained in force until the expulsion of the Jews
from Austria in 1420, and was more or less literally
copied in the laws of the following rulers: Bela
IV. of Hungary, 1251; Przemysl Ottocar II. of
Bohemia, 1254; Boleslav of Kalisz, 1264; and Boiko
of Silesia, 1295. The most important feature of this
charter is the large space given to money-lending;
no fewer than ten of its thirty sections dealing with
questions of interest, pledges, and the like, in addi-
tion to the sections dealing with the jurisdiction
over the Jews. Of greatest importance is the fact
that the duke claims the Jews as his own subjects,
■which is the first instance in which they are claimed
by the territorial ruler instead of by the emperor.
It may also he noted that the Jews are permitted to
receive as interest eight denars a week on the talent,
a rate of 173.33 per cent per annum. If any pledge
prove to have been stolen, the Jew has merely to
swear how much he loaned on it, and that he did
not know that it was stolen, in order to receive its
value from the owner. Everything may be accepted
as pledges, with the exception of bloody or wet gar-
ments ; and in case of loss by fire or robbery the oath
of the Jew is sufficient to prove his assertion. It is
expressly stated that Jews may lend money on real
estate ; but it is uncertain whether, in cases of fore-
closure of their mortgages, they may possess them.
For the murder of a Jew by a Christian the death
penalty is inflicted ; while for manslaughter and in-
jury a fine is imposed, part of which is to be paid to
the duke, part to the person wounded. Capital pun-
ishment is also the penalty for desecration of a Jew-
ish cemetery; while for damage to a synagogue a
fine of two talents is inflicted. Abduction of a Jew-
ish child is punishable as theft. Their lawsuits are
conducted in the duke’s court, and he appoints a
special judge for Jewish affairs (“judex Judaeo-
rum”). There is also a “magister Judseorum,” a
rabbi or overseer of the congregation, elected by the
Jews and confirmed by the duke; he is their legal
representative, and has authority to administer their
internal affairs. Like the imperial law, that of Duke
Frederick also states that a Jew can not be con-
demned unless there is a Jewish as well as a Chris-
tian witness against him ; but it differs from the im-
perial law in that the duke permits Jews to challenge
an evil-doer to the ordeal. It is, however, most
likely that in such a case the Jews hired achampiou.

The Interregnum (1254-1276): Duke Fred
erick fell in battle June 15, 1246; and as he left no
children, his dominion became the bone of contention
for various claimants, from whom King Przemysl
Ottocar II. succeeded in 1251. The new ruler nat-
urally sought to gain the good-will of the citizens
in his newly acquired territory, and, therefore, soon
after the occupation of Austria, he confirmed to the
cities the privilege granted to them by Duke Fred-
erick of the exclusion of Jews from public office.
His political plans required for their accomplish-
ment a great deal of money, and this was evidently
the reason that he renewed (March 29, 1254) the
privileges granted to the Jews by Duke Frederick;
proclaiming, like his predecessor, his desire to show
his good-will to all his subjects (“ Wann wir wellen,
das allerlay leut die in unser herrscheft wonundsind,

unser genad und gutwilligkait tailheftig werden
funden ”). The only difference between the charter
of Ottocar and that of Frederick is that Ottocar pro-
hibits taking sacred vestments as pledges. He, fur-
ther, exempts the Jews from returning pledges on
their holy days, does not limit the rate of interest,
and protests against the Blood Accusation, refer-
ring to the papal decrees on that subject. These in-
significant differences can scarcely have been due
to a change in policy : they were most likely caused
by emergencies of the intervening period. It seems
that these charters were not respected ; for, on his
return from the crusade against the heathen Prus-
sians, Ottocar again renewed the grants to the Jews
(March 8, 1255). Further, he did not enforce the
ordinance excluding Jews from public office; for, in
a document dated 1257, two Jews are mentioned as
the king’s financiers (“comites earner® ”).

The Church, then at the height of her power, had,
since the Lateran Council of 1215, attempted to cir-
cumscribe the position of the Jews; but her decrees
were not carried into effect. Pope Clement IV.,
therefore, sent Cardinal Guido, a Cistercian monk,
as his delegate to northern Europe to enforce eccle-
siastical discipline. In this capacity Guido presided
over various diocesan councils which discussed,
among other matters, the enforcement of the law
against the Jews. Such a council was held in
Vienna May 10-12, 1267. The canons of this coun-
cil enjoin the distinctive Jewish dress, and the pay-
ment by the Jewish inhabitants to the priest in
whose parish they dwell of an annual sum equal to
that which he would receive were Christians living
in their places. Jews are prohibited from frequent-
ing bathing-houses and taverns of Christians, from
employing Christian domestics, from acting as tax-
collectors, and from holding any other public office.
A Jew cohabiting with a Christian woman shall be
heavily fined; while the woman shall be whipped
and expelled from the city. Social intercourse be-
tween Jews and Christians is strictly prohibited, and
Christians shall not buy meat or other food from
Jews, as the latter are likely to poison it. If a
Jew exacts exorbitant interest from Christians, he
shall be excluded from all intercourse with Chris-
tians. When the host is carried through the streets,
the Jews shall close the doors and shutters of their
houses and shall remain within. A similar duty is
enjoined for Good Friday. Jews shall not discuss
matters of religion with the common people, shall
not prevent the wives and children of converts from
embracing Christianity, nor convert a Christian to
Judaism. They shall not attend Christian patients
nor call upon them. They shall not build new syn-
agogues, and when they repair an old synagogue
they shall not enlarge it. On days of abstinence
they shall not carry meat in the streets uncovered
(Pertz, l.c., “ Scriptores, ” ix. 699 et seq. ; H. Baer-
wald, “Die Beschlusse des Wiener Coneiliums liber
die Juden aus dem Jahre 1267 in Wertheimer’s
Jahrbuch,” 1859-60, pp. 180-208). Ottocar re-
newed this charter of 1254 on Aug. 23, 1268. Com-
plaints by the ecclesiastics, that the Jews kept
Christian servants, show that the canons of the
Vienna council remained to a great extent a dead
letter.

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Under the House of Hapsburg( 1276- 1420):

Through the treaty of Nov. 21, 1276, the Austrian
territories were ceded to Rudolph of Hapsburg as a
vacant vassalage, which he later transferred, in his
capacity as German emperor, to his sons Albrecht I.
and Rudolph (Dec. 27, 1282). He at once asserted
his rights by granting a new charter to the Jews,
because in this respect, as in many others, he was
anxious to emphasize the fact that Ottocar’s domin-
ion was not a legitimate one. This charter, dated
March 4, 1277, was also, in its principal points, a
reproduction of that issued by Frederick II. in 1244,
although Rudolph issued it not as duke of Austria,
but as German emperor. It was not until 1331 that
the dukes of Austria received the right to keep Jews.
Another important difference lies in the fact that the
charter of Rudolph was limited to the Austrian pos-
sessions, while in Bohemia the regulations of Otto-
car remained in force. Rudolph, who naturally,
like Ottocar, wished to attach the cities to his gov-
ernment, also confirmed to several of them the privi-
lege of excluding Jews from public office ; however,
he refused to confirm forged privileges of Wiener
Neustadt dating from about 1270, and which were
still more unfavorable to the Jews. Under his suc-
cessor, Albrecht I. (duke of Austria from 1282; Ger-
man emperor from 1298 ; assassinated 1308), the Jews
were protected in Germany; while, in his own
dominions, Albrecht connived at the outrages com-
mitted upon them by mobs or by princes. The sen-
timent of the populace with regard to the Jews may
be judged from the verses of the contemporary poet,
Sevfried Helbling, who complains that there are too
many Jews in the country, and that thirty Jews are
enough to fill the largest city with “stench and un-
belief.” He therefore advises that all the Jews be
burned, or sold at the rate of thirty for a penny
<Haupt, “Zeitschrift fur Deutsche Altertliumer,”
iv.). In 1293 the Jews of Krerns were accused of
having murdered a Christian; two were broken on
the wheel, and the others had to pay heavy ransom
for their lives.

The persecution started in Franconia by Rind-
eleisch also showed its effects in Austria, and in
various cities the accusation was made
Per- that the Jews had desecrated the host ;
secutions. so that while Albrecht fined the cities
in Franconia heavily for outrages com-
mitted against the Jews, the Jewish inhabitants of
Ivorneuburg were killed or expelled (1306). There
is no report of any punishment of the participants
in the massacre, although it had been proved by the
bishop that the miracle of the host was a fraud per-
petrated by a priest who, after dipping a host in
blood, claimed that it bled because the Jews had
pierced it. Only from St. Poelten is it reported that
Albrecht threatened the city with destruction for an
outrage committed against the Jews, and that the
city had to pay a ransom of 3,500 talents. Under
Albrecht’s successor, Frederick (1308-30), the only
event of importance is his assignment of the Jewish
taxes to the archbishop of Salzburg for services ren-
dered in the war against his rival, Ludwig of Ba-
varia. Frederick levied taxes on the Jews in Aus-
tria on the basis of his rights as German emperor;
he also canceled the debt of Albert von Rauhenstein

to a Jewish money-lender, the first instance of a
usage that became frequent in later times (see Tot-
bkief). Frederick’s order, that no

The First Jew should engage in tailoring or in

Totbrief. selling cloth (“ Gewaud-Schneiden ”)
in the city of Wiener Neustadt, is a
further evidence of the growing hostility of the
municipalities toward the Jews and of the disposi-
tion of the rulers to yield to them.

Under Albrecht II. (1330-58) and Otto (1330-39),
brothers and successors of Frederick, the right to
keep Jews was expressly granted by the emperor to
the dukes of Austria by the treaty of Munich, May
4, 1331 (“ Darzu sollen sie die Juden, die liinter in ge-
sessen seindt, in alien den Rechten und Gewolinlieiten
haben und niessen, als sieoder ir Vordern lierbracht
liaben ”). It became the custom in those days for
the emperor, in order to obtain the good-will of his
powerful vassals, to transfer among other royal priv-
ileges the right to keep Jews; that is, to tax them.
In spite of the greater interest which the territorial
rulers took in their Jews, when they became their
taxable property, the persecutions, begun under
Armleder in Alsace in 1338, had their counter-
parts in Austria. In Retz, Znaim, Horn, Eggeu-
burg, Neuburg, and Zwetl the Jews were mas-
sacred, and in the first-named city, where a dese-
crated host had performed the usual miracles, a
church of the “Holy Blood” was erected in com-
memoration of it. Evidently because of their fear
of similar massacres, the Jews of Vienna voluntarily
reduced the rate of interest from 173.33 per cent, to
which they were entitled under the charter of 1244,
to 65 per cent on large and to 86 per cent on small
loans. This document, written both in Hebrew and
in German, is preserved in the municipal archives of
Vienna (Wolf, “Studien zur Jubelfeier der Wiener
Universitiit,” Vienna, 1865, p. 170). The desire of
Duke Albrecht II. to protect the Jews against mob
violence, for which the desecrated host furnished
pretexts, is evident from the fact that he wrote to
Pope Benedict XII. asking him to order an inves-
tigation of alleged miracles in connection with a
desecrated host in Pulka, which, according to the
opinion of some, were merely a pretext to pillage
the Jews.

The pope, in an ambiguous reply dated Aug. 29.
1338, directs that an investigation be made ; but of
the result nothing is known.

New sufferings came upon the Jews of Austria
with the appearance of the Black Death (1349),
though not to so great an extent as elsewhere in
Germany. In various cities the accusation was
spread that the Jews had caused the plague by poi-
soning the wells; and in Krems, Stein, Mautern, and
other places the Jewish communities were massacred.
For this infringement of the public peace and for
the destruction of the duke’s property the cities were
fined, three of the mob leaders were executed, while
others had to pay ransom for their lives. Contem-
porary chrouograpliers call the duke for this act of
justice a partizan of the Jews (“ fautor Judseorum ”).
A report, first found in an old manuscript, “ Wiener
Geserah” (Steinschneider, “Cat. Bodl.” col. 537;
Gratz, “Gesch. der Juden,” 3d ed., vii. 344, wrongly
based on Pez, l.c. i. 541), according to which the

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Jews of Vienna killed themselves in their synagogue
upon the advice of their rabbi Jonah, is unfounded
(see Scherer, l.c. p. 371). Albrecht’s successor,
Rudolph IV. (1358-65), forged the so-called “Privi-
legium majus,” according to which Emperor Fred-
erick I. had in 1156 given to the dukes of Austria
unusual privileges, among which was the right to
keep Jews and “ public usurers. ” Emperor Karl IV.
confirmed the right of the Austrian dukes to keep
Jews in all places in their dominion, and made a
treaty with the dukes of Austria, in his capacity as
king of Bohemia, that neither party would allow
Jews who had left their country to settle in that of
the other (Dec. 13, 1360). This measure was adopted
in order to prevent Jews who might endeavor to
escape from extortions from seeking another home.
If a Jew found another home, his bonds were inval-
idated. Such “Totbriefe” issued by Rudolph are
extant from the year 1362. The same conditions
prevailed under Rudolph’s brothers and successors,
Albrecht III. (1365-95) and Leopold III. (1365-86).
When Jews had left the country, those who re-
mained had to indemnify the duke for the loss which
he had suffered. In 1367 several Jews, probably the
representatives of their coreligionists, made a treaty
with the dukes, promising to pay 20,000 florins for
two Jews, Musch and Chadgim (Hayyim), who had
left the Austrian territory ; in consideration of which
payment the dukes allowed them to take all of the
fugitives’ property. In 1366 the dukes issued an
order that no Jew should engrave a seal ; and two
years later they prohibited dealing in gold and silver
and money -changing by Jews, restricting them to
lending money on pledges. About

Restric- 1370 all the Jews in the Austrian terri-
tions on Oc- tories were imprisoned by secret order,
cupations. and their property was confiscated.

One report has it that the object of
this outrage was to convert the Jews to Christianity.
However this may have been, the attempt failed;
only two, a man of forty and a young girl, were bap-
tized, the former of whom returned to Judaism and
was burned at the stake. At a subsequent period,
probably in 1378, a new charter was granted to the
Jews. The deed is not now extant; but from quo-
tations in later documents it is learned that the Jews
were given a renewed assurance of the ducal protec-
tion; the right of residence in all the ducal lands
was accorded to them ; they were to be assisted in
collecting their debts; and the dukes undertook to
issue no letters of invalidation. The Jews were not
to be blackmailed by loans and taxes beyond those
stipulated by their charters, and accusations against
them must be proved by the testimony of honest
(“ uuversprochenen ”) Christians and Jews.

Notwithstanding the promise that they should not
be troubled with demands for loans by the dukes,
the latter in 1379-80 exacted another loan of 10,000
pounds of Vienna pennies, assessed under the pen-
alty of excommunication against all the Jews of
Austria. Similarly, in spite of the promise granted
in the charter, the dukes in 1382 remitted the inter-
est which the citizens of Vienna owed to the Jews
on loans. An order of 1371 prohibits the sale of
wine and grain by the Jews of Styria; yet the Jews
of Vienna are expressly exempted from the impost

laid by the municipality of Vienna on wine brought
into the city.

How did the Jews, who in 1370 were robbed of all
their property, levy ten years later the sum of 10,000
pounds of pennies on the members of their com-
munity? This is easily answered, when the fact is
considered that the confiscation did not include the
bonds which they had in their hands and which con-
stituted the greater part of their possessions. Thus
the condition of the Jews under rulers who were
considered partial to them was rather precarious;
but their situation became worse under the succeed-
ing dukes. Of the Jews under Albrecht IV. (1395-
1404), son of Albrecht III., and Wilhelm, the son of
Leopold III. (1395-1406), who ruled over Austria in
common, very little is known. The charter granted
to the Jews of Carinthia and Styria Oct. 23, 1396,
which states that the privileges granted them in
1377 shall be confirmed, is merely a confirmation of
the “ Handfeste ” (charter) described above. Restric-
tions, such as the prohibition of dealing in any mer-
chandise in the city of Linz (1396), orof holding real
estate, even where it had been obtained
Further as a foreclosed mortgage, are based on
Restric- the principle that Jews should be ra-
tions. stricted to money-lending. Of partic-
ular interest is the fact that a Jew,
named Guntzenhauser. had to sign a promise that he
would not practise medicine (1403). This was evi-
dently done upon the demand of the university,
whose professors frequently complain of the compe-
tition of Jewish physicians. The invocation of the
“ great Jew Czaphonas Paneach,” found in that doc-
ument, is evidently not, as Scherer (l.c. p. 403) and
Wolf (“Studien zur Jubelfeier der Wiener Univer-
sitat,” p. 16, Vienna, 1865) interpret it, a mystic for-
mula: it refers to the Aramaic version of Gen. xli. 45,
and means, therefore, an oatli in the name of Him
who knoweth all secrets.

The hostility of the general population to the Jews
manifested itself in 1406, when afire broke out in the
synagogue of Vienna and the mob used the oppor-
tunity to sack the Jewish quarter. The worst, how-
ever, was to come under Albrecht V. (1404-39), who,
when at fourteen he was declared of age, succeeded
his father Albrecht IV., and the latter’s cousin, Leo-
pold IV. Albrecht was a religious fanatic ; and the
popular prejudice, which declared the Jews respon-
sible for every evil, had at that time accused the
Jews of having caused the Hussite schism. This
fanaticism found soon a pretense of justification in
the circulation of the story that a rich Jew, Israel of
Enns, had bought of a sexton’s wife a consecrated
host in order to profane it. Under the
Host- order of the duke, all the Jews of Aus-
Tragedyof tria were imprisoned (May 23, 1420);
Enns. the poor among them were expelled
from the country; and the well-to-do
were kept in prison, and their property was confis-
cated. Some, in order to save their lives, embraced
Christianity, but of these the majority returned to
Judaism and were burned at the stake. Others com-
mitted suicide ; and this probably gave rise to the
legend that R. Jonah and the whole congregation of
Vienna killed themselves in the synagogue. The
only result of an appeal to the pope (Martin V.) by

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the Jews of Italy was the bull of Dee. 23, 1420, de-
creeing that Jewish children under the age of twelve
should not be baptized. The fate of the Jews he
either could not or would not alter, although in his
bull of Feb. 12, 1418, he had confirmed to them the
whole of the privileges which they had possessed in
Germany. All the Jews who had not professed
Christianity were burned near Vienna, March 12,
1421; the duke confiscated their property; their
houses were either sold or donated to persons of dis-
tinction ; and the synagogue was destroyed, and the
materials given to the university. The children of
the Jews were placed in monasteries to be educated;
and the duke made a treaty with his cousin Ernst of
Styria that the Jews in the latter’s dominion should
have no dealings with his subjects. Even in his own
dominion, however, he could not enforce his law,
for in 1438 he issued a safe-conduct to a Jew, named
Isserleiu, basing this favor on the fact that the latter
was innocent of the crime for which the Jews had
been punished. His epitaph, however, praises him
for the cremation of the Jews (“Jussi Judreosante
cremare meos ”).

Culture : While the number of Jews in Austria
must have been considerable, and some congrega-
tions, as those of Vienna, Wiener Neustadt, aud
Krems, had contained Jewish settlements as early as
the cities along the Rhine, aud while Eliezer of
Bohemia speaks with an expression of pity of the
spiritual conditions among the Jews of Hungary
and Poland (Buber, “Auslie Shem,” p. x, Cracow,
1895), little is known of literary activity among the
Jews of this country. Of the fourteenth century is
Mei'r ben Baruch ha-Levi in Vienna, who is reported
to have introduced the title Morenu as license for
the exercise of the rabbinical prerogative. Among
his contemporaries were Abraham Klausner, Sha-
lom of Neustadt, and Aaron of Neustadt. Their
activity is chiefly in the field of the minutue of law,
in which Shalom’s disciple, Jacob ha-Levi (Maliaril),
became specially prominent. The latter has pre-
served to us the fact that as early as the fourteenth
century the Jews of Austria had their own ritual and
their peculiar melodies in public worship (“Minhag
Bene Oesterreicli ” ; see Maliaril, in “Laws of Yom
Kippur,” ed. Warsaw, 1874, p. 47). Religious prac-
tises in Austria must have been so developed in the
twelfth century that Isaac of Durbalo, a Frenchman,
thought them worthy of his special attention, and
he quotes what he has heard about them in Olmiitz
(Malizor Vitry, p. 338, Berlin, 1896-97). There
must, however, have been some participation in the
spiritual life of their neighbors, as Jewish physi-
cians are frequently mentioned, and their practise
seems to have aroused the jealousy of their Christian
competitors. It is further probable that G. Wolf is
right when he thinks that the title “Morenu” was
introduced by R. Mei'r ha-Levi in imitation of the
conferring of degrees in the University of Vienna
founded in 1365 (“Studienzur Jubelfeier derWiener
Universitat,” p. 15, Vienna, 1865). The only Tal-
mudic scholar of great literary reputation was Israel
Isserlein of Marburg, Styria, author of “ Terumat
lia-Deslien,” who lived in the first half of the fif-
teenth century. The great-grandfather of Isserlein,
Israel of Krems, was appointed by Emperor Rupert

chief rabbi of all the Jews iu the German empire
(May 3, 1407), which most likely meant that he
should be responsible for the collection of taxes
(Gratz, “Gescli. der Juden,” 3d ed., viii. 102). The
assumption that Israel was from Kremsier (Frankel-
Griin, “Gesch. der Juden von Kremsier,” i. 15, Bres-
lau, 1896) is improbable (see “Deborah,” 1902, p.
132). The Jews refused to submit to him.

From the Expulsion of 1420 to that of
1670: Albrecht’s posthumous son, Ladislaus (1440-
57), who was declared of age in 1452, was a religious
fanatic, and in the treatment of the Jews followed
the example of his father. In charters granted to
the municipality of Vienna (June 6, 1453, aud Sept.
27, 1455) he confirmed his father’s law, that no Jew
should have the right to reside iu that city. He
further declared that loans contracted by his sub-
jects from Jews residing elsewhere should be in-
valid, just as his father had in 1423 made an agree-
ment with his cousin, Ernst of Styria, that the Jews
living in the latter’s dominion should not be per-
mitted to lend money to the subjects of Albrecht.
The physicians of Vienna complained that a Jew
who had a safe-conduct from the German emperor
Frederick III., Ladislaus’ cousin, practised medicine
(1454). The young king’s enmity toward the Hus-
sites was even more bitter than that of his father;

and under his protection the fanatic
Per- monk Capistrano preached against
secutions : the heretics, arousing the population
Capistrano, against the Jews. They were expelled
from Olmiitz, Briinu, Znaim, Neu-
stadt, Breslau, Schweidnitz, and other cities of Sile-
sia (1454-55).

Ladislaus died when only seventeen years old
(Nov. 23, 1457), and his lauds passed into the posses-
sion of Frederick V. of Styria, who was also German
emperor after 1440. Frederick was always in finan-
cial difficulties, and therefore needed the Jews;
but he was also favorably inclined to them from
humanitarian reasons, so that people gave him the
nickname “King of the Jews.” Probably because
of the attacks on them by Capistrano, Frederick ob-
tained from Pope Nicholas V. a bull (issued Sept.
20, 1451) granting him express permission to allow
Jews to reside iu all of liis dominions, which in-
cluded Austria, Carinthia, Caruiola, Styria, Tyrol,
and Alsace (Vorder-Oesterreich). This permission
is explained by the fact that the Jews were tolerated
for the benefit of the inhabitants needing money-
lenders (Christians not being allowed to engage in
this business), aud, further, because tradition had
from time immemorial sanctioned this toleration. A
correct text is found in Scherer (l.c. p. 436). When
Frederick succeeded to the possessions of Austria,
the states (“ Stiinde ”) petitioned (1458) that the ex-
pulsion of the Jews from Upper and Lower Austria
be enforced. The petition was renewed in 1460,
and in his reply (March 23, 1460) in which he grants
the petitioners’ request and states that Jews shall
settle nowhere in his territories except where they
have been permitted to reside before, he repudiates
the rumor that he favored the Jews: “ Wiemansein
genad beschulldig, sein genad halt liye hewser vol
Juden und thue den gnadig scliub und furderung,
etc., wolt sein kay. gn. gern solcher zicht vertragen

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sein von den die es erdencken, nackdem sein kay.
gn. daran zumal ungiitlicli beschielit ” (Scherer, l.c.
p. 427). The complaints against the residence of
Jews in Austria were frequently repeated in spite
of the emperor’s assurance that they would not be
allowed to settle there; so that in his reply, dated
Dec. 13, 1463, he makes the remark that while he
was willing to carry out his promise not to allow any
Jews to settle in Austria, he could not, in his capac-
ity as king of the Romans, refuse them permission
to come to his court whenever they
Petitions had business to transact there. For
Against some years this seems to have sufficed ;
Re- but in 1479 the complaint is repeated,
settlement, and the emperor is petitioned to issue
a decree that no debt shall be valid
unless the bond is signed in the presence of a judge.

The hostility to the Jews was constantly fomented
by the clergy, who refused to give absolution or to
admit to communion any judge or other official who
in a litigation should render sentence in favor of the
Jews. In order to stop this agitation, Frederick ob-
tained from Pope Paul II. the bull “Sedis apostolicse
copiosa benignitas” (May 31, 1469), in which the
pope declared that the Jews had a claim to be treated
justly. The emperor also intervened in favor of
the Jews of Endingen, who had been accused of the
murder of a Christian child (see Blood Accusation
and Josel of Rosheim); and he took similar action
when charges of a like nature were made in Trent
(1476) and Regensburg (1478). The animosity of
the citizens remained unabated. When the Hun-
garian king Matthias Corvinus captured Vienna in
1485, the citizens petitioned him that “ in considera-
tion of their disgraceful action toward God Almighty,
the Jews should be expelled.” The king granted
the petition. The hostility of the population is fur-
ther manifested in various polemical works of the
period (Scherer, l.c. p. 433).

The death of Frederick (Aug. 19, 1493) at once
changed the condition of the Jews. His successor,
Maximilian (1493-1519), seems, as heir presumptive,
to have tried to induce his father to change his atti-
tude toward the Jews. When Maximilian took pos-
session of the throne, conditions changed to some ex-
tent in favor of the Jews, because his political ambi-
tions— especially his wars with Francis I. of France
— forced him to protect the Jews, who furnished his
only reliable source of income. As under his father,
the states (“ Stiinde ”) of Austria constantly complain
that, contrary to their privileges, Jews are tolerated.
Maximilian always answers by referring to the tem-
porary character of his grants to the latter. Still,
as can be seen from his attitude toward the charges
made by the convert Pfefferkorn, who demanded
the confiscation of all rabbinical books, the emperor
was not favorably inclined to the Jews. When,
therefore, the states in Carinthia and in Styria de-
clared their willingness to indemnify
Ex- him for the taxes of the Jews, he de-
pulsions : creed their expulsion from those prov-
Carinthia inces (Carinthia, March 9. 1496 ; Styria,
and Styria. March 12, 1496), which, partly under
his father, partly under his own reign,
had been united with the Austrian possessions. The
states of Styria paid for the privilege of the expul-

sion of the Jews 38,000 pounds of Vienna pennies;
while those of Carinthia paid 4,000 Rhenish florins
(the text of this decree was published in “ Allg. Zeit.
des Jud.” 1849, p. 23). The motives assigned for the
expulsion are partly religious, arising from alleged
insults to the sacrament, and partly economic, in
view of the Jews’ usurious and fraudulent busi-
ness practises. Carniola had only one Jewish set-
tlement, in Laibach, and the citizens of that town
also obtained a decree ordering the expulsion of the
Jews (Jan. 1, 1515). In all of these territories Jews
had existed since the thirteenth century, and proba-
bly earlier, as is indicated by the names of many
places; e.g., Judenburg, Judendorf, etc.

The decrees of expulsion, with very few excep-
tions, remained in force until the'new era following
the year 1848. In Austria proper the petition of the
states for the expulsion of the Jews, though often
repeated, was never fully granted; and in 1518 the
emperor, in replying toa petition forexpulsiou, stated
that, while he was willing to expel the Jews from
Vienna and from the province of Austria, it was not
his intention to expel them from the province at once.
He, therefore, permitted them to reside in the cities
on the border, Eisenstadt, Marchegg, etc. , where they
should have a chance to look for a place of definite
settlement. This policy the emperor maintained to
the last. Shortly before his death (Jan. 12, 1519),
he, in reply to repeated complaints of the states,
announced that Jews who had been expelled from
his various dominions would be allowed to reside in
the border towns; and he further exempted from
the expulsion the Jew Hiirschl, who had been per
mitted to reside in Vienna (May 24, 1518). This is
the beginning of the era of the Court Jews. Max-
imilian was succeeded by his grandson Charles V’.
(1519-56), who, in his capacity of German emperor,
exercised a considerable influence upon the condition
of the Jews in Austria. The frequent expulsions at
the end of the fifteenth and at the beginning of the
sixteenth century had made it imperative for the
German emperor (who, in his illusionary capacity as
Roman emperor, considered himself as the protector
of all the Jews, and who, as such, derived an income
from the Jewish taxes) to provide some remedy.
Charles, therefore, at the commencement of his reigu
confirmed the privileges of the Jews (1520), among
which was the important stipulation that they should
not be expelled without his consent from places
where they had been allowed to settle. This charter
he confirmed after his coronation as Roman emperor
(May 18, 1530), and again on April 3, 1544. In the
latter document he also declared against the blood
accusation. The policy of maintaining the Jews
where they had once been tolerated and of prohibit-
ing their settlement elsewhere remained in general
the policy of the Austrian rulers after
General his time, although this rule was not
Policy. without exceptions. When, in 1525,
the states of Austria again demanded
that Jews should not be permitted to reside in
any part of Austria, Ferdinand (to whom, in 1522,
Charles had assigned his Austrian possessions) em-
phatically replied (Feb. 23, 1526) that he would al-
low them to live in any part of his possessions where
Jews had previously dwelt. On May 28, 1529, he

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again confirmed the charter of the Jews in Austria.
Individual Jews occasionally received special favors,
as, for example, the physician Lazarus, whom the
tutor of the emperor's children commends highly for
services rendered to the imperial household (1534),
and the Jew Moyse, who had distinguished himself
by services rendered to the mint (1542). The latter
was granted, as a special favor, permission to deal
in all kinds of merchandise, though he was prohib-
ited from lending money on interest. In spite of his
promises to allow Jews to reside in places where they
had been tolerated, Ferdinand ordered an expulsion
of the Jews from Austria (Jan. 31, 1544). The order
was, however, never executed. An expulsion from
Bohemia, decreed by Ferdinand in 1561, was repealed
owing to the efforts of Mordecai Meisels, who went
to Rome and obtained from Pope Paul IV. the abso-
lution of the emperor from his vow.

Under the successors of Ferdinand, Maximilian II.
(1564-76), Rudolph II. (1576-1612), and Matthias
(1612-19), the conditions remained the same. Expul-
sions were threatened and revoked ; taxes were im-
posed on every occasion ; and petty persecutions, espe-
cially in regard to the distinctive Jewish costume or
badge, were the key-note of the legislation. In 1567
a charter granted to the Jews of Bohemia confirms
the right of residence to the Jews of Bohemia “for
all time ” ; while in the following year it is decreed
that they shall not be permitted to reside in the mi-
ning towns. From these latter they remained exclu-
ded until the new constitution of 1848 abolished their
disabilities. Another decree of expulsion followed,
for the Jews of Lower Austria, in 1572, which was
suspended in the following year, but seems to have
been finally executed in 1575 or 1576. This expul-
sion, like that decreed in 1561 in Bohemia, must
either have been revoked or, more probably, became
again a dead letter owing to the exceptions in favor
of the court Jews, who had the right to take other
Jews into their employ; for in 1597 the states of
Lower Austria again demand the expulsion of the
Jews from the province, and, as if they knew that
such a decree would not be carried out, they demand
the enforcement of the decree compelling Jews to
wear a badge. Rudolph II. took a great interest in
the Jews from a scientific point of view also. Being
an alchemist, he, like many others at that time, be-
lieved that cabalistic literature contained informa-
tion on the mysteries which he was studying, and
therefore he called Rabbi Lowe ben Bezalel to his
castle in Prague (1592) to give him the much-desired
information (“Zemah David,” ed. Frankfort-on-the-
Main, 1692, p. 666).

Ferdinand II. (1619-37) was a bigoted Catholic and
a disciple of the Jesuits, who, in their desire to crush
out all heresy, were naturally enemies of the Jews.
As during the sixteenth century complaint was
made that the Jews sympathized with the Turks and
served them as spies, so after the battle at the White
Mountain near Prague (1620), which restored Bohe-
mia to the house of Hapsburg and to Catholicism,
the charge was made that the Jews favored Protes-
tantism. Thus, the dean of Teplitz complains in a
report to the archbishop of Prague that the Jews
receive Protestants into their houses, and that the
noise of their synagogues (“ rugitus et mugitus illo-

rum ”) disturbs the church services (“Allg. Zeit. des
Jud.” 1887, p. 30). In spite of his religious preju-
dices, however, Ferdinand treated the Jews with
comparative fairness. When the town council of
Vienna ordered landlords having Jews as tenants to
require them to vacate the premises, the emperor at
once intervened, enjoined the council from disturb-
ing the Jews, and also took measures to protect them
against further disturbances by allotting an area in
one of the suburbs of Vienna to be set apart for the
habitations of the Jews, in which they would be
permitted to acquire real estate (1624). In a charter,
dated Dec. 6, 1624, the Jews have assured to them
undisturbed residence in Vienna; they are permitted
to enter the city without the badge; the population
is warned not to molest them ; they are placed ex-
clusively under the jurisdiction of the
The Vienna imperial authorities; and their houses

Ghetto. are exempted from the obligation to
billet soldiers. On the other hand,
Ferdinand, as a strict Catholic, ordered that both in
Vienna and in Prague Jews should be forced to at-
tend a mission service on every Sabbath, when a
Jesuit would preach to them on the truth of the
Catholic religion (1630).

The policy of Ferdinand seems to have been to
exempt individual Jews from the disabilities im-
posed upon the Jews as a class. Thus, he gave to
Jacob Bassevi hereditary nobility, and to the court
Jews of Vienna a privilege which exempted them
from the jurisdiction of the congregational authori-
ties. This privilege and the immunity of the Jews
from communal taxes and from the jurisdiction of
the municipal authorities proved bones of conten-
tion; and after the death of Ferdinand (1637) the
Jews of Vienna compromised with the city authori-
ties, offering to pay the sum of 6,000 florins into the
city treasury. This offer had not, however, the de-
sired effect. The municipal authorities of Vienna
demanded of the new emperor, Ferdinand III. (1637—
57), the expulsion of the Jews from Lower Austria;
and the emperor acceded to the extent of ordering
that Jews should not be permitted to keep stores in
the city, and that their exemption from municipal
jurisdiction should cease (1638). A year or two later
this law was revoked. In 1641 the
Immunity status quo of 1624 was restored, and in
from recognition of the services rendered by
City Taxes, the Jews to the imperial treasury dur-
ing the severe crisis which the war
with the Swedes had brought upon Austria, the
former privileges were confirmed in 1645. Although
the Jews had been accused of secret complicity with
the enemy, they suffered terribly during the Thirty
Years’ war. In various congregations of Moravia
Jewish houses were pillaged, and in Kremsier seven-
teen people were killed and a considerable number
wounded (June 26, 1643) (Frankl-Grtin, “Gescli. der
Juden in Kremsier,” pp. 96 etseq.). The heavy taxes
exacted from the Jews, in consequence of the deple-
tion of the imperial treasury during the protracted
war, and the constant quarrels in the overburdened
Jewish communities, induced the emperor to give to
the Jews of Vienna a new constitution (1646) which
should enable the officers to enforce their authority
(Meynert, in Wertheimer, “ Jahrbuch fur Israeli ten,”

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v. 22). The enforcement of a decree of expulsion
against the Jews of Lower Austria in 1652 could
only be averted by the payment of a contribution of
35,000 florins.

Ferdinand’s son and successor, Leopold I. (1657-
1705), had originally been destined for the priest-
hood, and only the death of his elder brother Ferdi-
nand placed him on the throne. Of deeply religious
character and a blind admirer of the Jesuits, he was
only too eager to listen to the ever-renewed com-
plaints of the citizens of Vienna. At the begin-
ning of his reign he confirmed the privileges of
the Jews (1658) ; and repeated his assurance of their
protection, when the municipal council of Vienna
ordered an appraisement of the houses and other
property of the Jews, though they were not subject
to municipal taxation (June 21, 1661). He also suc-
cessfully checked the mob when, in 1665, the body
of a murdered woman most found in the ghetto,
and a rumor was spread that the Jews had com-
mitted the crime. His attitude soon changed, how-
ever. In 1660 he had married Margaret Theresa, a
Spanish princess, and her influence was strongly
brought to bear against the toleration of the Jews,
for to this fact she ascribed the misfortune of the
death of her first-born. To this was added the in-
fluence of the patriotic but fanatic bishop of Wiener
Neustadt, Count Kollouitscli; and at length the
emperor yielded to the demands of the citizens of
Vienna, and ordered the expulsion of the Jews from
the city and from the provinces of Lower and Upper
Austria (Feb. 27, 1670). All Jews
Expulsion were required to leave the capital by
from July 25, 1670, and those living in the

Vienna, country were expelled ’in the follow-
ing spring. The synagogue of Vienna
was converted into a church (Aug. 18, 1670), which,
in honor of the emperor, was named after his patron
saint, Leopold. The persecution of the Jews soon
bore fruit. The city could not, as it had promised,
pay the taxes of the Jews in addition to those which
they had paid before; and many citizens complained
that the commerce of the city had suffered through
the emigration of such a large number of consumers.
Leopold then adopted a milder policy. He not only
allowed the exiles to settle in his other provinces,
notably in Moravia and Bohemia, but further per-
mitted (1673) Jews to visit the fairs in the province
of Lower Austria, whence they had been expelled.
Moreover, when in 1680 the ghetto of Prague was
destroyed by incendiaries, he refused to listen to the
entreaties of the municipality of Prague, who wanted
to use the opportunity to expel the Jews altogether.
Negotiations with the representatives of the Vienna
exiles at Wischau, Moravia, for their resettlement in
the capital did not lead to the desired result ; never-
theless, not long after the expulsion Jews again ap-
peared in Vienna.

Culture : Though the Jews of Austria were not
very prominent in rabbinical literature and other
spiritual activities, the two congregations of Vienna
and Prague, and, later on, that of Nikolsburg, con-
tained quite a number of important Talmudists.
Many of them had come from German}’, like Yom-
Tob Lipmanu Heli.er, rabbi in Nikolsburg, Vienna,
and Prague, who in 1630 became the object of a

treacherous calumny and had to leave the country.
Before him R. Lowe ben Bezalel (d. 1609) occupied
a very prominent position in Prague. The mas-
sacres by the Cossacks in Poland (1648-56) also
brought many learned fugitives to Austria, like
Ephraim Cohen, Shabbethai Coiien, Samuel K.u-
danover, and others. Menahem Mendel Kroch-
mal was rabbi of Nikolsburg, where he died in 1661,
and was succeeded by his son-in-law, Gershon Ash-
kenazi, who was the last officiating rabbi of Vienna
before the expulsion. Prague was the first town in
Germany in which a printing-press was established
(1513). Jewish physicians were always to be found
in Vienna, successful rivals of their Christian col-
leagues. In the sixteenth century occurs the name
of Leo Lucerna, called “ Maor Katon ” ; in the seven-
teenth century, those of Leo (Ldw) Winkler, who
graduated in Padua in 1629, and of his two sons,
Jacob and Isaac, who were graduated there in 1669.
Acquaintance with German seems to have been rare,
for the documents signed by the Jews are signed in
Hebrew. Still, the knowledge of spoken German
was evidently very general, for the Jesuit priests
who preached the mission sermons for the Jews were
instructed to preach in German. Some Jews could
write in German, as is seen from a letter addressed
to Wagenseil by Enoch Fritnkel, one of the exiles
who settled in Fiirth. This letter is also interesting
from the broad-mindedness of the author, who pro-
tests against the accusation that the Jews hate
Christians, as lie can not see any reason why the
professors of different religions should not be toler-
ant toward one another (Kaufmann, “Die Letzte
Vertreibung der Juden aus Wien,” p. 197).

From the Expulsion of 1670 to the Tolera-
tion Edict of Joseph II. (1782): As has been
stated above, the needs of commercial life made the
expulsion from Vienna a dead letter. The Jews went
to the city on business, and the only difference was
that they were not permitted to reside there. Even
this prohibition was soon disregarded in exceptional
instances. The war with the Turks, who in 1683
nearly captured Vienna, required large means; and
among those who furnished the army with provisions
and the treasury with money was Samuel Oppen-
iieimer, a Jew from Heidelberg, who was given
the right of residence and even that of acquiring
property in Vienna. His right of residence dated
from about 1685. Through him other members of
his family were permitted to dwell in the city, either
as members of his household, or as his employees.
Prominent among them was Samson Wertheimer
(1658-1724). Others followed, such as Simon Mi-
chael of Presburg, who had deserved well of the
imperial treasury by furnishing gold and silver for
the mint; so that in a comparatively short time the
city had again a Jewish congregation, only with the
difference that it possessed no corporate rights as
such. The short reign of Leopold’s son and suc-
cessor, Joseph I. (1705-11), brought
Court Jews, no change in their condition. Under
Charles VI. (1711-40), a brother of
Leopold, the traditional policy was also maintained.
About 1725 there came from London to Vienna as a
court Jew Diego d’Aguilak, who farmed the to-
bacco monopoly, and who, according to the testi-

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330

mony of Maria Theresa, had a claim ou her grati-
tude because of his disinterested services.

The malignant fanaticism of the clergy continued.
Typical for their position is the case of the congre-
gation of Aussee, when its synagogue was destroyed
and three members were exiled on the charge of the
local priest, who asserted that they had assaulted
him, when he (contrary to the law) had entered their
synagogue on Yom Ivippur and preached Christian-
ity to them (1722). In Brunn, whence Jews had
been expelled through the efforts of Capistrano in
1454, one Solomon Deutsch in 1706 held services in
an inn. When this became known the repetition of
such an act was prohibited under a tine of 100 reichs-
thaler. On the application of Deutsch permission
was, however, given to read prayers, but not to use
a scroll of the Law (“cum res sapiat synagogam,”
“Tagesbote aus Maliren,” Nov. 7, 1901). The taxes
were very heavy. Charles demanded of the Jews of
Vienna 148,000 florins to defray the expenses of
his coronation (1711). In 1717 they had to lend
1,237,000 florins, toward which Samson Wertheimer
contributed 500,000 florins. On the other hand,
these court Jews used their influence in the interest
of their coreligionists elsewhere when the latter were
in trouble. It was due to Samuel Oppenlieimer’s in-
fluence that the work “ Neu Entdecktes_ J udenthum , ”
by J. A. Eisenmenger, was prohibited. They also
tried, though in vain, to obtain a repeal of the cruel
sentence against the Jews of Aussee mentioned
above. The treatment of the Jews was still guided
by the principle that they were a nuisance which
required constant watching, lest it became perni-
cious. Thus Charles issued an order that of every
Jewish family only one member should be considered
“pro incola,” which meant that only one should be
permitted to marry (Sept. 23, 1726). Jews were
expelled from Breslau in 1738 upon the demand of
the merchants.

Maria Theresa (1740-80), who was very bigoted,
was especially hostile to the Jews. During' the war
with Frederick the Great the rumor spread, as had
been the case during the war with the Swedes and
with the Turks, that the Jews had betrayed the
country to the enemy. The empress imposed upon
them a contribution of 50.000 florins, and in 1744
issued an edict that all the Jews in the kingdom of
Bohemia, including the provinces of
Under Moravia and Silesia, should be ex-
Maria pelled. Only after great efforts by

Theresa, various philanthropists and foreign
ambassadors did she consent to sus-
pend the edict for ten years for an annual payment
of 3,000,000 florins (Aug. 5, 1748). Later on the mat-
ter was abandoned. During the seven years’ war
with Prussia the empress permitted the statement to
be published that the suspicion against the Jews was
unfounded. In 1756 the district rabbi of Moravia,
Moses Lemberger, upon the demand of the empress
pronounced an excommunication against all traitors.
In spite of her aversion to the Jews, the empress
took a deep interest in all matters pertaining to the
administration of Jewish congregations. Her statute
for the Jewry of Moravia, “ General-Polizey-Process-
und Kommerzialorduung fur die Judenschaft im
Marggrafthum Mahren ” (1754), is a classic type of ,

paternal legislation in the administration of Jewish
affairs. The duties of the district rabbi, the mode
of his election, and even the course of Talmudic
studies were regulated in detail. She examined
personally the bill of the delegates to the election of
the Jewish representatives (1751), and demanded
that a Jesuit should be a member of the commission
which should examine all Hebrew books. Her spe-
cial confidence was enjoyed by the Jesuit Franz
Haselbauer (1677-1756), who in 1726 brought the
charge against a Jewish calendar, printed in Am-
sterdam, that it contained blasphemies against the
Catholic religion (“Zeit. fur die Gescli. der Juden in
Deutschland,” ii. 388). In 1760 she issued an order
that all unbearded Jews should wear a yellow badge
on their left arm.

Of the restrictions placed on the Jews a specimen
may be given from a petition of the community of
Prague. They complain that they are not permitted
to buy victuals on the market before a certain hour
— vegetables not before 9, and cattle not before 11
o’clock; to buy fish is sometimes altogether prohib-
ited; Jewish druggists are not permitted to buy
herbs at the same time with Christians (“ Allg. Zeit.
des Jud.” 1887, pp. 676 et seq.). The taxation was
exorbitant. For instance, it was decreed in 1744 that
the Jews should pay a special tax of 40,000 florins
for the right to import their citrons for the Feast of
Booths (see Etkog). Upon the petition of the Jews
this tax was reduced to 4,000 florins. Only occa-
sionally was the empress humane in her treatment
of the Jews. Thus, on Feb. 15, 1769, she ordered
that no Jewish child should be baptized against the
will of its parents; and in a special case she decided
against the Church (Wolf, “ Judentaufen in Oester-
reich,” pp. 55 et seq., Vienna, 1863). An evident
intention to improve the material condition of the
Jews is found in her orders (1) that the Jews may
sell new garments made by themselves, against
which the gild of tailors had protested (April 10,
1772); (2) that Jews may engage in jewelers’ work,
although they must not keep an apprentice (April
24, 1772); and (3) that they may keep tanneries
under certain restrictions (Sept. 20, 1775).

Culture : The mental activity among the Jews dur-
ing this period is still almost exclusively restricted
to Talmudic literature. Higher literary aims were
pursued by David Oppenheim, nephew of the court
Jew Samuel Oppenheimer, who was rabbi of Nikols-
burg 1690-1705, and of Prague 1705-36. His rich
and well-selected library could not, however, be
brought into Austria on account of the severe cen-
sorship, then in the hands of the Jesuits. The move-
ment of Sliabbethai Zebi agitated the Jews of Aus-
tria to no small degree ; and some of the mystics
who followed the pseudo-Messiah were Austrians,
like Loebele Prossnitz ; or they found a fertile soil
in Austria in men like Nehemiah Hayyun and Ja-
cob Frank. The controversy between Jacob Em-
den and Jonathan Eybeschutz also caused a great
commotion in Austria, where the latter had spent a
great part of his early life and where, also, Emden
had lived for some time in the house of his father-
in-law, Mordecai ha-Kohen, rabbi in Ungarisch Brod.
Members of the Auerbach family who had lived in
i Vienna and in Nikolsburg were called to important

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rabbinical positions in Poland; others, like Sclimelke
Horowitz, rabbi in Nikolsburg (d. 1778), and Eze-
kiel Landau, chief rabbi of Prague (1754-93), were
called to Austria from Poland. Prominent men from
Austria tilled positions in Germany ; e.g. , the Teo-
mim-Frankel family, the Bacharachs, Jacob Pop-
pers in Frankfort-on-the-Main, and Jacob Reischer
in Metz, both the latter being natives of Prague.
To Bohemia, as the country of their nativity, point
the names of Horowitz and Lipscliiitz, the latter de-
rived from Liebeschiitz in Bohemia. Even secular
knowledge began to spread in Austria, as can be
seen from the physicians Abraham Kisch, the
teacher of Mendelssohn, and Jonas Jeitteles (1735-
1806), who had studied medicine in Halle.

From the Emancipation Edict of Joseph II.
to the Revolution of 1848 : Under Maria
Theresa's son and successor, Joseph II. (1780-90), a
new era began for the Austrian Jews. Joseph was
an admirer of Voltaire and a disciple of the school
of enlightenment, and he, therefore, adopted an at-
titude toward the Jews differing from that of his
mother and considered it his duty to improve their
condition. One of the first acts of his government
was the abrogation of all the laws requiring the
Jews to wear a distinctive dress (Oct. 21, 1781).
The enlightenment (“ Aufkliiruug ”) of the Jews was
one of Joseph’s cherished plans. To this end he de-
manded that the Jews should assimilate themselves
to their surroundings, adopt the language of the
country, and establish schools according to the plan
of modern pedagogy (“ Normalschulen ”), that they
should be allowed to enter all high schools and uni-
versities (which, as he expressly states, had been at
no time directly prohibited), to lease lands for agri-
cultural purposes (if they worked it with Jewish
hands), to engage in all mechanical trades, arts, and
wholesale commerce (Oct. 19, 1781). He abolished
the poll-tax (Dec. 19, 1781), directed the authorities
to treat the Jews like fellow-men (“Nebenmeu-
schen”), and commanded that Jewish children in the
public schools should also receive proper considera-
tion. Joseph’s views are most clearly expressed in
what is called the Toi.eranzpatent (Jan. 2, 1782).
He introduces this law with the statement that it is
his aim to permit all his subjects, without distinction
as to creed and nationality, to participate in the wel-
fare and freedom of his government; and, although
the restrictions on residence in the other provinces
and the prohibition to reside in Lower Austria are
expressly maintained, the law breathes the spirit of
a new era. The specific ecclesiastic restrictions,
dating from the time of the Vienna council, prohib-
iting Jews from being abroad before noon on Sun-
days and Catholic holy days, and from
Beginning visiting places of amusement, are abol-
of a islied. He also compelled the Jews

New Era. to assume fixed family names (1787)
and to serve in the army — in each
case the first instance of the kind in Europe.

The short reign of Leopold II. (1790-92), brother
and successor of Joseph, was too uneventful to
leave any traces in the history of the Austrian Jews;
but it may be mentioned that upon his ascent to the
throne the bishops presented a petition asking that
the laws of Joseph II. relating to the Jews be abro-

gated, and that the Jews be again declared crown
vassals (“ Kammerkneehte ”) whose position de-
pended solely on the good-will of the monarch.
Leopold replied evasively that the times were too
troublous to allow him to take any decisive steps
in the matter. Francis II. (1792-1835), Leopold’s
son and successor, reigned during the most critical
period of Austria’s history. He was a man of nar-
row views, a typical Philistine; and his conception
of the political and economic situation of the Jews
was in harmony with his general policy. When, in
1793, Baron von Saurau, one of the highest officials,
made a motion to abolish a special department of
the police, the “ Judenamt,” an invidious distinction
against the Jews, the emperor agreed that the de
partment should be called a commission. Economic
and social restrictions were numerous. The princi-
ple of improving the condition of the Jews by open-
ing to them new ways of activity, as Joseph II. had
intended, was given up. Agriculture, which Jo-
seph II. endeavored to introduce among them, was
restricted. They were prohibited from farming rural
property. Only in the case of the estates of noble
men (“ Landtafliche Guter ”) was an exception made
(March 29, 1793); and even then hereditary tenancy
or acquisition was prohibited. Similarly, a Jew
could foreclose a mortgage on real estate only un-
der the condition that he should not buy it or take
it under his administration (Oct. 23, 1816, and July
20, 1827). The Jews of Vienna were especially re-
stricted; The emperor wrote with great indignation
to one of his ministers stating that he had heard that
the Viennese Jews bought houses in the names of
Christians, and that this scandal (“ Unfug ”) would
not be tolerated (May 27, 1814). A law of 1804
prohibited dealing in saltpeter; one of 1814, in salt
and grain. Although Simon von Lammel, a favor-
ite of the emperor, petitioned to have the last-men-
tioned act repealed, the emperor refused (1819). A
law of 1818 (repeated in 1829) prohibited Jews from
establishing themselves as druggists; only one ex-
ception being made; namely, in favor of Michael
Perl, the sou of Joseph Peri,, whose father had
done good service in the cause of education among
the Jews of Galicia. In 1802 it was decreed that
thenceforth no Jew should obtain a “Toleranz,” or
grant, to reside in Vienna, which law was later
amended in favor of the wealthiest. The law that
Jews should not keep Christian domestics, dating
back to the Council of Vienna, 1267, was repeatedly
renewed between 1803 and 1817. Typical for the
condition of the Jews and the policy of the authori-
ties is the case of Abraham Heimann and his family,
natives of Bavaria, who during the French occupa-
tion (1809) had settled in Laibach, whence the Jews
had been expelled since 1515. As soon
Case of as the Vienna congress (1815) restored
Abraham the former conditions, Heimann re-
Heimann. ceived an order of expulsion, and until
1848 he had to fight in the courts for
the most natural rights of a human being. The
highly interesting details of this struggle are de-
scribed by a member of the family in “Allg. Zeit.
des Jud.” 1849, pp. 41 et seq. Isaac Samuel Reggio,
who during the French occupation had been pro-
fessor at the Lycee in his native town, Gorice, was

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discharged when Austria again took possession of
Illyria.

The ecclesiastical laws were also applied with re-
gard to the internal affairs of the Jews. The latter
were not permitted to have any music in Advent,
which generally occurred during Hanukkah; and an
order was issued that Christians should not be per-
mitted to dance at the balls of the Jews on Purim
(1806 and 1824). How little the Jews were under-
stood can be seen from the fact that when the
assembly of Jewish notables convened in Paris, an
order was given to watch the correspondence of the
Jews, so as to ascertain whether they were plotting
against the government. The police soon reported
that, aside from some insignificant letters, which
some Jews received from their relatives living in
France, no interest was taken by them in the pro-
ceedings of the assembly and of the subsequent
Sanhedrin (1806). The only Austrian Jew who re-
ceived an invitation to attend this meeting, Bernhard
von Eskei.es, loyally turned over his invitation to
the police. Another ecclesiastical restriction against
the Jews was the prohibition of the assumption of
names of Christian saints as first names (Nov. 6,
1834), which was evidently a reflex of the similar
prohibition issued in Prussia Dec. 22, 1838. There
was somewhat of the humorous in the report of
a court councilor upon the synagogue which the
Jews of Vienna desired to build: he expressed the
fear that, if the Jews should have au attractive
building and good sermons, the synagogue would
soon be better frequented than the church (1824)
(Wolf, “Gescli. der Juden in Wien,” p. 133).

On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that
Francis had the intention of being in a measure just
to the Jews, and that he sincerely wished to improve
the desolate condition of their religious organiza-
tion. It is certainly a notable sign of
Interest in progress that as early as 1810 a Jew,
Communal Honig, member of a family of famous
Or- financiers, was appointed an officer in
ganization. the army — except in France, the first
case of the kind in Europe. Even a
tyrannical measure, such as that requiring everyone
who wished to marry to pass an examination in re-
ligion (based on Herz Homberg’s text-book, "Bene
Zion,” 1810), was well meant, although its mainte-
nance down to 1856 was vexatious. As early as 1795
the emperor had busied himself with a scheme to
improve the spiritual condition of the Jews. He
intended to establish a rabbinical seminary ; and the
failure of the scheme was due to the opposition of
rabbis of the old school, like Eleazar Fleckeles,
Samuel Landau, and IVIordecai Benet. It cer-
tainly is creditable to him that he declined to enter-
tain the propositions of narrow-minded rationalists
like Herz Homberg and Peter Beer — who de-
nounced the rabbis as blind fanatics, and the Tal-
mud as the source of all evil among the Jews — and
it is especially creditable that he did not reward
Homberg’s defamations of Judaism with the much-
coveted “Toleranz.”

The next result of the investigations of the spiri-
tual condition of Judaism was the “Patent” for Bo-
hemia, issued Aug. 3, 1797, which stated the princi
pie that it was the emperor’s object ultimately to

remove all Jewish disabilities, although for the pres-
ent the only tangible progress was the law requiring
every rabbi to take a course of philosophical studies.
This law was repeated for the other provinces of
Austria (Jan. 22, 1820, and Jan. 29, 1826). It re-
mained for a long time a dead letter, and even to-
day (1902) it is not fully carried into practise. Next
followed the establishment of the first scientific
institution for the education of rabbis, opened in
Padua (then under Austrian dominion) Nov. 10,
1829. It also redounds to the emperor's honor that
lie refused to entertain the proposition made by
three Jews to pay into the treasury the annual sum
of 150,000 florins, if they were given the right to
levy a tax on Etrogim. The emperor considered it
wrong to impose a tax on a religious practise (Dec.
12, 1799) (“ Israelitisches Familienblatt,” Hamburg,
Oct. 10, 1901). It showed also considerable progress
when the Jews in Vienna obtained permission to
build a "Tempel,” named so after the one founded
in Hamburg, 1817. This name is in itself signifi-
cant ; for in 1620 the citizens of Vienna complain that,
while the emperor had given the Jews the right to
build a synagogue, they had erected a “Tempel.”
On the other hand, the name “ congregation ” was
still denied to the Viennese Jews : they
The Vienna were merely “the Jews of Vienna,”
‘ ‘ Tempel.” and their representatives not a board
of trustees (“ Vorstand ”), but merely
delegates (“ Vertreter ”), their rabbi an inspector of
“kosher” meat, and their preacher (I. N. Mann-
iieimer) merely a teacher of religion.

Francis was succeeded by His son, Ferdinand I.
(1835-48), an invalid of no brilliant intellect, and
practically without influence on the affairs of the
government. The ministers who ruled for him were
bent on maintaining the patriarchal state of affairs
which had existed under Francis I., and which was
considered by the leading statesman, Metteruich, to
be the best safeguard of public order. Still, the
progress of the age demanded here and there a
milder interpretation of the existing laws. Thus,
when the administration of Count Salm’s estate in
Raitz prohibited the giving of a night’s lodging to
Jewish pedlers, the authorities of the central gov-
ernment set aside the order (1836). The position
of the Jew's of Vienna W'as somewhat improved.
Those that possessed the right of residence were al-
lowed to transfer it to their children, and strangers
were permitted to remain in the city two w'eeks.
Further, the police did not carry out these restric-
tions rigorously; and sometimes they became a dead
letter. Those not having the right of residence imd
merely to have their passports revised, as if they
had left the city. Immediately after having passed
the gate, they returned and applied fora new per-
mission to reside in the city two weeks (Wolf,
“Gescli. der Juden in Wien,” p. 142). Here and
there senseless restrictions were introduced, probably
upon the complaint of some overzealous official or
of an unsympathetic population, as when (Jan. 31,
1836) a prohibition against pedling in the border
districts was issued because the Jewish pedlers were
supposed to be responsible for smuggling, or when
(1841) the Jews of Prague were prohibited from
spending the summer in the suburb of Bubentsch.

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But, on the whole, the policy of the government
made for progress. Thus an order of June 4, 1841,
permitted the possession by Jews of rural estate
when they worked the farms themselves ; and the
restrictions (dating from the beginning of the eight-
eenth century) against the number of Jewish mar-
riages, and which even Joseph II. would not remove,
were more liberally interpreted. Teachers and
rabbis were permitted to marry, even when there
was no vacancy in the number of legally permitted
families. Similar favors were bestowed on manu-
facturers, on the owners of large estates, and on
prominent scholars. The need of a revision in the
legal status of the Jews is strikingly illustrated by
the fact that in 1847, when the famous composer
Meyekbeek visited Vienna, the government had to
issue an order declaring him to be a “cavalier” and
not a Jew, so that he might be exempt from the tax
which every non-resident Jew had to pay when vis-
iting the city. One great mark of progress was the
abolition of the Jewish Oath (Aug. 18, 1846), in
which matter Austria preceded most of the German
states. Another important step was the law of
March 24, 1841, for Galicia, which promised certain
improvements for the Jews of that province who
should dress in European costume and

Signs of acquire a knowledge of either German
Progress, or Polish. For the same reason the
government established there county
rabbinates (“ Kreisrabbinate ”). The government also
took a great interest in the reform of public worship ;
and the authorities of Prague ostentatiously took
part in the dedication of the new “ Tempel fiir Gere-
gelten Gottesdienst ” in that city', which was dedi-
cated on the emperor’s birthday, April 19, 1837.
Similarly it encouraged the endeavors to induce the
Jews to devote themselves to agriculture and me-
chanical pursuits. These endeavors are treated be-
low under Culture.

From the Revolution of 1848 to the Pres-
ent Time : The revolution in France awakened an
echo everywhere in Europe. In Vienna tumults
occurred March 13, and one of the first victims of
the revolution was a Jewish student, Heinrich
Spitzer, who was shot by the troops. Legislation
relating to the Jews was at once revised in a liberal
sense. In the new constitution of April 25 the free
exercise of religion was granted ; and the special
Jewish taxes were abolished Oct. 28. For the first
time in the history of Austria, Jews were appointed
professors in the universities; e.g., Jacob Golden-
thal in Vienna and Wolfgang Wessely in Prague,
both, however, as assistant professors in Semitic
languages.- Jews took a prominent part in the revo-
lutionary movement. To the first parliament, as-
sembled first in Vienna and later on in Kremsier,
five Jewish deputies were elected: Adolph Fisch-
hof, who had always taken a prominent position,
and was one of the most popular men in Vienna ;
Joseph Goldmark, also from Vienna; Abraham
Halpern from Stanislau; I. N. Mannheimeu, the
Vienna preacher, for Brody; and Bar Meisels,
rabbi of Cracow, from that city. Another Jew
who had taken an active interest in the revolu-
tionary movement was one of the victims of re-
action, when Prince Windiscligratz captured Vienna.

Hermann Jellinek was shot as a rebel Nov. 23,
1848.

Ferdinand, who was too weak to remain at the
helm of the state's ship in such critical times, ab-
dicated, and was replaced by his nephew, the pres-
ent emperor, Francis Joseph, who, at the age of
eighteen, ascended the throne Dec. 2, 1848. The
young emperor was soon prevailed upon to adopt a
more autocratic policy. The Reichstag of Kremsier
was suddenty dissolved, and a ’constitution, pro-
claimed by the emperor without the consent of the
parliament, was promulgated (“ Octroyierte Verfas-
sung”) March 4, 1849. This constitution still re-
tained the principle of religious liberty, and the ad-
ministrative authorities still interpreted the laws in
a liberal sense, the right of the Jews to acquire real
estate and the abolition of the restriction on mar-
riages being expressly acknowledged. Signs of re-
action were, however not wanting. The clergy
agitated against the abolition of Austria’s character
as a Roman Catholic country, and petitioned (April
18, 1850) the emperor to appoint no Jews to any
office. The population, on the other hand, was also
unwilling to allow the Jews an extension of their
former rights. In cities where they had been ex-
cluded, the population would not have them ad-
mitted; and in cities where their right of residence
, had been restricted to certain quarters,

Reaction, objections were made to their removal
into forbidden districts. Even before
the constitution of April 25, 1848, had been promul-
gated there were excesses in Prague, which spread
over various parts of the country and assumed very
serious proportions in Hungary. The city of Stern-
berg, Moravia, passed a resolution that at no time
should a Jew be given the city’s franchise; and the
council of Laibach excluded the Jews from the right
to acquire real estate. In Prague the burgomaster
demanded that the Jewish congregation should pre-
vail upon its members to close the stores which they
had rented outside of the ghetto (1849). The gov-
ernment seemed to favor this agitation; for. when a
Jew applied for a position in the postal service, he
was told that he must bring a certificate from the
rabbi that he was permitted to write on the Sab-
bath. Officially the reaction was introduced when
the government repealed (Dec. 31, 1851) the consti-
tution of March 4, 1849, although even then it was
declared that religious liberty should not be dis-
turbed. This provision, however, had hardly any
practical value. As the civil code had provided that
a Jew who married had to show permission from the
authorities, and this clause had not been abrogated,
the government decided that a Jew who wished to
marry had to bring a special license, a view which
changed the former status only in so far as the num-
ber of marriages was no longer limited. At the same
time the right of the Jews to hold real estate in all
parts of the country was suspended, and the pro-
hibition (1817 and 1834) against keeping Christian
domestics and against assuming the names of Chris-
tian saints was renewed (Oct. 2, 1853). In a new
regulation concerning notaries public (May 21, 1855),
the Jews were excluded. In the same spirit in
which, under Francis I., the Jews were suspected of
conspiring against the government, an order was

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issued that the Jews of Austria should not be per-
mitted to have any dealings with Ludwig Philipp-
son, nor to join his society for the promotion of
Jewish literature (Aug. 5, 1855).

The Concordat of Aug. 18, 1855, which delivered
Austria altogether into the hands of the clericals,
had its effects upon the condition of the Jews. They
were excluded from positions as teachers in elemen-
tary and high schools, and, contrary to the spirit of
the legislation of Joseph II., the government wished
even to exclude Jewish children from the public
schools, which were to be exclusively Catholic.
Count Thun, minister of public education, attempted
to force the congregation of Vienna to establish a
Jewish school. Jewish house-physicians in the Vi-
enna hospital were to be limited in numbers (1856);
and even the farming of rural estates was prohibited.
The language of some of the governmental orders is
in itself significant ; for instance, one was issued to
the administrative authorities requiring them to see
that the Jews “who have sneaked into Christian real
estate are removed ” (March 23, 1856). Returning
to the policy of 1670, the government prohibited the
establishment of Jewish congregations in the prov-
ince of Lower Austria (April 28, 1857), and restricted
the appointment of Jewish veterans to civil positions
to towns where Jews possessed the right of residence
(1858). The commercial high school (“ Handelsaka-
demie ”) in Vienna, established from funds appro-
priated by merchants, among whom were quite a
number of Jews, could not be opened because the
minister insisted that no Jew should be appointed to
a position therein. Some municipal authorities fol-
lowed the example of the government in their own
way. The burgomaster of Saaz, Bohemia, on the
strength of the privileges granted to the city in 1561,
ordered that all Jews should leave the city within two
weeks ; and the municipal authorities of Marburg, in-
sisting on the legality of the edict of expulsion is-
sued in 1496, ordered a Jew who had lived in that
city for nine years to leave within a fortnight. The
defeat of Austria in the Italian war of 1859, termi-
nated by the peace of Villafranca (July 11, 1859),
brought a change of policy. As late as June 6, 1859,
the prohibition against keeping Christian domestics
was reenforced, and on June 17 the marriages con-
cluded without special license were declared void ;
but on Nov. 29 these restrictions were removed, and
on Aug. 22 a liberal legislation on the position of
the Jews was promised.

This legislation was promulgated Feb. 18, 1860.
It gave to the Jews of most of the Austrian prov-
inces full right to hold property. In

Dawn of Galicia and in the Bukowinathis right

Freedom, was limited to those who possessed a
certain education; while Upper Aus-
tria, Styria, Carinthia, Tyrol, and Vorarlberg were
excluded from the law, and in these provinces Jews
were not permitted to hold any real estate until the
new constitution, Staatsgrundgesetze of Dec. 21,
1867, abolished all disabilities on the ground of relig-
ious differences. In the population the new condi-
tion of affairs aroused enmities, and again occasional
disturbances occurred, as in Trebitsch, Moravia, and
Lemberg. The clerical party also protested against
the admission of the Jews to the full rights of citi-

zenship. Noteworthy in this connection is the libel
suit brought against Kuranda by Sebastian Brun-
ner, the anti-Semitic editor of the “Wiener Kircheu-
zeitung,” May 10, 1860, though it was dismissed.
At the election to the new parliamentary bodies, the
“Landtage,” a number of Jews were returned, two
of whom, Kuranda and Winterstein, were dele-
gated by the Landtage to the Reichsrath. The em-
peror called into the House of Lords Baron Anselm
von Rothschild, which is perhaps the first case of a
Jew being made a peer. The constitution of Dec.
21, 1867, finally removed all disabilities, and from
that date the political history of the Jews in Aus-
tria is limited to their treatment by tlie administra-
tive authorities and to the position of the several
political parties, on which subject information will
be found under Anti-Semitism.

The government of Austria has always taken great
interest in internal Jewish affairs. Even under the
clerical minister of public instruction, Count Thun,
religious instruction in the high schools was made
compulsory (Feb. 11, 1852). At a later period the
government paid the teachers’ salaries. On March
21, 1890, a law was issued which regulated the con-
dition of Jewish congregations. It makes it com-
pulsory for every Jew to be a member of the con-
gregation of the district in which he resides, and so
gives to every congregation the right to tax the in-
dividual members. In elective bodies and in gov-
ernmental positions since the beginning of the consti-
tutional era the Jews have always held their own,
especially in the army, where some of them have
even risen to the rank of general. The Reichsrath
has since its inception had its quota of Jewish mem-
bers, and the House of Lords has always numbered
Jews among its members; at present there are three,
the two brothers Gomperz and Baron von Oppen-
heimer. As soon as the new era began (1860), Jews
were appointed to positions in the university. The
first regular professor in the University of Vienna
was the dermatologist Zeissl, and in Prague in the
same year Wolfgang Wesserly was appointed full
professor of criminal law.

Culture : The intentions of Joseph II. to raise the
intellectual and moral status of his Hebrew subjects
awakened an echo in the hearts of the Austrian
Jews. In towns where there were already centers
of civilization, as in Triest and Prague, Jewish
schools (“ Normalschulen ”) were established. Other
places followed, especially after the awakening of
the modern spirit in Austria (about 1830-39). In
Galicia this movement was not very successful, al-
though even there some men like Perl obtained
good results. In Lemberg, Abraham Koiin died a
martyr to the cause of education and progress (Sept.
7, 1848). The movement to lead the Jews to me-
chanical and to agricultural occupations was very
energetically reciprocated by the Jews of Austria.
The noble and active philanthropist Joseph von
Wertheimer founded the Society for the Promotion
of Mechanical Occupations iu Vienna, 1840; and
similar societies followed in other parts of the coun-
try, as in Prague, 1846. Wertheimer was also instru-
mental in introducing the Kindergarten in Austria.
Hirscli Koliscli in 1844 established in Nikolsburg the
first Jewish institute for deaf-mutes, which in 1852

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was transferred to Vienna. There, through the ef-
forts of Ludwig August Frankl, the first Jewish
institute for the education of the blind was founded
in 1870. An institution for the training of rabbis,
which at the end of the eighteenth century had al-
ready engaged the attention of the government, was
finally opened in Vienna, 1894.

In religious matters Austria has always been con-
servative. The first introduction of any changes in
the service took place in Vienna, where M. L. Bie-
dermann, the moving spirit of the congregation,
hoped to introduce the reforms of the Hamburg
temple; but Mannheimer, who had himself partici-
pated in these services, felt that for
Religious Vienna a more conservative spirit was
Con- necessary. The latter, therefore, lim-
servatism. ited the reforms to the omission of
some Piyyutim, to a trained choir, to
decorum in service, and to the introduction of a
German sermon. This type of temple, dedicated
1826, was introduced everywhere in the civilized
parts of Austria, and also in Galicia, where, in Tarno-
pol, Lemberg, and Brody, the cultured element of
the community founded what was called a “ Chor-
schul.” From Brody this type of reform was even
introduced to Odessa, where many people from
Brody had settled.

Secular education had made rapid progress after
the decree of Joseph II., although, owing to the fact
that the practise of medicine was the only field open
for Jews through academic education, the students
could not be numerous. The events of 1848 in-
creased this number. In 1851 the number of Jew-
ish students in the high schools of Austria was 1,598 ;
in 1857 they had increased to 2, 143. The increasing
number of students in the secular schools drove the
yesliibot out of existence; and so the Talmudists of
the old school, with the exception of those of Galicia,
have almost completely disappeared. To the first
part of the nineteenth century belong: Eleazar
Fleckeles (d. 1826), rabbi of Prague; Ephraim Zal-
man Margulies in Brody (d. 1828); Marcus Benedikt,
district rabbi in Moravia (1753-1829); Jacob Orn-
stein, rabbi in Lemberg (d. 1839); Nahum Neliemiah
Trebitsch, district rabbi in Moravia (1777-1842);
Hirscli Chajes, rabbi in Zolkiev (d. 1855) ; Solomon
Kluger in Brody (d. 1869); Marcus Wolf Ettinger
(d. 1863) and Joseph Saul Nathansohn (d. 1875),
both in Lemberg; and Aaron Korufeld in Goltsch-
Jenikau (d. 1881). The Jewish scholars of a more
modern type are so numerous that only the most
prominent names can be quoted here. Among those
who belong to the school of the Biurists must be
mentioned Herz Homberg (1749-1841) and Peter Beer
(1758-1838). In the school of systematic scholars
Z. Frankel (1801-75) deserves the first rank. The
Polish circle counts Nachman Krochmal (1789-1840),
S. L. Rapoport (1790-1867), and Isaac Erter (d.
'851). The succeeding generation has Solomon
Buber (b. 1827) and S. H. Halberstamm (1832-1900).
One of the best-known writers of the present histor-
ical school is I. H. Weiss (b. 1815). Others are: Leo-
pold Low (1811-75), M. Steinschneider (b. 1816), H.
B. Fassel (1802-83), A. Jellinek( 1821-94), S. I. Kiimpf
(1815-93), Nehemias Briill (1843-91), David Kauf-
mann (1852-99). Further might be included the

Italians I. S. Reggio (1784-1855), Joseph Almanzi
(1801-60), and S. D. Luzzatto (1800-65), all of whom
spent their life under Austrian dominion. Of prom-
inent poets and authors those may first be mentioned
who have written on Jewish subjects; viz., Leopold
Kompert (1822-86), Leo Herzberg-Frankel (b. 1827),
Karl Emil Franzos (b. 1848), L. A. Frankl (1810-94),
Moritz Rappaport (1808-80), Seligmann Heller
(1831-90), Michael Klapp (d. 1888), J. L. Lederer
(1808-76), and Moritz Hartmann (1821-73). The
pianist Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870) and the actor
Adolph Sonnentlial (b. 1834) are distinguished ; and
to them may be added the regenerator of synagogue
music, Solomon Sulzer(1804-90); the mathematician
Simon Spitzer( 1826-87); the chess-player W. Steinitz.
(d. 1900); statesmen like Kuranda.Fischhof.and Win-
terstein; scientists like Jacob Fischel, an authority
on psychiatry (d. 1892); the dermatologist Zeissl, and
others, too numerous to mention, show how, in a
comparatively short time, the Jews of Austria have
risen to the level of their non-Jewish fellow -citizens.

Bibuooraphy: For the earliest period of the history treated
the best source is J. E. Scherer; Die RechtsverhilUnixse Her
Ju<len in den Deutsch-Oexterreichixchen Lilndern , Leipsic,
1901; [Joseph von Wertheimerl Dir Juden in Oesterreich
now Standpunkte dex Itechtx und des Staatsvortheilx, 2
vols., ib. 1842; (appeared anonymously) G. Wolf, Gesch. der
Juden in Wien, Vienna, 1876; Judcntaufen in Oesterreich,
Vienna, 1863: I). Kaufmann, Salmon Wertheimer, der
Oberhoff actor und Landexrobhiner, Vienna. 1888; idem,
Urkundliches aus dem Leben Samson Wertheimer's,
Vienna, 1892; idem. Die Letzte Vertreibung der Juden aus
Wien und Thre Vorgeschiehte, Vienna, 1889. a bibliography
of the essays which appeared in periodicals treating of the
history of the Jews in Austria will he found in Zcit. file die
Gesch, der Juden in Deutschland, ii. 136 et xeq.

I).

AUTHENTICATION OF DOCUMENTS

(Kiyyum, Asharta, Henpek) : An official cer-
tificate of genuineness. This is either the result of
actual litigation on the subject, in which case the de-
cision of the court is the official authentication, or
where the proper persons appear before a competent
tribunal, which takes their testimony and officially
authenticates the instrument for the purpose of pre-
venting litigation concerning it. The use of authen-
tication is well known in Talmudic law. Strict law
does not require the authentication of an instrument
in order to give it validity, because, according to
Resh Lakisli, the attestation of subscribing witnesses
is equivalent to the testimony of those who have
been examined in court (Git. 3 a). The reason for
this rule is obvious: there may be danger of fraud
and forgery in the ease of an instrument signed by
the debtor, but such danger is far removed in the
case of an instrument which is signed by two disin-
terested witnesses. An instrument is considered ju-
dicially authenticated (1) if the judges themselves,
recognize the handwritings of the subscribing wit-
nesses; or (2) if the witnesses sign in the presence of
the court; or (3) if the subscribing witnesses appear
before the court and acknowledge their signatures,
stating that they witnessed the trans-
Methods action ; or (4) if other witnesses appear
of Authen- and testify that they recognize the
tication. handwriting of the subscribing wit-
nesses; or (5) if the court, after com-
parison of the signatures in issue with the signatures,
in at least two other instruments, reaches the con-
clusion that the signatures are genuine.

Authentication

Authority

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

336

In the latter case, the instruments with which the
comparison is to he made must he at least three
years old (this being the period in which prescriptive
rights to real estate may be obtained), and must be
instruments of conveyance of real estate in the hands
of the persons in open and undisputed possession of
such estate. If the instruments with which the
comparison is to be made are in the possession of the
person who is interested in having the signatures
authenticated, they can not be used for such pur-
poses. Some authorities are of the opinion that a
comparison with the signatures in a letter or with
the handwriting of the author of a book in manu-
script is not permitted (Shulhan ‘Aruk, Hoslien
Mishpat, 46, 7, gloss).

Frankel (“ Der Gerichtliche Beweis,” p. 415) re-
duces these fi ve cases to three fundamental principles :

(1) Acknowledgment by subscribing witnesses;
(2) the testimony of third persons who know the
signatures of the subscribing witnesses; and (8) com-
parison of handwritings.

As to the acknowledgment of their signatures by
tire subscribing witnesses, the Mishnah provides
(Ket. ii. 4) that if one witness says, “This is my sig-
nature, and the other signature is in the handwriting
of my associate, the second witness,” and the other
witness testifies in the same manner, their testimony is
sufficient for authentication. If the one says, “This
is my signature,” and the other likewise says, “This
is my signature,” a third person must be called who
recognizes both signatures, in order that there may
be two witnesses for each signature. This is the
decision of Rabbi Judah; but the Sages say that a
third person need not be called in, because it is suffi-
cient if each one proves his own handwriting.

The point raised here touches the very essence of
attestation of documents. According to Rabbi Ju-
dah, the witnesses admitting their own handwriting
are testifying merely to that fact, and not to the
substance of the document ; whereas, according to
the Sages, the testimony of each of the witnesses
acknowledging his own handwriting is to the sub-
stance of the document; hence, according to the
latter, there are in fact two witnesses attesting the
fact in issue; namely, the substance of the document.
Therefore, it is unnecessary to call in a third person
who is familiar with their signatures.

Proof of the handwriting of the witnesses is alluded
to in the Mishnah above cited and in the Baraita
(Ket. 196). In this case, each of the signatures must
be proved by two witnesses, because
Proof the testimony is not as to the sub-
of Hand- stance of the instrument, but as to the
writing. genuineness of the signature. If one
of the subscribing witnesses admits his
signature, and he and a third person prove the sig-
nature of the other subscribing witness, this is not
sufficient, because thereby the instrument is proved
for the greater part by one witness; to wit, the sub-
scribing witness, who admits his own signature and
proves the signature of the other. The Talmudic
law requires that in every case the testimony of the
witnesses, in order to establish a fact, must goto the
entire matter; and a fact is not proved if the testi-
mony of one of the witnesses proves more than that
of the other (see Ket. 21 a; B. B. 57a).

On the question of comparison of handwritings
for the purpose of proving the signatures, the rule
seems to be that the comparison may be made with
two other instruments, as above stated; but com-
parison may also be made with an instrument the
validity of which has been attacked and which has
been judicially declared genuine (Ket. 195), and such
a judicially authenticated instrument is for this pur-
pose as good as two ordinary instruments (Hoslien
Mishpat, Lc.).

In authenticating the document, it is customary
to mention the mode of authentication (ib. ). The
Shulhan ‘Aruk simply prescribes that, if the court
merely writes, “ In the presence of us
Examples three sitting together, this instrument
of was authenticated,” this is sufficient,
Formulas, although they do not state in what
manner it was authenticated. The fol-
lowing formulas are customarily used :

(1) When the subscribing witnesses themselves
admit their signatures:

We three sat together in court and considered the aforesaid
document to which there are subscribed two witnesses : A, the
son of B, and C, the son of D. These two witnesses came before
us and acknowledged their signatures, and admitted that they
were their own handwritings. Therefore, we, as is proper,
have found them to be genuine and authentic. (Here follow
the date and the signatures of the three judges.)

(2) When other witnesses testify' to the signatures
of the subscribing witnesses:

We three sat together in court and considered the aforesaid
document to which there are subscribed two witnesses : A, the
son of B, and C, the son of D ; and there came before us two
other witnesses : E, the son of F, and G, the son of H ; and they
testified before us concerning the signatures of the aforesaid
witnesses who have subscribed these documents, and they made
clear to us that the said signatures are in the handwritings of the
said witnesses. - Therefore, we, as is proper, have found them
to be genuine and authentic. (Here follow the date and the
signatures of the three judges.)

The formula in each case is varied to suit the
nature of the proof brought before the court. A list
of such formulas may be found in Nalialat Sliib'ah,
xxvi. ; see also “Seder Tikkune Shetarot,” by J. G.
C. Adler, Hamburg, 1778.

As a rule, the signatures of the three j udges are
required ; but it is sufficient if the authentication is
signed by two of them (Hoslien Mishpat, 46, 29).

The tribunal authenticating the docu-
Two ment need not necessarily be learned

Judges in the law, nor is it necessary that the

Must Sign, debtor or the person to be charged by
this document be present; indeed, the
authentication may take place even if the debtor
declares the instrument a forgery (ib. 5). The
authentication is simply a judicial affirmation of the
correctness of the signature of the subscribing wit-
ness, and the truth of the facts set forth in the docu-
ment is not directly in issue (Ket. 1095. top ; Hoslien
Mishpat, l.c. 20).

In order that there might be no danger of the
authentication being used for some other instrument,
the rule was adopted that no space must be left
between the document and the authentication, but
that the latter must be written immediately under
the signature of the witnesses, or on the back of the
instrument immediately behind the writing (B. B.
168«; Hoslien Mishpat, 46, 31). If, however, the

337

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Authentication

Authority

space between the signatures of the witnesses and
the authentication is tilled up by lines and dots, it is
sufficient (ib. 32 et seq.). Maimonides (Malweli we-
Loweh, xxvii. 6) and the Hoshen Mishpat (l.c.) seem
to have been of the opinion that the authentication
could be written alongside of the document.

Although an authenticated document was in the
nature of a public record, and had all the faith and
credit given to it as such, nevertheless the question
of its genuineness could be raised. If any such
question arose, it was sufficient for two of the sub-
scribing judges to acknowledge their signatures to
the authentication. Other rules concerning the proof
of authenticated instruments, when the same are
attested, are stated by the Shulhan ‘Aruk, Hoshen
Mishpat, 46, 14-16, 37, 38.

Bibliography: Ket. \Sb-22a . ; II. Tl. 159a, 163a et seq.; Mai-
monides, Yad, ‘ Edut , vi.-viii; Slndhan ‘Aruk, Hoshen
Mishpat, 46; Zacharia Frankel, Dev Gerichtliche Beweis,
pp. 414 e't seq.; Talmudic Lexica, articles Ashsharta, Hen-
pek, Kiyiium; Moses Bloch, Die Civil Processordnung,
pp.' 59 et seq.

j. sr. D. W. A.

AUTHORITY, RABBINICAL; The power
or right of deciding the Law, in dubious cases, or
of interpreting, modifying, or amplifying, and oc-
casionally of abrogating it, as vested in the Rabbis
as its teachers and expounders.

In Biblical times the Law was chiefly in charge of
the priests and the Levites; and the high court of
justice at Jerusalem, which formed the highest tri-
bunal to decide grave and difficult questions, was
also composed of priests and Levites (Deut. xvii. 9.
18; xxxi. 9; xxxiii. 10; Jer. xviii. 18; Mai. ii. 7; II
Chron. xix. 8, 11; xxxi. 4). In the last two pre-
Christian centuries and throughout the Talmudical
times the Scribes (“Soferim”), also called “The
Wise ” (“ Hakamim ”), who claimed to have received
the true interpretation of the Law as “ the tradition
of the Elders or Fathers” in direct line from Moses,
the Prophets, and the men of the Great Synagogue
(Abot i. 1; Josephus, “Ant.” xiii. 10, § 6; 16, § 2;
x. 4, § 1; “Contra Ap.” i. 8; Matt. xv. 2), included
people from all classes. They formed the courts of
justice in every town as well as the high court of
justice, the Sanhedrin, in Jerusalem, and to them
was applied the law, Deut. xvii. 8-11, “Thou shalt
come . . . unto the judge that shall be in those
days, . . . and thou shalt do according to the sen-
tence which they . . . shall show thee; . . . thou
shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall
show thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.” This
is explained thus: Whosoever the judge of those
days may be, if he be recognized as competent and
blameless, whether he be a Jephthali, a Jerubbaal,
or a Samuel, he is, by virtue of his position as chief
of the court of justice, invested with the same author-
ity as Moses (Sifre, Deut. 153; R. II. 25 ab). Even
when they decide that left should be right, or right
left, when they are mistaken or misled in their judg-
ment, they must be obeyed (R. H. 25a). Heaven
itself yields to the authority of the earthly court of
justice as to the fixing of the calendar and the fes-
tival days (Yer. R. II. i. 575; compare also Mak.
225).

The power of the Rabbis is a threefold one : (1)
11—22

to amplify the Law either by prohibitory statutes for
the prevention of transgressions (“ gezerot ”) or by
mandatory statutes for the improve-
Powers of ment of the moral or religious life of
the Rabbis, the people (“ takkanot ”), and by the
introduction of new rites and customs
(“ miuhagim ”) ; (2) to expound the Law according to
certain rules of hermeneutics, and thereby evolve
new statutes as implied in the letter of the Law;
and, finally, (3) to impart additional instruction
based upon tradition. But the Rabbis were also
empowered on critical occasions to abrogate or mod-
ify the Law (see Abrogation of Laws and Accom-
modation of the Law). In many instances where
greater transgressions were to be prevented, or for
the sake of the glory of God, or the honor of man,
certain Mosaic laws were abrogated or temporarily
dispensed with by the Rabbis (Mishnali Ber. ix. 5,
54a, 63a; Yoma 69a; compare also Yeb. 905).

In matrimonial matters the principle adopted is
that, since marriages are, as a rule, contracted in
accordance with the rabbinical statutes, the Rabbis
have the right to annul any marriage which is not in
conformity with their ruling (Yeb. 905). In money
matters the Rabbis claimed the same right of confis-
cation in cases when their ruling was disregarded
as was exercised by Ezra (see Ezra x. 8; Git. 365).

As to the validity of the decisions of the Rabbis,
the following rules are to be considered :

“No rabbinical court [bet din] can impose laws or
institute forms of practise which the majority of
people can not without great hardship accept and
observe” (‘Ab. Zarali 36a, B. B. 605).

“No rabbinical court can abrogate laws and insti-
tutions made by any other court, unless it is superior
in both wisdom and number” (‘Eduyyot i. 5). If,
however, such a prohibitory law has
Dissenting been accepted by the entire Jewish

Rabbis. people, no rabbinical court, even
though superior to the one that intro-
duced it, has the power of abrogating it (‘Ab.
Zarali 365; Maimonides, “Yad,” Mamrim, ii. 4).
In case two rabbis, or two rabbinical courts, differ
in their opinions, the rule is that in questions con-
cerning Mosaic laws the more rigid decision should
prevail; in questions concerning rabbinical laws the
more lenient decision should be followed (‘Ab. Za-
rali 7a). “After one of rabbinical authority has
declared a thing to be unclean, no one else has the
power to declare it clean ; after one rabbinical author-
ity has forbidden a thing, no other can permit it ”
(Baraita in Nid. 205; Ber. 635). If a teacher dissents
from the decision of the highest court, he may state
his dissent and teach accordingly ; but he is not al-
lowed to oppose the authority of the court in prac-
tise, in which case he falls under the category of a
“zaken mamre” (a rebellious elder) (Deut. xvii. 12;
‘Eduyyot v. 6; B. M. 595; Yer. ‘Ab. Zarali ii. 42 d;
Ber. 63a).

As a matter of course, the Rabbinical Authority
and legislative power rested with the entire body of
the court of justice or rabbinical academy, and not
with the president or patriarch only. Still, the more
eminent the latter in knowledge and wisdom, the
better he succeeded in making his opinion or prop-
ositions prevail in the deliberation ; and so the new

Authority
Auto da Fe

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

338

measure or institution was ascribed to him, or to him
and his bet din (R. H. ii. 5-9, iv. 1-4; Yeb. 77a, and
elsewhere). At any rate, the Nasi,
Authority or patriarch, announced the decision,

of Presi- proclaimed the New Moon, and rep-
dent or resented on all official occasions the
Patriarch, whole rabbinical body as its highest
authority. The power of investing
others with Rabbinical Authority was therefore pre-
sumably his exclusive privilege. It is known that
from the beginning of the third century before the
common era, rabbinical authorization by the patri-
arch consisted in the bestowal of authority and
power (“reshut”) to teach, to judge, and to grant
permission regarding “the forbidden first-born
among animals ” (“yore yore, yadin yadin, yattir
bekorot,” Sank. 5a). But it is obvious that this is
no longer the original form of rabbinical authoriza-
tion. Far more significant and expressive of the
idea of Rabbinical Authority are the words used by
Jesus when ordaining Peter as chief apostle, or his
disciples as his successors, and undoubtedly taken
from pliarisaic usage: “I will give unto thee the
keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever
thou slialt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ;
and whatsoever thou slialt loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven” (Matt. xvi. 19, xviii. 18). This
corresponds exactly with what Josephus, or rather
his source, tells of the Pharisees in the time of Queen
Alexandra: “They were the real administrators of
the public affairs; they removed and readmitted
whom they pleased ; they bound and loosed [things]
at their pleasure” (“B. J.” i. 5, § 2). The terms
“ bind ” and “ loose ” (“ asar we-hittir ”), employed by
the Rabbis in their legal terminology, point indeed
to a sort of supernatural power claimed by the Phari-
sees for their prohibitory or permissory decrees,
probably because they could place both men and
things under the ban, or “herem.” See Binding
and Loosing.

But there are other expressions which were pre-
sumably used in the old formula of rabbinical ordi-
nation. “ Elijah,” says Johanan ben Zakkai (‘Eduy.
viii. 7), “does not come to declare as clean or un-
clean and to separate or bring nigh.” This was
indeed a very important function at the time when
the Levitical laws of purity and the questions of
family or purity of blood ruled the entire social life
of the Jews. Here the authority of the Pharisees
made and unmade men and homes; and it is to this
that Josephus ( l.c .) possibly refers in saying, “They
removed and readmitted whom they pleased.”

When with the Bar Kokba war the solemn act of
ordination ceased, Rabbinical Authority changed its
character also, inasmuch as the continuity of tradi-
tion was no longer its basis and safeguard. Hence
the greater learning became the chief source of
authority. Thus, for instance, Rab’s authority was
decisive in ritualistic questions and Samuel’s in legal
matters. From Abaye and Raba onward the latter-
day authorities were regarded as of greater weight
than the earlier ones, because they could weigh all
sides better. In the Middle Ages this attitude
changed, from lack of self-confidence, and the respect
for the former generation, which amounted to blind
adoration, grew greatly (see Aharonim). In fact,

the great lack of a central body representing Rab-
binical Authority was felt more and more, and the
attempts of Jacob Berab to reintroduce the ordina-
tion, or Semikah, failed. See Semikah.

Thus Rabbinical Authority was transferred from
the personality of the teachers to the codes of law,
until finally the Shullian ‘Aruk became its embodi-
ment, while Jewish synods in various countries
provided for temporary emergencies. Singularly
enough, the abolition of the power of excommunica-
tion, under the influence of modern times and
through the interference of the worldly govern-
ment, marks the beginning of the decline of Rab-
binical Authority in occidental Judaism; while the
derogation of the Shullian ‘Aruk in the modern life
of the Jew practically hastened the process, and led
to the convocation of rabbinical conferences, synods
and like measures. See Synods; Conferences,
Rabbinical; Rabbinism; Reform; Halakah; Or-
dination; Codification of Law; Karaism.

Bibliography: Hamburger, R. B. T. it., s. v. Ordination ,

Rabbin is mus. Synedrion , and Bidden und LOsen.

AUTO DA FE : Portuguese form of the Spanish
“auto de fe” (in French, “acte de foi,” from the
Latin “actus fidei”), the solemn proclamation and
subsequent execution of a judgment rendered by the
Court of the Inquisition on “reos, ” or persons con-
demned by it ; though in the ordinary acceptance of
the term it is applied to the carrying out of the sen-
tence only. The expression isalso erroneously, or per-
haps metaphorically, applied to the burning of books
(the Talmud, etc.) in the early Middle Ages.

The solemn proclamation was ordinarily made in a
church and on the first Sunday in Advent; because
on that day the lection from the Gospel (Luke xxi.)
deals with the last judgment. Some authorities held
that such sentences should not be publicly read in a
church because of the death-penalty connected with
many of them. Where this view was held, as in
Spain, some public place in the city was chosen
where a large estrade was erected so that a great
concourse of people could gather and witness the
ceremony; “for,” says Nicolas Ey meric (“Manuel
des Inquisiteurs,” p. 143), “it is a sight which fills
the spectators with terror and is an awful picture of
the last judgment. Such fear and such sentiments
ought to be inspired, and are fraught with the
greatest advantages.”

Some time previous to the auto a formal proclama-
tion was made before the public buildings and in the
public squares of the city, which proclamation, in
the case of the auto held at Madrid in 1680, was
worded as follows: “ The inhabitants of the town of
Madrid are hereby informed that the Holy Office of
the Inquisition of the city and kingdom of Toledo
will celebrate a general Auto da Fe on Sunday, the
30tli of June of the present year, and that all those
wdio shall in any wray contribute to the promotion
of or be present at the said auto will be made par-
takers of all the spiritual graces granted by the
Roman Pontiff.”

There were various kinds of autos: the “Auto
Publico General,” which was surrounded with much
pomp and was held in the presence of all the magis-
trates of the city, often in celebration of the birth

An Auto da Fe.

(From a painting in The National Gallery, Madrid.)

IN THE

AUTO*

PL AZA M/f

(AFTER A \

DA - FE

>R OF MAD RIO 1680

NJTING BY RICI.)

341

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Auto da Fe

was preferred as more in keeping wTith John xv. 6,
“ If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a
branch, and is withered ; and men gather them and
cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” Sim-
anoas and Roias were even of opinion that the cul
prits ought to be burned alive ; the only precaution
necessary being that their tongues be bound, or their
mouths stuffed, in order that they do not scandalize
the audience. The custom seems to have been that
the penitent were first strangled and then burned,
while the impenitent were cast into the flames alive.
It "was also held that the secular arm should not delay
too long in earrying.out sentences of the Inquisition.
Innocent IV., in his bull “ad extirpanda,” fixes five
days as the longest period of delay. In Spain it was
customary to carry out the sentence immediately
after its proclamation, which was so timed as to oc-
cur upon some feast-day, when the populace would
be at liberty to witness the burning.

The same pomp which marked the public reading
of the sentence was observed at its execution ; the
imposing procession wending its way from the
Inquisition dungeons to the “quema-
Execution dero,” the place where the scaffolds
of were erected. The dignitaries of both
Sentence. Church and state were present; and
at the auto of June 30, 1680, in Ma-
drid, which Charles II. held in honor of his newly
married bride, the king himself lighted the first brand
which set fire to the piles.

During the night preceding the carrying out of the
sentence a commission sat continuously to hear the
recantations of the prisoners, whenever they were
minded to make them. The victims were carried on
asses with escorts of soldiers, and accompanied by
priests who exhorted them to take the last chance of
becoming reconciled to the Church.

A full report — called in Spain “Relacion,” in Por-
tugal “Rela$ao” — of the auto was drawn up and
often printed for the double purpose of inciting the
faithful to greater zeal and of bringing order into
the process of the ecclesiastical court (E. N. Adler,
in “Jewish Quarterly Review,” xiii. 395). These
reports were sent not only to the central organ-
ization of the Inquisition, but to other tribunals
as well.

The earliest record of the execution of Jews at an
Auto da fe relates to that held in Troyes (L’Aube)
on Saturday, April 24, 1288. Jewish accounts of
this event are given in the Hebrew selihot (peniten-
tial poems) of Jacob ben Judah, Meier ben Eliab,
and Solomon Simlia, as well as in an old Provencal
account in verse by the aforementioned Jacob. This
execution called forth strenuous protests from Philip
le Bel (May 17, 1288), who saw in the actions of the
Holy Office an infringement of his own rights (com-
pare A. Darmesteter, in “Romania,” iii. 443 et seg. ;
idem, in “Revue Etudes Juives,” ii. 199; Salfeld,
“ Martyrologium des Ntirnberger Memorbuclies,” p.
162). We have, however, little documentary evi-
dence about the Jews of the Inquisition in countries
outside of the Spanish Peninsula. Most of the infor-
mation relating to the Inquisition in its relation to
the Jews refers to Spain and Portugal and their
colonies (see below). That Jews suffered, however,
from the tribunal in Italy may be seen from the fact

that in Venice during the sixteenth century there
were 43 persons before the Holy Office for the crime
of “ Judaismo,” and in the seventeenth, 34. Many
Jews may even be comprised under those who were
charged with “ Maomedanismo.” The Inquisition
worked its greatest havoc in Spain
Spain and and Portugal, in the Balearic Islands,
Portugal, in Spanish America (Mexico, Brazil,
Peru), in Guadelupe, and in Goa
(India). In Spain autos were held from the time
that Sixtus IV. (1480) issued a bull empowering
Catholic kings to appoint inquisitors over all here-
tics, and in Portugal since 1531, when Clement VII.
issued the bull “cum ad nihil magis,” which form-
ally established the Inquisition in Portugal (Hercu-
lano, “Estab. da Inquisi<;ao,” i. 255). The Holy
Office was established in America by letters patent
of Philip II. on Feb. 7, 1569. The Inquisition in
Venice was abolished in 1794; at Goa, in 1812. The
last auto held in Portugal was at Lisbon, Oct. 19,
1739; but as late as Aug. 1, 1826, in a short period
of reaction, an auto was celebrated at Valencia, in
which one Jew was burned alive (“ Revue Etudes
Juives,” v. 155). The Inquisition was finally abol-
ished in Spain July 15, 1834. In Peru the Holy
Office had already been abolished on March 9, 1820,
at the earliest moment after the cessation of the con-
nection with Spain.

It is impossible to tell the exact number of Jews
who met their death at the many autos da fe in
Spain and Portugal. They were usually charged
with Judaizing — a charge which might have been
made against Moriscos, or even against Christians
who were suspected of heresy. This was especially
the case with the Maranos or Neo-Christians; and
yet, from the documents already published, and from
the lists which are now accessible (see below), it is
known that many thousands must have met their
death in this way. Albert Cansino, ambassador of
Ferrara, writes on July 19, 1501: “I passed several
days at Seville, and I saw fifty-four persons burned ”
(“ Revue Etudes Juives,” xxxvii. 269). According
to Llorente, the Inquisition in Spain dealt with 341,-
021 cases and over 30,000 people were burned (see
also Kohut, in “Proceedings Am. Jew. Hist. Soc.”
iv. 109). According to another authority, during
the two hundred and fifty years that the Inquisition
existed in America, 129 autos da fe were held.

From the details given by Adler the following
numbers can be given of the Jews condemned, not
always to death, so far as known. But in many
instances, especially during the sixteenth century,
no details are given :

Fifteenth century, 1481—1500 3,881

Sixteenth " (number of “reos”) 888

Seventeenth “ 821

Eighteenth “ 878

Or in all 6,448 of whom the names and fates can
be ascertained from the “ relaciones ” of 115 out of
464 autos da fe which are known to have taken place
from 1481 to 1826.

The following list of autos da fein which it is posi-
tively known that Jews were concerned has been
selected from those held by the Inquisition; the
thousands of volumes of Inquisition reports in the
archives at Madrid, Seville, Simancas, Lisbon, etc..

Auto da Fe
Avenel

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

342

when published, will doubtless add largely to the
number. Asa basis the list drawn up by E.N. Adler
(“Jewish Quarterly Review,” xiii. 392), with the ad-
ditions made by the writer of this article (ib. xiv. 80)
and S. N. Kayserling (ib. 136), has been made use
of wherever definite details are given, showing that
Jews or Judaism were concerned in the Auto da fe.
The authorities are given in the articles mentioned.

1288, April 24, Troyes.

1459, July 8.

1481, Jan. 6, Seville.

1484, Aug. 8, Ciudad Real.

1485, March 16, Ciudad Real.
1485 and 1486 (7 different au-
tos), Guadalupe.

1487, March 14.

1487, Aug. 18.

1488, May 24, Toledo.

1488, July 30, Toledo.

1490, Feb. 11, Huesca.

1490, Valencia.

1491, July 8.

1506, Palma (Majorca).

1507, Las Palmas.

1509, Palma.

1510, Palma.

1511, Palma.

1526, Feb. 24, Las Palmas.

1541, Oct. 23, Lisbon.

1541, Evora.

1543, Porto.

1559, May 21, Valladolid.

1560, Dec. 22, Seville.

1562, March 15, Murcia.

1562, March 20, Murcia.

1574 (first auto in America),
Mexico.

1576, Toledo.

1578, Toledo.

1580, Lima.

1582, Lima.

1592, Mexico.

1598, Toledo.

1603, Aug. 3, Lisbon.

1605, March 27, Evora.

1606, March 24, Evora.

1610, Nov. 7, 8, Logrono.

1624, May 5, Lisbon.

1624, Nov. 30, Seville.

1625, Dec. 2, Cordova.

1625, Dec. 14, Seville.

1627, Feb. 28, Seville.

1627, Dec. 21, Cordova.

1627, Dec. 21, Seville.

1628, July 22, Seville.

1629, April 1, Evora.

1629, Sept. 2, Lisbon.

1634, June 29, Cuencja.

1636, June 22, Valladolid.

1639, Rio de la Plata.

1639, Jan. 23, Lima.

1642, April 2, Lisbon.

1644, April 17, Seville.

1644, Aug. 2, Valladolid.

1645, Mexico.

1647, Mexico.

1647, Dec. 22, Lisbon.

1648, March 13, Mexico.

1648, March 29, Seville.

1651, Jan. — , Toledo.

1652, Lisbon.

1654, June 29, Cuenqa.

1654, Dec. 6, Granada.

1655, March, S. Iago de Com-
postella.

1655, May 3, Cordova.

1658, Dec. 15, Porto.

1660, April 11, Seville.

1660, April 13, Seville.

1660, Oct. 17, Lisbon.

1661, Nov. 30, Toledo.

1682, Feb. 24, Cordova.

1663, May 6, Cordova.

1664, Oct. 26, Coimbra.

1665, June 29, Cordova.

1666, Toledo.

1666, June 7, Cordova.

1666, July 6, Cordova.

1667, July 9, Cordova.

1669, Cordova.

1669, Toledo ?

1670, July 20, Cordova.
1673, Coimbra.

1675, Jan. 13, Palma.

1679, April 6, Palma.

1679, April 23, Palma.

1679, April 30, Palma.

1679, May 3, Palma.

1679, May 28, Palma.

1680, June 30, Madrid.
1680, Oct. 28, Madrid.

1682, May 10, Lisbon.

1683, Lisbon.

1684, Granada.

1689, Granada.

1691, Majorca.

1691, March 7, Palma.

1691, March 11, Seville.
1691, May 1, Palma.

1691, May 6, Palma.

1691, June 2, Palma.

1699, Nov. 29, Valladolid.

1700, Seville.

1701, Aug. (two), Lisbon.
1703, Oct. 28, Seville.

1701, March 2, Coimbra.
1705, Sept. 6, Lisbon.

1705, Dec. 6, Lisbon.

1706, July 25, Evora.

1706, Dec. 31, Valladolid.

1707, June 30, Lisbon.

1713, July 9, Lisbon.

1718, April 4, Cordova.
1718, June 17, Coimbra.
1718, June 29, Seville.

1721, May 18, Madrid.

1721, May 18, Seville.

1721, Sept. 15, Palma.

1721, Nov. 30, Granada.

1721, Dec. 14, Seville.

1722, Fel). 22, Madrid.

1722, Feb. 24, Seville.

1722, March 15, Toledo.
1722, April 12, Cordova.
1722, May 17, Murcia.

1722, May 31, Palma.

1722, June 29, Cuenca.
1722, July 5, Seville.

1722, Nov. 22, Cuemja.
1722, Nov. 30, Seville.

1722, Nov. 30, Llerena.

1723, Jan. 31, Seville.

1723, Feb. 24, Valencia.
1723, March 14, Coimbra.
1723, March 31, Granada.
1723, March 31, Barcelona.
1723, May 9, Cuentja.

1723, May 13, Murcia.

1723, June 6, Seville.

1723, June 6, Valladolid.
1723, June 6, Saragossa.
1723, June 13, Cordova.
1723. June 20, Granada.
1723, Oct. 10, Lisbon.

1723, Oct. 24, Granada.

1723, July 26, Llerena.

1724, Feb. 20, Madrid.

1724, March 12, Valladolid.
1724, April 2, Valencia.
1724, April 23, Cordova.
1724, June 11, Seville.

1724, June 25, Granada.
1724, July 2, Cordova.

1724, July 2, Palma.

1724, July 23, Cuem;a.

1724, Nov. 30, Murcia.

1724, Dec. 21, Seville.

1725, Jan. 14, Cuenca.

1725, Feb. 4, Llerena.

1725, March 4, Cuenca.
1725, May 13, Granada.
1725, July 1, Toledo.

1725, July 1, Valencia.

1725, July 8, Valladolid.
1725, Aug. 24, Granada.
1725, Aug. 26, Llerena.
1725, Sept. 9, Barcelona.
1725, Oct. 21, Murcia.

1725, Nov. 30, Seville.

1725, Dec. 16, Granada.

1726, March 31, Valladolid.
1726, March 31, Murcia.
1726, May 12, Cordova.
1726, Aug. 18, Granada.
1726, Sept. 1, Barcelona.
1726, Sept. 17, Valencia.

1726, Oct. 13, Lisbon.

1727, Jan. 26, Valladolid.

1728, May 9, Granada.

1728, May 15, Cordova.

1730, May 3, Cordova.

1731, March 4, Cordova.
1736, Dec. 23, Lima.

1738, March 21, Toledo.

1739, Sept. 1, Lisbon.

1739, Oct. 18, Lisbon.

1745, June 15, Valladolid.
1745, Dec. 5, Cordova.

1781, Seville.

1799, Aug. 26, Seville.

1826, Aug. 1, Valencia.

Several paintings of autos da fe are in existence.
Two of these are in the National Gallery at Madrid.
The older, attributed to Berruguete (fifteenth cen-
tury), depicts one over which San Domingo de Guz-
man presided, and represents the actual burning at
the stake. The other pictures the celebrated auto
held at Madrid in 1680 before Charles II. , his wife,
and his mother. Of this a “ relacion ” was published
by Joseph del Olmo (Madrid, 1680, 1820). An ab-
stract iu German was published by Kayserling, “Ein
Feiertag in Madrid,” and another in English by J.
Rivas Puigcerner, in “Menorali Monthly,” xxx. 72.
A painting of an Auto da fe by Robert Fleury was
exhibited in the Paris Salon in 1845. See also Inqui-
sition.

Bibliography: As regards the authority and procedure, see
Bernard Guidonis, Practica Irrquisitionis, ed. Donais, Paris,
1886 ; Nicolas Eymeric, Directorium Inquisitorum , composed
in 1358, of which an abstract was published with the title Le
Manuel des Inquteiteurs . . . d'Espagne el rle Portugal.
Lisbon, 1762; Henner. Bt itrtige z. Organ ismus undz. Kom-
petenz der Ptipstl. Ketzergeri elite, Leipsie, 1890; Molinier,
L' Inquisition dans le Midi de la France, au Treizieme et
au Quatorzieme Sieele, Paris, 1880; Sachsse, Ein Ketzer-
gericht, Berlin, 1891; and the general histories of the Inqui-
sition by Llorente Paramo, Limborch, and Lea (Philadelphia,
1890; French transl. by S. Reinach, Paris, 1900); Pierre Zac-
cone, Histoire de V Inquisition (ill.), Paris, 1852. The vari-
ous proclamations used in connection with the auto will be
found in full in Pablo Garcia, Ordcn que Comunmente se
Guarda en el Santo Oflci <>, Madrid, 1622; Cordova, 1843;
compare, also, Gratz, Gescli. der Juden, passim ; Kayser-
ling, Sephardim, pp. 94 et seq.; idem, Gcsch. der Juden in
Spanien urul Portugal, i. 178 et seq.; Herculano, Historia
da Origern e Estaheleeimento da Inquisiq&o em Portugal,
Lisbon, 1897 ; Carlos Josd de Menezes, A Inquisiqdn em
Portugal (ill.), Porto, 1893; J. T. Betts, A Glance at the
Italian Inquisition (ill.), London, 1885; Van der Aa. Be-
schryv ing van Spanienen Portugal (ill.), Leyden, 1707 : and
especially the authorities cited by E. N. Adler, Auto da Fe
and Je w, in Jewish Quarterly Review, xiii. 392-437 ; R.
Gottheil, Gleanings from Spanish and Portuguese Archives,
ib. xiv. 80 ; Kayserling, Autos da, Fe anil Jews, ib. 136. De-
scriptions of autos da fe will also be found in Kayserling, Ein
Feiertag in Madrid, Berlin, 1859; [Claude Dellon] Relation
de V Inquisition de Goa, Paris, 1688 (English transl., The
History of the Inquisition . . . at Goa, London, 1688);
Kohut, Martyrs of the Inquisition in South Amer ica, in
Publications American Jewish Historical Society, iv. 101
et seq.; Fergusson, Trial of Gabriel de Granada, ib. vii.;
Leonard Gallois, Hist. Abregee de V Inquisition d'Espagne.
i. 108, Brussels, 1823. Compare, also, the literature at the
head of the article Inquisition, in Herzog-Plitt, Real-Encycl.
f ilr Protest. Theologie, ix. 152.

ATJXERRE : Chief city of the department of
Yonne, France. Since the eleventh century an im-
portant community of Jews existed here and was pre-
sided over by eminent rabbis. These rabbis, known

343

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Auto da F6
Avenel

as “the sages of Auxerre,” were in correspondence
with Raslii (Geiger, “Melo Hofnayim,” quoted hy
Gross, “Gallia Judaica,” p. Cl). Several of the
sages of Auxerre took part in the proceedings of the
synod convened by Rabbenu Tam and Raslibam in
Troyes about the middle of the twelfth century ; and
one of them, Samuel ben Jacob, was a signatory to
the decisions. At this time Auxerre had a Talmudic
school, over which Hezekiah presided, a rabbi whom
Gross identifies as the savant of that name mentioned
in one of R. Tam’s letters (op. cit. p. 61).

The Jews were always treated kindly at Auxerre.
From a letter written by Pope Innocent III. to the
bishop of Auxerre, it is shown that they enjoyed
the right to own farms, fields, and vineyards, for
which they paid tithes to the clergy. But in 1208,
emboldened no doubt by the protection granted
them by the lord of the manor, the Jews refused to
continue to pay the tithes. The bishop, having no
other alternative, brought his grievance before the
pope, who in turn could do no more than command
all Christians, under penalty of excommunication, to
avoid intercourse with the Jews until the demands
of the clergy were satisfied (“Innocentis Epistoke,”
vol. ii. , book x., ep. lxii. , Paris, 1682).

There is preserved in the municipal archives of
Dijon a document, dated 1323, which relates to the
confiscation of a house which belonged to a certain
Jew of Auxerre, named Heliot (Gerson, “Essai sur
les Juifsde la Bourgogne,” p. 35). In 1379 a certain
number of privileges were granted to the citizens of
Auxerre by the Countess Mahand and Count John of
Chalons. Of these privileges, many of which rela-
ted especially to the Jews, the eighteenth runs as
follows:

“ The Jews of the countess are permitted to lend money to
the citizens at the rate of threepence in the pound per week
upon indentures passed under her seal or executed in the pres-
ence of two citizens, said interest not to continue for more than
one year.” (“ Ordonnances des Rois de France,” vi. 417.)

By the royal edict of Sept. 17, 1394, all Jews were
expelled from France; and since that date there has
been no Jewish community in Auxerre.

BiBMOGRAPriv : Innocent III., Epistolre, vol. ii.. hook x., op.
lxii., Paris, 1682 ; Geiger, Scpher Melo Hof nayim , Hebrew
part, p. 33, Berlin, 1840; Gratz, Oesch. der Jude n, vi. 215;
compare Gross, Gallia Judaica , pp. 61, 232-233; Carmoly,
1 tineravres de la Terre-Sainte de s XTIL-XV1F Siecles , i>.
187, Brussels, 1847 ; Gerson, Essai sur les Juifs de la Bour-
gogne, p. 35, Dijon, 1893 ; Ordonnances des Rois de France,
vi. 417, Paris, 1723-1849.

D. S. K.

AVE-LALLEMENT, FREDERICK CHRIS-
TIAN BENEDICT : Noted criminologist ; born
in Liibeck May 23, 1809; died there July 20, 1892.
In his standard work, “Das Deutsche Gaunertum,”
Leipsic, 1858-62, he devotes a chapter to the Jews,
in which he expresses views unfavorable to their
morality. In the protracted struggle of the Jews of
Liibeck for emancipation, Ave-Lallement ranged
himself with their opponents. He claimed that the
Jew had been a dangerous element in the economic
development of the world, ever since the time of the
Patriarchs. His nomadic nature and his commer-
cialism prevented him from achieving anything tan-
gible, even in those branches of science for which
he showed decided talent. His articles appeared in

the “Neue Ltibeckische Blatter” for 1841 and in the
“Volksbote” for 1850. They were answered by
Gabriel Riesser.

Bibliography: S. Carlebach, Gesch. der Juden in Liibeck
und Moisling , n. d., passim ; Hebr. Bibl.
s. D.

AVEN : 1. One of several Egyptian cities threat-
ened with God’s vengeance (Ezek. xxx. 17). The
name is evidently a corruption or an intentional
vowel-change of “On” (Gen. xli. 45), which is thus
made to signify “ vanity.” The Septuagint renders it
“ Heliopolis.” 2. In Hosea x. 8 (“ the high places also
of Aven”), “ Aven ” probably stands for Beth-aven
(Hosea x. 5), by which name Beth-el is intended.
Some scholars, however (G. A. Smith, “The Twelve
Prophets,” for example), are inclined to regard Aven
as a term for “ false worship,” and render the phrase
“high places of idolatry.” 3. The “plain of Avon”
(R. V. “valley of Aven ”), mentioned in Amos i. 5,
applies to the valley of Coele-Syria, between Leba-
non and Anti-Libanus, noted for the idolatrous wor-
ship of the sun at the temple of Baalbek. The
valley is now called “ Beka’a ” (Baedeker-Sociu,
“Palestine,” p. 447).

j. JR. G. B. L.

AVENEL, GEORGES: French author; born
at Chaumont-en-Vexin, department of the Oise,
France, Dec. 31, 1828; died at Bougival July 1,
1876. He was a brother of Paul Avenel. Avenel
devoted the greater part of his life to a study of the
French Revolution. In 1865 he published his first
book, “Anacliarsis Clootz, l’Orateur du Genre Hu-
main, ” after which he plunged with renewed energy
into historical research. The outcome of several
years of continuous study was the publication of
“Lundis Revolutionnaires,” Paris, 1875, a collection
of essays representing only a portion of his extensive
researches. He died before he could finish the sec-
ond series of his “Lundis,” which was in process of
preparation, and in which the biography of Pache
was to occupy an important place. Of the first
series, one chapter has been published separately
under the title, “La Vraie Marie Antoinette, d’apres
la Correspondence Secrete,” Paris, 1876. Avenel also
edited an improved and popular edition of the com-
plete works of Voltaire, generally known as the
“edition du si&cle,” 9 vols., in 1867-70.

Bibliography: La Grande Encyclopedic, s.v.; Vapereau,
Dictionnaire Universel des Contemporains, Paris, 1893.
s. A. S. C.

AVENEL, HENRI MAYER: French author ;
born in Paris, March 7, 1853. He is an adopted son
of Paul Avenel. He began his career by editing
“ L’fivenement,” the daily political Parisian paper,
and several departmental newspapers. In 1888 he
took charge of the “ Anuuaire de la Presse Franchise,”
founded by Emile Mermet in 1880, and improved it
in many ways, especially by the addition of a polit-
ical department.

Avenel is the author of “ Chansons et Chansonniers”
(Paris, 1889), a history of song in all ages; “La
Loterie: Historique Critique de 1’ Organisation Ac-
tuelle; Projet de Reorganisation”; “L’Ameriquc
Latine ” (Paris, 1890), with an interesting introduc-

Avenel

Avenger

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

344

tion “on the present state and future prospects of
French commerce in America.”

Bibliography : Dictinnnaires Departementaux ( Departe -
ment de I'Oise)-, Vapereau, Dictionnaire Universcl des
Contemporains , Paris, 1893, s.v.

S. A. S. C.

AVENEL, PAUL: French author; born at
Cliaumont-en-Vexin, department of the Oise, France,
Oct. 9, 1823. After a brief course in medicine at the
University of Paris, he, in 1850, abandoned his stud-
ies to devote himself exclusively to literature. Be-
ginning as journalist, he became successively poet,
novelist, and dramatic author.

Among Avenel’s dramatic works, which number
more than fifty, are: “Les Chasseurs de Pigeons,”
farce-comedy in three acts, produced at the Folies
Dramatiques in 1860 ; “ La Paysanne des Abruzzes, ”
drama in five acts, written in collaboration with II.
de Charlieu and produced at the Theatre Beaumar-
chais in 1861; “Sayezdonc Concierge,” farce-com-
edy, produced at the Folies Dramatiques in 1861 ;
“ Un Homme sur le Gril,” farce-comedy, produced
at the Theatre des Varietes; “L’Homme a la Four-
chette,” one-act comedy, 1874; “Les Plaisirs du Di-
manche,” comedy in five acts; “Le Saint Pierre,”
drama in fiveacts; “ Mimi-Chiflon,” comedy in four
acts ; “ Le Beau Marechal ” ; “ Le Pave d’Or,” and the
lyric comedy, “L’Anticliambre en Amour.”

Of A venel’s novels and short stories the following
are noteworthy: “Le Coin de Feu,” 1849; “Les Ta-
blettesd’un Fou, ou le Voyage EntreDeux Mondes,”
1852, and “Les Etudiants de Paris,” reminiscences
of the Latin Quarter; “Le Roi de Paris,” 1860; “Le
Due des Moines,” 1864, and “Les Lipans, ou les Bri-
gands Normands,” 1868, three historical novels of the
time of the League; “Les Prussiens a Bougival,” a
collection of stories of the Franco-Prussian war;
“Une Amie Devouee, Mceurs Parisiennes,” 1884, a
Parisian novel; “Le Docteur Hatt,” a novel of a
philosophical character, 1887; and “Les Calicots,”
scenes of real life, first published as a novel in 1866,
and afterward dramatized.

As an author of poems and verse, Paul Avenel
has published “Chansons de Paul Avenel,” 1875;
“Chants et Chansons Politiques,” 1869-72 — in the
8th edition, 1889, figure the most prominent polit-
ical occurrences from 1848 to 1860; “Alcove et Bou-
doir,” a collection of verses, 1855, which was at
once suppressed by the French courts. Thirty years
later Quantin published an edition de luxe of the
condemned verses.

Avenel is a member of the following societies:
Societe des Gens de Lettres; Societe des Auteurs
Dramatiques; Societe des Auteurs, Compositeurs, et
Editeurs de Musique, of which he was president
from 1878 to 1881 ; and Lice Chansonniere, over which
he presided from 1892 to 1894. He is also an honorary
member of the Caveau Seplianois, at Saint Etienne.

Bibliography : Dictionnaire s Departementaux ( Departe-
ment de VOise) ; La Grande Encyclopedic, s.v.; Vapereau,
Dictionnaire Universel des Contempora ins,, Paris. 1893;
Gubernatis, Dictionnaire International des Ecrivains du
Jour, Florence, 1888-91.

8. A. S. C.

AVENGER OF BLOOD.— Biblical Data:

(Hebrew “ go’el ”) : The Hebrew name for the clans-
man, “next of kin,” upon whom devolved the

duties: (1) of avenging, on the person of the mur-
derer, the blood of a murdered kinsman— in this
capacity the more specific term “ go’el ha-dam ”
(blood-avenger) was generally used — and (2) of re-
deeming the property or the person of a relative
that had fallen into debt.

(1) Among primitive peoples of low political devel-
opment— such as the ancient Greeks, Germans, and
Slavs, some North American tribes, the modern
Sicilians, Corsicans, and Arabs — the clan or family
had to assume the right to protect

Among itself. One of the most important
Primitive clan duties then was plainly for the

Peoples, nearest of kin to hunt down and carry
out the death-penalty on a person that
had slain a member of the sept or family. That this
idea of family retribution — which even to-day is by
no means extinct in some comparatively civilized
communities — was also current among the ancient
Hebrews maybe seen from Gen. xxvii. 45, where the
existence of the custom is clearly taken for granted.
It appears, furthermore, from Josh. vii. 24, and II
Kings ix. 26, that, in the most primitive period, such
a vendetta was extended to the entire family of the
murderer, as is still the custom among the desert
Bedouins. The Hebrew religious justification for
the system of family blood-revenge was undoubtedly
the firm belief that God, in order to insure the sacred-
nc-ss of human life, had Himself fixed the death-
penalty for murder (Gen. ix. 5 et seq. ; Lev. xxiv.

17) . In the earliest times blood-money was not
accepted either for murder or for excusable homi-
cide. Such a payment would have made the land
“ polluted by blood ” (Num. xxxv. 31 et seq.). Una
venged blood “ cried out ” for vengeance to God (Gen.
iv. 10; Isa. xxvi. 21; Ezek. xxiv. 7 et seq. ; Job xvi.

18) . The Avenger of Blood, then, was regarded as
the representative, not only of the murdered man’s
family, but of Yhwh Himself, who was the highest
avenger (Ps. ix. 13 [A. V. 12]).

Such a stern system, however, could not, of
course, survive unmodified after the community had
begun to advance from the purely savage state.
Abuses of the privilege of blood-revenge must have
soon become evident to the tribal chiefs, as one finds
in Ex. xxi. 12 (compare Gen. ix. 6) that the com-
monly accepted formula that a life must be given
for a life is modified by a careful legal
Modifica- distinction between toilful murder and
tion of the accidental manslaughter. In order to

System, establish a case of wilful murder, it
* must be shown that weapons or imple-
ments commonly devoted to slaughter were used,
and that a personal hatred existed between the slayer
and his victim (Ex. xxi. 12; compare Num. xxxv.
16; and Deut. xix. 4). The law enumerates three
exceptions to this general principle: (a) The slaying
of a thief caught at night in flagrante delicto is not
punishable at all ; but if he is captured by day there
is blood-guilt which, however, is not liable to the
blood-revenge (Ex. xxii. et seq.). ( b ) If a bull gored
a human being to death, the punishment was visited
upon the animal, which was killed by stoning. Its
flesh in such a case might not be eaten. If gross
contributory negligence could be proved on the part
of the animal’s owner, he was liable only for blood-

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Avenger

money (Ex. xxi. 28). ( c ) Where the master kills his

slave, the offense is punishable only when the latter
tlies at once, and then probably not by the death-
penalty, as some of the rabbinical writers thought
(Ex. xxi. 23).

The later codes develop at some length the very-
just distinction between wilful murder and acciden-
tal homicide (see Murder). Six Cities of Refuge
were appointed for the purpose of
Six Cities affording an asylum to the homicide,
of Refuge, where lie might be secure from the
hand of the avenger (Deut. xix. 12)
until the elders of the community of wdiich the
accused was a member should decide whether the
murder was intentional or accidental (Num. xxxv.
9-34; Deut. xix. 1-13; Josh. xx.). According to
the later procedure, at least two witnesses were nec-
essary to establish a case of wilful murder (Num.
xxxv. 30; Deut. xix. 15). In case, however, it was
not possible to apprehend the murderer or manslayer,
the adjudication might take place and a verdict be
rendered in his absence.

It appears from Josh. xx. 4 that the elders of the
city of refuge chosen by the slayer had the right to
decide as to whether he should be permitted to have
a temporary asylum or not. If the case were sim-
ply- one of unintentional manslaughter the slayer
was immediately accorded the right of asylum in the
city of refuge, where he had to remain until the
death of the reigning high priest (Num. xxxv. 25),
whose death, in ancient Hebrew law, marked the end
of a legal period of limitation (Num. xxxv.; Deut,
xix. ; Josh. xx.). If the “ go’el ha-dam ” were to find
the slay-er of his kinsman outside the limits of the
city- of refuge, he had the right to kill him at sight.

In a case in which the verdict against the slayer
was one of wilful murder, the murderer incurred the
blood-revenge without any restrictions. If he were
already in a city of refuge, the elders
The Family of his own city were obliged to fetch
Exe- him thence by force if necessary-,

cutioner. and to deliver him formally to the
Avenger of Blood, who thus became
little more than a family executioner (Deut. xix. 11
et seq.).

Tw-o very important restrictions should here be
noticed : («) Although the entire family or gens to
which the murdered man belonged were theoretically
entitled to demand the blood-revenge (II Sam. xiv.
7), still, in the practise of later times, only one mem-
ber— for example, the next of kin, who was also le-
gal heir — might assume the duty of carrying it out.
According to the later Jewish tradition, when there
was ho heir, the court had the right to assume the
position of the “ go’el. ” (b) The law expressly states

that the blood-revenge was applicable only to the
person of the guilty man and not to the members of
his family as well (Deut. xxiv. 16; compare II
Kings xiv. 6). This is a most significant advance on
the primitive savage custom that involved two
gentes in a ceaseless feud. Anent this advance, it is
interesting to note that, in the time of the kings, the
king himself, as the highest judicial authority, was
entitled to control the course of the blood-revenge
(II Sam. xiv. 8 et seq.).

It is difficult to decide exactly how long the

custom of blood-revenge by the “go’el ” remained in
vogue among the Hebrews. According to II Chron.
xix. 10; Deut, xvii. 8, the law of Jehoshaphat
demanded that all intricate legal cases should come
before the new court of justice at Jerusalem. It is
not probable, however, that this regulation curtailed
the rights of the “go’el ha-dam,” which must have
continued in force as long as there was an inde-
pendent Israelitish state. Of course, under the Ro-
mans, the right of blood revenge had ceased (John
xviii. 31).

(2) As indicated above, the term “go’el” had also
a secondary meaning. From the idea of one carry-
ing out the sentence of justice in the case of blood-
shed, the word came to denote the
The kinsman whose duty it was to redeem
Redeemer the property and person of a relative
of His who, having fallen into debt, was
Kinsmen, compelled to sell either his land or him-
self as a slave to satisfy- his creditors
(compare Lev. xxv. 25, 47-49). It would appear
from Jer. xxxii. 8-12 that the “go’el ” had the right
to the refusal of such property before it was put up
for public sale, ami also the right to redeem it after
it had been sold (see Ruth).

From the Book of Ruth (iv. 5) it would appear
that the duty of the nearest of kin to marry the
widow of his relative in case of the latter’s dying
without issue was included in the obligations resting
upon the “go’el”; but inasmuch as the term is not
used in the passage in Deut. (xxv. 8-10) in which
this institution is referred to— the obligation resting
upon the brother to marry his deceased brother’s
widow — the testimony of so late a production as
Ruth can not be pressed. The usage in the book
may not be legally accurate.

From this idea of the human “ go’el ” as a redeemer
of his kinsmen in their troubles, there are to be
found many allusions to Yhwii as the Divine Go’el,
redeeming His people from their woes (compare Ex.
vi. 6, xv. 13; Ps. lxxiv. 2), and of the people them-
selves becoming the “redeemed " ones of Yhwii (Ps.
evii. 2; Isa. Ixii. 12). The reference to God as the
“ go’el ” and as the one who would “ redeem ” His
people was applicable to the relationship between
Yhwii and Israel in the exilic period, when the peo-
ple actually looked to their God to restore their land
for them, as the impoverished individual looked to
his kinsman to secure a restoration of his patrimony.
Hence, of thirty-three passages in which “go’el ” (as
a noun or verb) is applied to God, nineteen occur in
the exilic (and post-exilic) sections of Isaiah — the
preacher par excellence of “restoration” — for exam-
ple, in xlviii. 20, xlix. 26, lii. 9. Ixii. 12, etc. See
Asylum; Cities of Refuge; Job; Murder.

Bibliography: A. H. Post, Studien zur Entwicklv.ngs-
geschichte des Fnmilienrechts , 1890, pp. 113-137; W. R.
Smith, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, pp. 22 et
seq., 38, 47, 52 et seq.; idem. Religion of the Semites, 2d ed„
pp. 32 et seq., 272 et seq., 420; Nowaek, Lehrhueh der Helir.
Archtlologie. i.. ch. ii.. 1894; Kohler, Zur Lchre rop der
Blutrache, 1885; Bissell, The Law of Asylum m Israel ,
1884; J astro w. Avenger, Kinsman, and Redeemer in the
O. T., in The Independent, Aug. 27, 1896; Benzinger, Ho-
brtlische Archtlologie, p. 335.

J. JR. j. D. P.

In Rabbinical Literature : Several primitive

social regulations touching the rights of the blood-
relation, the “ go’el lia-dam ” (Avenger of Blood), are

Aveag-er

Averroism

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

346

acknowledged by the Biblical law (Num. xxxv. 19
et seq.-, Deut. xix. 12); although, according to the
higher conception of the Bible, a murder is not so
much a crime against the individual as against the
community. This conception is carried still further
by the rabbinical law, under which the avenging
relative has no rights left. The hunting down of a
murderer is no longer the business of the avenger,
but of the state; accordingly, whether there is any
relative or not, whether the relative lodges com-
plaint or not, the state must prosecute the murderer
(Sifre, Num. 160 on xxv. 19; Deut. 181). Every
murderer, or one who had committed manslaughter,
tied to one of the cities of refuge before his case was
investigated; and there he was secure from any
attack on the part of the avenger, who was forbid-
den, under penalty of death, to assail such a fugi-
tive in his asylum (Mishnah Malt. ii. 6; Sifre, Num.
160 on xxv. 25). It was obligatory upon the court
of justice to arrest the fugitive there, bring him to
court, try him, and, if found guilty, to execute him.
If it was proved that the death was a case of care-
lessness and not of intentional murder, he was sent
back to the city of refuge in care of armed officers of
the court, so as to protect him from the avenger
(Mishnah Mak. ii. 5, 6). Should he leave his place
of refuge, the avenger had, according to R. ‘Akiba,
the right — and, according to R. Jose the Galilean,
the duty — to slay him, but only when the fugitive
had voluntarily left his retreat (ib. 7). But even here
it is evident that the avenger enjoyed no peculiar
prerogative; for, should the fugitive be slain by a
disinterested party, the latter was not held account-
able (ib. ; for the correct reading of this passage
compare Rabbinowicz, “Variae Lectiones,” on the
passage). One teacher, however, goes so far as to
maintain that neither the avenger nor, still less, a
third party can be permitted to take the man’s life,
should he have left his asylum (Tosef., Mak. ii. 7;
Gemara ib. 12a).

All these details, however, are hardly to be con-
sidered as ever having been matters of actual
enforcement; for, although it is highly probable that
rabbinical tradition contained much concerning the
cities of refuge which existed during the second
Temple (see Asylum in Rabbinical Literature),
the regulations concerning the Avenger of Blood are
rather of an academic nature and are scarcely drawn
from actual life.

k. L. G.

AVERROES, or ABUL WALID MUHAM-
MED IBN AHMAD IBN ROSHD : Arabian
philosopher of the twelfth century ; born at Cordova
in 1126; died in 1198. Although himself a prolific
writer on philosophy and medicine, his chief impor-
tance is as a commentator upon the works of Aris-
totle, and for this reason he is often styled “the
commentator par excellence.” Like Avicenna, who
also commented Aristotle, Averroes wrote an origi-
nal compendium of philosophy of his author, and, in
addition to this, wrote the so-called “ Middle Com-
mentaries,” which latter follow the text, with, how-
ever, the omission of passages here and there ; and
finally he made a full and copious exposition of every
Aristotelian statement, incorporating the sentence
indistinguishably with his text. His reputation was

so great that his books found their way during his
lifetime even into Egypt, where, in 1190, Maimon-
ides made their acquaintance. As a
Jewish matter of course, Averroes’ views fre-
Preserva- quently conflicted with those of his Mo-
tion of His hammedan coreligionists, and his works
Writings, were therefore extensively condemned
and prohibited. It is owing to his Jew-
ish admirers that his writings are preserved to-day,
for only in the shape of Hebrew translations or by a
transliteration of the Arabic text in Hebrew charac-
ters did they escaped the fanaticism of the Moors.

As to the relation between Averroes and Maimon-
ides, which has frequently been misconceived, it is
quite certain that Maimonides can not be called a
disciple of Averroes, nor Averroes a pupil of Mai-
monides. The latter read Averroes’ writings far
too late to permit of his having used them in his own
works. Both, it is true, coincide on many points.
Both are strong Aristotelians and energetically op-
posed to the teachings of the Motakallemin concern-
ing atoms and the non-existence of natural laws.
Both deny to the Deity the possession of “ attributes. ”
Their theories of the intellect are identical, and both
take the same position as regards the relation of faith
and knowledge. It has yet to be determined whether
these striking resemblances are not founded upon
some third or common source not yet discovered.

In a letter to his favorite pupil, Joseph b. Judah
Aknin, dated Cairo, 1190, Maimonides writes: “I
have recently received Ibn Roshd’s
Relation work upon Aristotle, besides the book,
to Mai- ‘ De Sensu et Sensito ’ ; and I have read
monides. enough to perceive that he has hit the
truth with great precision ; but I lack
the leisure now to make a study of it.” A passage
in a letter to Samuel Tibbon, 1199, in which he rec-
ommends Averroes’ commentaries, is not quite clear.

Less known than his commentaries upon Aristotle
are Averroes’ own original writings, although they
have left indubitable traces upon Jewish thought.
His essay on “ The Relation of Faith to Knowledge ”
(published by Joseph Midler with German transla-
tion, Munich, 1875) seems to have inspired Shem-Tob
Falaquera to write his “Iggeret Havikkuali.” It is
extant in an anonymous Hebrew translation dated
1340, as is also another work of Averroes of similar
tendency, “ The Book of the Revelation of the Method
of Proof Touching the Principles of Religion ” ; both
works were familiar to Kalonymus ben Kalonymus
and Simon Duran in 1423. Better known than these
is his reply to Gazzali’s book, “A Confutation of
Philosophers,” Averroes calling his “A Confutation
of the Confutation.” Kalonymus, son of David b.

Todros, translated this book into He-
Original brew in 1328; and there is also another
Works. translation by an unknown author.

Kalonymus gives a curious reason for
his undertaking. Knowing that Averroes is justly
condemned as a denier of God, lie protests that he
translates it only because it contains in its text the
whole work of Gazzali, who defended religion ; had
he been able to procure Gazzali’s book, he would not
have undertaken the ungrateful task or translated a
single word of Averroes’ specious argumentation.
Kalonymus’ translation was rendered into Latin by

347

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Avenger

Averroism

a Neapolitan physician, also named Kalonymus ben
David, and published in Venice, 1527.

This “ Confutation ” contains a few contradictions
of statements made elsewhere by him, but such in-
consistencies are by no means infrequent in other
writings of Averroes. The change of views thus
evidenced gave rise to the legend that Averroes had
embraced Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedan-
ism in succession, and that he wrote the notorious
work, “De Tribus Impostoribus.” In similar strain
is the assertion by a writer of the seventeenth cen-
tury, that the “ Confutation of the Confutation ” was
actually written by Gazzali himself, who thus se-
cretly furnished a defense against his own attacks
upon philosophy, these attacks having been pre-
pared at the command of a fanatical king. Be all
this as it may, Averroes’ importance as a philosopher
was universally acknowledged by Jewish thinkers.
Not even his opinions antagonistic to Judaism could
prevent their admiration of his genius.

Admired When, however, Averroes fiercely as-
in Jewish sailed Avicenna, Jewish authors are

Circles. sometimes found to side with the latter
as being nearer to Judaism; and Has-
dai Crescas, who mournfully notes the havoc wrought
in Jewish circles by philosophy through laxity of
observance, vehemently denounces both Aristotle
and his commentator Averroes. Crescas must, how-
ever, have been blinded by his zeal when he terms
Averroes a mere chatterer. Levi ben Gerson and
Moses Narboni may with all propriety be called fol-
lowers of Averroes; for with them, too, the claims
of the peripatetic philosophy as formulated by him
seem to be rated higher than the claims of revelation.
But Averroes’ absolute sovereignty in the fourteenth
century was soon followed by his decline. Plato-
nism displaced Aristotelianism, and with the latter
vanished all traces of Averroism.

k. A. Lo.

AVERROISM : Averroes, like his contemporary
Maimonides, was a strict Peripatetic; yet they dif-
fered greatly in matters of faith. While Maimon-
ides, with all his admiration for Aristotle, dared to
contradict his theories, or at least sought to attenu-
ate them when they were in direct opposition to re-
ligion, Averroes indorsed them to their utmost ex-
tent, and seemed even to take pleasure in emphasizing
them. “ God,” says Averroes, “ has declared a truth
for all men that requires for understanding no in-
tellectual superiority; in a language that can be
interpreted by every human soul according to its
capability and temper. The expositors of religious
metaphysics are therefore theenemies of true religion,
because they made it a matter of syllogism ” (J. Mul-
ler, “ Philosophic und Tlieologie, ” including the Ara-
bic text, pp. 104 et seq.). In expounding what he
thought to be the doctrines of Aristotle, it made no
difference to Averroes whether they were or were not
in harmony with those taught by the Koran. Thus
Averroes asserts again and again the eternity of the
universe; although, as Maimonides demonstrated in
his “Guide” (ii. 28, 121-127), Aristotle himself is
not very decisive on this point. Averroes goes still
further and declares that not only is matter eternal,
but that form even is potentially existent, other-
wise there would be creation ex nihilo (“De Ccelo et

Muudo,” p. 197). Maimonides advocates man’s ab-
solute free-will, but Averroes restricted that free-
dom. “Our soul,” says the latter, “ can have prefer-
ences indeed, but its acts are limited by the fatality
of exterior circumstances; for if its deeds were the
production of its will alone, they would be a crea-
tion independent of the first cause, or God ” (Joseph
Muller, ib. Arabic text, p. 110). Maimonides, like
Avicenna, places the existence of all creatures in the
category of the possible-, that of God, in that of the
necessary (“ Moreh,” ii., Introduction, propositions 19
and 20). Averroes combats Avicenna’s classification
for the simple reason that, every being having a
cause, its existence is necessary (“ Destructio De-
structionis” at the end of the “Disputatio,” x.).

However, it was due to Maimonides that the phi-
losophy of Averroes found admirers during four cen-
turies among the Jews, who by their translations
and commentaries preserved his writings from
destruction and transmitted them to the Christian
world.

But if Averroes owed the preservation of his wri-
tings to the Jews, Jewish literature, in its turn, is
indebted to him, directly and indirectly, for many
valuable contributions. In addition to the transla-
tions of Averroes’ works and commentaries on them
— which in themselves form a fairly large library —
the thirteenth, fourteenth, and sixteenth centuries
witnessed the production of numerous essays and
treatises inspired by Averroism. The first to intro-
duce his philosophy to Jewish literature was Samuel
ibn Tibbon, the same who translated Maimonides’
“Moreh.” Tibbon published, at the beginning of
the thirteenth century, an “ Encyclopedia of Philos-
ophy,” which frequently is nothing but literal ex-
tracts from Averroes, whom the author declares to
■ be the most reliable interpreter of Aris-
First totle. A little later, 1232, appeared

Transla- the first real translation, by Jacob ben
tors. Abba Mari Anatoli, a son-in-law of
Ibn Tibbon. He was a Provencal, liv-
ing in Naples, and engaged by Frederick II. to pop-
ularize Arabian science. In 1260, Moses ibn Tibbon
translated nearly the whole of the Short Commen-
tary. About the same time, Solomon ben Joseph
ben Job, originally from Granada, but living in
Beziers, translated of the Short Commentary that
on Aristotle’s treatise, “De Ccelo et Mundo,” under
the title of D^iym D’OtyiT In 1284, Zerahia ben
Isaac of Barcelona translated of the Middle Com-
mentaries that on Aristotle’s “Physics,” as well as
Averroes’ treatises, “ De Ccelo et Mundo ” and “ Meta-
physics.” The same Anatoli translated in 1298 Aver-
roes’ “Abridgment of Logic,” under the title of
~nvp JVjn ; and in 1300, under the title of D'TI
the commentaries upon books xi.-xix. of the “His-
tory of Animals.”

Other writers of this century that expounded
Averroes were Judah ben Solomon Cohen of Toledo,
author of “Peripatetic Encyclopedia,” 1247; and
Sliem-Tob ben Joseph b. Falaquera (1224-95), who
inserts lengthy extracts from Averroes in his books,
the “Moreh ha-Moreh,” “Hanhagat ha-Guf welia-
Nefesli,” and the “Sefer Hama'alot.”

The study of Averroism was so wide-spread that,
not content with the foregoing translations, the first

Averroism

Avesta

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348

half of the fourteenth century produced a new series.
Kalonymusb. Kalonymus, son of Mei'r of Arles (1277—
1330), translated, in 1314, under the following titles,
the Grand Commentaries on the “Organon” (JVjn),
the “ Physics ” (y30n), the “ Metapliys-
New Series ics” HINt? HO), and the trea-

of Trans- tises “De Coelo et Mundo,” “ Genera -
lations. tionand Corruption,” “Meteors,” “The
Soul,” and “The Letter on Union,”
etc. It. Samuel b. Judah b. Meshullam of Marseilles
translated the Short Commentary on the “ Nikoma-
chean Ethics,” under the title nnon D.and tliepara-
plirase of Plato’s “ Republic,” under the title of ronjn
nnon Todros Todrosi of Arles translated in 1337,
under the following titles, the commentaries on the
“Topics” (nnDKO), the “Sophisms” (njJLDnn), the
“ Rhetoric ” (nV'^DH), and “ Poetics ” (TBTl). In ad-
dition to these a crowd of other translators of uncer-
tain date likewise devoted themselves to the study of
the works of Averroes. Shem-Tob Isaac of Tortosa
translated the commentary on the “Physics,” and
the treatise on the “Soul”; Jacob b. Shem-Tob, the
“ First Analytics ” ; Judah ben Tallin Maimon, the
“Physics,” the treatises on “Heaven” and on “Gen-
eration ” ; Moses ben Taliora b. Samuel b. Sliudai the
treatise on “Heaven”; Moses b. Solomon of Salon,
the “Metaphysics”; Judah b. Jacob, books xi.-xix.
on “ Animals ” ; Solomon b. Moses Alguari, the trea-
tise “ De Somno et Vigilia.”

The second half of the fourteenth century is the
golden age of Averroism among the Jews. There
were no more translations, but scholars innumerable
vied with one another in commenting on the com-
mentaries and applying the teachings of those com-
mentaries to theology. Levi ben Gerson of Bag-
nols (Gersonides) wrote such commentaries, as well
as some upon the original works of Averroes, as,
for instance, on the “Substantia Orbis, ” the trea-
tise on the “Possibility of Union,” etc.; Joseph
Caspi, in the middle of the century, wrote a com-
mentary upon Aristotle’s “ Ethics ” and Plato’s “ Pol
itics,” after Averroes’ method. In 1344, Moses of
Narbonne (Messer Vidal) wrote a commentary on the
“Possibility of Union,” etc.; and in 1349 on the
“Substantia Orbis,” and on other physical treatises.

The “ Physics, ” the “ Ethics, ” the com-
The Golden mentary upon “ Alexander of Aphro-
Age of disias on the Intellect,” underwent a
Averroism. complete remodeling at his hands. As
directly due to Averroism must be
mentioned : The ethical and rhetorical work by Jeda-
yah Peniui (1261-1321), entitled “Bel.iinat Olam ”
(Examination of the World), and his “Iggeret ha-
Hitnazelut ” (Letter on Self-Exculpation), defending
philosophy against the vehement attack of Solomon
b. Adret; also Joseph Caspi’s double commentaries
on Maimonides’ “Guide”; Levi ben Gerson’s philo-
sophical commentary upon the Pentateuch — wherein
the aut hor admits the eternity of the universe, the nat-
ural gift of prophecy, original matter without form,
and the impossibility of “Creation”; and finally,
Moses Narboni’s commentary upon the “Guide.”

The fifteenth century, though still rich in produc-
tions of Averroism, gave signs of decadence. Bold-
ness had vanished from the world of letters, and
eveiy author felt himself constrained to break a lance

for religion. In 1455 Joseph ben Sliem-Tob of Se-
govia commented on the “Ethics,” according to his
own statement, to supply Averroes’ omissions; he
likewise commented on the “ Possibility of Union,”
and on the analysis of Alexander’s
Displaced book on the Intellect. His son Sliem-
by Tob, as well as Moses Falaquera and
Theology. Michael ha-Koheu, wrote Averroistic
treatises toward the end of the century.
Elia del Medigo, of Rome, the last representative of
Averroism among Jews, wrote in 1485 a commentary
on the “ Substantia Orbis ” ; in 1492 a treatise on the
“Intellect,” on “Prophecy,” and on various other
works. Of other Averroistic writings there were the
same Shem-Tob’s commentary on the “ Guide ” ; Elia
del Medigo’s “Bel.iinat lia-Dat”; Abraham Shalom
ben Isaac’s theological and philosophical disserta-
tions; and the “Miklal Yofi,” by Menahem b. Abra-
ham Bonfous of Perpignan.

In the sixteenth century Averroism gave place to
theology. People read and studied Averroes, but.
very evidently only to hunt out his weak points and
disprove him. Isaac Abravanel, largely indebted as
he was in his commentary on the “ Guide ” to A ver-
roes, does not scruple to attack him frequently in his
“ Sliamayim Hadashim ” and other works. Abraham
Bibago, who commented on Aristotle’s “Analytica
Posteriora,” abuses Averroism in his “Derek Emu-
na.” Moses Almosnino, about 1538, comments on
Al-Gazzali’s “ Happalat-ha-Filosofim ” (Destruction
of the Philosophers), and uses it as a weapon against
the Peripatetic philosophy. Many other, but more
insignificant, writers essayed to drag the colossus to
the ground, but the traces stamped by Averroes on
Jewish literature are irremovable.

Bibliography: Munk, in Dictionnaire des Sciences Philosnph.
1844-47, iii. 157 et seq.\ idem. Melanges , Paris, 1859; Renan,
Averroes et l'Averrf>isme , Paris, 1866; Steinscbneider, Jc Ir-
ish Literature , London, 1854 ; idem, Hebrdisclie Uebcrsct-
zungen, Berlin, 1895; J. Muller, Averroes Philosophus ,
Leipsic, 1874; idem, Philosophic und Religion; ion o"o, viii.
63 et seq. ; icnj nxiN, ii. 4 et seq.

K. I. BR.

AVESTA : The canonical book of the religious
sect known as the Parsees, more frequently though
less precisely called Zend-Avesta — an inversion of
the Pahlavi phrase “ Avistak va Zand, ” the Scriptures
and the Commentary or the Law and Its Interpreta-
tion. The Avesta is the Zoroastrian Bible supple-
mented by the Pahlavi, or Middle Persian, writings,
as the Hebrew Scriptures are by the Talmud.

The Avesta has special claims upon the interest of
Jewish scholars, there being certain points of simi-
larity between the Avesta and the Old
Jewish as well as the New Testament, points
Interest, that are striking or close enough to call
forth frequent comment. In the next
place, the Avesta, as the sacred book of early Persia,
must command attention because of the historical
points of contact between the Jews and the Persians.
Note especially such passages as the following: Isa.
xlv. 1, 13, 28; II Cliron. xxxvi. 22, 23; Ezra i.
1-11 ; v. 13-17 ; vi. 1-15; and perhaps Ezek. viii. 16.
See Persian Religion.

The Avesta represents the ancient priestly code of
the Magi ; for Zoroaster, or Zarathuslitra, as his name
is called in the original texts, has stood in history as
the typical Magian, as the sage, priest, prophet, and

349

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Avesta

lawgiver of ancient Iran. According to the more
recent views on the subject, which agree with the
traditional date for his era, he flour-
The ished about 660-583 b.c. ; though the
Typical common tendency is to believe that he
Magian. lived and taught at a much earlier
period. It is certain that King Artax-
crxes and the later Achaemenian rulers professed his
faith ; less certain is it according to some scholars
whether Darius and Xerxes, and still less whether
Cyrus, were really followers of the Avesta and
genuine Zoroastrians, although much may be said
in the affirmative. It is beyond doubt that they
were all worshipers of Ahuramazda, or Ormuzd, the
supreme God of the Avesta; and this makes the
passages in Isaiah (xliv. 28; xlv. 1, 13) relating to
Cyrus doubly interesting. In the Old Persian in-
scriptions the Mazda worship of Darius is most pro-
nounced. For these reasons still more importance is
to be attached to the Avesta in the history of relig-
ious thought, especially when the power and the
wide-spread influence of the Persian empire in early
times are taken into account.

According to the book itself the Avesta represents
a direct revelation from Ahuramazda to Zarathushtra.
The sacred text (Vend. xxii. 19) mentions “the Forest
and the Mountain of the Two Holy Communing
Ones” — Ormuzd and Zoroaster — where special inter-
course through inspired vision was held between the
Godhead and his prophetic representative on earth,
as between Yhwh and Moses on Sinai. Later tra-
dition repeats the view that the sacred book was the
result of inspiration, for the Pahlavi texts (Dk. vii.
3, 51-62; viii. 51; Zsp. xxiv. 51) recount not only
how Zoroaster communed with Ormuzd, but like the
Zoroastrian Gathas they tell also of ecstatic visions
of the six archangels and of other revelations which
were vouchsafed to him. According to a tradition
preserved in the Pahlavi writings (Dk. Bk. 3, end,
quoted by West, “ Sacred Books of the East,” xxxvii.,
Introd. 30-32), the Avesta itself was committed to
writing at the instance of King Vislitaspa, whom
Zoroaster converted to the faith and who became
Zoroaster’s patron. The king’s own prime minister,
Jamaspa, had a hand in the redaction as scribe, and
Zoroaster’s mantle descended upon him, so that he
succeeded the great priest in the pontifical office on
the latter’s death (Dk. iv. 21; v. 34; vii. 5, 11).

It is said by Tabari, and by Bundari after him, that
Vislitaspa caused two copies of the holy texts to be
inscribed in letters of gold upon 12,000 ox-hides (see
Jackson, “Zoroaster,” p. 97) — a tradition which is
confirmed by Pliny’s statement that Zoroaster com-
posed no less than 2,000,000 verses (N. H. xxx. 2).

These two archetype copies, mentioned
Traditions in the Diukard, the Arta-Vlraf, and
About the Shatroiha-i-Airan, were to serve
Origin, as the standard priestly codes of
Vishtaspa’s realm. The faith was to
be promulgated throughout the world in accord-
ance with the teaching of these. There is likewise
a tradition (see Dk., references above) to the effect
that one of these original copies came into the hands
of the Greeks and was translated into their tongue.
Support for this tradition may perhaps be found in
the Arabic lexicon of Bar-Balilul (963), according to

which the Avesta of Zoroaster was composed in seven
tongues, Syriac, Persian, Aramean, Segestanian,
Mervian, Greek, and Hebrew. A still earlier Syriac
manuscript commentary on the New Testament by
Tsho'dad, bishop of Hadatha, near Mosul (852), simi-
larly speaks of the Avesta as having been written
by Zoroaster in twelve different languages. As for
the other archetype copy, which seems to have been
the principal one, the direct statement, again of the
Pahlavi treatise Diukard, says that it was burned by
Alexander the Great when he invaded Iran.

Whatever may be the value of these traditions re-
garding the Avesta, the fate of the sacred book was
connected with the history of the people, and with
the rise and fall of the fortunes of Iran. The five
centuries that followed the invasion of Alexander
with the government of the Seleuckhe and the sway
of the Parthians were dark ones for Zoroastrianism.

Nevertheless, there is no reason for
The making the strong claim that Darme-
Fate of the steter does to the effect that the tradi-

Avesta. tion was lost. It is known that the
last of the Parthian monarclis were
filled with the true Zoroastrian spirit; and it can be
proved from Greek, Latin, and other writings, that
the tradition of the wisdom of Zoroaster lived on
during the long period between Alexander and the
rise of the House of Sassan in the third and fourth
centuries. The entire Sassanian period was a most
flourishing time for the creed which was now re-
stored to its pristine glory. But in the seventh cen-
tury, with the rise of Islam, the Avesta gave place
in Persia to the Koran ; Ormuzd sank before Allah ;
and Zoroaster yielded to Mohammed. A number of
the faithful clierishers of the sacred fire, however,
sought safety in flight from Iran and found refuge
in India, where they are still known by their ancient
name Par si ; it is they that are the conservators of
the remnants of the old Avestan texts that have
passed through so many vicissitudes.

Much had been lost through Alexander, it was
claimed; but the number of texts that were still ex-
tant was nevertheless considerable, and they repre-
sented the ancient Avesta fairly well. The canon
was divided into twenty-one wastes, or books. These
again were subdivided into three classes, each com-
prising seven books. The first group (“ Gatha ” or
“ Gasan ”) was theological ; the second (“ Dat ”) was
legal ; the third (“ Hadlia-mathra ”) was of a some-
what miscellaneous character. In this threefold
classification of the nasks, Darmesteter sought to
prove Jewish influences at work upon the Avesta,
and he compared the classification of the Biblical
texts into “Torah” (Law), “Nebiim” (Prophets),
and “Ketubim.” But of this Sassanian Avesta there
is much less extant now because of the havoc
wrought, directly or indirectly, upon Zoroastrianism
and the Avesta by the Mohammedan conquest and
the Koran. To-day only two of the twenty-one
nasks are in any degree complete. These are the
Yendldad, or law against demons, and the Stot
Yaslit, which answers to Yasna (xiv.-lix.), yet these
show signs of being very imperfect. There exists
also, in addition to these two remnants, an impor-
tant part of another nask — this is the Bakan Yaslit ;
and portions or fragments of others. There thus

Avesta

Avigdor

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

350

exist specimens of about fifteen of the original
nasks. This material, moreover, is supplemented
by various passages that have been translated from
the original Avesta into Pahlavi and are thus pre-
served ; or by quotations of the Avesta text itself
incorporated into the Pahlavi treatises. All this
bears but a small proportion to the Avesta of Zo-
roaster’s time, and the remnant is but small in ex-
tent when compared with the Hebrew Scriptures.

What is still extant is commonly divided into the
following six classes: (1) Yasna, including the
Gathas, or Zoroastrian Psalms ; (2) V Ispered ; (3)
Yashts; (4) minor texts; (5) Vendldad; (6) frag-
ments.

The Yasna — a liturgical work, comprising seventy-
two chapters — contains texts used by the “dastur,”
or priest, in connection chiefly with
The Extant the sacrifice of “liaoma.” In the
Avesta. midst of the Yasna the Gathas are
inserted. These are the Zoroastrian
psalms, and they represent the verses of Zoroaster’s
own preaching and teaching, embodying especially
his belief in a new and better life; the coming of
a Messiah, or Saosliyant; the annihilation of Satan
and the evil principle, Angro-Mainyush, and the
Druj, “Falsehood” (see Ahkiman); and the general
restoration of the world for ever and ever. For
theologians the Gathas are the most interesting
and important part of the Avesta; but at the same
time they are by far the most difficult.

Less characteristic is the short book known as
the Vlspered. It consists of brief invocations and
offerings of homage to “all the lords ”(“ vispe ra-
tavo ”), as the name implies. The Yashts, or Praises,
twenty-one in number, contain praises of the angels
or glorification of the spirits, and personified abstrac-
tions of the faith. They are generally written in
meter, with some claim to poetic merit. One of the
most interesting is the thirteenth, or Farvadln Yaslit,
on the worship of the spirits (“ fravasliis ”). The
doctrine of the ancient Persian faith, which this
Yaslit contains, has been brought by Paul de La-
garde into connection with the Purim festival. An-
other Yaslit (Yt. 19) is in praise of the kingly glory
(“ livarenah ”), the halo, sheen, or majesty which
surrounds and protects the king as a mark of divine
favor (compare Moses’ shining face, Ex. xxxiv. 29).
The Vendldad, in twenty-two chapters, is an Ira-
nian Pentateuch, and it contains numerous parallels
of interest to the Biblical student.

The real pioneer exegete at the end of the eight-
eenth century was Anquetil du Perron ; then fol-
lowed Burnouf and Rask ; later came Haug, Wester-
gaard, Spiegel, Roth, Hiibschmann, De Harlez; or
more recently. West, Mills (a stanch advocate of the
Pahlavi), and especially Geldner and James Darme-
steter. The latter’s theory of the late origin of the
Avesta (in“Le Zend-Avesta,” iii. , Introduction, and
“ Sacred Books of the East, ” 2d ed. , i v. , Introduction)
can not be said to have found much favor among
specialists or support among those best qualified to
judge; but he has brought out numerous likenesses
between the Avesta and the Old Testament.
Bibi.iograph Y : Darmesteter and Mills in the Sncrecl Books of
the East, 3 vols., 1880-9+ ; or Oarmesteter’s French version,
Li Zend-Avesta , Paris, 1 892- 93 ; Windischmann, Zoroas-
trische Studien , Berlin, 1863; Spiegel, Eranische Alter-

thumskunde , 1871-79, i.— iii. ; idem, A vesta, 3 vols., Leipsie,
1853-63; W. Geiger, Ostiranische Kultur, 1882; O. H. Schorr,
in He-Haluz, 1869, viii. 1-120 : Geldner, A west.a-Li tteratur,
and Jackson, 1 ranische Religion , in the Grundriss der Ira n .
Philologie , Strashurg, 1896-99; Alex. Kohut, The Zendavesta
and the First Eleven Chapters of Genesis inJ. Q. f?., ii. 223.
k. A. V. W. J.

AVIANUS, HIERONYMUS : Christian Orien-
tal scholar; lived at Leipsie at the end of the six-
teenth and at the beginning of the seventeenth cen-
tury. He devoted himself to Hebrew versification,
and published a work in two volumes, entitled,
“ Clovis Poeseos Sacrte, Trium Principalium Lingua-
rum Orientalium, etc., ita Disposita ut Simul Lexici
Vulgaris Usum Admittat, Exhibens; qua Aperitur
via, etc., Ornnis Generis Carmina, etc., Scribendi”
(Leipsie, 1627).

Bibliography : Steinschneider, Bibliograph. Handbuch , p. 16.
T. I. Br.

AVICEBRON, SOLOMON IBN GABIROL.

See Gabirol.

AVICENNA (ABU ALI IBN ABDAL-
LAH IBN SINA) : Physician and philosopher
of note; born at Bokhara in 980; died in 1037. His
works, which were brought to Spain about one hun-
dred years after their publication, exerted a great
influence upon Jewish thought in the Middle Ages.
His philosophical investigations are embodied in a
great encyclopedic work entitled “ A1 Shefa’ ” (Heal-
ing), a term which in the Latin translation has been
corrupted into “Sufficentia.” This Latin transla-
tion, prepared by the aid of Jewish interpreters, has
been frequently used by Jewish authors, notably
Samuel ibn Tibbon in his“Yikkawu ha-Mayyim.”
It is divided into four parts; namely, logic, physics,
mathematics, and metaphysics. In addition to the
“Shefa1,” there is a smaller encyclopedia, “Al-Na-
jali,” which, under the title “Healing of the Soul,”
was, in 1330, translated by Todros Todrosi in Rome.

In regard to Avicenna’s importance as a philos-
opher, Maimonides and Sliem-TobFalaquera have
both ex pressed their views. Maimonides says : “ The
works of Avicenna, although distinguished by toler-
able accuracy as well as by subtlety of speculation,
are nevertheless inferior to those of Abu-Nasral-
Farabi; they are useful, however, and deserve to
be studied.” This opinion is shared
His by Shem-Tob Falaquera, who declares
Importance that Avicenna’s works are “exact, but
as a Phi- incomprehensible to those unfamiliar
losopher. with logic.” Of greater importance
are the medical works of Avicenna,
and as an author he has been distinguished in this
domain by the honorary title of “ Prince of Physi-
cians.” His chief medical publication is the “ Canon,”
a complete system of medicine, which, in 1279, was
translated into Hebrew by Nathan lia-Meati (“of
Cento ”). Parts of the work were translated also by
two other Jewish scholars, and numerous commen-
taries have from time to time been written upon it.
In addition to this work, Avicenna has left a smaller
medical compendium in ten volumes, and has even
given expression to his medical knowledge in rime.
The last-mentioned publications were likewise per-
petuated in Hebrew translations.

The “Canon” (“El Kanun fi’t Tib1 ”), the greatest
literary production of Avicenna, is a colossal work,

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Avesta

Avigdor

which for five centuries was accepted as a guide in
European universities, and which was used as a text-
book in the universities of Louvain and
The Montpellier until about 1650. It con-
“ Canon.” sists of five books, subdivided into fu-
min or fen (sections), tractatus, summa,
and caput. Of these volumes the first and second
treat of physiology, pathology, and hygiene;, the
third and fourth, of the methods of treating disease ;
and the fifth, of materia medica. The many points
of excellence possessed by the voluminous work and
its admirable literary style make it possible to un-
derstand readily the reason for its great popularity
both in the Oriental schools and among the Occiden-
tal Arabists of a later date. It was among the lat-
ter, rather than in Arabian Spain — where the influ-
ence of Averroes was predominant — that Avicenna’s
works attained their greatest popularity.

In some respects the “ Canon ” of Avicenna is not
unlike the works of his predecessors Rliazes and
Ali, although excelling the “ El-Hawi ” (Continens),
or “Summary,” of the former by greater exactness
of method.

This power of systematization was due perhaps
to his mastery of logic — a domain in which his ac-
quirements entitled him to be ranked
Logic and as one of the principal forerunners of
Meta- Albertus Magnus and his immediate
physics, successors, all of whom were com-
pelled to draw their formulas largely
from Avicenna’s works. The logic of Avicenna is
distinguished by great comprehensiveness of scope,
and by a scrupulously conscientious endeavor on the
part of the author — who here evidently follows the
example of Al-Farabi — to present the subject clearly,
comprehensively, and circumstantially.

As regards the fundamental tenets of his philoso-
phy, Avicenna taught that matter, the principle of
individuation, does not directly emanate from the
Godhead, although it is in its primal origin eternal,
and includes within itself all possibilities of devel-
opment. In other words, he held that while all
things are primarily traceable to the agency of an
immutable Deity, they can not owe their existence
to the immediate influence of such a Deity, inasmuch
as the immutable can not itself create substances
subject to the element of change. The first and only
immediate product of God, therefore, is the world-
soul or world-intelligence, which unwinds an endless
chain of creation throughout all the celestial spheres
down to the earth. The cause that produces, how-
ever, must also conserve, for cause and effect are
identical ; from which it follows that the world itself,
like God, must be eternal.

Avicenna’s psychological views, expressed in the
sixth volume of his work on physics (the second part
of the “Shefa‘,” in the so-called “Liber Sextus Natu-
ralium ”), exerted great influence upon Jewish schol-
ars. In his preface to this book the
Psy- Latin translator, Johannes Hispalen-
chology. sis, declares that it contains “Quid-
quid Aristoteles dixit in libro suo de
anima et de sensu et sensato et de intellectu et intel-
lecto.” In addition to this, Avicenna’s principal
work on psychology, he wrote a number of disserta-
tions on the soul, nearly all of which have been

translated into Hebrew; and although in general
based upon the psychological theories of Aristotle,
Avicenna’s views are in many respects original. As
an example mention may be made of his division of
the soul’s attributes into four classes; namely, the
external powers, or five senses; the internal powers;
the motive powers, and the intellectual powers.
Avicenna was also the first philosopher after Galen
to indicate the three cavities of the brain as the seat
of the soul’s functions; his opinions on this as on
other subjects being later adopted by Jewish authors,
and more particularly by Shem-Tob Falaquera.who in
his work on psychology shows himself a true adher-
ent of Avicenna. Like the latter, Falaquera proceeds
upon the principle, “ Have cognizance of yourself,
and you will have cognizance of your Maker,” here-
by establishing psychology as an introduction to
metaphysics.

The works of Avicenna not infrequently contain
conflicting theories — a fact explained by Averroes
(the keenest opponent of the great philosopher) upon
the ground that Avicenna was afraid to avow his
opinions, as he desired to preserve the favor of all
parties and to offend none. Indeed, it was early
asserted that Avicenna’s true views were not con-
tained in the “Sliefa* ” at all, but were to be found
in the mystical work entitled “ Oriental Wisdom or
Philosophy ” — a work which now exists neither in
Arabic nor in Latin, only a fragment having been
preserved in a Hebrew manuscript (Steinschneider,
“Judische Literatur,” p. 301).

Thus it appears that Avicenna’s Neoplatonic the-
ory of evolution gradually led him to mysticism, and
as adherent of the new Platonic system the soul of
the rationalist and that of the mystic were strangely
blended in him, which caused him to become the
originator of the idtimately fatal doctrine of the
twofold truth — a doctrine focused in the sentence
“Secundum fidem verum; secundum rationem
falsum ” (True according to faith ; false according
to reason), and later employed in defense of his
own bold opinions by Isaac Aliralag (compare Joel,
“ Hasdai Crescas, ” p. 7).

Bibliography: Steinschneider , Hchr. Uebers. pp. 17 20, 677-
701; Munk, Melanges de Philosophic , pp. 352-366; Kauf-
mann, Tlieologie des Bahga ihn Pakuda , pp. 196-201 ; Carra
de Vaux-Avicenne (Paris,’ 1900).

k. A. Lo.

AVIGDOR, ELIM D’ : Engineer and communal
worker (died in London Feb. 9, 1895) ; was the eldest
son of Count Salamon Henri d’Avigdor and of
Rachel, second daughter of Sir Isaac Lyon Gold-
smid. He was educated at University College, Lon-
don, and the University of London. Having been
articled to the engineer Hawkshaw, D’Avigdor in
1862 went first to Hull, then to Rangoon (Burma)
in connection with his professional work. He super-
vised the construction of railways in Syria and in
Transylvania, and of water-works in Vienna. It
was D’Avigdor’s railway experience added to his
interest in Palestine as chief of the Chovevi Zion
Association which led him to contract in railway
work in Syria and to form the Tyrian Construc-
tion Company. Gaining some experience in literary
work in connection with “Vanity Fair,” he bought
the “Examiner.” He subsequently brought out a
paper called the “Yachting Gazette.” Under the

Avig-dor, Jacob
Avignon

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

352

pseudonym of “Wanderer,” D’Avigdor published
many hunting stories of merit for which he was well
qualified, being himself an intrepid rider to hounds.
D'Avigdor was a warden of the Spanish and Portu-
guese synagogue, and served on several committees.
He was chief of the Chovevi Zion Association, in
which movement he took the keenest interest ; join-
ing this in 1891 he helped to consolidate it, and was
instrumental in bringing it into connection with sim-
ilar associations on the Continent. He was a mem-
ber of the council of the Anglo-Jewish Association
from 1871 until his death.

He married a daughter of Bethel Jacobs of Hull, by
whom he had one son and live daughters. The son,
Osmond d’Avigdor Goldsmid, inherited the Gold-
smid estates on the death of Sir Julian Goldsmid.

Bibliography: Jewish Chronicle; Jewish World , Feb. 15,

lays.

j. ' G. L.

AVIGDOR, JACOB: Chief rabbi (“hakam
bashi ”) at Constantinople from 1860 to 1863; born
1794; died 1874. He was a capable Talmudist and
conversant with several foreign languages. Avigdor
was instrumental in organizing several institutions in
the Turkish dominions, among them the Assembly of
Jewish Notables, which latter has introduced many
beneficial regulations. In 1863 a fanatical rabbi, Isaac
Akrisch, who had excommunicated Count Abraham
de Catnondo, succeeded in so inciting the people
against Avigdor that in July of that year he was
compelled to resign his office. He was subsequently
elected “Rab ha-kolel,” or spiritual leader of the
community, and retained the office till his death.

Bibliography: Franco, Histuire des Israelites deVEmpirt

Ottoman , pp. 101 et seq.

s. M. K.

AVIGDOR, JTJLES D’: Banker, and member
of the Piedmont Parliament ; born in Nice ; died at
Paris February, 1856. He was a grandson of Isaac
Samuel d' Avigdor, secretary of the Paris Sanhe-
drin; See Sanhedrin. He was the first Jew elected
by his Catholic fellow-citizens to the lower house of
Parliament, February, 1854. He was, however, at
the same time also Prussian consul at Nice, and as
such ineligible to Parliament; his election, therefore,
was annulled by the house, but he was returned
again by an overwhelming majority, and, having
resigned the consulship, was admitted. Avigdor,
equally devoted to his religion and his country, died
in the prime of his life, and by his own last request
was interred at Nice.

s. M. K.

•

AVIGDOR, RACHEL, COUNTESS D' :

Communal worker at London, England; born Sept.
19, 1816; died Nov. 5, 1896. She was the second
daughter of Sir Isaac Lyon and Isabel Goldsmid, and
was privately educated by some of the most eminent
teachers of the time, including Thomas Campbell,
the poet. In June, 1840, she was married to Count
Salamon Henri d’Avigdor, son of the d’Avigdor
who was a member of the Great Sanhedrin assem-
bled by Napoleon. Shortly after their marriage, the
count and countess d’Avigdor went to London,
where were born their three sons and one daughter.
Her husband, from whom she eventually separated,

returned to Paris, and became a personal friend of
Napoleon III., who conferred upon him the title of
duke.

The countess tookadeep interest in the communal
institutions of the English metropolis. She was at
one time president of the Ladies’ Committee of the
Jews’ Deaf and Dumb Home, and honorary secre-
tary of the West End Charity; also a member of the
committees of the Jewish Convalescent Home, of
the workhouse committee of the Jewish Board of
Guardians, and of the West End Sabbath School.
Both the Bayswater schools and the Jews’ Deaf and
Dumb Home owed their inception principally to her
advocacy.

Bibliography: Jewish Chronicle , Nov. 0 and 13, 1896.

J. G. L.

AVIGNON: Capital of the department of Vau-
cluse, France; formerly seat of the papal court.
The first settlement of Jews in Avignon goes back

The Synagogue at Avignon.

(From a photograph.)

probably to the second century of the common era,
a few years after the destruction of Bethar by Ha-
drian. In 390 they were already sufficiently numer-
ous to take a leading part in a revolt against Bishop
Stephen. As usual almost everywhere, they con-
gregated in certain portions of the town, known later
as the Jewry, or “ Carriere des Juifs.” It lay at first
on the banks of the Rhone, along the slope of the
Roeher, and exactly opposite the papal
Early palace ; its narrow lanes are still called
History, the “ Reille Juiverie ” and the “Petite
Reille. ” There are still shown the re-
mains of an ancient building declared, with or with-
out reason, to have been the first synagogue. But
in the course of the thirteenth century, this quarter,
having become too crowded, was demolished by
Louis VIII., and the Jews were allotted a new and
more spacious location in the heart of the city, corre-
sponding with the present Place de Jerusalem and
the Rues Abraham and Jacob. This location was cov-
ered with buildings, four, and sometimes five, stories
high, and was intersected by narrow lanes, for the
most part unclean, and lacking air and light. Two

353

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Avigdor, Jacob
Avignon

gates, opened only in the daytime, communicated
with the outer world. The synagogue, or “eseole,”
was toward the southeast. It was burned down in
1844, and the present building, of modem construc-
tion, arose in its place.

With regard to its internal administration, the
Carriere formed a sort of semi-independent republic,
although placed under the control of the provost
representing the Holy Chair. It convened its own
assemblies or parliaments, appointed its own magis-
trates and officials, made its laws, its statutes or
“ascamot,” and regulated its taxes. Its population
was divided' into three classes, according to their
property qualifications; each class being represented
in the parliament by five delegates or “bay Ions,”
who were invested with both executive and legisla-
tive powers. The taxes were pro rata; and every
one liable was required to declare each year upon
oath the actual amount of his property'. The collec-
tion of the taxes was entrusted to both Jews and
Christians; the school was supported at the common
expense ; and instruction was obligatory and free.
Like every other government, that of the Carriere
had its critical periods; the assessment and collection
of taxes especially gave rise to great difficulties and
numerous scandals; but, compared with other con-
stitutions, that of the Carriere, taken all in all, was
relatively just and liberal.

The history, properly so-called, of the Avignon
Jew ry may be divided into two parts: the period
preceding the fifteenth century, and that following
it. During the former period, the Jews of Avignon
occupied themselves peaceably in many' trades. The
city authorities never disturbed them; their neigh-
bors looked upon them with no jealous eye; and as
farmers, laborers, pedlers, brokers, money-lenders,
small merchants, matrimonial agents, sellers of books
and manuscripts, surgeons, barbers, and physicians,
the Jews were to be found in every branch of hu-
man activity. The popes relied on them as treas-
urers, commissaries, and stewards; the magistrates
entrusted them with the assessments of furniture and
books and utilized their knowledge in making in-
ventories of the estates of deceased per-
In the sons. The university employed them

Fifteenth in the purchase of rare and precious

Century, manuscripts ; in short, every branch of
the state testified to its good opinion
of the Jews of the city by the use it made of them.

Unfortunately, toward the second half of the fif-
teenth century, their position underwent a complete
change. From that epoch dates an era of violence,
disorder, and persecution, which lasted until the
French Revolution. The causes of this transforma-
tion were manifold. First there was the state of
general trouble and misery caused throughout the
country by the departure of the popes from Avi-
gnon; then the ravages caused by' pestilence and
inundations; the ruin left behind them by' the mer-
cenary troops of Francis I. ; the egotism and the jeal-
ousy' of the freshly emancipated bourgeoisie; finally
and especially, the ever-growing intolerance of the
Church. Avignon had lost a great portion of its
population ; its commerce, always flourishing under
the popes, had come to a standstill; business had
almost completely ceased; and discontent was |
II.— 23

wide-spread. At this economic crisis, the population
of the Carriere was considerably increased by the ar-
rival of Jews who had been persecuted in surround-
ing districts and sought refuge in Avignon and the
county'. These unfortunate refugees came from
Dauphine, Arles, Marseilles, and the principality of
Orange, and naturally brought with them all the
energy and activity of their race. This was thought
sufficient ground to hold them responsible for the
deplorable situation in the city. In the eyes of
the populace, it was the Jews who had destroyed
the commerce of the country and, by their dubious
intrigues, had monopolized all its wealth. A wide-
spread outcry arose against them on every side;
which, being taken up by the representatives of the
city and the Three Estates, soou took the shape of
precise accusations against them, against their un-
scrupulous doings, their robberies, their usuries, and
soon; and also of denunciations of the liberty ac-
corded to these formidable rivals. From that mo-
ment, the delegates of the city' and the country in-
cessantly' clamored for harsh measures of repression
against the inhabitants of the Carri&re.

The Jews had in no way deserved these attacks.
They certainly formed t lie most miserable portion of
the population. They were for the most part poor
people who lived from hand to mouth ; if some of
them practised usury, it was generally as brokers
for rich Lombard or Italian financiers. Moreover,
all the usurers of that time were not Jews. The reg-
isters of court indictments in the fifteenth century
are full of proceedings relative to loans on pledges.
Men and women, clerics and laymen, all dabbled in
usury ; and papal bulls were of no avail against it.
The accusation of monopolizing wealth had no
better foundation in fact. The “ manifestos,” declared
each year by the Jews at the assessment for taxes,
furnish complete evidence of the absurdity of this
charge. More than once, the Carri&re was upon the
verge of being foreclosed and sold by its creditors,
so difficult was it for the Jews to pay their debts
and numerous fines. If there were any' monopolists
of wealth at this time, they' were the convents and
churches. In 1474 Sixtus IV. himself was com-
pelled to issue a bull to restrain the constantly grow-
ing wealth of the Carthusian and Celestine monks;
nevertheless, in the seventeenth century they owned
houses in nearly every' street in Avignon, and even
the sy'nagogue and a large portion of the Ghetto.
However this may be, against the popular indigna-
tion the Jews had no protectors other than the sov-
ereigns of the country ; that is to say',
Under the popes. But the papal policy to-
the Popes, ward the Jews was of a very capri-
cious kind. It knew no constant
principle, but varied according to circumstances.
The Church defended the Jews when her interests
recommended such course; and, with a right-about-
face, she sacrificed them when there was profit in
their ruin. The Jews of Avignon furnished to the
popes both a source of income and a means of ex-
piating political mistakes; and thus it came about
that the same pope proclaimed himself at one time
their defender, and at another their adversary.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the popes
generally welcomed the grievances of the populace.

Avignon

Avila

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

354

On the demand of the Three Estates, Pins II. in
1457 issued an edict forbidding Jews to sell grain
or other articles of food; to make contracts with
Christians, or to take mortgages upon their property.
Sixtus IV. renewed these restrictions ; Leo X. in 1513
prohibited them from acquiring stores of grain be-
fore the harvest, and from going into the Acids.
Alexander VI., Clement VII., Paul IV., and Pius
V. renewed and intensified these prohibitions, can-
celed all debts of ten years’ standing owed to Jews,
and compelled them to wear, under extreme penal-
ties for disobedience, tiie infamous Jew-badge. In
1567 the Council of Avignon gravely proposed noth-
ing less than the absolute cessation of all relations
between Jews and the rest of the population. It
forbade Christians, as the canon laws regularly did,
to accept unleavened bread from the Jews, to em-
ploy their physicians, to enter their bathing-houses,
to associate or to play with them, to be present at
their marriages or their festivities, to enter their serv-
ice as nurses or servants. It also forbade masons
to speak to them during their work, barbers to dress
their beards, etc. Further, it forbade Jews to deal
in horses or mules; to pass the night outside the
Ghetto, or to go out at all on Thursday, Friday, and
Saturday in Holy Week; to show themselves on the
street during the hours of church service ; or to buy
any articles pertaining to religious uses. Finally,
Pius V. issued a decree banishing Jews from his
dominions.

It is true, indeed, that a rigorous application of
the foregoing regulations would have rendered the
bull of Pope Pius V. quite superfluous. For the
Jews, completely paralyzed in all their commercial
activities, would have of necessity quitted the comte
to beg from more hospitable countries the right to
live. But in actual practise, the excessive harshness
of these laws was considerably modified; and al-
though the situation of the Jews was always suffi-
ciently precarious and wretched, there

Levies were nevertheless moments when they

upon the were treated with a certain degree of

Jews. toleration — interested toleration, no

doubt, but the best obtainable.

For the right of sojourn in Avignon, Jews had to
pay a heavy tax to the representatives of the popes
and the city. From the papal legates down to their
cooks, from the consuls down to their coachmen,
every official, and even the wives of certain officials,
had the right to exact from them gifts and presents
upon certain occasions, which, added to the regular
taxes, must have amounted to very considerable
sums. Being poor, the Carriere, to pay these, was
obliged to have recourse to loans from individual
Christians, convents, and churches, and sometimes
even from the city. But the shackles imposed upon
its commerce, as well as the poor state of trade in
the country generally, prevented the Jews not only
from paying their debts, but also the interest thereon.
Their obligations therefore increased from year to
year, and attained at time huge proportions. In
addition to the regular taxes, both papal legates and
the estates had no scruples in levying extraordinary
contributions when they needed them. Thus in the
seventeenth century, after the sojourn of the troops
of Marshal de Belle-Isle in the county, the estates

demanded of the Jews no less than 90,000 francs as
their share of the expenses of supporting the army;
although, with the rest of the people of Avignon,
they had already contributed in advance. Naturally
they were compelled to borrow this large sum.

But these very debts which, as has been stated,
they contracted only under force and constraint,
turned out to be for their benefit and made their
banishment impossible. Their creditors, despairing
of ever getting back their money, protested against
the severity of these bullsand pontifical regulations,
which hurt themselves indirectly, inasmuch as they
prevented their Jewish debtors from honoring their
obligations. They, therefore, insisted upon a less
rigorous application of them, and opposed vehe-
mently any idea of expelling the Jews.

The history of the Jews of Avignon in the seven-
teenth and eighteenth centuries is one long struggle
between the city, the estates, and the Holy See.
These three powers could never agree upon measures
for or against the Jews. When the papacy needed
funds, infractions by the Jews of the bulls and reg-
ulations of the councils were tolerated so long as the
papacy profited by them. Thereupon, loud com-
plaints from the populace would arise to remind the
legates of their duty, and to insist upon the stringent
application of the old prohibitory laws or even upon
the expulsion of the inhabitants of the Carriere. On
the contrary, when the Holy Church laid too many fet-
ters upon the commerce of the Jews, and threatened
their expulsion, the consuls flew to their aid, as is
proved by certain inedited extracts from the instruc-
tions which they gave to their agent at the papal
court. In 1616, upon the demand of the estates, the
pope seems to have decided to order the expulsion
of the Jews. The tidings produced great dis-
quiet at Avignon,, and the consuls, representing their
constituents, wrote to their delegates at Rome as
follows:

“ We are determined to oppose this new movement, and the
petition which they are making, or will make, in this regard,
as prejudicial to certain individuals and contrary to the public
weal. We desire that you oppose it in the name of our city,
demanding that we be heard.”

In another letter addressed to the same, they said :

“ In continuation of what our predecessors wrote to you,
concerning the Jews of the county, to insist that they shall not
be expelled from the said county, we say to you that this city
has right on its side to maintain that the Jews shall not leave
this county, as well as to demonstrate that their residence in
the country is necessary; seeing that the said Jews are in-
debted, both severally and as a community, in certain very con-
siderable sums, as well to monasteries as to convents, noblemen,
citizens, and merchants of this town ; . . . another reason being,
that the said Jews comport themselves decently and obey the
rules of duty.”

Thanks to this mutual antagonism of the three
powers, the Jews were able to pass through the sev-
enteenth and eighteenth centuries with expulsion
only hanging asa menace over their heads. If deal-
ing in land and grain was forbidden, if Jews were
excluded from the positions of tax-collector and from
other public offices, they continued to devote them-
selves, nevertheless, to small trading, pedling, and
dealing in horses and mules.

But if their material existence, so uncertain and
so wretched, was on the whole endurable, their
moral condition was appalling. The Church, which
permitted them to live, thought it necessary to

355

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Avignon

Avila

degrade them in its own interests. The measures
devised against them by the councils of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries have already been mentioned ;
but it was especially in the second half of the seven-
teenth century that the intolerance of the Holy Office
smote them most harshly. From that epoch, up to
the French Revolution, the ordinances of legates and
cardinals followed each other with ever-increasing
rigor; and all former regulations were applied to the
letter.

The fanaticism of the Inquisition did not stop even
there; it aimed at the voluntary, or involuntary, con-
version of the Jews, and the disappearance of Juda-
ism. To this end Jews were forbidden to read the
Talmud and other rabbinical books; Jesuits and
Dominican monks were appointed to hold discus-
sions, or to deliver sermons, every Saturday in the
synagogue, where the presence of the Jews was abso-
lutely compulsory. But these sermons did not pro-
duce the desired effect. Then the Church had re-
course to force. During part of the eighteenth
century the plague ravaged Avignon. TheCarriere
had many victims, who were carried to the hospital
and nursed by Dominicans, who, by persuasion, by
promises, and by threats, caused to be baptized a
full third of the poor patients entrusted to their care.
These were for the most part children and old men
incapable of resistance. Stimulated by this sem-
blance of success, the monks continued their exer-
tions long after the epidemic had disappeared. Al-
though the Church forbade it officially, they secretly
encouraged the carrying off of young Jewish chil-
dren, whom they then forced into the pale of the
Church. There is nothing more moving than the
protestations — as indignant as futile — of the Jew-
ish fathers against such proceedings: a child once
touched by the waters of baptism had to remain a
Christian, and was lost to its parents and to its faith.
Avignon to-day contains about forty Jewish fami-
lies. It belongs to the Cir conscription Consistorinl of
Marseilles. Services are only occasionally held in
the synagogue, a modern edifice erected by the mu-
nicipality to replace the older one, which was de-
stroyed by fire.

The Jews of Avignon formed with those of Car-
pentras, LYsle, and Cavaillon the four communities
called “ Arba' Kehillot ” by Jewish authors of the
Middle Ages. These communities had a special lit-
urgy of their own, called “ Comtadin, ” from the name
formerly borne by the province in which these towns
were included. This liturgy, while resembling the
Portuguese greatly, is distinguished from it by nu-
merous differences; a few only can be cited: the
omission of the prayer ‘“Alenu,” the

Liturgy, substitution of “ Shalom rab” for “ Sim
Shalom” ; the insertion of certain spe-
cial liturgical compositions and poems on Friday
evenings, which are not to be found elsewhere.
There are also reminiscences of the local history ; as,
for instance, “iJDH DVH nDKO (the Nislnnat for the
Day of the Shutting In), recited on the Sabbath of
the Christian Easter week in commemoration of the
prohibition laid upon the Jews against leaving their
quarters at that period, and the prayer D'COH h])-

Bibliography : For the rabbis and physicians bom at Avignon :

Gross, Gallia Judaica , Index, s.v. Avignon ; Leon Bardinet,

Antiquite et Organisation dps Juiveries du Comtat-Venais-
sin , in Revue Etudes Juives, i. 165 et seq., ii. 199: idem , in
Revue Historique, i. For the origin and organization of the
Jewry of Avignon : Rend de Maulde, Les Juifs dans les
Etats Franqaisdu Pape au Moyen-Age, in Revue Etudes
Juives , vii. 227 et seq. For the policy of the Popes : Israel
Levi. Clement VII. et les Juifs du Comtat- Vena isgi n , ib.
xxxii. 63 et seq.; Lettres des Conmls d' Avignon, in the
Archives Departmentales de Vaucluse Unedited). For
conversions in the eighteenth century: Jules Bauer, La
Peste chez les Juifs d’ Avignon, in Revue Etudes Juives,
xxxiv. 251 et seq. For the yellow hat : Idem, Le Chapeau
Jaune chez les Juifs Contadins, in Revue Etudes Juives,
xxxvi. 53 et seq. For the commercial life of the Jews: Rou-
bin. La Vie Commercials des Juifs Contadins en Langue-
doc, ib. xxxv. 91 et seq.

G. J. B.\.

AVILA n^3N): Town in Old Castile, fif-

teen miles from Madrid. In the Middle Ages it was
one of the wealthiest and most flourishing cities of
Spain. Jews have resided there since 1085, when
they dwelt in the street called “ Calle de Lomo ”
(now “Calle de Esteban Domingo”). In 1291 the
congregation was of such large proportions that it
paid more than 74,000 maravedis in taxes. It pos-
sessed several synagogues. One of them was on the
same spot in the Calle de Lomo on which the
Church of All Saints was afterward built; a second,
not far from the former, was “ presented ” by the
government in 1495 to the monastery of Santa Maria
de la Encarnacion. The Jewish cemetery, which
had a frontage of about 200 meters, lay in the val-
ley ; it is now called “ Cerca de los Osos. ” After the
expulsion of the Jews their Catholic majesties “pre-
sented” it to the monastery of St. Thomas, which
purchased additional land with the proviso that
converts to Christianity or descendants of converts
should not be interred therein.

It was before the inquisitional tribunal of Avila in
1491 that the celebrated trial took place for the al-
leged ritual murder of the afterward canonized
“child from La Guardia,” a place that never existed.
A shoemaker named Juee Franco, his old father,
and his brothers were accused .of this murder, and
were all put to death at the stake Nov. 16, 1491. As
a sequel to the trial and execution a popular up-
rising took place, and the Jews in Avila were mas-
sacred and plundered. To such excesses did the
popular fury give rise that a special edict had to be
issued by the crown (Dec. 16, 1491) taking the Jews
under royal protection.

Avila with its many churches and monasteries
was extremely ecclesiastical ; the Jews dwelling there
were therefore inclined to religious mysticism. It
was in Avila that a man named Abraham appeared
in 1295 as Messiah and miracle-worker. Here, too,
much attention was paid to the study of cabala; and
many cabalists and scholars from Avila (or whose
ancestors had belonged to the town) took the sur-
name “ de Avila.”

Bibliography : Boletin de la Real Academiade lallistoria,
xi. 7, 421, et seq. ; xxviii. 353 et seq.; see also La Guardia
and Abraham of Avila.

g. M. K.

AVILA, ELIEZER B. SAMUEL DE : Au-
thor of rabbinical works, and rabbi at Rabat, Mo-
rocco; bornl714; died at RabatFeb. 7, 1761. Avila
was a scion of an illustrious family of scholars. His
father Samuel, his grandfather Moses, and Hayyim b.
Moses ibn Attar, his maternal uncle, were all promi-
nent Talmudists and well-known authors. Like

Avila

Awani

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

356

his uncle Hayyim, Avila desired to see the Holy Land
and intended to settle in Jerusalem; but, owing to
an epidemic and a famine in Morocco, which lasted
a long time and compelled him to leave Rabat for a
while, he lacked the necessary means to do so.

Avila was a prolific writer, and among his manu-
scripts were found notes dating from his sixteenth
year. After his death the following of his works
appeared: (1) “ Magen Gibborim ” (The Shield of the
Mighty), Leghorn, 1781-85, in two volumes; the first
containing novelise to the treatises, Baba Mezi‘a and
Horayot; the second, novelise to the treatises Ketu-
bot and Kiddushiu. (2) “Milliemet Mizwah” (The
War for the Law), ib., 1806, containing the princi-
ples of the Talmudic and post-Talmudic Halakah.
Some funeral sermons are appended under the title
“ Hesed we -E met ” (Kindness and Truth). (3) “ Belsr
Mayyim Hayyim” (A Well of Living Waters), ib.,
1806, consisting of thirty-six responsa, treating of
questions relating to jurisprudence and cases of
‘Agunaii. (4) “Ma'yan Gannim” (A Fountain of
Gardens), explanations and elucidations of Jacob ben
Yehiel's “Turim,” especially of the second and third
parts (ib. , 1806).

As these works show, Avila confined his work in
rabbinical literature to the Halakah. In this prov-
ince at all events he was an undisputed master; and
his epithet, “Ner ha-Ma‘arabi ” (Light, of the West)
was not undeserved. His greatness as a Talmudist
was recognized even by the most eminent Palestin-
ian scholars, who, in the capacity of “Mesliullahim,”
had the opportunity of becoming personally ac-
quainted with him. It was to them that he owed
this title. Among the scholars of Morocco, Avila,
with his avowed inclination toward the casuistic
treatment of the Halakah (Pilpbl), was a rare per-
sonality. This tendency explains his independent
attitude toward his colleagues, on whom his keen
and brilliant intellect made a deep impression, as
shown in his responsa. These responsa contain many
interesting items concerning the condition of the
Jews in Morocco (“ Be6r Mayyim Hayyim,” p. 71).

Avila left one child, a daughter, who married her
cousin Solomon de Avila, a man of wealth and a dis-
tinguished Talmudist. The sons by this marriage,
Moses and Samuel, were, in a way, the successors
of their grandfather, both being rabbis and Talmudic
teachers in Rabat. Joseph de Avila, son of Moses,
was the publisher of the works of his great-grand-
father Eliezer.

Bibliography: For information concerning Avila and his
family, see the approbations and prefaces to Bear Mayyim
Hayyim ; Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolirn, i. 23, 59: ii. 77; Eleazar
ha-Kohen, Kinat Soferim , p. 70, Lemberg, 1892; Nepi-Ghir-
ondi, Tnledut. GedoU Yisrael, p. 46 (where Avila is errone-
ously designated as the grandson of Hayyim ibn Attar); Zed-
ner. Cat. Hehr. Books Brit. Mus. p. 64 ; Benjacob, Ozar ha-
Sefarim, pp. 296, 333, 349.

L. G.

AVILA, SAMUEL BEN MOSES BEN
ISAAC DE : Rabbi and preacher at Mequenez,
Morocco, and later at Sale, Morocco, born in the
first-named place in 1687 or 1688. He published,
under the title of “Ozen Sliemuel,” a collection of
sermons: Five on “Repentance,” preached on the
Sabbath preceding the Day of Atonement ; ten on
“The Sabbaths of the Lord,” preached on the Sab-
bath preceding Passover and the other festivals; and

sixteen funeral orations on some of his contempo-
raries, Joseph b. Bahatit (1705), Ephraim ibn Laba,
(1705), Samuel Zarfati (1713), Isaac b. Amara (1713),
and others. The book was approved by Judah ibn
‘Attar, Abraham ibn Danon, and Jacob ibn Zur, and
prefaced and published at Amsterdam, 1715, by
Hananiah ibn Sikri. Samuel also published a work
entitled “Keter Torah” (The Crown of the Law),
pleading for the relief of scholars from taxation, and
containing older regulations on the same subject as
well as ethical rules. Appended to it are notes on
Rashi, and Tosafot on the treatise Nazir, Amster-
dam, 1725.

Bibliography: Fiirst, Bibliotheca Judaica, i. 73; Benjacob,

Ozar ha-Sefarim , pp. 34, 252; Steinschnelder, Cat. Bodl.

No. 7011 ; N’aclit, Mekor Hayyim , 3, 4, 5.

K. M. B.

AVILA, SAMUEL BEN SOLOMON DE :

Talmudist; lived at Morocco in the eighteenth cen-
tury. He was the author of “ ‘Oz we-Hadar ” (Might
and Splendor), Leghorn, 1855, containing novellae
on the Talmudic treatises Sliebu'ot, ‘Abodali Zarah,
and Horayot.

Bibliography: Benjacob, Ozar ha-Sefarim, p. 433.

L. G. M. B.

AVIMS, AVITES. See Awites.

AVITUS OF AUVERGNE : Bishop of Cler-
mont-Ferrand, France, in the sixth century. While
the Roman bishops at that time generally treated
the Jews with great liberality, while Pope Gregory I.
exhorted the clergy and the princes against the
use of force in converting the Jews to Christianity,
and while his predecessor Cautious of Clermont was
so favorably disposed toward the Jews that he paid
them high prices for rare goods and jewelry, Avitus
was one of those insolent bishops who, with the in-
creasing power of the clergy under the feudal sys-
tem, were overzealous iu making proselytes among
the Jews by force or by any other means. He re-
peatedly exhorted the Jews of Clermont to embrace
Christianity, but met with no response. The people
of Frankish Gaul at that time were entirely free from
intolerance, and associated with the Jews without
prejudice, intermarriages being frequent among
them. Jews wTere among the shipowners on the
rivers of Gaul and at sea, and distinguished them-
selves as physicians, judges, and warriors. This did
not please the bigoted bishop, who at last had suc-
ceeded in converting one Jew, who was baptized on
Easter Day, April 5, 576. When the new convert
went in a procession through the streets in his white
baptismal robe, he was sprinkled with rancid oil by
a Jew. This act so aroused the mob that they at-
tempted to stone the Jew, but were prevented from
doing so by the bishop. On Ascension Day, May 14,
however, the mob demolished the synagogue. On
the following day the bishop gave the Jews a choice
between baptism and banishment. After hesitating
and delaying for three days, during which time
many were attacked in their houses and some killed,
over five hundred asked to be baptized (May 18,
576). Those who remained true to their religion
emigrated to Marseilles.

Venantius Fortunatus, who at the request of the
historian Gregory of Auvergne, bishop of Tours
(544-595), wrote a poem on this occasion, hints at

357

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Avila

Awani

the fact that the Jews only concluded to be baptized
when they found out that resistance by arms was
impossible (“Cam.” v. a). From Gregory’s letters
to Yirgilius of Arles and to Theodore of Marseilles,
it appears that the Jews who escaped to Marseilles
were later also forced to adopt Christianity.

Bibliography : Gregory of Tours, Histoire Ecclesiastique dc

France , v. 11 (Tarannes edition, ii. 199, Paris, 1837); Dalin,

Urgeschicllte, iii. 177-179; Aronius, Regesten , p. 14; Gratz,

Gescli. der Juden , 3d ed. v. 46.

T. H. R.

AVLONA, AULONA, or VALONA

tw6’3N): Varying names of a town arid seaport of
Albania, ou the Gulf of Avlona, on the Adriatic.
From early times there seems to have been a flour-
ishing Jewish community in the place. Messer
David Leon, born about 1470, son of the philoso-
pher Judah Leon, was in Salonica about 1510, when
lie received an invitation to go to Avlona and assume
charge of the three Jewish congregations there, with
an annual salary of 70 florins. He accepted the offer
because he wished to go to Corfu, and Avlona was
on his way. David preached in the synagogues in
rotation. A quarrel breaking out among the vari-
ous Jewish nationalities of the town, the Sephardim
(comprising under that name the Jews of Portugal
and Castile) separated from the Catalans and organ-
ized a prayer-meeting in the house of Abraham Zar-
fati. Toward the end of the second year of David’s
stay dissensions broke out also among the Sephar-
dim. David sided with the Portuguese, who, he
said, were “hot-tempered but obedient; they are
open and generous, and not hypocritical and proud
like the Castilians.” The Portuguese established a
synagogue for themselves; the Castilians demanded
that David should compel the Portuguese, under
penalty of excommunication, to continue to attend
the former common synagogue. But David de-
clined on the ground that the Portuguese were in
the majority, and therefore had the right to separate
from the minority.

At this juncture there arrived at Avlona a Jewish
physician of Lisbon, Don Solomon Cressente. Slowly
recovering from a serious illness, he offered, in testi-
mony of gratitude to God, a gift of paraphernalia to
the Portuguese synagogue. He intended by this to
bring about the reconciliation of the Castilians with
the Portuguese; and upon the sacred evening of Kol
Nidre (the eve of Atonement Day) he scut messen-
gers to the Castilians in their synagogue to implore
them to pardon the Portuguese for any wrong which
the latter might have done them. But his exertions
were of no avail. The next day, the Day of Atone-
ment, lie requested David to intervene as conciliator ;
but the Castilians refused to obey David’s summons
to come to him for a mutual explanation, and so the
strife grew warmer. The Portuguese, with David
at their head, launched anathemas against the Cas-
tilians, who responded similarly. At the head of
the Castilians at that time were Abraham de Collier
and Abraham Harbon, judge, the former an enemy
of David.

In the question of the conflicting synagogues,
however, Abraham Harbon, who was a friend of
David, pronounced against him, though among other
arguments David had instanced his title of "pDlfO

(“ordained teacher”) to influence the obedience of
the Castilians. The Sephardim, on the other hand,
laughed at the custom of ordaining rabbis (nu'ED)
as practised in France, Germany, and Italy. They
claimed that the ceremony could only be legally per-
formed in Palestine, and that rabbis who performed
it in other countries did so only in imitation of the
Gentiles. Moses ben Jacob Albelda, author of com-
mentaries on various parts of the Bible, also lived
in Avlona toward the end of the sixteenth century
(Conforte, “Kore ha-Dorot,” p. 39«).

Bibliography: Srhechter, Notes sur Messer Daviil Leon, in

Revue Etudes Juives, xxiv. 128 d set/.; Kctiod Hakamim,

ed. S. Bernfeld, in the Mckize Nirdamim collection. Berlin,

1899 ; Ha-Zefirah , xxvti.. No’. 71, p. 291.

g. A. D.

AVVITES, AVVA, AVVIM (in A. V AV-
ITES) : 1. A people mentioned in Deut. ii. 23
as being dispossessed by the Caphtorim. This,
however, could not have taken place before the days
of Joshua, for it is stated in Josh. xiii. 3 that the Is-
raelites upon entering Canaan failed to conquer them ;
and their place of settlement is identical with the one
mentioned in Deut. ii. 23. Although settled in the
Philistine district, they do not appear to have had any-
thing in common with the Philistines; they resemble
rather the class of Bedouins who had made some
progress toward the stage of permanent settlements.

2. A city in the domain of Benjamin, which may
once have been a city of the Avvites (Josh, xviii. 23).

3. The place from which the king of Assyria
brought people, worshipers of Nibliaz and Tartak,
whom he settled in Samaria (II Kings xvii. 31).
Called “Ivvah” in II Kings xviii. 34, xix. 13; Isa.
xxxvii. 13.

j. jr. G. B. L.

AWANI, ISHAK IBN AL- : Head of the
Academy of Bagdad until displaced by a rival ; lived
in the thirteenth century, lie was a content porary of
Al-Harizi, who seems to have made much fun of him.
Referring to his displacement from his academical
position, Al-Harizi accuses him of having paid for the
chair then occupied by another. Awani 's poetry
finds no mercy at the hands of this rigorous critic,
who exhausts his supply of stings upon him. But
Al-Harizi’s judgment upon Awani has proved to be
a most unjust one, being simply the expression of
discontent and revenge for insufficient payment of
his own poetic efforts, or possibly of merely wounded
vanity. Of all Awani’s poems only one has been
preserved, which has recently been published. It
shows, however, sufficiently that the poet deserves a
place among the foremost masters of “ muwashshah ”
(popular poetry). With regard to form, Awani
faithfully observes all the rules of the art. His so-
called “girdle-poem,” which isapoemon friendship,
is strictly metrical and fully rimed, and it shows the
author’s name in acrostic. In contents the poem is
likewise of considerable merit. Babylonian though
he was, he knew and had a skilful mastery of all the
figurative expressions derived by the old Spanish
classical writers from the Arabs and adopted into
Hebrew poetry. The language is pure and free from
all harshness ; the connection is well preserved ; and
the whole is permeated by a genuine poetical spirit.
Hazardous as it may be to pronounce a final judg-

Awia

Ayllon

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

358

ment concerning a poet based on a single poem, it is
nevertheless true that the perusal of this one pro-
duction is sufficient to show that he was no bungler
in the art.

Bibliography: H. Brody, in Zeit. f.-Hebr. Bibl. ii. 157; D.

Kaufmann, ibid. p. 188.

o. H. B.

AWIA or IWIA, BAB : Babylonian amora of
the fourth generation (fourth century), contemporary
of Abaye and Baba (Ber. 286 ; Sliab. 46a), and brother-
in-law of Ramin i b. Pappa (B. B. 1006; Ket. 566;
compare “Aruch Completum,” vii. 277, s.v. DTP).
He was a disciple of R. Joseph, and very strict in
ritual observances. An example of his extreme
scrupulousness is given in Ber. 286; and an instance
of Awia's readiness in halakic argumentation is
quoted in Sliab. 46a. He once visited Raba’s school
with dust on liis shoes. The master intended to
punish him for his breach of etiquette by propound-
ing puzzling questions to him that he hoped Awia
would be unable to answer. Awia, however, stood
the test and came forth victorious. The audience
sympathized with Awia, and Nahman b. Isaac ex-
claimed: “Thanked be the Lord, that Raba did not
succeed in putting Awia to shame ” (Sliab. 22a, 23a,
466, 63a; Bezali 136; Sauli. 14a; Men. 78a; ‘Ar. 116;
Ex. R. i. 11).’

j. sk. S. M.

AWIA SABA (THE ELDER), RAB ; Baby-
lonian lialakist of the third amoraic generation (third
and fourth centuries) , a contemporary of Rab Pappa
(the Elder) and of liabbah b. Hauau(M. K. 246; Kid.
39a). He was a Pumbeditan by birth, but often sat
at the feet of Rab Huna I., who considered him a
great scholar. The Talmud (Bezah 21a; Hul. 1246)
records two instances in which Awia, by his pro-
fundity of reasoning, became troublesome to his
teacher, who, being exhausted by lecturing, broke
up all further discussion by the evasive remark, “ A
raven has flown past.” Awia was probably the fa-
ther of Aha b. Awya.

j. su. S. M.

‘AWIRA, RAB : Babylonian amora of the third
and fourth generations (fourth century); contem-
porary of Abaye and Safra — the latter speaking of
him as of “a scholar coming from the West” (Pales-
tine). ‘Awira had emigrated to Palestine, where he
officiated as usher at a college of “the great teacher”
(probably Ammi); but he returned to his native land
(Hul. 51a), bringing with him many Halakot and
Haggadot of R. Ammi and of R. Assi, in transmit-
ting which he frequently interchanged the names of
the authors (Ber. 206; Pes. 1196 [correct version in
MSS.]; Sotah 46; Git. 7a; Hul. 846; see Ammi).
Besides those which he reported in the names of
others, there are some original homilies by Rab
‘Awira. “Come and see,” he said once, “how un-
like human nature is the nature of the Holy One.
The man of high standing looks up with respect to
a man higher placed than himself, but does not re-
spect his inferior; not so the Holy One: He is su-
preme and yet respects the lowly, as Scripture says
(Ps. cxxxviii. 6), ‘ Though the Lord is high, yet
hath He respect unto the lowly ’ ” (Sotah 5a). [Others
ascribe this to R. Eleazar.]

According to ‘Awira [some ascribe the remark to
R. Joshua b. Levi], “The tempter [evil inclination]
is called by seven different names. The Holy One —
blessed be He! — calls him simply ‘ Evil,’ as it is said
(Geu. viii. 21), ‘ The inclination of man’s heart is
evil ’ ; Moses calls him ‘ The uncircumcised, ’ for so he
says (Dent. x. 16), ‘ Ye shall circumcise the foreskin
(‘“orlat”) of your heart’; David calls him ‘Un-
clean,’ for he prays (Ps. li. 12), ‘Create in me
a clean heart,’ whence it appears that there is an
unclean one ; Solomon calls him ‘ Enemy, ’ for he says
(Prov. xxv. 21, 22), ‘ If thine enemy be hungry, give
him bread [religious nourishment] to eat; and if he
be thirsty, give him water [spiritual refreshment] to
drink,’ etc. (compare Isa. lv. 1, 2); Isaiah calls him
‘Stumbling-block,’ for lie cries (Isa. lvii. 14), ‘Re-
move the stumbling-block out of the way of my
people’; Ezekiel calls him ‘Stone,’ for he says
(Ezek. xxxvi. 26), ‘ I will remove the heart of stone
out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh ’ ;
Joel calls him ‘Lurker,’ for he says (Joel ii. 2J.
Hebr.), ‘ I will remove far off from you the “ zefoni,” ’
which, in the Haggadah, is taken as a symbolical
name of the tempter who lies hidden (‘ zafun ’) in
the heart of man ” (Suk. 52a). Pes. 1106 ; Ket. 112a ;
B. B. 1316; Men. 43a; Hul. 426, 55a.

j. sr. S. M.

AXENFELD, AUGUSTE: French physician ;
born at Odessa Oct. 25, 1825; died at Paris Aug. 25,
1876. He was a son of Israel Aksenfeld. After
completing his school education at his native town,
he went to Paris to study medicine, and in due course
received his diploma as doctor of medicine from the
Sorbonne. For his services during the cholera epi-
demic in Paris in 1849 and 1854 he was awarded two
medals, and after having become a French citizen
he was presented with the great gold medal of the
“Assistance Publique.”

In 1853 Axenfeld became lecturerat the Sorbonne,
and in 1857 was elected a fellow. Shortly afterward
he was appointed physician-in-chief at the hospital
Beaujin, substituting as such professors Andral in
the Ecolede Medecineand Rostanin the Hotel-Dieu.
These positions he retained until 1871, when he was
attacked with the severe cerebral disease which
finally caused his death.

Axenfeld contributed many essays to the publica-
tion of the Societe Anatomique, and was the author
of: ‘“Des Influences Nosocomiales,” Paris, 1857;
“Des Lesions Atropliiques de la MoPlle Epiniere,”
in “Archives Generates, ” 1863; “Traite des Ne-
vroses,” in Requin’s “ Traite de Pathologie Interne,”
published later (1883) by Henri Hucliard; “Jean de
Wier et les Sorciers,” Paris, 1865; and jointly with
Jules Beclard, “Rapport sur les Progr£s de la Me-
decine en France,” Paris, 1867.

Bibliography: Nouveau Diet. Lanmsse Iilmtre, s.v. ;

Pagel, Biographvsehes Lexikon , s.v., Vienna, 1901.

h. r. F. T. H.

AYAS, LEON: Interpreter of the French army
in the Algerian campaign against Abd-el-Kader;
died 1846. He received several wounds in the expe-
ditions in the Oran, during which he captured one of
Abd-el-Kader’s lieutenants.

At the battle against the Bou-Maza he showed

359

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Awia

Ayllon

special bravery; killing five Arabs at a critical mo-
ment of the battle, and receiving wounds of which
he died the following year.

Bibliography: Feraud, Lcs Interpreter AUjfriemr, Rome

Etude # Juives, xxxiv. 51 ; .lost, Neuere Ueschiclite der

lsraeliten, ii. 212, Berlin, 1846.

s. J.

‘AYIN : The sixteenth letter of the Hebrew al-
phabet. Its numerical value is seventy. In its
earlier form it was a circle, a rude picture of the
eye, hence its name (“ ‘Ayin ” = “eye ”). This form
is still to be seen on the Moabite Stone, and also on
the old Hebrew inscription found in theSiloam Pool.
Its pronunciation in modern time ranges from no
sound at all, as in the Judaeo -German pronunciation,
to the nasal ng of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews
One reason for this wide range in pronunciation is
that there were originally two distinct sounds in He-
brew, as in other Semitic languages, both represented
by an ‘Ayin : the one a rough breathing (still retained
in Morocco aud Syria), the other a soft palatal. The
distinction between the two, still indicated in the
transliteration of proper names in the Greek version
of the Old Testament, was gradually lost; in certain
districts the Jews retained in their pronunciation
traces of the palatal (which accounts for the Sephardic
pronunciation), in others all traces of the letter dis-
appeared, and the rough breathing became purely
vocalic (see Zimmern, “ Vergleicliende Grammatik
der Semitischen Sprachen,” § 7). The letter ‘Ayin,
along with the Aleph, Waw, and Yod, has been used
quite extensively in the Yiddish orthography as a
vowel letter, indicating short e.

j. jr. G. B. L.

AYLLON (incorrectly also Aylion, Aelion,
Hillion), SOLOMON BEN JACOB : Haham of
the Sephardic congregations in London aud Am-
sterdam and follower of Shabbethai Zebi; born in
the Orient 1664 (1660 ?); died in Amsterdam April
10, 1728. His name is derived from a town in the
Spanish province Segovia of the name of Ayllon.
Ayllon was neither a general scholar nor a Talmud-
ist of standing, as his responsa (found in Ezekiel
Katzenellenbogen’s “Keneset Yehezkel,” Nos. 3, 5;
in Samuel Aboab’s “Debar Shemuel,” Nos. 320, 324;
in Zebi Ashkenazi’s “Hakam Zebi,” No. 1; in Jacob
Sasportas’ “Ohel Ya'akob,” No. 64) amply show.
See also the anonymous letter quoted by Gratz, “Ge-
schichte,” x. 482 (3d ed.). But his history is closely
interwoven with that of Shabbethaism in both the
East and the West.

Ayllon’s youth was passed in Salonica, which was
probably his birthplace, although some persons as-
sert that Safed was the place, because many Shab-
bethaians claimed to be of Palestinian birth. He
associated with the Shabbetliaian circles of Joseph
Philosoph, Solomon Florentin, and other leading
spirits of antinomian and communistic tendencies.
There he is said to have married as his divinely ap-
pointed spouse a woman from whom another man
had separated without the formality of a divorce,
only to experience that she soon left him for a third
spouse, whose “ affinity ” seemed holier to this strange
sect than the bonds of lawful matrimony (M. Hagis,
“Shebet Posh'im,” 34; the passage is, however,
somewhat obscure). A few years later he visited

Europe as a “meshullah” (messenger) from the Pal-
estinian congregations to collect funds for the poor
of the Holy Land, leaving his wife and children
domiciled in Safed, and having apparently publicly
broken with Shabbethaism. From Leghorn, where
he was in 1688 (Aboab, l.c. 329), he repaired to Am-
sterdam aud thence to London, where, after a few
mouths’ stay, he was appointed haham June 6,
1689. The very next year, however, he was vigor-
ously attacked by a member of the congregation,
named Ruby Fjdanque, who had heard something of
Ayllon’s antecedents. The Mahamad. caring more
for. its dignity than for the truth, endeavored to sup-
press the scandal, but Ayllon's position was so hope-
lessly undermined by the exposure, that all the really

Solomon ben Jacob Ayllon.

(From an engraving by J, Houbraken.)

learned members of the congregation would not sub-
mit to the new haham, which caused considerable
friction, in spite of a pronunciamento (“ haskamah ”)
issued by the Mahamad that under penalty of excom-
munication it was forbidden “to any one except the
appointed haham to lay down the law or to render
any legal decision.” Ayllon, in a letter to Sasportas
(“Ohel Ya'akob,” No. 69) six years later (1696), still
complained bitterly of the unbearable relations be-
tween him and his congregation, anti inasmuch as
his olden Shabbetliaian proclivities began to reassert
themselves, and the congregation just then began to
consider the propriety of asking for his resignation
(M. Hagis, l.c.), he resolved to leave London, and was
glad to accept an appointment as associate rabbi of
the Sephardic congregation of Amsterdam, 1701
Ayllon’s first blunders in his new home took place
when in 1700 he pronounced as harmless a heretical
work by M. Cardozo (probably the work “Boker
Abraham,” still extant in manuscript), which he had
been requested to examine by the Mahamad. This
latter body, however, was somewhat distrustful of
its hakam, aud sought additional opinions from other
learned authorities. They gave as their opinion that

Ayllon

Azankot

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

360

Cardozo’s work merited public burning, and this
sentence was actually carried out. About this time,
too, Zebi Ashkenazi came to Amsterdam as rabbi
of the Ashkenazic community; his advent was a
serious matter to Ayllon, as the former completely
eclipsed his Sephardic colleague by his superior learn-
ing and dignity of character; he was also a noted
heresy-hunter in the matter of the Shabbetliaian
movement. The clash could hardly have been
averted, and Nehemiah Hayyun, a notorious Shab-
bethaian, precipitated it. At the request of M. Hagis,
Ashkenazi examined the works of Hayyun (1711)
and rightly denounced them as heretical; in addition,
he notified the Mahamad of the fact. This august
body, however, did not exactly welcome advice vol-
unteered by a Polish -German rabbi, and replied that,
before taking action, Ashkenazi’s opinion would
have to be fortified by the assent of Ayllon aDd other
members of their own body. Ashkenazi perempto-
rily declined this express invitation to sit in council
with Ayllon, for he was well aware both of his igno-
rance of the Cabala and of his suspected affinity with
Shabbethaism. Ayllon saw in this crisis an oppor-
tunity to make political capital. He persuaded an
influential member of the Mahamad, a certain Aaron
de Pinto, to take up the matter as an attempt on the
part of the German rabbi to interfere with the auton-
omy of the Sephahlic community. It is difficult to
discover whether Ayllon was actuated herein by
secret loyalty to Shabbethaism, or whether, for per-
sonal reasons, he merely sought to clear Hayyun from
the imputation cast upon him. The adventurer was
well acquainted with Ayllon’s antecedents, and it
would have been dangerous to make an enemy of
him. Be this as it may, De Pinto succeeded in hav-
ing a resolution passed by the Mahamad, declining to
permit any such interference in their affairs by the
German rabbi, and requesting Ayllon to appoint a
committee to give an official opinion upon Hayyun’s
work. The finding of this commission was publicly
announced Aug. 7, 1713, in the Portuguese synagogue,
and it ran that Hayyun was innocent of the heresy
charged against him, and that he had been unright-
eously persecuted. The committee consisted of seven
members, but its conclusions represented simply
Ayllon’s opinion, for the other six understood noth-
ing of the matter. The affair, however, could not
be considered closed herewith, for Ashkenazi and
Hagis had already, on July 23, pronounced the
ban of excommunication upon Hayyun and his heret-
ical book. In the protracted discussion which en-
sued between Ayllon and Ashkenazi, a discussion
into which the rabbis of Germany, Austria, and Italy
were drawn, Ayllon made but a sorry figure, al-
though, as far as Amsterdam was concerned, it might
be said to have ended triumphantly for him, seeing
that Ashkenazi was compelled to leave the city.
Not alone did Ayllon permit his protegfe, Hayyun,
to assail the foremost men in Israel with foulest in-
sults, but he supplied him with personal papers
containing attacks upon his opponent Hagis, the un-
founded nature of which lie himself had formerly
admitted and testified to. Ayllon was also no doubt
the rabbi who laid charges against Ashkenazi before
the Amsterdam magistrates, and thus made an In-
ternal dissension of the Jewish community a matter

of public discussion. It is claimed that upon hear-
ing of the death of Ashkenazi in 1718, Ayllon con
fessed that he had wronged the man. It is certain
that when, a few years later, Hayyun visited Am-
sterdam again, he found matters changed so much
that even Ayllon refused to see him.

Ayllon left a cabalistic work, a manuscript of
which is preserved in the library of the Jews’ Col-
lege-in London (Neubauer, Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS.,
No. 125).

Bibliography: (taster. Hist, of Be vis Marks, pp. 22-:) 1,
107-111 ; Griitz, Oescll. der Juden. x. 305, 309-325, 482-487,
3d ed.; I). Kohn, Njro, Eben-ha-Toin, pp. 64-74 (reprint
from Ha-Shalmr, ill.) ; Emden, Megillat Sefer (see Index);
Wolf, Bihl. Hebr. iii. 1026, iv. 974 ; Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl.
No. 3112. See also Ashkenazi, Zebi; Hayyun, N.; Nieto,
David.

L. G.

AYYAS, JACOB MOSES : Son of Judah Ay-

yas; lived at Jerusalem, whence he was sent abroad
to collect money for the Palestine poor. In 1783 he
visited Algiers, where he was received with great
honor. Following a call to Ferrara, he settled there
as rabbi and teacher. One of his pupils was Nepi,
the associate author of “Toledot Gedole Yisrael.”
Ayyas wrote “Derek Hayyim” (The Way of Life),
treating of annulment of vows, of the ceremony
known as Tashlik, etc., Leghorn, 1810.
Bibliography: Benjacoh, Ozar ha-Sefarim, p. 116.

h. G. M. B.

AYYAS, JUDAH : A commentator and casuist ;
born in North Africa about 1690; died at Jerusalem
Sept. 1 1 , 1760. He pursued his Talmudic studies at
Algiers under the supervision of Solomon Zeror,
rabbi of that city. From 1728 to 1756 Ayyas offici-
ated as dayyan of Algiers, in which capacity lie was
very popular and much consulted on ritual ques-
tions. In 1756 he went by way of Leghorn to Jeru-
salem, where lie spent the closing years of his life.
The chief motive for his departure seems to have
been the progressive spirit that began to make itself
felt in the Algerian community. Ayyas was a strict
Talmudist, a keen casuist, but narrow-minded and
without any sympathy for questions outside the do-
main of Halakah. He wrote: (1) “ Lehem Yehudah”
(The Bread of Judah), a commentary on Maimonides’
“Yad ha-Hazakah” (Leghorn, 1745). (2) “Bet Ye-
hudah” (Judah’s House), responsa on the four
“ Turim ” (Leghorn, 1746). This latter work throws
some light on the social and economic conditions of
the Jewry of North Africa in Ayyas’ days. From
the fifth responsum in Eben ha-‘Ezer, for instance,
it appears that cases of bigamy were not rare among
Oriental Jews of the eighteenth century. Appended
to it. are the communal regulations of Algiers as laid
down by R. Joseph ben Sheshet(ty 2'1)and R. Simon
ben Zemah Duran ()* "2BH). (3) “ Wezotli Yehudah ”
(And This Too Is Judah’s), commentaries on various
subjects (Leghorn, 1776). (4) “Bene Yehudah ” (Ju-
dah’s Sons), on the terminology and style of Mai-
monides, Tosafot and Mizrahi; this work contains
also some responsa; appended to it is a treatise, “Ot
Berit” (The Sign of the Covenant), on circumcision
(Leghorn, 1758). (5) .“ Matteli Yehudah ” (The Tribe
of Judah) and (6) “Shebet Yehudah ” (Leghorn, 1783,
1788), containing novelise on Shulhan ‘Aruk, Orah
Hayyim, and Yoreh De‘ah. (7)“‘Afra de Ar‘a”

361

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ayllon

Azankot

(The Dust of the Earth), a commentary oil Jacob
Algazi’s “Ar'a de Rabbanan” (Leghorn, 1783).

Bibliography: Literaturblatt des Orients , ix. 585; Blocb,

Inscriptions Tumulaires , pp. 85 et seq.

n. M. B.

AZ SHESH MEOT (niND W TN) : A poem of
three stanzas by R. Elias Priscus, introduced in the
northern liturgy at the conclusion of the piyyutim
in the Additional Service on the Feast of Weeks. A
paraphrase is given below of the two melodies asso-
ciated with the poem: both are equally quotations
from the music of the Days of Penitence, and afford
(the more usually followed intonation especially) an
excellent illustration of the hermeneutical feeling by

and the persistence of the practise shows that his
intention was widely understood and appreciated.

The melody transferred already contained within
itself a quotation, in the phrase between the points
marked here “ A ” and “ B,” which had been excerpted
from the melody of Iyol Nidre. It had been intro-
duced because at that point in the original text men-
tion was made of the Day of Atonement, on which
alone “ Kol Nidre ” is sung. For this employment
of a snatch of tune associated with a particular serv-
ice as a representative theme of some idea suggested
by that service or enshrined in the object of the oc-
casion, see the general article Mosic, Synagogai,.

a. F. L. C.

AZ SHESH ME’OT

Andante maestoso.

t Is

q q q — q

0 ' » m _

** m _

,11

-q —

-y- . * *

— * — * — •

1. Six hun -

dred and

thir -

teen re -

vealed the Lord

To Is - ra

- el,

His wise . . .

com -

2. Be - lov -

ed ones,

give

them your

con -

slant heed;

Ye cho - sen,

seek

their mean -

ing

3. On high

was glee,

the

low - ly

sang for joy,

When we re -

ceived the Law . .

on - f •

7 > . ' - ...

Tl _ 1 N*

. 0

a w 1 .

zz ri n

L_ — r _i

7 0

3 ~

mands:

Who break

His

laws

are

ch a - stened

Ilis hands.

Who keep

them

deep ;

With

wis -

dom

stud -

2/,

with of -

fee

- tion

keep.

God of

our

Life.

she

decked

with grace, the

new

wed

wife,

Whom to

her

Ti.

•0

-p—

m m •

•

* / >

■ "S'

} — “ 1 —

—

1 1

U__|

— 0 —

F ~

“I*

well shall

find

their full

re -

ward.

now

pure

Ilis

words re - fin

- ed

strength, in

this .

- gard ■

our

meed.

Re -

ceive

our

sup - pH - ca

- tion

home with

glad

ness all

con

voy,

that

won-drous scene His

sev - en - fold, As - sayed as... sil - ver test - ed... as fine gold!

in Thy grace. And grant the... prayer of them that., seek Thy face!

Bride was named. When He this . . day the Ten great Words pro - claimed.

which so much of the traditional melody of the
hazan has been guided in its shaping. The noble
version here transcribed as sung in the “musaf”
of the Feast of Weeks is quoted bodily from the
same service of the Days of Memorial and of Atone-
ment, where it is associated with that second part of
the piyyut “ U-netanneh Tokef,” legendarily associ-
ated with R. Amnon of Mayence, in which the
Talmudical theory (R. H. 166) of the writing and
sealing of man’s fate at the commencement and end
of the Days of Penitence is rhapsodically developed.
Reflecting that the destiny of man is in the end de-
pendent upon his own obedience or disobedience to
the Law, some old-time hazan considered that he
might melodiously emphasize this Jewish doctrine
of personal responsibility when singing of the giv-
ing of that Law. With this object he chanted “ Az
Shesh Meot ” to the melody of “ U-netanneh Tokef ” ;

AZAL (R. V. AZEL) : A place near Jerusalem,
but the exact position can not be determined (Zech.
xiv. 5). It is supposed by some to be the same as
Beth-ezel (Micali i. 11). Clermont-Ganneau identities
it with the Wadi Yasul.

J. JR. G. B. L.

AZANKOT (DlpJTN), SAADIA B. LEVI:

Orientalist of Morocco; lived in Holland in the first
half of the seventeenth century. He was teacher
of Jewish literature to Hottinger. There exists a
versified paraphrase of Esther by him, which was
printed underthe title “Iggeret lia-Purim,” Amster-
dam, 1647. The Bodleian Library has two manu-
scripts bearing his name: one containing a tran-
scription of Maimonides’ “Dalalat al-Hai'rin ” in
Arabic characters, which Azankot made for Golius;
the other manuscript containing the Hebrew transla-

Azareel

Azariah.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

362

tion of the “ Lamiat al-Ayam ” of Husain b. Ali, ap-
pended to a printed copy of the same.

Bibliography : Neubauer, Cat. Bodl. He.br. MSS. Nos. 1240

and 1438; Steinscbneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 2227.

g. H. Hill.

AZAREEL (R. V. AZAREL, “God is help”):

1. One of those who came to David at Ziklag (I
Cliron. xii. 7).

2. Son of Jeroliam, chief of the tribe of Dan when
David made the enumeration of the people (I Cliron.
xxvii. 22). 3. A Levite, son of Heman, to whom

fell the eleventh lot in the apportionment made by
David for the choral service of the Temple (I Chrou.
xxv. 18). 4. One of the sons of Bani, who had

taken a foreign wife (Ezra x. 41). 5. A priest (Neh.

xi. 13, xii. 36) who played a musical instrument at
the dedication of the wall. Here the name is spelled
“ Azarael.”

j. jr. G. B. L.

AZARIA BEN JOSEPH IBN ABBA MARI

(also called Bonafoux or Bonfos Bonfil Astruc) :

One of the last Jewish writers coming from Per-
pignan, France. He flourished in the first half of
the fifteenth century. A rising against the Jews
was the cause of his leaving his native city. Neu-
bauer (“Ecrivains Juifs,” p. 759; see also “Revue
Etudes Juives,” v. 41) places this riot in the year
1414, when the friar Vincent P’errer roused the angry
passions of the mob against the Jews for refusing
baptism (see Griitz, “Gescli. der Juden,” viii. 123);
but Gross (“Gallia Judaica,” p. 473) is rather in-
clined to place the date in 1420, when the Jews of
Perpignan were exposed to all manner of vexatious
proceedings byr the Inquisition (“Revue Etudes
Juives,” xvi. 14).

Be this as it may, Azaria had, in 1423, settled
with his son in Italy, where he translated from Latin
into Hebrew the following works: (1) “De Cousola-
tione Philosophue ” of Boethius (lived 470-524).
Boethius was the only early Latin writer whose
works were translated into Hebrew. The preface
■of the translator informs us that it was commenced
Tebet28, 5183 (i.e., 1423) at Torre Maestratade Mon-
telfelatra (probably Macerata di Monte Feltro), in
the province of Urbino Pesaro, and finished the same
yearatCastel San Pietro, in the province of Bologna.
(2) A translation of the 28th book of the medical
work entitled “ Liber Practice, ” by Zahrawi (eleventh
•century), after the Latin of Simon of Genoa, was
finished November, 1429, at Senise in the province
of Basilicate. Neubauer maintains that Azaria made
his translation not from the Arabic original, but
from a translation made by Abraham of Tortosa, son
•of Shem-Tob, sou of Isaac, who translated, in 1254,
•the whole work of Zahrawi at Marseilles (“Rabbins
Fran^ais,” p. 592). (3) A translation from the Latin

of the second book of the “Simplicia” by the physi-
cian Dioscorides. The following is Azaria’s brief
introduction to this translation (Neubauer, “Revue
des Etudes Juives,” v. 46):

“ It often happens that physicians find themselves in places
where they can not procure required drugs except with great
difficulty, and hence are placed in great embarrassment. This
is particularly the case with those of our coreligionists who are j
obliged to dwell in villages or in the mountains to gain their
living. There are places where one can not And a variety
of drugs wherewith to make the necessary medicaments. [

Therefore, I, Azaria, called Bonafoux in the vulgar tongue, have
translated this alphabetical table which I found in use among
Christians, entitled in Greek ilepi ["Book

of the Equivalents of Drugs ”], composed by the philosopher and
physician Dioscorides for his uncle.”

Bibliography : In addition to the works mentioned above, see

Steinscbneider, Hebr. Uebers. pp. 466, 650, 740.

g. S. K.

AZARIA B. MOSES DE ROSSI. See Rossi.

AZARIAH. — Biblical Data : The name given
to twenty-six different persons in the Old Testa-
ment. The most important are:

1. A noble in the court of Solomon. According
to I Kings iv. 2, he was the son of Zadok the priest.

I Cliron. v. 35 [A. V. vi. 9] makes him the son of
Aliimaaz and grandson of Zadok. The same gene-
alogical list (next verse) states that he in turn had a
grandson bearing the same name who “executed the
priest’s office in the house that Solomon built in Jeru-
salem. ” Since Zadok figured as a prominent priestly
noble in the court of Solomon, it seems more likely
that not his grandson, but his son (as is stated by the
older narrative of I Kings), occupied a similar posi-
tion, probably succeeding his father in the high-
priestly office. In that case the reference in I Chrou.
would apply to Azariah, the son of Zadok, rather than
to Azariah’s grandson. Similarity of name may have
been the cause of the displacement at the hand of
some later copyist.

2. The grandson of the Azariah of Solomon’s
reign and father of Amariali, who was high priest
during the reign of Jehoshapliat (I Chrou. v. 36
[A. V. vi. 10] ; Ezra vii. 3).

3. The second Book of Chronicles (xxvi. 16-20),
in assigning a cause for the leprosy of King Uzziah,
states that the king impiously attempted to burn
incense on the altar, and that Azariah “ the priest ”
(that is, the high priest), with eighty attendant
priests, opposed him, warning him that he as a lay-
man had no right to burn incense to Yhwh. As
a punishment for his impiety and his anger against
the priests, Uzziah wasat once smitten with leprosy.
Josephus adds that an earthquake further evinced
the divine disapproval (“Ant.” ix. 10, §4). This
tradition of Josephus clearly arose from an associa-
tion of the earthquake in the reign of Uzziah, re-
ferred to in Amos i. 1 and Zecli. xiv. 5, with the
story of the chronicler. The older narrative of
Kings simply states that “the Lord smote the king,
so that he was a leper ” (II Kings xv. 5). The gene-
alogical list in I Cliron. v. [A. V. vi.], purporting to
give the complete line of high priests in Judah,
assigns to the reign of Uzziah none bearing the name
of Azariah. The point of view of the entire story in

II Chronicles is not that of the days of the kingdom,
when it was the duty of the king to present offerings
and burn incense (I Kings ix. 25), but of the late
post-exilic period when the chronicler wrote. It has
a close kinship with other traditions peculiar to him
or to his age, and frequently introduced into his ec-
clesiastical history. Its aim was clearly to explain
the horrible affliction of one who figures in the ear-
lier narratives as a just and benign ruler; and also
to point a priestly moral.

j. jr. C. F. K.

In Rabbinical Literature : The Haggadah

identifies Azariah, chief priest under Uzziah, with

363

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Azareel

Azariah

the high priest Azariah of whom it is stated, as a
special distinction, “ He it is that executed the priest’s
office in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem ”
(I Chron. v. 36 [A. V. vi. 10]), to indicate that he
guarded the sanctity of the Temple from the sinful
king Uzziah at the risk of his life (Sifre Zutta, cited
in Yalk., Num. 754).

J. sit. L. G.

4. According to II Chron. xxxi. 10, 13, a certain
Azariah of the house of Zadok was chief priest and
“ruler of the house of God” during the reign of
Hezekiah. During his liigh-priesthood, chambers
were built in the Temple to receive the oblations of
the people.

5. The Levite Azariah (probably distinct from the
preceding), whose son Joel is described by the chron-
icler (II Chron. xxix. 12) as active in carrying out
the command of Hezekiah to cleanse the Temple.

6. Associated with the same traditional cleansing
of the Temple in the days of Hezekiah was a third
Azariah described as a Levite of the sons of Merari
(II Chron. xxix. 12).

7. Son of the high priest Hilkiah, who was con-
nected with the reformation of Josiah (I Chron. v.
39, 40 [R. Y. vi. 13, 14] ; in part, Ezra vii. 1). It
was his son Seraiah who was put to death by Nebu-
chadnezzar. Perhaps it was this Azariah who gave
his name to the priestly clan that figured in the ref-
ormation of Ezra and Nehemiah (Neh. x. 3 [R.V. 2]).

J. jr. C. F. K.

8. Son of Nathan, chief of the officers of Solomon
(I Kings iv. 5).

9. Son of Hosliaiali, one of the men who disre-
garded the words of Jeremiah, and persisted in going
to Egypt, taking the prophet along with them (Jer.
xliii. 2).

10. The Hebrew name for Abed-nego, the com-
panion of Daniel (Dan. i. 6 et seq.).

J. jk. G. B. L.

In Rabbinical Literature : Azariah and his

friends Hananiali and Mishael were of royal lineage,
like their colleague in the royal service, Daniel, being
descendants of Hezekiah, to whom the prophet Isaiah
had announced concerning them (Isa. xxxix. 7),“ and
of thy sons there shall be eunuchs in the palace of
the king of Babylon” (Sanli. 935; Pirke R. Eliezer
lii. ; Jerome, in his Commentary on Isaiah; Origines
on Matt. xv. 5; a dissenting view in the Talmud,
Sanh. l.c., contends that only Daniel was a Judean;
his friends belonging to other tribes). The cause of
their having been eunuchs was the fact that the
enemies of the Jews had accused them before King
Nebuchadnezzar of leading impure lives, especially
with the wivesof the noble Babylonians, and in order
to show the falsity of this accusation they mutilated
themselves, and when arraigned before Nebuchad-
nezzar, they were not only able to refer to the Deca-
alogue (Ex. xx. 14), which enforces chastity upon the
Jew, but were also able to prove how unfounded
was the accusation (Midr. Megillah, published by
Gaster, in “Semitic Studies,” p. 176).

Azariah and his friends were able to control them-
selves even to the suppression of every human incli-
nation, and they were eminently fit for the service of
the court (Dan. i. 4) because they did not permit
themselves to be overcome by sleep or other needs

(Sanh. l.c.). Devoted to their mundane ruler, they
were equally faithful to their heavenly Father, obey-
ing His commands strictly and keeping the Sabbath
holy (Eliyalm R. xxvi. ; Sanh. l.c.).
His Their faithfulness to the Jewish re-
Strength ligion was demonstrated by their refu-
and sal to show homage to the idol erected
Faith. by Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. iii. ), al-
though it was in reality no idolatry that
was required of them, but rather an act of homage to
the king’s statue. They gave their lives for the glori-
fication of the Eternal, saying, “If soulless animals
like frogs hastened into the burning ovens of the
Egyptians (Ex. vii. 28), how much more reason is there
for us to do similarly ” (Pes. 535; compare Tosafot,
under the word no). Azariah and his friends Ilan-
aniah and Mishael were the men chosen as Jewish
delegates to show homage to the statue, Nebuchad-
nezzar having commanded each nation to send three
envoys on this occasion. They came to Daniel for
advice ; he sent them to the prophet Ezekiel, who ad-
vised them not to risk their lives, but rather to try to
evade the command by flight. Although the prophet
based his advice on the authority of Isaiah (compare
Isa. xxvi. 20), they determined openly to insult the
king’s statue so that all the nations should say,
“All peoples did homage to the image, Israel alone
refused ! ” As Ezekiel could not make them desist
from their plan, he bade them wait at least until he
had questioned God; but the Almighty said to him:
“Let them not depend upon Me herein, for it is pre-
cisely through the sinfulness of such aristocrats as
they among My people, that My house is destroyed,
My palace in ashes, and My children exiled among
the heathens.” This response, however, only con-
firmed their determination, and they each proceeded
to a different point and there proclaimed loudly,
“We will not serve thy gods, O king, nor worship
the golden image which thou hast set up, even
though God sustain us not” (Dan. iii. 18; verse 17,
however, explicitly expresses faith in God’s assist-
ance). When they had thus proven their pious de-
termination, it was revealed to the prophet Ezekiel
that God would nevertheless intervene in their be-
half, the former reply having been simply to lest
their fortitude (Cant. R. to vii. 8).

When brought before him, Nebuchadnezzar re-
minded the young men that the Jews had freely
worshiped idols before the destruction
Opposes of Jerusalem, thus affording them a
Idol- precedent; he also referred them to the
Worship, words of Jeremiah (xxvii. 8), threat-
ening destruction to all who should
not obey Nebuchadnezzar; and appealing finally to
the prophecy of Moses himself (Deut. iv. 28), predict-
ing that the Jews would serve idols when scattered'
among the nations. But the three men remained
steadfast, and intimated to the monarch that he
might command their full obedience in such matters
as taxes and imposts, but that in religious matters
they could not obey. This defiance so enraged the
king that he ordered them thrown into the fiery fur-
nace (Lev. R. xxxiii. 6; compare also Tan., Noah,
10; ed. Buber, xv., and the parallel passages cited
by Buber in note 130). Cast into the furnace, the
men raised their eyes to heaven and prayed, “ Lord of

Azariah

Azazel

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

364

the universe, Thou knowest we did this thing not in
reliance upon our own good deeds, but in reliance
upon Thee, who wilt not permit the heathen to say,
Where is their God ? ” (Tanhuma, l.c. ; the words here
ascribed to the pious victims area paraphrase of Ps.
cxv. 1, 2, which psalm, according to Pes. 117 a, was
composed by these three men; compare also Ex. It.
ix. 1, xviii. 4). The furnace into which they were
thrown was so well heated with naphtha, tow, tar,
and dry branches that the flames rose forty-nine
cubits above the furnace, destroying all Chaldeans
who were standing by (Septuagint and Theodotion
on Dan. iii.47; compare also Sank. 926 ; Cant.R.vii. 9.)

The angel of the hailstorm, Yurkami, craved
divine permission to cool the furnace, but the task
was entrusted to the archangel Gabriel, who so
arranged matters that the interior of the furnace was
cooled, but its exterior was so furiously glowing
that all heathens who gathered to the spectacle per-
ished (Pes. 118«, />■, different in Tan. l.c., which states
that God Himself delivered the victims; compare
also Ex. R. xviii. 4). In the midst of the flames,
Azariah meanwhile intoned a penitential prayer and
confession of sins, in which his friends
In the joined, acknowledging God’s supreme
Fiery justice; and when presently a strong

Furnace, wind, laden with moisture, blew
through the furnace, they broke into
a song of thanksgiving (Septuagint and Theodotion,
ib. iii. 26-90). The extinction of the flames was
but one of six miracles happening upon that day,
which happened to be both the Sabbath and the Day
of Atonement. The fiery furnace, which had been
sunk deep in the ground, rose upon its foundations and
its walls fell apart: four adjoining nations, hostile to
the Jews, were burned by it; Nebuchadnezzar him-
self suffered from its fury, his statue being over-
thrown; and it was this identical wind-storm which
reanimated the dead of Ezekiel’s vision (Ez. xxxvii.
9) at God’s command (Sanlx. l.c. ; Cant. R .l.c.). When
the furnace fell, the men refused obedience to the
angel’s suggestion that they should leave the ruins,
saying that they would not leave until Nebuchad-
nezzar would order them to do so, as otherwise it
would look as if they bed run away (Tan. l.c.).
When Nebuchadnezzar at length approached to bid
them come forth, he recognized in the fourth per-
sonage present the angel Gabriel, whom he had seen
previously, destroying the army of Sennacherib be-
fore Jerusalem (Yalk., Dan. 1062).

The deliverance of these three men from the fur-
nace made a deep impression upon the surround-
ing nations, who came to them and remonstrated
with them: “You knew that your God could per-
form such great miracles; how, then, could you
through your sinfulness bring about the destruction
of His house and the banishment of His children? ”
They then so forcibly expressed their contempt for
so rebellious a people, that the princes exclaimed, “O
Lord, righteousness belongetli to Thee, but unto us
confusion of face as at this day ” (Dan. ix. 7) (Pesikta,
ed. Buber, xi. 99r«; Sanh. 93a).

According to one account, Hananiah, Misliael, and
Azariah died on the spot; but, according to other
accounts, they left Babylonia and settled in Pales-
tine, where they married and had descendants, their

sojourn in the furnace having remedied all their
physical deformities (Sanh. l.c. ; Ycr. Slurb, vi., end,
8d). Here they became the friends of the high priest
Joshua, and in view of their past they were consid-
ered “ men that are a sign ” (Zecli. iii. 8). Another
result of the deliverance of these men was that the
heathens broke up their idols and fashioned bells and
spangles out of them, which they hung around the
necks of their dogs and asses. The piety of Hanan-
iah, Misliael, and Azariah has remained imperishable
in the memory of the people, so that, for instance,
when the supports of the order of the universe are
spoken of, these men are referred to as its pillars
(Cant. R. vii. 9).

Bibliography: Briill, JahrhUcher, viii. 23-27.

j. sr. L. G.

11. Son of Maaseiah, who rebuilt part of the wall
of Jerusalem in the days of Neliemiah (Nell. iii. 23).

12. A leader who came with Zerubbabel (Nell.

vii. 7). In the parallel account of Ezra ii. 2 he is
called “Seraiali.”

13. One of those who explained the Law (Neb.

viii. 7).

14. One of “ those that sealed ” the covenant with
Neliemiah (Nell. x. 3 [R. Y. 2]).

15. A member of the tribe of Judah who took
part in the dedication of the wall (Neh. xii. 33).

16. Son of Ethan, mentioned iu the genealogy of
Judah (I Chron. ii. 8).

17. A Jeralimeelite (I Chron. ii. 38, 39).

18. The same as Uzziah, which see.

19. A Koliathite Levite (I Chron. vi. 21 [R. V.
vi. 36]).

20. A priest residing in Jerusalem (I Chron.

ix. 11).

21. Son of Oded, who, meeting the victorious
army of Asa at Mareskali, on its return from the
campaign against Zerah the Ethiopian, urged the
necessity of a religious reform (II Chron. xv. 1-8).

22 and 23. Two sons of Jelioshaphat (II Chron.
xxi. 2).

24. Son of Jeroham, captain of a hundred (II
Chron. xxiii. 1).

25. Son of Obed, also captain of a hundred (II
Chron. xxiii. 1).

26. Son of Jolianan, an Epliraimite who refused
to accept the booty taken by Israel from Judah (II
Chron. xxviii. 12).

In II Chron. xxii. 6 “Azariah” is an error for
“ Ahaziah.”

j. jr. G. B. L.

AZARIAH : A Palestinian scholar of the fourth
amoraic generation (fourth century), often quoted
in conjunction with R. Alia (Lev. R. vi. 5; Cant.
R. to v. 16), R. Judan (Gen. R. xlvii. ; Cant. R.
to i. 4), and R. Judah b. Simon (Gen. R. xv. ;
Cant. R. to i. 2). Although his name appears in
connection with some Halakot (Yer. Sliab. vii. 9/;;
Yer. Pes. i. 28a), it is doubtful whether he ever be-
came interested in legal topics ; and the kalakio ques-
tions with which his name is associated probably
belong to R. Ezra (compare Frankel, “Mebo,” p.
1204). Nor can the names of his teachers be defi-
nitely ascertained. Azariah transmits Haggadot in
the name of leading amoraim of earlier generations.

365

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Azariah

Azazel

such as Hanina (Joliauau) b. Pappa (Gen. R. xlv. ;
Cant. R. to ii. 14), Simeon b. Lakisli (Yer. Ber. i. 2d ;
Tan., Bereshit, ed. Buber, 15), and Johanan (Gen. R.
xcviii. 5) ; and lie also quotes his own contemporaries.
Nevertheless, the assumption that he was a disciple
of R. Mana II. (compare Bacher, “Ag. Pal. Amor.”
iii. 449, 458) is untenable, because both R. Cohen and
R. Tanhuma — the former a predecessor, the latter
a contemporary, of R. Mana — report in the name
of R. Azariah, which shows that he was a prede-
cessor of both and of R. Mana (Ruth R. to i. 19;
Esther R. to i. 2). For the same reason the identifi-
cation of R. Ezra with R. Azariah (Bacher, l.c. 450)
is inadmissible. The two names represent two dis-
tinct persons, who flourished in different generations,
and, it seems, occupied themselves with different
branches of rabbinic lore (compare Ezka).

R. Azariah was a versatile haggadist, to whom
even single letters suggested ideas. Thus in the
triliteral term “eshel” = the tamarisk; which,
according to Gen. xxi. 33, Abraham planted at Beer-
sheba), Azariah discovers three important duties
connected with hospitality; the furnishing of the
guest with meat with drink (IVHG?), an(l

with an escort (rv6) (Midr. Teh. cx. 1 ; see note in
ed. Buber). According to him, the distinction con-
ferred on the tribal princes of Ephraim and Manasseh
at the consecration of the Tabernacle — the former
offering his gifts on the Sabbath day and the latter
immediately following him — was owing to the merits
of their ancestor Joseph. The Lord said to Joseph :
“Thou hast kept inviolate the seventh command-
ment and the eighth commandment, in that thou hast
had no dealings with Potipliar’s wife and hast not
stolen of Potiphar’s goods, nor dishonored his house;
and a time will come when I shall reward thee;
when the princes of the tribes shall come to conse-
crate the altar, the princes descended from thy two
sons will approach one after the other with their of-
ferings, and none will intervene between them, even
as nothing intervenes between the two command-
ments thou hast kept.” Therefore we find it written
(Num. vii. 48), “ On the seventh day . . . the prince
of the children of Ephraim offered,” and ( ib . 54), “on
the eighth day, . . . the prince of the children of
Manasseh” (Num. R. xiv. 7; Tan., Naso, 28). The
Biblical simile (Cant. ii. 3), “As the apple-tree is
among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved
among the sons,” he thus explains (Cant. R. to l.c.):
“As the apple-tree ripens its fruit only in the month
of Siwan, so Israel emitted sweet savor (manifest
ripeness for the reception of the Law) in the month
of Siwan (Ex. xix. 1 et seq.)\ and as the apple-tree
occupies fifty days between budding and ripening
its fruit, so did Israel take fifty days between the
exodus aud the reception of the Torah.” (Tan., ed.
Buber, Index ; Midr. Teh., ed. Buber, Index ; Pesik.,
ed. Buber, pp. la, 2b, 28 b, 39a, 42a, 50a, 51 a, 61a,
99a, 1036, 1165, 125a, 1315, 139a, 166a, 1795, 1925;
Pesik. R., ed. Friedmann, Index; see also Bacher,
“Ag. Pal. Amor.” iii. 458-465.)

J. sr. S. M.

AZARIAH, MENAHEM HA-KOHEN :
Author and translator; born at Furth, Germany;
flourished at Amsterdam in 1727. He edited Eliezer

ha-Ka tan’s (his father-in-law’s) “ Shulhan ‘Aruk,”
an extract from the first volume of the Shulhan
‘Aruk, Furth, 1696-97. Appended to this work is
Azariah’s short commentary on the thirteen herme-
neutic rules. He later removed to Amsterdam,
where he published in 1727 his “Meziat ‘Azariah”
(Azariah’s Find), a Judaeo-German translation of
Moses Sulzbacli’s “ Sam Hayyim” (Tincture of Life)
— an ethical work in rimed prose, which he provided
with an exhaustive introduction and epilogue. A
second edition of this translation was published at
Zolkiew, Galicia, 1795.

Bibliography : Benjacob, Ozar ha-Sefarim, pp. 3(53, 588.

r,. g. M. B.

AZARIAS : General in the army of Judas Mac-
cabeus, who, together with Joseph, soil of Zacharias,
was left in command of the Judean army (165 b.c.)
when Judasand Jonathan were absent in Gilead and
Simon in Galilee. Orders had been given to Azarias
to remain passive and not to engage in battle before
the return of the leaders. Azarias, however, became
restless upon hearing of the deeds of valor which
others had performed, and went out to battle with
the enemy at Jamnia. He was nevertheless beaten
back by the Syrian general Gorgias, with a loss of
two thousand men.

Bibliography : I Maccabees, v. 18. 19, 55-02 ; Josephus, Ant.

xii. 8, § (5 ; Schiirer, Ueschichte, i. 164.

K. G.

AZAZ : A Reubcnite, father of Bela and son of
Shema (I Chron. v. 8). G. B. L.

AZAZEL (Scapegoat, Lev. xvi., A. V ): The
name of a supernatural being mentioned in con-
nection with the ritual of the Day of Atonement (Lev.
x vi.). After Satan, for whom he was in some degree
a preparation, Azazel enjoys the distinction of being
the most mysterious extrahuman character in sacred
literature. Unlike other Hebrew proper names, the
name itself is obscure.

Biblical Data : In Lev. xvi. the single allusion

to Azazel is as follows: On the tenth day of Tisliri
(see Atonement Day) the high priest, after first per-
forming the prescribed sacrifices for himself and his
family, presented the victims for the sins of the peo-
ple. These wTere a ram for a burnt offering, and twro
young goats fora sin-offering. Having brought the
goats before Yhwh at the door of the tabernacle, he
cast lots for them, the one lot “for Yhwh ” and the
other “for Azazel.” The goat that fell to Yhwh
was slain as a sin-offering for the people. But the
goat of Azazel (now usually known as the “scape-
goat ”) was made the subject of a more striking cer-
emony. The high priest laid his hands upon its head
and confessed over it the sins of the people. Then
the victim was handed over to a man standing ready
for the purpose, and, laden as it was with these im-
puted sins, it was “led forth to an isolated region,”
and then let go in the wilderness.

j. .tr. J. F. McC.

In Biblical, Apocryphal, and Rabbinical

Literature : The Rabbis, interpreting “Azazel ” as
“Azaz” (rugged), aud “el” (strong), refer it to the
rugged and rough mountain cliff from which the
goat was cast down (Yoma 675; Sifra, Ahare, ii. 2;
Targ. Yer. Lev. xiv. 10, and most medieval com-

Azazel

Azban

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

366

mentators). Most modern scholars, after having for
some time indorsed the old view, have accepted the
opinion mysteriously hinted at by Ibn Ezra and ex-
pressly stated by Nahmanides to Lev. xvi. 8, that
Azazel belongs to the class of “ se'irim,” goat-like
demons, jinn haunting the desert, to which the Israel-
ites were wont to offer sacrifice (Lev. xvii. 7 [A. V.
“devils”]; compare “the roes and the hinds,” Cant,
ii. 7, iii. 5, by which Sulamith administers an oath
to the daughters of Jerusalem). The critics were
probably thinking of a Homan faun.

Far from involving the recognition of Azazel as a
deity, the sending of the goat was, as stated by
Nahmanides, a symbolic expression of
Azazel the idea that the people’s sins and
Personifi- their evil consequences were to be sent
cation of back to the spirit of desolation and
Impurity, ruin, the source of all impurity. The
very fact that the two goats were pre-
sented before Yiiwh before the one was sacrificed
and the other sent into the wilderness, was proof
that Azazel was not ranked with Yiiwh, but re-
garded simply as the personification of wickedness
in contrast with the righteous government of Ymvn.
The rite, resembling, on the one hand, the sending
off of the epha with the woman embodying wicked-
ness in its midst to the land of Shinar in the vision
of Zachariah (v. 6-11), and, on the other, the letting
loose of the living bird into the open field in the case
of the leper healed from the plague (Lev. xiv. 7),
was, indeed, viewed by the people of Jerusalem as a
means of ridding themselves of the sins of the year.
So would the crowd, called Babylonians or Alexan-
drians, pull the goat’s hair to make it hasten forth,
carrying the burden of sins away with it (Yoma vi.
4, 666; “Epistle of Barnabas,” vii. ), and the arrival
of the shattered animal at the bottom of the valley
of the rock of Bet Hadudo, twelve miles away from
the city, was signalized by the waving of shawls to
the people of Jerusalem, who celebrated the event
with boisterous hilarity and amid dancing on the
hills (Yoma vi. 6, 8; Ta‘an. iv. 8). Evidently the
figure of Azazel was an object of general fear and
awe rather than, as has been conjectured, a foreign
product or the invention of a late lawgiver. Nay,
more ; as a demon of the desert, it seems to have been
closely interwoven with the mountainous region of
Jerusalem and of ancient pre-Israelitish origin.

This is confirmed by the Book of Enoch, which
brings Azazel into connection with the Biblical
story of the fall of the angels, located,
Leader obviously in accordance with ancient
of the folk-lore, on Mount Hermon as a sort
Rebellious of an old Semitic Blocksberg, a gath-
Angels. ering-place of demons from of old
(Enoch xiii. ; compare Brandt, “ Man-
daischc Theologie,” 1889, p. 38). Azazel is repre-
sented in the Book of Enoch as the leader of the re-
bellious giants in the time preceding the flood ; he
taught men the art of warfare, of making swords,
knives, shields, and coats of mail, and women the
art of deception by ornamenting the body, dyeing
the hair, and painting the face and the eyebrows,
and also revealed to the people the secrets of witch-
craft and corrupted their manners, leading them into
wickedness and impurity ; until at last he was, at

the Lord’s command, bound hand and foot by the
archangel Raphael and chained to the rough and
jagged rocks of [Ha] Duduael (= Beth Hadudo),
where he is to abide in utter darkness until the great
Day of Judgment, when he will be cast into the fire
to be consumed forever (Enoch viii. 1, ix. 6, x. 4-6,
liv. 5, Ixxxviii. 1; see Geiger, “Jud. Zeit.” 1864,
pp. 196-204). The story of Azazel as the seducer
of men and women was familiar also to the rabbis,
as may be learned from Tanna d. b. R. Yishma’ei:
“ The Azazel goat was to atone for the wicked deeds
of ‘Uzza and ‘Azzael, the leaders of the rebellious
hosts in the time of Enoch ” (Yoma 676) ; and still bet-
ter from Midrash Abkir, end, Yalk., Gen. 44, where
Azazel is represented as the seducer of women, teach-
ing them the art of beautifying the body by dye
and paint (compare “Chronicles of Jerahmeel,”
trans. by Gaster, xxv. 13). According to Pirke R.
El. xlvi. (comp. Tos. Meg. 31a), the goat is offered to
Azazel as a bribe that he who is identical with
Samael or Satan should not by his accusations pre-
vent the atonement of the sins on that day.

The fact that Azazel occupied a place in Mandsean,
Sabean, and Arabian my tliology (see Brandt, “Man-
daische Theologie,” pp. 197, 198; Norberg’s “ Ono-
masticon,” p. 31; Reland’s “De Religione Moham-
medanarum,” p. 89; Kamus, s.v. “Azazel” [demon
identical with Satan] ; Delitzsch, “Zeitscli. f. Kirchl.
Wissenscli. u. Leben,” 1880, p. 182), renders it prob-
able that Azazel was a degraded Babylonian deity.
Origen (“Contra Celsum,” vi. 43) identifies Azazel
with Satan; Pirke R. El. ( l.c .) with Samael; and the
Zoliar Al.iare Mot, following Nahmanides, with the
spirit of Esau or heathenism ; still, while one of
the chief demons in the Cabala, he never attained
in the doctrinal system of Judaism a position sim-
ilar to that of Satan. See articles Atonement and
Atonement, Day of.

Bibliography : Kalish, Comm, on Leviticus , ii. 293 et seq.,
326 et seq.; Cheyne, Dictionary of the Bible; Hastings,
Diet. Bibl., Riehm, H. W. B. ; Hauck, R. E. ; Winer, B. R. ;
Hamburger, R. B. T. i. s.v.

According to Talmudical interpretation, the

term “Azazel” designated a rugged mountain or
precipice in the wilderness from which the goat was
thrown down, using for it as an alternative the
word “ Zok ” (plY) (Yoma vi. 4). An etymology is
found to suit this interpretation. “ Azazel ” 6lNiy)
is regarded as a compound of “az”
The Name. (TJJ), strong or rough, and “el”

mighty, therefore a strong mountain.
This derivation is presented by a Baraita, cited Yoma
676, that Azazel was the strongest of mountains.

Another etymology (id.) connects the word with
the mythological “Uza” and “Azael,” the fallen
angels, to whom a reference is believed to be found
in Gen. vi. 2, 4. In accordance with this etymology,
the sacrifice of the goat atones for the sin of fornica-
tion of which those angels were guilty (Gen. l.c.).

Two goats were procured, similar in respect of
appearance, height, cost, and time of selection. Hav-
ing one of these on his right and the
The Rite, other on his left (Rashi on Yoma 39a),
the high priest, who was assisted in
this rite by two subordinates, put both his hands
into a wooden case, and took out two labels, one

367

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Azazel

Azban

inscribed “ for the Lord ” and the other “ for Azazel. ”
The high priest then laid his hands with the labels
upon the two goats and said, “A sin-offering to the
Lord” — using the Tetragrammaton; and the two
men accompanying him replied, “Blessed be the
name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever.”
He then fastened a scarlet woolen thread to the head
of the goat “ for Azazel ” ; and laying his hands upon
it again, recited the following confession of sin and
prayer for forgiveness: “O Lord, 1 have acted in-
iquitously, trespassed, sinned before Thee: I, my
household, and the sons of Aaron — Thy holy ones.
O Lord, forgive the iniquities, transgressions, and
sins that I, my household, and Aaron’s children — ■
Thy holy people — committed before Thee, as is writ-
ten in the law of Moses, Thy servant, ‘ for on this
day He will forgive you, to cleanse you from all
your sins before the Lord; ye shall be clean.’”
This prayer was responded to by the congrega-
tion present (see Atonement, Day of). A man
was selected, preferably a priest, to take the goat to
the precipice in the wilderness; and he was accom-
panied part of the way by the most eminent men of
Jerusalem. Ten booths had been constructed at
intervals along the road leading from Jerusalem to
the steep mountain. At each one of these the man
leading the goat was formally offered food and drink,
which he, however, refused. When he reached the
tenth booth those who accompanied him proceeded
no further, but watched the ceremony from a dis-
tance. When he came to the precipice he divided
the scarlet thread into two parts, one of which he tied
to the rock and the other to the goat’s horns, and
then pushed the goat down (Yoma vi. 1-8). The
cliff was so high and rugged that before the goat
had traversed half the distance to the plain below, its
limbs were utterly shattered. Men were stationed
at intervals along the way, and as soon as the goat
was thrown down the precipice, they signaled to one
another by means of kerchiefs or flags, until the
information reached the high priest, whereat he
proceeded with the other parts of the ritual.

The scarlet thread was a symbolical reference to
Isa. i. 18; and the Talmud tells us (ib. 39«) that dur-
ing the forty years that Simon the Just was high
priest, the thread actually turned white as soon as the
goat was thrown over the precipice: a sign that
the sins of the people were forgiven. In later times
the change to white was not invariable: a proof
of the people’s moral and spiritual deterioration,
that was gradually on the increase, until forty years
before the destruction of the Second Temple, when
the change of color was no longer observed (l.c. 396).

.t. sh. I. Hu.

—Critical View : There has been much contro-
versy over the function of Azazel as well as over his
essential character. Inasmuch as according to the
narrative the sacrifice of Azazel, while symbolical,
was yet held to be a genuine vicarious atonement,
it is maintained by critics that Azazel was origi-
nally no mere abstraction, but a real being to the
authors of the ritual — as real as Yhwh himself.

This relation to the purpose of the ceremony may
throw light upon the character of Azazel. Three
points seem reasonably clear. (1) Azazel is not a
mere jinnee or demon of uncertain ways and temper,

anonymous and elusive (sec Animal Worship), but
a deity standing in a fixed relation to his clients.
Hence the notion, which has become prevalent, that
Azazel was a “personal angel,” here introduced for
the purpose of “doing away with the crowd of im-
personal and dangerous se'irim ” (as Cheyne puts,
it), scarcely meets the requirements of the ritual.
Moreover, there is no evidence that this section of
Leviticus is so late as the liagiological period of Jew-
ish literature.

(2) The realm of Azazel is indicated clearly. It
was the lonely wilderness; and Israel is represented
as a nomadic people in the wilderness, though pre-
paring to leave it. Necessarily their environment
subjected them in a measure to superstitions associ-
ated with the local deities, and of these latter Azazel
was the chief. The point of the whole ceremony
seems to have been that as the scapegoat was set free
in the desert, so Israel was to be set free from the
offenses contracted in its desert life within the do-
main of the god of the desert.

(3) Azazel would therefore appear to be the head
of the supernatural beings of the desert. He was
thus an instance of the elevation of a demon into a
deity. Such a development is indeed rare in He-
brew religious history of the Biblical age, but Aza-
zel was really never a national Hebrew god, and his
share in the ritual seems to be only the recognition of
a local deity. The fact that such a ceremony as that
in which he figured was instituted, is not a contra-
vention of Lev. xvii. 7, by which demon-worship was
suppressed. For Azazel, in this instance, played a
merely passive part. Moreover, as shown, the sym-
bolical act was really a renunciation of his author-
ity. Such is the signification of the utter separation
of the scapegoat from the people of Israel. This in-
terpretation is borne out by the fact that the com-
plete ceremony could not be literally fulfilled in the
settled life of Canaan, but only in the wilderness.
Hence it was the practise in Jerusalem, according
to Yoma vii. 4, to take the scapegoat to a cliff and
push him over it out of sight. In this way the
complete separation was effected.

Bibliography : Diestel, Set-Typhnn , Axaael und Satan, in
Zeitschrift fllr Histirrische Theologie. 1S60, pp. 159 et seq.;
Cheyne, in Stade's Zeitxchrlft , xv. 153 rt seq. ; Baudissin,
Studicn znr Srmit. BcUginiiagesch. i. ISO et aeq.i Nowaek,
Lehrhuch der Hettr. Arch. ii. 186 ct scq .; and various com-
mentators on Lev. xvi.

j. JR. J. F. McC.

AZAZIAH : 1. A Levite who took part in the
choral services on the return of the Ark to Jerusa-
lem (I Chron. xv. 21). 2. Father of Iloshea, who

was the leader of Ephraim at the time that David
enumerated the people (I Chron. xxvii. 20). 3. A

Levite who had charge of the offerings brought
to the Temple in the days of Hezekiah (II Chron.
xxxi. 13).

j. jr. G. B. L.

AZBAN, MORDECAI BEN ISAAC: Caba-
list. and rabbi in Leghorn: born in the interior of
Africa ; died at Jerusalem 1740. At Leghorn he had
a controversy with Abraham Hayyim Rodriguez,
which is printed in the la tter’s collection of decisions,
entitled “Orah le-Zadik.” He went as rabbi to
Aleppo, and later to Jerusalem, where he remained
till his death. Azban composed “ Zobeah Todali ”

Azbuk

Azharot

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

368

(Thank Offering), which contains a lengthy peni-
tential prayer (“ widdui gadol ”) with reference to
the various human organs so far as they lead man
to sin (Constantinople, 1733). This work was mod-
eled after Eleazar Ascari’s “Sefer Haredim.” He
also wrote “ Yissa Berakah ” and other works of a
mystic nature.

Bibi.iography: Azulai, Shew lm-Gedolim , ii. 38, 42 ; Ben-
jacob, Ozar ha-Sefarlm, p. 154.

k. M. K.

AZBUK: Father of Neliemiah ; assisted in repair-
ing the wall at Jerusalem (Neh. iii. 16).
j. jr. G. B. L.

AZEKAH : A city in the Sheplielah, or plain of
Judah; about midway between Jerusalem and the
Philistine boundary, in a southwestern direction;
probably not far from Socoli or Shoclioli (I Sam.
xvii. 1) — now Shuweikah — with which it is coupled
(Josh. xv. 35). Its exact site has not been ascer-
tained. Eusebius relates that a village, Ezekah,
was to be found between Eluethe-ropolis and Elia.

Azekali existed before the conquest of Canaan by
the Israelites. Joshua, having defeated the five
kings at Gibeon, followed them up to Azekali (Josh,
x. 10, 11). The Philistine army lay bet ween Shoclioli
and Azekali, when David fought Goliath (I Sam.
xvii. 1). Behoboam fortified it (II Chron. xi. 9), and
four centuries later, in the reign of Zedekiah, the
Jews opposed Nebuchadnezzar’s forces at Azekali
(Jer. xxxiv. 7). After the return from the Exile it
was resettled by the tribesmen of Judah (Neh. xi. 30).

Bibliography: Buhl, Geographic des Alten Palllstina , pp.
90, 92; Mittheilungen und Nachrichten des Deutsclicn
PaUistinavereins , p. 26, 1896.

J. jr. M. B.

AZEL : A Benjamite descended from Saul (I
Cliron. viii. 37, 38; ix. 43, 44).

J. JR. G. B. L.

AZEVEDO, DANIEL COHEN D’ : Hakarn
in Amsterdam; died in 1823; son and successor of
the liakam David Cohen d’Azevedo. He is the
author of a sermon — “ Sermao Heroico pregado no
K. K. de Talmud Torah en Amsterdam,” Aug. 3,
1809 (eulogistic sermon, preached in the holy con-
gregation), Amsterdam, 1809.
s. M. K.

AZEVEDO, DAVID COHEN D’ : Hakarn of
Amsterdam in the eighteenth century; died in 1792.
He devoted himself to rabbinical studies and
was elected liakam in Amsterdam in 1782. He pub-
lished a sermon entitled “Triumphos da Virtude:
Sermao a Occasiao do Natalicio de Guillermo V.,
Principe de Orange,” Amsterdam, 1788.
d. ' M. K.

AZEVEDO, DAVID SALOM D’ : Diplomat,
of the seventeentli century; died 1699. He was
minister resident at Amsterdam of the dey of Alge-
ria, and in that capacity negotiated a commercial
treaty with the Netherlands. He was also an ener-
getic member of the building committee of the great
synagogue of the Portuguese congregation in Am-
sterdam. Azevedo was renowned for his wisdom
and learning. His epitaph is to be found in D. H.
de Castro’s “ Keur van Grafsteenen,” p. 97.
i>. M. K.

AZEVEDO, FRANCISCO D’ : Portuguese
Marano of the seventeenth century. He was sent
in 1673 to Rome to implore the papal curia to curb
the inhumanity of the Inquisition. Well supplied
with money, and seconded by the Jesuits — who
were not in sympathy with the Inquisition — lie suc-
ceeded in exposing the cruelties of its procedure.
Clement X. thereupon issued a bull, dated Oct. 3,
1674, suspending the activity of the Portuguese
Inquisition, and prohibiting any further accusations,
condemnations, or confiscations until the grievances
of the Maranos in that country should have been
investigated by a Roman court of inquiry.

Bibliography: Gratz, Gescli. der Judev, x. 278: Kayserling,
Geschichte der Juden in Portugal , p. 315.

D. M. K.

AZEVEDO, MOSES COHEN D’ : Haham of
London; son of Daniel Cohen d’Azevedo; bom in
Amsterdam about 1720; died in 1784. He succeeded,
in 1761, Moses Gomez da Mesquitta, his father-in-
law, as haham (liakam) of the Spanish and Portu-
guese congregation of London.

The only publications credited to him are two
sermons, one on the accession of George III., de-
livered December, 1760, before he was called haham.
They were delivered in Spanish, and published,
with an English translation, in 1776, containing
prayers for the success of the British arms; “Order
de la Oracion, en el Dia de Ayuno, 13 Dec., 1776,
Imploraudo . . . laDivina Asistencia a las Armas de
su Magestad.” One of his descendants died a few
years ago in Barrow’s Buildings at the age of
ninety. A portrait of the haham is the only relic
left of him. His sou, Daniel, was liazau of the
congregation from 1779 until 1812.

Bibliography: Catalogue of Anglo- Jewish Historical Ex-
hibition, 1887; Kayserling, Bibl. Espan.-Port.-Judaica, s.v.,
and private information ; M. Gaster, History of the Bevis
Marks Congregation , pp. 131 et seq.

j. M. K.— G. L.

AZGAD : The Bene Azgad returned with Zerub-
babel from the captivity (Ezra ii. 12; Neh. vii. 17).
Their number is variously given as 1,222 (Ezra ii.
12), 2, 322 (Neh. vii. 17), 1,322 (I Esd. v. 13, where the
form given to the name is “ Astad ”). Subsequently
110 more came up with Ezra (Ezra viii. 12; I Esd.
viii. 38, “ Astatli ”). Azgad signed the covenant
with Nehemiali (Neh. x. 16).
j. jr. G. B. L.

AZHAROT (Exhortations) : Liturgical poems
treating of the precepts of the Law. The Babylo-
nian Talmud (Mak. 2b) contains an utterance by R.
Simlai to the effect that “613 commandments were
revealed to Moses: 365, equal to the number of
days in the year, were negative precepts; and
248, corresponding to the number of the com-
ponent parts of the human body, were affirma-
tive.” R. Hanmuna finds a suggestive hint for this
number in the alphabetical value of the Hebrew let-
ters composing the word min (“ law ” ; Deut. xxxiii.
4), which amount to 611, to which there are to be
added the first two passages of the Decalogue which
were spoken not by Moses, but by God Himself to
Israel. Although this enumeration repeatedly recurs
in Talmud and Midrash, even in the name of the
earlier teachers (compare Bacher, “Ag. Pal. Amor.”

369

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Azbuk

Azharot

i. 558, note 2), and later sages discovered new inti-
mations of tire number in various passages (see Raslii
on Num. xv. 89; sources in Buber,
The “Midrash Agada,” p. 113, note 24;

“613” further material in Steinschneider,
Precepts. “Hebr. Uebers.” p. 926, note 152), it
lias not always remained undisputed;
Bahya, for instance (Hobot ha-Lebabot,” Introduc-
tion), basing upon Ps. cxix. 96, eliminates the
“duties of the heart” from these. Nahmanides
(“Sefer ha-Mizwot,” beginning) raises the question
whether this number lias traditional authority or
whether it is merely an individual opinion of Simlai.
From Abraham ibn Ezra, who points out (“Yesod
Moreli,” gate 2) that if all basic precepts and their
derivatives, and those intended for all time, are con-
sidered, this number would be untenable, down to
Simon b. Zemah Duran (“Zohar ha-Rakia‘,” end),
who opines that Simlai counted the precepts after
his own fashion and not in a manner authoritative
for others, and that the number 613 is retained only
as being incidentally correct, similar objections have
repeatedly been made against the enumeration.

Many teachers, nevertheless, accepting the figure,
have busied themselves with the detailed enumera-
tion. The compiler of the “ Halakot Gedolot ” was
the first to attempt this in the introduction to his
book. He divides his whole material into two main
divisions, the first containing the prohibitive (nega-
tive) precepts, 71 of which are pun-
Prohibitive ishable with death, and 277 with
and scourging, total 348; the second cou-
Mandatory taining the mandatory (affirmative)
Precepts, precepts, 200 in number, to which are
to be added 65 laws and statutes in-
cumbent upon the Jews as a whole, thus making 613
in all (“Hal. Gedolot,” ed. Berlin, pp. 8 et seq.\
compare Hildesheimer, “Die Vaticanisclie Hand-
schrift der Hal. Gedolot” pp. 13 et seq.). There is
said to be a work in Arabic by Hefez b. Yazliah,
upon the same subject, but nothing further is known
of it. Maimonides does not agree with the author
of the “Hal. Gedolot”; in section 14 of his “Sefer
ha-Mizwot ” (Arabic original published by M. Bloch
under the title “Le Livre des Preceptes par Moise
ben Maimon,” Paris. 1888; for Hebrew translations,
see Steinschneider, l.c. § 554, 2) he lays down cer-
tain principles which must be the guide in the enu-
meration of the precepts, and then counts up 248
affirmative and 365 negative commands, amounting
to 613. This division agrees only in its total with
that of R. Simlai in the Talmud, and in later times
has been made use of particularly by the cabalists.
It seems, however, to have remained unknown to the
author of the “ Hal. Gedolot,” and is omitted in the
parallel passage in Tanhuma. Maimonides, indeed,
who found it necessary to revise his own work, is
not always consistent on this point; and his son
Abraham was called upon to defend his celebrated
father against the attack of R. Daniel lia-Babli
(“Ma'ase Nissim,” ed. B. Goldberg, Paris, 1866).
Maimonides also found a redoubtable opponent in
Nahmanides, who was, however, concerned not so
much to attack Maimonides as to defend the author
of the “Hal. Gedolot,” whose words were accounted
“ holy tradition ” (“ Sefer ha-Mizwot,” first printed at
11—24

Constantinople, 1510). But Maimonides was not
destitute of champions. Many sided with him, of
whom Simon Duran (“Zohar ha-Rakia‘ ”) and Isaac
de Leon ibn Zur (“Megillat Esther”) may be men-
tioned: the former writes in a conciliatory vein ; the
latter can not bring himself to admit that any opin-
iorwof Maimonides could be wrong.

It will suffice for present purposes merely to men-
tion the “ Sefer ha-Hinnuk,” which follows a method
of its own in enumerating the precepts. For the
understanding of what follows, it must also be
stated that, in addition to the 613 Biblical precepts,
sometimes seven non-Biblical ones are added, ma-
king the total 620, which represents the numerical
value of the letters in the Hebrew word m3
(“crown ”).

It is this enumeration of the precepts of the Torah
which furnishes the theme of all the poems known
as “Azharot,” a name derived from the first compo-
sition of this nature, which begins with the words
nro JTC\N1 nnrnx (“Of old Thou didst give
exhortations to Thy people”). The
The Azharot are variously described, both
Azharot. in printed works and in manuscripts,
as “Exhortations of the Rabbis,”
“Exhortations Formulated in the Academy,” “Ex-
hortations of the Holy Academies of the Rabbis in
Pumbedita,” also “Exhortations of Elijah of Blessed
Memory ! ” They are of great antiquity, and the
probability must be conceded that they emanated
from the academy of Joseph b. Abba Gaon of Pum-
bedita, concerning whom Sherira’s “ Letter ” narrates
that his academy was at times visited by Elijah the
Prophet. Being of prior origin to the “ Halakot
Gedolot” (the last line, niNQ && TX- is found repro-
duced in the “Hal. Gedolot,” ed. Hildesh. p. 9, and
all ancient Azharot contain it), these older composi-
tions do not enumerate the individual 613 precepts,
and speak only in general terms of the 365 negative
and 248 affirmative precepts, of their sources, con-
tents, and of the manner in which they are derived
from the actual words of the Scripture text, etc.
Such specific enumeration was only possible after that
of the “Hal. Gedolot,” and this is found in the Azha-
rot commencing min r6njn nnx (“Thou

didst grant a law unto Thy people ”). This compo-
sition, which follow's the “ Hal. Gedolot ” accurately,
is found sometimes with the superscription “Azha-
rot of the Rabbis of the Academy,” sometimes “Az-
harot of Elijah (or ‘ Elijah the Tishbite ’) of Blessed
Memory. ” It has been erroneously ascribed by some
to Elijah ha-Zaken (see below); xvliile Olliers have
considered Simeon lia-Gadol its author; it undoubt-
edly originated in Pumbedita. Its example was fol-
lowed by a host of imitators. Saadia Gaon wrote
Azharot (beginning with C’X 'DJX, “ I am a

consuming fire”), and, in addition, summarized the
613 precepts in a piyyut beginning, “The Lord
thy God shalt thou fear” (both printed in I. Rosen-
berg, “Kobe?,” ii. 26-54: the 613 precepts also by
J. Muller in the Paris edition of Saadia’s works, ed.
Derenbourg, ix. 57). The suggestion that Saadia
is not the author of these compositions is entirely
gratuitous, seeing that his name appears therein
acrostically. Other Azharot, by Isaac Gikatilla,
were known to Moses ibn Tibbon, and are mentioned

Azharot

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

370

by Isaac Petit b. Mordecai Kimlii, but have not been
preserved. Perhaps they are identical with the
Azharot commencing NTQH DE>r6 TOnx (“I
will gird me with strength to extol the Creator ”),
which, according to Isaac b. Todros, were contained
in the “siddur” of Amram Gaon; even the present
recension of tliis siddur contains pieces which are
later than Amram ’s time.

Solomon ibn Gabirol was the next to treat of
the precepts in the Azharot commencing B’X

(“Thy God is a consuming lire”), edited by
Sachs-Halberstamm, “Kobe? ‘al-Yad,” 1893; later on
he wrote complete Azharot to which reference will
be had in the following. Isaac b. Reuben Albarge-
loni is the author of the Azharot DlpD HT'N

(“ Where is the abode of understanding?”). Elijah
ha-Zaken b. Menahem of Mans wrote the Azharot
'Dn nap!’ DON (“Truth shall my mouth indite”),
first published by Luzzatto in “ Literaturblatt des
Orients,” 1850, part 16, and later reprinted by Ro-
senberg, l.c. pp. 55 et seq. Mention may be made
here of the piyyut by Eliezer b. Nathan,
nnm^ KWl, intended for the evening service of the
second day of Pentecost, which also treats of the
613 precepts. The Azharot commencing nj\3 ’JN
rUIJJD niOlC’ (“I, Understanding, dwell on high”)
were written by Isaac Petit b. Mordecai Kimlii.
Krespia ha-Nakdan wrote Azharot beginning with
the words 1 "pons (“I will extol Thee, O

Lord, my King ”). A species of Azharot was com-
posed by Joseph b. Solomon Yahya, but nothing
definite is known concerning it save that it was
lost in a conflagration. Elijah ha-Kohen Tchelebi
PnW) wrote X11J ^ TON* (“I will bless the God
Tremendous”). The Azharot “Pour forth Thy
mercy ” were written by Menahem Tamar. Mena-
hem Egozi (Nut-Tree) entitles his Azharot, which be-
gin “IKO 'no, with a play upon his own

name tUX p m2 (“ A blossom from the nut-garden ”).
Similarly, those of Elijah Adeni (of Aden), which
begin with the words D3 (Amsterdam ed.,

1688), were entitled by him TV Finally, men-
tion must be made of the Azharot of Joshua Benve-
niste, which are only known from Azulai’s “Shem
ha-Gedolim ” ( s.v . nWOH mtDtl’D).

R. Simlai’s utterance, quoted above, speaks of the
division of the Pentateuchal precepts into affirmative
and negative commandments (nC’J? and ntl’yn fr6)-
The “Hal. Gedolot” observe this division; and, in
addition, they group the individual precepts as far
as may be according to their subject-matter. The
Azharot n^ron nnN do not observe
The this method ; affirmative and negative
Material precepts follow each other in wild con-
and Its fusion regardless of subject, entailing
Divisions, a great sacrifice of perspicuity. Saa-
dia, in his “613 precepts,” places, in
two divisions, first 97 duties of the person (mVO
spin), and then 58 and 45 affirmative precepts refer-
ring to sacrifices, priests, and purification; in all, 200
affirmative commands. Then follow, in four divi-
sions, 277 negative precepts (the specific enumera
tion is not correctly given in the present printed
texts, nor even by Zunz): 71 punishable with death,
and 65 sections pertaining to the community as a

whole, amounting in all to 630. This clearly shows
how closely Saadia adheres to the “Hal. Gedolot”;
just so closely, too, does Isaac Albargeloni follow the
same authority; and, indeed, this is the rule, as
Maimonides remarks, with all Azharot composed
down to the latter’s time. Gabirol deviates from
this practise only to the extent that he observes the
Talmudic enumeration of 248 affirmative and 365
negative commands. Krespia ha-Nakdan follows
Maimonides in the enumeration, as do also Mena-
hem Tamar and Joshua Benveniste. In his Azha-
rot proper, Saadia disregards the strict demarcation
between affirmative and negative precepts. He ad-
duces the precepts according to their derivation from
the Decalogue, an idea often imitated; by Saadia
himself again in his Yezirah Commentary, and
then, not only by later poets, but by writers on ju-
risprudence. Of examples may be adduced here the
“Ma’amar ha-Sekel” by an unknown author, and
the cabalist Ezra-Azriel in his commentary upon the
Song of Solomon. The attempt to establish such a
derivation was rendered all the more alluring by the
discovery of the fact that the individual letters
contained in the Decalogue number 620, thus cor-
responding to the 613 precepts and the seven addi-
tional ones mentioned above. For further refer-
ences, see Zunz, “ Literaturgeschiclite,” p. 95, and
Steinschneider, “Hebr. Bibl.” vi. 125.

As regards the poetical form of the Azharot
there is little to be said. The oldest pieces mntX
TVC’NT and n?njn HHN are extremely simple in
composition; the verses, which contain the alphabet
iu acrostic fashion, are two-membered and bare of
all poetic adornment, such as rime, meter, etc. Rime
appears later, and a division into

Poetical strophes becomes general ; the alpha-
Form. bet, both in its usual order and in-
verted (p "i K''n), being given acrostic-
ally, as is also the name of the writer. Saadia’s
composition is more artificial, in that he not only uses
the opening words of each article of the Decalogue,
but interweaves therewith phrases from the Song of
Solomon and from the eight verses of Psalm lxviii.,
which are associated by the Talmudists with the
Pentecost festival. The construction of these com-
positions is fully treated by Zunz, Sachs, and Lands-
liuth. Saadia’s “613 precepts” are less artificial
in construction, but possess rime, strophes, and
refrain.

Gabirol uses four-membered strophes, the first
three of which have changing rimes of their own;
the fourth, a rime running through the poem.
Tchelebi ’s Azharot are also metric, although halting
in many places; Tamar, whose Azharot are metrical
and resemble Gabirol’s in construction, endeavors to
find excuse for the halting measure of his predeces-
sors (Steinschneider, “Cat. Leyden,” p. 396). Isaac
b. Reuben closes his strophes most cleverly with a
verse from the Bible, greatly to the admiration of
Al-Harizi, wdio was himself an adept in the ingen-
ious application of Biblical passages. The same is
true of the Azharot of Elijah ha-Zaken, whose Az-
harot consist of 176 four-membered strophes with
alphabets (backward as well as forward) and fre-
quent interweaving of names as acrostics.

That such poems can not possess poetic value is

371

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Azharot

natural : the style is too stiff ; in form it must be
didactic ; and every deviation or imaginative flight
is barred. Their dry enumeration of the precepts in-
deed would compel the characterization which they
receive from Jair Hayyim Bacharach (Respousa,
No. 51, applied to special Azharot, see below);
namely, that they read like a chapter from the Misli-
nah, save that their form and a certain choice of ex-
pression in the earliest attempts remind one that
they are to be considered as poetical compositions.
Fine passages are nevertheless to be found in the
opening or introductory poems (nrVXlQ, jlOfD) and in
the closing verses. These poetical efforts were usu-
ally provided by the authors of the Azharot them-
selves; but in some cases they have been added by
others;as, for instance, the introduction to Gabirol’s
Azharot, written by David b. Eleazar Pakudah,
and the poems introducing the affirmative and the
negative precepts, respectively, in Kimhi’s Azharot,
written by Levi b. Gerslion.

As was to be expected, these poetical embodiments
of the 613 precepts were at intervals met with the
same violent remonstrance which greeted the com-
putation of the number 613 for the
Protest precepts. Abraham ibn Ezra (“ Yesod
Against Moreh,” gate 2, end) remarks that the
Azharot. authors of Azharot in general resem-
ble a man who counts the various
medicinal herbs enumerated in medical works with-
out knowing anything of their virtues. Maimonides
also expresses his disapproval (Introduction to “ Se-
fer ha-Mizwot”); but he excuses the authors as be-
ing “poets and not rabbis.” Dukes quotes from a
Mahzor commentary that the Mayence sages express
themselves against the Azharot r6njn PIDN because
various Biblical commands are therein omitted (“ Li-
teraturblatt des Orients,” 1843, col. 714). Moses Bb-
dingen (Mahzor, ed. Metz, 1817) gives a list of the
precepts omitted in these Azharot, and supposes
that the author must have written ten sections, of
which two were lost. As early as the Tosafot
(Yoma 8«; B. B. 1456; Nid. 3(D) attention was drawn
to the fact that Elijah ha-Zaken had not been suffi-
ciently careful in harmonizing his statements with
the Halakah. Many similar protests might be ad-
duced; but they all did not avail to prevent the in-
corporation of the Azharot in the rit-
In the uals of all countries, where indeed they

Liturgy, have maintained their position to this
day. It was for the Feast of Weeks
(Pentecost) especially, commemorating the Revela-
tion on Sinai, that the Azharot were particularly
intended; and they were recited in the Musaf (Ad-
ditional) Prayer of that day. In some localities —
probably at a later date, and in order not to prolong
unduly the morning service— the Azharot were rele-
gated to a position either before or after the Minhah
(afternoon) service. When the Sabbath befoie this
festival came to receive more regard, like the so-
called “ Great Sabbath ” immediately before the
Passover, Azharot were read on it also. Originally,
the JVtPtO mnrx were read upon the first day of
the festival in Italy (Rome), Greece (Romania), Ger-
many, Poland, Lorraine, and probably also in France.
Later these were generally displaced by the Azharot
n^non nnx, but retained their places in Rome and

Greece, though not in the first edition of the Mahzor
Romania. In the German and Polish ritual the
Azharot were postponed until the second day ; while
in France they were completely displaced by the Az-
harot of Elijah ha-Zaken. The r6n:n nriN is the form
retained in the German and Polish ritual for the first
day of the festival and in the first edition of the
Mahzor Romania; in Rome only the first “ Alphabet ”
is used on the second day. The whole of it was
there read in former times on the Sabbath before the
festival, but later on was displaced by Gabirol's Az-
harot. Saadia’s compositions are contained in Ids
“Siddur” and also in the siddur of Solomon Sigcl-
messi. Gabirol’s Azharot were customarily read in
Spain, Provence, Avignon, Palestine, Fez, Yemen,
and to some extent in Algiers, and are found in the
liturgy of the second day of the festival in the first
edition of the Mahzor Romania. Albargeloni’s Az-
harot are contained in the rituals of Constantine,
TletriQen, Tunis, Morocco (for the afternoon service),
Algiers, and Oran ; those of Elijah lm-Zaken in France
and, earlier, in Germany. The Azharot of Isaac
Kimlii are set down in the Mahzor Carpentras (Am-
sterdam, 1759) for the afternoon service, as they
were also in Avignon. Tchelebi’s Azharot and
those of Tamarand Egozi are printed in the Mahzor
Romania, and those of Elijah Adeni, strangely
enough, in the Mahzor Cochin (China) for the Eighth
Day of Solemn Assembly (“Shemini ‘Azeret ”).

Owing to their condensed style and didactic form,
it is not to be wondered at that the Azharot required
commentaries; indeed, some of the later authors
themselves recognized this need and
Com- supplied them ; as, for instance, Tamar
mentaries. and Joshua Benveniste. Explanations
of the Azharot are therefore to be
found in such Mahzors as aim at giving a commen-
tary, and also separately in many varieties, of which
a few may be mentioned here. Azharot JTK’Nl were
commented upon by Eleazar b. Nathan and Samuel
b. Kalonymus. Albargeloni’s Azharot were simi-
larly dealt with by Moses Muesi (nC’D YC”) and Saul
ibn Musa ha-Kohen (*pmVD 3T0). Gabirol's Azha-
rot, however, have always been favorite subjects for
commentation ; thus, Moses ibn Tibbon, Isaac Kimlii,
Isaac b. Todros, Simon b. Zemaeh Duran (jrpin Hit),
Joseph ha-Lo'Cz (Barbaro), Moses Pesanteor Pisanti
(mvn U), Jacob (Israel) Hagis (rtan StiD), Saul
ibn Musa ha-Kohen (-|T)1¥D 3T0), Elia Benamozeg,
and numerous others. Translations, however, are
rather rare. (On a Persian translation, see “Jewish
Quarterly Rev.” x. 593. and M. Seligsolm, in “ Revue
Etudes Juives,” xliii. 101; concerningaJudieo Span-
ish translation of Gabirol’s Azharot and Shabbethai
Wita’s nH'C'O. compare M. Greenbaum, “Jiid.-
Span. Chrestomathie,” pp. 37, 109.) Many commen-
taries on the Azharot of Elia ha-Zaken are extant in
manuscript form.

Besides the above-mentioned Azharot there are a
number of poetical elaborations of the
Later same material, which, however, are not

Elabora- called Azharot, nor are they incorpo-
tions. rated in any ritual. Some of them are
older than many of the later Azharot
proper. The following may be enumerated in alpha-
betical order: m by Jekutliiel Silsskind;

Aziel

Azriel

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

372

DIN^DJ nirnn, by Mannes Hayyot; Dm3N 1’, by
Abraham Gabbai Isidro; Q’ty niy,T, by Samson b.
Samuel Yerushalmi; min m3, by David b. Solo-
mon Witai; min m3, by M. J. Stern; no3nn pyo,
by Noah Hayyim Zebi Berlin ; DUDD. by Uri

Phoebus b. Aryeh Lob (Breslau V); niXO ’VP, by
Jonathan Eybesclilitz; ntW nYSy, by Moses b. Mor-
decai Meisels; D'OKTl "iyt!>, by Jacob b. Slieshet;
D'Tim3 niXD J ’m, by Moses b. Abraham Mat;
furthermore a poem by the younger Gershom Hefez,
in which he recited the precepts in Maimonides’
enumeration (in the first edition of the D'Tim T).

In addition to Azharot which treat of all the pre-
cepts, there arose in the Middle Ages a species of
Azharot which confined themselves to only one pre-
cept in all its details, or to a chain of precepts refer-
ring to one subject. They were in-
Special tended for recital on the great Sabbath
Azharot. before Passover, or on the Sabbath
immediately before one of the other
festivals, and on similar occasions. They accord-
ingly devote themselves to the consideration of the
regulations for Passover, of the precepts concerning
the shofar, the tabernacle, the citron and palm
branch, the fringes, the tefillin, and similar matters,
as well as the regulations for Hanukkah and Purim.
This is not the place to consider the special Azha-
rot : they belong to the halakic piyyut (see Piyyut).

Bibliography : Dukes. Znr Kenntniss , pp. 43 et seq., 140 et
seq.; M. Sachs, in Rosenberg, Knhez, pp. 92 et seq.-, Lands-
huth, "Ammude ha- 'Ahodah, passim ; Zunz, Ritus; idem,
Litcraturgeschichte, passim ; Jellinek, Knntros Taring,
Vienna, 1878; S.J. Halberstamm, nnpa pun, Lyck, 1878 (re-
print from Ha-Maggid, of the same year) ; Moi'se Bloch, Les
613 Lois, in Rev. Et. Juives, v. 27 et seq.; A. Neubauer,
Miscellanea Liturgica, ii., in Jewish Quarterly Review,
vi. 698 et seq.

G. H. B.

AZIEL (“ God is my strength ”) ; A Levite singer
in the Temple; assistant to Asaph, Heman, and
Ethan (I Chron. xv. 20). In I Chron. xv. 18 he is
called “Jaaziel.” The name of the gens Azieli is
found in I Chron. xxvi. 23.
j. JR. G. B. L.

AZILUT (m^'VX): Cabalistic term for “emana-
tion ” or “eradiation”; but philosophical authors
prefer “ shefa‘ ” or “ hashpa'ali.” The word is derived
from “azal ” in reference to Num. xi. 17 ; and in this
sense it was taken over into the Cabala from Solomon
ibn Gabirol’s “Mekor Hayyim” (The Fountain of
Life), which was much used by cabalists. The
theory of emanation, which is conceived as a free act
of the will of God, endeavors to surmount the diffi-
culties that attach to the idea of creation in its rela-
tion to God. These difficulties are threefold: (1)
the act of creation involves a change in the un-
changeable being of God : (2) it is incomprehensible
how the absolutely infinite and perfect being could
have produced such imperfect and finite beings; (3)
a creatio ex nihilo is difficult to imagine. The simile
used for the emanation is either the soaked sponge
that emits spontaneously the water it has absorbed,
or the gushing spring that overflows, or the sunlight
that sends forth its rays — parts of its own essence —
everywhere, without losing any portion, however
infinitesimal, of its being. Since it was the last-
named simile that chiefly occupied and influenced
the cabalistic writers, Azilut must properly be

taken to mean “eradiation” (compare Zohar, Ex-
odus Yitro, 865).

Later on the expression “ Azilut ” assumed a more
specific meaning, influenced no doubt by the little
work, “Maseket Azilut.” Herein for the first time
(following Isa. xliii. 7; “I have created”; “I have
formed”; “I have made”; vri’Ei’y. vmv, Vn&H3).
the four worlds are distinguished: Azilali, Beriah,
Yezirah, and ‘Asiyali. But here too they are trans-
ferred to the region of spirits and angels: In the
Azilali- world the Shekinah alone rules; in the Beriali-
worldare the throne of God and the souls of the just
under the dominion of Akatriel (“ Crown of God ”) ;
in the Yezirah- world are the “holy creatures”
(hayyot) of Ezekiel’s vision, and the ten classes of
angels ruled over by Metatron; and in the ‘Asi-
yah-world are the Ofanim, and the angels that com-
bat evil, governed by Sandalplion. The Zohar ap-
parently did not know of this fourfold world ; for
there Azilut is taken to be simply the direct entatia
tion of God, in contradistinction to the other emana-
tions derived from the Sefirot.

Moses Cordovero and Isaac Luria (sixteenth cen-
tury) were the first to introduce the fourfold world
as an essential principle into cabalistic speculation.
According to this doctrine the Azilah-world repre-
sents the ten Sefirot; the . Beriali-world (world of
creation) the throne of God, emanating from the light
of the Sefirot; the Yezirah-world (world of becom-
ing) the ten classes of angels, forming the halls for
the Sefirot ; and the Asiyah-world (world of making,
that is, of form) the different heavens and the mate-
rial world. In contradistinction to the Azilah-world,
which constitutes the domain of the Sefirot, the
three other worlds are called by the general Dante
“Pirud” ("nTQn D^iy). Later cabalists explain
“Azilut” (according to Ex. xxiv. 11, and Isa. xli. 9)
as meaning “excellence,” so that according to them
the Azilah-world would mean the most excellent
or highest world.

k. P. B.

AZMAVETH ; 1. The Barliumite; one of the
thirty heroes of David (II Sam. xxiii. 31 : I Chron. xi.
33). His sons joined David at Ziklag (I Chron. xii. 3).

2. A Benjamite; son of Jehoadah (I Chron. viii.
36, ix. 42).

3. Son of Adiel, who had charge of the treasuries
of King David (I Chron. xxvii. 25).

4. A town in Benjamin, whence some returned
from captivity along with Zerubbabel (Ezra ii. 24;
Neh. xii. 29). In Nell. vii. 28, which corresponds
to Ezra ii. 24, it is called “Beth-azmavetli.”

j. jr. G. B. L.

AZORES : Group of islands in the Atlantic
ocean, northwest of Africa, belonging to Portugal.
It was a place of refuge for the Jews expelled from
that country. At present Ponta Delgada, the capi-
tal of the island of Sao Miguel, Fayal, Terceira. and
other islands have some Jewish inhabitants. These
are engaged in exporting goods. They keep the Jew-
ish religious observances, but intermarry with Cath-
olics. Christian women, when marrying Jews, often
enter the fold of Judaism.

Bibliography : Allg. Zeit. des Judt. 1880, p. 439.

g. M. K.

373

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aziel

Azriel

AZOTUS: 1. The equivalent of Ashdod; found
in the Apocrypha (Judith ii. 28; I Macc. iv. 15, etc.)
and in the New Testament (Acts viii. 40).

2. Mount of Azotus (I Macc. ix. 15), where Judas
Maccabeus was killed. It is perhaps identical
with 1.

s. G. B. L.

AZOV (Turkish, Azak): A town in the govern-
ment of Ekaterinoslav, Russia, on the left bank of
the Don, about twenty -four miles from Rostov and
five miles from the sea. In ancient times it was an
important business center, belonging to Greece and
known under the name of “Tanais.” The Pontic
king Mitliridates conquered it in 115 n.c. ; in the
fourth century of the common era it was destroyed
by the Huns; and in the eighth century it was re-
built and passed into the possession of the Chazars.
Tn the twelfth century, when Azov was a store-city
for the trade with Indo-China, the Genoese carried
on a considerable trade there, at first recognizing the
sovereignty of the Polovtzy, whom in the thirteenth
century they drove out; and in 1471 they themselves
were conquered by the Turks, who in 1637 were for
a short time subject to the Cossacks. Since 1736
Azov has belonged to Russia.

Jews have lived in Azov since they began to set-
tle in the Crimea and in the neighboring provinces,
probably in the first century b.c. In the time of
the Chazars they were largely interested in the com-
merce of Azov with Constantinople and Dankov.
From the latter the Russian products were trans-
ported down the Don to Azov, and all imported mer-
chandise was forwarded from Azov to Dankov.

Azov is mentioned in an epigraph on the first page
of a Pentateuch written in Azak, stating that one
Shabbethai, son of Isaac, during his illness, on the
twenty-ninth of Marheshwan, 5035 [1274], pre-
sented this Bible (twenty-four books) to the “Ka-
raite Synagogue in Kilim ” (D. Cliwolson, “Yev-
reiskie Nadpisi,” p. 217, St. Petersburg, 1884).
Another epigraph, written on a board in the Karaite
synagogue in Theodosia in 1404, relates to Isaac, son
of Moses, and Sarah, daughter of Moses, and to the
mother of their mother, Kellaliof Azak (Azov), who
“have put up this board in the synagogue of the
community of Kaffa, the community of the Ka-
raites ” (ib. p. 209).

Of the 25,488 inhabitants in 1892, about 600 were
Jews, who had a synagogue and a Talmud Torah.

Bibliography: Entziklopedichcski. Slovar , i. St. Peters-
burg, 1891 ; G. Barbaro, Viaygi Fatti da Vinetia Alla

Tana, in Persia, etc., Venice, 1543, passim-, Kostomarov,

Ocherk Torgovli Moskovskavo Gosudarstva 16 1 17, Vye-

kov, pp. 13-14, St, Petersburg, 1889.

H. R.

AZRIEL (“ God is my help ”) : 1 . Father of

one of the men deputed by Jehoiakim to capture
Baruch, the scribe of Jeremiah (Jer. xxxvi. 26).

2. Chief of one of the families of Manasseh, liv-
ing on the eastern side of the Jordan (I Chron. v. 24).

3. Father of Jerimoth, the leader of Naphtali at
the time that David numbered the people (I Chron.
xxvii. 19).

J. jr. G. B. L.

AZRIEL B. HAYYIM TRABOTTA. See

Trabotta.

AZRIEL (EZRA) BEN MENAHEM (BEN
SOLOMON): Founder of the speculative Cabala,
and called “The Saint”; born at Gerona in 1160;
died in 1238. As to the identity of Azriel and Ezra,
taken for two brothers by Griitz (“Gesch. ” vii. 447
et seej.) and Bloch (Winter and Wlinsche, “ Jiid. Lit-
eratur,” iii. 261), compare Jellinek (“Beitrage zur
Geschichte derKabbala,” i. 41; Landauer," Lit.-Bl.”
vi. 196; and Michael, “Or ha-Hayyim,” No. 1151).
Attracted by the mystical studies that had begun to
spread in Spain, Azriel went early to southern
France, and became there a pupil of the celebrated
cabalist Isaac the Blind, the son of Abraham of
Posquieres. Later he left France and traveled all
over Spain, making propaganda for the Cabala. He
endeavored to win the philosophers over to his mys-
tic views, but did not succeed, as he himself confesses
in the introduction to his commentary upon the Ten
Sefirot. “For,” says he, “ the philosophers believe in
nothing that can not be demonstrated logically.”
He came back disappointed to Gerona, and there
founded a school in which Nahmanides received
Azriel’s cabalistic instruction, as is stated by Abraham
Zacuto (“Yuhasin”), MeYr ibu Gabbai, Ibn Yal.iya
(“ Shalshelet lia-Kabbalali”), and others (see Griitz,
l.c.). Azriel wrote a commentary on the Ten
Sefirot in the form of questions and answers, fol-
lowing therein the speculative method of philosophy
(edited by N. A. Goldberg, Berlin, 1850). Its title, not
given by the editor, was“Ezrat Adonai ” (see Griitz,
l.c., following S. Sachs). He also wrote a commen-
tary on “Shir ha-Sliirim,” ascribed often to Nahma-
nides, published under his name (Altona, 1764), in
which the 613 commandments are explained mys-
tically as based upon the Decalogue. Azriel was,
further, the author of a commentary on “ Sefer Yezi-
rah,” entitled “Sefer ha-MilluYm,” which was like-
wise ascribed to Nahmanides, and published under
his name in Mantua, 1719. Besides these he seems to
have written a cabalistic commentary on the prayers,
and a hymn with his name “ Ezra ” as acrostic. Ilis
system rests chiefly on his Neoplatonic conception
of God as the “En Sof,” the Endless One, Gabirol’s
“EnloTiklah” (compare Joel, “Beitriige zur Ge-
schichte der Philosophic, ” Appendix, p. 12, “Lewi
ben Gerson,” 1862.

God, he contends, can be determined only in a
negative way: what lie is not can alone be ascer-
tained; not what He is. All positive
His attributes bear the stamp of sensual -
Doctrine of ism. The Being that is the originator
God. of all things can have no intention,
desire, thought, word, or action. He
is infinite; the negation of all negations; the
Endless.

After having stated this strange conception of
God, Azriel investigates the relation of this Eu-Sof
to the universe. Has the universe been created
from nothing? No. Aristotle is perfectly right in
saying that nothing can proceed from nothing.
Moreover, creation implies a decrease in the Creator's
essence through subtraction, and that can not be
predicated of the En-Sof. Nor can the universe
have existed eternally, as Aristotle asserts, because
nothing is eternal save God. Accordingly, the Pla-
tonic idea of a primary matter is not acceptable

Azriel

Azulai

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

374

either. Azriel, in order to solve the problem of
creation, has recourse to the theory of emanation,
which he develops as follows:

The universe, with all its multifarious manifes-
tations, was latent in the essence of the En-Sof, in
which, notwithstanding its infinite variety, it formed
an absolute unit, just like the various sparks and
colors that proceed from the one and indivisible flame
potential in the coal. The act of creation did not
consist in producing an absolutely new tiling; it
was merely a transformation of potential existence
into realized existence. Thus there was really no
creation, but an efflux (see Azilut). The efflu-
ence was effectuated through successive gradations
from the intellectual world to the material, from the
indefinite to the definite. This material world, being
limited and not perfect, could not proceed directly
from the En-Sof; neither could it be independent
of Him; for iu that case He would be imperfect.
There must have been, therefore, intermediaries be-
tween the En-Sof and the material world; and these
intermediaries were the Ten Sefirot. The first Sefirali
was latent in the En-Sof as a d3-namic force; then
the second Sefirali emanated as a substratum for the
intellectual world; afterward the other Sefirot ema-
nated, forming the moral, the material, and the nat-
ural worlds. But this fact of emanation does not
imply a prius or a postering or a gradation in the
En-Sof — a candle, the flame of which is capable of
igniting an indefinite number of lights, although,
in itself, it is a unit. The Sefirot, according to their
nature, are divided into three groups; the three su-
perior forming the world of thought, the next three
the world of soul, the last four the world of corpo-
reality. They all depend upon one another, being
united like links to the first one. Each of them has
a positive and a passive quality — emanating and re-
ceiving. The first Sefirali is called by Azriel not
Keter, as the later cabalists call it, but Rum Ma'alali.
Griitz (l.c.) thinks that Azriel meant by that term
Ilm Gabirol’s “Will” (“Hefez”) — the highest dy-
namic force of the Deity. Indeed, Azriel’s contem-
porary, Jacob ben Sheshet, called the first Sefirali
Razon (“Will”). The second and third Sefirali
were Hokmali and Binah; the fourth, fifth, and
sixth, Hesed, Paliad, and Tiferet; the seventh,
eighth, and ninth, Nezal.i, Hod, and Yesod ‘Olam;
and the tenth, Zedck. These Ten Sefirot were put
by Azriel into correspondence to the ten parts of the
human organism and to the ten different, refractions
of light.

The whole system, with the exception of the
theory of the Sefirot, is derived from Ibn Gabirol’s
“ Mekor Hayyim,” which Azriel imitated, even as to
its form, in arranging his commentary upon the Ten
Sefirot, by putting it into questions and answers as
Gabirol did. Azriel, however, had the merit of
affording some guidance in the labyrinth of mysti-
cism.

Bibliography: Jellinek, BeitrUge zur Gcxch der Kcdtheda,
i. 61-66, ii. 32; Ehrenpreis, Die Entwicheluny der Emana-
tlonslehre in de>- Knbhala im Dreizebnten Jahrhundert ,
pp. 23 et s«j.; Griitz, Gesch. der Juden, vii. 447-453; Landauer,
in Literaturhlatt des Orients, vi. 196; Myer, Qabbalal) ,
pp. 284 et seq. ; Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 755; Michael,
Or ha-Hayyim, No. 1151; Bloch, Die JUdische Mystik vnd
Kabbalah, in Winter and Wiinsohe, JUd. Literatur, iii. 261,
262.

K. I. BR.

AZRIEL B. MOSES HA-LEVI. See Ashke-
nazi, Azriel b. Moses Levi.

AZRIEL BEN MOSES MESHEL, OF WIL-

NA: Grammarian; lived at the end of the seven-
teenth and at the beginning of the eighteenth cen-
tury. About 1700 he left liis native town, Wilna,
and settled with his family at Frankfort-on-the-
Main. There he published, in 1704, in collaboration
with his son Elijah, a prayer-book entitled “ Derek
Siah ha-Sadeh ” (The Way of the Plant of the Field ;
Gen. ii. 5), according to the method of Shabbethai
Sofer of Przemysl, with a commentary, “Mikra
Kodesli ” (Holy Reading), containing the rules for
punctuation and reading. A second edition of this
prayer-book, with a German introduction, refuting
the criticisms of Solomon Hauau on the first edition,
was published by Azriel at Berlin in 1713, and a
third at Willielmsdorf in 1721.

He published also: “Pilpula Harifta” (Keen Dis-
cussions), novelise on the order Nezikiu by Yom-Tob
Lipmann Heller; and “Ma‘amadot,” recitations after
the reading of the Psalms, by Meualiem Lonzano,
with additions of his own.

Bibliography: Fuenn, Kiryah Ne'emanah , p. 102.

T. I. Br.

AZRIEL B. YEHIEL ASCOLI. See Tra-
botta Family.

AZRIKAM : 1. Ancestor of a Levite residing
in Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah (Nell. xi. 15
= I Cliron. ix. 14).

2. Son of Neariali, occurring in the list of the de-
scendants of David (I Cliron. iii. 23).

3. Son of Azel in the genealogical list of Ben-
jamin, descended from Saul (I Cliron. viii. 38 =
ix. 44).

4. Governor of the palace under Aliaz, king
of Judah; he was killed by Zicliri, an Epliraimite
(II Cliron. xxviii. 7).

.j. jr. G. B. L.

AZUBAH : 1. Daughter of Shillii and mother
of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah (I Kings xxii. 42 =
II Cliron. xx. 31).

2. Wife of Caleb, the son of Hezron (I Cliron. ii.
18, 19).

,i. jr. G. B. L.

AZUBIB, JOSEPH B. NEHORAI : Rabbi at

Algiers; died at Blida, Algeria, January, 1794. At
an early age he assisted his father in his duties as
rabbi of Algiers; and at the death of the latter suc-
ceeded him. He published a wmrk under the title
“ Yamim Ahadim ” (Some Days), containing sermons
for all the feasts; preceded by a preface written by
the bibliographer Azulai (Leghorn, 1790). Azubib
signed one of the approbations attached to the work
“ Berit Abraham ” of Abraham ben Raphael Jacob
BuslCarah, Leghorn, 1791.

Bibliography: Bloch, Inscriptions Tv mulaires des Anciens

Cimetieres Israelites d' Alger, pp. 83-85.

g. I. Br.

AZUBIB, NEHORAI B. SAADIA: Rabbi

at Algiers; died October, 1785. He composed sev-
eral prayers for the anniversary instituted by the
community in commemoration of the repulse of
O’Reilly’s expedition against Algiers in 1775. Some
Arabic poems of his figure in the collection “Sliibhe

375

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Azriel

Azulai

Eloliim ” (God’s Praises), p. 173, published at Oran.
Azubib wrote also a short commentary on the “Ker-
obez ” — collection of hymns contained in the ritual
of Algiers, and published at Leghorn. Azubib was
celebrated for his disinterestedness. According to
Loeb (“Rev. Et. Juives,” i. 74) the name TTlTN is the
same as •ans*.

Bibliography : Bloch, Inscriptions Tumulaires des Anciens

Cimetieres Israelites d'Alyer, pp. 66-08 ; Steinschneider, Cat.

Bodl. cols. 399, 2059.

G. I. Bit.

AZULAI, AZULAY : A family descended from
Spanish exiles who, after the expulsion of the Jews
from Spain in 1492, settled in the city of Fez, Mo-
rocco. Hayyim Joseph David Azulai (see No. 4)
derives the family name from the initials of the He-
brew words tnp’ tfb rMm n:t nC’S (“They shall
not take a woman that is a harlot, or profane,” Lev.
xxi. 7). This derivation, however, is not at all prob-
able; and it is to be presumed that the name refers to
a locality in Morocco or in Spain. The following
genealogical tree gives the principal members of the
family :

(1) Abraham
(9) Mordeeai

(2) Abraham (died 1043)

(5) Isaac Daughter, married

Benjamin Zebi

(8) Isaiah (Abraham Israel Zebi,

(died 1732) died 1731)

(7) Isaac Zerahiab (died 1765)

(4) Hayyim Joseph David (died 1807)

Abraham

(12) Raphael Isaiah

Daughter, married

Abraham Pardo

(10) Moses (6) Isaac Leonini (Grandson, Moses

Azulai (died 1840) Pardo, died 1888)

Vital

Moses

Yom-Tob Bondy (died 1898)

' 1

aphael

David Isaac

1 1
Rachel Leon Doris Bella
(living in

Loudon, 1901)

1. Abraham Azulai; Grandfather of Abraham
(No. 2), who speaks of him as having lived in Fez.

2. Abraham Azulai: Cabalistic author and
commentator; born in Fez about 1570; died at He-
bron Nov. 6, 1643. The expulsion of the Moors
from Spain brought a great number of the exiles to
Morocco, and these newcomers caused a civil war
from which the country in general and the Jews in
particular suffered greatly. Abraham Azulai, in
consequence of this condition of affairs, left his home
for Palestine and settled in Hebron. There he
wrote a commentary on the Zohar under the title
“Kirjath Arba ” (City of Arba; Gen. xxiii. 2). The
plague of 1619 drove him from his new home; and
while in Gaza, where he found refuge, he wrote his
cabalistic work “ Hesed le-Abraliam ” (Mercy to
Abraham; Micah vii. 20). It was published after
the author’s death by Mesliullam Zalman ben Abra-

Daughter, married
David Isaaci

(Abraham Isaaci.
died 1729)

ham Berak of Gorice, in Amsterdam, 1685. Another
edition, published in Sulzbacli in the same year,
seems to be a reprint, although Steinschneider, in
“Cat. Bodl.” col. 666, thinks the reverse. Azulai's
commentary on the Zohar, “ Zohore llammah ” (Rays
of the Sun), was printed in Venice, 1654. He also
wrote: “Or ha-Lebanah ” (Light of the Moon),
“ Ma’asse Hoslieb ” (Cunning Work), and “ Kenaf
Renanim ” (Peacock’s Wing).

Of the numerous manuscripts that he left and that
were in the hands of his descendant. Hayyim Joseph
David (No. 4), some are still extant in various libra-
ries. Only one was published, a cabalistic commen-
tary on the Bible, under the title “Ba'ale Berit Abra-
ham” (Abraham’s Confederates; see Gen. xiv. 13),
Wilna, 1873. Ilis most popular work, “Hesed le-
Abraliam,” referred to above, is a cabalistic treatise
with an introduction, rTTlCTl pN (“The Cornerstone ” ;
see Talmud Yoma 535), and is divided into seven
“ fountains ” (see Zecli. iii. 9), each fountain being
subdivided into a number of “streams.” The con-
tents of the work are hardly different from the aver-
age vagaries found in cabalistic books, as evidenced
by the following specimen from the fifth fountain,
twenty-fourth stream, p. 57 d, of the Amsterdam
edition :

“ On the mystery of metempsychosis and its details : Know
that God will not subject the soul of the wicked to more than
three migrations ; for it is written, ‘ Lo, all these things doth God
work twice, yea thrice, with a man’ (Job xxxiii. 29). Which
means. He makes him appear twice and thrice in a human in-
carnation; but the fourth time he is incarnated as a clean
animal. And when a man offers a sacrifice, God will, by mi-
raculous intervention, make him select an animal that is an in-
carnation of a human being. Then will the sacrifice be doubly
profitable : to the one that offers it and to the soul imprisoned in
the brute. For with the smoke of the sacrifice the soul ascends
heavenward and attains its original purity. Thus is explained
the mystery involved in the words, ‘O Lord, thou preservest
man and beast’ (Ps. xxxvi. 7 [R. V. 6]).”

Bibliography: Azulai. Shem lia-Gedolim , s.v.: Benjacob,

Ozar ha-Sefarim. p. 196: Fiirst, Bibliotheca Juilaica. i. 67 ;

Michael, Or ha-IJauuim , p. 12.

3. Abraham Azulai, called “the illustrious
cabalist”: Rabbi and author; born in the city of
Morocco; died there about 1745. He was popularly
supposed to possess miraculous powers. He is the
author of a Hebrew work upon the Cabala, “ Mik-
dash Melek,” a commentary upon the Zohar.
Bibliography : Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim. s.v.

4. Hayyim Joseph David Azulai : Son of
Isaac Zerahiah (No. 7); one of the most prolific of
rabbinic authors in the eighteenth century, and a
pioneer writer on the history of rabbinical literature;
born in Jerusalem about 1724; died at Leghorn
March 21, 1807. He studied under Isaac lia-Kohen
Rapoport, Jonah Nabon, and Hayyim ibn ‘Attar.
While in general a type of t lie Oriental rabbi of his
age, a strict Talmudist, and a believer in the Cabala,

his studious habits and stupendous
His Early memory awakened in him an interest

Scholar- in the history of rabbinical literature
ship. and in its textual criticism. He ac-
cordingly began at an early age a
compilation of passages in rabbinical literature in
which dialectic authors had tried to solve questions
that were based on chronological errors. This com-
pilation he called 1T1 D^yn (“Some Oversights”).
It was never printed.

Azulai

‘ Azzut Panim

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

876

Azulai’s scholarship made him so famous that in
1755 he was chosen as meshullah (emissary), an
honor bestowed on such men only as were, by their
learning, well fitted to represent the Holy Land in
Europe, where the people looked upon a Palestinian
rabbi as a model of learning and piety. He traveled
in this capacity through Italy, France, Germany,
and Holland. On his return to Palestine he settled in
Hebron, where his ancestor Abraham Azulai (No. 2)
had first settled when he came to Palestine. Jo-
seph David Sinzheim, in a eulogy on Azulai, states
that the latter left Palestine three times on his mis-
sions, in 1755, 1770, and 1781. His diary and his other
works are, however, not clear on this point. In
1755 he was in Germany, in 1764 in Egypt, and in
the year 1773 in Tunis, Morocco, and Italy, in which
latter country he seems to have remained until 1777,
most probably occupied with the printing of the first
part of his biographical dictionary, “ Shem ha-Gedo-
lim,” Leghorn, 1774, and with his notes on the Sliul-
lian Aruk, entitled “Birke Yosef,” Leghorn, 1774-
76. In 1777 he was in France, and in 1778 in Hol-
land. On October 28 of the latter year he married,
in Pisa, his second wife, Rachel ; his first wife, Sarah,
had died in 1773. Noting this event in his diary, he
adds the wish that he may be permitted to return to
Palestine. This wish seems not to have been real-
ized. At all events he remained in Leghorn, occu-
pied with the publication of his works.

Azulai’s literary activity is of an astonishing
breadth. It embraces every department of rabbin-
ical literature: exegesis, homiletics, casuistry, Cab-
ala, liturgies, and literary history. The last is, as
has a Ire ad 3' been stated, the only department in
which he was original. A voracious reader, he noted
all historical references; and on his travels he visited
the famous libraries of Italy and France, where he
examined the Hebrew manuscripts.

His notes were published in four booklets, com-
prising two sections, under the titles “ Shem ha-Ge-
dolim ” (The Name of the Great Ones), containing
the names of authors, and “Wa‘ad la-Hakamim”
(Assembly of the Wise), containing the titles of
works. They were, however, so unsystematically
arranged that the mass of facts contained therein
was of little value until Isaac Benjacob, in 1852,
published the work systematically arranged, with
copious cross-references. This treatise has estab-
lished for Azulai a lasting place in Jewish litera-
ture. It contains data that might
His otherwise have been lost, and it proves
“ Shem ha- the author to have had a critical mind,
Gedolim.” except when touching cabalistic doc-
trines. By sound scientific methods
he investigated the question of the genuineness of
Rashi’s commentary to Chronicles or to some Tal-
mudic treatise (see “ Raslii,” in “ Shem lia-Gedolim ”).
Nevertheless he firmly believed that Hayyim Vital
had drunk water from Miriam’s well, and that this
fact enabled him to receive, in less than two years,
the whole Cabala from the lips of Isaac Luria (see
“Hayyim Vital,” in “Shem ha-Gedolim ”).

The amount of blind superstition found in his
diary and other works is almost incredible in a man
of such admirable critical ability ; and his liturgical
works have greatly helped to make this superstition

general. In his diary he notes all the cabalistic rec-
ipes found by him in manuscripts, and gives many
instances of the miraculous effects of
His Super- his prayers. In his religious attitude
stition. he is a strict rigorist. He discusses
the question of early burial, which he
recommends chiefly on the ground of the cabalistic
doctrine that the delay of burial occasions suffering
to the dead, and actually writes: “If it should hap-
pen in one case out of ten thousand that one would
be buried alive, this would not be the slightest sin ;
for it was so foreordained in order to avoid the evil
that would result to the world from this man or his
posterity ” (“Hayyim Slia’al,” i. 25).

Azulai’s exegetical works are of the same charac-
ter, being filled with interpretations of numerals and
of casuistic methods. Instances of this kind are
found on every page of his “Homat Anak ” (Wall
Made by a Plumb-Line; Amosvii. 7) and in his com-
mentary to the Psalms, entitled “Yosef Tehillot”
(To Add Praise), Leghorn, 1794.

As a writer Azulai was most prolific. The list of
his works, compiled by Benjacob, runs to seventy-
one items; but some are named twice, because they
have two titles, and some are only
His Works, small treatises. Still, his activity was
marvelous. The veneration bestowed
upon him by his contemporaries was that given to
a saint. He reports in his diary that when he learned
in Tunis of the death of his first wife, he kept it
secret, because the people would have forced him
to marry at once. Legends printed in the appendix
to his diary, and others found in Walden’s “Shem
ha-Gedolim he-Hadasli” (compare also “Ma’aseh
Nora,” pp. 7-16, Podgoritza, 1899), prove the great
respect in which he was held. Even to-day a great
many Oriental and Polish Jews undertake pilgrim-
ages to his grave or send letters to be deposited
there.

Azulai left two sons, Abraham and Raphael
Isaiah (No. 12). Of the former nothing is known.
Bibliography : A complete bibliographical list of his works is
found in the preface to Benjacob’s edition of Shem ha-
Gedolim , Wilna, 1852, and frequently reprinted : Cannoly, in
the edition of Shem ha-Gedolim , Frankfort-on-the-Main,
1843; Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 312; Hazan, Hama'alot
li-Shelomoli , Alexandria, 1894; Walden, Shem ha-Gedolim
he-Hadasli, 1879 : and the diary Ma'agal Tob, edited by
Elijah Benamozegb, Leghorn, 1879; Michael, Or ha-Hayyim,
No. 868.

L. G. D.

5. Isaac Azulai: Noted cabalist; lived at He-
bron in the seventeenth centum ; son of Abraham
(No. 2). He wrote “Zera‘ Yizhak ” (The Seed of
Isaac), a cabalistic work, now lost. He died at
Constantinople, presumably while traveling as an
emissary for the congregations of the Holy Land.
Isaac had two sisters. One married Benjamin Zebi
and was the mother of Hayyim Abraham Israel
Zebi, who was rabbi in Hebron (died 1731) and the
author of “ Orim Gedolim ” (The Great Lights) — a
treatise on rabbinical law — and of “ Yemin Mosheh ”
(The Right Hand of Moses), glosses to the Shulhan
‘Aruk (The Hague, 1777). The other became the
wife of David Isaaci ; and their son, Abraham
Isaaci (died Jan. 10, 1729), was an eminent rabbi in
Jerusalem and the author of responsa entitled “Zera‘
Abraham ” (The Seed of Abraham), 2 vols., Constan-
tinople, 1732, and Smyrna, 1733.

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KEY TO AUTOGRAPHS OF JEWISH CELEBRITIES.

1. Uriel Acosta

2. Grace Aguilar

3. Berthold Auerbach

4. Ludwig Bamberger

5. Theodore Benfey

6. Judah P. Benjamin

7. Ludwig Borne

8. Antonio Ferdiuaud Carvajal

9. I. Adolphe Cremieux

10. Bogumil Dawison

11. Joseph Derenbourg

12. Emanuel Deutscli

13. Benjamin Disraeli,

Earl of Beaconsfield

14. Isaac D’lsraeli

15. Dr. David Einhorn

16. Dr. Zacharias Frankel

17. Dr. Julius Fiirst

18. Dr. Abraham Geiger

19. Sir Isaac L. Goldsmid

20. Judah Loeb Gordon

21. Dr. Heinrich Graetz

22. F. Ilalevy

23. Heinrich Heine

24. Sir William Herscliel

25. Baron Maurice de Hirscli

26. Hushiel bar Elhanan

27. Moses Isscrles

28. Dr. A. Jellinek

29. Dr. David Kaufmann

30. Dr. Edward Lasker

31. Ferdinand Lassalle

32. Dr. Isaac Leeser

33. Emma Lazarus

34. Isidore Loeb

35. Dr. Leopold Low

36. Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides)

37. Karl Marx

38. Menasseli ben Israel

39. Felix Mendelssohn-Bartlioldy

40. Moses Mendelssohn

41. Giacomo Meyerbeer

42. Solomon Molcho

43. Sir Moses Montefiore

44. Solomon Munk

45. Mordecai M. Noah

46. Rachel

47. Baron Lionel de Rothschild

48. Mayer A. Rothschild

49. Anton Rubinstein

50. Kalman Scliulman

51. Perez Smolenskiu

52. Benedict de Spinoza

53. William Steinitz

54. Dr. Henri Weil

55. Dr. Isaac M. Wise

56. Abraham Zacuto

57. Dr. Leopold Zuuz

377

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Azulai

‘Azzut Panim

6. Isaac Leonini Azulay : Under the name
“Joseph Leonini” (Leonini was the family name of
his mother) he published in Berlin in 1794 a Span-
ish comedy, “El Delinquente Ilonrado,” on the title-
page of which he describes himself as “Teacher of
Princess Augusta and in the gymnasium of Berlin.”
He is said to have traveled to Prague in order to
study at the university there, but was robbed of his
money and found himself stranded in Berlin, where
he resorted to the teaching of languages to gain a
livelihood. Azulay subsequently settled in London,
where he married Bella Friedlaender, a cousin of
Chief Rabbi Herschell. He died in that citv July
17, 1840.

7. Isaac Zerahiah. Azulai : Father of Hayyim
Joseph David (No. 4). Died in Jerusalem Jan. 16,
1765.

8. Isaiah. Azulai: Father of Isaac Zerahiah
(No. 7) and grandfather of Hayyim Joseph David
(No. 4). Died in Jerusalem March 3, 1732.

9. Mordecai Azulai: Father of Abraham
(No. 2). Lived in Fez toward the end of the six-
teenth century.

10. Moses Azulai: Son of Raphael Isaiah
(No. 12). He edited some of his father’s responsa in
the collection “ Zikron Mosheh ” (Remembrance of
Moses), Leghorn. 1830, and made an epitome of
some of the works of his grandfather, Hayyim Jo-
seph David (No. 4).

11. Nissim Zerahiah Azulai: Editor and an-
notator of Shabbethai Cohen’s “ Shulhan ha-Tahor”
(The Pure Table), a treatise on the 613 command-
ments, Safed, 1836. He perished in the earthquake
at Safed Jan. 1, 1837.

12. Raphael Isaiah Azulai : Rabbi in Ancona,

where he died about 1830. One of his daughters
married Abraham, son of the renowned rabbi David
Pardo; and her grandson Moses Pardo was rabbi of
Alexandria from 1871 to 1888. He was the author
of a number of responsa and decisions, which ap-
peared partly under the title “ Tiferet Mosheh ” (The
Splendor of Moses), and partly in the “ Zikron Mo-
sheh ” of his son Moses (No. 10). '

Bibliography: Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, s.v.: Zedner, Cat.

Hebr. Boohs British Museum ; Hazan, Ha-Ma'alot li-

Shelomoh , 1894; The Leisure Hour. London, Aug., 1886;

Allg. Zeit. des Judcnthums , 1839, p. 60; private sources.

d. D.— A. P.

AZZTTR or AZUR : 1. Father of Hananiali, a
false prophet, contemporary with Jeremiah (Jer.
xxviii. 1).

2. A leader who sealed the covenant with Nehe-
miali (Neh. x. 17).

3. Father of Jaazaniah, a prince of the people de-
nounced by Ezekiel (Ezek. xi. 1 et sea.).

J. jr. G. B. L.

‘AZZUT PANIM (Q'JS JTlTy. “brazen-faced-
ness”) : A term applied to an impudent person. The
phrase “ ‘az panim” occurs in Deut. xxviii. 50 (“a na-
tion of tierce countenance ”), and in Dan. viii. 23 (“a
king of tierce countenance”). “ The brazen-faced one
goes to Gehenna, the shame-faced, or bashful, to Gan
'Eden,” says R. Judah (Mas. Kallah, ii., and thence
transferred to Abot v. 20; see Taylor, "Sayings of
the Fathers,” p. 96). “He who has not ‘ bosliet
panim’ [bashfulness or shamefacedness], of a surety
his ancestors stood not on Mount Sinai ” ; that is, he
has not the pure blood of the Jewish race in him
(Ned. 20«; compare Mek., Yitro, 9 on “His fear
be upon your face that ye sin not,” Ex. xx. 20).
One of the characteristics of the Jewish people, next
to their being compassionate and benevolent, is their
bashfulness ( Yeb. 79c). No greater insult can there-
fore be inflicted upon a Jew than to call him “ ‘Az-
zut Panim,” in dialect also “ Azzes Ponim.” “ Every
priest that shows ‘Azzut Panim is surely a descend-
ant of the slaves of Pashhur, the son of Immer, the
priest who smote the prophet Jeremiah and put him
in stocks [Jer. xx. 1]; these slaves having intermar-
ried with priestly houses ” (Kid. 706.) According to
R. Eliezer, R. Joshua, and R. Akiba, an “ ‘az panim ”
(shameless person) exposes himself to the suspicion
of being the offspring of an incestuous marriage or
of some forbidden connection (“mamzer,”or “ben
ha-niddali”; Mas. Kallah, ii.). An “ ‘az panim”
may be called “rasha‘ ” (wicked), in accordance with
Prov. xxi. 29 (“ A wicked man hardeneth his face ”),
or be hated, in accordance with Eccl. viii. 1 (which,
witli the reading “yesunne,” means “ the boldness of
his face causeth him to be hated ”). An “ ‘az panim ”
is sure of falling a victim to sin, and it is on account
of“‘azze fanim” (the shameless) in the land that
rain is withheld, according to Jer. iii. 3: “Therefore
the showers have been withholden, . . . thou re-
fusedst to be ashamed” (Ta‘an. 76).

At the close of his daily prayers Rabbi Judah ha-
Nasi used to say : “May it be Thy will, O Lord our
God and God of our fathers, to save us from ‘ ‘azze
fanim’ [the shameless ones] and from ‘ ‘azzut
panim ’ [shamelessness], from an evil man, an evil
plague,” etc. (Ber. 166) — a prayer which found a
place in the daily morning prayer of the common
liturgy.

,T. SR. K.

Ba‘al

Ba'al-Worship

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

378

BA‘AL plural construct, Ba'ale, ^jn):

Hebrew word for possessor or owner of an object.
In connection with many nouns, it expresses some
relation between the person and an object. Many
of these combinations are found in Bible phraseology,
and are still used, especially among the Polish-Ger-
man Jews; e.g., “Ba'al lia-Bayit” (master of the
house), corruptly pronounced “Baalboos. ” In the
idiom of the Talmud the words compounded with
Ba‘al that arc especially used to designate the differ-
ent classes among scholars are: “ Ba'ale Gemara,”
or “Ba'ale Talmud,” those versed in the Talmud;
“Ba'ale Mikra,” those versed in the Bible; and
“Ba'ale Mishnah,” those versed in the Mishnah.
Other compounds with Ba'al adopted from the Tal-
mud, and still frequently used, are: “Ba'ale Hay -
yim,” animals; “Ba'al Din,” opponent, the plural
being “ Ba'ale Din [in] , ” those engaged in a lawsuit ;
“Ba'al Teshubah,” the repentant sinner; “Ba'al
Yesurin,” one afflicted with pain ; “ Ba'al Mum,” one
having a bodily defect ; “ Ba'al ‘Ezali, ” counselor. A
curious use of Ba'al is found in the rabbinic, espe-
cially the lialakic, writings of the Middle Ages. It
consists in citing an author by the title of his best-
known work, with which Ba'al is combined; e.g.,
“Ba'al Halakot,” meaning Isaac Alfasi ; “Ba'al
Hassagot,” meaning Abraham b. David. Jacob b.
Asher is commonly cited as “Ba'al ha-Turim ” ; an-
other codifier, Mordecai b. Abraham Yafe, as “ Ba'al
ha Lebushim,” being the authors of those works
respectively. The critic Zerachiah ben Isaac is
called after his work “Ba'al ha-Maor”; and Moses
Isserles is known as “ Ba'al lia-Mappah. ” The great
preacher Isaac Arama is very seldom cited under
his own name, but as “Ba'al ’Akedah”; and the
lexicographer Nathan b. Jeliiel is cited as “Ba'al
lie-'Aruk.” The Tosafists are called “Ba'ale ha-
Tosafot,” an expression that designates the school,
just as “Ba'ale lia-Mehkar ” is the term for phi-
losophers (compare Mkiii Ba'al Nes; Ba'al Siiem).

Bibliography: Kohut, Aruch Com pie turn, ii. 141-150; Levy,
Neuhebr. Wtirterb. i. 248-249 ; Jastrow, Dictionary, p. 182.

J. sr. L. G.

The following enumeration of the most popular
compounds of Ba'al that have crept into common
use may be found useful:

Ba'al ' Askan (a busybody).

Ba'al ha-Bayit (master of the liouse) ; dialect form, Baal-
boos, whence Bal BoOste (mistress of the house).
Ba'al-herit (the master of the covenant), name given to the
father upon whose child the covenant rite of circumcision
is performed.

Ba'al Dahar (compare Ex. xxiv. 14, “ Ba'al Debarim,” the
man who has a case before the court).

Ba'al Darshan , or Ba'al Derush (the preacher).

Ba'al Din (the man who has a litigation at court).

Ba'al Emah (a man of fear : a timid man).

Ba'al 'Erek (one who is assessed ; one well-to-do).

Ba'al Ezah (a man of counsel ; an able adviser).

Ba'al Geburah (a man of strength ; a robust man).

Ba'al Halom (a dreamer).

Ba'al Hen (a man of pleasing manners).

Ba'al Hesron : dialect, Bal hissdiron (a man having some phys-
ical defect).

Ba'al Hob (debtor: though in the Talmud the creditor, Ket.

ix. 2 ; Ned. 47b, and elsewhere).

Ba'al Kabod : dialect, Bal Kovod (a man who lays stress on
forms of respect).

Ba'al Koah (man of strength).

Ba'al Koreh (the reader from the scroll of the Law) .

Ba'al [ Mahaloket ] Mahalokes (a quarrelsome man).

Ba'al Mahashahoh [ Mahasiiabot ] (a dreamer ; literally, a man
of thoughts) .

Ba'al Massa u-Mattan (a business man).

Ba'al Mazzal (man of good luck ; a fortunate man).

Ba'al Mefunnak (a lover of comfort and ease).

Ba'al Mclakah [Bal Melnko] (a working man; a craftsman).
Ba'al Milhamah [Bal 3IiIhomo] (a man of war; a soldier).
Ba'al Mum (a man of some physical blemish).

Ba'al Nes (a man who had some miraculous experience in life).
Ba'al Nihush (a man of superstitious notions; a believer in
omens).

Ba'al Nissayon (a man who has been tried and has stood the
test) .

Ba'al Serarali (an aristocrat).

Ba'al Shalom (a man of peace).

Ba'al Shem (master in the use of the Holy Name).

Ba'al Tefillah (the reader of the prayers on special occasions).
Ba'al Teshubah (the man of repentance ; one who has turned
from an irreligious to a religious mode of life).

Ba'al Tobali (a man who loves to show kindness toothers).
Ba'al Torah (a man of learning) .

Ba'al Uman [Talmudical, Ba'al Umanut ] (a craftsman).
Ba'al Yesurin (a man afflicted with pain).

Ba'al Zedakali (a man of benevolence).

Ba'al Zikkaron (the possessor of a good memory).

j. K.

BA'AL AND BA'AL-WORSHIP.— Biblical

Data : The wide-spread and primitive Semitic root
(“ ba'al ”) may be most nearly rendered in English

Altar of Ba'al at Petra, Idumma.

(After a photograph.)

by “possess.” The term “Ba'al,” therefore, which
is usually explained as meaning “lord,” is prop-
erly “possessor” or “owner,” and is so used in a
great variety of applications in common Hebrew
speech. Thus we read of the “ba'al” of a house,
of laud, of goods, of a woman (that is, as a hus-
band). It is also generalized so far as to be a
mere noun of relation. Thus a “ ba'al of dreams ’’

379

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ba’al

Ba’al-Worship

is a dreamer; a “ba'al of anger” is an angry man; a
“ ba'al of wings ” is a bird ; a “ ba'al of edges ” is two-
edged; “ba'alimof a covenant” are allies; “ba'als
of an oath ” are conspirators. Further, a “ ba'al ”
may be the owner of animals (Isa. i. 3; Ex. xxi. 28

et seq.), but not of men
as slaves or subjects,
for the phrase in Isa.
xvi. 8, the“ba‘alim”
of the nations, implies
dominion over regions
rather than over peo-
ple. “Ba'al” in He-
brew is therefore essen-
tially different from
“adon,” which implies
personal sway and con-
trol. When any divin-
ity is called “ ba'al ” or
“a ba'al,” the designa-
tion must be under-
stood to imply not a
ruler of men, but a
possessor or controller
of certain things. On
the other hand, the
Assyrian (Babylonian)
“bel,” originally the
same word, implies es-
pecially lordship over
men, though it is also,
as in all north-Semitic languages, used as a mere
noun of relation. In Arabic “ ba'al,” as applied to
persons, is confined to the meaning of “husband."

The question as to the origin of the Worship of
Ba'al among the Hebrews can only be settled by tra-
cing it among the Semites in general and especially
among the Babylonians. Here the name (Bel) is that
of one of the earliest and most honored of national
deities. Bel was the special god of Nippur, perhaps
the oldest of Babylonian cities. Nip-
Bel in pur was in the earliest known times a
Babylonia, religious center, and the prestige of
Bel was so great that when the city
of Babylon became supreme his name was imposed
upon that of Merodach, the patron deity of the cap-
ital, who was thenceforth known as Bel Merodach
or simply Bel (compare Isa. xlvi. 1). There is, how-
ever, nothing to show that Bel was a universal ob-
ject of Semitic worship before he became the god of
Nippur. Moreover, Nippur, like other Babylonian
cities, had its own local deity under whose auspices
the city itself and its temple were founded, and who
seems to have received the name Bel, “lordly, domi-
nant,” by reason of the renown and influence of this
central shrine.

This, however, will hardly account for the place
held by Bel in the Babylonian pantheon, where he
appears as the god of the earth, distinguished from
Anu, the god of the heavens, and Ea, the god of the
lower world. Bel seems to have been honored on
similar grounds in Lagasli in southern Babylonia,
and it is reasonable to suppose that it was a combi-
nation of the several leadiug cults of such Bels that
led to the unification indicated in the position of the
great Babylonian Bel. It appears probable that it

was the gradual assimilation of cities and petty
states that raised the leading local deities to national
prominence. Thereafter other influences, sacerdotal,
theological, and administrative, cooperated to make
a favorite cult predominant. Bel, accordingly, be-
came a distinct national god, with a proper name, at
an early date, though at a comparatively late stage
of religious development.

In Palestine such a degree of syncretism in Baal-
Worsliip was never attained. There were several
reasons for this, the chief of which was
Jews that political combination of any sort
Advanced was difficult in that singularly diver-
Develop- sified region, so that each city-state
ment in among the Canaanites retained its own
Palestine, special divinity with its separate and
independent shrine. Yet when any
community came to exert a wide influence, as did
the city of Tyre, the worship of its deity extended
among the dependent cities and might even be
adopted elsewhere by virtue of alliances, political
or matrimonial, on the part of the rulers of the re-
spective states. Such, for example, was the occa-
sion of the degradation of worship in Israel in the
time of Solomon (I Kings xi. 1 et seq.) and of Aliab
(I Kings xvi. 31 et seq.).

The passage last cited is suggestive. There it is
stated that Aliab “ took as a wife Jezebel, daughter of
Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and he went and
served the Baal and worshiped him; and he set up
an altar to the Baal in the house of Baal which he
had built in Samaria.” It is hardly likely that the
passage embodies a reference to a god Ba'al whose
worship was common throughout Palestine, for “the
Baal,” according to the context, does not necessarily
mean anything more than Melkart, the deity spe-
cially honored by the
Phenicians ( Sidoni-
ans), and in fact it ap-
pears that there were
many Ba'als in Pales-
tine, each of whom
stood on an independ-
ent footing (compare

BaAI,-BEKITH,Ba‘ AL-
IM, etc.). But Aliab
had no occasion to ag-
grandize any one of
these minor Ba'alim,
since he did not re-
gard them as at all
serviceable.

To account for the
worship of these
Ba'alim we may refer
to the usage of the
word as a common
noun. The supernat-
ural powers most ob-
vious to the imagina-
tion of primitive Semites were those which were
supposed to supply their most pressing wants, such
as the need of food and drink. Gatherings and
settlements were made where the soil was most in-
viting ; that is, where it was perennially productive.
Such districts were regarded as being fertilized by

Ba’al Hamon.

(From a Phenician terra-cotta in the Louvre.)

Ba'al-Worship

Baal-Hanan

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

380

divine agency, and as each of them had its own
divinity or demon as the “owner” of the soil, such
a being was called its “Ba'al.” The
Stages in usage, having thus begun in agricul-
Ba'al- tural settlements, was naturally trans-
Worship. ferred to the sites of cities, all of
which were in any case founded under
religious auspices. Hence the multiplicity of Ba'als;
and hence the proper names of places which have
“Baal” as the first element, such as Baat.-hazor,
Baal-hermon, Baal-meon, Baai.-perazim, Baal-
shalisiia, Baal-tamar, and Baal zephon. A sec-
ond stage of development was reached when to
the Ba'al of a place was assigned a more abstract
character as a divinity of wider functions as Baal-
berith, Baalzebub. A further step was taken
when the name was used absolutely of a god Ba'al
without qualifications, used, for example, in anti-
thesis to Yhwh and as the second element in names
of persons, in such forms as Ish-baal (“Man of
Ba'al ”) or Hannibal (“ Favor of Ba'al ”).

It is not correct, therefore, to speak of Ba'al as be-
ing a universal Semitic deity, nor even as being the
object of a common Canaanitish worship. On the
other hand, it can not, be said that there was no god
Ba'al, as a distinct divinity among inland or mari-
time Canaanites, for later usage points clearly to
the use of the word as a proper name without any
definition whatever.

It would appear that the Hebrews first learned
Ba'al-Worship from the agricultural Canaanites.
Their life before the conquest of Canaan, whether
lived in or outside of Palestine, was nomadic, and
therefore kept them beyond the circle of religious
associations promoted by the cultivation of the soil.

After their settlement the Israelites
How the began to live as did the people of
Hebrews the laud, and with the new mode of
Adopted industrial and domestic life came the
the Cult, example and the incitement of the re-
ligious use and wont that were in-
separable from the soil. The stated festivals, in
which the Ba'als of the land had drawn to them-
selves all the enthusiasm and devotion of an intensely
religious people, were a part of the fixed order of
things in Palestine, and were necessarily appropri-
ated by the religion of Yhwh. With them came
the danger of mixing the rites of the false gods and
the true God; and, as a matter of fact, the syncre-
tism did take place and contributed more than
anything else to the religious and moral decline of
Israel.

The noxious elements in such Ba'al-Worship were
not simply the degradation of Yhwh and the en-
thronement in his place of a baseless superstition.
The chief evil arose from the fact that the Ba'als
were more than mere religious fan-
Dangers tasies. They were made the symbols
and Evils of the reproductive powers of nature,
of the and thus their worship ministered to
Worship, sexual indulgences, which it at the
same time legalized and encouraged.
Further, there was placed side by side with the Ba'al
a corresponding female symbol, the Ashtoreth
(Babyl. “ Ashtar”) and the relation between the two
deities was set forth as the example and the motive

of unbridled sensuality. The evil became all the
worse when in the popular view Yhwh himself
was regarded as one of the Ba'als and the chief of
them ( Hosea ii. 16). It was in northern Israel, where
agriculture was more followed than in the southern
kingdom, that Ba'al- Worship was most insidious and
virulent. The Book of Hosea speaks
Popular eloquently and pathetically of the
and Official moral and religious ruin which it
Forms of wrought in the days just before the fall
the Cult, of the monarchy. It was to the Ba'als
that the popular worship of the high
places was paid; or, more frequently, to Yhwh
Himself with Baalish rites. In the kingdom of Judah
the inveterate evil was abated, if not at once quelled,
by the concentration of all religious acts in Jerusa-
lem and its Temple. More pernicious while it lasted
than this popular inland Canaanitic cult was the
elaborate official Ba'al-Worship of Ahab and Jezebel,
above alluded to, which was finally rooted out by
revolution and proscription (II Kings ix., x.). It
had prophets by the hundred, as well as priests, and
had the effect of virtually though not avowedly put-
ting the religion of Yhwh under the ban. It was
introduced into Judah by Athaliah, daughter of
Jezebel; and its suppression there was also accom-
panied by a civil outbreak (II Kings xi. 4 et seq.).
Ba'al-Worship did not play so great a part in the later
religion of Judah as did the adoration of the heavenly
bodies and related usages borrowed from Assyria and
Babylonia. Yet the customs native to the soil lin-
gered on till they were obliterated by the Exile.

Apart from the offerings of fruits from the earth
and the firstlings of cattle, much is not known with
regard to the rites of the popular Ba'al-
Rites and Worship. Self-torture and mutilation
Aecom- characteristic of the Phenieian type
paniments. (I Kings xviii.28) were probably absent
from the simpler and freer usages of
the primitive local observances. It is also doubtful
whether the sacrifice of children, proper to the serv-
ice of Molech, was ever a feature of inland Canaan-
itic Ba'al-Worship (Jer. xix. 5 is to be corrected by
the LXX.). The shrines were little more than altars
with the symbol of the Ashtoreth planted beside it —
the sacred tree-stem or pole named from an old
Canaanite goddess, Ashera, with whom Ashtoreth
was identified. Near by sacred pillars were also
often reared.

It has been already indicated that the Ba'al plays
a great role in Canaanitic proper names. A curious
phase in the history of the cult in Israel
Baal in is shown in the substitution by later
Personal editors of (nKO),“boshet,” “theshame-
Names. ful thing,” for Ba'al in such names as
Ishboslieth and Mephibosheth ; com-
pare “Eshbaal,” I Chron. viii. 33, and “ Meribbaal, ” I
Cliron. ix. 40 (viii. 34). A name which could not be
thus treated was “ Bealiah ” (I Chron. xii. 6 [A. V.
5]), which means “Jehovah is Ba'al.”

Bibliography : Selden, Be Din Syria-, Movers, Phi'mizier, i. 169
et seq. ; Miinter, Religion der Karthagcr ; Gesenius. The-
saurus, s.v.; Comm, ad Jes, ii. 333 et seq.; Oort, Worship
of Baalim in Israel (transl. by Colenso. 1865); Batbgen,
Beitriige zur Semit. Religionsgeschichte; Baudissin, art.
Baal in Herzog’s Real-Encycl. 3d ed.: Nowack, Hehr.
Archdologie, ii. 301 et seq.; Benzinger, Hehr. Arch. pp. 371
et seq.; Smend, Alttest. Religionsgesch ichte, pp. 51 et see/..

381

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ba ‘al-Worship
Baal-Hanan

131 et seq.; Dillmann, Alttest. Theologie, pp. 135 et seq ., 140;

W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites, 3d ed., pp. 93-113.

J. JR. J. F. McC.

In Mohammedan Literature : It is more

than doubtful whether “ Baal ” appears in the Koran
as a proper name. Five times it is used in the sense
“husband”; once in the singular (sura xi. 75), and
four times in the plural (suras ii. 228, xxiv. 31).
Once it is used of a god (sura xxxvii. 125). In that
passage, according to the interpretation of Ibn ‘Ab-
bas (“Lisan al-Arab,” xiii. 62), a cousin of the
prophet and the founder of Koranic exegesis (died
687), it is to be rendered “Lord.” Sura xxxvii. 123-
127 may be translated: “And verily Elijah was one
of the divine messengers when he said to his people,
‘Will ye not fear? Will ye invoke a Lord [“Ba‘l ”]
and abandon the best of creators, God your Lord
and the Lord of your forefathers? ’ But they gave
him the lie; and they, verily, will be brought to
judgment.” There seems little doubt that Ibn ‘Ab-
bas’ interpretation of “Ba‘l,” as equivalent to
“rabb” (lord) or “malik” (possessor), represents the
conception of Mohammed. It agrees with Arabic
usage (see “Lisan al-Arab,” l.c., and Lane, “Lexi-
con,” p. 228 b. c.). But later Islam, with few excep-
tions, has united to interpret “Ba‘l” as a proper
name. One exegete has said that it meant any idol

sanam ”) in general ; another, that it was any deity
except God. But for the great mass of Moslems,
Ba‘l was an idol of gold worshiped by the people of
Bakk, a town in Syria, afterward called from it
“Baibakk” (Baalbek). It was twenty cubits high,
and had four faces; and “devils” entered it and
spoke to the people from it, according to the usual
Moslem idea. This was in the time of Aliab and
Jezebel ; and Bakk was their capital. Others have
held that it was in the time of Jonah ; still others,
that it was a woman whom the people of Bakk wor-
shiped. For the later legend see Al-Tha'labi (died
1036), “Kisas al-Anbiya,” ed. Cairo, p. 142, and ref-
erences above. See also Elijah in Mohammedan
Literature.

j. jr. D. B. M.

BA'AL HA-BAYIT (nun literally “mas-
terof the house” ; see Ex. xxii.7 [Il.V.8] ; Judgesxix.
22. In Talmudic usage “ owner, ” “ landlord, ” “ host ” ;
see Jastrow, “Dictionary,” s.v. JV3- In Yiddish,
Balboos; plural, Ba‘ale Battim): In more modern
usage, the constituent members of a congregation as
contrasted with the “tosliabim” (transient members
or strangers). The Ba'ale Battim consist of those
members who pay over a certain amount for their
seats in the synagogue. In return for this they
had special privileges, such as being elected bride-
groom of the Law, voting at elections, and certain
other advantages, on which account they are known
in England as “privileged members,” as contrasted
with “seat-renters.” They are also eligible for the
honorary offices of the synagogue, and can not
evade service except on payment of a fine.
Bibliography: Jewish Chronicle , Jan. 11, 1901, p. 14.

A. J.

BAAL-BERITH. — Biblical Data (“the Ba‘al
of the Covenant ”) : A form of Ba'al- worship prevail-
ing in Israel (Judges viii. 33), and particularly in

Shechem (Judges ix. 4). The term “ Ba al ” is shown
by the equivalent “El-berith ” (Judges ix. 46, R. Y.)
to mean “ the God of the Covenant.” In considering
what the covenant (or covenants) was over which
this Ba‘al presided, it must not necessarily be con-
cluded that certain definite treaties of the time were
alone referred to, such as the Canaanitic league of
which Shechem was the head, or the covenant be-
tween Israel and the people of Shechem (Gen.
xxxiv.). The term is too abstract to have been oc-
casioned by a single set of conditions. Moreover,
the temple of the god (Judges ix. 4, 46) in Shechem
implies a permanent establishment. Probably the
name and the cidt were wide spread and ancient (see
Baalim), though it happens to have been mentioned
only in connection with the affairs of Shechem.

J. JR. J. F. McC.

In Rabbinical Literature : The idol Baal-

berith, which the Jews worshiped after the death of
Gideon, was identical, according to the Rabbis, with
Baal-zebub, “the ba'al of flies,” the god of Ekron
(II Kings i. 2). He was worshiped in the shape of
a fly ; and so addicted were the Jews to his cult (thus
runs the tradition) that they would carry an image
of him in their pockets, producing it, and kissing it
from time to time. Baal-zebub is called Baal-berith
because such Jews might be said to make a covenant
(Hebr. “Berit”) of devotion with the idol, being un-
willing to part with it for a single moment (Shah.
835; comp, also Sank. 635). According to another
conception, Baal-berith was an obscene article of
idolatrous worship, possibly a simulacrum priapi
(Yer. Shab. ix. lid; ‘Ab. Zarah iii. 43 a). This is
evidently based on the later significance of the
word “berit,” meaning circumcision.

j. sr. L. G.

BAAL-GAD : A place situated at the northern
limit of Palestine, in the valley of Lebanon, near
Mount Hermon (Josh. xi. 17. xii. 7, xiii. 5). Since
I Chron. v. 23 mentions Baal-liermon as the northern
limit of the tribe of Manasseli, it has been supposed
that Baal -gad and Baal-liermon are identical. This
conjecture is quite possible, and more plausible than
that of Gesenius, Raumer, Robinson, and others,
according to whom Baal-gad (Hermon) is identical
with the later celebrated Paneas (Banias) ; for Paneas
can hardly be said to lie in the valley of Lebanon.
Others have connected Baal-gad with Hasbeja in
the Bika‘.

j. jr. F. Bu.

BAAL-HAMON: A place mentioned in Cant,
viii. 11, in which passage Solomon is said to
have had a vineyard there: its identity is unknown.
Graetz proposes to read “ Baal-liermon ” for “ Baal -
liamou”; but this is mere conjecture. Balamon
(Judith viii. 3), with which Delitzsch and others
have sought to identify it, is apparently the Old
Testament Ibleam, or Bileam, and the modern
Bel'ame, a moderately fruitful valley south of the
great plain of Jezreel. Bickell and Cheyne eliminate
the word, to preserve the meter.

j. jr. F. Bu.

BAAL-HANAN : 1. An Edomite king (Gen.
xxxvi. 38). He is called the son of Aclibor ; but the
name of his native city is not given. For this and

Baal-Hazor
Ba'al Shem

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

382

other reasons, Marquart (“ Fundamente Israelitisclier
und Jiidischer Gesch.” 189(5, pp. 10 et seq.) supposes
that “ son of Achbor ” is a duplicate of “ son of Beor ”
(Gen. xxxvi. 32), and that “Baal-hanan” in the
original text is given as the name of the father of
the next king, Hadad.

2. A Gederite who had charge of David’s olive-
and sycamore-trees in the low plains of Judah (I
Cliron. xxvii. 28).

j. jr. F. Bu.

BAAL-HAZOR : A place situated near Ephraim,
where Absalom possessed an estate (II Sam. xiii.
23). It was there that during a sheep-shearing fes-
tival Amnon was killed at the instigation of his
stepbrother Absalom. Baal-liazor has, with some
degree of plausibility, been identified as the modern
Tell ‘Azur, east of Beth-el (see Ephraim). It is
perhaps the same as Hazor, mentioned iu Nell. xi. 33.

j. jr. F. Bu.

BAAL-HERMON (Judges iii. 3; I Cliron. v.
23): See Baal-gad.

j. jr. F. Bu.

BAAL KORfi (&01P literally “the master
reading”): Term applied to the person who reads
the weekly portion from the Pentateuch — usually
the hazan, though not necessarily so (see Cantil-
lation ; Hazzan ; Music, Synagogab ; compare Dem-
bitz, “Jewish Services in Synagogue and Home,” pp.
70, 71, 262).

a. F. L. C.

BAAL-MEON, BET H - BA A L-M EON,
BETH-MEON, or BEON : A city in the eastern
part of the Jordan district, which is designated in
Numbers (xxxii. 3, 38), Joshua (xiii. 17), and Chron-
icles (v. 8) as Israelitish (Reubenitish), and in Jere-
miah (xlviii. 23) and Ezekiel (xxv. 9) as Moabitisli.
According to the inscription on the Moabite Stone
(lines 9 30), this city was reconquered by King
Meslia after it had become, under Omri, one of the
cities of the Israelites. The site of Baal-meon, which
is declared by Eusebius to be at a distance of nine
Roman miles from Heshbon, is marked by the ruins
of Main. The remains of buildings show the
Roman style of architecture. In a number of
houses the lower part is hewn out of the rock. As
Eusebius uses the name “ Baian ” (“ Onomastica
Sacra,” ed. Lagarde, ccxxxii. 40) for “Beon” (Num.
xxxii. 3), the word has been connected with the sons
of Bajan (I Macc. v. 4 et seq.), who were punished
by Judas Maccabeus for their hostility toward the
Jews. The name of this same Bedouin tribe occurs
also in Arabic authors (Wellhausen, “I. J. G.,” 3d
ed., p. 277).

j. jr. F. Bu.

BAAL-PEOR : Name of a Canaanitish god.
Peor was a mountain in Moab (Num. xxiii. 28),
whence the special locality Beth-peor (Deut. iii. 29,
etc.) was designated. It gave its name to the Ba’al
who was there worshiped, and to whose service
Israel, before the entrance into Canaan, was, for a
brief time, attracted (Num. xxv. 3, 5 ; Ps. cvi. 28).
The god is himself also called “Peor” by abbrevia-
tion (Num. xxxi. 16 ; Josh. xxii. 17). Itiscommonly
held that this form of Ba’al-worship especially called

for sensual indulgence. The context seems to favor
his view, on account of the shameful licentiousness
into which many of the Israelites were there en-
ticed. But all Ba’al-worship encouraged this sin;
and Peor may not have been worse than many other
shrines in this respect, though the evil there was
certainly flagrant. In Hosea ix. 10 “Baal-peor” is
the same as “Beth-peor,” and is contracted from
“Beth-baal-peor.”

j. jr. J. F. McC.

In Rabbinical Literature : The worship of

this idol consisted in exposing that part of the body
which all persons usually take the utmost care to
conceal. It is related that on one occasion a strange
ruler came to the place where Peor was worshiped,
to sacrifice to him; but when he heard of this silly
practise, he caused his soldiers to attack and kill
the worshipers of the god (Sifre, Num. 131 ; Sanh.
106a). The same sources mention various other facts
concerning the cult, all of which give the impression
that it still existed at the time of the Tannaim.
That the statements of the Rabbis are not wholly
imaginative and do not take their coloring from the
rites of some heathen or antinomian-Gnostic sects is
shown by the fact that the worship of Peor is ridi-
culed, but nowhere stigmatized as moral depravity,
by the Rabbis, which latter might have been ex-
pected, had the assertions of the Rabbis been based
on the Gnostic cults mentioned.

j. sr. L. G.

BAAL-PERAZIM : A place mentioned in the
report of the battle between David and the Philis-
tines in II Sam. v. 20 (compare I Cliron. xiv. 11).
The Philistines encamped in the valley of Rephai.m,
while David withdrew to the hill-fortress of Adul-
lam and thence proceeded to Baal perazim, where
he defeated the Philistines. Consequently the place
must have been situated in the valley of Rephaim;
but more definite information concerning it can not
be found. One is tempted to connect it with Mount
Perazim (Isa. xxviii. 21).

j. jr. F. Bu.

BAAL-SHALISHA : A place mentioned in II
Kings iv. 42, and in the Talmud (Sanh. 12a). Euse-
bius identifies it with Baithsarisa, 15 Roman miles
to the north of Lydda. This, however, is uncertain,
and there is much in favor of connecting Baal-slia-
lisha with the ruins of Serisiyyah, lying on the west-
ern side of the mountains of Ephraim, or with the
ruins of the cities Kefr Thilth, lying somewhat to
the northeast. According to the Talmud (loc. cit.),
fruits ripened earlier at Baal-slialislia than elsewhere
in Palestine.

Bibliography: G. A. Smith, Historical' Geography of Pales-
tine, p. 351 ; Buhl, Geographic cles Alten Paliistina, p. 214.

j. jr. F. Bu.

BA'AL SHEM (Dt? plural, “Ba’alei She-
mot,” more correctly “Ba'alei Shem,” i.e., Master of
the Name): Designation cf certain people who were
supposed to work miracles through the name of
God. This belief in the miraculous power of the
Sacred Name is very old, having a history that cov-
ers more than two thousand years (compare Siiem
ha-Meforash and God, Names of); but the des-
ignation “Ba’al Shem” seems to have originated

383

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baal-Hazor
Ba'al Shem

only with the German-Polish Jews when they be-
came acquainted with the practical Cabala of the
school of Luria. The payyetan Benjamin b. Zerah
is indeed called "Ba'al Shem,” which, however, only
indicates that in his piyyutim he frequently alludes
to the various mystical names of God. The first one
who is known to have borne this name, Elijah of
Clielm, flourished about 1300, at the period when
the study of the Cabala was wide-spread in Poland.
The Ba'al Shem, which first was undoubtedly applied
only as a special distinction to particular men who
were considered great saints and in whose miracu-
lous powers the people believed, had two centuries
later developed into a profession. These “Ba'ale
Shem ” represented a mixture of quack doctor, phy-
sician, and cabalist. They wrote amulets, prescribed
empiric medicines, with which they were well ac-
quainted. and engaged also in casting out or sum-
moning spirits. Their profession was such that they
incurred the hostility of physicians, with whom they
often entered into serious competition. The follow-
ing prayer, composed by a Ba'al Shem for himself
and his compeers, is indicative of the attit ude toward
the physicians : “ Preserve me from enmity and quar-
rels; and may envy between me and others disap-
pear. Let, on the contrary, friendship, peace, and
harmony prevail between me and the physicians,
. . . that I may be respected in their opinion, . . .
that they may not speak evil of me or of my ac-
tions” (“Toledot Adam,” Zolkiev, 1720). Solomon
Maimon speaks, in his autobiography (i. 217), of a
Ba'al Shem who possessed medical knowledge and
sufficient astuteness to make him a formidable com-
petitor of the physicians.

Following is an approximately complete alpha-
betical list of persons known to have been Ba'ale
Shem :

(1) Elhanan, rabbi in Vienna, seventeenth century (Dembit-
zer, “ Kelilat Yofl,” 78b); (2) Eli.iah, rabbi at Chelm (govern-
ment of Lublin), a progenitor of Zebi Ashkenazi, flourished
about 1500 (Responsa of Zebi Ashkenazi, No. 93 ; Emden,“Megil-
lat Sefer,” 4); (3) Elijah b. Moses Loans (1555—1036) ; (4) Falk,
Hayyim Samuel, 1708-1782 ; (5) Gedaliah of Worms, an eminent
Talmudist, died between 1622 and 1624 (Kaufmann, “Ya’ir Hay-
yim,” Bacharach. p. 20, note 2); (6) Israel b. Eliezer (1700-
1760), commonly known as Ba'al Shem-Tob (see article) ;

(7) Joel b. Isaac Heilprin, middle of the seventeenth century ;

(8) Joel b. Uri Heilprin, beginning of the eighteenth century ;

(9) Seligof Lublin, beginning of the eighteenth century (Kahana
in the passage cited below, p. 63); (10) Wolf, who, like most of
the Ba'ale Shem, lived in Poland in the beginning of the eigh-
teenth century (Kahana l.c.) ; (11) Sekl Loeb Wormser (1768—
1846), the Michaelstadter Ba'al Shem, still known in Germany
under that name.

See Hasidim ; Folk Medicine.

Bibliography: Kahana, R. Yisrael Ba'al Shem-Tob , 1900,

pp. 59-64 ; Dembitzer, l.c.

K. L. G.

BAAL SHEM, ELIJAH. See Loans, Elia.

BAAL SHEM, JOEL. See Heilprin, Joel b.
Isaac, and Heilprin, Joel b. Uri.

BA'AL SHEM-TOB, ISRAEL B. ELIE-
ZER (commonly known by the initial letters of his
name, t2 BESliT): Founder of the sect of Hasi-
dim; born about 1700; died at Miedzyboz (Medzlii-
bozh), May 22, 1760. The little biographical infor-
mation concerning him that exists is so interwoven
with legends and miracles that in many cases it is

hard to arrive at the historical facts. He is said to
have been born at Akuf (eppN), a border-city between
Poland and Wallacliia; but no such place is known.
From the numerous legends connected with his birth
it appears that his parents were poor, upright, and
pious, and that when left an orphan he was taken
care of by the community in which he lived. At
the “heder ” he distinguished himself only by his fre-
quent disappearances, being always found in the
lonely woods surrounding the place, rapturously
enjoying the beauties of nature.

His benefactors gave up the hope of his ever be-
coming a rabbi, and made him a “helper,” who took
the children to and from school and rehearsed short
benedictions and prayers with them.
Early Life. His tender, sentimental nature, to
which his later success was in great
measure due, now stood him in good stead ; for he
could win children and attach them to him by expla-
nations suited to their understanding. Later he be-
came “shammash” in the same community, and at
about eighteen he married. When his young wife
died he left the place, and after serving for a long
time as helper in various small communities of Gali-
cia, he settled as a teacher at Flust near Brody.

On account of his recognized honesty and his
knowledge of human nature he was chosen to act
as arbitrator and mediator for people conducting
suits against each other; and his services were
brought into frequent requisition owing to the fact
that the Jews had their own civil courts in Poland. In
this avocation Beslit succeeded in making so deep an
impression upon the rich and learned Ephraim of
Kuty that the latter promised Beslit his daughter
Anna in marriage. The man died, however, without
telling his daughter of her betrothal ; but when she
heard of his wish, she did not hesitate to comply.
Besht’s wooing was characteristic. In the shabby
clothes of a peasant he presented himself at Brody
before Abraham Gersou Kutower, brother of the
girl, and a recognized authority in the Cabala and
the Talmud. Kutower was about to give him
alms, when Beslit produced a letter from his pocket,
showing that he was the designated bridegroom.
Kutower tried in vain to dissuade his sister Anna
from shaming the family by marrying this “ ‘am ha-
arez”; but she regarded her father’s will alone as
authoritative.

After his marriage Beslit did not long remain with
this aristocratic brother-in-law, who was ashamed of
him (for he kept up the pretense of being an igno-
rant fellow); and he went to a village in the Carpa-
thians between Kuty and Kassowa. His worldly
property consisted of a horse given him by his
brother-in-law. Every week his wife took a wagon-
load of lime to the surrounding villages; and from
this they derived their entire support. But the
magnificent scenery in this, the finest region of the
Carpathians, and the possibility of enjoying it with-
out the interruptions of city life, compensated him
for his great privations. Besht’s condition was bet-
tered when he took a position as sliohet in Kshilo-
wice, near Iaslowice. This position he soon gave
up in order to conduct a village tavern which his
brother-in-law bought for him. During the many
years that lie lived in the woods and came into'

Ba‘al Shem-Tob

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

384

contact with the peasants, Beslit learned how to use
plants for healing purposes and to effect wonderful
cures. In fact, His first appearance in public was
that of an ordinary Ba‘al Shem. He wrote amu-
lets and prescribed cures. To his credit be it said
that he was far from practising the quackery of his
fellows in the craft. In treating, for instance, those
who suffered from melancholy, or the insane, he
sought to influence their minds.

After many trips in Podolia and Volhynia as a
Ba‘at Shem, Beslit, considering his following large
enough and his authority established, decided (about
1740) to expound his teachings. He

Appear- chose for the place of his activity the
ance little city of Miedzyboz; and the peo-
as Zaddik. pie, mostly from the lower classes,
came to listen to him. His following
gradually increased, and with it the dislike, not
to say hostility, of the Talmudists. Nevertheless,
Beslit was supported at the beginning of his career
by two prominent Talmudists, the brothers Mei'r
and Isaac Dob Margaliot. Later he won to his side
Baer of Meseritz, to whose great authority as a
Talmudist it was chiefly due that Besht’s doctrines
{though in an essentially altered form) were intro-
duced into learned circles. The antagonism between
Talmudism and Hasidism was apparent to the repre-
sentatives of each at Besht’s first appearance ; but
the open breach did not come about until later. In
fact, Besht took sides with the Talmudists in the
Fraukist disputes, and was even one of the three
delegates of the Talmudists to a disputation between
the two parties Held at Lemberg in 1759. It was
only in keeping with Besht’s character that he felt
keenly upon the acceptance of baptism by the
Frankists, for it is related that he said : “ As long as
a diseased limb is connected with the body, there is
hope that it may be saved ; but, once amputated, it
is gone, and there is no hope.” The excitement con-
sequent upon the Frankist movement undermined
his health, and he died shortly after the conversion
of many Frankists to Christianity.

Besht left no books; for the cabalistic commen-
tary on Ps. cvii., ascribed to him (Jitomir, 1804),
“Sefer mi-Babbi Yisrael Ba‘al Shem-Tob,” is
hardly genuine. In order to get at his teachings, it
is therefore necessary to turn to his utterances as
given in the works of the old Hasidim. But since
Hasidism, immediately after the death of its founder,
was divided into various parties, each claiming for
itself the authority of Besht, the utmost of caution
is necessary in judging as to the authenticity of
utterances ascribed to Besht.

The foundation-stone of Hasidism as laid by Besh
is a strongly marked pantheistic conception of God.
He declared the whole universe, mind and matter,
to be a manifestation of the Divine Being ; that this
manifestation is not an emanation from God, as is
the conception of the Cabala, for nothing can be sep-
arated from God : all things are rather forms in which
He reveals Himself. When man speaks, said Besht,
he should remember that his speech is an element of
life, and that life itself is a manifestation of God.
Even evil exists in God. This seeming contradic-
tion is explained on the ground that evil is not bad
in itself, but only in its relation to man. It is wrong

to look with desire upon a woman ; but it is divine
to admire her beauty: it is wrong only in so far as
man does not regard beauty as a manifestation of
God, but misconceives it, and thinks of it in refer-
ence to himself. Nevertheless, sin is nothing posi
tive, but is identical with the imper-

Elements fections of human deeds and thought.

of Besht’s Whoever docs not believe that God

Doctrines, resides in all things, but separates Him
and them in his thoughts, has not the
right conception of God. It is equally fallacious to
think of a creation in time: creation, that is, God’s
activity, has no end. God is ever active in the
changes of nature: in fact, it is in these changes
that God's continuous creativeness consists.

This pantheism of Besht, of the consequences of
which he was not at all conscious, would have
shared the fate of many other speculative systems
which have passed over the masses without affecting
them, had it not been for the fact that Besht was a
man of the people, who knew how to give his meta-
physical conception of God an eminently practical
significance.

The first result of his principles was a remarkable
optimism. Since God is immanent in all things, all
things must possess something good in which God
manifests Himself as the source of good. For this
reason, Besht taught, every man must be considered
good, and his sins must be explained, not con-
demned. One of his favorite sayings was that no
man has sunk too low to be able to raise himself to
God. Naturally, then, it was his chief endeavor to
convince sinners that God stood as near to them as
to the righteous, and that their misdeeds were chiefly
the consequences of their folly.

Another important result of his doctrines, which
was of great practical importance, was his denial
that asceticism is pleasing to God. “ Whoever main-
tains that this life (run d^j?) is worthless is in error:
it is worth a great deal ; only one must know how
to use it properly.” From the very beginning Besht
fought against that contempt for the world which,
through the influence of Luria’s Cabala, had almost
become a dogma among the Jews. He considered
care of the body as necessary as care of the soul ;
since matter is also a manifestation of God, and must
not be considered as hostile or opposed to Him.

In connection with his struggle against asceticism,
it is natural that he should have fought also against
the strictness and the sanctimoniousness that had
gradually developed from the strict Talmudic stand-
point. Not that Besht required the abrogation of
any religious ceremonies or of a single observance.
His target was the great importance which the Tal-
mudic view attached to the fulfilment of a law, while
almost entirely disregarding sentiment or the growth
of man’s inner life. While the rabbis of his day
considered the study of the Talmud as the most im-
portant religious activity, Beslit laid all the stress on
prayer. “All that I have achieved,” he once re-
marked, “ I have achieved not through study, but
through prayer.” Prayer, however, is not petition-
ing God to grant a request, though that is one end
of prayer, but mp’in (“cleaving ”)— the feeling of
oneness with God, the state of the soul when man
gives up the consciousness of his separate existence,

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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ba'al Shem-Tob

and joins himself to the eternal being of God. Such'
a state produces a species of indescribable joy
(nnOGP), which is a necessary ingredient of the true
worship of God.

It is remarkable that Besht, whose starting-point
was the same as that of Luria’s Cabala, arrived at
exactly opposite results. His conception of God
was pantheistic ; while the school of Luria laid the
greatest stress upon the principle of
Opposition emanation. Beslit’s fight against as-
to Luria’s ceticism was directed more against

Cabala. the school from which it sprang than
against pure Talmudism. His teach-
ings concerning (“ joy ”) were especially op-

posed to asceticism. The followers of Luria consid-
ered weeping an indispensable accompaniment to
prayer ; while Besht considered weeping and feelings
of sorrow to he wholly objectionable. The sinner
who repents of his sin should not sorrow over the
past, but should rejoice over the Heavenly Voice,
over the Divine Power, working within him and
enabling him to recognize the true in admitting his
sin. The function of joy in prayer is paralleled by
glowing enthusiasm and ecstasy (n’QH^nn =“to be-
come inflamed ”) in every act of worship. Fear of
God is only an initiatory step to real worship, which
must spring from a love of God and a surrender of
self to Him. In his enthusiasm man will not think
either of this life (ntn or of the next: the feel-
ing of union with God is in itself a means and an
end. Enthusiasm, however, demands progress, not
the mere fulfilment of the Law’s precepts in a daily
routine which becomes deadening : true religion con-
sists in an ever-growing recognition of God.

The later developments of Hasidism are unintelli-
gible without consideration of Besht’s opinion con-
cerning man’s proper relation with the universe.
True worship of God, as above explained, consists
in rnp’TI, the cleaving to, and the unification with,
God. To use his own words, “ the ideal of man is to
be a revelation himself, clearly to recognize himself
as a manifestation of God.” Mysticism, he said, is
not the Cabala, which every one may learn ; but that
sense of true oneness, which is usually as strange,
unintelligible, and incomprehensible to mankind as
dancing is to a dove. The man, however, who is
capable of this feeling is endowed with a genuine
intuition; and it is the perception of such a man
which is called prophecy, or “bat kol,” according to
the degree of his insight. From this
Idea of the it results, in the first place, that the

Zaddik. “ zaddik, ” the ideal man, may lay claim
to authority equal, in a certain sense,
to the authority of the Prophets. A second and
more important result of the doctrine is that the
zaddik, through his oneness with God, forms a con-
necting-link between the Creator and creation.
Thus, slightly modifying the Bible verse, Hab. ii. 4.
Besht said : “ The righteous can vivify by his faith.”
Besht’s followers enlarged upon this idea, and con-
sistently deduced from it that the zaddik is the
source of divine mercy, of blessings, of life ; and that
therefore, if one love him, one may partake of God’s
mercy.

Though Besht may not be held responsible for the
later conception of the zaddik, there is no doubt
II.— 25

that his self-reliance was an important factor in win-
ning adherents. It may, in fact, be said of Hasi
dism that, with the exception of Jesus and the Judaeo-
Christians, there is no other Jewish sect iu which
the founder is as important as his doctrines. Besht
himself is still the real center for the Hasidim; his
teachings have almost sunk in oblivion. As Schech-
ter (“Studies in Judaism,” p. 4) finely observes:
“To the Hasidim, Ba‘al-Shem [Besht] . . . was the
incarnation of a theory, and his whole life the reve-
lation of a system.”

Besht did not combat the practise of rabbinical
Judaism; this seemed harmless to him : it was the
spirit of the practise which he opposed. His teach-
ing being the result not of speculation,
Char- but of a deep, religious temperament,
acteristics. he laid stress upon a religious spirit,
and not upon the forms of religion.
Though he considered the Law to be hoi}" and in-
violable, he held that one’s entire life should be a
service of God, and that this would constitute true
worship of Him. Since every act in life is a mani-
festation of God, and must perforce be divine, it is
man’sduty soto live that the things called “earthly”
may also become noble and pure, that is, divine.
Besht tried to realize his ideal in his own career.
His life provided the best example for his disciples;
and his intercourse with the innkeepers, a class of
people who nearly corresponded to the publicans of
the time of Jesus (a number of whom he raised to a
higher level), furnished a silent but effective protest
against the practise of the rabbis, who, in their in-
exorable sense of strict righteousness, would have no
dealings with people fallen morally. The Hasidim
tell of a woman whom her relatives sought to kill on
account of her shameful life, but who was saved iu
body and soul by Besht. The story may he a myth ;
but it is characteristic of Besht’s activity in healing
those in greatest need of relief. More important to
him than prayer was friendly intercourse with sin-
ners; though the former constituted an essential
factor in the religious life. The story of Besht’s
career affords many examples of unselfishness and
high-minded benevolence. And while these quali-
ties equally characterize a number of the rabbis of
his day, his distinguishing traits were a merciful
judgment of others, fearlessness combined with dis-
like of strife, and a boundless joy iu life.

Moreover, Besht's methods of teaching differed
essentially from those of his opponents, and contrib-
uted not a little to his success. He was certainly
not a scholar; that is, his knowledge of rabbinical
literature, especially of the Talmud and the Mid-
rashim, was only that of an average “lamdan.” He
was still less gifted as a speaker. But the lack of
scholarship and oratory was supplied by fine satire
and inventiveness in telling parables. There are
many satirical remarks directed against his oppo
nents, an especially characteristic one being his des-
ignation of the typical Talmudist of his day as “a
man who through sheer study of the Law has no
time to think about God.” Besht illustrated his
views of asceticism by the following parable:

“A thief once tried to break into a house, the owner of which,
crying out, frightened the thief away. The same thief soon
afterward broke into the house of a very strong man, who, on

Ba‘al Shem-Tob
Baalbek

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

386

seeing him enter, kept quite still. When the thief had come
near enough, the man caught him and put him in prison, thus
depriving him of all opportunity to do further harm.”

Not by fleeing from earthly enjoyments through
fear is the soul’s power assured, but by holding the
passions under control.

Much of Besht’s success was also due to his firm
conviction that God had entrusted him with a spe-
cial mission to spread his doctrines. In his enthusi-
asm and ecstasy he believed that he often had heav-
enly visions revealing his mission to him. In fact,
for him every intuition was a divine revelation; and
divine messages were daily occurrences. Accus-
tomed, through the influence of the Cabala, to use
mystic language, Besht frequently said with empha-
sis that his teacher was Ahijah of Shiloh, the prophet
who at God’s bidding undertook to bring about
the breach between Judah and Israel. Besht was
fully aware of the opposition between himself and
rabbinical Judaism. And just as Ahijah’s struggle
with Judah ended in the victory of the golden
calves, so Besht’s endeavors for reform ended in the
later Hasidism, a degeneration far worse than the
Talmudic-rabbinic Judaism against which he had
contended.

Besht is quite naturally one of the most interesting
figures in modern Jewish legend. As a man of the
people and for the people, it is not strange that he
should have been honored and glorified in story and
in tradition. Of the many narratives that cluster
about him, the following are given as the most
characteristic :

About his parentage, legend tells that his father,
Eliezer, whose wife was still living, was seized dur-
ing an attack (by the Tatars?), carried
In from his home in Wallacliia, and sold

Legend, as a slave to a prince. On account, of
his wisdom he found favor with the
prince, who gave him to the king to be his minister.
During an expedition undertaken by the king, when
other counsel failed, and all were disheartened,
Eliezer’s advice was accepted; and the result was a
successful battle of decisive importance. Eliezer was
made a general and afterward prime minister, and
the king gave him the daughter of the vice-king
lUE^D) in marriage. But, being mindful of his
duty as a Jew and as the husband of a Jewess
in Wallacliia, he married the princess only in
name. After being questioned for a long time as to
his strange conduct, he confessed his race to the
princess, who loaded him with costly presents and
aided him to escape to his own country. On the
way, the prophet Elijah appeared to Eliezer and said :
“ On account of thy piety and steadfastness, thou wilt
have a son who will lighten the eyes of all Israel ;
and Israel shall be his name, because in him shall be
fulfilled the verse (Isa. xlix. 3) : ‘ Thou art my serv-
ant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’ ” Eliezer
and his wife, however, reached old age childless and
had given up all hope of ever having a child. But
when they were nearly a hundred years old, the
promised son (Besht) was born.

Besht’s parents died soon after his birth ; bemieath-
ing to him only the death-bed exhortation of Eliezer,
“Always believe that God is with thee, and fear
nothing.” Besht ever remained true to this injunc-

tion. Thus, on one occasion, when he was escorting
school-children to synagogue, a wolf was seen, to
the terror of old and young, so that the children
were kept at home. But Besht, faithful to the be-
quest of his father, knew no fear; and, on the second
appearance of the wolf, he assailed it so vigorously as
to cause it to turn and flee. Now, says the legend,
this wolf was Satan. Satan had been very much
perturbed when he saw that the prayers of the chil-
dren reached God, who took more delight in the
childish songs from their pure hearts than in the
hymns of the Levites in the Temple; and it was for
this reason that Satan tried to put a stop to Besht’s
training the children in prayers and taking them to
synagogue. From this time on, successful struggles
with Satan, demons, and all manner of evil spirits
were daily occurrences with Besht.

At this time, too, he learned how to work miracles
with the name of God. The following is an instance :
In Constantinople, where Besht stopped on his in-
tended journey to Palestine, he was received with un-
usual hospitality by a worthy couple
His who were childless. In return for
Miracles, their kindness Besht, when departing,
promised them that they should be
blessed with a son, and rendered this possible by the
utterance of the Sacred Name. Now, to do this was
a great sin ; and Scarcely had the words of the incan-
tation passed Besht’s lips when he heard a voice in
heaven declaring that he had forfeited thereby his
share in the future life. Instead of feeling unhappy
over such a fate, Besht called out joyfully : “ Blessed
art Thou, O Lord, for Thy mercy ! Now indeed can
I serve Thee out of pure love, since I may not ex-
pect reward in the future world ! ” This proof of his
true love for God won pardon for his sin, though at
the expense of severe punishment.

Besht’s miraculous power was so great that he did
not fear even the brigands who lived in the moun-
tains, but dwelt care-free in their vicinity. Once,
when wandering about, deeply immersed in thought,
he climbed a steep mountain and, without noticing
where he was going, reached a very dangerous spot.
Besht thought that his end had come, for he felt
himself slipping toward a deep precipice; but sud-
denly the opposite cliff approached and closed up
the gap. The robbers, who were looking on at a
distance, doubted no longer that he was a man en-
dowed with divine power.

Bibliography : The chief source for Besht’s biography is
Baer (Dob) b. Samuel’s Shibhe lia-Besht , Kopys, 1814, and
frequently republished. For Besht’s methods of teaching, the
following works are especially valuable : Jacob Joseph ha-
Kohen, Toledot Ya'akob Yosef ; Likkutim [Likkute] Ye-
karim, a collection of Hasidic doctrines; the works of Baer
of Meseritz. Critical' works on the subject are: Dubnow,
Yevreiskaya Istoria , ii. 426-431 ; idem , in Vosklwd, viii.
Nos. 5—10 ; Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, 2d ed., xi. 94-98, 540-
554; Jost, Gesch. des Judenthums und Seiner Sekten, iii.
185 et seq.\ A. Kahana, Rahhi Yisrael Ba'al Shem , Jitomir,
1900; D. Kohan, in Ha-Shahar , v. 500-504, 553-554; Rodkin-
son, Toledot Ba'ale Shem-Tbh , Konigsberg, 1876 ; Schechter,
Studies in Judaism, 1896, pp. 1-45; Zweifel, Shalom ‘ al -
Yisrael, i.— iii.; Zederbaum, Keter Kehunah, pp. 80-103 ;
Frumkin, ‘Adat Zaddikim. Lemberg, 1860, 1865 (?); Zang-
will, Dreamers of the Ghetto, pp. 221-288 (Action).

K. L. G.

BAAL-TAMAR; A place near Gibeah, men-
tioned in the account of the battle between the Ben-
jamites and the other Israelites (Judges xx. 33).
Eusebius (“ Onomastica Sacra,” 238, § 75) knew Baal-

387

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ba'al Shem-Tob
Baalbek

tamar under the name of “ Beth-thamar ” ; but at the
present day it can not be located.

j. jr. F. Bu.

BA'AL TOKEA' (ypin b]12, literally “the mas-
ter of blowing”) : Term applied to the person who
blows the Shofar.

a. F. L. C.

BAAL-ZEBUB. — Biblical Data : Name of a
god of the Philistine city of Ekron, mentioned only
in connection with the illness of Ahaziah, king of
Israel, in 842 b.c. (II Kings i. 2, 3, 6, 16), when the
sick monarch sent messengers to Ekron to consult
him on the prospects of his recovery. There has
been much speculation as to the character of the god.
As the word stands, it means “Baal of flies.” This
is usually explained as the god who expels or des-
troys flies; though it may also mean the patron or
controller of flies. The two explanations may be
combined in one, or rather the second may include
the first; for the god who has power to drive away
any plague has also power to send it. A Zevg 'Ako-
/jvioc was worshiped at Elis in Greece as a disperser
of flies, and further analogies drawn from the occur-
rence of “ fly gods ” among other nations (see Frazer’s
note to his ed. of Pausanias, v. 14) warrant us in re-
taining the common explanation until decisive proof
to the contrary is forthcoming. It has been sug-
gested that the second element of the name has been
modified from an original “Zebul,” or rather “beth
Zebul,” so that the name would mean “lord of the
high-house” (compare I Kings viii. 13). The drop-
ping of “ Beth ” is not without example (see Baal-
peor) ; but the warrant for assuming textual corrup-
tion is not sufficient. It was not unusual to call a
god by the name of things that were particularly
troublesome, and which he was asked to destroy
(Nowack, “ Hebr. Arch.” p. 304; compare Apollo
Smintheus as the destroyer of mice among the
Greeks). The New Testament form “ Beelzebub ”
(Matt. x. 25, etc.) is probably not based upon any
Old Testament reading, but is due to phonetic dis-
similation. See Beelzebub.

j. jr. J. F. McC.

BAAL-ZEBUB IN RABBINICAL LITERA-
TURE. See Baal-berith in Rabbinical Litera-
ture.

BAAL-ZEPHON. — Biblical Data : An Egyp-
tian locality in the neighborhood of the Red Sea.
In spite of all attempted combinations (Dillmann-
Ryssell on Ex. xiv. 2) its situation is still unknown.
An Egyptian god, B'irati Dapuna — that is, Ba'alat
Zaphon — is mentioned by the Egyptians themselves
(W. Max Muller, “ Asien und Europa,” p. 315). The
name calls to mind the Phenician psv h]}2, which
designates both a god and a place. It particularly
signifies a city on Mount Lebanon, which, in the
opinion of H. Winckler, occurs also in the Old Testa-
ment ; for he interprets Jer. x v. 12 (“ Alttestamentliclie
Untersuchungen,” p. 179), as “ iron of Baalzephon.”
However, it is not certain whether the Egyptian
city and the Egyptian god Ba'alat Zaphon are
directly connected with the Phenician name of a god.

J. JR. F. Bu.

In Rabbinical Literature : The idol at Baal-
zephon was the only one that remained unharmed

when God sent the tenth plague upon Egypt, which
not only brought death to men and animals, but also
destroyed the idols. When Pharaoh overtook Israel
at the sea, near Baal-zephon (Ex. xiv. 9), he said,
“ This idol is indeed mighty, and the God of Israel
is powerless over him.” But God intentionally
spared Baal-zephon in order to strengthen the infat-
uation of the wicked Pharaoh (Mek., Besliallah, 2;
Bo, 13).

j. sr. L. G.

BAALAH : 1. A border town of Judah (Josh,
xv. 9, 10; I Chron. xiii. 6) called elsewhere Kirjath-

JEARIM.

2. Amount on the border of Judah (Josh. xv. 11).

3. A city in the south of Judah (Josh. xv. 29),
held by the Simeonites (Josh. xix. 3, where it is
called Balali, while in the corresponding list of I
Chron. iv. 29, it is called Bilhah).

j. jr. G. B. L.

BAALATH : 1. A Dauite city (Josh. xix. 44).

2. A city built by Solomon mentioned in connec-
tion with Tadmor (I Kings ix. 18; II Chron. viii. 6).
Its site has not been determined.

j. jr. G. B. L.

BAALATH BEER : A city in the possession of
Simeon (Josh. xix. 8); but in the corresponding list
of I Chron. iv. 33 called “Baal.”

j. JR. G. B. L.

BAALBEK : A city situated at the base of the
western slope of the Anti-Lebanon, in a fertile region.
It is the Heliopolis of the Greek and Roman writers,
and is famous for the magnificent ruinsof several tem-
ples— a large one with a vast courtyard ; a smaller
one (the Temple of the Sun) ; and a still smaller ( ne,
elegantly built in rococo style. The last two build-
ings, distinguished not only for their large propor-
tions, but also for tine detail work, were probably
constructed in the second century; and information
from the seventh century indicates that the large tem-
ple was erected by Antoninus Pius. In classic litera-
ture t he first mention of Heliopolis is in the third cen-
tury ; but coins found in the city show that it existed
in the first century, when it was a Roman colony.

Its origin, however, belongs to a still earlier period,
for it was the principal center of the Syrian sun-
worship. This is corroborated by the fact that the
name “ Baalbek ” is found among the Syrians and
the Arabians. The meaning of the second part of the
name is inexplicable; but the first part suggests the
old Semitic “Baal.” It is doubtful whether this
city is mentioned in the Old Testament. Some iden-
tify it with Baal-gad; but Baal-gad could not have
lain so far north. Others think that it is Aven
(Amos i. 5), because the Greek translation renders
“ Aven” by “ On ” — the usual designation of “ Heliop-
olis. ” The word “On,” however, borrowed from the
Egyptians, can not with justification be applied to a
Syrian city; and the place mentioned by Amos is
undoubtedly in the neighborhood of Damascus.
Baalbek is mentioned several times in Talmud and
Midrash ; compare Neubauer, “G. T.” p. 286; com-
pare also Solomon in Rabbinical Literature.

Bibliography : Robinson, Biblical Researches , iii. 505-527 ;

Wood and Dawson, Ruins of Baalbee , 1757 ; Volney, Voyage

en Syrie ; Baedeker-Socin, Palestine , s.v.

J. JR. F. Bu.

Baale

Baba

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

388

BAALE, JUDAH. See Kirjath-Jearim.

BAALIM : Plural of “ Baal ” ; occurs in the Bible
fifteen times, always used with the article; not
found in the Pentateuch nor in the poetical books.
For a full discussion of the cult, see Ba‘al- Wor-
ship. The true signification has been a matter of
dispute. One of the leading explanations is that the
expression is a “ plural of majesty,” equivalent to
“ the great god Ba‘al,” after the analogy of “Elohim ”
and “Adonim.” Apart from other objections, it
may be urged against this view that such phrases
always become proper names, and, unlike v Baalim,”
are often used without the article. Hence other ex-
planations are more plausible ; for example, that Baa-
lim are images of the god Baal, or that they are the
various forms in which Baal is worshiped. Since,
however, there is no evidence of the formal worship
in Israel of any Ba'al at a common center, and as the
local Canaanitic deities were known as the “ baals ”
of their respective districts, and as Israel notoriously
addicted itself to the cult of such deities, it is alto-
gether probable that the expression designates the
local deities to which such worship was paid in vari-
ous places by the Hebrews in Palestine. Among
other passages. Judges viii. 33 is specially instruct-
ive on this point. In connection with the lapse of
the people of Israel into the worship of the Baalim, it
is there said that “ they made Baal-berith their god ”
(see Baal-berith).

j. jr. J. F. McC.

BAALIS : King of the Ammonites, who was the
leading spirit in the murder of Gedaliali (Jer. xl. 14).
While the first element in the name is clearly “Baal,”
the second is puzzling; and no satisfactory explana-
tion has as yet been suggested.

j. jr. J. D. P.

BAALTIS. See Astarte.

BAANA 1. Son of AJiilud, one of the

twelve commissariat officers of Solomon. He had
charge of the districts Taanach and Megiddo (I
Kings iv. 12).

2. Son of Husliai, another of the commissariat
officers of Solomon ; placed over Asher and Aloth or
Bealoth (I Kings iv. 16).

3. The father of Zadok, one of the builders of the
wall at Jerusalem (Nell. iii. 4).

4. See Baanah (3).

j. jr. G. B. L.

BAANAH (njya) : 1. Son of Rimmon the Beer-
othite, of Benjamin, who, with his brother Rechab,
was an officer under Ishbosheth. He killed Ishbo-
sheth and brought his head to David in the hope of
obtaining a reward; but instead of this, he and his
brother were put to death by David (II Sam. iv. 2,
5, 6, 9).

2. Father of Heleb, one of the thirty men in the
body-guard of David (II Sam. xxiii. 29).

3. One of the “children of the province” that re-
turned with Zerubbabel (Ezra ii. 2. and in the paral-
lel account of Nell. vii. 7). He was among those
that sealed the covenant with Nehemiah (Nell. x.
27, 28 ; see also I Esd. 'r. 8, where the name is spelled
“ Baana ”).

J. JR. G. B. L.

BAAR, HERMAN : American educator; born
in 1826 at Stadthagen, near Hanover, Germany. He
received a preliminary education at the gymnasium
of Hanover, and, after graduation, took a course in
philology and theology at the University of Got-
tingen. On the completion of his studies he took
a position as teacher at the celebrated undenomina-
tional school at Seesen, Germany, which he held eight
years. In 1857 Baar received the ministerial ap-
pointment in the Seel street synagogue, Liverpool,
in which office he spent ten years. Loss of voice
forced him to relinquish this post ; and, believing
a change of climate advisable, he went to New
Orleans, La., where he directed a school. In 1876
he was appointed superintendent of the Hebrew
Orphan Asylum, New York city — a position he
filled with great success till his resignation in 1899.
Baar is the author of “Homely and Religious
Topics ” (two volumes of sermons to children), a
Biblical history, (part 1 published 1901), and of
numerous magazine articles. S.

BA'ARAS (“Ba‘arali,” “ hot springs,” from 1^2,
“ burning ”) : A place in the ravine Zerka Ma'in above
the city of Macherus on the northeastern shore of the
Dead Sea, where are, according to Josephus (“B. J.”
vii. 6, § 3), the so-called Iron Mountains. Accord-
ing to Eusebius (“ Onomasticon,” s.v. Kapiadel/j.), the
place called Baaru was near Baal Meon, nine miles
from Heshbon; similarly Jerome on Num. xxxii.
38. There are many hot springs at the place, some
containing sweet and some bitter water, and they
are interspersed with cold springs. One spot is es-
pecially remarkable, containing a cave overhung by
a rock joining two projecting hills, from the one of
which issues a very cold spring, from the other a
very hot one ; and the bath composed of these waters
as they mingle is used as a remedy against many
maladies, and is especially efficacious for strengthen-
ing the nerves. In the neighborhood are mines of
sulphur and alum.

An interesting legend connected with these springs
is related in the Midrash (see Epstein, “BeitrSge
zur Jiidischen Alterthumskunde,” pp. 107, 108; and
compare Buber’s Tan., Wayeze, p. 146, note); Jacob
was pursued by Esau on his way along the Jordan,
but no sooner did he put his staff into the river
than the Jordan divided itself and he passed over.
Then Jacob came to Ba'arali (mjf3), a place like the
hot springs of Tiberias, and there took a bath ; again
Esau followed him and besieged the place, so that
Jacob would have died there in these hot waters
had God not opened a way of escape for him in the
cold springs whither lie went. To these miracles
the prophet refers when saying of Jacob, “When
thou passest through the waters I will be with thee;
when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not
be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee”
(Isa. xliii. 2).

Ba'aras is especially significant for a peculiar plant
of the same name which grows there, deriving its
name, “ Ba'aras” (the burning one), from its flame-like
color, which flashes at night like lightning. It was
used, says Josephus, “ by exorcists to drive out the
demons from sick persons possessed by spirits of
wicked persons that enter living men and kill them

389

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baale

Baba

unless some help is used against them.” (Compare
Pliny, “Hist. Nat.” xxviii. 23).

Bibliography : Josephus, B. J. vii. 6, § 3; Reland, Palestina ,
pp. 303, 487, 611, 881 ; Bottger, Tnpngrapliisch-Histor. Lexi-
con zu . . . FI. Josephus , p. 47 ; Buhl, Geographic des Alten
Paldstina , p. 123.

EAASHA : Son of Ahijah and king of Israel.
Owing to the weakness of Nadab, the successor of
Jeroboam I., first king of Israel, Baasha was enabled
to seize the throne through the murder of his mas-
ter. The conspiracy was carried out at Gibbethon
on the western frontier, which was held by the
Philistines and was being besieged by the Israelites.
The presence and apparent approval of the army
indicate that Baasha, like Omri later, must have
been a military leader. His subsequent career con-
firms this conclusion. Like many military leaders,
he appears to have risen from obscurity, as is sug-
gested by the words of Jehu the prophet, “I exalted
thee out of the dust, and made thee prince over my
people Israel ” (I Kings xvi. 2). In his complete ex-
termination of the house of Jeroboam, who had
proved himself a loyal patriot, he revealed the cruel
traits of his nature. The fact that he came from the
tribe of Issachar suggests that he may have repre-
sented a local faction.

Baasha’s restless energy led him to wage a pro-
tracted war against Asa of Judah. His aim seems
to have been not the complete conquest of Judah,
but the blockade and plunder of its northern towns.
To this end he built a strong fort at Ramah, and was
so far successful that Asa resorted to the danger-
ous expedient of calling upon the common foe, Ben-
hadad of Damascus (I Kings xv. 17-20). The Ara-
mean king iinproved this opportunity to break his
treaty with Baasha, and invaded Israel, overrunning
its northern territory and annexing several towns.
Baasha was defeated by his powerful northern neigh-
bor and was obliged to transfer his capital to Tirzah,
east of Shechem, and to abandon Ramah. Asa of
Judah utilized the materials of this abandoned fort
for the fortification of his own frontier towns, Geba
and Mizpah.

Although the duration of Baasha’s reign was
twenty -four years (I Kings xv. 38), and while he died
a natural death and was buried at the capital which
he had established, he never attained the popularity
or prestige that could assure permanence to his dy-
nasty. Onthewhole, he brought disaster and weak-
ness to Israel. His policy was not marked by any
redeeming qualities, and it received the bitter con-
demnation which the Prophets visited upon all of
Israel’s purely military leaders (I Kings xvi. 1-7).
The nation showed its disapproval by the overthrow
of his dynasty in less than two years from the death
of its founder.

J. jr. C. F. K.

BAB AL-ABWAB. See Derbent.

BABA (THE GREAT) : Son of Nathaniel and
grandson of Akbun, the high priests; a prominent
leader and high priest of the Samaritans in the time
of the emperor Constantine (fourth century). Ac-
cording to Samaritan traditions (see Neubauer,
“Chronique Samaritaine,” pp. 19-56, Paris, 1873;
Abual-Fath, “Annaies Samaritani, ” ed. Wilrnar, pp.

13-132), he during his forty years’ rule restored the
pure worship on Mount Gerizim after having driven
off the Roman guard and destroyed the Roman eagle
set up there. He reestablished schools for the study
of the Law, and reorganized the priesthood, appoint-
ing twelve priests over an equal number of districts.

The last chapter of the “Samaritan Chronicle,”
known under the name of the “Book of Joshua,” con-
tains in fragmentary form a legendary story of Baba,
according to which the Samaritans, during the time
of the Roman persecution, in order to escape the death
penalty for practising circumcision, used to carry
their children in baskets covered with wool into a
cave, where, by the light of candles, the rite was per-
formed (compare Yer. Ket. i. 4, 25c; less correctly
Sanh. 32 b, “OH UN pH jn3E?)- When the time came
for Baba to be circumcised, his father had him also
carried in the same manner to the cave by his maid-
servant. German(us), the Roman (bishop), who was
stationed at the gate of Nathaniel’s house, knew
what was intended, but allowed the maid to pass in
order that the child might be circumcised in defiance
of the imperial edict. Thenceforth it became cus-
tomary at every Samaritan circumcision to recall the
name of German, the Roman.

When Baba became high priest he sent his nephew,
named Levi, to Constantinople to study. When the
latter, under the guise of a Christian, had been ele-
vated to the rank of a Christian archbishop, he ob-
tained permission to return to Nablus, Baba’s city,
and visit there the church reared on Mount Gerizim
in place of the ancient Samaritan temple. The story
breaks off abruptly ; and it can only be inferred, from
what precedes, that, with Levi’s help, Baba suc-
ceeded in demolishing the Roman eagle which had
been set up on the Mount (and which is said to have
been endowed with speech and to have denounced
any “Hebrew ” who ascended the hill) and in restor-
ing the Samaritan cult. Regarding the authenticity
of the story or the underlying historical facts, see
the article Samaritans.

Bibliography : Th. G. J. Ju.vnboll, Chronicon Samaritamim ,

Leyden, 1848 (Arabic text, pp. 52-55 ; Latin transl. pp. 190-193,

note, 344-352); Heidenheim, Vierteljahresschrift, iv. 366;

Oliver Turnbull Crane, The Samaritan Chronicle Trans-
lated, New York, 1890; R. Kircbheim, Karme Shomron, pp.

90, 91, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1851.

G. K.

BABA or BAB (N33. 33): Originally, “gate,”
a Talmudic technical term for section, part, or
clause. A single Mishnah may be divided into two
or three parts ; “ resha ” and “ sefa,” “ beginning ” and
“end”; or “ resha,” “ mezi’ata,” and “sefa,” “begin-
ning,” “middle,” and “end.” The contents of these
parts is referred to as “ baba de-resha, ” “ baba de-
mezi’ata,” and “baba de-sefa” — “the clause of the
first part of the Mishnah, of the middle part, and of
the last part.” The first section of the fourth order
of the Mishnah — “Nezikin,” damages — is subdi-
vided into three massektas, which are called “Baba
Kamma,” “first part”; “Baba Mezi‘a,” “the middle
part ” ; and “ Baba Batra, ” “ the last part. ” Accord-
ing to Baba Kamma, p. 102«, these three massektas
were considered as one massekta called “Nezikin.”
The author of Tosafot Yom-Tob, in his introduction
to Mishnah Baba Kamma, says: “There is an anal-
ogy to the tripartition of Masseket Nezikin in the

Baba Batra
Baba Buch

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

390

tripartition of Masseket Kelim, which in the Tosefta
is divided into three Babas — Kamma, Mezi‘a, and
Batra.” Seder ‘Olam contains thirty chapters,
which are also grouped in three “babas.”

j. sr. M. F.

BABA BATRA (“ The Last Gate ”) : The third
of the three Talmudic tractates of the order Nezi-
kin, dealing with man’s responsibilities and rights as
the owner of property, of a house or held. This
“ massekta ” (treatise) is not, like Baba Kamma and
Baba MezTa, the exposition of a certain passage
in the Pentateuch. It is divided into ten chapters,
the contents of which may be described as follows:
(1) Regulations relating to property held by more
than one owner (ch. i.) ; (2) responsibilities of an
owner of property with regard to that of his neigh
bor (cli. ii.) ; (3) established rights of ownership

and rights connected with property (ch. iii. ) ; (4) laws
referring to the acquisition of property by purchase
(ch. iv.-vii.); (5) laws of inheritance (ch. viii.-ix.);
(6) laws concerning documents (ch. x.).

1. Joint owners of property may dissolve partner-
ship and divide the property, if the parties consent,
except in the case of a volume of the Scriptures,
which may not be divided under any circumstances.
Things which lose their value on division can only
be divided if all the owners consent. Except in
these cases, either party has a right to insist on a

division of the property. In the case
Joint where a courtyard (“ liazer ”) is owned
Ownership, by several partners, each of them has
to contribute to the usual requirements
of a court ; if they divide it, a partition wall or fence
must be erected in accordance with certain rules.
The previous partners are now’ neighbors: and their
relations are described in chap. ii.

2. The fundamental rule about neighboring prop-
erty is, that the owner of the adjoining property
must avoid everything that might prove a nuisance
to the neighbor, or a source of injury to the neigh-
bor’s property. “The noise of a smith’s hammer,
of a mill, or of children in school, is not to be con-
sidered a nuisance” (ii. 3). Disputes as regards in-
jury or nuisance are generally settled by the fact of
prior or established rights (Hazakah).

3. “Hazakah” (established right, possession de
facto) is proved by the undisturbed exercise of such
a right during a certain period (three years), in spite
of the presence of the rival claimant in the same
“land.” In this respect Palestine was divided into
three “lands” or districts (iii. 2): Judah, Galilee, and
Pent1 a (ch. iii.).

4. In the transfer of a house, a court, a wine-
press, a bath, a township, or a Held, much depends
on the meaning of these terms, which are fully de-
fined in chap. iv. In the Mishnah similar definitions
are given of a boat, a cart, a yoke of oxen, and the

like (v. 1-5). In selling the produce
Ac- of the field care must be taken that
quisition of there be no deviation from the condi-
Property. tions of the sale as regards quality and
quantity, lest the sale be declared in-
valid (“ mekah ta‘ut,” v. 6-vi. 3). Various problems
resulting from the sale of property, of a house, or of
a piece of land are discussed in the Mishnah (vi.

4-vii.); among them the sale of land for a burial-
ground for a family, or the undertaking by a work-
man to prepare it (vi. 8). The burial-place is de-
scribed as follows: “A cave hewn out in a rock 4
cubits broad and 6 cubits long (or, according to R.
Simeon, 6 by 8 cubits); along the length of the cave
on each side there are three graves of 4 cubits long,
1 cubit broad, and 7 liaudbreadths (‘ tefaliim ’) high;
and 2 such graves in the back of the cave. In front
of the cave was the court (‘hazer ’) 6 by 6 cubits,
so as to afford sufficient room for the bier and the
persons attending the burial.”

5. The laws of inheritance are based on Num.
xxvii. 8-11, asinterpreted by tradition. Amongthese
is the rule that the husband inherits the property of
his deceased wife, her claim incase of the husband’s
death being settled in the marriage contract (Ketu-

bah). Another rule gives to the first-
Laws of born son a double share of his deceased
In- father’s property. Thus the daugh-
heritance. ters of Zelophehad are said to have
claimed, as their father’s property,
three shares of the Holy Land (which is assumed to
have been divided among the 600,000 men brought
out of Egypt); namely, the share of Zelophehad
and, as a first-born son of Hefer, a double share of
the property of his deceased father (viii. 3). These
laws do not interfere with the right of a man to
donate his property according to his pleasure (viii. 5).
Complicated cases are dealt with in chap, ix.; such
as the simultaneous claims of the heirs, the wife, and
the creditors of the deceased; or the conflicting
claims of the heirs of the husband and of those of
the wife, where the husband and wife are found dead
at the same time; the heirs of the former contending
that she died first, and that by her death her prop-
erty became the property of the husband; while the
other party contends that he died first, and that the
wife’s heirs inherit her property.

6. As legal documents are of great importance in
the problems dealt with in the three Babas, a chap-
ter is added, containing regulations concerning the
writing of such documents. Of these one peculiar-
ity may be mentioned; namely, the difference be-
tween “get pashut,” a simple, unfolded document,
and “get mekushshar,” a folded document. The
latter was prepared in the following way : When a
line or two had been written the parchment was
folded and one witness signed on the back of the

document ; this operation was repeated
Reg- as many times as the parties concerned
ulations liked. This method, requiring a longer
About time for the execution of the document,
Documents, is said to have been originally intro-
duced for the writing of a letter of di-
vorce in the case of hasty and passionate husbands
(especially priests who were prevented by law from
remarrying their divorced wives), in order to give
them time to calm dowm (B. B. 160£). The massekta
of the three Babas closes with a general remark on
the educational value of the study of civil law.

The Tosefta has eleven chapters, which correspond
to the ten chapters of the Mishnah as follow’s: chap,
i. corresponds to chap. ii. of Mishnah; ii. to iii.; iii.
to iv. ; iv. to v. 1-5; v. to v. 6-11; vi. to vi.-vii. ;
vii. to vii. ; viii.-x. to ix. ; xi. to x.

391

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baba Batra
Baba Buch

Tlte two Gemaras discuss and explain the laws of
the Mishnah and add many fresh problems, especially
the Babylonian Gemara. The Palestinian Gemara
is very short, and contains little new matter. The
following passages may find a place here:

Bab. 35: One synagogue must not be pulled down
before another is built. Herod, by virtue of his
authority as king, ignored the rule, and pulled down
the Temple before the newr one was built. The
story of Herod and Mariamne and a narrative of
other incidents of Herod’s reign are attached.

7 5: Every member of the community is compelled
to contribute his share toward the building of gates,
walls, etc., of his place.

10a: Turnus Rufus (Tyrannus Rufus) asked R.
Akiba, “ If your God is a friend of the poor, why
does He not give them sufficient to live upon com-
fortably? ” To which R. Akiba rejoined, “That we
may have opportunity for good actions. ” There are
ten powerful things; and these are overcome by
stronger things: a mountain by iron ; iron by fire;
fire by water ; water is borne by the clouds : these are
dispersed by the wind ; the wind is borne by the
human body ; the latter is broken down
Examples by fear; fear is expelled by wine; wine
of Gemara. is overcome by sleep ; death is harder
than all these, and yet “ charity ” (“ ze-
dakah ”) saves from death.

145: The order of the Prophets is : Joshua, Judges,
Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the
twelve minor Prophets. Kings is followed by Jere-
miah because Kings ends with the Exile, and Jere-
miah deals with the same subject; Ezekiel pre-
cedes Isaiah, because the former ends with the
rebuilding of the Temple, and Isaiah’s prophecies
throughout contain comforting hopes and promises.
The order of the Hagiographa is Ruth, Psalms,
Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Lamenta-
tions, Daniel, Esther, Ezra (including Nehemiah),
and Chronicles. Moses wrote his book, including
the section about Balaam, and Job. Joshua wrote
his book and the last eight verses of the Pentateuch.

21a: At first every father had to teach his children.
A large school was then opened in Jerusalem ; and
after that schools were established in every commu-
nity. At first they were attended only by youths
of sixteen or seventeen years ; but Joshua b. Gamla.
introduced the custom that children of six or seven
years should attend the schools: interesting regula-
tions are added concerning the location of public
schools, the number of pupils for each class, and the
like.

585: The elders of the Jews say, “A judge who
has to be summoned to the court, and ordered by the
court to pay his debt, is unfit to act as judge.”

735 et seq. : The wondrous tales of Rabbali bar
Hanah.

745 : Legends about Leviathau, and about the won-
derful changes in the days of Messiah.

121a : Connection of the celebration of the fifteenth
of Ab (end of Mishnah Ta’anit), with the reconcil-
iation between the Benjamites and the rest of the
Israelites.

The Gemaras also contain the following interesting
homiletic interpretation of Biblical passages:

Zeph. ii. 1: “ Hitkoslieshu wakoshu ” (“Gather

yourselves together, yea, gather together ”). “ Kash-
shet ‘azmeka, ve-ahar kak kashshet aherim” (“Im-
prove thyself first, and then improve others ”)
(605).

Num. xxi. 27 : “ ‘Ai ken yomeru hammoshclim bo’u
Heshbon” (“Wherefore they that speak in prov-
erbs say, ‘ Come ye to Heshbon ’ ”), “ Thus shall
they that control themselves say, ‘ Come, let us
reckon and compare the material loss caused by a
good act with the reward, and the gain obtained
through sinning, with the punishment; then thou
wilt be built up and firmly established ’ ” (785, a play
on “mashall,” which also means “to rule,” and on
“heshbon ”= “ reckoning ”).

Prov. xv. 15: “All the days of the poor are troub-
lesome”— this applies to the students of Gemara
— “but he who is of acheerful heart hath acontinual
feast ” — this applies to the students of the Mishnah
(1455).

The commentary of Rashi on the Babylonian Tal-
mud Baba Batra ends at the beginning of chap. iii. ;
its place is taken by that of liis grandson, Rabbi
Samuel b. Mei'r (“Rashbam”), from ch. iii. to the
end of the massekta.

Bibliography: Hidduxhe Oeonim on Baha gamma and B.
Mezi'a, Salonieai, 1728; Hidduxhe. R. Solomon h. Adret on
Bairn Kamma , Berlin,' 1758; Bezalel Ashkenazi, Shift ah
Melfuhbezet on Balm Kamma, Baha Mezi'a, and Baba
Batra -, Nahmanides (Rainban), Baha Batra ; Mairnonides,
Mishneh Torah, books xi., xii.. xiii.: Jacob ben Asberi, Tin
Hoshen Miehpat, p.cxxxv. to end ; Moses Benjamin, Ma'd.eeh
Rah, on The To lee of Rahhah bar Hanah ; E. (riittmacber,
Zaphenath Pa'aneah. on the same,
j. sr. M. F.

BABA BUCH: Judaeo-German translation orad-
aptation by Elijah Levita of an Italian version of
the Anglo-Roman romance, “Sir Bevis of Hamton.”
The Italian version of this, entitled “ Buovo d’An-
tona,” was very popular — no less than thirty edi-
tions being known of it, five of them before 1507,
when Elias Levita translated it into Judaeo-German.
His exact object in making this translation is not
quite clear; it may have been merely as a pastime
or as a sort of literary curiosity, but it had become
recognized by the authorities in Rome that the Ger-
man Jews could be reached ouly through their own
dialect; and there may, therefore, have been a con-
versionist motive at the root of this translation, as
well as of the Judaeo-German translation of the Bible
which was made simultaneously and among the same
circles. However the case may be, the book proved
very popular. After its first publication at Isny or
Venice about 1540, it was republished at Prague in
1660; and was reprinted at Frankfort-on-the-Main
in 1691, at Amsterdam in 1721, at Wilhelmsdorf in
1724; and became especially popular among Jewish
women, for whom it was almost the sole romance in
any accessible literary form. To them it was famil-
iar as the “Bo vo Buch," which was closer to the
Italian original, and is probably the true translitera-
tion, though Steinsclineider transliterates it “Baba
Buch” (“Cat. Bodl.” col. 934). The source of this
popular work remained a literary puzzle until it was
solved by J. Zedner in 1863, who gave conclusive
evidence of its derivation from the old English ro-
mance in its Italian form. Among other pieces of
evidence of its Italian origin he points out the use of
the word “solfa,” misprinted in the edition as rtQ^lD.

Baba ben Buta
Baba Kamma

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

392

Tlie subject is one of the curiosities of Jewish litera-
ture.

Bibliography: Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. i. 155-159, iii. 99, iv. 782;

Steinscimelder, in Serapeum , 1848, p. 321; 1869, p. 132: idem,

Uehcr die Volkditeratur der Juden , p. 18; Zedner, in

Hebr. Bihl. vi. 22.

G. J.

BABA BEN BUTA: Teacher of the Law at the
time of Herod, and perhaps a member of the prom-
inent family known as “The Sons of Baba” (“Bene
Baba ”), who, at the time of the siege of Jerusalem
by Herod (37 b.c.), resisted its surrender, and whom
Costobarus protected from the wrath of Herod for
ten years, until they were discovered and put to
death (Josephus, “Ant.” xv. 7, § 10). But, accord-
ing to a tradition preserved in the Babylonian Tal-
mud (B. B. 36 et seq.), Baba ben Buta was the only
teacher of the Law who was spared by Herod. Ac-
cording to this tradition it was Baba b. Buta, de-
prived of his eyesight by Herod, who advised the
latter to rebuild the Temple in expiation of his great
crimes. The following conversation between the
king and the blind teacher, with its haggadic embel-
lishments, forms the principal part of this tradition,
and it probably rests upon a historical foundation :

“One day Herod came to visit the blind teacher and, sitting
down before him, said, ‘See how this wicked slave [Herod]
acts.’ Said he [Baba] to him, ‘What can I do to him?’ Said
he, ‘ Curse him, sir.’ Said he, ‘ It is written (Eccl. x. 20), “ Curse
not the king ; no, not in thy thought.” ’ ‘ But,’ said Herod, ‘he
is no king.’ Upon which Baba said, ‘ Let him be only a man of
wealth, it is written (t'b.), “ And curse not the rich in thy bed-
chamber” ; or let him be merely a chief, it is written (Ex. xxii.
27 [A.V. 28]), “ Curse not a ruler of thy people.” ’ ‘But,’ said
Herod, ‘this is interpreted to mean a ruler that acts according
to the customs of thy people; but that man [Herod] does not
act according to the customs of thy people.’ Said he, ‘ I am
afraid of him,’ to which Herod replied, * There is no man here
to go and tell him ; for I and thou sit here alone.’ Said he, ‘ It
is written (Eccl. l.c.), “For a bird of the air shall carry the
voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.” ’

“Herod now disclosed himself, and said, ‘Had I known that
the rabbis were so discreet, I should not have put them to death.
What, now, can a man like me do to repair this wrong ? ’ ‘ He,’
said Baba, ‘ has extinguished the light of the world [put to
death the teachers], as it is written (Prov. vi. 23), “For the
commandment is a lamp; and the Law is light” ; let him busy
himself with the light of the world [the Temple], of which it is
written (Isa. ii. 2), “ All nations shall flow unto it ” ’ [a play on
nahar , which also means “ light”]. Said Herod, ‘ I am afraid
of the [Roman] government.’ To which Baba replied, ‘Send a
messenger ; he will be one year in going to Rome, will be de-
tained there one year, and make his home voyage in one year,
and in the mean while thou shalt have torn down and built’;
and Herod did accordingly.”

In lmlakic tradition Baba b. Buta is recorded as a
disciple of Shammai; and it is said that be prevented
an opinion of Shammai concerning a question of
sacrifices from becoming a rule, because he was con-
vinced of the correctness of Hillel’s opposing opin-
ion (Bezah 20c et seq.). Baba was so scrupulous in
his religious observances that he brought a free-will
offering every day, for fear that he might have com-
mitted a sin requiring atonement. These sacrifices
were called “ sin-offerings of the pious ” (“ hasidim ”).
Baba was a member of the “ bet din ” and always
saw that justice was done, particularly to women
(Git. 57a ; Ned. 666).

Bibliography: Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, 2d ed., iii. 166, 208;

Weiss, Dor, i. 177 etscq.

J. SR. W. B.

BABA KAMMA (“First Gate”): The first of a
series of three Talmudic treatises of the order Nezi-

kin dealing with damages. Baba Kamma is on com-
pensation for damages. The regulations discussed
in this tractate have their source in the judgments
that Moses was commanded to lay before the Israel-
ites, and which were probably included in the “ Sefer
lia-Berit” (Book of the Covenant, Ex. xxiv. 7).
Biblical laws dealing with the cases discussed in Baba
Kamma are contained in the following passages:
Ex. xxi. 18, 19, and xxi. 24-xxii. 5 [A. V. 6], And
the principle that underlies all the legislation iu this
respect is expressed by the sentence, “He that kin-
dled the fire shall surely make restitution” (xxii. 5
[A. Y. 6]).

Baba Kamma is divided into ten chapters, which
maybe grouped as follows: damage caused without
criminality (chaps. i.~vi.); damage caused by a crim-
inal act (chaps, vii.-x.).

Damage Caused Without Criminality: (1)

Damage caused by agents in their normal condition ;
(2) damage caused by agents in their abnormal con-
dition. Au instance of the first class of agents is an
ox treading upon things that are in his way and thus
damaging them, or eating things that are in his path.
An instance of the second class is the case of a Gor-
ing Ox, as under normal circumstances an ox does
not gore.

(1) The Mislinali opens with the first class, and
enumerates four heads of damages, “abot nezikin ”
(literally, parents of damages), viz.; “Slior,” “Bor,”

“ Mab’eli,” “Heb’er” (Ox, Pit, Feed-

Damage ing, Burning). These four agents of
by Normal damages correspond to those mentioned

Agents, in Ex. xxii. 4 [R. V. 5], xxi. 33. 34,
xxii. 4 [A. V. 5], xxii. 5 [A. Y. 6],
The law concerning the compensation in these cases
is expressed iu the Mislinali (i. 1) thus: “These four
agents have in common the circumstance that they
usually cause damage; that the owner has the duty
to prevent the damage; and that if he fails to do
so, on damage being done he must pay full com-
pensation, with the best of his propertjr ” (compare
Ex. xxii. 4 [A. V. 5]). Before, however, giving the
detailed regulations for these four kinds of damage,
the Mislinali proceeds to the discussion of the second
class of damages, those caused by agents iu an ab-
normal condition.

(2) The principal point in the second class is the
distinction made between “ tam ” (harmless) and

“mu'ad” (warned) (see Accident).
Damage by The law of compensation in these two
Abnormal cases is as follows : In the case of an

Agents, animal previously reputed harmless
(tam) the owner has to compensate
for half the damage, unless half the damage exceeds
the whole value of the animal causing the damage.
In a case where the owner has been warned (mu ‘ad),
he must give full compensation for the damage,
without regard to the value of the damaging animal
(compare Ex. xxi. 35. 36).

The law of mu ‘ad applies to the four kinds of
damage done by animals or agents in their normal
condition. In addition to these the Mislinali (i. 4)
enumerates the following: man, and wild beasts
owned by a man — such as the wolf, the lion, the bear,
and the leopard ; also the serpent. Of man it is said,
“Man is always fully responsible (mu‘ad), whether

393

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baba ben Buta
Baba Kamma

be cause damage intentionally or unintentionally,
whether awake or asleep ” (ii. 6). This rule is illus-
trated by various instances given in the third chap-
ter (1-7).

The remaining part of the third chapter, the
fourth, and part of the fifth (1-4), contain regula-
tions concerning the compensation for
Damage by damage caused by a goring ox. Fol-
Pit, Burn- lowing the order of the abot nezikin

ing, etc. given in the beginning of the tractate,
the damage caused by a pit is dis-
cussed in the second part of the fifth chapter; and
the sixth chapter is devoted to the remaining two
causes of damage, grazing (1-3) and burning (4—6).
Of the last section the following law is noteworthy ;
“ If a camel laden with flax passes through a street,
and the flax catches fire from a candle that is inside a
shop so that the whole shop is thereby set on fire,
the owner of the camel is held responsible for the
damage; if, however, the candle is outside the
shop, the owmer of the shop is responsible, except in
case of Hanukkah lights ” (see Accident).

Damage Caused by Criminal Acts : (1) By
theft (ch. vii.); (2) by violence (ch. viii.); (3) by
robbery (ch. ix.-x.).

(1) “ If a man steal an ox or a lamb and slaughter
the same or sell it, five cattle shall he pay for the ox
and four sheep for the lamb ” (Ex. xxi. 37). The
regulations as to how to apply this law under vari-
ous circumstances are contained in chapter vii. 1-6..

(2) The compensation for injuries as the result of
violence is discussed in chapter viii. Such com-
pensation includes five items: “nezek,” for the per-
manent loss, if any, in the earning capacity ; “ she-
bet,” loss of time; “za‘ar,” pain; “ rippuy,” cost of
the cure; and “boshet,” insult. The scale of com-
pensation for insult, as given in the Mishnah, seems
to indicate the maximum compensation, for the
Mishnah adds, “The principle is that the amount
depends on the injured man’s station in life.” Rabbi
Akiba, however, opposed this principle, and desired
to have one measure for all. A practical case de-
cided by Rabbi Akiba is then cited (viii. 7). In ad-
dition to all the compensation paid, the offender
must beg the injured man’s pardon.

(3) He who has robbed his neighbor, and desires
to make restitution, pays the full value of the thing
taken and a fine of one-fifth of its value (Lev. v.
21-24 [A. V. vi. 2-5]). If the things taken by rob-
bery have undergone a change, he pays according to
the value the things had at the time of the robbery
(ch. ix.). The last chapter treats of cases in which
the things taken are no longer in the hands of the
robber, and concludes with the warning not to buy
things suspected to be stolen. With the exception
of chap. vii. 7 (on certain restrictions with regard to
the rearing of cattle or poultry in Palestine), there
are neither halakic nor haggadic digressions in this
tractate.

About the linguistic peculiarities in the beginning
of the tractate, see Frankel, “Darke ha-Mishnah,”
p. 13; and compare Bab. B. K. 6 6.

The Tosefta has eleven chapters instead of the
ten of the Mishnah; chaps, vii. and viii. correspond-
ing to chap. vii. of the Mishnah, and chap. x. corre-
sponding to chap. ix. and x. 1-8, while chap. xi. cor

responds to x. 9-10 of the Mishnah. The enumeration
of the abot nezikin placed in the Mishnah at the
head of the first chapter is reserved in
The the Tosefta for chap. ix. ; and instead
Tosefta and of 4 the Tosefta enumerates 13 (com-
Mishnah. pare Bab. B. K. 4 6, where Osha'ya
enumerates 13 and Hiyya 24, while in
the Talmud Yer. B. K. i. 2a, Hiyya has 13).

The two Gemaras, as usual, discuss the laws of
the Mishnah ; the Jerusalem Talmud rather briefly,
the Babylonian Talmud more fully. The following
are a few of the principles enunciated in the Gemara:
— According to Symmachus (Sumkus): Property
concerning which there is a doubt whether it be-
longs to A or to B, is divided between A and B with-
out either being compelled to confirm his claim by
oath. The sages (“ hakamim ”) hold that he who
claims rvhat is in the possession of an-
The Two other, must prove his claim (B. K.
Gemaras. 46o). A person attacked on his own
grounds may take the law into his
own hands, when the delay caused by going to a
proper court of law would involve great loss.
Whenever the whole value of the damaged object
is paid, the payment is considered as compensation
(“ mamona ”) ; when only half the value or a cer-
tain fixed amount is paid, the payment is considered
a fine (“kenasa ”) (B. K. 156). The judges in Baby-
lonia had no right to impose a fine for any offense;
the case had to be tried by qualified judges in Pales-
tine. The following incident will illustrate the last
two rules: A man was charged before Rab Hisdai
(in Babylonia) with having struck a fellow man with
his spade. Rab Hisdai asked Rab Nalimau how
much the offender had to pay. The latter replied
that no fine could be imposed in the Babylonian
courts, but that he desired to know the facts of the
case. He ascertained that A and B had together a
well, each of them with the right of drawing water
on certain fixed days alone. Contrary to the agree-
ment A drew water on a day that was not his. B
noticed it and drove him away with his spade. Rab
Nahman’s verdict was that B might with impunity
have hit A a hundred times with the spade, as any
delay would have involved a great loss to B (B. K.
276). It is noteworthy that two codes of law are
mentioned: the legal one (“dine adam,” literally,
judgments of man) and the moral one ("dine shama-
yim,” literally, judgments of heaven). In some cases
the former absolves man of an obligation, and the
latter does not (Mish. vi. 4; Gem. 29a, 56a, and pas-
sim). There are comparatively few haggadic ele-
ments in Baba Kamma. Some of these may be given
here :

(а) A“hasid” (pious man) noticed a man throwing
stones and rubbish from his own garden into the

public thoroughfare. The liasid re-
Hag-gadic buked him, saying, “Why do you
Elements, throw these things from a place that
is not yours into a place that is yours? ”
The man laughed ; but he soon learned the true
meaning of the question. For he had to sell his
property, and one day, walking in the street, he met
with an accident through these very stones (506).

(б) Joshua, on dividing Palestine to the tribes of
Israel, made the tribes agree to ten conditions, the

Baba Mezi'a
Babel, Tower of

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

394

most important of which are the common use of the
forests as pasture for cattle, and the common right
of fishing in the Sea of Tiberias (81a).

(. c ) Ezra introduced ten rules (“ tekanot ”), among
them the reading of a section of the Pentateuch on
Sabbath afternoon (“ minhah ”), on Monday and on
Thursday, and the holding of the sittings of the
court (bet din) on Mondays and Thursdays (82a).

(d) Two officers were once sent by the Roman
governor to Rabban Gamaliel to be instructed in the
Jewish law. When they had finished the study they
declared to Rabban Gamaliel that the laws (referring
probably to the civil code of laws) were all just and
praiseworthy, with the exception of two that make
a distinction between Jew and heathen. The rabbi
thereupon ordered the inequality to be removed
(Bab. 38a, and Yer. iv. 46).

(e) Rabbi Johanan used to give to his servant part
of everything he was eating or drinking, saying, “Is
not his Creator also my Creator?” (Job xxxi. 15;
Yer. viii. 6c).

(/) At the funeral of King Hezekiah a scroll of the
Law was laid on the bier, with the words, “This
[man] fulfilled what is written in this [scroll] ”
(Bab. 17a).

Some noteworthy explanations of Biblical texts
may be added. The words “ka’asher yeba‘er lia-
galal” (I Kings xiv. 10) are quoted as meaning (Babli
3a; see Raslii, ad loc.) “as the tooth destroyeth ” (A.
Y. “as a man sweepetli the dung”). “Erek appa-
yim” (“slow to anger,” Ex. xxxiv. 6) is interpreted
“ long-suffering to both the righteous and the
wicked ” (ib. 506), on account of the dual form.
A Biblical verse is quoted according to its sense and
not literally, as, for example (ib. 816; compare B. M.
76a), “miliyot tob al tikkare ra‘ ” (when thou art
kind, thou shalt not be called bad) ; then the ques-
tion is raised, “Is it written so?” and the verse
Prov. iii. 27 is cited.

Bibliography: See Baba Batra.

J. sr. M. F.

BABA MEZI‘A (“The Middle Gate”): The sec-
ond of the three Talmudic tractates of the order Nezi-
kin. It treats of man’s responsibility with regard to
the property of his fellow -man that has come law-
fully into his possession for the present, and of
which he is considered as trustee. The tractate is
based on Ex. xxii. 6-14 (A. V. 7-15). In this pas-
sage four kinds of trustees are distinguished: (a)
One who keeps the thing entrusted to him without
remuneration (verses 6-8) ; (6) one who is paid for
keeping the trust (verses 9-12); (c) one who keeps a
thing entrusted to him for a certain time for his own
use without paying for its use (verses 13, 14a) ; and
(d) a trustee who keeps a thing for his own use and
pays for using it (146). The text does not clearly
state the characteristic difference between the first
two kinds of trustees; but tradition bases this inter-
pretation on the fact that the things mentioned in
verse 6 are generally entrusted to a friend who keeps
them without remuneration, while the trust described
in verse 9 is, as a rule, kept on the payment of a cer-
tain fee. In the Mishnah of Baba Mezi’a these four
trustees (“arba'ali sliomerim”) are treated in the fol-
lowing order: (1) “shomer hinnam ” (keeping for

nothing) in chaps, i.-v. ; (2) shomer sakar (keep-
ing for remuneration) in chaps, vi.-vii. ; (3) “shoSl ”
(borrower) in chap. viii. 1-3; and (4) “sakir” (a
thing hired) in chap. viii. 6). Mishnahs viii. 4, 5
are without connection with the main subject, and
owe their place here to some accidental relationship.

Shomer Hinnam (“honorary trustee,” chaps,
i.-v.): He who finds lost property has to keep it as
“ shomer hinnam ” until he can restore it to the right-
ful owner (Deut. xxii. 1-3). The regulations as to
what constitutes finding, what to do with the things
found, how to guard against false
Honorary claimants, how to take care of the
Trustee, property found, under what conditions
the finder of a thing is bound to take
care of it, and under what conditions he is not so
obligated — all this is explained in the first two
chapters. A trustee who takes no payment is only
responsible for such loss of the entrusted property
as has been caused through the trustee’s negligence
(“ peslii'ah ”). The mode of procedure in such cases,
and the regulations concerning eventual fines, are
treated in iii. 1; all other laws concerning the re-
sponsibilities and the rights of the shomer hinnam are
contained in iii. 4-12.

Chap. iv. contains various laws concerning sale
and exchange. The mere payment of money does
not constitute the sale ; and the buyer may legally
cancel the sale and claim the return of the money,
unless he has “drawn” the thing bought away from
its place: this “drawing ”(“ meshikali ”) makes the
sale final. Until such act is performed the seller is
to some extent a shomer hinnam of
Sale and the money paid. Similarly may the
Trust. buyer become a shomer hinnam of the
thing bought, if, on finding that he
has been cheated, he wants to cancel the sale, to re-
turn the thing bought, and to claim the money back.
What constitutes cheating (“onaali”) is defined in
the course of this chapter. See Alienation.

Chap. v. treats of the laws concerning interest,
which have nothing in common with the laws con-
cerning shomer hinnam beyond the fact that taking
interest and cheating (“onaali” of chap, iv.) both
consist of an illegal addition to what is actually due.
The laws prohibiting the taking of interest are very
severe, and extend to all business transactions that
in any way resemble the taking of interest. The
two terms for taking interest, “ nesliek ” (interest)
and “tarbit” (increase), used in the Pentateuch
(Lev. xxv. 36) are explained and illustrated by ex-
amples (v. 1-10). According to the Mishnah “the
lender, who takes interest, the borrower who pays it,
the witnesses, the security, and the clerk who writes
the document, are all guilty of having broken the
law concerning interest” (v. 11). See Interest,
Usury.

Shomer Sakar (“a paid trustee,” chaps, vi.-vii.) :
He is liable to pay for all losses except those caused
by an accident (“ ones ”). He has to swear that such an
accident happened, and is thereupon
Paid free from payment (vii. 8-10). The ex -
Trustee. ample given in the Mishnah of shomer
sakar is that of an artisan who under-
takes to produce certain work out of a given material.
If the material is spoiled, or the work produced

395

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Baba Me^i'a
Babel, Tower of

is not according to agreement, lie lias to pay.
As the hirer (“soker”) has the same liability as the
shomer sakar, some laws relating to the soker are
included in chap. vi. From the paid trustee the
Mishnah passes over (in chap, vii.) to the workman
(“ po‘el ”) in general, and regulates the working time,
the food, and also the rights of the workman to par-
take of the fruit of the field or vineyard while work-
ing there (Deut. xxiii. 25, 26).

Shoel (“borrower,” chap. viii. 1-3): He is liable
to pay for every kind of loss, including loss through
accident, except “ if the lender is with
Borrowing him” (Ex. xxii. 14); that is, according
and to the traditional interpretation, if the

Hiring. lender was likewise at work with him,
for payment or without payment.

Soker (“hirer,” chap. viii. 6): The laws of soker
having been given in chap, vi., as far as movable
property is concerned, sections 6-9 of chap. viii. and
1-10 of chap. ix. treat of the soker of immovable
property ; of the relations between the tenant of a
house and his landlord, between the farmer of a field
and its owner. Among the laws that regulate these
relations are the following: If the tenant takes a
house for a year, and the year happens to be a leap-
year, the tenant occupies the house thirteen months
for the same price. The tenant can not be turned
out in the winter between Tabernacles and Passover,
unless notice be given one month before the begin-
ning of the winter. In large towns and for shops,
one year’s notice is required.

Sections 11 and 12 of chap, ix., taking up again
the subject of hiring, regulate the various terms for
paying the due wages (based on Lev. xix. 13, and
Deut. xxiv. 14, 15). The last section of chap. ix.
defines the rights of the creditor in accordance with
Deut. xxiv. 6 and 10-13.

The concluding chapter (x.) regulates the relations
between joint owners and neighbors, in dwellings
aud in fields. The last case mentioned is especially
interesting as showing a highly developed state of
agricultural jurisdiction in the Mishnaic days.

The Tosefta has many valuable additions to the
Mishnah. It is divided into eleven chapters, which
correspond to the ten chapters of the Mishnah in the
following way: Chaps, i.-ii. corre-

Tosefta spond to chaps, i.-ii. of the Mishnah;
and chap. iii. to chaps, iii.-iv. of the Misli-

Gemara. nail; chaps, iv.-vi. to chap. v. of the
Mishnah; chap. vii. — which begins
“ he who hires workmen ” (“ po'alin ”) instead of “ he
who hires artisans ” (“ umanin ”) to Mishnah vi. 1 ;
and chap. viii. correspond to chaps, vi.-viii. of the
Mishnah; chaps, ix.-x. to chap. xi. ; chap. xi. to
chap. x. of the Mishnah.

The Gemara, in explaining the laws of the Mish-
nah, discusses a variety of kindred problems, espe-
cially the Babylonian Gemara ; the Palestinian being
very meager in this respect. Rab Zera, coming from
Babylonia to Palestine, is said to have fasted a hun-
dred times within a certain period of time, praying
that he might forget the Babylonian Gemara, and
fully grasp the teachings of Rabbi Johanan, the Pal-
estinian master (B. M. 85a). According to Rashi, the
rabbis of Palestine were not of a contentious disposi-
tion, and settled difficulties without much discussion

(compare p. 384: “Are you from Pumbedita, where
they make an elephant pass through the eye of a
needle? ”).

Of the liaggadic passages the following are note-
worthy :

(a) The disciples of Simeon b. Shetah once bought
from an Ishmaelite an ass for their master. They
discovered a valuable pearl on the ass, and joyfully
told their master that the treasure would enable him
to live without care. “ Does the owner know of it ? ”
asked the master. “No,” was the answer; “but we
need not return it.” “What!” exclaimed Simeon
“Am I a barbarian? More valuable than all the
treasures of the world to me would be the Ishmael-
ite’s acknowledgment of the superiority of our holy
religion, that teaches us ways of righteousness ”
(Yer. B. M. ii. 8r).

(4) A man’s house is blessed only for the sake of his
wife (Bab. B. M. 59a).

(c) There are three who cry, and no notice is taken
of their cry. One of the three is he who lends
money without witnesses (ib. 754).

(d) In ahalakic discussion between R. Eliezer and
R. Joshua, a “ bat kol ” (a heavenly voice) was heard
in favor of the former. R. Joshua said : “ The bat
kol does not concern us; the Law given on Mount
Sinai (Ex. xxiii. 2) commands us to ‘ decide accord-
ing to the majority ’ ” (ib. 594).

(e) Resh Lakish was famous for his strength ; R.
Johanan, for his stately figure. R. Johanan said to
the former: “Thy strength is tit for those who study
the Law.” The other replied: “Thy beauty is tit
for women,” upon which R. Johanan said, “I have
a sister of renowned beauty; if you consent to turn
to the Torah, I consent to your marrying my sister.”
This was done ; and Resh Lakish, who had been a
gladiator, had many, sometimes vehement, halakic
discussions with his brother-in-law. When Resh
Lakish died, R. Johanan was much distressed.
Rabbi Eliezer b. Pedat came to comfort him; and
whatever R. Johanan said, his visitor found right,
and had a quotation ready in support of it. R.
Johanan then mournfully said : “Resh Lakish raised
many objections to whatever I said; I had to solve
the difficulty, and thus the truth was found, much
better than by ready consent ” (ib. 84a)

Bibliography: See Baba Batra.

j. Sit. M. F.

BABEL, TOWER OF.— Biblical Data: The

story of the building of the city aud the Tower of
Babel as found in Gen. xi. 1-9 is briefly as follows:
The whole human race spoke one and Hie same lan-
guage, aud formed one community. This commu-
nity or clan settled permanently in the land of Shi-
nar, not far from the Euphrates river. Here they
built a city and a tower of such materials as a great
river-basin would afford and the genius of man could
manufacture. Apparently this was done to prevent
their scattering abroad and losing their tribal unity,
to make a great center about which the}' might
gather, and to obtain for themselves a name. Y hwh
came down to investigate the purpose of all this un-
usual enterprise. The self-confidence and unity of
the people were everywhere prominent. Fearful
that the accomplishment of this project might em-
bolden them to still more independent movements.

Babel, Tower of

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

396

Yhwh said, “Let us go down, and there confound
their language.” Consequently they were scattered
abroad upon the face of all the earth; “and they left
off to build the city.” The name of it was therefore
called “Babel,” because there Yhwii confounded the
one language of the earth,
j. jr. I. M. P.

In Rabbinical Literature : The Midrashim

give different accounts of the real cause for building
the Tower of Babel, and of the intentions of its
builders. It was regarded even in the Tannaite tra-
dition as a rebellion against God (Mek., Mishpatim,
20, ed. Weiss, p. 107; Gen. R. xxxviii. 9), and the
later Midrasli records that the builders of the Tower,
called nj?Sn "in, “ the generation of secession ” in
the Jewish sources, said: “He — God— has no right
to choose the upper world for Himself, and to leave
the lower world to us; therefore we will build us a
tower, with an idol on the top holding a sword, so
that it may appear as if it intended to war with God ”
(Gen. R. xxxviii. 7; Tan., ed. Buber, Noah, xxvii. et
seq.). The building of the Tower was meant to bid
defiance not only to God, but also to Abraham, who
exhorted the builders to reverence : therefore the Bible

Tower of Babel.

(From the Sarajevo Haggadah.)

(Gen. xi. 1) speaks of the D'HIN D'13“t,“one speech,”
which is interpreted as signifying speech against “ the
One,” against God, and against His one, only fol-
lower (compare Ezek. xxxiii. 24). The passage fur-
thermore mentions that the builders spoke sharp
words — D'in = D'lriN — against God, not cited in the
Bible, saying that once ever}' 1,656 years — according
to Seder ‘ Olam, 1,656 years elapsed between the
Creation and the Flood — heaven tottered so that the
water poured down upon the earth, therefore they
would support it by columns that there might not be
another deluge (Gen. R. l.c. ; Tan. l.c. ; similarly
Josephus, “Ant.” i. 4, § 2). Some among that sin-
ful generation even wanted to war against God in
heaven (Sanh. 109«, and the passage from the Sibyl-
line Books iii. 100, cited by Josephus, l.c.). They
were encouraged in this wild undertaking by the
fact that arrows which they shot into the sky fell
back dripping with blood, so that the people really
believed that they could wage war against the in-
habitants of the heavens (“Sefer ha-Yashar,” Noah,
ed. Leghorn, 125). According to Josephus and Pirke

R. El. xxiv., it was mainly Nimrod who persuaded
his contemporaries to build the Tower, while other
rabbinical sources assert, on the contrary, that
Nimrod separated from the builders (compare Ginz-
berg, “Die Haggada bei den Kirchenvittern,” pp.
88, 89).

Six hundred thousand men (“Sefer lia Yashar, ”
12c) were engaged for forty-three years (Book of
Jubilees x.) in building the Tower.
Building of The Tower had reached such a height
the Tower, that it took a whole year to hoist
up necessary building-material to the
top; in consequence, materials became so valuable
that they cried when a brick fell and broke, while
they remained indifferent when a man fell and was
killed. They behaved also very heartlessly toward
the weak and sick who could not assist to any great
extent in the building ; they would not even allow a
woman in travail to leave the work (Greek Apoca-
lypse of Baruch iii.). God at first permitted the
people to continue with their work, waiting to see
whether they would not desist from their sinful un-
dertaking, and when they still continued, He endeav-
ored to induce them to repent (Gen. R. l.c. ; Tan.
l.c. ; Mek., Beshallah, Shirah, 5), but all in vain.
The confounding of the languages — before that they
all had spoken Hebrew — then compelled them to give
up the work, many also perishing on the occasion;
for if any one received stones instead of mortar
through the misunderstanding of his fellow -workers,
he grew angry and threw the stones upon the one
who had given them (“Sefer ha-Yashar,” 125). A
part of the builders were changed into apes, evil
spirits, demons, and ghosts walking by night (Sanh.
l.c. ; Greek Apocalypse of Baruch ii.), and the rest
were scattered over the whole earth. The mighty
Tower was blown down by winds (Sibyllines l.c. ;
Josephus, l.c. ; Mek., Beshallah, 4, ed. Weiss, 37);
according to the opinion of others, one-third of the
building was consumed by fire, one-third sank into
the earth, and one-third remained standing (Sanh.
l.c. ; Gen. R. l.c. 8). In order to convey an idea of
the height of the Tower, it is said that to any one
who even now stands upon the ruins, tall palm-
trees below him appear like grasshoppers. This
remnant of the Tower is said to be at Borsippa.

Although the generation of the builders of the
Tower was much more wicked than that which per-
ished during the Flood, the punishment of the latter
was much more severe, because they were robbers,
while the former lived in peace with one another,
and peace is of such supreme importance that God
spares even idolaters so long as they live peaceably
(Gen. R. l.c. 7). Compare Languages, Seventy.

Bibliography: Ginzberg, Die Hcujoada liei den Kirchen-

viltern , pp. 88, 91-94.

J. SR. L. G.

In Mohammedan Literature : That some

story about Babel had reached Mohammed appears
to be certain ; but it was in a singularly imperfect
form and was confused by him with another story
about Khordad and Mordad, two of the Parsi
Amshaspands. The one reference appears in Koran
(sura ii. 96) :

“ But they followed that which the Satans recited against the
kingship of Solomon— and Solomon was no unbeliever, but the

397

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Babel, Tower of

Satans are unbelievers, teaching men magic— and that which
was revealed to the two angels in Babil, Harut, and Marut.
They do not teach any one until they say, ‘ We are nothing but
a temptation, so be not an unbeliever.’ The people learn from
them that by which they may divide between man and wife,
yet they injure none thereby, save by the permission of God ;
they learn that which hurts themselves and profits them not.”

Here all that is left of the Babel story is the name
and the idea that there separation may be brought
about. As to Harut and Marut, the Moslem com-
mentators explain that they were two angels sent
down by God to teach men magic, in order to try
them and to show them the difference between magic
and miracle. It is a story of the Jews, continues
the commentator Baidawi (in loco), but to be re-
jected, that they assumed flesh, were seduced by a
woman Zuhara into lust and rebellion against God,
and taught her how to ascend up into the heavens.
But later Islam embraced this Jewish legend in its
full extent, and exhausted its imagination in por-
traying the well at Babil with the rebellious angels
hung in it by the heels and giving lessons in magic
to whomever would come to them (see Lane’s “Ara-
bian Nights,” chap. iii. , note 14, and Al-Tha’labi’s
“Kisas al-Anbiyya,” pp. 43 et seq. ; compare Cairo
ed’., 1298).

With so vague a reference in the Koran and with
a fundamental confusion like this to contend against,
the stories of the Tower and of the confusion of
tongues have left little or no mark on popular Is-
lam; the “Arabian Nights” know nothing of them.
Some of the historians know of the confusion of
tongues only. Thus in Yakut (i. 448 et seq. ) and the
“Lisan al-‘Arab” (xiii. 72) God brought mankind
into the plain afterward called “ Babil,” by means of
winds sweeping them together. There He assigned
to each his separate speech, and the winds again
scattered them to their appointed lands.

In one place Tabari (“ Annales,” ed. de Goeje, i.
220) gives a tradition that Nimrod ruled at Babil
and his people were Moslems. But he seduced them
to idolatry, and in a single day God confused their
speech, which had been Syriac, and they became of
seventy-two tongues. In another place (p. 224)
Tabari tells the story practically as in Genesis. Ibu
Wadih (i. 17) has a longer narrative on the same
lines. Abu ‘Isa, the astronomer quoted by Abu al-
Fida (“ Hist. Anteisl.,” ed. Fleischer, p. 18), also tells
the Biblical story of the Tower and the confusion.
He adds that Eber alone, because he did not join the
others in their impious attempt, was permitted to
retain the original Hebrew language. This is in
curious contrast with the other narratives, which
view Syriac as the original tongue. It is possible
that the belief, current in all the Moslem world, that
Syriac was the original language, is to be traced to
the influence of the Syriac “ Cave of Treasures ” and
the Arabic “Kitab al-Majall,” with their anti -Jewish
polemics.

J. JB. D. B. M.

Critical View : According to the modern anal-
ysis of the Pentateuch, the section Gen. xi. 1-9 is de-
rived from J, or the Jalivistic writer. The name is
there explained as from a stem-word “ balal ” (con-
found). This is probably a folk-etymology founded
upon the similarity of the proper name to the Hebrew

stem or to the event that occurred at Babel. The
Babylonian language, probably indigenous to this
region, gives the true etymology of “Babel." It is
compounded of “bab” (gate) and “ili” (God), lit-
erally, “the gate of God.” It should be noticed, too,
that this name was given to both the Tower and the
city, and that the cessation of building
Ety- operations is referred to in connection
mology : with the city only, the tower not even
‘ ‘ Gate being mentioned. The records of Gen

of God.” x. give a picture of the settlement of
mankind upon various portions of the
earth’s surface. This “table of the nations” is an
ethnographical map of the ancient Oriental world.
The exact time of its preparation can not, with the
present data, be fixed. The location of the great
majority of the peoples has been determined. It
has been noted, too, that the inhabitants of these
communities, districts, provinces, and cities spoke
different languages. The questions, how men were
scattered from one common center to all these sec-
tions of the ancient world, and how they happened
to speak diverse tongues, are answered by the inser-
tion, after eh. x., of Gen. xi. 1-9.

Up to the present time no ancient documents, giv-
ing a parallel legend, such as those of the Babylonian
accounts of the Creation and the Deluge, have been
discovered. But another class of facts may point in
the direction of answering the above question. Phi-
lologists have not yet solved the question as to the
common origin of all the languages of mankind;
but scientists agree that the physiognomy, the phys-
iology, the psychology, and the religious nature of
man are practically the same all over the world.
This is not an absolute proof of the unity of the
race ; but it points to a dispersion of men from a
common center, and as the descendants of a common
stock.

There is general agreement that the Tower of
Babel was in lower Babylonia, not far from the River
Euphrates. Two principal locations are given in the
literature of the subject: (1) the ruins
Position of Birs-Nimrud at old Borsippa, south
of Babel, of the site of old Babylon; and (2) the
ruins within the circuit of ancient
Babylon itself. In the first case, Nebuchadnezzar
(in his Borsippa inscription, cols. i. and ii.) tells liow
he repaired and finished a “zikkurat,” or tower,
which had been left unfinished, at a height of 42 ells,
by a former king. This tower, dedicated to Nebo,
was called “E-zida” (Enduring Temple or House),
and consisted of seven stages or stories. The con-
spicuous character of the present-day remains of this
Tower has attracted attention since the time of Ben-
jamin of Tudela (about 1160); and many scholars
have found in this mass of ruins the remains of the
Tower of Babel of Gen. xi. The latest expositor of
this view is John P. Peters (“Jour. Biblical Litera-
ture,” 1896, xv. 106 et seq.).

The second view- is that the ruins of old Babylon
include the site of the Towrer of the record. The
narrative itself speaks of a city and a tower; and, as
stated above, the cessation of labor is mentioned with
regard to the city only. The name “Babel” would
most naturally connect this event with the city
of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar, too (in his Borsippa

Babenhausen

Babylon

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

398

inscription), states that he built anil finished at Baby-
lon “E-sag-ila” (Temple of Heaven and Earth), the
dwelling of the god of gods, Marduk ;
Nebuchad- and likewise the story-tower,“E-temen
nezzar’s an-ki ” (Temple of the Foundation of
Borsippa Heaven and Earth). Of this latter
In- he says (Rawlinson, “Cuneiform In-
scription. scriptions of Western Asia,” v. 34, col.

i. 53, 54): “E-temen-an-ki, the zik-
kurat of Babylon I built anew,” and adds imme-
diately thereafter : “ E-zida,the lasting house, beloved
of Nebo, in Borsippa, I built anew.” The same lan-
guage is used with reference to the construction of
both of these edifices. This being so, there must he
a preference for Babylon as the probable site of the
Babel of Gen. ix. 1-9, the ruins of which answer the
requirements of both a tower and a city. See Baby-
lon and Shinar.

Bibliography: H. Rawlinson, in Smith-Sayce, Chaldean Gene-
sis, pp. 171 et seq. For the critical analysis of the eleventh
chapter of Genesis and the various problems connected with
the tradition of the Tower of Babel, see Budde, Biblisehe
Urgeschichte, and the commentaries of Dillmann, Straek,
Holzinger, and Gunkel ; J. P. Peters, as above.

J. JR. I. M. P.

BABENHAUSEN : A city of Hesse, district of
Starkenburg, Germany. Jews are reported to have
resided here as early as 1320. At the request of the
nobleman Arrosius von Breuberg, certain Jews were
placed under the ban, and all intercourse between
them and Christians was strictly prohibited. The
reason for this measure is not stated. In 1337 the
Jews were cruelly persecuted during the Armleder
raids. At the time of the Black Death (1349)
the Jewish community was again subjected to per-
secution.

From 1643 to 1672 there were at no time more than
six Jews resident here, and these paid an annual
protection tax of 60 to 70 gulden. Between 1710
and 1719 this tax amounted to 110 gulden. The
Jew Daniel of Babenhausen obtained the protection
of the Palatinate in 1648. In 1829 there were 80
Jews resident here; in 1875 there were 92; and this
is about the number at the present day.

Bibliography : Salfeld, Des Ndrnherger Memorbuches Mar-
tyrologium, pp. 338, 381 ; Beschreibung der Hanau-Mtln-
zenbergischen Lande, p. 57; Lowenstein, Gesch. der Jude n
in der Kurpfalz, p. 38: Engelbert, Statistik des Juden-
thums im Deutschen Reiche, p. 52.

G. A. F.

BABINOVICHI : Town in the district of Orsha,
government of Mohilev, Russia. In 1900, in a total
population of 1,143 the Jews numbered about 800.
g. H. R.

BABLI, SOLOMON B. JUDAH HA-. See

Solomon b. Judah.

BABOVICH, SIMHA : Head man of the Ka-
raites of the Crimea in the first quarter of the nine-
teenth centurjq and president of the Karaite Council
of the city of Kozlov, Eupatoria. The exact date of
his birth is unknown, but he was probably born
about 1785. His surname is spelled by some “ Bibo-
vich ” (Gottlober, “Bikkoret le-Toledot ha-Karaim,”
p. 179), and by others “Babovich” (Eben Resheff,
“Abne Zikaron,” p. 102, and Deinard, “Massa
Krim,” p. 20).

Babovich did not distinguish himself as a scholar,
nor did he write any book ; but he was famous for

the work he did for the benefit of the Karaites, espe-
cially in regard to their political and social rights in
Russia. He was a man of wealth and aided the
work of Abraham Firkovich, who accompanied
him to Jerusalem in 1830, and who was entrusted
with the education of Babovich’s children.

In 1827 Babovich went to St. Petersburg with
Joseph Solomon, hakam of the Karaite community
of Kozlov, to petition the Russian government to
free the Karaites from military service. This mis-
sion was successful ; and it was on this occasion that
Solomon wrote his “Sefer lia-Zikaron,” and Abra-
ham ben Joseph Solomon ha-Hazan composed a
hymn in honor of Babovich.

In 1829 Babovich corresponded with Jost and other
German-Jewish scholars in regard to a history of the
Karaites; and it was owing to his encouragement
that Firkovich gathered all the material for his
history.

k. A. Fl.

BABSKI REFUES (“Babski” [Polish], old-
womanish; “refues” [Hebrew], remedies): The
name applied in Yiddish to domestic and supersti-
tious medicine. Common folk among the Jews in
Russia and Poland believe in peculiar remedies for
diseases and maladies, some of the remedies consist-
ing of drugs or physics and some of magic agencies.
Especially peculiar are the latter, which are gener-
ally prescribed or administered by a practical cabalist
called “ba‘al-shem” (master of [God’s] name) or
“ guter Yid ” (good Jew), to whom superstitious men
and women apply for the conjuration of toothaches,
of wounds, or of an evil eye (“ ‘ayyin ha-ra‘ ”), or
for the exorcism of an evil spirit (“ dibbuk ”).

Of the “segulot” (superstitious remedies) among
these folk, particularly curious are those intended
for the relief of pregnant women and that of chil-
dren. For instance, a well-known practise among
them is “ Bleigiessen,” or what may be termed
“ plumbomancy,” which is divination from the forms,
assumed by molten lead dropped into water. This
is resorted to in cases in which illness of pregnant
women or that of children is due to fright, to find
out what object was the cause of the alarm. A
medicine-woman, muttering a psalm or an incanta-
tion, throws molten lead into a vessel full of water,
and from the resemblance of the form thus assumed
by the metal to a particular animal, she divines that
the cause of fright was a cat, a dog, a horse, etc.

The popular guides of domestic and superstitious
medicine among the Russian and Polish Jews are the
“ Sefer Zekirah ” (Book of Remembrance), by Rabbi
Zechariah of Plungyan, and the “Mifalot Elohim "
(Works of God), which latter is a collection of rem-
edies prescribed by Rabbis Yoel Ba'al-Shem, Naph-
tali of Posen, and others.

Here follow a few items contained in the two trea-
tises: To alleviate pain of dentition, suspend upon
the neck of the child a tooth of a horse or of a dog,
and smear the throat of the child with butter or
chicken-fat (“Zekirah,” p. 80, Warsaw, 1875). To
protect a child from an “evil eye,” let it wear a cop-
per or silver tablet with the letter n engraved upon
it ( ib . p. 84). In case of measles or small-pox, take
ten peas, throw them upon the patient, and say: N’V)

nrp Din eps ptovj i's-irivj rjyr duin

399

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Babenhausen

Babylon.

-inv iv J'pKB ^>'3 '1TN (“As many peas

as have been thrown upon the child, so many pocks
shall it have, not more”; “Mif'alot Elohim,” p. 94,
Lemberg, 1872).

Among other treatises containing similar prescrip-
tions is; “Toledot Adam,” a collection of remedies
by several cabalists, edited by Joel Heilprin (Ba‘al
Shem), Wilmersdorf, 1784. See Folk Medicine.
Bibliography : S. Rubin, Ma'ase Ta'atu'im , § v., 120-142,

Vienna, 1887.

h. r. A. Ha.

BABYLON (^533, LXX. Ba(}v?.<jv). — Biblical
Data : The chief city of Babylonia, long the capi-

speedily rose to prominence, and its history is prac-
tically the history of Babylonia.

The ruins which have been identified with an-
cient Babylon lie about 50 miles south of the city
of Bagdad and on the east bank of the Euphrates.
They are located between 44° and 45° east longitude,
and between 32° and 33° north latitude, and extend
over five miles from north to south. The ruins con-
sist of several distinct portions : (a) The most north-
erly of the ruins consists of a vast mound covering
120,000 square feet and reaching a height of 64 feet.
It now bears the name of “ Babil ” or “ El-Maglubeh ” ;
and near it are the remnants of a once formidable

View of the Ruins of Babylon.

(From Perrot and Chipiez, “ Art in Chaldtta and Assyria.”)

tal of the kingdom and empire that controlled the
whole or a large part of the valley of the Tigris and
Euphrates.

This city has several names or appellatives in the
native inscriptions, the chief being “ Ka-dingira ” and
“ Babu-ili ” (“ gate of God ” or “ gate of gods ”), “ Tin-
tir ” (“ seat of life ”), and “ E ” or “ E-ki ” (“ House ”).
The Hebrew tradition groups it with “Ereeli, Ac-
cad, and Calneh” (Gen x. 10), and so
In Hebrew ascribes to it great antiquity ; though
Tradition, it should be added that the beginnings
of the city can not be historically de-
termined. No native records give any clue to its
origin. It appears to be mentioned in a historical
inscription by Agu-kak-rime (about 1650 b.c.), who
restored the shrines of Marduk and Sarpanit in the
temple of E-sagila. But the city had long before
been the center of a vigorous political life. In the
beginning it was but ODe among many cities; but it

wall. Remains of hydraulic works found beneath
it make probable its identification with the famous
terraced or hanging gardens. Babil is now being
systematically explored by an expedition sent out
from Germany, (b) Near by is the mound called
“ Mujellibeh,” identified by Rassam with a palace
built by Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar, (c) El-
Kasr, literally, “ the castle ” ; so called, according to
the tradition of the neighboring Arabs, from having
been the castle of Nebuchadnezzar. Bricks found
beneath this mound bear the stamp of Nebuchadnez-
zar; and, as far as it has been examined, it consists
of a maze of walls full of debris. It
The Ruins, has now been ascertained through
the excavations conducted by the
German explorers that Kasr covers the remains of
the famous palace of the great king. ( d ) Immediately
south of El-Kasr, and practically continuous with it,
are the ruins ‘Amran ibn Ali, named after a Moslem

Babylon

Babylonia

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

400

saint whose tomb is visited by pilgrims. The ruins
cover the site of the great temple of E-sagila.
(e) Near the village of Jumjuna are small mounds,
from one of which have been taken numbers of busi-
ness tablets whose inscriptions make it plain that
the site was once covered with the offices of the firm
of the sous of Egibi. Besides these chief ruins there
are numbers of smaller ruin-groups; but their rela-
tions to each other are more or less obscure, and iden-
tification of the buildings which they mark is either
doubtful or wholly lacking. This mound is now
being explored by the expedition undertaken by
German scientists.

Herodotus (i. 178-187) has described the city with
a wealth of detail. He says it formed a vast square
480 stades (551 miles) in circumference. Around
about the city was a moat filled with running water,
and beyond this was a wall built like
Classical a rampart, 200 cubits high and 50
Descrip- broad, the top of which was made into
tions. a great street, lined with chambers, and
broad enough for a four-horse chariot
to turn upon it. In the city were fine streets lined
with houses three and four stories in height. The
main building was the temple of Belov Marduk,
constructed in tower-like form, with a winding
ascent on the exterior. There is no mention of
the hanging gardens. The description given by
Ctesias (quoted by Diodorus Siculus, 2, 7 et seq.) dif-
fers considerably from that furnished by Herodotus.
According to Ctesias, the circuit of the city was 360
stades (about 411 miles), and the other dimensions
were generally smaller than those given by Herodo-
tus. He describes the hanging gardens as being
square in construction and of sufficient size to sup-
port full-grown trees.

The best Babylonian description of the city now
extant was written by order of Nebuchadnezzar, the
greatest patron of the city. This nar-
Native rative of the great works of construc-
Descrip- tion and of repair gives a picture of
tions. the whole city in his day. It agrees
in the main with Herodotus, and seems
to support somewhat the contention that he had a
first-hand acquaintance with the city. The account
of Ctesias is not quite in accord with the Babylonian
description, which makes no mention at all of the
hanging gardens. It is therefore probable that Cte-
sias is in error, and that they were erected by some
Assyrian king. For the history of Babylon, see
Babylonia.

The city of Babylon fills a large place in the liter-
ature and life of the Hebrew people. It is true that
in the literature it is not always possible to distin-
guish between the city of Babylon and the country
of Babylonia, for the same word (^33) is used for
both ; yet in many cases the allusion to the city is
clear. In the Book of Genesis there are but two al-
lusions to Babel; the one (Gen. x. 10)
In the Old naming it as one of the cities of Sliinar
Testament. (Babylonia); the other (Gen. xi. 1-9)
describing the confusion of tongues
and the naming of the city therefrom. The city next
finds mention (II Kings xvii. 24) as one of the places
from which Sargon brought captives to settle in
Samaria, who introduced an image of their god Suc-

coth-benoth (II Kings xvii. 30; compare Amos v.
26). After the fall of Samaria, Babylon plays a
smaller part in the history of the Hebrews, while
the importance of Nineveh increases until the new
Babylonian or Chaldean empire. Under Nebuchad-
nezzar, Babylon again becomes an important city,
and, as the center of the empire which destroyed
Judah, finds frequent mention in the later books.
See Assyria, Assyriology and the Old Testa-
ment, and Babylonia.

Bibliography: For the history of the city see bibliography
under Babylonia. The ruins are briefly described, and an
account of their exploration is given, in Robert W. Rogers,
History of Babylonia and Assyria , i.. New York, 1900.
Fuller accounts of the present state of the ruins are to be
found in John P. Peters. Nippur , New York, 1897 ; Eduard
Sachau, Am Euphrat und Tigris, Leipsic, 1900. The topog-
raphy of the city is thoroughly discussed in the article Bat ni-
ton by Baumstark, in Pauly-Wissowa, ReaJ-Encyclopiidie
der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft , ii„ 1896, with which
may be compared the monograph on Babylon by Delitzsch,
published as one of the Mittheilungev of the Deutsche Ori-
ent. Gesellsehaft ; the various other Mittheilungen of this
Society; and also Jastrow, The Temple and Palace of Neb-
uchadnezzar, in Harper's Magazine, April, 1903.
j. jr. R. W. R.

Post-Biblical Data : Darius Hystaspes cap-
tured the city of Babylon in 516 b.c., partially
razed its walls, and carried its inhabitants into cap-
tivity (Herodotus, iii. 159; Justin, i. 10).

Xerxes is said to have either plundered or des-
troyed the temple of Belus, and Alexander the Great
labored in vain to restore it; in connection with
this, reference is made to his Jewish soldiers (see
Babylonia, Greek Period). When Seleucus Nica-
tor founded Seleucia for his capital, Babylon sank in
importance and soon fell into ruins (Pausanias, viii.
33, 1; Dio Cassius, lxxv. 9). The Rabbis neverthe-
less still knew it as a city. Mention is made of bas-
kets taken to Babylon (B. B. 22a), as also of the fact
that one could live as well in Babylon as in Sura
(Git. 65a). The Talmud says, “He who sees the Eu-
phrates from the bridge near Babylon, should say
the benediction, ‘ Blessed be the Creator of nature ’ ”
(Ber. 596), meaning that from Babylon the Euphrates
has a natural course, being checked further north by
artificial dams and canals. This is the probable ex-
planation of the passage, although there is another
view, held by S. Cassel, who thinks that the land of
Babylonia is meant here and not the city of Baby-
lon. To the foregoing precept the Talmud adds
— from a fifth-century point of view — that since even
at this point the river had been checked by artificial
means, the benediction could properly be said only
lower down the stream, in Be Sliabur. R. Hamnuna
preached that “ He who beholds the godless city of
Babylon should pronounce five benedictions; the
first, on sighting the ruins of the town ; the second,
when he beholds the house of Nebuchadnezzar; the
third, when he sees Daniel’s den of lions; the fourth,
when he looks on the fiery furnace; and the fifth,
when before the pillars of Mercury” (ib. 576; less
correctly, in Yer. Ber. ix. 12J). The palace of Nebu-
chadnezzar is a heap of ruins called by the Arabs
“ El Kasr ” (the palace) ; the “ pillars of Mercury ” are
probably a statue of the god Nebo; the “fiery fur-
nace ” is shown next to “the palace” (Layard, “Dis-
coveries,” p. 505). Benjamin of Tudela found the
ruins of BabyloD five miles distant from Hillali, a
city which then contained ten thousand Jews. In the

401

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Babylon

Babylonia

work “Shebile ‘Olam,’’ i. 25 a, Hillali is incorrectly
identified with Babylon. Pethakiali also saw ancient
Babylon (ed. London, pp. 42-44) ; he, however, often
seems to confuse Babylon with Bagdad, as do many
Jewish authors. Of older date is its confusion with
Borsippa, an error of ancient times (Yoma 10a); the
latter place did indeed possess a temple of Nebo
(‘Ab. Zarah 116). An aged pine-tree was shown in
the vicinity (Sanli. 926), which served to locate events
in the time of Daniel (see Rapoport, “ ‘Erek Millin, ”
2416). Jews looked for the Tower of Babel in
Babylon (compare Sanli. 109«): “Of the tower [of
Babel], one-third was burnt, one-tliird was buried
underground, and one-third remains standing ” (see
“Proc. Soc. Bibl. Archied., ” 1893, xv. 230). Petlia-
hiah also saw the Tower ( l.c . p. 48). Christians
lived in Babylon in early times; the passage I Peter
v. 13 refers to this (compare Josephus, “Ant;” xv. 2,
§ 2). A Christian church, said to have been des-
troyed by Jews under Sapor II. or Bahrain, was
restored in 399 (Assemani, “Bibl. Orientalis,” iii.
2, 61).

Bibliography: Neubauer, Geographic du Talmud , p. 344;
Bottffer, Lexicon zu Josephus Flavius, p. 48; Ritter,
Erdhunde, xi. 865; I. Halevy, Dorot ha-Rishi>nim, iii. 102-
106; ii. 544, 545, who tries to show that in Talmud Babel is
identical with Bagdad.

G. S. Kk.

BABYLONIA. — General Data : A country in
western Asia of varying limits at different periods.
The natural boundaries were the Persian gulf on the
south, the Tigris on the east, and the Arabian desert
on the west. On the north the boundary changed
with political changes ; but it may be roughly placed
at a line drawn along the beginning of the alluvial
soil.

The climate is subtropical. Rain may fall at any
time between November and February; but the
rainiest months are November and December. The
rest of the year is dry and extremely
Climate hot, though rain is not unknown, in
and the form of brief showers. Ancient
Products, writers ascribe extraordinary fertility
to the soil ; and, due allowance being
made for exaggeration, there remains indubitable
evidence of great productivity. The disuse of former
elaborate arrangements for irrigation, and the lack
of attention have, in modern times, turned much of
the country into an arid waste interspersed with
malarial marshes. The principal products of the
country were wheat, dates, barley, millet, sesame,
vetches, oranges, apples, pears, and grapes. The
domestic animals in use were horses, camels, oxen,
sheep, dogs, and goats. Of wild animals there were
enough to furnish much sport forkings and princes.
In the chase the lion held first place, if one is
to judge by the native accounts; but the wild
boar, the wild ox, the jackal, the gazelle, and the
hare were likewise found. Birds were numerous:
and fish, chiefly carp, were taken in the sluggish
rivers.

The people that made the great civilization and
history of Babylonia, as it is now' known, were
Semites, of the same general stock as the Hebrews
and Arabs. The time at which they entered the
country is matter of dispute, as is also the question
II.— 26

whether or not they found another race already in pos-
session. It is probably safe to say that the great
majority of modern Assyriologists en-
People and tertain the view that before the advent
Language, of the Semites Babylonia was peopled
by a race known as Sumerians, to whom
is due the origin of the method of writing, as also that
of part of the religion and the general culture of the
Babylonians. To this view, however, there is op-
posed a strong body of opinion, of which Joseph
Halevy, the eminent French Orientalist, is the chief
exponent. The language spoken by the Babylo-
nians is usually called Assyrian. It belongs to the
northern group of the Semitic family, and is more
closely affiliated with Hebrew', Phenician. and the
several Aramaic languages than with Arabic. Him-
yaritic, and Ethiopic. The method of writing is
cumbrous; but it served its purpose from the earliest
inscriptions antedating 4500 u.c. down to the period
of Alexander the Great. It is called cuneiform, since
the earlier picture-writing gradually developed into
a character the chief constituent of which is a wedge
(Latin, cuneus).

The beginnings of history in Babylonia are lost in
antiquity. More than 4,000 years before the common
era the country was called Kengi — that is, “land of
canals and reeds ” — and in it were a number of cities,
each with a sort of city king. One of
Its the earliest of these kings bore the
History, name En-shag-kush-anna, the political
center of whose kingdom was proba-
bly Erech, while Nippur was its most important re-
ligious center. The names of many other kings that
ruled in one city or another have been handed down ;
but no clear light upon the movements of men iu the
forming of kingdoms is obtained until the reign of
Sargou L, about 3800 b.c., and of his son Naram-Sin.
These kings were certainly Semites, whatever may
be said of earlier mouarchs. They made conquests
over a large part of the country. Later astrological
tablets ascribe to the former some successful cam-
paigns into the far wrest to Phenicia and Elam. For
a long period after the reigns of Sargou and
Naram-Sin the supreme power in Babylonia passed
from city to city; first one and then
Kings another held the supremacy. The first
Ur-gur and one that held the chief place after
Dungi. this great conqueror wTas gone was the
city of Ur, in which kings Ur-gur and
Dungi held sway about 3200 b.c. Each of them was
called not only “king of Ur,” but also “king of
Sumer and Akkad,” under which title they claimed
dominion over both northern and southern Babylonia.

After the power had slipped away from llr, the
city of Isin became supreme for a time, only to be
succeeded again by Ur, and this in turn by Larsa.
During all this long period the city of Babylon ex-
erted no profound influence upon the general life
of the country. But about 2450 b.c., according to
the native chronologists, the first dynasty began to
reign, with Sumuabi as the first king. The sixth king
of this dynasty, Hammurabi (about 2342-2288 b.c. ;
see Amraphei,), united all Babylonia under one
scepter and made Babylon its capital. From that
proud position the city was never deposed; for even
when the Assyrians ruled the land from Nineveh,

Babylonia

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

402

the city of Babylon was still the chief city of the
southern kingdom. The development of the king-
dom which Hammurabi had founded was continued
during the second dynasty of Babylon, at the end of
which (about 1780 b.c.) a foreign dynasty known as
the Ivassites came to the throne.

The Kassites had come originally from the moun-
tains of Elam ; and they furnished to Babylonia some
kings eminent as warriors and in the
The arts of peace. Among them were
Kassites. Kadasliman-Bel and Burnaburiasli
(about 1400 b.c.), who were in corre-
spondence with the
kings of Egypt.

During the 576
years that this dy-
nasty ruled over
Babylonia the king-

Not until 625 b.c. was a fresh lease of life given
to Babylonia; and the king who began it was in all
probability a Chaldean. Nabopolassar (625-605 b.c.)

gave a rallying point to the independ-
Nabopo- ent life of the country, and threw off
lassar. the Assyrian yoke with such energy
and success as at once to establish a
new world-empire and to destroy the once power-
ful Assyria. His son (see Nebuchadnezzar) carried
on his plans with notable success, and was succeeded
by Evil-Merodach (561-560 b.c.), and he by Nergal-
sharezer (559-556 b.c.); but the power that Nabopo-
lassar had made
dominant over the
best of the world
was now in decay.
After Labashi-Mar-
duk (556 b.c.), Na-

dom of Assyria
achieved complete
independence, and
the power of Baby-
lonia waned great-
ly. The dynasties
that followed (dy-
nasty 4 of Isin,
dynasty 5 of the
Sea Lands, dynasty

6 of Bazi) produced few men of the highest rank
either as warriors or as organizers; and modern
knowledge of the latter part of the period is more or
less fragmentary. The seventh dynasty had but one
king, an Elamite of unknown name (about 1030 b.c.),
and during the eighth dynasty the power gradually
drifted into the hands of Assyria. In 729 B.c.Tiglath-
pileser III. of Assyria was also king of Babylonia,
and thenceforward Babylonia had no life of its own
(see Assyria).

Magic Bowl with Hebrew inscriptions, Found among the
Ruins of Babylon.

(From “ Revue des Etudes Juives.”)

bonidus became
king and reigned
(555-539 b.c.) with
singular devotion
to religion and
science, but without
political wisdom.
A new power had
arisen in Elam ; and
Cyrus, who began
to reign as king of Anshan, had become king of
Media in 549 b.c., and shortly afterward king of
Persia. In 545 b.c. he had conquered Lydia, and
Babylonia was threatened. Revolts against Naboni-
dus in Babylonia opened the tvay for Cyrus; and in
538 b.c. Nabonidus fell into his hands and could no
longer call himself “king of Babylonia.” So ended
the native rule of a mighty Semitic kingdom, which
for 5,000 years had piled up ■wealth, furthered civi-
lization, and ministered to peace. Babylonia, far

403

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Babylonia

more than Assyria, represented the real genius of the
Semitic people ; and its conquest by the semi-bar-
baric races of the East seemed a sad ending to its
brilliant roll of centuries.

Biblical Data : Iu the Bible, Babylon and the

country of Babylonia are not always clearly distin-
guished, in most cases the same word being
i sed for both. In some passages the land of Baby-
lonia is called Shinar; while in the post-exilic litera-
ture it is called the land of the Chaldeans (D'ltJO [‘“i Kl-
in the Book of Genesis Babylonia is described as
the land in which are located Babel, Erech, Accad,
and Calneh (Gen. x. 10), which are declared to have
formed the beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom. In this
land was located the Tower of Babel (Gen. xi. 1-9);
and here also was the seat of Amraphel’s dominion
(Gen. xiv. 1, 9). In the historical books Babylonia
is frequently referred to (there are no fewer than
thirty-one allusions in the Books of Kings), though
the lack of a clear distinction between the city and
the country is sometimes puzzling. Allusions to it
are confined to the points of contact between the
Israelites and the various Babylonian kings, espe-
cially Merodach-baladan (Berodach-baladan of II
Kings xx. 12; compare Isa. xxxix. 1) and Nebu-
chadrezzar (see Nebuchadnezzar). In Clirou. , Ez. ,
and Neh. the interest is transferred to Cyrus (see,
for example, Ez. v. 13), though the retrospect still
deals witn the conquests of Nebuchadrezzar, and
Artaxerxes is mentioned once (Neh. xiii. 6). In the
poetical literature of Israel Babylonia plays an in-
significant part (see Ps. lxxxvii. 4, and especially Ps.
cxxxvii.), but it fills a very large place in the Proph-
ets. The Book of Isaiah resounds with the “ burden of
Babylon ” (xiii. 1), though at that time it still seemed
a “far country ” (xxxix. 3). In the number and im-
portance of its references to Babylo-
Babylonia uian life and history, the Book of Jerc-
and rniah stands preeminent in the Hebrew
Jeremiah, literature. So numerous and so im-
portant are the allusions to events in
the reign of Nebuchadnezzar that within recent times
Jeremiah has become a valuable source in reconstruct-
ing Babylonian history. The inscriptions of Nebu-
chadrezzar are almost exclusively devoted to build-
ing operations; and but for the Book of Jeremiah,
little would be known of his campaign against Jeru-
salem. See Assyria, Assyriology and the Old
Testament, and Babylon.

Bibliography: Histories— C. P. Tiele, Babylonisch-Assyr-
ische Geschichte, Gotha, 1886; Robert W. Rogers. History of
Babylonia and Assyria, 2 vols.. New York, 1900; F. Honi-
rael. Geschichte Babyloniens und Assyrians, Berlin, 1885;
Geschichte des Altai , Morgenlandes, Stuttgart, 1895 (transl.
into English as Civilization of the East, London, 1900); Hugo
Winckler, Geschichte Babyloniens and Assyriens, Leipsie,
1893. Works referring to the relationship between O. T.
history and Babylonia— E. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften
und das Alte Testament, Giessen, 1883 (English transl. by
O. C. Whitehouse, The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the
Old Testament, London, 1885-1889); I. M. Price, The Monu-
ments and the Old Testament, Chicago, 1900; C. J. Ball,
Eight from the East, London, 1899 ; D. G. Hogarth, Author-
ity and Arclucoloqy, Part I, Hebrew Authority, by S. R.
Driver, London, 1899.

[See Bibliography to Assyria.]

J. .JR. R. W. R.

Post-Biblical Data — Geography : The Tal-
mud gives the boundaries of as much of Baby-
lonia as contained Jewish residents, but in doing

so mentions geographical names which are not
always clearly identifiable. The places mentioned
in II Kings xvii. 6, as the localities where the Jew-
ish exiles were settled, are not likely to have been
the only ones inhabited by them after the lapse of a
few centuries. Some of these places were identified as
being inhabited by Jews in the post-Biblical period.
Thus R. Abba bar Kahana, commenting on the
above-mentioned passage in II Kings, states that : (a)
“ Halah ” (r6n> is Halwan (according to the correct
reading) or Holwan, as it is still called by the Arabs
to-day; the Syrians also considered

Extent. it identical with “ Halah ” (R. Payne
Smith, “Thesaurus Syriac us,” col.
1277); it is, according to Abulfeda, five days’ jour-
ney north from Bagdad. Both Jews and Syrians
apply the name to the whole province of Calaehene.
( b ) “Habor” (II Kings l.c.) is the same as Hadyab
( Adiabene). (c) “ Nehar Gozan ” (i.e. river of Gozan)
is identical with Ginzak or, as Strabo and Ptolemy
call it, Gaza, Gazaka, or Ganzaka, a large city on the
bank of the lake Urmia (Ritter, “Erdkunde,” ix.
774). (el) “The cities of the Medes ” (II Kings l.c.)
are intended to designate Hamadan, the ancient
Ecbatana, and its sister cities. According to another
opinion, Nehawend and its sister cities, south of
Hamadan, are meant (Kid. 72 a; Yeb. 165 et see/.).
Ganzaka is also mentioned elsewhere as one of the
remotest points in which Jews of genuine stock,
descended from the actual exiles, resided. Such
Jews are said to have dwelt as far as the “river
[“ nhr ” = water, as in Aramaic and Arabic] Ginzak,”
according to the correct reading of the ‘Aruk based
upon Kid. 715; Yer. Kid. iv. 65 d\ Yer. Yeb. i. 35.
This statement was made by Rab ; but Samuel names
Nahrwan (see Ritter, l.c. ix. 418) as the farthest limit
(see same passages, and also Gen. R. xvi. 3).

Toward the north (“above”), Rab gives as bound-
ary a place on the Tigris which S. Cassel under-
stands as the Bagravene mentioned by Ptolemy, a
district eastward of the Tigris sources. Kolmt and
Berliner refer the name to Okbara and Awaua, two
cities on the east bank of the river; while Samuel
here, too, assigns a smaller territory to Jewish resi-
dents by naming Moxoenc as the farthest boundary.
Southward (“below”) along the Tigris, Jews are
said to have been domiciled as far as Apamea in
Mesene. Northward on the Euphrates, Rab men-
tions the fortress Tliulbakni (called also Akra — Greek
for “fort” — by the Jews) as the limit (Gen. R. l.c.),
which place, according to most investigators, is the
Thilbencane mentioned by Ptolemy. Samuel names
a point farther north, a “ bridge ” over the Euphrates,
identical with the well-known Zeugma on that river,
as appears from R. Johanan’s statement iu the pas-
sage cited; this was a strategically important point
on the boundary of Commagene, called “ Bir ” to-day.
But the district Biram, mentioned in the Talmud
{l.c.) as being upon “this side of the Euphrates,” is
not to be understood as identical with this Bir, as
Neubauer and Berliner maintain; for then there
would be nothing extraordinary in the accompany-
ing statement that the leading (Jewish) families of
Pumbedita contracted matrimonial alliances with the
people of Biram. It is more probable that by the
latter place the district of Bahrain was meant, a

Babylonia

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

404

peninsula on the west side of the Persian gulf and a
territory which in the times of Arabian domination,
indeed, was frequently included in Irak. Nor, in
speaking of Bahrain, are the words “above” and
“below” employed to designate its position on the
Euphrates, as with the other locations; instead, “on
the other side ” is used, which must mean southward,
the previous side mentioned being north. Biram is
identical with Beth Baltin, a spot between Syria
and Babylonia, which was the extreme point to
which the proclamation of the New Moon was
forwarded : all beyond that was “ Golah” (the Exile) :
i.e., Babylonia proper (R. H. 23?>; compare ‘Ab.
Zarah 51a).

This wide extent of country contained numerous
districts bearing the following names in rabbinical
literature:

(a) ^33 (Babylon), the most frequent designation,
but meaning more strictly that section between the

two rivers where they came most
Provinces, closely together. Thus it is said that

Babylon covers the Euphrates on one
side and the Tigris on the other (‘Er. 22b). The term
“Golah” (Exile) was also frequently applied to
Babylon; and, inasmuch as Pumbedita, the city of
such prime importance for Jews, was situated in it,
Golah is at times used as equivalent to Pumbedita
(R. II. 23b). In this district were situated those
celebrated cities of Babylon, Borsippa, Seleucia,
and Ctesiplion, repeatedly named by the Rabbis;
in Arabian times, Bagdad, too, attained celebrity.
Nehardea was also important. This region also re-
ceived, poetically, as it were, the Biblical name of
“Shin'ar,” which was variously expounded (Gen. R.
xxxvii. 4). Poetically, also, must be understood the
appellation “Slieol” (the nether world), Yeb. 17a.
According to one passage (Gen. R. xxxvii. 1; com-
pare Yalkut and Lekah Tob). the Biblical Tiras
stands for Persia (“ Monatssclirift,” xxxix. 11). As
distinguished from Palestine, Babylon, whether in
its larger (Yer. Shek. ii. 47e) or smaller extent, was
“abroad,” “ the foreign ” (Yad. iv. 3).

( b ) nnmn )'3 (“between the rivers,” Kid. 72a).
The Greek name Mesopotamia, which arose after
Alexander’s time, means identically the same (Gen.
R. xxx. 10, xliv. 3, lx. 1). In this district was sit-
uated the important city of Nisibis, called Nazibin
by the Jews, as it is to-day; this region is strictly
differentiated from Golah, or Babylon proper (Sanh.
32 b). Nineveh, however, had long before been des-
troyed, so that it is doubtful whether the Nineveh
mentioned in the Talmud (Ta'anit 14 b) as possessing
Jewish inhabitants, can have been the celebrated city
of that name. More probably the whole district of
Nineveh is meant, as in Sliab. 121i>, where “Nine-
veh” is used with Adiabene. Assemani, “ Bibliotheca
Orientalis Clementino-Yaticaua,” iii. 2. p. lxv., men-
tions one baptized Jew from Nineveh in the fourth
century.

(c) (Habel Yamma, Kid. 72a; Yer. Kid,
i v 65c? ; Gen. R. xxxvii. 8). The name means “ the sea
district,” and probably applies to the region upon the
Persian gulf, east of the Shat-al-‘Arab. This was
considered the “crown” of Babylon. R. Papa ap-
plies the name, however, to the Phorat region (not
Euphrates; compare Phorat, Mesene) of Borsippa,

the word “ sea ” then referring to the lake Balir Nejef.
An important commercial town east of the Tigris
and near the sea was Cliarax, identified in rabbinical
writings under the form “Haras,” with the Biblical
“ Erech ” (“ Monatssclirift,” xxxix. 58). The Biblical
“Accad” is identified with Kashkar, a town called
thus by the Syrians and Arabs (Smith, l.c., col.
1843), but also Ivarka, which is identical with Cliarax,
and it thus must have been situated near the latter.
In this actively commercial district, Cutlneans or
Samaritans are said to have also resided (Kid. 72a).

(d) JBO (Meslian ; in Greek and Latin authors, “ Me-
sene,” equivalent in meaning to “Mesopotamia”).
A region, also celebrated for its commerce, west of
the Shat al-‘Arab and north of the Persian gulf. In
this district were both upper and lower Apamea;
also Phorat Maishan, a large city identified by the
rabbis with the Rehobotli-Ir of Gen. x. 11 (Yoma
10a). Mesene formed a portion of the old province
of Chaldea, a name not in use among the Jews. As
a collective name for all these districts, the designa-
tion “ Babylonia ” may be employed in its widest
sense. Palestinian usage, supported by Biblical prec-
edent, no doubt also employed the term “ ‘Eber ha-
Naliar ” (beyond the river) to designate it (Ab. R. N.,
B, ii. 47 ; ‘Aruk, s.v. "oy III.). The somewhat boast-
ful designation of Babylonia as “ the land of Israel”
(Gen. R. xvi. 3) was recognized by Zacuto (“ Yulia-
siu,” p. 245b) and other moderns. So, too, many
Babylonian cities were known among the Jews by
nicknames (see Graetz, “Messenc,” p. 25, and Jas-
trow, “Diet.” p. 167).

The provinces were subdivided officially and by
common usage into smaller districts, as marked by
the numerous canals and waterways ;

Political hence the functions of the “canal-
Divisions. wardens ” (see below). Such a district
was styled a “parbar,” a word occur-
ring in I Cliron. xxvi. 18; mention is made of Baby-
lon and its district, Nehardea and its district (Ket.
54a) ; and there were doubtless other districts, named
Nares, Sura, Pumbedita, Neliar-Pekod, Mahuza, etc.,
each with its peculiarities as to dialect, weights, and
measures (Beza 29a, ‘Er. 2%). One of the canals re-
ferred to above was called “the Jewish” (Nalir al-
Yaliudi; M. Streck. “Die Alte Landschaft Babylo-
nien, ” i. 42, Leyden, 1900). From Slierira’s “ Letter, ”
p. 40, it appears that Bassora was in a different dis-
trict from Babylon (Bagdad). Many Baby Ionian cities
are repeatedly mentioned in Jewish works, though
the term “Sawad” (for Babylon) is never used by
Jews, who prefer the old name “Babel,” just as the
Arabs employ “ Babil. ” Some scholars have endeav-
ored to discern “ Al-Irak.” one of the Arabic names
for Babylonia, in Targ. Yer. upon Gen. x. 6, and I
Cliron. i. 8 (“ Monatssclirift,” xxxix. 55). This name
is probably intended in “Toledot Alexander” ted. J.
Levi, “ K°bez,” ii. 8), and is certainly meant in “ Pe’er
lia-Dor,” No. 225 (“ Irak is Bagdad and its vicinity”),
and in numerous other works.

In view of the undoubted fact that the Jewish in-
habitants of Babylonia were of purer racial extrac-
tion than the Jews of Palestine, the former considered
themselves, especially after the fall of Jerusalem, as
the genuine Israel, and their differing traditions and
customs as of higher authority than those of the

405

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Babylonia

home country. Indeed, these differences were inten-
sified and cherished. The Babylonian Talmud re-
peatedly contains the remark, “ This is our [Baby-
lonian] custom ; theirs [the Palestinians'] is different ”
(see Kid. 296). Such expressions as
Opposition “here” and “yonder,” “in the east,”
to and “ in the west, ” are employed to
Palestine, specify differences of usage. The lat-
ter expressions are particularly rife as
applied by the Masoretes to the verification of the
Biblical text and comparisons of variant readings;
but are likewise applied to minor differences of ritual
and legal custom, especially in the time of the Geo-
nim— differences which a modern scholar has enu-
merated to the number of seventy-three (J. Muller,
“Hilluf Minhagim ”). Of a different nature are the
variations between the Babylonian and Jerusalem (or
Palestinian) Talmuds, known already to the Geonim,
who, of course, always preferred “our Talmud ” (the
Babylonian), and accordingly transplanted the study
of the latter to Europe, where it became the domi-
nant authority for modern Judaism in general.

But this independence of Palestine and Palestinian
authority was not achieved by Babylonian Judaism
all at once: it came about gradually. Thus, the ex -
ilarch R. Huna I., as many others, no doubt, before
and after him, was buried in Palestine at his own re-
quest (Yer. Ket. xii.35«); while, later on, it was main-
tained that in this respect Babylon must be consid-
ered as theequal of Palestine (Ket 111a). “Just as
one should not leave Palestine to live in Babylon,
so one should not leave Babylon to dwell in other
lands,” ran a modest saying ; but afterward the pop-
ular axiom was, “Who lives in Babylon, lives the
same as in Palestine” (ib.); indeed, it soon became,
“To leave Babylon is to transgress a precept ” (ib.
1106). Huna, principal of the Pumbedita Academy,
is credited with the utterance, “Since Rab came
hither, we of Babylon have constituted ourselves in
matters of divorce the peers of those in Palestine ”
(Git. 6a). Learned intercourse between both coun-
tries was maintained by many amoraim traveling to
and fro, as, for instance, Dimi and Zei'ra. Baby-
lonian scholars rightfully ranked themselves higher
than their Palestinian colleagues, not, however, with-
out incurring the ridicule of the latter for so doing
(Zeb. 15a). R. Zei'ra is said to have fasted a hun-
dred days in order that he might forget the Baby-
lonian Gemara (B. M. 85a), and R. Jeremiah always
speaks of the “stupid Babylonians” (Yoma 57a).
The Mishnah (Yoma vi. 4) mentions a particular in-
stance of coarseness on the part of the Babylonians.
They were accustomed to eat something raw which
the Palestinians only ate cooked (Bezah 16a). It
was declared to be improper to entrust the oral
tradition to men of Nebardea, or, according to an-
other reading, to the Babylonians at all (Pes. 626).
Scholars in Palestine were called “Rabbi,” whereas
in Babylonia they were styled “Rab,” possibly a
difference of dialect only. In Babylonia, finally,
people spoke more correctly and with sharper in-
tonation than in Palestine.

At a period when Hebrew was still spoken in Pal-
estine— at least in scholarly circles — the people in
Babylonia had already adopted Aramaic, owing to
the proximity of the Aramaic-Syriac districts. Hillel

is expressly stated to have spoken a Babylonian Ar-
amaic or Targum dialect (Ab. R. N. xii., p. 55, ed.

Schechter). This dialect, of which the
Language. Babylonian Talmud is the chief liter-
ary monument, was closely related to
the tongue of the natives, such as the Mandaeans speak
to-day. Persian never became the vernacular of the
Babylonian Jews: a few words only were borrowed
from it; more, perhaps, than from the Greek (Le-
vias, “ A Grammar of the Aramaic Idiom ... in the
Babylonian Talmud,” pp. 3, 237, Cincinnati, 1900).
Rabbi Joseph (fourth century) asks: “Why do we
speak Aramaic in Babylon? It should be either the
holy language [Hebrew] or Persian ” (Sotah 496) — an
utterance which shows that the Jews did not speak
Persian. There are, of course, hundreds of Persian
— or, more correctly, Pahlavi — words in Babylonian
texts; and the amoraim of the first and second gen-
erations, like Raband Judah, frequently intermingle
Persian words in their utterances. Nevertheless, the
proportion of Persian vocables in the Jewish Baby-
lonian idiom is not so great as some (for instance,
Koliut, in his “Arucli Completum,” and Schorr, in
“He-Haluz,” viii.) maintain. The Jewish incanta-
tions (see below) are Aramaic, and the Geonim render
their responsaonly in Aramaic, even during the Ara-
bic period, as Sherira’s and Hai’s writings prove.
But, of course, Arabic was then the ruling idiom,
and Saadia — not a born Babylonian, it is true — calls
the Aramaic “ the language of the fathers ” (com-
ment. on the “Sefer Yezirah,” text, p. 45); it was,
therefore, no longer a living language. Hebrew, of
course, was retained in a measure, as everywhere, by
the Jews; and the Karaites especially wrote mainly
in Hebrew. Pethahiah, the traveler, was rejoiced to
find that Aramaic was closely related to Hebrew.

Although Babylonia, or Irak, was largely popu-
lated by Jews, the population was still a mixed one,
and in the course of time the non-Jew-
Non- ish population grew to be in the ma-

Jewish jority. The uncultivated Parthians
Population, could, of course, exercise no religious
influence upon the Jews; but it was
otherwise with the Persians, and it is still a moot
point to-day to what extent Judaism, both Biblical
and post-Biblical, was influenced by Zoroastrianism.
In Palestine it was acknowledged that the names of
the angels (see Angelology) were of Babylonian
origin (Gen. R. xlviii. 9), and were adopted in the
Parthian period. In this direction in general the
Jews were strongly influenced by Zoroastrianism
(Koliut, “Ueber die Judisclie Angelologie und Dii-
monologie in Hirer Abhiingigkeit vom Parsismus,”
Leipsic, 1866 ; Stave, “ Einfluss des Parsismus auf das
Judenthum,” Haarlem, 1898). Talmud and Midrash
speak very often of the Persians. Naliman, presi-
ding judge at the court of the exilarcli, was well
versed in Persian law (Shebuot 346) ; and a Persian
document is mentioned (Git. 196; compare B. M.
108a). The Persians were acute enough to prize the
Jewish Law : a Jewish soldier found a Hebrew copy
of it in the Persian treasury (Sanh. 976). Persian
trousers, a characteristic garment, are, according to
some, mentioned several times (‘Ab. Zarali 26; Meg.
11a; Kid. 72a). Interesting, too, is the mention
of the Persian festivals (Yer. ‘Ab. Zarali i. 39c),

Babylonia

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

406

and of the fact that the Persians kiss each other upon
the hand, and not upon the mouth (Tan., ed. Buber,
iv. 110). It was only the Magi — wrongly called
“Guebers” — who, as Noldeke rightly explained,
were contemptuously called “ magicians ” (“ haberim”
or “habrin ”) by the Jews, who hated and persecuted
the latter. The Mandaeans, however, chiefly resi-
ding in southern Babylonia, also felt deep hatred
against the Jews (W. Brandt, “Die Mandaische Re-
ligion,” Leipsic, 1889; Lagarde,“Mittheilungen,” iv.
143 ; Jewish sources contain nothing upon this point).
Besides these, there were Arabs living in the land or
on its borders (Niddah 4 7a, Kid. 72«), called also
Ishmaelites or Nabataeans: intercourse with them,
related as they were to the Jews, must have been
amicable.

But all this changed when the Arabs became mas-
ters of the country ; by them all the inhabitants who
were not Moslems were treated with contempt, if
not with cruelty. The Christians experienced this
more sharply than the Jew’s (in the predominantly
Jewish district Nehardea, there were no Christians
in olden times ; Pes. 56«). The constitution of the
Nestorian Church had for the Arabs great similarity
to that of the Jews with their exilarchs and heads of
academies. Hai Gaou had friendly intercourse with
the Catholicus of the Nestorians. Strange to say,
the only one of these nationalities to exert a detri-
mental influence upon Judaism wras Mandaeism, to
which many of the superstitions and the belief in
magic, found throughout the Talmud, must un-
doubtedly be ascribed. Evidences of
Their this are the magic bowls used in corn-
influence. mon by both Jews and Mandaeans.

Layard first found them (“ Discover-
ies,” p. 509). since which they have repeatedly been
encountered; and the American Nippur expedition
unearthed a great number of them (Stubbe, “Jli-
discli-Babylouische Zaubertexte,” Halle, 1895, p. 8;
Lidzbarski, “Epliemeris fiir Semitische Epigra-
phik,” 1900, p. 89; “ Amer. Journal of Archeology,”
1900, iv. 482). The illustration of one of these bowls,
given on page 402, is from the “ Revue des Etudes
Juives.” Arabic influence wras undoubtedly much
more powerful; but this confined itself to the field
of science, and did not intrude upon religion.

Babylonia was always a fertile country, yielding
produce of every kind. Both Jewish and non- Jewish
writers describe its wealth of date-palms (Pes. 875 et
seq.)\ cedars are said to have been brought thither
from Palestine (Lam. R. i. 4). The
Commerce locust (insect) is also said to have been
and Trade, imported thence (Yer. Ta‘au. iv. 695).

Olive-oil, however, was lacking; its
place being supplied by sesame-oil (Sliab. 26a).
Linen was widely manufactured (Ta'an. 295); and
there was a special Babylonian purple material (Gen.
R. lxxxv. 14; Tan., Mishpatim 17), well know’n in
commerce under the name of “ Babylonicum.” These
fabrics (Pandects xxxiv. 2, 25) w’ere brought by the
Jew’s to Alexandria (Isaac Voss upon Catullus,
p. 196). The Jews evidently contributed to Baby-
lonia’s foreign commerce, which in the earliest days
was centered in Seleucia and Ctesiphon. In later
days, when Bagdad rose to prominence, markets had
already been held there (Streck, l.c. p. 52) — of course,

with the assistance of Jews (Kohut, “ Arucli.” vi. 10)
— and there wras a special Jew’ish quarter there, with
a “Jews’ Bridge ” (Yakut, iv. 1045, 11 — see Bagdad).
To-day trade is still mainly in the hands of the Jews
in these localities, as, for instance, in Bassora (Ritter,
“ Erdkunde,” x. 180). Their industry made the Jews
rich, especially in Mahuza (Gutschmid, “Kleiue
Schriften, ” v. 677). There were no laws in Babylonia
in restraint of commerce (Git. 585) ; but, devoted as
they w’ere to trade, the Jews did not shrink from
such lowly occupations as that of canal-dredging;
indeed, the Babylonian Talmud mentions all kindsof
handiwork as having been followed by Jew’s, and
even by distinguished scholars among them. Their
connection with agriculture is not quite so clear, al-
though it is quite certain that there were farmers
among them. The Talmud mentions the interesting
fact that the Palestinian Jews gave one-third of their
yearly offering (“terumah”) “for Babylon, (Media,
the distant provinces, and all Israel” (Yer. Shek.
iii. 47c). There was no stone in Babylonia (Midr.
Teh. xxiv. 10); bricks were, therefore, used for
building, and Jew’s were employed in their manu-
facture.

The Jews are reported as having erected handsome
synagogues and colleges ; the pillars of the college
at Pumbedita being particularly praised (‘Er. 225).
The learned of Babylonia dressed more elegantly
and were prouder in demeanor than those of Pales-
tine (Sliab. 1455). The climate wTas healthful, so that
it was said that there was no leprosy in Babylonia
(Ket. 775).

History : The earliest accounts of the Jews

exiled to Babylonia are furnished only by the scanty
details of the Bible ; certain not quite reliable sources
seek to supply this deficiency from the realms of
legend and tradition. Thus, the so-called “Small
Chronicle” (Seder ‘Olam Zutta) endeavors to pre-
serve historic continuity by providing a genealogy
of the Princes of the Exile (“Reshe Galuta”) back
to King Jeconiali ; indeed, Jeconiali himself is made
a Prince of the Exile (Neubauer, “Medieval Jew.
Chronicles,” i. 196). The “ Small Chronicle’s ” state-
ment, that Zerubbabel returned to Palestine in the
Greek period, can not, of course, be regarded histor-
ical. Only this much can be considered as certain ;
viz., that the descendants of the Davidic house oc-
cupied an exalted position among their brethren in
Babylonia, as, at that period, in Palestine likewise.
At the period of the revolt of the Maccabees, these
Palestinian descendants of the royal house had emi-
grated to Babylonia, to which an obscure notice by
Makrizi (in De Sacy, “ Glirestomathie Arabe,” i. 100)
probably refers (Herzfeld, “Gescli. des Volkes Yis-
rael,” ii. 396).

It was only with Alexander’s campaign that accu-
rate information concerning the Jews in the East
reached the western world. Alexander’s army con-
tained numerous Jews who refused, from religious
scruples, to take part in the reconstruction of the
destroyed Bcltts temple in Babylon (Josephus,
“Contra Ap.” i. 22). The accession of Seleucus
Nicator, 312 b.c., to whose extensive empire Baby-
lonia belonged, w’as accepted by the Jews and Syr-
ians for many centuries as the commencement of a
new era for reckoning time, called “minyan slieta-

407

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Babylonia

rot,” oera contractvum, or era of contracts (see ‘Ab.
Zarali 10a, and Rapoport, “‘Erek Milliu,” p. 73),
which era was also officially adopted by
Greek the Parthians. This so-called “ Greek”
Period. era survived in the Orient long after
it had been abolished in the West
(see Sherira’s “Letter,” ed. Neubauer, p. 28). Nica-
tor’s foundation of a city, Seleucia, on the Tigris is
mentioned by the Rabbis (Midr. Teh. ix. 8); while
both the “ Large ” and the “ Small Chronicle ” con-
tain references to him. The important victory which
the Jews are said to have gained over the Galatians
in Babylonia (II Macc. viii. 20) must have happened
under Seleucus Calliuicus or under Antioclius III.
The last-named settled a large number of Babylonian
Jews as colonists in his western dominions, with the
view of checking certain revolutionary tendencies
disturbing those lands (Josephus, “Ant.” xii. 3, § 4).
Mithridates (174-136) subjugated, about the year
160, the province of Babylonia, and thus the Jews
for four centuries came under Parthian domination.

Jewish sources contain no mention of Parthian in-
fluence; the very name “Parthian” does not occur,
unless indeed “ Parthian ” is meant by
Parthian “ Persian, ” which occurs now and then.
Period. The Armenian prince Sanatroces, of
the royal house of the Arsacides, is
mentioned in the “ Small Chronicle ” as one of the
successors ( diadoelioi ) of Alexander. Among other
Asiatic princes, the Roman rescript in favor of the
Jews reached Arsaces as well (I Macc. xv. 22); it
is not, however, specified which Arsaces. Not long
after this, the Partho-Babylonian country was trod-
den by the army of a Jewish prince; the Syrian
king, Antioclius Sidetes, marched, in company with
HyrcanusL, against the Parthians; and when the
allied armies defeated the Parthians (129 b.c.) at the
River Zab (Lycus), the king ordered a halt of two
days on account of the Jewish Sabbath and Feast of
Weeks (Josephus, “ Ant.” xiii. 8, £ 4). In 40 b.c. the
Jewish puppet-king, Hyrcanus II. , fell into the hands
of the Parthians, who, according to their custom,
cut off his ears in order to render him unfit for ruler-
ship. The Jews of Babylonia, it seems, had the in-
tention of founding a high-priesthood for the exiled
Hyrcanus, which they would have made quite inde-
pendent of Palestine (Josephus, “Ant.” xiv. 13, § 9;
ib. “B. J.” i. 13, § 6). But the reverse was to come
about: the Palestinians received a Babylonian, Ana-
nel by name, as their high priest (“ Ant.” xv. 2, § 4),
which indicates the importance enjoyed by the Jews
of Babylonia.

In religious matters the Babylonians, as indeed the
whole diaspora, were in many regards dependent
upon Palestine. They went on pilgrimages to Jeru-
salem for the festivals, and one. whose full name is
given in Mekilta on Deut. (xiv. 23, ed. Hoffmann),
brought first-fruits of his land to Jerusalem (Hal. iv.
11); but this case was not permitted to constitute a
precedent. Sherira himself, although strongly biased
in favor of his own home, acknowledges that when
the Sanhedrin and the colleges were flourishing in
Palestine, neither existed in Babylonia; which fact
would seem to warrant the inference that the Baby-
lonian Jews must have sent to Palestine for religious
instruction, as, for instance, in the case of Hil lei.

According to the “Small Chronicle,” however, the
exilarchs at this period already had their court-
scholars. How free a hand the Parthians permitted
the Jews is perhaps best illustrated by the rise of the
little Jewish robber-state in Nehardea (see Anilai
and Asinai). Still more remarkable is the conver-
sion of the king of Adiabene to Judaism (see Adia-
bene). These instances show not only the tolerance,
but the weakness of the Parthian kings. The Baby-
lonian Jews wanted to fight in common cause with
their Palestinian brethren against Vespasian; but it
was not until the Romans waged war under Trajan
against Parthia that they made their hatred felt
(Eusebius, “Hist. Eccl.” iv. 2); so that it was in a
great measure owing to the revolt of the Babylonian
Jews that the Romans did not become masters of
Babylonia too. Philo (“Legatio ad Cajum,” § 36)
speaks of the large number of Jews resident in that
country, a population which was no doubt consid-
erably swelled by new immigrants after the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem. Accustomed in Jerusalem from
early times to look to the east for help (Baruch iv.
36, 37; Pseudo-Solomon, Ps. 11), and aware, as the
Roman procurator Petronius was, that the Jews of
Babylon could render effectual assistance, Babylonia
became with the fall of Jerusalem the very bulwark
of Judaism. Rabbi Akiba’s journeys to Nehardea
(Yeb., end) and Gazaka (Gen. R. xxxiii. 5) were un-
doubtedly connected with preparations for revolt
(Rapoport, in “Bikkure ha-Tttim,” 1823, p. 70), and
it is a fact that Jews of the diaspora enrolled them
selves under Bar Ivokba (“Gola,” in Saadia ibn
Danan, in “Pe‘er ba-Dor,” No. 225); while it is un-
doubtedly erroneous when in the “ Yuliasin” (ed. Lon-
don, 245 b) it is maintained that Bar Kokba waged
war with the Romans in Mesopotamia: this can be
only a reminiscence of the struggles under Trajan.
The Bar Kokba disaster no doubt added to the num-
ber of Jewish refugees in Babylon.

In the continuous struggles between the Parthians
and the Romans, the Jews had every reason to hate
the Romans, the destroyers of their sanctuary, and
to side with the Parthians, their protectors. Possi-
bly it was recognition of services thus rendered by
the Jews of Babylonia, and by the Davidic house
especially, that induced the Parthian kings to ele-
vate the princes of the Exile, who till then had been
little more than mere collectors of revenue, to the
dignity of real princes (F. Lazarus, in Brull’s “Jalir-
biicher,” x. 62). Thus, then, the numerous Jewish
subjects w'ere provided with a central authority
wThich assured an undisturbed devel-
Resh opment of their own internal affairs.

Galuta. It is in this period that the first certain
traces of the dignity of the prince of the
Exile are found; and the first-named resli galuta is
Nahum or Nahunya. About the year 140 of the
common era, Hanauiali, nephew of R. Joshua, mi-
grated to Babylonia before the Bar Kokba war, and
founded a college in Nehar-Pekod (compare “ Pekod ”
in Jer. 1. 21; called in other places “ Nehar-Pekor,”
probably after the celebrated Parthian general Pa-
korus). Upon the overthrow of the insurrection
and interruption of communication with Palestine,
Hananiali set about arranging the calendar, which
hitherto had been the exclusive prerogative of the

Babylonia

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

408

Palestinian patriarch ; possibly lie even meditated the
erection of a new temple. This spirit of independ-
ence must certainly have been gratifying to the resli
galuta ; but when the Palestinian Sanhedrin sent two
messengers to Babylon with the sarcastic suggestion
that Ahijah (the resli galuta) should build another
altar and that Hananiah should play the harp there-
to, the remonstrance sufficed to bring the people to
their senses again, and to nip the dangerous schism
in the bud. This episode made such a strong im-
pression upon the public mind that there are several
accounts of it (Ber. 63a; Yer. Ned. 40 a; Yer. Sanli.
19a). Judah b. Batliyra, who had a college in Nisi-
bis, also influenced Hananiah to give up his inten-
tion ; nevertheless, the college of the latter was still
recognized in Palestine as authorized (Sanli. 324).
Nathan, a son or brother of the exilareh, was vice-
president of the Palestinian Sanhedrin at this time.
From this period on, instances are numerous of tal-
ented Babylonians attaining high esteem in Palestine.
The Babylonians were well aware of their preemi-
nence; and a Babylonian amora thus expressed him-
self concerning it: “When the Torah was forgotten
in Israel, Ezra came from Babylon and restored it;
when forgotten again, Babylonian Hillel came and
rehabilitated it; forgotten once more, R. Hiyya and
his sons came and reestablished it” (Suk. 20a). This
rather boastful utterance ignores the fact that both
Hillel and Hiyya, although Babylonians by birth,
gained their knowledge in the Palestinian colleges.
The fact that Abba Arika (commonly called “ Rab ”),
a nephew of Hiyya, studied in Palestine, led to re-
markable results for the Babylonian Jews; for Rab
was the intimate friend of the last Parthian king,
Artaban IV. (209-226).

The Persian people were now again to make their
influence felt in the history of the world. Artax-
erxes I. (Ardeshirl., son of Babek; the full name
appears in Abraham ibn Daud, ed. Neubauer, p. 60)
destroyed the rule of the Arsacids in the winter of
226, and founded the illustrious dynasty of the Sas-
sanids. Different from the Parthian
Sassanid rulers, who in language and religion

Period. inclined toward Hellenism, the Sas-
sanids intensified the Persian side of
life, favored the Pahlavi language, and restored with
zeal the old religion of the Magi, founded upon fire-
worship, which now, under the favoring influence
of the government, attained the fury of fanaticism.
Of course, both Christians and Jews suffered under
this ; but the latter, dwelling in more compact masses,
were not exposed to such general persecutions as
broke out against the more isolated Christians. The
attitude of the first Sassanid, Ardeshir I., toward this
movement is not clear. Gibbon (“Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire,” ch. viii.) narrates that Ar-
deshir persecuted both Christians and Jews, and ad-
duces Sozomen, book ii. , ch. i., as authority; this
passage, however, refers only to Christians. Against
the statement, also, is the evidence of Ibn Daud that
in Ardesliir’s days the Jews and Persians loved each
other, as also in the days of King Sapor.
Ardeshir I. S. Cassel believes that the Jews were
favored by the Persians; and Graetz
knows of no persecution under Ardeshir. There is,
however, in the “ Small Chronicle ” — although not

in its proper place— a statement that “the Persians
obtained dominion in the year 245 after the destruc-
tion of the Jerusalem Temple, and instituted a per-
secution of the Jews.” The passage in “ Yuhasin”
(ed. London, 93a) sets this event in the period of the
exilareh Neliemiah, in the year 175 after the Destruc-
tion. Far from being declared erroneous (Lazarus, in
Briill’s “ Jahrbuclier,” x. 95), this statement deserves
full confidence, but the year should read “165” in-
stead of “ 175 ” ; that is, the year 233 of the common
era, seven years after the inauguration of Persian
power. Certain Talmudical accounts, belonging to
the period, corroborate this; thus, R. Kahana says:
“ Hitherto the Persians [Parthians] permitted Jews
to exercise capital punishment ; but now the Persians
do not permit it” (B. K. 117a). The Jews were no
longer appointed to the wardenship of the canals
(“ reshe nahare ”), nor to offices of the court (“ gezir-
pati”; Persian, liazar paili ; Greek, a^apanarelc),
which, however, the Jews regarded as an advantage
(Ta'anit 20a); canal-wardens, who were also tax-
collectors, being held in such dread (as is graphically
described in Sanli. 254) that the Jews were glad to
be relieved from the duty. A prison-warder is men-
tioned (“zandukna,” Ta‘anit 22a), but he was prob-
ably in the employ of the exilareh. When the news
was brought to R. Johanan, the most esteemed amora
in Palestine, that the Guebers (in the Talmud, “ Ha-
brin”) — meaning the Magi — had overrun and con-
quered Babylonia, he swooned away in sympathy
for his Babylonian brethren; but on being revived
he reassured himself with the thought that the con-
querors were open to money inducements (Yeb. 634).
Difficulties were put in the way of the Jews in
such matters as the slaughtering of cattle for food,
and as to their bathing-places and cemeteries, which
were subject to intrusion (ib.). On certain Persian
holy days, the Guebers would not permit any light
in the houses of the Jews (Sanli. 744; compare Shei'l-
tot di R. Aliai, § 42); they made no exception even
in a case of sickness (Git. 17a). Such an instance
happening in his own family, Rabba bar bar Hana
is said to have exclaimed, “All-merciful God! either
under Thy protection, or, if not, under the protec-
tion of Esau [Rome].” That this utterance was op-
posed to another, by R. Hiyya, who ascribed it to
God’s especial providence that the Jews found refuge
from Rome in Babylonia, was explained by the re-
mark that the evil times in Babylonia commenced
only with the Guebers (ib.). The patriarch Judah II.
was informed that the Parthians resembled the
armies of King David, but that the New Persians
were like demons of hell (Kid. 72a); and it was in
these armies that the Jews, although possibly a little
later, had to render military service (Sanli. 974; MS.
Munich, however, has 'on [Rome] for D"lB).

All these things must have taken place under the
vigorous Ardeshir. How powerful was the impres-
sion made b}' him upon the fancy of the Jews, may
be gathered from the so-called Apocalypse of Eli-
jah (ed. Jellinek, in “B. H.” iii. 66; ed. Butten-
wieser, Leipsic, 1897), which most probably refers
to Ardeshir’s war against the Romans (“Jew. Quart.
Rev.” xiv. 360). To his campaign in 230 the ob-
scure statement of the Latin author Solinus must
be referred, that Jericho was destroyed by “ Artax-

409

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Babylonia

erxes” (Th. Reinacli, in the Koliut Memorial Vol-
ume, pp. 457 et seq.). The schismatic Mani,
founder of Maniclieism, appeared at this time: his
execution (doubtless because Maniclieism exerted
some influence upon Judaism) under Shabur is men-
tioned by Ibn Daud (p. 61).

It was, however, before the accession of the Sas-
sanids that, the powerful impetus toward the study
of the Torah arose among the Jews of Babylonia
which made that country the very focus of Judaism
for more than a thousand years. An exact date may
be 'determined: Sherira and those dependent upon
him (compare “Seder Tannaim we-Amoraim,” in
the version of the Mahzor Vitry, p. 482) set as the
date of Rab’s return from Palestine the year 530 of
the Seleucid era ; that is, 219 of the common era, or,
according to Ibn Daud ( l.c . p. 57), the year of the
world 3979. It would seem that Palestinian scholar-
ship had exhausted itself with the compilation of the
Mishnali; and it was an easy matter to carry the
finished work to Babylonia. When Rab returned
thither, there was already an academy at Nehardea
under the leadership of an obscure R. Shila, who
bore the title “resh sidra.” Upon the
Academies death of the latter it was but natural
Founded, that the much more eminent Abba
Alika — whose distinction is indicated
by the title of “ Rab ” — should become head of the
school. But, in his modesty, Rab resigned the acad-
emy at Nehardea to his younger countryman Sam-
uel, while he himself founded a similar institution
in Sura (known also by the name of an adjacent
town, Mata Mehasya). Nehardea, a long-estab-
lished seat of Jewish life in Babylonia, first attained
flourishing eminence through this prominent teacher,
Mar Samuel ; and when, with the death of Rab (247),
the splendor of Sura vanished, Nehardea remained
for seven years the only academy (“metibta”) in
Babylonia. From this period on, the history of the
Jews in Babylonia, hitherto obscure, becomes quite
clear (see Academies in Babylonia).

The mass of tradition zealously preserved in the
Babylonian academies furnishes a series of dates and
facts which illuminate their life. The resh galuta
about this time appears to have been Mar ‘Ukba, or
Nathan ‘Ukban (c. 210-240); the chief judge was a
certain Kama ; while Rab held the much more troub-
lesome than brilliant official position of an “ agora -
nomos” (Yer. B. B. v. 155). Although even Rab
himself had to endure harshness at the hands of the
exilarcli’s officers, from this time on it

Sapor I. would appear that theexilarchs, in ac-
cordance with the prevailing spirit of
veneration for learning, began to devote themselves
to the acquisition of knowledge as well as of power,
approaching thus the example of the Palestinian
patriarchs. King Sapor I. (240-271) favored Samuel
with such a degree of intimacy that the latter was
sometimes called “ King Sapor ” and “ Ariocli ” (friend
of the Arians; see Kid. 39 a; Shab. 53a), and the
people generally spoke of him with respect as “ the
Jewish sage ” (Shab. 129a). But Samuel, too, liked
the Persians. He was the author of the celebrated
saying, “ The law of the land is the law to go by ”
(B. B. 545), referring, of course to civil matters; and
even when his king, in the exigencies of war, felt

himself compelled to slaughter twelve thousand
Jews at Mazaga (Caesarea), in Cappadocia, Samuel
was ready to defend him (M. K. 26a). Under Sapor
began the bitter contest with the Romans for pos-
session of the rich lands of the Euphrates, so thickly
populated by Jews. R. Johanan aptly remarked
concerning these struggles that “Holwan, Adiabene,
and Nisibis are the three ribs which the prophet
Daniel describes as being held in the mouth of the
beast, sometimes crunched and sometimes dropped ,r
(Kid. 72«; see Dan. vii. 5). The Persians pene-
trated to the very heart of the Roman territory, until
Odenath, prince of Palmyra, moved against them
and took their booty from them (261). Several Tal-
mudic passages speak of a ceitain Papa bar Nazor,
who is identified by Cassel and Graetz with Ode-
nath, while Noldeke (l.c. p. 22, note 2) makes him
a brother of Odenath. Zenobia, wife of Odenath,
is quite distinctly referred to in the Talmud. Ac-
cording to non Jewish writers, Odenath only pene-
trated as far as Ctesiplion; while Jewish sources-
(Sherira, the “ Small Chronicle ” and the “ Seder Tan-
naim ”) refer to the calamity of the destruction of
Nehardea by Papa bar Nazor. Samuel was then
no longer alive; his daughters were taken prisoners;
and his disciples fled to Shekanzib, Shellii, and Ma-
l.iuza; Nehardea ceased to be the principal focus of
Jewish life, although its academy still continued in
existence. Many rabbis also escaped to Pumbedita,
which city now became the seat for a thousand years
of the most celebrated Babylonian Jewish college
next to Sura.

The Jews then enjoyed, it would appear, half a
century of repose; not too long a respite for the
enormous intellectual work going on. By Christian
writers the Jews are accused without warrant of
having instigated the slaughter of twenty -two bish-
ops by Sapor II. (310-382) as part of his antagonism
to the Christian predilection for Rome (Sozomen ii.
8; Burckliardt, “Die Zeit Constantins des Grossen,”
2d ed., 1880, p. 90). The “Small Chron-
Sapor II. icle” narrates that when Huna was.

exilarch, and Rabbah chief of the acad-
emy, Sapor went against Nisibis and conquered it.
A persecution of the Jews is mentioned as taking
place in 313 (Theophanes, ed. De Boor, p. 25); but.
Sapor was at that time still a child. Rabbah b. Nali-
mani, the head of the academy at Pumbedita (died
331), fell a victim to persecution. The charge was.
made against him that the 12,000 disciples who
assembled twice a year for the usual public study
(“kallah”; see Academies in Babylonia) did so
merely to avoid paying the tax (see B. M. 86a).
Rabbah fled and perished miserably, lost in a place
called Agma (swamp?) (see Sherira, l.c. p. 31). His.
successors, R. Joseph the Blind and Raba (who fol-
lowed Abaye), enjoyed the favor of the queen-
mother Ifra Hormiz (B. B. 8a, 105; Ta'anit 245;
Niddah 205; Zeb. 1165) ; which did not, however, pre-
vent Raba from being imprisoned upon a baseless
charge (Ber. 56a). Rabbah and, still more, his pupils
Abaye and Raba are considered as the founders of
the acute Talmudic dialectics practised in Pum-
bedita. After the short presidencies of R. Joseph
and Abaye, the renowned Raba became the head of
Pumbedita ; in his days it was the only remaining

Babylonia

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

410

academy in Babylonia; for Sura had ceased to exist.
R. Papa, however, presently founded a new school
in Naresli near Sura, which later on was removed to
that city, where, under R. Aslii, it attained to high
eminence.

In the vigorous war which the emperor Julian
waged, and in which Mesopotamia and Babylonia
proper were involved, it is probable that the Jews,
in spite of the friendly attitude of the Roman ruler,
sided with their own sovereign. A small town,
Birta — called Bitlira by Sozomen (iii. 20) — was de-
serted by its inhabitants, who were Jews, and in
retaliation the Romans burned the pla. e. The same
fate befell the more important city Firuz Shabur
(Pyrisabora), which also possessed a large Jewish
population; Maliuza, too, near Ctesiphon, Raba’s
birthplace and the seat of his academy, was also laid
in ashes, together no doubt with many other towns in
which Jews dwelt. There were probably no other
enduring results of this Roman campaign, for Jew-
ish records mention none. Julian honored the Jews
in Haran (Cliarrse), when, on a visit there, he wit-
nessed the mysteries (Bar-Hebrae us, “Chronicum
Syriacum,” ed. Kirsch, i. 65).

Of Sapor’s successors, Yezdegerd I. (397-417,
Justi; 399-420, Nbldeke) was at least not hostile to
the Jews. The fact that the heads of
Yezdegerd the academies, Amemar of Nehardea,

I. Mar Zutra of Pumbedita, and Ashi of
Sura, were rudely handled by the

king’s seneschal while waiting for audience in the
palace (Ket. 61a, according to Rapoport’s amended
reading in “‘Erek Millin,” p. 35, and ‘Aruk), does
not certainly indicate a very great degree of friend-
liness. The Huna b. Nathan, whose girdle Yezde-
gerd adjusted with a few flattering words — a polite
attention which was highly valued even by the emi-
nent R. Ashi (Zeb. 19a) — was no doubt the exilarch
of that date, Graetz to the contrary notwithstanding.
This incident probably took place in this monarch’s
earlier years ; later on he became a strong religious
fanatic, and in 414 ordered a bloody persecution of
the Christians. It may have been the king’s inten-
tion that the exilarcliate should gradually lose its
political importance, for the Talmud (Git. 59a) re-
lates that Huna b. Nathan subordinated himself to
R. Ashi ; while Sherira adds thereto the information
that the “rigle,” the public festivities given by
the exilarch, were transplanted to Mata Mehasya
(Sura), the home of R. Ashi. This would show that
Nehardea had ceased to be the residence of the resli
galuta, and that Sura had become the political cen-
ter of Jewish Babylonia. With R. Ashi, who united
in his person both rank and learning (Sanli. 36a), the
position of the principal of the academy attained
almost equal eminence with that of the exilarch.

Bahrain (Yaranes) V. (420-438) left the Jews in
peace; it is probably to his time that Tlieodoret (ii.
264) refers when he says that Babylonia was popu-
lated with Jews (Lagarde, “Mitthei-
Bahram V. lungen,” iv. 145). His successor Yez-
Yezdegerd degerd II. (438-457) instituted a perse-

II. cution of the Jews which transcended
in cruelty all that they had hitherto ex-
perienced in Iran, and was a forerunner of still severer
sufferings. In the year 456 (in which both the prin-

cipals of the Sura Academy, R. Nahman b. Huna and
R. Rehumai [or Nehumai] of Pumbedita, died), the
king issued a decree forbidding all observance of the
Sabbath. His early death prevented further perse-
cution. The Jewish chronicles relate that he was
swallowed by a serpent, upon the prayer of the heads
of the academies. Mar b. R. Ashi and R. Zoma.
Rapoport did not question the authority of this Jew-
ish source; but new discoveries show that, accord-
ing to the local tradition, this sudden death in reality
befell Yezdegerd I. , and that only the Jews attributed
it to their persecutor, Yezdegerd II. The persecu-
tion was probably instigated by the Magi ; the Chris-
tians and Manicheans having been persecuted five
years earlier (“Revue Etudes Juives,” xxxvi. 296).
To this period is to be referred Amemar’s discussion
with a Magus (Sanli. 39a).

Yezdegerd ’s second son and successor, Firuz, or
Perozes (459-486), continued the persecution on a
larger scale. The Jews of Ispahan were accused of
having flayed two Magi alive (Hamza, ed. Gott-
waldt, p. 56) ; and one-half of the Jewish population
were slaughtered and their children delivered over
to the fire-worshipers. But in Babylonia too the
persecution gained foothold; Firuz “the wicked”
(Hul. 62&) put the exilarch Huna Mari, son of Mar
Zutra I., to death ; and the Jews, coming under im-
mediate Persian domination, underwent a year of
suffering, 468, which in the Talmud is called “ the
year of the destruction of the world ” (see Briill,
“ Jalirb.” x. 118). From this year to 474 a series of
violent acts followed, such as the destruction of
synagogues, prohibition of the study of the Law, the
forcible delivery of children to the Fire
Firuz. Temples, the imprisonment and exe-
cution of Amemar b. Mar Yanuka
and Meshershiya. The destruction of Sura (Sliab.
11a) possibly also took place at this time. Mal.izor
Vitrv (p. 483) states that Firuz suffered a violent
death (result of an earthquake?) in 483, or, more cor-
rectly, 486. In 501 Rabina died, the last of the
Amoraim ; succeeding teachers were called Sabo-
raim. The compilation and editing of the Baby-
lonian Talmud, begun by R. Ashi, were completed
by Rabina, though the Saboraim may also have
worked upon it. The reduction of the traditional
legal material to writing — previously
The forbidden— originated no doubt in the

Talmud, anxiety caused by the continually
increasing persecution: it was no
longer safe to confine this prized material to the oral
traditions of the academies; it must be set down
permanently in writing for posterity. Another
remarkable result of these persecutions was the
emigration of Babylonian and Persian Jews to India
under Joseph Rabbau.

The reign of Balasli (Vologeses) was uneventful
for the Jews; but the long sway of Kobador Kawad
(490-531 ; according to Noldeke, 488-531) brought
mournful developments. About 501 appeared Maz-
dak, the founder of Zendic-ism, whose socialist doc-
trine of community of property and wives must
have aroused horror among both Christians and
Jews. All indications show that Mazdak was of
Irak origin, seeing that his doctrines made most
headway there. Zendicism must have made exist-

411

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Babylonia

ence unbearable, especially for the Jews, who were
jealous of the purity of their family life. King
Kobad, to break the pride of the Per-
Balash and siau nobles, embraced the new religion,

Kobad. and, although deposed by them, he re-
mained a devotee of the new faith.
Fortunately, the Jews had at that time an energetic
exilarch, Iluna VI., who succeeded to some extent in
protecting his coreligionists against this evil. But
when he died in 508, his nephew Pahda was ap-
pointed to the exilarcliate during the minority of his
son ; he was, however, eventually removed by the
king through the exertions of Mar Hanina, the head
of the academy (about 551). Judaism in the interval
seems to have been close-pressed by Zendicism ; and
accordingly the new exilarch, Mar Zutra II., a grand-
son of Mar Hanina, gathered around him an armed
band of four hundred men for the defense of Jewish
family life. He succeeded in maintaining his inde-
pendence for seven years, collecting revenue even
from the non-Jewish population of Irak. Active
measures by the king put an end, at length, to the
little Jewish state: Mar Zutra, onl}r twenty-two
years of age, was crucified (520) on the bridge of Ma-
huza, his capital: and his infant son, Mar Zutra III.,
was carried to Palestine, where he became Archi-
pherecites. Kobad introduced an additional land-
tax, and all Jews and Christians between the ages
of 20 and 50 wrere subjected to a poll-tax (Justi, l.c.
p. 370), no doubt after Roman example. Kobad’s
army serving against the Byzantines contained a
number of Jews, who were allowed to desist from
active operations on the Passover (Bar-Hebraeus, l.c.
p. 85).

The century between Kobad and the appearance
of the Arabs is destitute of historical record. In the
Babylonian Talmud, the latest date mentioned is
the year 521 (Sanli. 975); see “Me’or ‘Enayim,”43;
Zuuz, “G. V.” 2d ed., p. 56. From this time on,
there are extant only accounts of individual sages,
the Saboraim, and these only scantily. Mention is
made of R. Rehumai, R. Jose, R. Alia of Be Hatim,
near Neliardea, Rabai of Rob, and others; they all
died early, as Slierira expressly remarks. Rabai was
reckoned as one of the Geonim, the title of “ Gaon ”
being henceforth borne by the head of the Academy
of Sura, and later also by that of the Academy of
Pumbedita. The Saboraim continued to teach un-
disturbedly under Kobad and Cliosroes Anushirwan
(531-578), a ruler beloved both by Per-
Chosroes sians and Arabs, and who showed a
Anu- friendly attitude toward the Jews. It
shirwan. was in his time that the Christian sect
of the Nestorians spread in Persia, as
mentioned also by Jewish sources (Jellinek, “B. H.”
vi. 13). Under Hormiz IV. (578-590) “the end of
the Persian rule,” as Slierira says, persecutions oc-
curred again ; the academies ■were closed ; and many
rabbis of Pumbedita migrated to Firuz Shabur, near
Neliardea, because this latter city was under Arab
rule ( c . 581). The Jews, accordingly, favored the in-
surrection led by Baliram Tshubin, asTlieopliylaetus
Simocatta relates (vol. vii., p. 218, ed. Bonn). The
legitimate ruler, Cliosroes Parwez (590-628). was
able to maintain his right to the throne of the Sassa-
nids, and the Jews were at liberty to resume their

academic activities without being punished for hav-
ing sided with the rebel. In the war which this king
made upon the Byzantines, his general Shahr-Barz
captured Jerusalem (615), and, it appears, handed
over the Christians to the mercies of the Jews. Thus,
for the last time, the Jews stood in intimate rela-
tions with the Persians; with the downfall of the
latter ends likewise the brilliant era of the Jews in
Babylonia.

The first expression of Mohammedanism toward
other faiths was one of intolerance and narrowness.
It was an essential feature of Moslem state policy
that Jews and Christians, no less than Zoroastrians,
must be warred against until they paid tribute. In
addition to a poll-tax (“jizyah”), the tax upon real
estate (“ kharaj”) was instituted; indeed, first in Irak,
and later on among the Jews (A. Muller, “Der
Islam," i. 272). The first calif. Abu
Arab Bakr, sent the famous warrior Halid

Period. against Irak; and a Jew, by name
Ka'ab al-Alibar, is said to have fortified
the general with prophecies of success (Weil, “Gesch.
der Clialifen,” i. 34). The Jews may have favored
the advance of the Arabs, from whom they could ex-
pect mild treatment. Some such services it must
have been that secured for the exilarch Bostauai the
favor of Omar I., who awarded to him for a wife
the daughter of the conquered Sassauid Cliosroes II.
as Theophanes and Abraham Zacuto narrate. Jew-
ish records, as, for instance, “Seder lia-Dorot,” con-
tain a Bostauai legend which has many features in
common with the account of the hero Mar Zutra II.,
already mentioned. The account, at all events, re-
veals that Bostauai, the founder of the succeeding
exilarch dynasty, was a man of prominence, who re-
ceived from the victorious Arab general certain high
privileges, such as the right to wear a signet-ring, a
privilege otherwise limited to Mohammedans. Omar
and Othman were followed by Ali (656), with whom
the Jews of Babylonia sided as against his rival
Mo'awiyali. A Jewish preacher, Abdallah ibn Saba,
of southern Arabia, who had embraced Islam, held
forth in support of his new religion, expounded Mo-
hammed’s appearance in a Jewish sense, and, to a
certain extent, laid the foundation for the later sect
of the Shiites. Ali made Kufa, in Irak, his capital,
and thither went Jews who had been expelled from
Arabia (about 641). It is perhaps owing to these
immigrants that the Arabic language so rapidly
gained ground among the Jews of Babylonia, al-
though a greater portion of the population of Irak
were of Arab descent. The capture bv Ali of Firuz
Shabur, where 90.000 Jews are said to have dwelt,
is mentioned by the Jewish chroniclers. Mar Isaac,
chief of the Academy of Sura, paid homage to the
calif, and received privileges from him.

The proximity of the court lent to the Jews of
Babylonia a species of central position, as compared
with the whole califate; so that Babylonia still con-
tinued to be the focus of Jewish life. The time-
honored institutions of the exilarcliate and the gaon-
ate — the heads of the academies attained great
influence — constituted a kind of higher authority,
voluntarily recognized by the whole Jewish dias-
pora. But unfortunately exilarclis and geonim
only too soon began to rival each other. A certain

Babylonia

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

412

Mar Yanka, closely allied to the exilarcli, persecuted
the rabbis of Pumbedita so bitterly that several of
them were compelled to flee to Sura (Sherira, l.c. p.
35), not to return until after their persecutor’s death
(about 730). “ The exilarchate was for sale in the

Arab period ” (Ibn Daud) ; and centuries later, Sherira
boasts that he was not descended from Bostanai.
In Arabic legend, the resh galuta (ras al-galut ) re-
mained a highly important personage ; one of them
could see spirits (Goldziher, in “Revue Etudes
Juives,” viii. 127); another is said to have been put
to death under the last Ommiad, Merwan ibn Mo-
hammed (745-750).

Messianic hopes were nurtured by external op-
pression. The Ommiad calif, Omar II. (717-720),
persecuted the Jews. He issued orders to his gov-
ernors: “Tear down no church, syna-
Omar II. gogue, or fire-temple ; but permit no
new ones to be built ” (Weil, l.c. i. 583).
A pseudo-Messiah, called Serenus by Graetz, but
probably named Severus (see Bar-Hebnrus, “ Chroni-
con Syriacum,” p. 123; Payne Smith, “Thesaurus
Syriacus,” col. 2549), appeared in Syria (about 720);
his adherents were received back into Judaism on
the decision of the gaon Natronai b. Nehemiah of
Pumbedita (Responsa, “Slia'are Zedek,” Nos. 7-10).
Another Messiah, Obadiah Allah abu-Isa, took up
arms in Ispahan ; but the strong house of the Ab-
bassids, which attained 'sovereignty about this time
(750), soon put an end to the Messiah “across the
river.” The sect of the Isawites, as also that of the
Yudghanites — called after their founder, Yudghan
(Judah) — and other small sects which appeared at
this time, all amalgamated in Karaism.

Karaism owes its origin to a struggle for the suc-
cession to the exilarchate. Anan b. David, residing
probably in the recently founded (758) city of Bagdad,
and therefore inclined to the free views of life cur-
rent at the court of the calif Almansur, was passed
over in an election for exilarch : he thereupon pub-
licly renounced (762) Rabbinism altogether and
founded the sect of the Karaites (see
Karaism. Anan b. David). Ten years later,
again owing to dissensions, the ex-
ilarch Natronai b. Habibai was compelled to emigrate
to Africa (773). Isaac Iskawi II. (about 800) re-
ceived from Harun al-Rashid (786-809) confirmation
of the right to carry a seal of office (see Lazarus, in
“Brull’s Jahrbueh,” x. 177). At the court of the
mighty Harun appeared an embassy from the em-
peror Charlemagne, in which a Jew, Isaac, took part
(Pertz, “Monumenta Germanise Historica,” i. 190,
353). Charles (possibly Charles the Bald) is said to
have asked the “ king of Babel ” to send him a man
of royal lineage; and in response the calif despatched
R. Makir to him (“ Yuhasin,” 846); this was the first
step toward establishing communication between the
Jews of Babylonia and European communities. Al-
though it is said that the law requiring Jews to
wear a yellow badge upon their clothing originated
with Harun (Weil, l.c. ii. 162, note 1), and although
the intolerant laws of Islam were stringently en-
forced by him, the magnificent development which
Arabian culture underwent in his time must have
benefited the Jews also; so that a scientific tend-
ency began to make itself noticeable among the

Babylonian Jews under Harun and his successors,
especially under Al-Ma’mun (813-833).

Like the Arabs, the Jews were zealous promoters
of knowledge, and by means of translations of the
Greek and Latin authors contributed essentially to
their preservation. They took up religio-philosoph-
ical studies (the “ kalam ”), siding generally with the
Motazilites and maintaining the freedom of the
human will (“ kadr ”). The sects mentioned above
also accepted this doctrine. In opposition to the
enlightenment of the Motazilites, however, there
arose at this period a system of mysticism : Joseph
b. Abba, who taught at the Academy of Pumbedita,
was a mystic, claiming intercourse with Elijah.
In addition to the religious differences among the
Rabbinites, there was continuous strife with the
Karaites, who wished to have a certain Daniel, a
Karaite, appointed exilarch, while the Rabbinites in-
sisted upon David b. Juda (825). As the calif Al-Ma’-
mun, who had to regulate similar quarrels among the
Syrian Christians, gave his decision in such a manner
as to show that he washed his hands of the whole
matter, the candidate of the Rabbinites had no diffi-
culty in asserting himself. Such episodes could not
but ultimately contribute to the complete downfall
of the influence of the exilarchate. Some mysteri-
ous event compelled the Babylonian Abu Aaron, son
of the prince Samuel, to emigrate to Europe (about
876, under Charles the Bald), where he imparted a
mystic prayer-formula of the Babylonians (“ Revue
Etudes Juives,” xxiii. 230; see Aaron ben Sam-
uel ha-Nasi).

The government meanwhile accomplished all it
could toward the complete humiliation of the Jews.
All non-believers — Magi, Jews, and Christians — were
compelled by Al-Mutawakkil to wear a badge ; their
places of worship were confiscated and turned into
mosques; they were excluded from public offices,
and compelled to pay to the calif a tax of one-tenth of
the value of their houses (about 850; Weil, l.c. ii. 354).
An utterance of the calif Al-Mu‘tadhel (892-902)
ranks the Jews, as state servants, after Christians
(Assemani, l.c. iii. 1, 215). How insignificant the ex-
ilarchate had become is shown by the fact that Ukba,
one of the best of the exilarchs, was deposed after
a long rule by a gaon, Cohen Zedek of Pumbedita
(917); this is reported by a contemporary, Nathan the
Babylonian, who has transmitted many valuable
facts relating to this period (preserved by Zacuto, in
“Yuhasin”). On the other hand, the
Decline of geonim of Pumbedita, because their

the Exil- district embraced the capital, Bagdad,

archate. soon attained equal rank with their
colleagues of Sura. The gaon of Sura,
Mar Amram, had distinguished himself by the form
of prayers (“siddur”) which he sent to Spain; but
the brilliant period of the literary activity of the
Geonim was inaugurated by Zemali b. Paltoi I. (872-
890), of Pumbedita, fragments of whose Talmudic
dictionary are still extant. Nahshon of Sura left a
key to the calendar system, thus marking a depar-
ture from the strict field of Talmudism, hitherto the
only department studied by the Geonim. In addi-
tion, an entire series of geonim left responsa to vari-
ous religious questions that came to them from the
whole diaspora.

413

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Babylonia

After an interval of a few years, a nephew of the
deposed Ukba, David b. Zakkai (920-940), was made
exilarch, and Cohen Zedek II, was forced to recog-
nize him. Foiled as this ambitious Pumbeditan
thus was in regard to the exilarchate, he was in ad-
dition compelled to witness the rise and development
of the Academy of Sura, also strongly opposed by
him, but which under Saadia reached a point of un-
precedented splendor. Saadia, who had been called
to Sura from Egypt because there was no scholar
of sufficient Talmudic authority there, had already
made himself famous by his translation of the Bible
into Arabic, and by his commentary upon it. His
activity as gaon of Sura (928-942) was even more
meritorious than this accomplishment. His battles
with the Karaites form but one side of the general
polemic activity which ruled at this time in Irak
among the professors of the various religions. There
was a Parsee controversy (“shikand
Saadia. gumanik Vijar”) against Jews and
Christians in the ninth century (Dar-
mesteter, “Rev. Et. Juives,” xviii. 4). Sabaryeshu,
a Jacobite presbyter of Mosul in the tenth century,
waged a discussion with a Jewish sage (Assemani,
l.c. iii. 1, 541; compare Steinsclineider, “Polemisclie
Literatur,” p. 85); and Mohammedan writers like
Al-Kindi were continuous in their attacks, from the
ninth century on, against Jews and Christians alike
(Steinsclineider, l.c. p. 112). Two califs, Al-Mukta-
dir and Kaliir, interfered in the disputes between
the exilarchate and the gaonate, with the result that
both institutions suffered in influence. David had
successfully maintained himself against his brother
Joshua, whom Saadia had declared exilarch, and
had thereafter made friends with the gaon, who
had in the interval been banished to Bagdad. He
left a son, Judah, to succeed him; but he ruled only
seven months. Saadia then took affectionate charge
of Judah’s infant son, until the latter was slain
in a Moslem riot. The exilarchate had to be sus-
pended (about 940) until quieter times permitted its
artificial revival. There are some faint traces that a
certain Hezekiah, a grandson of David’s son Judah,
was exilarch for a time; but, according to other au-
thorities, he was only gaon of Pumbedita — a post
which, with his violent death in 1040, also passed
away after an existence of 800 years.

The Academy of Pumbedita flourished for a cen-
tury longer. Aaron ibn Sargado, a wealthy mer-
chant of Bagdad and an opponent of Saadia, acted
as gaon of Pumbedita (943-960) and very effectively.

Of less importance was Nehemiah, son of Cohen
Zedek ; but in Sherika (968-1000) and his son Hai
or Haia, the Jews of Babylonia possessed two incum-
bents of the gaonate who shed unrivaled brilliancy
upon their office. Yet both these respected digni-
taries found themselves the victims of calumnious
representations made to the calif Al-
Sherira Kadir, probably through the iustru-
and Hai. mentality of scholars who felt them-
selves slighted. The two geonim were
for a time imprisoned, but ultimately were set at
liberty, and the now aged Sherira resigned his office
in favor of Hai, who discharged the duties of the
gaonate until 1038. Upon his death the above-men-
tioned Hezekiah ruled for two years longer and

with his murder the gaonate of Pumbedita came to
an end.

The gaonate of Sura was extinguished less sud-
denly. About 970 a certain R. Jacob b. Mordecai is
said to have written to the Jewish communities on
the Rhine on the matter of a false Messiah (Mann -
lieimer, “Die Juden in Worms;” p. 27); this is,
however, considered to be a fabrication. The last
gaon of Sura was Samuel b. Hoplini, the father in-
law of Hai; he was distinguished for his literary
activities. When he died in 1034. the gaonate of
Sura retrograded more and more, until at last it ex-
pired quietly and unnoticed.

A special intervention of Providence, according to
Ibn Daud, was arranged in order that Babylonian
learning should be transplanted to Europe. Four
scholars, sent to the West to gather funds for the
academies, were captured on the Mediterranean by
an admiral of the calif of Cordova; and after many
experiences these four became the founders of rab-
binical academies in Alexandria, Kairwan. Cordova,
and perhaps Narbonne. Babylonia thus lost its cen-
tral importance for Judaism: it was, however, re-
placed by the rising communities of Spain, whither
the two sons of the unfortunate Hezekiah above
mentioned had also migrated.

This forms an appropriate point at which to con-
sider the general influence of Babylonia upon Euro-
pean Judaism. Luzzatto (“ HebrUische Briefe,” p.
865) thus, in substance, describes it : The West re-
ceived both the written and the oral Law from
Babylonia. Punctuation and accentuation were be-
gun in Babylonia ; so also the piyyut,
Babylonian rime, and meter. Even philosophy

Influence had its origin here : for the frequently
on mentioned but little-known David ha-

Judaism. Babli or Al-Mukammez. who lived be-
fore Saadia, is the oldest known Jewish
philosopher. The greatest if not also the earliest
payyetan, Eleazar Ivalir, of the eighth century, was
apparently a Babylonian. It is true indeed, adds
Luzzatto, that heresy is also a Babylonian product;
for, in addition to the Karaites, Hiwi al-Balki, Saa-
dia’s opponent, was a Persian — in a broader sense a
Babylonian. [The Talmudic usage survived for a
long time of calling all Western Jews (“ nia’arbaye ”)
“Palestinians” and all Eastern Jews (“madinhaye ”)
“ Babylonians. ”] One peculiarity of the Babylonians,
however, made no headway among the Jews of other
lands : this was the system of supralineal punctuation
(see Pinsker,“Einleitung in das Babylonisch-Hebrit
iselie Punctuationssystem ”), called the Babylonian
or Assyrian, and said to have been invented by the
Karaite, R. Alia of Irak (see Margoliouth. in “Proc.
Soc. Bibl. Archaeology,” 1893, p. 190). To Baby-
lonian literary activity, in addition to the Babylo-
nian Talmud, must be ascribed possibly the Targum
Onkelos, together with some Midrashic works (“ Rab-
bot”). “ Ilalakot Gedolot,” and the well-known works
bearing the names of the geonim Alia of Sliabha,
Amram, Saadia, Sherira, Hai, Hoplini, and others.
Babylonian learning, always great from Rail’s time,
expressed itself in independent works only to-
ward the close of the period, and then disappeared
altogether.

Babylonia, however, still continued to be regarded

Babylonia

Bacau

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

414

with reverence by the Jews in all parts. Elclad,
who in the ninth century traveled extensively from
Africa, notes that the Jews of Abyssinia placed “ the
sages of Babylon ” first in their prayers for their
brethren of the diaspora (Zemah Gaon, in Epstein,
“Eldad ha-Dani,” p. 8); and a simi-
Middle lar prayer, }p"iD Dip’, although it has
Ages. quite lost its application, is extant to-
day in many congregations. R. Pal-
tie] of Cairo contributed one thousand gold pieces to
the schools of Babylonia (“ Medieval Jewish Cliron.”
ii. 128), in accordance, no doubt, with a custom prev-
alent in all places where Jews dwelt. In 1139 Abra-
ham ibn Ezra was in Bagdad, and the exilarcliate
had possibly been restored at that time (see his com-
mentary on Zecli. xii. 7). Toward the end of the
twelfth century, both Benjamin of Tudela and Pe-
tliahiah of Regensburg gave a description of Baby-
lon; Judah al-Harizi’s journey was somewhat later.
Benjamin found seven thousand Jews in Mosul on
the Tigris opposite ancient Nineveh, and at their
head was R. Zakkai, of Davidic descent; he found
also R. Joseph Burj al-Fulk, court astronomer of
the Seljuk sultan Saifeddin. Petliahiah (“ Travels,”
London, 1856) found there two “ nesi’im ” (princes) of
the house of David. Other inhabitants paid a gold
dinar to the government, but the Jews paid one-half
to the government and the other to the two princes.
In another passage ( l.c . p. 20) Petliahiah says that
every Jew in Babylonia paid a poll-tax of one gold
piece to the head of the academy (of Bagdad?); for
the king (calif) demanded no taxes. The Jews in
Babylonia lived in peace. Passing through many
places which counted two thousand, ten thousand,
and even fifteen thousand Jewish inhabitants, Ben-
jamin reached Bagdad, the residence of the calif.
At this time the calif (Emir al-Mumemin) was con-
sidered only as the spiritual head of the state ; the
functions of government proper were exercised by
the Seljuk princes. “The calif,” says
Benjamin Benjamin, “ is kindly disposed toward
of Tudela. Israel, and reads and speaks our holy
tongue.” In Bagdad there resided
about a thousand Jews, and there were ten colleges,
which he enumerates, all under a president of their
own. At the head of all stood the exilarch Daniel
b. Hisdai. This shows that the exilarcliate must
have been restored, and, to judge from Benjamin’s
further description, it had lost but little of its former
splendor. Petliahiah mentions only one academy in
Bagdad and but a single presiding officer; he knows
nothing of an exilarch. The inroad of the Mongo-
lians seems to have wrought havoc in Bagdad ; and
the only large congregation known to Al-Harizi
(Makama 12, 18, 24, 46) was that of Mosul. Pass-
ing through the city of Babylon, Benjamin reached
a place inhabited by twenty thousand Jews, where
the house of the prophet Daniel was shown.

Both travelers recount many legends and popular
traditions concerning Daniel’s grave in Susa (see
Cambridge Bible, Daniel, p. xxi.), Ezekiel’s syna-
gogue, and the graves of individual Talmudists — tra-
ditions which survive to-day in great measure there,
but which evidence considerable superstition on
the part of the Babylonian Jews, a failing they
share, however, with their Mohammedan neighbors.

Al-Harizi sings of Ezekiel’s grave in his 53d ma-
kama; Niebuhr saw the grave in 1765, and was as-
sured that even then many hundred Jews annually
visited it (Ritter, l.c. x. 264). Benjamin went to Kufa,
where seven thousand Jews dwelt, and visited also
the academic cities, Sura and Pumbedita; in ruined
Nehardea, Petliahiah found a congregation, and in
the celebrated Nisibis there were then eight hundred
Jews. He relates that the “ nasi ” of Damascus re-
ceived his ordination from the academic head of
Babylonia, so that this country was still predominant
in the minds of the Jews of the Moslem world. The
gaon of Bagdad, Samuel b. Ali ha-Levi, did not hes-
itate to oppose Maimonides publicly. Two hundred
years later, about 1380, there lived in Babylonia a
prince, David h. Hodayali, who took up the cause of
a German rabbi, Samuel Sclilettstadt; this prince
traced his descent, not from Bostanai, but from the
Palestinian patriarchs (Coronel, “ Commentarii Quin-
que,” p. 110, Vienna, 1864). There was likewise an
exilarchate in Syria under the Eg3rptian sultan in
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with its seat
at Damascus; the exilarch Yishaof Damascus (1288)
joined hands with the exilarch David of Mosul and
the rabbinical authorities of Babylonia — that is, Bag-
dad— in opposing the anti-Maimonists (“Hemdah
Genuzah,” p. 215; “Kerem Hemed,” iii. 170).

Temporary commotion was caused in the life of
the Jews of the califate by the appearance of David
Alroy, who called himself in his Messianic capacity
by the name of Menahem b. Solomon.

The califate hastened to its end before the rising
power of the Mongolians. These heathen tribes
knew no distinction, as Bar Hebrseus remarks, be-
tween heathens, Jews, and Christians; and their
grand mogul Cubalai showed himself just toward
the Jews who served in his army (Marco Polo, book
ii., ch. vi.). Hulagu, the destroyer of the califate
(1258) and the conqueror of Palestine (1260), was
tolerant toward both Jews and Christians; but there
can be no doubt that in those days of terrible war-
fare the Jews must have suffered much with others.

Under the Mongolian rulers, the priests
Mongolian of all religions were exempt from the

Period. poll-tax ; and it is not true when Mo-
hammedan writers deny that the Jews
possessed the same privilege (Vambery, “Gescli.
Buchara’s,” i. 156, Stuttgart, 1872). Hulagu’s sec-
ond son, Ahmed, embraced Islam, but his succes-
sor, Argun (1284-91), hated the Moslems and was
friendly to Jews and Christians ; his chief counselor
was a Jew, Sa‘ad al-Daulah, a physician of Bagdad
(D’Ohsson, “Histoire des Mongoles,” book iii., ch.
ii., p. 31; Weil, “Gescli. der Islamitischen Vblker,”
p. 381). After the death of the great khan and the
murder of his Jewish favorite, the Mohammedans
fell upon the Jews, and Bagdad witnessed a regular
battle between them. Ghaikatu also had a Jewish
minister of finance, Resliid al-Daulah (Bar Hebneus, i.
632). The khan Gazan also became a Mohammedan,
and restored the so-called Omar Law (see above) to
full sway. The Egyptian sultan Nasr, who also
ruled over Irak, reestablished the same law in 1330,
and saddled it with new limitations (Weil, l.c. pp.
19, 398). Mongolian fury once again devastated the
localities inhabited by Jews, when, in 1393, Timur

415

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Babylonia

Bacau

captured Bagdad, Wasit, Hilleh, Bassora, and Tekrit,
after obstinate resistance (Weil, l.c. p. 427). After
various changes of fortune, Mesopotamia and Irak
came into the hands of the Osmans, when Sultan Su-
laiman II. in 1534 took Tebriz and Bagdad from the
Persians; and, with slight interruptions, Babylonia
has remained to this day under Turkish domination.

Tiiere is but scanty historical information availa-
ble concerning these latter centuries. The president
of a synagogue in “ Babylon ” (Bag-
Modern dad ?) brought home a scroll of the Law

Period. from Palestine to Bagdad in 1333 (Isaac
Clielo, in Carmoly, “ Itineraries ”).
The scroll belonging to the celebrated Moses b.
Asher is said to have been brought to Cairo by the
“ Babylonian ” Jabez b. Solomon, a Karaite, probably
in Turkish times (“Ibn Sapliir,” p. 145). Babylonia
thenceforth disappears from the history of Judaism.

Bibliography: J. Fiirst, Kultur- und Literaturgeschichte
der Juden in Asien, Leipsic, 1849 : A. Berliner, Beitrtige zur
Geographic und Ethnographic Bahgh mien's im Talmud
und Midrasch , Berlin, 1883; W. Baeher, Agada der Babg-
lonischen Amorder, Budapest, 1878; F. Lazarus, Die Hilup-
ter der Vertriebenen , in Briill’s Jahrblicher, x., Frankfort-
on-the-Muin. 1890; A. Kaminka, Die Literatur der Geo-
nisehen Zeit , in Winter and Wiinsche, Jtidische Literatur ;
S. Cassel, Juden, in Ersch and Gruber, Encyklopddie, series
ib, vol. xxvii.; Th. Nold.eke, Geseh, der Perser und Araber
zur Zeit. der Sassaniden, Leyden, 1879; F. Justi, Geseh, des
Allen Persiens, Berlin, 1879; G. Weil, Geseh. der Chalifen,
i.-iii., Mannheim, 1846, 1848, 1859; Ritter, Die Erdknnde,
vol. x., Berlin, 1843; I. H. Weiss, Geseh. der Jttdischen Tra-
dition, i.-iii., Vienna, 1871-1883.

G. S. Kr.

BABYLONIAN EXILE. See Captivity,
Babylonian.

BABYLONIAN PUNCTUATION or VO-
CALIZATION. See Punctuation.

BABYLONISH GARMENT. — Biblical
Data : An article of dress mentioned in connection
with the theft of Achan (Josh. vii. 21) during the
spoil of the captured city of Jericho. The connec-
tion would indicate that the garment was one of
considerable value. That a Babylonish garment
should have been found in Jericho is not at all
impossible, and points to commercial contact with
Babylonia which we know, from other sources,
began long before the days of Joshua. It is difficult
to determine the exact kind of garment meant by
the expression.

In Rabbinical Literature : Beresliit Rabbah

(lxxxv. 14) states that it was a purple robe, while
Josephus says it was made of gold. Two other
opinions are registered in the Talmud (Sanli. 44«).
Abba Arika says it was a robe made of fine wool,
while Samuel says that it meant a cloak made in
Zerifa (near Pumbedita ; Rashi: “ dyed with alum ”).
These opinions, however, do not conflict, but touch
upon different sides of the question — one, the ma-
terial; the other, the method of dyeing.

J. JR. G. B. L.

BACA, THE VALLEY OF: A valley men-
tioned in Ps. lxxxiv. 7 [6 A. V.]. Since it is there
said that pilgrims transform the valley into a land
of wells, the old translators gave to “Baca” the
meaning of a “ valley of weeping ” ; but it signifies
rather any valley lacking water. Support for this
latter view is to be found in II Sam. v. 23 et seq. ;
I Chron. xiv. 14 et seq., in which the plural form of

the same word designates a tree similar to the
balsam-tree; and it was supposed that a dry valley
could be named after this tree. Kbnig takes “ Baca ”
from the Arabian “baka’a,” and translates it “lack-
ing in streams.” The Psalmist apparently has in
mind a particular valley whose natural condition led
him to adopt its name.

J. JR. F. Bu.

BACAU : Capital of a district of the same name,
situated in the southwest of Moldavia, a division of
Rumania, with a population of 15,000, one-half of
whom are Jews. A census taken in 1876 enumerated
743 Jewish families at that time. The district con-
tains 150,000 inhabitants, of whom, according to the
official census of 1899, 15,667 are Jews. The com-
munity of Bacau is one of the oldest in Moldavia;
its cemetery contains inscriptions dating from the
beginning of the eighteenth century; there are no
traces of any older burial-ground. It worshiped in
a wooden synagogue which was destroyed by fire
in 1853, and had been popularly supposed to be sev-
eral centuries old. The present comm unit}' possesses
one synagogue, built in 1853, and twenty meeting-
houses, mostly in rented buildings. Two of the lat-
ter, however, possess small libraries and are called
“bet ha-midrash”; these buildings belong to the
community, one having been erected in 1838 and the
other in 1848.

As in all important communities in Moldavia,
Bacau has a “ vekil hakam-basha ” ; the last repre-
sentative of the “ liakam-basha ” of Jassy was Lupu
Baruch. The administration of the community was
in the hands of a committee of five, or seven, elected
by delegates from the synagogues. Its institutions
were supported by the revenues derived from the
Gabella, which served in lieu of all imposts payable
by the Jews to the state; later, however, an addi-
tional amount was imposed to pay for substitutes
in the army. From 1864 the tax was intermittent;
from 5 bani (1 cent U. S.), paid for each oca (kilo) of
meat and for every head of poultry at the commence-
ment of the nineteenth century, the tax rose to 25
bani (5 cents U. S.). Since 1850, the tax has furnished
a revenue of from 48,000 to 68,000 francs yearly.

Among the rabbis that have officiated at Bacau are
Isaac Botoschaner (1803-58), a man of strong char-
acter, a distinguished Talmudist, and

Rabbis. an opponent of Hasidism. A vault
has been erected over his grave where
a lamp is kept burning day and night, and the pious
pray as at the tomb of a saint. His successor, Alter
Ioines (1858-73), was likewise a distinguished Tal-
mudist, much beloved and of great influence.

The old Jewish society is the “ Hebrali Kaddishah ”
(burial society), which also cares for the sick ; it was
founded in 1871 and lasted until 1885, when the cem-
etery passed under the administration of the Com-
munal Committee. The “ Hebrali Talmud Torah ”
was founded in 1828 for the encouragement of study;
there were attached to it thirteen “heders,” two of
them for higher or Talmudic subjects, which have
survived until to-day. In 1851 a society for the study
of the Mishnah (Hebrali Mishnayot) was formed.
In 1868 the Dorintza Natiunei (The Nation’s Desire)
was established for purposes of charity, frater-

Bacau

Bacharach

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

416

nity, and education; for three years it maintained a
school on modern lines. The first modern school was
opened in Bacau in 18(53, but it was not maintained
longer than two years ; reopened in 1869, it was closed
again a little later, and again reopened; it num-
bers now between 200 and 300 pupils. Among the
benefactors of the community were Leib sin Iancu,
who in 1815 bequeathed it two houses, the revenues
from which were to be devoted to purchasing fire-
wood for the poor; Iancu Folticheneanu, who left a
house fora “hekdesli” (hospital), transformed later
into a shelter for Jews passing through the city'
(“haknasat orehim”) ; Phiueas Edelstein, who in the
first half of the nineteenth century left 500 ducats
for a hospital, which is still standing. The communal
bath house, said to be one hundred and forty years
old, was recently closed for sanitary reasons.

Jewish artisans were always numerous in Bacau.
In 1832 a society, Poale Zedek, was formed, com-
posed entirely of Jewish craftsmen, and in 1851a so-
ciety of Jewish shoemakers. There is not a trade
which the Jews of Bacau have not

Trades. followed or do not follow to-day ; the)'
were always the most skilful artisans,
notably as jewelers, tinsmiths (exclusively Jews),
lace-makers, wood-carvers, and manufacturers of
tobacco-pipes. The pharmacies of the place are con-
ducted by Jews only ; the first vaccinating physician
in the town was a Jew, who practised from 1828 to
1866. Among its best-known physicians were Zurach
Chan, who practised medicine before 1800; Dr. Tor-
•cenau, who was employed by the state from 1848 to
1866 ; Dr. Meisels, distinguished as a physician and
philanthropist, and Adolph Barder. At the present
time (1901) Bacau has six Jewish physicians. In the
world of music the orchestra conducted by Wolf
Lemisch, member of a highly gifted musical family,
enjoys a wide reputation. All branches of com-
merce are almost exclusively in the hands of the
Jews. In manufactures, too, they have occupied
themselves from the earliest days in various indus-
tries, such as distilling, brewing, wood-turning, and
the manufacture of wagons and lamps. The Jews
of Bacau are the principal, if not the exclusive, stew-
ards of estates, foresters, lake-wardens, and general
contractors of all kinds.

The accusation of ritual murder has also been
heard in Bacau; that of 1824 was attended with se-
rious consequences for the community, and that of
1838 had similar results. Since 1866, hatred of the
Jew has penetrated among Christian circles, and re-
peated disturbances have broken out.

The district of Bacau contains other large Jewish
communities, such as those of Tirgul-Ocna, Moi-
nescliti, Adjud, Caiutz, Pariucea, etc. In former
times the small villages also contained many Jews,
but they have been frequently expelled and live in a
state of poverty. The former town of Tirgul-Tro-
tush, near Tirgul-Ocna, has lately sunk to a village
owing to the departure of the Jewish population; its
cemetery contains tombstones dating back more than
140 years. The little town of Tirgul-Pariucea was
founded by Jews. The Jews of Oc-ua and Moineschti
were formerly well-to-do, but now they have fallen
into a state of utter penury.

Bibliography: S. D. Bimberg, Istnricvl Cnmmunitatei din

Bacau (manuscript); Dr. E. Scbwarzfeld, Crnnica Israelite,
in Rumania, in tfie Anuarul Pentru Israeliti, 10th year.

D. M. Schw.

BACCHIDES : Syrian general; friend of the
Syrian king Demetrius; and “ruler in the country
beyond the river ” — Euphrates. Demetrius sent him
in 161 b.c. to Judea with a large army, in order to
invest the recreant Alcimus with the office of high
priest (I Macc. vii. 8, 9). The peaceable Assideans
credulously expected friendship from him; but, con-
trary to oath and covenant, he cruelly slew sixty of
them (ib. vii. 16). Leaving Jerusalem, he made a
slaughter-house of Bezetli (Bethzeeha), and after
handing the country over to Alcimus, returned to
the king (ib. vii. 19, 20). When, however, another
Syrian army under Nicanor suffered defeat at the
hands of Judas Maccabeus (ib. vii. 26-50), Demetrius
again sent Baccliides and Alcimus to Judea, this
time with an army of twenty thousand infantry and
two thousand cavalry. At Eleasa (Laisa) he met
Judas, whose three thousand soldiers had dwindled
to eight hundred. Judas, though he put to flight
the right wing of the Syrian army commanded by
Baccliides himself, and pursued it to Azotus, was
totally defeated by the left wing, and killed (ib. ix.
1-18). Baccliides now established the Hellenists as
rulers in Judea; and the persecuted patriots (ib. ix.
25-27), under Jonathan, brother of Judas, fled be-
yond the Jordan. Baccliides came upon them there
on a Sabbath, and again suffered defeat, losing one
thousand men (ib. ix. 43-49). He returned to Jeru-
salem, and, in order to subdue the Jews, fortified not
only the Aero, but also Jericho, Emmaus, Beth-horon,
Beth-el, Thamnata (Timuatha), Pharathon, Tephon.
Beth-zur, and Gazara (ib. ix. 50-52). Soon after
Alcimus died, and Baccliides, having made a fruit-
less attack upon Jonathan, returned to the king. At
the instigation of the Hellenists, he moved a third
time against the Jews. Only after he had been
defeated several times by Simon, brother of Judas
and Jonathan, did he conclude an enforced treaty
of peace with Jonathan, and depart into his own
land (ib. ix. 58-73; Josephus, “Ant.” xii. 10, § 13;
xiii. 1).

The representation of Baccliides by Josephus
(“B. J.” i. 1, §§ 2, 3) as barbarous by nature, and the
statement that he was slain by Mattathias, are both
erroneous. In the Syriac translation of the Book of
the Maccabees, Baccliides, through an error in trans-
cription, is called “ Bicrius ” instead of “ Bacdius ” ;
and in the Jewish version of the Hanukah story
(“ Megillat Antiochus ”) he is called Bagris, or Bo-
gores (see Gaster’s edition of the Megillah); forms
corrupted, according to Bacher, from D,_03.

Bibliography : Sehiirer, Gescli. i. 168, 169 et ah: Gr&tz, Gesch.
der Juden, 4th ed., Iii. 2, 7, 13, 15 : Jellinek. B. H. i. 142, vi. 4;
Payne-Smith, Thesaurus Swiacus, col. 518: Rev. Et.Juives,
xxx. 218, note 6.

g. . S. Iyb.

BACH, EMILIE : Artist and journalist ; horn
at Neuschloss, Bohemia, July 2, 1840; died at Vienna
April 29, 1890. She was directress of the royal
school for artistic embroidery, and published on this
subject two works: “Muster Stilvoller Handar-
beiten fur Scliule und Haus,” in two volumes
(Vienna); “Neue Muster im Alten Stil.” Shecontrib-

417

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bacau

Bacharach

uted to many daily papers, such as the “ Neue Freie
Presse,” “Heimat,” “Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung,”
etc., and delivered many lectures on arts and handi-
crafts, most of which were published.

Bibliography : Eisenberg, Das Geistige Wien , p. 14.

s. I. Br.

BACH, JOSEPH: Hungarian rabbi; born in
1784; died at Budapest Feb. 3, 1866. After I. N.
Mannheimer, he was the first German preacher of a
Jewish congregation in Austria-Hungary. At Alt-
Ofen, his birthplace, he began to ground himself
early in life in the study of the Talmud. Without
the aid of a teacher he studied several foreign lan-
guages; after which he attended the University of
Prague, remaining there twelve years. Then he re-
turned to his native place, where he married the
daughter of a wealthy family, and settled down as a
merchant. It was not long, however, before he lost
his entire fortune and was left penniless. Destitute
of the means of subsistence, he was constrained to
accept a situation as teacher. From the position of
teacher of youth he rose to that of teacher of the
people at large, becoming in 1827 the spiritual ad-
viser of a large congregation. Bach, who had never
studied homiletics, and had never heard or read a
sermon, was appointed first preacher at the newly
organized synagogue of Pest, where he officiated for
over thirty years. Many of his sermons have been
published. An autobiography, with a preface by
Kayserling, was published by his son at Budapest
(u. d.).

s. M. K.

BACH, KARL DANIEL FRIEDRICH : Ger-

aman painter; born at Potsdam May, 1756; died at
Breslau April 8, 1829 (according to some sources in
1826). As his father was a merchant and an elder
( Landesaltester ) of the Brandenburg Jewry, Karl was
enabled to obtain from the Potsdam painter, A. B.
Kruger, his first instruction in the art of painting ;
later, through the influence of Colonel Guichard
(“Quintus Icilius”), he succeeded in entering the
Berlin Academy of Arts, and became intimately con-
nected with Lesueur, Chodowiecki, and Frisk. At
Bach’s instance life studies were introduced at the
Academy. Bach soon distinguished himself by skil-
fully executed copies of old works, and upon ar-

1 riving at Warsaw with Count Ossolinski in 1780,
achieved considerable success. Later he accom-
panied Count John Potocki on his travels; copied
paintings in Dlisseldorf; and was made member
of the local academy, Dec. 15, 1785. Thence he
went to Paris, and afterward to Italy, where he re-
mained for four years (1786-1792), studying at the
expense of his patron, Potocki, at first in Rome —
where he applied himself chiefly to the productions
of Raphael and Michelangelo — and subsequently
in Portici, where the antiquities of Herculaneum
held his attention. Elected member of the Academy
of Florence on Dec. 9, 1788, he visited Venice,
Vienna, and Berlin, at which latter place he exhibited
his productions— copies, for the most part, of works
of Italian masters. In 1792 Bach was appointed a
director and professor of the Breslau Art Academy ;
and on June 23, 1794, he became member of the
Academy of Berlin. Two years later, in conjunc-
II.— 27

tion with C. F. Benkendorf, he started a journal
called “Torso,” devoted to “ ancient and modern art ” ;
but after a short time its publication was discon-
tinued.

Bach has published: “Umrisse der Besten Kopfe
und Parthien nach Rafael’s Gemalden im Vatican
and “Anweisuug Scheme Formen nach Einer Ein-
fachen Regel zu’ Bildeu, fur Kunstler, Handwerker,
und Freunde des Schonen ” — each of which is a trea-
tise on art conceived in accordance with somewhat
old-fashioned academic traditions. Bach made use
of the etching-needle; and in his paintings lie chose
historical subjects, portraits, animals, and many
allegorical themes, all conceived in the spirit of the
epoch. Though not a very important figure in the
world of art, he rendered great service to the cause
of art in Germany by his helpful stimulation of
fellow-artists, and by encouraging and promoting
instruction in drawing, handicraft, etc. Bach died
a Christian proselyte.

Bibliography : J. F. A. De Le Roi, Gescli. tier Evan gel ischen
Juden mission, i. 56, Leipsic, 1899; Julius Me.ver, Alla.
Ktinstler-Lejciknn, il . , Leipsic, 1878; Allgemeine Deutsche
Biographic, i., 1875: Michael Bryan, Dictionary of Painters
and Engravers, i., London, 1886.
s. B. B.

BACHARACH : City in the Prussian govern-
ment district of Coblenz. On April 19, 1283, twenty-
six Jews were murdered there, among them the boy
Hezekiah, whose father, Jacob, had been killed at
Lorch in 1276. In 1287 the Bacharach Jews were
subjected to persecutions caused by the murder of
Werner, who was made a martyr of the Church.
This persecution has been described by Heine in his
“Rabbi von Bacharach.” In 1337 the mob, under
the leadership of Ar.mledek, attacked the Jews;
and in 1349, at the time of the Black Death, many
of them were slain. From 1365 to 1370 the counts
palatine took a number of foreign Jews under their
protection and permitted them to settle at Bacha-
rach; and in 1510 the permission was renewed. In
1722 only two Jewish families lived there, while to-
day (1901) the number of Jewish residents has in-
creased to forty-six.

Of the Jewish scholars of Bacharach, records of the
second Crusade (1146) mention Alexander ben Moses,
Mar Abraham ben Samuel, and Mar Kalonymus bar
Mordecai. These, with their households, sought ref-
uge in the castle of Stalileck, where they were killed.
Their remains were brought to Mayenceand interred
there. Among other scholars resident here may be
mentioned Ya’ir Hayyim Bacharach (seventeenth
century), the well-known author of the responsa
“ Haw wot Ya’ir,” and Elkan Levi Bacharach.

Bibliography: Salfeld, Martyrolngium des NUrnherger
Memorbuches. pp. 145, 338, 285 : LOwenstein, Gesch. der
Juden in der Kurpfalz, pp. 8-12, 27, 30, 157, 183, 254 ; Hehr.
Beriehte liber die Judenvervolgungen Wiihrend der
Kreuzzitge, Hebrew text, p. 61. transl. p. 191; Schudt,
Jiidische MerhivUrdigkeiten, i. 288.

g. A. F.

BACHARACH : A name frequent among Ger-
man Jews. From the twelfth, or at any rate from
the fifteenth century, the name Bacharach, in vari-
ous spellings — as Bacharach, Bachrach, Bach-
rich, etc. — is found among the Ashkenazim in all
parts of Europe. All individuals bearing the name
hardly form one family, for the name merely indi-

Bacharach
Bacharach, Jair

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

418

cates that, the family either derived its origin from
the city Bacharach in Rhenish Prussia, or that one
of its ancestors was at one time a resident of that
place (see on this point the Austrian law on the
names of the Jews, dated July 23, 1787, in Anton
Cramer, “ Vollstandige Gesetzessammlung fur die
Judenschaft in den Koniglichen Staaten,” pp. 248,
258, Prague, 1793).

The first mention of any Bacharach is that of
Samuel Bacharach CT'D) in 1175 (Solomon Luria,
Responsa, No. 29; Heilprin, “Seder ha-Dorot,” ed.
Maskileison, p. 211, Warsaw, 1878), but it is ques-
tionable whether the reading in this case is cor-
rect, as the words of Luria may mean, “Samuel in
the city “P33 of ”

The second mention of a scholar of this name,
Ephraim Gumprecht Bacharach of Frankfort-
on-the-Main, quoted by Moses Minz in the fifteenth
century (Responsa, No. 39), is less liable to doubt.
In the beginning of the sixteenth century there is a
Menahem Man Bacharach, rabbi in Worms (Re-
sponsa of Joseph ha-Kohen of Cracow, “Shefirit
Joseph,” No. 36; and Responsa of Moses Minz, Nos.
25, 37). In the Responsa of Moses Minz there is the
further mention of David, Asher (Anschel), and
Moses Bacharach. From the end of the sixteenth
cent ury the name Bacharach occurs more frequently
in western Germany. In Frankfort there is a Men-
del, son of Isaac Bacharach, who died there Aug.
23, 1599. His son Moses, a prominent member of
the congregation, died there Sept. 11, 1620. Moses’
son, Issachar Baer Gans Bacharach, a member
of the rabbinate, died Aug. 24, 1678. Issacliar’s son,
Naphtali Herz Gans Bacharach, endorses the
Responsa of Jair Hayyim Bacharach, but does not
mention that they are related, which goes to prove
that, though bearing the same name, they were not
of the same family. Naphtali died July 8, 1709.

The other Bacliarachs may be divided into two
families; of which the one is to be traced back to
Tobias ben Joseph Solomon Bacharach, who
died as a martyr in Rushony (Russia) Sept. 19, 1659;
while the other is distinguished by the great Tal-
mudist, Jair Hayyim Bacharach, of Worms. To
the former family belong Judah and his grandson
Jacob; to the latter, besides the three generations
of rabbis at Worms, Samuel (died 1615), Samson
(died 1670), and Jair Hayyim (died 1702); the lat
ter’s grandson, Michael, a famous Talmudist of
Prague, who died there Jan. 16, 1801 ; Baer Bacha-
rach, who died at Nikolsburg Sept. 12, 1806, and
was a great-grandson of Jair Hayyim. A brother of
Michael Bacharach was Me’ir, a Hebrew poet, who
died in Presburg Jan. 4, 1729. The descendants of
the latter abbreviated their name to Bacher, and
his great-grandson was the Hebrew poet, Simon
Bacher, the father of Professor William Bacher of
Budapest. The details in these genealogies can not,
however, always be verified, inasmuch as the con-
gregations did not keep official records of the
births and deaths, and as family traditions are not
very reliable, owing especially to the custom of na-
ming children after their grandfathers, from which
fact errors in identification easily occur. The fol-
lowing is an attempt to draw a family tree of the
two best-known Bacharach families:

Joseph Solomon Bacharach

Tobias, tbe martyr ol Rushony (died 1659)

Solomon in Tiktin

Nathan

Joehebed

1 1 1

Me'ir Tobias Samuel

1 1
Joseph ]

' 1

— i i

Solomon

Aryeh Lob

Isaac Israel

Jacob r

(d. 1809) Hj]lel Joshua Hiishl

Solomon

Isaac

Jacob

Joshua Hoshl

i r

r i

Mordeeai Phineas Selig

Solomon

Henoch Jehuda of

| '

Seinv

Jehuda

Aryeh Lob

(d. 1846)

Moses

Eliezer Henoch

(d. 1863)

Jacob (d. 1896)

II.

Low ben Bezalel (d. 1609)

Isaac ha-Kohen, m. daughter
(Abraham) Samuel (d. 1615), m. Eva (d. 1651)

(Moses) Samson (d. 1670)

Jair Hayyim Bacharach (d. 1702)

Samuel (d. 1739)

Me'ir (d. 1721)

Samson (d. 1721)

Isaac (d. 1756)

Dobruseh, m. Lob
Oppenheim

Hayye Sara, m. Gabriel
Bohrn (d. 1755)

Solomon

Gabriel

Baer* (d. 1806)

Emanuel Low (d. 1851)
Simha (d. 1851)

Samuel LOw (d. 1890)

Bibliography : Kaulmann, Jair Chajim Bacharach und
Seine Ahnen , Treves, 1894 ; Kaufmann, in Mnnatsschrift,
1899, pp. 37-48 ; Hock, Die Familien Prat fa, Presburg, 1892;
Eisenstadt-Wiener, Da'at Kedoshim, St. Petersburg, 1897-98,
where other sources are mentioned.

BACHARACH, ABRAHAM AARON B.
MENAHEM MAN (=AARON MANELES) :

Writer on religious subjects, and cantor of Posen,
hence known also as Aaron Hazzan ; flourished
during the seventeenth century. He was the author
of “Urim we-Tummim” (Enlightenment and Per-
fection), an exhortation to morality and piety, with
an appendix containing prayers (Amsterdam, 1653).

Bibliography: Steinschneider, Cat. Bndl. col. 702; Fiirst,
Bihl. Jud. p. 75; Zedner, Cat. Hehr. Books Brit. Mus. p. 29;
Benjacob, Ozar ha-Sefarim, p. 30.

L. G. I. Ber.

BACHARACH, ABRAHAM SAMUEL :

Rabbi; born about 1575; died in Gernsheim, grand

* It is not certain whether Baer was Isaac’s son or grandson.

419

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bacbarach
Bacharach, Jair

duchy of Hesse, May 26, 1615. He seems to have
come from tire city of Worms, but is first met with
at Prague, where, in 1600, he married Eva, the
granddaughter of the chief rabbi of Prague, Lowe
ben Bezalel. He was rabbi in Turbin, Kolin (Bohe-
mia), and in Polirlitz (Moravia) ; and was subse-
quently called to the ministry of the very important
congregation of Worms. One of the frequent riots
against the Jews, instigated by the gilds, caused him
to flee from the city. He died during exile, and was
buried in Alsbach. Bacharach was respected for his
learning and piety. He took a firm stand against
the rabbis of Frankfort, who arrogated to themselves
preeminence over all the other rabbis of Germany.
A few of his responsa were published by his grand-
son, Jair Hayyim, in the collected “ Hut ha-Shani ”
(Frankfort-on-tlie-Main, 1679). Bacharach was the
author of an essay on the Jewish calendar, a number
of apologetic works against Christianity, liturgical
poems, and casuistic treatises. Some of his works
are still extant in manuscript.

Bibliography: Kaufmann. Jair Chajirn Bacharach und

Seine Altnen , pp. 1-4, 16-22, 1896.

L. G. D.

BACHARACH, EVA: Hebraist and rabbinical
scholar; born at Prague about 1580; died in Sophia,
1651. She was the daughter of Isaac ben Simson ha-
Kohen, and through her mother, Vogele, grand-
daughter of the well-known rabbi of Prague, Lowe
ben Bezalel. Her brothers, Hayyim and Naphtali,
were also noted rabbis. As a daughter of such a
distinguished rabbinical family, she acquired a wide
knowledge of Hebrew and rabbinical literature,
and could often assist rabbis in solving textual diffi-
culties. Such erudition was quite uncommon among
Jewish women of that time, and the Memorbucli of
Worms makes special mention of it(“ Kobe? ’al-Yad,”
iii. 15, Berlin, 1887). In 1600 she married Abraham
Samuel Bacharach, with whom she subsequently
went to Worms, whither he was called as rabbi.
After his death on May 26, 1615, she returned with
her son Samson and her three daughters to Prague,
in order to devote herself to the education of her
children. Eva refused an offer of marriage from
Isaiah Horowitz, then rabbi of Prague, who was
about to emigrate to Jerusalem, although she longed
to be in the Holy Land. When her three daughters
were married, she followed her son Samson to
Worms, whither he had been called to take the
position of his father; and soon afterward, in 1651,
she left for Palestine. On the journey, Eva Bacha-
rach died at Sofia, where she was buried with great
honor. Her grandson, Jair Hayyim, called his work
in memory of her “Hawwot Yair,” which, in the
usual German pronunciation, might be understood
as “Eva’s Jair.”

Bibliography: Kaufmann, Bacharach und Seine Ahnen ,

1894, pp. 3, 23, 24, 27, 28 ; Eisenstadt-Weiner, Da' at Kcdoshim ,

pp. 215-217.

L. G. D.

BACHARACH, JAIR HAYYIM: German
rabbi; born at Leipnik, Moravia, 1639; died in
Worms Jan. 1, 1702. At the age of twelve he came
with his father, Samson, to Worms (1653), and two
years later married Siirlan, the daughter of Sussman
Brilin. Under Brilin and his son Isaac, Bacharach

continued his studies for seven years longer. In
1660 he received his rabbinical license from Mendel
Bass, rabbi of Frankfort-on-the-Main. He seems to
have been for some time rabbi of Mayenee. In 1666
he was made rabbi of Coblenz, but for a reason un-
known he was not reelected in 1669. The law of
Coblenz demanded (possibly for purposes of exac-
tion) that the rabbi be reelected every three years.
He returned to Worms, where he lived as a private
member of the community, and lectured on Tal-
mudic topics. His father had hoped to see him made
his successor, but the congregation,
His pretending that it was contrary to its
Rabbinical laws to choose a rabbi from among the
Career. residents of the community, elected
Aaron Teomim Friinkel. Jair Hayyim
felt very much slighted by this, and it was evi-
dently for this reason that he wrote, under the same
title, a severe criticism of “Matteh Aharon” (The
Staff of Aaron), his rival’s work on the Passover
Haggadah. He himself never published it, how-
ever; and after the death of Teomim wrote a mar-
ginal note on his manuscript forbidding its publica-
tion in the future. It was nevertheless issued by
Jellinek in 1865 in the “Bikkurim,” 1865, 1. 4-26; re-
printed in the “Ha-Misderonah,” i. 348-364.

Bacharach was undoubtedly right in considering
himself the superior of Teomim, who was a repre-
sentative of the school of the most degenerate
casuistry, while Bacharach was a systematic and
thorough student of rabbinical literature and not
altogether devoid of secular knowledge. He wrote
under the title “ ‘Ez Hayyim ” (Tree of Life) a com-
pendium of the Jewish religion in three parts, each
of which contained six subdivisions. He collected a
considerable number of manuscripts: works left by
his father and his grandfather; docu-
Writes ments referring to the movement of
‘“Ez Hay- Shabbethai Zebi, and other valuable
yim.” relics of past ages. He made a very
minute catalogue of his manuscripts,
which numbered forty-six volumes; but while the
catalogue is extant, the manuscripts are all lost, with
the exception of a work on Talmudic methodology,

“ Mar Kasliisha ” (The Old Master), which is in the li-
brary of the bet-ha-midrash in Vienna. As his work,

“ The Tree of Life, ” was so large that he could not
risk the expense of its publication, he collected some
of his father’s and of his grandfather’s responsa and
published them, together with some of his own. in
1679, under the title, “Hut ha-Shani” (The Scarlet
Thread).

In the mean time the terrible suffering which the
wars of Louis XIV. had brought on the Palatinate
affected his career also. In 1689 Worms was burned
by the French army, and Bacharach thereafter
led an unsettled life, moving first to Metz, then to
Frankfort and to Heidelberg. In 1699 the scattered
members of the congregation found themselves again
in Worms, and an imperial charter con-
His Worth firmed their reestablishment. It was
Acknowl- then that Bacharach, though prema-
edged. turely aged, broken down in health,
and nearly deaf, had the satisfaction
of seeing his worth acknowledged. The congre-
gation elected him as its rabbi, but he held his

Bacharach, Jair
Bacher, Wilhelm

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

420

position for scarcely two years, dying at the age
of 64.

Of liis numerous manuscript works he could edit
only his responsa, which he called “Hawwot Yair”
in memory of his grandmother, Eva Bacharach.
The book was published in 1699 through the assist-
ance of the wealthy court-Jew, Samson Wertheimer
of Vienna, to whom Bacharach was related by mar-
riage. His wife dying not long after him, and his
two sons, Samson and Samuel, leaving Worms for
different localities, his manuscripts became scattered.

Bacharach was in many ways an original thinker,
and his works show a certain scientific and independ-
ent spirit. Thus in one instance he says, “ Even if
the Tosafists and other authorities disagree with my
opinion, what of it? The spirit of God made me
as it made them ”(" Hawwot Yair, ” No. 155). He
wrote a scholarly treatise on the meaning of oral
tradition (ib. No. 192), while such subjects were as
a rule foreign to the rabbis of his age. He advo-
cated the establishment of schools and the intro-
duction of pedagogical methods (ib. No. 123), and
strongly condemned the methods of Pilpul, and the
uncouth manners customary in the rabbinical dis-
putations of his age (ib. No. 152). He
Opposed studied astronomy and wrote some es-
to says upon it from the point of view of
Cabala. rabbinical literature, but feeling the
inadequacy of his knowledge of the
obscure subject, he burned all his manuscripts on the
subject, gave up the study altogether, and advised
one of his friends to leave it alone (ib. No. 219). He
occupies a similarly irresolute position in regard to
the study of the Cabala. “ Who can deny,” he says,
“that this science is the greatest and highest of all
mental attainments, and that one keeping aloof from
it altogether is as one who would keep aloof from
his life and from all the glories promised to those
who devote themselves to the Cabala. But in mil-
age, and especially outside of Palestine, there is more
merit in keeping away from Cabala than in studying
it, for we have enough to do if we devote ourselves
to the legal part of rabbinical literature ” (ib. No.
210). Otherwise, however, he was as rigidly ortho-
dox as any of the rabbis of his time. He would not
permit a man to cross the river on the Sabbath to
attend the services (ib. No. 112); he
Rigidly demanded severe punishment for one
Orthodox, who had drunk wine that was not
kosher (ib. No. 140) ; and was indig-
nant at the conduct of a man who had, in his will,
expressed the desire that his daughter should recite
the Kaddish because he had no son — for Bacharach
contended if such a departure from tradition were
countenanced, every one would interpret the Law
according to his own opinion (ib. No. 222).

Bibliography : D. KaufmanD, R. Jair Chajim Bacharach
unit Seine Ahnen, Treves, 1894. On his descendants : Eisen-
stadt. Da 'at Kedoshim, pp. 213 et set/., St. Petersburg, 1897-98 ;
Kaufmann, in Monatsschrift, 1899, pp. 39 etseq.

L. G. D.

BACHARACH, MICHAEL ; Dayyan in
Prague in the second half of the eighteenth century.

Bibliography: Eisenstadt, Da'at Kedoshim. p. 224 ; Walden,
Shem ha-Gednlim he-Hadash , i. 90; Low, Gesammelte
Schriften , ii. 263.

L. G. I. BER.

BACHARACH, MOSES SAMSON : Son of

Samuel and Eva Bacharach ; born in 1607 ; died at
Worms April 19, 1670. After the death of his father
his mother took him to Prague, where he was edu-
cated by his maternal uncle, Hayyim ha-Kohen.
In 1627 he married Dobruscli, a daughter of Isaac
ben Phoebus, of Ungariscli-Brod, Moravia, where he
lived supported by his wealthy fatlier-in-law. The
Thirty Years’ war brought about the ruin of his
father-in-law’s business, and Samson was compelled
to accept a rabbinical position in Gbding, Moravia,
in 1629. In 1635 he became rabbi of Leipnik, Mora-
via, and remained there until the capture of the city
by the Swedish army in 1643 scattered the congre-
gation and forced him to return to Prague. Here
he was made preacher, but during the siege of the
city in 1648 found himself compelled to retreat to
the country for safety. Returning after the war, he
remained in Prague until 1650, when he was called
to the rabbinate of Worms, which position he occu-
pied up to the time of his death. After the death
of his wife in 1662 he married Feige, the widow of
Moses ha-Kohen Nerol, rabbi of Metz, who died in
1666. He left one son, Jair Hayyim (see Jair Hayyim
Bacharach), and four daughters. Of his literary
works there exist a number of responsa published in
his son’s “Hut lia-Sliani,” Frankfort, 1679; and also
some religious poems. His commentary on R.
Asher’s Halakot is lost.

Bibliography : Kaufmann, Bacharach und Seine Ahnen, pp.

23 et seq.; Eisenstadt-Wiener, Da'at Kedoshim, pp. 218 et seq.

L. G. ' D.

BACHER, EDUARD: Austrian jurisconsult
and journalist; born at Pastelberg March 17, 1846.
Graduating from the University of Vienna, he en-
gaged in practise as an advocate, in which career he
displayed such marked ability that some years later
the Reichsrath appointed him its chief stenographer.
In 1872 Bacher entered the employ of the “Neue
Freie Presse ” as a parliamentary reporter, and on
May 1, 1879, he became the chief editor of the paper.
His leading articles on internal politics have been
much appreciated, not in Austria only, but through-
out Europe.

Bibliography: Eisenberg, Das Geistige Wien, p. 15; Adolph

Kohut, BerUhmte Israelitische Manner und Frauen, p. 133.

s. I. Br.

BACHER, JULIUS : German playwright and
novelist; born in Ragnit, eastern Prussia, Aug. 8,
1810. He studied medicine in Konigsberg, and set-
tled there as a physician in 1837; but after ten years
he abandoned his medical career to devote himself
exclusively to literature. His first production in this
field was a drama, “Karl des XII. Erste Liebe.”
Then the political events of 1848 interrupted his lit-
erary activity, but he resumed it eight years later
by publishing a novel, “Sophie Charlotte, die Tffii-
losopliische Konigin, ” 3 vols. Its favorable reception
by the public encouraged him to pursue literature,
and he published successively: “Die Brautschau
Friedrich des Grossen,” 1857, a drama; and “Fried-
rich I. Letzte Tage,” 1858, a romance in 3 vols.
In 1859 his “ Cliarakterbild aus dem Leben ” was
performed at the Royal Berlin Theater. Bacher
thereupon settled in Berlin, whence he traveled to
Switzerland and France. Upon his return to Berlin

421

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bacharach, Jair
Bacher, Wilhelm

in 1860 he published three volumes of tales and a
number of romances. The more celebrated of these
works are: “Ein Urteil Washington’s,” 2 vols., 1864-
“Sybilla von Kleve,” 3 vols., 1865; “Napoleon I.
Letzte Liebe,” 6 vols., 1868 ; “ Auf dem Wiener Kon-
gress, ” 4 vols. , 1869; “Prinzessin Sidonie,” 3 vols.,
1870; and the tragedies, “Lady Seymour” and
“ Lucie. ”

Bibliography: A. de Gubernatis, Dictionnaire Interna-
tional des Ecrivains du Jour, Florence, 1891; Adolph
Kohut, Besrtihrnte Israelitische Manner und Frauen, 1901,
xi. 89.

s. B. B.

BACHER, SIMON : Neo-Hebraic poet; born
Feb. 1, 1823, in Lipto-Szent-Miklos, Hungary died
at Budapest Nov. 9, 1891. Bacher, whose name was
originally Bachracli, came of a family of scholars,
and counted as one of his ancestors the well-known
Jair Hayyim Bacharach. He studied Talmud in his
native city, in Nikolsburg under Menahem Nahum
Trebitsch, and under Moses Perles in Eisenstadt and
Bonyhad. During this period Bacher was much in-
fluenced by the new movement of the Haskalah, and
he also studied the secular sciences and literature.

When nineteen years old Bacher returned to Mi-
klos, where, despite the business in which he was
engaged, he continued his studies with unremitting
zeal. After many struggles Bacher in 1874 went to
Budapest, where two years later he was appointed
treasurer of the Jewish community. This office he
held until he died.

When a boy of eleven, Bacher had translated Ger-
man poems into Hebrew. Thus Schiller’s “Lied
vonder Glocke ” first came to be known to the schol-
ars in Bonyhad, who were wholly engrossed with
their Talmudic studies. Masters and pupils of the
old renowned Talmudic schools were alike delighted
with his verses. The events of his fatherland and
of the Jewish community, festival days and days of
mourning, jubilees and funerals, equally inspired his
song. He celebrated scholars, preachers, statesmen ;
orators, singers, philanthropists, and writers; and
Jewish legends and history also provided subjects
for his poems, in which were mingled reflections
and expressions of sentiment, myths, and historical
events.

In addition to short scientific and miscellaneous
contributions to magazines — the former consisting
of linguistic studies on the Talmud and essays in
archeology — Bacher wrote some short poems in Ger-
man. But his place in Jewish literature was won
chiefly by his Hebrew poetry. Of almost equal rank
with his original poetic work are some of his transla-
' tions into Hebrew of German, French, and Hunga-
rian poems. The translations are classic in form,
and reproduce vividly the spirit of the original.

Bacher contributed to many Jewish magazines,
and wrote also a number of occasional poems pub-
lished separately. Among his longer works are the
following: Translations of Ludwig Philippson’s
tragedy “ Jojaehin,” Vienna, 1860, and of Lessing’s
“Nathan der Weise,” Vienna, 1866; “Zemirot ha-
‘Arez ” (Hymns of the Land), Budapest, 1868, and
a collection of Hungarian poems: “Muzzal Mebsh ”
(Saved from the Fire), Budapest, 1879, a collection
of various original poems ; “ Melek Ebyon ” (The Poor
King), Budapest, 1881, a collection of romantic

Biblical poems; and “Michtame Gleiclienberg ”
(Budapest, 1887), “ makamas ” in the manner of Lud-
wig August Fraukl. After Baclier’s death his son
Wilhelm published, under the title “ Slia’ar Shim’on ”
(Vienna, 1894), a selection of Hebrew poems, culled
from Baclier’s printed works and from unpublished
manuscripts, 1894, in three parts: the first of these
contains his original poems ; the second, translations ;
and the third, “Nathan der Weise.” The work is
prefaced with a biography of Bacher and a chrono-
logical list of his works.

Bibliography : W. Bacher, in the introduction to his father’s

Sha'ar SMmLon, 1894.

L. g. E. N.

BACHER, WILHELM : Hungarian scholar
and Orientalist; son of the Hebrew writer Simon;
born in Lipto-Szent-
Miklos. Hungary, Jan.

12, 1850; he attended
the Hebrew schools in
Szucsan and in his na-
tive town, and passed
through the higher
classes of the Evangel-
ical Lyceum at Pres-
burg from 1863 to 1867,
at the same time dili-
gently prosecuting Tal-
mudic studies. In 1867
he began the study of
philosophy and of Ori-
ental languages — the
latter under Vambery
— at the University of
Budapest, and also at-
tended the lectures on the Talmud given by Sam-
uel Lob Brill. In 1868, he went to Breslau, where
he continued the study of philosophy and phi-
lology at the University, and that of theology at
the Jewish-Theological Seminary. He graduated at
the University of Leipsic in 1870. His graduation
thesis, “Nizami’s Leben und Werke, und der Zweite
Theil des Nizami ’sclien Alexanderbuches, ” appeared
in 1871, and was translated into English in 1873 by
S. Robinson. This was afterward incorporated in
the collection entitled “Persian Poetry for English
Readers.” In 1876, Bacher graduated as rabbi, and
shortly afterward was appointed to the rabbinate in
Szegedin, which had become vacant in consequence
of the death of Leopold Low.

On July 1, 1877, together with Moses Bloch and
David Kaufmann, he was appointed by the Hun-
garian government to the professorship of the newly
created Landesrabbinerschule of Budapest. This
institution was inaugurated Oct. 4, 1877, Bacher
delivering the address in the name of the faculty, and
since that time he has been teacher of

Official the Biblical sciences, of Jewish dis-
positions. tory, and of various other branches
at that institution. Bacher was for a
time in 1878 field-chaplain in the Austro-Hungarian
army, being delegated to the headquarters of the
army of occupation in Bosnia. The congregation of
Pest appointed Bacher director of the Talmud-Torah
School in 1885, and he has been connected with that
institution ever since. In 1884 Bacher and Joseph

Wilhelm Bacher.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

422

Bacher, Wilhelm
Bacon, Roger

Banoczi founded the Judaeo-Hungarian review, the
“Magyar Zsido Szemle,” which they conjointly ed-
ited during the first seven years, and it is still the
only Jewish review in Hungary. In 1894 he as-
sisted in founding the Judaeo-Hungarian Literary
Society, Izraelita Magyar Jrodami Tarsulat, of which
he became vice-president in 1898. This society in-
stituted a new translation of the Bible into Hunga-
rian— the first complete translation due solely to
Jewish initiative ; and the first two volumes of this
work (the Pentateuch and the earlier prophets),
edited by Bacher in collaboration with S. Kraussand
T. Banoczi, have already appeared. The first five
year-books of the society were edited by Bacher in
conjunction with F. Mezey and afterward with D.
Banoczi.

Bacher is the author of the following works:

(I) “ Muslicheddin Sa'adi’s Aphorismen und Sinngedichte,
zum Ersten Male Herausgegeben und Uebersetzt, mit Beitragen

zur Biographie Sa'adi’s,” 1879.

"Voluminous (2) Several contributions to the history of

Author. Persian literature in " Z. D. M. G.”

(3) “Kritis'che Untersuchungen zum Pro-
phetentargum,” ib. 1874.

(4) “ Discussions of the Targurn on Job and the Psalms,” in
*' Monatsschrift,” 1871, 1872.

(5) “ Abraham ibn Ezra’s Einleitung zu Seinem Pentateuch-
commentar, als Beitrag zur Geschichte der Bibelexegese Be-
leuchtet,” in " Sitzungsberichte der KaiserJichen Akademie der
Wissenschaften,” 1878.

(6) “ Die Grammatische Terminologie des Jehuda b. David
HajjugS,” ib. 1882.

(7) “Die Hebraisch-Arabiscbe Sprachvergleichung des Abul-
waltd Merwan ibn Ganachs,” it). 1884.

(8) “Die Hebraisch-Neuhebriiische Sprachvergleichung des
Abulwalid,” ib. 1885.

(9) "DieAgadader Babylonischen Amoraer” (First Annual
Report of the Landes-rabbinerselmle at Budapest, 1878 ; also
printed separately). This work, like all others published in the
annual reports of the National Rabbinical Institute, was pub-
lished contemporaneously in Hungarian.

(10) “Abraham Ibn Ezra als Grammatiker,” ib. 1881 ; “ Leben
und Werke des Abulwalid Merwan Ibn Ganah und die Quellen
Seiner Schrifterkliirung,” ib. 1885.

(II) “Aus der Schrifterklarung des Abulwalid Merwan ibn
Ganah.” 1889.

(12) “Die Bibelexegese der Jiidischen Religionsphilosophen
des Mittelalters vor Maimuni,” 1892.

(13) “ Die Bibelexegese Moses Maimuni’s,” 1896.

(14) “Ein Hebraisch-Persisches Worterbueh aus dem Vier-
zehnten Jahrhundert,” 1900.

(15) '’Die Agada der Tannalten.” The first volume of this
work was published in Gratz's “ Monatsschrift ” from 1882 to
1884, and also appeared in 1884 in a separate edition in honor of
the ninetieth birthday of L. Zunz ; the second volume was pub-
lished in 1890. A second, enlarged edition of Vol. I. will appear
in 1902.

(16) The three volumes of the “Agada der Palastinischen
Amoraer” appeared respectively in 18!®, 1896, and 1899.

(17) “Kitab al-Luma',” “ Le Lion des Parterres Fleuris,” in
publications of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris, 1886.
Bacher’s revised edition of this work was published under
Derenbourg’s name.

(18) An edition of the Book of Job as translated by Saadia in
Derenbourg’s edition of Saadia’s works (“CEuvres Completes
de R. Saadia, Volume Cinquieme,” Paris, 1900).

(19) An edition of the “ Sefer Zikkaron,” or “ Hebrew Gram-
mar” of Joseph Kimhi, published in writings of the society
Mekize Nirdamim, 1888.

(20) “ Sefer ha-Shorashim, Wurzelworterbuch der Hebraischen
Sprache, von Abulwalid Merwan ibn Ganah, aus dem Ara-
bischen ins Hebraische Uebersetzt von Jehudah ibn Tibbon, nut
einer Einleitung iiber das Leben und die Schriften Abulwalid’s
und mit Registern und einern Anhange, Nebst Textberichti-
gungen zum Sefer Versehen.” This is an edition of the He-
brew translation of Abulwalid’s great lexicon, the principal
grammatical work of that author. In this work, also published
by the society Mekize Nirdamim, Bacher corrected the Hebrew
text in accordance with the Arabic original, and mentioned the

sources of all the Biblical and other citations contained in it,
which sources are not given in Neubauer’s edition.

(21) A compilation of the various readings of Ibn Ezra’s
Commentary on the Pentateuch in Berliner’s “ Magazin,” and
separately, 1894— a work prepared with the aid of a valuable
codex belonging to the university library at Cambridge.

(22) “Sefer Nahalat Yehoshua',” 2 vols., a redaction of the
posthumous works of the Talmudist Kosman Wodianer (d.
1830), with a biographical introduction in Hebrew, in connection
with which he prepared a list of the correspondents of Moses
Sofer, “ Aus der Ersten Halfte Unseres Jahrhunderts,” 1893.

(23) “Sha'ar Shim'on,” an edition of the Hebrew poems of
his father, Simon Bacher (d. Nov. 9, 1891), with a biographical
introduction in Hebrew.

(24) An edition of Gratz’s “ Emendationes in Plerosque
Sacra* Scripturse V. T. Libras,” 1892-94.

(25) A treatment of the chapters of philology and exegesis in
Winter and Wunsche’s collection of Hebrew literature, “ Die
Jiidische Literatur.” These contributions of Bacher have also
been published separately under the respective titles : “ Die
Jiidische Bibelexegese vom Anfange des Zehnten bis zum Ende
des Fiinfzehnten Jahrhunderts.”

(26) “ Die Hebraische Sprachwissensehaft vom Zehnten bis
zum Sechzehnten Jahrhundert, mit einem Einleitenden Ab-
schnitt iiber die Masora,” 1892.

(27) " Die Anfange der Hebraischen Grammatik,” in “ Z. D.
M. G.,” also published by Brockhaus, Leipsic, 1895.

(28) “ Die Aelteste Terminologie der Jiidischen Schriftausle-
gung — ein Worterbueh der Bibelexegetischen Kunstsprache der
Tannaiten,” I. C. Hinrich, Leipsic, 1899.

Bacher has also been the author of numerous criticisms and
reviews in periodicals devoted, like his books, to Hebrew phi-
lology, history of Biblical exegesis, and of the Haggadah. The
magazines, etc., in which his contributions have appeared are
the following :

M. E. Stern, “Kokbe Yizliak," 1865-68; “Monatsschrift,”
1869-92; “ Izraelit Kozlony,” 1869-70: Rahmer’s “ Israelitische
Wochenschrift und Jiidische Literaturbliitter,” 1870-76; I.Robak’s
“Jeschurun,” 1871; I. Reich, " Beth-Lechem,”
His Jahrbuch, 1873; “ Ha-Habazelet,” 1873; “Z.

Criticisms D. M. G.” 1874-1902; Berliner’s “Maga-
and zin fiir die Geschichte und Literatur des

Reviews. Judenthums,” 1880-94; “Rev. Et. Juives,”
1882-1902 ; “ Magyar Zsid<5 Szemle,” 1884-1901 ;
W. R. Harper, “Hebraica,” 1884-93; Stade, “ Zeitschrift ” 1885-
1901; “Jew. Quart. Rev.” 1890-1901; Konigsberger, " Monats
blatter,” 1891; Evkonyv, “Jahrbuch des Ungarisch-Israeli-
tischen Literaturvereins,” published in Hungarian, 1895-1901 ;
“ Ozar ha-Sefarim ” ; “ Griiber’s Magazin fiir Hebraische Li-
teratur,” 1896 ; “ Zeit. f. Hebr. Bibl.” 1896-1900 ; “ Deutsche
Literaturzeitung,” 1898-1901 ; S. H. Horodeczky’s “ Ha-Goren ”;
“Abhandlung iiber die Wissenschaft des Judenthums,” 1898-
1900; “Ha-Eshkol,” “Hebraisches Jahrbuch,” 1898; "Jahr-
buch fur Jiidische Gesch. und Literatur,” 1899-1900; “Theolo-
gische Literaturzeitung,” 1900-1; “Keleti Szemle” (“Revue
Orientale,” 1902); “The Expository Times,” 1900. Further con-
tributions of Bacher appeared in the festival publications to the
seventieth birthday of Graetz, 1887, and the eightieth birthday of
Steinschneider, 1896; in the festival publication in honor of
Daniel Chwolsohn, 1899 ; and in the memorial book published
on the anniversary of Samuel David Luzzatto’s birthday, Berlin,
1900, and in that published in memory of Prof. David Kauf-
mann, 1900. Bacher has also contributed the article “ Levita ” to
the “Allgemeine Encyklopadie” of Ersch and Gruber, and thear-
ticles “ Sanhedrin ” and “ Synagoge ” to the last volume— not yet
published— of Hastings and Selbie’s “ Dictionary of the Bible.”

S. F. DE S. M.

BACHI, RAPHAEL: Italian miniature-painter;
lived at Paris in the middle of the eighteenth cen-
tury. His name appears in the list of the Jews
that resided in Paris during the reign of Louis
XV., which was recently published by Paul d’Es-
trees. This list, drawn up by the police, mentions
Baclii as a miniature painter of great talent (“pein-
tre en miniature, de beaucoup de talent”).

Bibliography : Paul d’Estrfes, in Revue flu Monde Latin,

1891, Sept. 1, Oct. 1 ; Leon Kahn, Lex Juifs de Paris sous

Louis XV. p. 44.

L. G. I. Br.

BACHRACH, JACOB BEN MOSES : A noted
apologist of rabbinical Judaism; born at Seiny, in

423

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bacher, Wilhelm
Bacon, Roger

the government of Suwalki, Russia, May 9, 1824;
died in Bielostok Dec. 29, 1896. He received his
earliest instruction from his grandfather, Judah
Bachrach. For years he was superintendent of a
Hebrew printing-establishment in Ivonigsberg, where
he edited, among other works, the “ Turim ” of Jacob
beh Asher, and added valuable notes to the same.
Later on he became manager of a distillery at Sebas-
topol, where he had the opportunity to develop into
an assiduous student of Karaitic literature, and
where he engaged in controversies with the repre-
sentatives of the local Karaitic community. His
works are chiefly devoted to a defense of rabbinical
tradition against Karaism. In 1882 he went to Pal-
estine in the interest of colonization. Of his printed
works “ Ha-yahas Liketab Ashuri ” (History of
the Assyrian Script), Warsaw, 1854, is a polemical
treatise against Elias Levita’s theory that vowel-
points and accents originated in post-Talmudic
times. To the same purpose is devoted his “Islita-
dalut ‘im Shadal ” (An Engagement with ShaDaL)
(Samuel David Luzzatto), 2 vols., Warsaw, 1896 —
in which he again attempts to refute Luzzatto’s
view, based on that of Levita, that the vowel-
points are the invention of the Masorites. His
“ Maamare Jacob ha-Bakri ” (Essays of Jacob Bach-
rach), Warsaw, 1893, 2 vols., is a work devoted to
proving that the Jewish calendar is of ancient ori-
gin, and he opposes the arguments of the Karaites,
of Slonimsky, and of others, who asserted that the
ancient Israelites reckoned by the solar year. A very
interesting and well-written booklet is his descrip-
tion of his journey to Palestine, “ Ha-Massa‘ la-Arez
lia-Kedoshah,” 2d ed., Kief, 1884.

Bibliography: Achiasaf Almanac , v. 336; and private

sources.

L. G. D.

BACHRACH, JTJDAH B. JOSHUA HES-
KIEL : Rabbi and Talmudist ; born in Lithuania
about 1775 ; died at Seiny, government of Suwalki.
April 25, 1846. He was a lineal descendant in the
seventh generation of Tobias Bachrach, who, to-
gether with Israel ben Shalom, was beheaded on a
charge of ritual murder in Rushon)r Sept. 19, 1659.
Baehracli’s life was a model of piety. He distrib-
uted among the poor all the income derived from his
position of rabbi at Seiny, and lived on the interest
from a small fund that his friends had invested for
him in their business. His notes on the Talmud,
under the title “Nimmuke Hagrib TUn = lia-Gaou
R. Jehudah Bachrach ” (Critical Comments of Hag-
rib, the Gaon R. Jehudah Bachrach), appear in the
edition of the Talmud which was published by
Rom at Wilna.

Birliography : Walden, Shem hOrGedolim he-Hadasli, p. 53,

Warsaw, 1879; Eisenstadt-Wiener, Da'at Kedoshim, pp. 38

et seq., St. Petersburg, 1897-98.

L. G. D.

BACHRICH, SIGISMUND : Hungarian vio-
linist and operatic composer; born at Zsambokret,
Hungary, Jan. 23, 1841. He began the study of the
violin with Bohm at the Vienna Conservatory in
1851, from which institution he was graduated in
1857. He then accepted a conductorship at a Vien-
na theater, and four years later went to Paris.
Here he was compelled to fight his way, first as

leader of a small orchestra, then as journalist, and
finally as apothecary. Upon his return to Vienna
he played the viola in the Helmesberger Quartet,
with which organization he remained associated for
twelve years. He then became a teacher at the
Conservatory and still occupies this position. Bach-
rich is also a member of the Rose Quartet and of
the philharmonic and opera orchestras. His princi-
pal compositions are : “Muzzedin,”a comic opera,
Vienna, 1883; “ Heiui von Steier, ” ib. 1884; “Der
Fuclismajor,” an operetta, Prague, 1889; “Sakun-
tala,” a ballet; and two other operettas. Of these
works, the operetta, “Der Fuclismajor,” has prob-
ably been the most successful.

Bibliography: Riemann. Musik Lexikon, 1900: Baker,

Biog. Diet, of Musicians , 1900; Kohut, Berlilimte Israeli-

tisene Manner und Frauen. 1900.

s. J. So.

BACKOFEN, JACOB. See Reischer.

BACON, ROGER : English philosopher and
scholar of the thirteenth century; born at Ilchester,
England, about 1214; died about 1294. He studied
at Oxford and spent some years in Paris, where he
obtained the degree of doctor of theology. In 1250
he was again at Oxford, and about this time became
a Franciscan friar. He devoted himself to a mas-
tery of all human knowledge — theological, philo-
sophical, philological, and physical. His fame
spread very rapidly, and he acquired the title of
“doctor mirabilis” among those of his contempo-
raries who recognized his wide and profound erudi-
tion ; while his physical and chemical apparatus and
experiments secured for him the reputation of deal-
ing in magic and the black arts, and aroused suspi-
cions as to his orthodoxy. Bonaventura, general of
the order, about 1257, interdicted his lectures at
Oxford, and commanded him to place himself under
the supervision of the body in Paris; and there he
remained for ten years under strict surveillance. In
the year 1265 Cardinal Guy de Foulques became
pope under the name of Clement IV. Shortly be- .
fore, he had been sent by Pope Urban IV. to Eng-
land to intervene in the disputes between Henry III.
and his barons, and had then made the acquaintance
of Bacon. The new pope, in 1266, directed Bacon
to send him in manuscript the results of his re-
searches. despite the interdictions of Bacon's supe-
riors. This papal authorization gave an impetus to
Bacon’s pen ; and in about eighteen months he com-
pleted the three great treatises, “Opus Majus,”
“Opus Minus, ’’and “ Opus Tertium.” Theresultof
the receipt of these works by the pope was that
in 1268 Bacon was permitted to return to Oxford,
where he continued his studies and the composition
of learned treatises. In 1278. however, the general
of the order condemned Bacon’s writings ; and he
was thrown into prison, there to remain for fourteen
j1 ears.

One of the most remarkable of Bacon’s many great
achievements in the sphere of learning is his demon-
stration of the need for prosecuting the study of the
Hebrew language — a study which wras as unknown
in England as on the Continent till the fifteenth cen-
tury, when Reuehlin aroused the mind of Europe on
the subject. Hirsch, in his “Earl\r English Hebra-
ists,” has shown how Bacon anticipated by 200 years

Badchen

Badge

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

424

almost all of the reasons advanced by Reuclilin for
spreading a knowledge of the Hebrew tongue; viz.,
religious motives, Hebrew being the language in
which God first revealed His will to mankind ; the
difficulty of translating accurately from one lan-
guage to another, and the danger of perpetuating
errors once committed in translation. Furthermore,
he was animated by the true philological spirit, and
sought to develop the comparative study of lan-
guages generally.

It is remarkable, considering the time in which he
flourished, that though Christianity and the spread of
it throughout the world were, of course, all in all to
Bacon, yet he has not in all his writings a single dis-
paraging word about the Jews. He even deprecates
the attempt to convert them ; being content that
that event should await the conversion of the rest of
mankind. Moreover, he eagerly sought the aid of
Jews in studying the Biblical language ; and he had
even a good word to say for the Jews who lived at
the time of the birth of Christianity. When it is
remembered that before him there were probably not
three Christian theologians who could read the He-
brew Bible in the original, a large measure of com-
mendation must be accorded Bacon for his acquisi-
tions of Hebrew learning.

Bibliography : S. A. Hirsch, Early English Hebraists: Royer
Baemi and His Predecessors , in Jewish Quarterly Review ,
xii. 34-88; E. Charles, Royer Bacon , S« Vie , Set. Ouvrages ,
Ses Doctrines, d'a pres desTextes Inedits, 1861; Schneider,
Royer Bacon, cine Monographic, Augsburg, 1873; J. K.
Ingram, On the Opus Majus of Bacon, Dublin, 1858.
k. M. Co.

BADCHEN. See Badhan.

BADEN: City in Lower Austria. After the ex-
pulsion of the Jews from Lower Austria in 1670,
none lived in Baden until 1805, when the Jew Isaac
Scliischa, who had formerly lived in Mattersdorf,
Hungary, succeeded in obtaining permission for him-
self, his family, and servants to reside there perma-
nently. Scliischa obtained permission to start a res-
taurant; and he also improvised a place of worship
for Jews visiting this health-resort in summer. A
similar permission was granted in 1820 to Heinrich
Herz from Szerdahely, who likewise erected a restau-
rant and a house of worship. There was, however,
no permanent settlement until 1861, when the right
of residence in any part of the country and freedom
of trade were granted to all Austrian Jews.

The first association for the support of the sick
was formed in 1868, and grew so rapidly that it de-
termined to erect a synagogue, buying a house for
the purpose. The authorities sanctioned the main-
tenance of a synagogue only under the condition that
an incorporated congregation (Kultus-Verein) be es-
tablished for its management.

The synagogue which was erected in 1871 proved
too small for the growing numbers of the congrega-
tion, and Jacob L. Poliak, together with Max Man-
del, and through the financial aid of Jews elsewhere,
erected on the same site a larger synagogue with a
gallery and five hundred and seventeen seats. In
1873 the synagogue was dedicated. Poliak and Man-
del were joined by Anton Schneider, a younger man,
and together they founded the Hebrah Kaddishah.
The first interment took place August, 1873. A
Sabbath-school, established in the former small syn-

agogue, was subventioned by the Jewish Alliance in
Vienna from 1872 to 1877.

At this time eighty Jewish families resided perma-
nently in Baden. In spite of impediments put in
their way by the municipal authorities, the Jewish
residents of Baden succeeded in obtaining recogni-
tion by the government as a legally constituted con-
gregation, and with such recognition was accorded
the right to assess its members (June 10, 1878). It
was determined to appoint a rabbi, and on Feb. 6,
1880, Wilhelm Reich was installed in the office. After
some difficulties which arose from the opposition of
the Orthodox, the rabbi and the presidents succeeded
in establishing harmony and in securing a steady
growth of the congregation.

The following Jewish organizations exist in Baden :
a Hebrah Kaddishah, already mentioned ; a Tal-
mud Torah school, with three teachers; a Bet ha-
Midrash, in which a Talmudic scholar is appointed
to deliver lectures daily; a Women’s Association; a
committee for the support of the strangers who visit
the city for the sake of their health, and a branch
of the Jewish Alliance in Vienna. In ritual matters
the congregation is conservative ; but it has made
some concessions to the demands of the times. The
number of Jews in Baden exceeds a thousand.

Since 1894 the newly established congregation of
Neunkirelien, Lower Austria, is ministered to by the
rabbi of Baden.

Bibliography: W. Reicli, Baden hei Wien, Baden, 1900.

D. W. Rei.

BADEN, GRAND DUCHY OF: A state of
the German empire, bounded on the north by Bava-
ria and Hesse ; on the east by Bavaria, Wurttemberg,
and Hohenzollern ; on the south by Switzerland,
and on the west by Alsace-Lorraine and Rhenish
Bavaria. Owing to the absence of any large or
ancient cities in Baden, few Jews lived there in
olden times. Among the places where persecutions
took place may be mentioned especially Lauda on
the Tauber (1235, 1298,1337, 1349), Tauberbiscliofs-
lieim (1235, 1298, 1337, 1349), Pforzheim (1267, 1349),
Freiburg (1349), Bretten (1337, 1349), Ueberlingen
(1322, 1349), Constance (1326, 1349), Heidelberg
(1349), Ettlingen (1349), Durlach (1349). In conse-
quence of the edict of King Wenzel, who canceled
the debts owed to the Jews, the latter in many cities
of Baden suffered greatly. In 1390 they were ban-
ished by Rupreeht II. from Heidelberg; in 1430 they
were burned at Liudau, Ravensburg, and Ueber
lingen ; and in the following year they barely es-
caped a similar fate at Constance. In 1422 the em-
peror, for the purpose of exterminating heretics in
Bohemia, sought to extort from the Jews the so-
called “third penny.” After 1524 many Jews found
refuge in the margravate of Baden, but they were
banished thence by the margrave Philipp in 1584. to
return, however, in 1593. In 1550 there were resi-
dent in the electoral palatinate about 155 Jews; and
in 1605 there were about 13 Jewish families in the
margravate. In 1608 a general edict of banishment
was issued against the Jews; but by the proclama-
tion of 1809 they were finally recognized as forming
an independent sect.

The administration of each congregation is con-

425

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Badchen

Badge

ducted by the “ Synagogenrath,” which consists of
from three to seven members. Several local syna-
gogues constitute a synagogal district with its rabbi
and elders. The district synagogues again are re-
sponsible to a so-called “ Israelitisclien Oberratli ”
(Jewish council) ; and this is directly responsible to
the ministry of the interior, its expenses being de-
frayed out of the national treasury. Since 1860 the
Jews of Baden have enjoyed equal rights with the
other inhabitants. In 1901 they numbered 25,903
souls, distributed among fifteen rabbinical districts
(“ Babbinatsbezirke ”).

Bibliography: Breslau, in Hehr. Bihl. 1870, p. 130; Stern,
Urkumlliche Nachrichten aus Ueberlinoen, p. 12; Weecb,
liadische Gescli.; Zehnter, in Zeitschrift filr die Gesch. des
Oberrheins , vois. xi., xv.; Lowenstein, Gesch. der Juden in
dei' Kurpfalz , passim.

G. A. F.

BADGE : Mark placed on the dress of Jews to
distinguish them from others. This was made a
general order of Christendom at the fourth Lateran
Council of 1215. At the instigation of Innocent III.,
the decision of the Council ordered the Jews, in the
following terms, to bear a Badge :

“Contingit interdum quod per errorem christiani Judmorum
seu Saracenorum et Juda'i seu Saraceni christianorum mulieri-
bus coinmisceantur. Ne igitur tain damnatae commixtionis
excessus per velamentum erroris liujusmodi, exeusationis ulte-
rius possint habere diffugium, statuimus ut tales utriusque
sexus in onini christianorum provincia, et omni tempore quali-
tate habitus publice ab aliis populis distinguantur.”

From this it would appear that the motive of the
order was to prevent illicit intercourse between Jews
and Christian women; but it is scarcely doubtful
that this was little more than a pretext, the evidence
of such intercourse being only of the slightest (see
Abrahams, “Jewish Life in the Middle Ages,” pp.
93-95). It was no doubt the general policy of the
Church to make a sharp line of demarcation between
the true believer and the heretic; and the Badge

Badges on Garments of Jewish Priests : According to the “ Bible
Historiale de Pierre Comestor,” 14th Century.

(From “Revue ties Etudes Juives.”)

came as the last stage in a series of enactments in
the twelfth century, intended to prevent social rela-
tions bet ween Jews and Christians, the chief of these
being the prohibition of Christians becoming serv-
ants of the Jews. The Badge had a most delete-
rious effect upon their social relations; and the

increasing degradation of the position of Jews in
Christendom was due in a large measure to this
outward sign of separation, which gave the official
stamp of both Church and state to the discrimination

Badges and Hats Worn by Jews. From the “ Bible Historiale de
Pierre Comestor,” 14th Century.

(From “ Revue des Etudes Juives.”)

of social status against the Jew. The idea of such
a discrimination seems to have been derived from
Islam, in which the dress of the Jews was distin-
guished by a different color from that of the true
believer as early as the Pact of Ojiar (640), by which
Jews were ordered to wear a yellow seam on their
upper garments (D’Ohsson, “Histoire des Moguls,”
1854, iii. 274). This was a distinct anticipation of
the Badge. In 1005 the Jews of Egypt were ordered
to wear bells on their garments and a wooden calf to
remind them of the golden one (S. Lane-Poole, “His-
tory of Egypt,” 1901, vi. 126). Later on, in 1301,
they were obliged to wear yellow turbans (ib. pp.
300, 301). It may have been some sort of retaliation
for a similar restriction placed upon the Christians
in Islam, since the order of the Council applied to
Saracens as well as to Jews.

The most usual form in which the Badge appeared
was that of a ring sewn on the upper garment and of
a different color to it. This was called
In France, “the wheel ” (Latin, “rota ”; French,
“roue, rouelle”), and was the distin-
guishing mark used in the Romance countries,
France, Italy, and Spain. This form seems to have
existed in the diocese of Paris even before the Lat-
eran Council; for it is mentioned among the synodal
statutes of Bishop Eudes de Sully, who died July
13, 1208. After the Lateran Council it was ordered
in the whole of ecclesiastical France at the Council
of Narbonnein 1227 (“ defcrantsignum rotre,” Mansi,
“Concilia,” xiii., 1186). This was repeated by local
councils at Arles 1234 and 1260, Beziers 1246, Albi
1254, Nimes 1284 and 1365, Avignon 1326 and 1337,
Rodez 1336, and Vanves 1368.

The state followed the Church in imposing the
Badge upon the Jews in France. Saint Louis pub-
lished an ordinance to that effect (June 19, 1269);
and his example was followed by the kings of France:

Badge

Badis

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

426

down to Charles VI. It was generally made imper-
ative on both sexes; but at times Jewesses had to
wear a veil called “orales” or “cornalia.” The age
at which it was worn varied from seven years at
Marseilles to thirteen at Arles and fourteen at Avi-
gnon. It was mainly worn upon the breast ; but dur-
ing the reign of Philippe le Hardi a second Badge
was worn on the back. The color at first ordered

English Jew wearing Tablet-shaped Badge.

(From a Cottonian MS. in the British Museum.)

was saffron yellow, but under King John it was parti-
colored red and white. The size varied ; it was gen-
erally about three or four fingerbreadtlis from one
side to the other, the circle of the Badge one finger-
breadth in thickness. Under King John it was of
the size of the gieat seal, about 35 mm. in diameter,
and in the time of Charles V. as large as 50 mm.

When a Jew was found without the Badge he was
fined various sums, ranging from five sous at Mar-
seilles to ten Tours li vres under Saint Louis. Charles
V. reduced this to twenty Parisian sous. For special
reasons and doubtless for payment the Jew was al-
lowed to go without the Badge; but the instances of
this permission in France are rare, and generally only

for travel. Adding injury to insult, the authorities
forced the Jews to pay an annual sum for the use of
the badges, and, curiously enough, one finds them
left as pledges (“Revue Etudes Juives,” v. 307, 308).
When the Jews left the rest of France the wear-
ing of the Badge was still kept up at Avignon, which
was under the rule of the popes; and evidence of
the Badge is found there as late as 1592.

In Spain the use of the Badge varied in the differ-
ent kingdoms. Pope Honorius III. gave a dispensa-
tion (1219) to the Jews of Castile; whereas James I.

in 1228 ordered those of Aragon to
Spain, wear it. His example was followed
Italy, and bythekingof Navarre, and even by the
England, emir of Granada, Ismael Abu-l-Walid
(1315-26). The practise of wearing
the Badge does not appear to have continued long in
Spain. The Council of Zamora, 1313, complains of its
not having been put into force; and many instances
are given of permission to Jews to discontinue it.
In 1371 the ordinances were revived, and a bull of
Benedict XIII. (May 11, 1415) insisted upon the Jews
carrying a yellow and red Badge, the men on their
breast, the women on their forehead.

Italy appears to have been troubled less with in-
junctions about the Badge than the other parts of
Christendom. Throughout the thirteenth century
the Badge is only known in Sicily (Zuuz, “Z. G.”
p. 488); but in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
local injunctions are found in Venice, Verona, Parma,
Rome, Asola, and Genoa. It was known as the “ 0, ”
from its shape, and appears to have resembled the
form used in France rather than that customary in
Spain. In several instances it was accompanied by
the pointed hat (see Judenhut) ; while in Venice the
hat entirely replaced the Badge. The age at which
it was worn, and the place upon which it was fixed,
varied as much as in France ; but, as a rule, the former
was thirteen years.

In England the form of the Badge varied from
that worn in the rest of Europe, at least in later
years. It was first imposed upon the Jews in Eng-
land by Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury,
in 1222, and was in the form of a band, two fingers
broad and four long. It was at first white, and after-
ward changed to yellow. In 1274, under Edward
I., its shape became that of the Tables of the Law.
In Germany the earliest mention of the Badge is in
a dispensation accorded to the Jews of Erfurt, Oct.
16, 1294; but it would appear that throughout the
fourteenth century the hat was the chief mark of
identification used, though the Badge was reintro-
duced by Emperor Sigismund in 1434 at Augsburg.
Similar restrictions are given at Nuremberg, Bam-
berg, and Frankfort in the middle of the fifteenth
century. Here, in almost every case, the Badge
was a yellow sign (compare G. Wolf, “Geseliichte
der Israelitischen Cultusgemeinde in Wien,” p. 68,
Vienna, 1861). Schudt, in his “ Jiidische Merkwur-
digkeiten,” gives facsimiles of those used at Frank-
fort in the years 1613-16, which vary
Other from 92 to 48 mm.

Countries. In Austria it would appear that the
hat was the only sign of distinction
according to the Council of Vienna, 1467, whereas
in Hungary, 1279, the Badge was placed on the left

4. 5. 6.

FORMS of the BADGE worn by MEDIEVAL JEWS

1 . From the “Green Book"of Barcelona (1335 ) 4. From aMs. in the Bibliotheque Nalionale, Paris (1 Ml1 Cent.)

2. From an illuminated “Revelations,,(1500) 5. From Kretschmer “Trachten der \olker“'(l500)

IN THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY.

3. From a MS. in the Public Library, Hamburg ( 15 4 Cent.) 6. From the “Liber Judaeorum'"at Manresa (1347)

427

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Badge

Badis

breast. In Poland there is no trace of the Badge,
but only of the hat, while in Crete up to the present
day some of the houses of Jews were marked with
the “ O. ”

Bibliography: Ulysse Robert, Les Signes d'Infamie , Paris,
1891, in which he reproduces the substance of his article in
Revue des Etudes Juives , vi. 81-95, vii. 94-102, with insig-
nificant additions. Robert gives full and elaborate references
for all the above statements, which summarize his main con-
clusions.

A. J.

BADGER, ROCK. See Coney.

BADGER SKINS. See Tahash.

BADHAN (from the Talmudic word m3, “to
cheer up, make laugh ”) : A merrymaker. professional
jester, whose business it is to entertain the guests at
a marriage-feast with drollery, riddles, and anec-
dotes. Whether they existed in Talmudic times is
not certain. Two men are reported to have repre-
sented themselves as such : “We are merrymakers
(“ badduhi ”) and cheer up the sad. Wheresoever we
see two men at enmity, we try to make peace be-
tween them ” (B. Ta‘an. 22a). See Marriage,
Wedding Festivities.

In the Middle Ages we find among the Jews trav-
eling merrymakers, who probably patterned them-
selves after the troubadours, and took the place of
former voluntary entertainers at weddings. Their
task was by jest, music, and humorous song to pro-
voke joviality. The name given them originally in
Jewish writings is “lezin,” a term which occurs in
“ Asufot,” by R. Elijah b. Isaac of Carcassonne, who
lived in the early part of the thirteenth century.
The jesters were obliged to possess not only comic
ability, but also a certain deal of learning, since
those jokes were appreciated most which were con-
nected with Scriptural verses or Talmudic passages.
Such scholarly comedians were in vogue largely in
the Middle Ages. As the clouds of persecution,
however, continued to gather round the Jews, mer-
riment was discouraged. R. David Levy in his
“ Ture Zahab ” (Golden Rows), which appeared about
the year 1680, inveighs against wedding festivities,
and against the fashion of engaging lezin in partic-
ular. “ At some marriage banquets,” he complains.
“ there is a custom of intoning the ‘ Kaddish, ’which is
a sin, for naught is permissible on such occasions save
the recital of the grace of God. A sin more griev-
ous, however, is to engage lezin who try to amuse
the guests with jests on Scriptural verses and holy
words. Happy the man who abstains from such ! ”
(Orali Hayyim, § 560.) Similar advocates of sober-
ness at wedding-feasts based their opposition to
merriment at such gatherings on the Mishnaic re-
port that with the siege of Jerusalem bridal proces-
sions were shorn of their festive nature, and that
with the fall of the Holy City they assumed even the
hue of mourning (Sotali ix. 13). Meantime, the wed-
ding-jester was styled “ marshallik,” a word which
is not a corruption of “masliallik,” derived from the
Hebrew “ mashal ” (= proverb, anecdote), but rep-
resents, no doubt, the old German “Marschalk,” or
“Marshall” (compare Grimm, “ Wbrterbuch,” p.1674,
also s.m.“ Schalk, Schalknarr ”). In the seventeenth
century, marslialliks prevailed in Poland and were
not held in high esteem, as is clear from a query

addressed to R. Jair Hayyim Bacharach.as to whether
it befitted a scholar who was musical to forego his
dignity and play at a wedding. Bacharach stigma-
tized the professional jester as “ a man playing the
fool in order to provoke laughter ; such a wedding is
called a seat of scoffers, for it is not real rejoicing,
but hilarity and folly ” (Responsa, § 205).

In the early days the services of the Badhan were
mainly called in at weddings, where the Badhan
amused the guests by jests of a somewhat broad
character, while the more serious discourse was given
by the rabbi. In Russia he tended to combine both
functions, delivering the address to the bridegroom
and bride as well as amusing the whole company at
table. The jests were often put in the form of
riming lines, and with the advance of the new
Hebrew poetry in the nineteenth century a change
came over the work of the Badhan which caused
him to pass from a folk-poet to a regular, however
humble, member of the literary gild. The chief
person concerned in this change was Eliakum Zijn-
ser, who applied to the verses of the Badhan the
new forms of poetry introduced by Ehrenkranz and
Broder. Zunser had a good voice and introduced
the custom of singing his own or other people’s
compositions, so that nowadays the Badhan is re-
quired to be as much a singer as a wit. Zunser has
been the founder of quite a school of badhanim.
Thus in America, where the conditions of life are
easier, they are called in on all occasions of rejoi-
cing, and often receive comparatively high fees.

Bibliography: Kohut, A nidi Completion, and Jastrow,
Diet ionary of the Talmud , s.v. n->a ; (iuedemann, Geschichte
des Erzieh u ngsivesens, iii. 189: Berliner, A m dem lnnerh
Leheil , p. 84; 2d ed. (1900), pp. 57,58; Abrahams, Jewish
Life in the Middle Ages, p. 198; Wiener, Yiddish Lit era-
. ture ; Roemer-Buchner, Die Lmtigmacher liei den Hoch-
zeiten der Juden; S. A. Hirsch, in Jew. Quart, t Rev. xiii.
8D1 et seq. For a modern portrayal of the Badhan, compare
the character of Breekeloff in Zangwill’s Children of the
Ghetto.

a II. G. R.— J.

BADIS (Mu^affar Nasir) : Oldest son of King
Halms of Granada, whom he succeeded in 1038. In
a struggle with the Berbers, who wished to make his
younger brother, Bologguin, king, he was supported
by the Arabs and by his vizier, Samuel ibn Nagdela.
After his accession to the throne, however, Badis
feared a conspiracy on the part of the Arabs and de-
termined to exterminate them. He planned to have
the Arabs in his-capital slain when they assembled
in the mosque on a Friday. The vizier, Joseph ibn
Nagdela— who had succeeded his father, Samuel, as
Badis’ vizier and counselor — tried in vain to dis-
suade him from the act. Joseph had to promise to
keep the design a secret; but in order to avert the
danger from the Arabs, he advised several noble Ara-
bian families not to visit the mosque on that Friday.
The warning was taken, and few Arabs appeared in
the mosque. Though Badis accused Joseph of hav-
ing broken his promise, he was finally convinced that
this had been the best course of action.

The king was a drunkard, and Joseph managed
all state affairs, thus arousing the hatred of the Ber-
bers, who spread the report that he had conspired
against Badis with the king of Almeria. In conse-
quence of the accusation, Joseph was murdered,
whether by the Berbers or by Badis himself is

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

428

Baeck, Samuel
Baer, Herman

unknown. Four thousand Jews shared his fate.
Badis himself was soon afterward poisoned.

Bibliography : Gratz, Gesch. der Juden , vi. 21-38 et seq ., 413

et seq.: Dozy, Gesch. der Mauren in Spanien (Leipsic,

1874), ii. 254i 291 et seq., gives a somewhat different version.

g. M. K.

BAECK, SAMUEL : German rabbi ; born at
Kromau, Moravia, April 1, 1834. His father, Nathan,
was rabbi in Kromau ; his grandfather, Abraham,
rabbi in Holitsch, Hungary. Baeck married the
daughter of Abraham Platschek, chief rabbi of
Moravia, and the son of this union, Leon, is also a
rabbi. After being educated in the public schools of
Kromau and at the Talmudical schools of Nikols-
burg (Moravia) and Presburg (Hungary), Baeck
studied at the University of Vienna, continuing his
Talmudic studies under R. Horwitz. After receiving
his diploma as rabbi from the chief rabbi Placzek
of Boskowitz, he was appointed rabbi at Bohmisch
Leipa, and was afterward called as rabbi to the cele-
brated community of Lissa, province of Posen, which
position he holds at present (1902). He is a member
of the municipal school committee and of the
“Waisenrat,” instructor in the Jewish religion at the
gymnasium, and is a delegate to the Deutscli-Israe-
litisclien Gemeindebund. He was the first to advocate
with success the introduction of the teaching of the
Jewish religion in the colleges of Prussia. The
published works of Samuel Baeck are: “Inder und
Hebriier”; “ErzUhlungen und Religionssiitze der
Heiligen Sclirift,” Lissa, 1875, 2d ed. 1886; “Sys-
tematisclie Religionssiitze der Heiligen Sclirift,”
ib. 1875; “Geschichte des Judischen Volkes und
Seiner Literatur vom Babylouisclien Exile bis auf
die Gegenwart,” ib. 1878, 2d ed., 1894; “Die Hala-
chistische und Responsen Literatur, die Literatur
der Darshanim, Sittenlelirer, und Apologeten,” in
Winter and Wunsche, “ Jiidisclie Literatur,” vols. ii.
and iii. S.

BAENA, FRANCISCO DE : Spanish poet of
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, brother of
Juan Alfonso de Baena, and secretary to the gov-
ernor Diego de Ribera. One of his poems appears
in his brother’s “ Cancionero. ” Recent investigation
points to the conclusion that De Baena’s given
names, instead of Francisco, were Fernando Alfonso,
and that he was the father of the Spanish trouba-
dour Anton de Montoro.

Bibliography : Rafael Ramirez de Arellano, Anton de Mon-
toro, p. 6, Madrid, 1900.

d. M. K.

BAENA, JUAN ALFONSO DE : Spanish
troubadour in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries;
born at Baena, Cordova. He was “escribano es-
cribiente ” (notarial secretary) at the court of John II.
Under the title “ Cancionero del Judino Juan Alfonso
de Baena,” he collected the productions of the poet-
ical coterie of the courts of John I., Henry III., and
more particularly of John II. of Castile: “those of
the friars and monks, the masters of theology, the
knights and the squires, and various others.” These
different poems — which, in their entirety, give a
perfectly rounded picture of the “gaya sciencia,” as
the art of poesy was called — recorded the social life
and doings of this circle, for the amusement of the

king and his court. This “Cancionero,” or song-
book, is the oldest Castilian and the only court song-
book of the country, and it contains the poems (writ-
ten mostly for special occasions) of fifty -five authors,
all belonging to the Sevillan school of poetry, as
distinguished from the Valencian school. Among
these poets are a number of Maranos — Pero Ferrus,
one of the oldest but also the most decadent of them
all; Garci Fernandez de Jerena, and others — who
wrote malicious satirical songs about their former
coreligionists. De Baena, “this Judino” as he was
called, was well versed in the poetry of his country,
particularly so in satire and poetical letters. His
“ Cancionero ” contains “ requestas ” and “ decires ”
(apothegms) by him.

The “Cancionero de Baena” was first published at
Madrid in 1851 by Gayangos and Pidal, with an ex-
cellent introduction by the same; and then by Fran-
cisque Michel, Leipsic, 1852.

As a Marano De Baena met with much hostility.

Bibliography: F. Wolf, Studien zur Span, und Portug.

Literatur, p. 205; Ticknor, Hist, of Spanish Literature, i.

542; J. Amador de los Rios, Los Judios dc Espaiia, pp. 406

et seq., Madrid, 1848 ; Kayserling, Sephardim, pp. 69 et seq.

d. M. K.

BAER, BEER, BEHR: Jewish praenomen and
family name, derived from the German “ Bar ” (bear).
The Jews of Germany, like those of other countries,
borrowed their names from their non-Jewisli fellow-
citizens; chiefly when equivalents of these names
could be found in the Bible. Because the patriarch
Jacob (Gen. xlix. passim) compared the qualities of
some of his children to those of certain animals, the
Jews eagerly adopted as proper names the German
designations for these animals, such as “Baer,”
“Wolf,” “Lowe.” The older forms “Bera,” “Bero”
occur in the Memorbuclis (compare the old High
German “ Bero ”).

Among the Polish and Russian Jews, the name
“Baer” assumed various diminutive forms, such as
“Baeril,” “Baerusli,” and “Baerke.” All these are
rendered in Hebrew by “ Dob ” or “ Issacliar ” ; and as
such the name is used for synagogal and literary
purposes. Later “Baer” became a family name,
which, however, did not always retain its original
spelling, the German “ii” being variously rendered
in non-German countries.

Bibliography : Zunz, Namcn der Juden. p. 26 ; Salfeld, Mar-

tqrolorjium dcs Nlirnbcrger Memorbuchcs, p. 388.

G. I. BU.

BAER, ABRAHAM : German cantor, musi-
cian, and composer; born in Russia Dec. 26, 1834;
died at Gothenburg, Sweden, March 7, 1894. His
father destined him for the rabbinate; but his love
for music and the song of the synagogue caused him
to elect the cantorate. At an early age he emigrated
to Germany, and there under the tutelage of eminent
hazanim prepared himself for his sacred calling.
He officiated for a time at Pakosh and Schwetz in
West Prussia, and at twenty-three (1857) was called
to Gothenburg, Sweden. Well equipped with He-
brew and Talmudic learning, he applied himself
with remarkable success to the acquisition of secu-
lar knowledge and the science and art of music. His
researches were especially directed to the field of
Jewish traditional melodies, then but little explored.

429

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baeck, Samuel
Baer, Herman

These lie collected with great patience and industry;
and in 1871, after fifteen years of incessant labor,
published his work, “Ba‘al Tefillah, oder der Prac-
t.ische Vorbeter” — an almost complete collection of
Jewish traditional melodies, of which a second re-
vised and enlarged edition (358 pp. folio) appeared
in 1883. The work contains fifteen hundred and five
melodies, in German, Polish, and Portuguese (Seph-
ardic) versions, and is divided into four parts: (l)for
the services on week-days ; (2) for Sabbath ; (3) for
the three festivals Pesal.i, Shabu'ot, and Sukkot;
(4) for the two great holidays, Kosh ha-Shanah and
Yom lia-Ivippurim; together with an appendix con-
taining notes on the liturgy, the reading of the Torah,
and directions and formulas for writing betrothal
and marriage contracts. The collection is more com-
plete in German and Polish melodies than in Portu-
guese. Occasionally a fourth version is appended,
called by the compiler “Neue Weise,” but this seems
to be his own composition or that of other modern
cantors. The collection is of great value both to the
student and the practical cantor. The latter can find
therein all traditional tunes of the synagogue — most
of which were theretofore to be acquired orally from
older liazanim alone. Many of the more familiar
melodies had been collected and published before
Baer by Sulzerand Weintraub ; and melody No. 714,
p. 160, is found even in a work published in the
eighteenth century by Benedetto Marcello, called
“ Estro Poetico Armenico,” in which it appears under
the head of “Intonazione degli Ebrei Spagnuoli.”

s. A. Kai.

BAER (ABRAHAM), ADOLF : German phy-
sician and medico-forensic author; born in the prov-
ince of Posen, Prussia, Dec. 26, 1834; educated at the
universities of Vienna, Prague, and Berlin. From
the last-named institution he received his degree of
doctor of medicine in 1861. Baer engaged in prac-
tise as a physician in Naugard, province of Pome-
rania, Prussia, in the following year, and in 1866
became physician of the prison there. In 1872 he
was appointed chief physician of the prison at Plot-
zensee, near Berlin, and in 1879 was elected physi-
cian to the board of health, with the title “Ge-
lieimer Sanitatsratli.” In the course of his prison
duties Baer noticed the alarming connection between
alcohol and crime, and in consequence turned his
attention to the prevention of the use of intoxicants,
contributing many articles on this subject to the
medical and other journals.

Among Baer’s many essays and books may be
mentioned the following: “Die Gefiinguisse, Straf-
anstalten, und Strafsysteme, Ihre Einrichtung und
Wirkung in Hygienischer Beziehung,” Berlin, 1871 ;
“Der Alkoliolismus, Seine Verbreitung und Wir-
kung auf den Individuellen und Sozialen Organis-
mus, Sowie die Mittel Ihu zu Bekampfen,” Ber-
lin, 1878; “ Gefitngniss-Hygiene,” in Pettenkofer
and Ziemssen’s “Handbuch der Hygiene,” Munich,
1882; “Der Alkoholmissbrauch.” in “ Vierteljalires
sclirift fur Oeffentliche Gesundlieits-Pflege,” 1882,
vol. xiv. ; “Ueber das Vorkommen von Phthisis in
den Gefitngnissen,” in “Zeitschrift fiir Kliuische
Medizin,” 1883, vi. ; “Gesetzliclie Maassregeln zur
Bekiimpfung der Trunksucht,” in “Preussische

Jahrbuelier,” 1884, lvi. ; “Morbiditfit und Mortalitiit
in den Gefitngnissen,” in Holtzendorf and VonJage-
mann’s “Handbuch des Gefaugnisswesens,” Ham-
burg, 1888; “Die Trunksucht und Ihre Abwelir,”
Vienna, 1890; “Die Verbrecher in Anthropologischer
Beziehung,” June, 1897.

Baer is also a contributor to Eulenburg’s “Real-
encyclopadie der Gesammteu Heilkunde.”

Bibliography : Hirscb, Btographisches Lex ikon, s.v.; Pagel,

idem, s.v.

s. F. T. H.

BAER, ASHER : Russian mathematician and
engraver; born at Seiny, government of Suwalk, in
the first quarter of the nineteenth century; died at
Jerusalem in 1897. He made many important dis-
coveries in mathematics and especially in mechanics,
the detailed accounts of which are given in the
“ Konigsberger Zeitung,” supplement to No. 211,
Sept. 11, 1859. Among others he discovered a
method by which the same force causes two differ-
ent movements of two equal cog-wheels to dovetail
with each other (ib. No. 8, Jan. 11, 1856). His en-
gravings were awarded a prize at the Konigsberg
Exhibition of 1858 (“Journal of the Politechnische
Gesellschaft zu Konigsberg,” Oct. 9. 1858, p. 41).
The German press of that time devoted many articles
to Baer’s valuable inventions, and Ossip Rabbinovich
and O. Wohl in the Russo-Jewish periodicals “Raz-
svyet” and “Ha-Karmel” (Russian supplement to
“Ha-Karmel,” 1860, No. 37, “Wilenski Vyestnik,”
1861, No. 19) spoke highly of his talent. In the later
part of the sixties Baer went to Jerusalem, whence he
wrote correspondence for many years for the“Ha-
Maggid ” and other Hebrew periodicals. H. R.

BAER, DOB B. SAMUEL: Polish Hasidic
writer of the end of the eighteenth century. He is
the author of “ Sliibliei ha-Besht ” (Praises of Israel
Ba‘al Shem-Tob), which his son Judah Lob pub-
lished after his death, in 1815. The book, which is
a collection of the legends current in Hasidic circles
anent. the founder of Hasidism, is also of great his-
torical value. Baer, being a son-in-law of the Alex-
ander who was for several years a secretary of
Besht, received from his father-in-law valuable
information on the origin of Hasidism, and on the
founder of the sect ; hence his book is almost the
only source of authentic information on those sub-
jects. The book exists in two different versions, one
being the Kopys edition (1815), and the other being
that of Berditscliew of the same year; in the latter
many legends are omitted which are found in the
former, especially those that might give offense on
account of their extraordinary nature. Later edi-
tions, of which there are perhaps twelve, follow
either of these editions, and some are combinations
of the two.

Bibliography: A. Kaliana, R. Yisrael Ba'al Shem-Tob , 1900,

p. 67.

K. L. G.

BAER, HERMAN: American author; born of
Jewish parents at Herxheim, Germany, Jan. 29,
1830; died at Charleston, S. C., Jan. 2, 1901. He
emigrated to America when a lad of seventeen, and
settled in Charleston, where he obtained employ-
ment as compositor and proof-reader in the office of

Baer, Israel
Baer of Meseritz

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

430

the “ Southern Christian Advocate ” in 1848, in which
year, too, he joined the Methodist Church. Baer
taught German, French, and general topics in pri-
vate families, and in 1852 became a teacher in the
preparatory department of Woffard College (Meth-
odist), at Spartanburg, S. C., from which institution
he himself graduated in 1858. In 1861 he took the
degree of M. D. from the Charleston Medical College,
and served as surgeon through the Civil war, on the
close of which he engaged in business as a wholesale
druggist in Charleston.

Throughout his life Baer never lost his taste for
literature, and he was a frequent contributor to
church papers. Although a foreigner, he early ac-
quired such a mastery of English as to be considered
in his neighborhood an authority on English style.
He was thrice married. In 1888 the Methodist
Church Publishing House produced a book by Baer,
entitled “Jewish Ceremonials.”

a. F. de S. M.

BAER, ISRAEL. See Ashkenazi, Baermann.

BAER, ISSACHAR B. ELHANAN : Rabbi
at Eibenschutz; born at Fran kfort-on-the- Oder in
the second half of the seventeenth century. He was
the author of a collection of cabalistic homilies and
commentaries, entitled “ Arba‘ Harashim ” (Four
Skilful Artificers), divided into four parts : (1) “ Kisse
Dawid” (The Throne of David), concerning the things
of Judah (39 chapters); (2) “Kin ’at Efrayim ” (The
Jealousy of Ephraim), regarding the kings of Israel
(42 chapters) ; (3) “ Ruah Hen ” (The Spirit of
Grace), commentaries upon the prophets mentioned
in the First Prophets ; (4) “ Rab Berakot ” (Abundance
of Blessings), concerning the priests. Only the first
two volumes were published (Frankfort-on-the-Oder,
1710).

Bibliography: Fuenn, Kenesct Yisrael, p. 178; Benjacob,

Ozar ha-Sefarim, p. 48.

K. I. Br.

BAER, ISSACHAR BEN PETHAHIAH

BEN MOSES: Cabalist; lived at Kremnitz, Hun-
gary, at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
He seems to have traveled in the East and sojourned
some time at Safed ; and he frequently refers in his
writings to the cabalistic school established in that
place. Baer is the author of the following works:
(1) “Pithe Yah” (The Gates of God) — divided into
ten chapters, containing an introduction to the
Cabala, on the basis of Cordovero’s “ Pardes Rimo-
nim,” Prague, 1609; (2) “ Yesh Sakar ” (There Is Re-
ward), containing all the ritual laws found in the
Zohar, Prague, 1609 ; (3) “ Mekor Hokmali ” (Source
of Wisdom) — explanations of the difficult words and
expressions of the Zohar, with an appendix contain-
ing all the legends found in the Zohar, Prague, 1610;
(4) “ Yod‘e Binah ” (They Who Have Understanding),
a large work on the Zohar that does not seem to have
been printed.

Bibliography: Wolf. Bibliotheca Hehrcea, iii. 638; Jellinek,

in Literaturblatt des Orients, vii. 254; Steinschneider, Cat.

Bodl. cols. 1064-85.

k. I. Br.

BAER, ISSACHAR BEN SOLOMON: Bib-
lical and rabbinical commentator; died at Wilna in
1807. He was the brother of Elijah b. Solomon, the

Wilna gaon, and like him was distinguished for sim-
plicity and lucidity in commenting on Biblical and
rabbinical topics. Besides Bible and Talmud, Baer
studied mathematics and geography. His commen-
tary on the Pentateuch, the manuscript of which was
burned a few years ago, followed a double method:
explaining first the simple, literal meaning of the
text, like Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and Nahmanides; sec-
ondly, giving to it a philosophical and sometimes a
mystical interpretation. He left also a commentary
on the Talmud and Sliulhan ‘Aruk.

Bibliography: Fuenn, Kiryah Nei’manah, p. 201: I. H.
Lewin, 'Alvyot Eliyahu, ed. 1889, p. 40 ; compare also Keneset
Yisrael, i. 46, part Orn t Me-Ofel, where a work. Mine Tar-
yima (on foreign terms in Talmud), is ascribed to him, the
manuscript of which is in possession of Dr. Berliner.
h. G. M. B.

BAER, ISSACHAR B. LEYSER. See Eilen-

BURG.

BAER, JOSEPH : Founder of a firm of book-
sellers of Frankfort-on-the Main; born in the last half
of the eighteenth century ; died in 1851. A small sec-
ond-hand bookseller’s stall was established by Baer at
Boekenheim in 1785. After encountering many ob-
stacles, he succeeded in obtaining citizenship at Frank-
fort, and settled thereupon in that city, carrying on
a trade in second-hand books. The business subse-
quently developed, and became one of the greatest
in Germany. Many of the great European libraries,
among them the Imperial Public Library of St. Peters-
burg, are largely dependent on it for their supply of
rare works. On the occasion of its centenary (1885)
the firm published a jubilee catalogue of 10,000 works
in its second-hand department.

Bibliography : Jewish Chronicle, p. 15, Oct. 30, 1885.
s. B. B.

BAER (DOB) OF MESERITZ (known also as
the “ Maggid [Preacher] of Meseritz ”) : First apostle
of Hasidism and its most important propagator;
born in YTolhynia in 1710; died in Meseritz, Dec. 15,
1772. Little is known of Baer’s youth, and scarcely
more of the interval preceding his conversion to Has-
idism. In all probability he was educated, according
to the custom then prevalent in Poland, in Talmud-
ical and rabbinical lore. He preached in Rownoand
Meseritz. Though never a rabbi, Baer was an accom-
plished Talmudist so far as is known, despite the
contrary assertions of his opponents. A dreamy and
speculative nature such as his was sure, however, to
realize that it could find no satisfaction in Talmudic-
rabbinical dialectics. Accordingly he became a
convert to Luria’s system of Cabala, then popular.
At the same time he was an enthusiastic admirer
of Moses Hayyim Luzzatto (see Walden, “Shem
ha-Gedolim,” s.v. “M. H. Luzzatto”), whose wri-
tings, then only in manuscript, had considerable re-
nown among the Polish mystics of that day. Baer fol-
lowed the precepts of the Lurian school with intense
earnestness, and in consequence lived the life of an
ascetic. He fasted a great deal, denied himself both
the necessaries and comforts of life,
His Early and prayed with copious tears and
Asceticism, self-abasement. He sought to impart
his ideals to others, and, as a preacher,
dilated in glowing periods to the people upon the
horrors of a material hell, certain to be the reward of

431

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baer, Israel
Baer of Meserjtz

him who indulged in the comforts of earthly life.
As Baer had neither a fortune, nor any salary as
preacher in Rownoor in Meseritz, he lived in abject
poverty despite his few needs. This lack of nourish-
ment, together with his ascetic mode of life, gradu-
ally made him a cripple.

It was the broken state of his health that caused
Baer to seek Beslit, though he found in him a phy-
sician for the soul rather than for the body. The
date of their meeting, and the manner in which
Besht brought about the conversion of the seemingly
confirmed ascetic, are not accurately known. The
Hasidic legend concerning this episode has it that
Baer, who had heard much of Besht. visited him to
satisfy himself of the truth or falsity of the current
reports of Besht’s remarkable powers. Arrived at
the latter’s house, and admitted to his
His Visit presence, Baer expected to hear pro-
to Besht. found mysteries expounded ; instead,
Besht merely related to him numerous
stories of every-day life. Hearing only similar
stories at each subsequent visit, Baer decided to
return home. But just as he was about to set out,
at a late hour of the night, he was summoned to
Besht's house. Without preliminary explanation,
Besht opened the “Ez Hayyim” of Hayyim Vital,
and asked Baer to elucidate a certain passage. The
latter did so to the best of his ability ; but Besht
declared that Baer knew nothing of the real meaning
of the passage, and proceeded to give his explana-
tion. As he did so — so runs the legend — the dark-
ness suddenly gave way to light, and angels ap-
peared eagerly listening to Besht’s words. “Your
explanations,” said he to Baer, “were correct, but
your deductions were thoughts without any soul in
them.” This experience induced Baer to remain in
Besht’s vicinage.

The legend is correct in so far as it intimates that
Baer learned through his connection with Besht to
value every-day things and events, and to empha-
size the proper spirit through which alone the study
of the Torah is made a source of knowledge and en-
lightenment. Under the guidance of Besht, Baer
abandoned his ascetic mode of life, and in conse-
quence recovered from the disease which had led him
to seek out the Hasid leader. Although their inter-
course covered not more than the last two years of
Besht’s life, yet the association was intimate enough
to cause Baer to be considered as Besht’s heir pre-
sumptive, even during the lifetime of the founder
of Hasidism. Baer’s reputation as a preacher and
an ascetic on the one side, and his au-
Leader of tliority as a Talmudist on the other,
the made him an ideal leader for the Hasi-
Hasidim. die movement. Directed, as it was,
against the learned men of the cus-
tomary type, the propaganda needed an expert Tal-
mudist to prolong its life beyond the demise of its
founder. Baer was the only man capable of leading
the masses, and at the same time of impressing the
learned world.

Immediately after the death of Besht (1760), Baer
assumed the leadership of the sect, there being no
opposition to him from any quarter. As its ac-
knowledged leader, he sought to free Hasidism from
the authority of the rabbis by the introduction of a

new ritual and other innovations. Incidentally, he
endeavored to make himself the spiritual and material
focus of the cult. The introduction of the Lurian
prayer-book, from which all the medieval piyyutim.
are excised, was the first manifesto of Hasidism,
giving notice that it was henceforth not merely the
possession of the few chosen ones, but the property of
the masses. But in order better to reach the multi-
tude, Baer had to appoint apostles to spread his-
teachings. Jacob Joseph ha-Kohen,

Spread of Elimeleeh of Lyzensk, his brother Me-
Hasidism. shullam Suse, and Nahum of Tseher-
nobyl, some of the more important of
Baer’s emissaries, traveled from place to place spread-
ing the new dispensation. While they appealed to
the imagination and sympathies of the people at large
through their discourses, Baer endeavored to attract
to himself the most intelligent portion of the younger
element. His powers must have been considerable,
for he converted such Talmudists as the brothers
Horwitz, both Phineas and Samuel, and such phil-
osophical natures as Slmeor Zolman of Ladie, and
Meudc-l of Witebsk, In contrast to Besht, the man of
the people, who walked about, pipe in mouth, chat-
ting to and entertaining whom he met, Baer never
relinquished the student habits of a Polish Talmud-
ist. Concerning his mode of life and home, Solomon
Maimon states that Baer passed the entire week in his
room, permitting only a few confidants to enter. He
appeared in public only on the Sabbath, arrayed in
white satin, white being the symbolic color of mercy
in the Cabala. On such occasions he prayed with
people, and kept open house for those desirous of
eating at his table. After the meal he would begin
to chant a soul-stirring melody, and,
His Public placing his hand upon his forehead,
Audiences, would call upon all new adherents-
present to quote any verse in the Bible
they desired. These served as texts for Baer’s subse-
quent sermon. “ He was such a master in his craft
that he combined these disjointed verses into an har-
monious whole,” declares Maimon; and what seems;
to impress this chronicler as still more remarkable,
each new proselyte was made to believe that that
part of the sermon based upon his verse contained a
direct reference to such matters as lay closest to his
heart (Maimon, “ Selbstbiographie,” i. 231 et seq.).
Although it is not probable that Baer sought to play
the miracle-worker, there is no doubt that the com-
mon people considered it miraculous when some
chance remark of his happened to come true.

Thanks to the powerful personality of its leader,
Hasidism spread with remarkable rapidity. It
gained a secure foothold simultaneously in Volhynia,
Lithuania, and Little Russia. The dissolution of the
“Four-Lands” synod in 1764 proved favorable to
its spread. The Rabbis, though annoyed by the
growth of the movement, could not easily take com-
bined action, at least not such as would receive the
approval of the governmental authorities. The op-
position of the local rabbis against the well-organ-
ized movement proved futile; men among them
whose authority reached beyond their narrow sphere
of influence were few. Elijah b. Solomon, called
the “Gaon of Wilna,” was the only one whose repu-
tation extended beyond the borders of Lithuania.

Baer of Meseritz
Baer, Seligman

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

432

When Hasidism made its appearance in Wilna and
adjacent towns, Elijah, usually far removed from
earthly things, was forced to take cog-
Opposition nizance of its existence, and the first
of the anathema against Hasidism was issued
Rabbis. at Wilna April 11, 1772, when Elijah
had become convinced that the innova-
tion was antagonistic, practically and theoretically,
to Talmudic rabbinism. Baer’s envoys, his pupils
Mendel of Witebsk and Zolman of Ladie, were
not received by Elijah, who declined even to meet
the dissenters. The ban issued at Wilna drew the
eyes of the world toward Hasidism, and it needed
all the strong will and moral courage of a Baer to
hike up the gage of battle. His policy for the time
was to ignore his opponents. The proposition of
his pupils to reply to the ban by a counterban he
opposed. But the exertions and excitement conse-
quent upon the intense opposition to Hasidism over-
whelmed Baer, and he died just as the battle against
the Hasidim began in earnest, in 1772.

While Baer’s practical activity in the Hasidic
cause is well known, it is difficult to determine ex-
actly his services in the domain of theoretical Hasid-
ism. He left no writings of his own ; the two
works (1) “MaggiD DebarO le-Ya‘akoB” (the last
letters of which title spell “ Dob ”), known also under
the title of “Likkute Amarim” (Collected Sayings),
published at Koretz, 1780, and frequently reprinted;
and (2) “Likkute Yekarim” (Collected Gems), pub-
lished at Lemberg (1790?) are the only authentic ones
in existence. They consist of excerpts
Baer’s from his sermons, mechanically writ-
Published ten down and collected by his relative,
Utterances. Solomon b. Abraham of Lutzk, who,
as he himself confesses, was often ig-
norant of their meaning. The separation of the
kernel from the shell is so difficult a task in Baer’s
writings, that modern historians are puzzled to dis-
cover any system at all in Hasidism. And yet it is
of the utmost importance in the study of this sect to
become acquainted with its doctrinal side, the un-
derlying and basic principles.

The foundation of Baer’s system is Beslit’s assertion
of the omnipresence of God. Before the Creation the
world existed inpotentia Dei ; the act of creation con-
sisted in God’s Will — or Word — caus-
Funda- ing the materialization of the world,
mentals of Creation consequently implies not a
Hasidism, separation from the Creator, but merely
a manifestation of His power; and just
as the world was already in God before the Creation,
so God is in the world now, He being not only the
original cause of material things, but constituting
also their inward essence ; wherefore God is termed
“ the Preserver of all things” (Nell. ix. 6) (Heb. rpriD,
“the Auimater ”). While every existing thing is a
manifestation of God, the degrees of such manifes-
tations differ according to the higher or lower organ-
ism of things. The essence of things is for Baer the
spark of divinity which is revealed in each, both as
regards mind and matter. Baer remarks somewhat
drastically that even heathen deities have the divine
spark (VViJ) in them; for had they not, even an im-
aginary conception of their being would have been
impossible. Independent of the particles of divinity

in things, God remains an undivided substance,
for the powers manifested in various things are all
one — merely the outward appearances differ. The
relation of the one substance to the many outward
manifestations of the same, Baer explains by the ca-
balistic theory of DIVIDE (zimzum), “concentration,”
a theory that holds an important place in Hasidism,
as it did with Moses Cordovero. According to Baer
creation is in reality a species of divine self-limita-
tion. God in His endless and innumerable attributes
manifests Himself in creation, which is only one as-
pect of His activity, and which is therefore in reality
a self-limitation. And just as God in His goodness
limited Himself, and thus descended to the level of the
world and man, so it is the duty of the latter to strive
to unite with God. The removal of the outer shell
of mundane things, or, as the cabalist
The Divine terms it, “ the ascension of the [divine]
in All spark, ” being a recognition of the pres-
Things. ence of God in all terrestrial things, it
is the duty of man, if he experience
pleasure, to receive such emotion in all purity and
sanctity as a divine manifestation, for He is the
source of all pleasure.

As the degrees of divine manifestation differ ac-
cording to the nature of the various objects, it is the
purpose of the world-life to advance toward an ever
higher degree, until the perfect union with God is
attained. Thus the vegetable kingdom serves as
food for the animal kingdom, in order that the lower
manifestation of divinity, existing in the former,
may be developed into a higher one. Man being the
highest manifestation, and the crown of creation, it
is his duty to attain the highest pinnacle of develop-
ment in order to be ultimately united with God. The
only means through which man can attain commu-
nion with God is prayer, not a mechanical recital,
but that condition of ecstasy in which man forgets
self and all surroundings, and concen-
The tratesall his thought and feeling upon
Ecstasy of union with God. Like the Neo-Pla-
Prayer. tonists, Baer says that when a man
becomes so absorbed in the contem-
plation of an object that his whole power of thought
is concentrated upon the one point, then his self be-
comes blended and unified with that point. So
prayer in such a state of real ecstasy, effecting a
complete union between God and man, becomes of
extraordinary importance. It is even capable of
breaking through and overruling the accustomed
laws of the universe. While, in the natural order of
things, objects slowly ascend through a series of de-
velopments from a low plane to a higher one, prayer,
by this union with God in the moment of ecstasy,
effects a sudden ascension of the object. This of
course is conditioned by the use made of it by the
truly pious man, who alone is capable, in the mo-
ment of his ecstasy, of ennobling and edifying both
objects and actions.

This is the danger point of Hasidism. It is obvi-
ous that the ecstatic state is for the select few only.
Beslit, the founder of Hasidism, maintained that
real service to God must consist in prayer, rather
than in the study of the Torah, for the very reason
that the former is possible for all men, while the
latter is not. Besht’s first apostle complete!}" over-

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Baer, Selig-man

turned his democratic ideal. He recognizes only the
supplication of the perfectly pious, the Zaddik, who
is capable of absolutely withdrawing
The Zaddik all his thought from earthly things,
as the and concentrating it upon God. The
Exception. Zaddik, as the favorite of heaven, is the
instrument by means of which God
bestows His mercies upon the world. Because of
his union with God he is the connecting link between
God and creation, and thus the channel of blessing
and mercy. The love men bear the Zaddik is there-
fore the means to win the grace of God. The duty
of the ordinary mortal is thus to love the Zaddik,
and to be entirely subservient to him. In this con-
ception of Hasidism lies Baer’s significance ; he des-
troys the idealism which lay at the foundation of
the Hasidic movement, originating thus a tendency
which could not but result in crass superstition and
addled doctrines. Baer indeed sought hereby to es-
tablish the authority of the best, as he conceived the
Zaddik to be, in opposition to the Rabbis, who relied
upon their learning for their authority. However,
he insisted upon the precepts promulgated by
Besht, such as unselfishness, industry in doing good,
peaceableness, charity in judgment of others, tem-
perance without total abstinence, courage without
pride and insolence. The success of Hasidism under
Baer was due in great part to the ideal conceptions
and sacrifices of its early converts, who resembled
in their actions the enthusiasts among the first
Judseo-Christians. But all of this did not prevent
the appearance, soon after the inculcation by Baer of
such lofty conceptions, of less noble
The characters who impressed upon Zad-
Degenerate dikism some most pernicious features.

Zaddik. Not all of Baer’s disciples accepted
Zaddikism, at least not in its entirety.
There came to be two distinct tendencies among
Baer’s followers; the philosopho-mystic, prevalent
in Lithuania, and the practical Zaddikist, at home in
Poland and Galicia (see Cabala and Hasidism).

Bibliography : Dubnow, Voskhod, ix. Nos. 9-11 ; Gratz,

Uesch. dtr Juden, xi. 98 et seq. and note 22 ; Kohan, in Ha-

Shcthar , v. 634-639 ; Ruderman, ih. vi. 93 et seq.; Lobel, in

Suldmith , ii. 315; Rodkinsohn, Toledot 'Atnmude lm-

HaBcul , 1876, pp. 7-23.

K. L. G.

BAER B. NAPHTALI HA-KOHEN. See

Ashkenazi, Baermann.

BAER (DOB) BEN NATHAN NATA OF
PINSK ; Russian rabbi of the first half of the eight-
eenth century. He was a descendant of Rabbi
Nathan Nata Sliapiraof Cracow (who was the author
of “Megalleli ’Amukim”). Baer is the author of
“Neta‘ Slia'ashuim, ” a commentary on some parts of
the Talmud, Zolkiev, 1748.

Bibliography : Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 186, Warsaw, 1886.

H. R.

BAER, SELIGMAN (SEKEL) : Writer on
the Masorah, and editor of the Hebrew Bible ; born
atMosbach (Baden), Sept. 18, 1825; died at Biebrich-
on-the-Rhine, March, 1897.

As early as 1844, Baer commenced his Masoretic
studies. He belonged to the school of Wolf Hei-
denheim, some of whose original manuscripts were
in his possession. Few scholars in the nineteenth
IT.— 28

century had so intimate an acquaintance with all the
details of the Masorah as had Baer ; and it was largely
due to him that the study of this branch of Hebrew
philology was brought to the notice of Biblical
critics. His friendship
with Franz Delitzsch,
who stood sponsor for
much of his work,
aided him in making
known to the world the
results of his studies.

He never occupied an
academic position, but
was contented with the
office of Hebrew
teacher to the Jewish
community of Bieb-
rich. In recognition
of his services to the
Commission for the
History of the Jews in
Germany, the honorary
degree of doctor of
philosophy was conferred upon him by the LTniver-
sity of Leipsic. In conjunction with Delitzsch he
published in 1861 an edition of the Psalms (Leipsic,
Doerfling und Franke). A second edition was pub-
lished a few years later (Leipsic, Brockliaus).

In the mean time, in connection with Delitzsch,
Baer had conceived the plan of editing anew the
books of the Old Testament in Hebrew, following
strictly the Masoretic tradition. The volumes, with
a Latin preface by Delitzsch, appeared (Leipsic,
Tauchnitz) in the following order: Genesis, 1869;

Isaiah, 1872; Job, 1875; Minor Proph-

Collabo- ets, 1878; Psalms (together with a
rates with treatise “Elementa Accentuationis
Franz Metric® ”), 1880; Proverbs (together
Delitzsch. with “De Primorum Vocabulorum

Dagessatione ”), 1880; Daniel, Ezra,
and Nehemiah (together with “Clialdaismi Biblici
Adumbratio ” and a treatise by Friedrich Delitzsch
on the Babylonian proper names in these books),
were published in 1882 ; Ezekiel (with “ Specimen
Glossarii Ezecliielico-Babylonici ” by Friedrich De-
litzsch), appeared in 1884; followed by the five
Megillot, 1886; the book of Chronicles, 1888; Jere-
miah, 1890; Joshua and Judges, 1891; and finally
Kings, 1895. The last two were edited by Baer
alone, Delitzsch having died in 1890. Death pre-
vented Baer from finishing the series. Attached to
each volume were a number of Masoretic notes
taken from the best editions and manuscripts, vari-
ant readings between the Occidentals and Orientals,
between Ben Asher and Ben Naphtali, and various
other Masoretic lists and enumerations.

In general, Baer's text has been accepted as repre-
senting the Masoretic tradition ; even though excep-
tion may be taken to his view on individual points or
to his too extensive generalization from insufficient
manuscript evidence. Christian Ginsburg, in his
introduction to his Masoretic Bible (London, 1897),
has criticized a number of these faults with some
severity. He points out, among other things, that
Baer has indicated the open and closed sections in the
Prophets and the Hagiograplia, a thing not usually

Seligman Baer.

Baer, Selig-man
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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

434

done in Masoretic manuscripts (pp. 10 et seq.)-, that
he lias introduced a number of anti-Masoretic pauses
(p. 29); tliat his division of the Sedarim is faulty
(p. 41); that he has introduced the dagesli into
the first letter of words when the preceding word
ends with the same letter (p. 117), as well as the
dagesli which follows upon a guttural with silent
sliewa and a hatef-patah under the first of two simi-
lar letters (pp. 466, 662), all of which are not war-
ranted by the best manuscripts. The
Criticisms Masoretic notes at the end of Baer’s
of the edition are also criticized (p. 92), espe-
Work. daily the lists of various readings.

Further, the Aramaic paradigms at-
tached to the edition of Daniel, Ezra, and Neliemiah
have also been the subject of criticism on the part
of Kautzsch (“Grammatik des Bibliseh-Arama-
isclien,” p. 23). Many of these faults were due to
Baer’s inability to consult manuscripts in the large
European collections; yet, in spite of this, his edi
tionswill remain for some time to come the standard
Masoretic text.

Of his separate treatises dealing with the same
subject may be mentioned “ Torat Emet ” (The True
Law), 1852, Rodelheim, on the accentuation of the
poetic books of the Old Testament, of which an en-
larged edition in German, together with “Masore-
tische Uebersicliten, ” was added as an appendix to the
first edition of Delitzseli’s Commentary on the Psalter
(vol. ii. , Leipsic, 1860); “Die Metliegsetzung,” in
Merx’s “Archiv fur Wissensch. Erforschung des
Alten Testaments” (Halle, 1867, i. 55 et seq.-, but
compare Griitz, “ Monatsschrift,” 1887, p. 483); his
edition (in conjunction with H. L. Strack) of the
“Dikduke ha-Te'amim” of Aaron ben Moses ben
Asher (Leipsic, 1879); and his lengthy criticism of
Ginsburg’s Masora in “Z. D. M. G.” 743 et seq. To
the Rabbinic Bible, which was to have been published
by the Romms in Wilna (1894), Baer contributed the
Masora, a work upon which he spent many years.

What Baer did for the Old Testament, he tried also
to do for the Prayer-book. His “Seder ‘Abodat
Yisrael ” (Ritual of Israel’s Service), Rodelheim, 1868,
is accompanied by a literary and philological com-
mentary, “Yakin Lashon” (Preparatory Study of
Language), which has made the work a standard au-
thority. Attached to it is the text of the Psalms,
accurately vocalized and accented (see Kobak’s
“Jeschurun,” vi. 217; Berliner, in “Israelit,” 1868,
Nos. 24 and 26). Among Baer’s other works may
be mentioned: “Leket Zebi” [Collation of Zebi],
Sammlung von Gebeten (Rodelheim, 1855, 1861);
“Tikkun ha-Sofer welia-Kore ” (Correct Text for the
Scribe and Reader), the Masoretic text
His Other of the Pentateuch, together with the

Works. laws governing the writing of syna-
gogue scrolls (Rodelheim, 1856); “Di-
bre ha-Berit” (The Words of the Covenant), on the
prayers and observances connected with circumcision
(Rodelheim, 1871) ; “ Tozeot Hayyim” (Issue of Life),
prayers for the dead (ib. 1871), and “Zibhe Zedek ”
(Sacrifices of Righteousness) on Shehitah (ib. 1876).

During the latter part of his life, Baer ventured
into the field of history, and translated for the Com-
mission for the History of the Jews in Germany the
Hebrew accounts of the persecutions at the time of

the Crusades (“Quellen zur Geschiclite der Juden
in Deutschland,” ii., Berlin, 1892). The venture was
not successful, as Brann has shown in “Monats-
schrift,” xxx vii. 196 et seq., 286 et seq.

Bibliography : Jewish Chronicle, March 12, 1897, p. 12 ; com-
pare Allgemeine Zcit. des Judenthums, 1895, p. 467.

s. G.

BAER (DOB) BEN SHRAGA : Author; lived
in Berlin at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
He wrote “ Nahale Debash ” (Streams of Honey),
Berlin, 1832, which contains many extracts from
various Hebrew books dealing mainly with philo-
sophical and ethical subjects.

L. G. J. CH.

BAER (DOB) BEN URI PH(EBUS : Author,
of the eighteenth century. He resided at Altona,
Germany, where in 1737 he wrote “Be’er-Tob” (A
Good Explanation), containing casuistic and liomi-
letical explanations to the Talmud.

l. g. J. Ch.

BAERMANN, ISSACHAR I. See Ashke-
nazi, Baermann.

BAERMANN OF LIMBURG: German wri-
ter; lived at Frankfort-on-the-Main at the end of the
seventeenth century and at the beginning of the
eighteenth. He published (Frankfort-on-the-Main,
1712) a Judaeo-German play, with the Hebrew title
“Mekirat Yosef” (The Sale of Joseph), destined for
the Feast of Purim, which excited great interest.
It was performed in Frankfort qn the Feast of
Purim, 1713, with much success, many Christians
being present. The actors were Jewish students
from Prague and Hamburg. The same comedy was
acted at Metz, and became a favorite Purim play
among the Polish Jews generally.

Bibliography: Scliudt, Jlldische Merkwilrdigkeiten, ii. 314;

Abrahams. Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, pp. 263, 264 ;

Steinsehneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 769.

G. I. Br.

BAERWALD, HERMANN : German educa-
tor; born at Nakel, in the province of Posen, Nov. 7,
1828. His academic education began at the gym-
nasium of Konitz, continued at the Elisabeth-Gym-
nasium of Breslau, supplemented by a couple of
years spent under the inspiring influence of Gustav
A. Stenzel, then the head of a school devoted to the
study of philology and history, and wound up at the
University of Berlin, where he became an object of
Leopold von Ranke’s interest, who greatly influenced
Baerwald’s future career. With his academic titles
gained at the Prussian capital, Baerwald proceeded
in 1856 to Vienna, only to be called three years later
to Berlin to fill an important place at the Jewish
Teachers’ Seminary of that city. Here he remained
till 1868, when a call was extended to him from the
Jewish community of Frankfort-on-the-Main to act
thereafter as the director of their realschule for boys
and girls known under the name of the “ Philan-
thropin.” A more favorable field for the realization
of Baerwald’s great qualities could not be found.

Baerwald was possessed of a deep longing to spread
light and relieve human misery, and a noble pres-
ence, rendered magnetic by a charm of manner and
a soft, melodious voice, opened to him every heart
and even many a capacious purse for the benefit of

435

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Baer, Seligman
Bag-dad

the needy. Baerwald is a member of the central
committee of the Alliance Israelite Universelle in
Paris. There is hardly a benevolent institution in
Frankfort that has not felt his benign influence. The
name of the young men who are indebted to Baer-
wald for their making is legion. After an activity
of thirty-one years at the Philanthropin, Baerwald
retired from the office he had filled with considerable
honor under general manifestations of admiration
and gratitude.

Baerwald is the author of: “Formelbuch,” “His-
torische Miscellen: Lebensrettung Kaiser Otto II.
durcli den Juden Kalonymus,” in Wertheimer’s
“ Jahrbuch,” 1857; and “Zur Gescliichte der Israeli-
tischen Real- und Volksscliule in Frankfurt am Main
von 1804-1822,” 1875.

s. H. I.

BAEZA : City in the province of Jaen, Spain,
which, as early as the Moorish rule, had a consider-
able Jewish community that suffered greatly dur-
ing the war between Castile and Mohammed al-Nasir
in 1212. In 1391 there was great slaughter among
the Jews of Baeza; the survivors being spared only
on condition of submitting to baptism. Five years
later, only Maranos were left, in the city ; and many
of these, in 1473, fell victims to the fury of the pop-
ulace, as in Cordova and in other cities, while others
were saved through the protection of the count de
Cabra, governor of the city.

Bibliography : J. Amador de los Rios, Histnria de los Judios

en Espana , ii. 401, iii. 159.

g. M. K.

BAG : A comprehensive term in the A. V. for
various Hebrew words. The most adequate He-
brew expression for a large bag is “harit” (compare
Arabic), which can contain a talent of silver, as in II
Kings v. 23. The same word occurs in the list of
woman’s apparel and ornaments, given in Isa. iii. 22,
and is usually understood as a satchel (thus R. V. ;
“crisping pins,” A. V.). In Gen. xlii. 25 the gen-
eral term for a vessel (“ keli ”) to carry grain is freely
translated “bag,” being used interchangeably with
“sack.” In I Sam. ix. 7, xxi. 6, the same word —
A. V. “ vessels ” — denotes the receptacles for carry-
ing food, which need not necessarily have been bags.
In I Sam. xvii. 40, 49, it stands for the same word
(“vessel,” A. V., margin) in “the shepherd’s bag.”
The Hebrew text seems to mean rather “a shep-
herd’s outfit” in a much more general sense (com-
pare Zecli. xi. 15, “the instruments of a foolish shep-
herd ”).

There is, furthermore, the small bag (“kis”), con-
taining the weights of the merchant (Deut. xxv. 13;
Prov. xvi. 11; Micali vi. 11) carried in the girdle;
and perhaps another containing his money (Isa. xlvi.
6; rendered “purse,” Prov. i. 14). Another word
for the small money-bag is “ zeror ” (Prov. vii. 20 ;
Hag. i. 6; “bundle,” Gen. xlii. 35; I Sam. 25, 29:
compare the denominative verb “to put up or to
bind in bags,” II Kings xii. 10 [Hebr. 11], see mar-
gin). The word is used in a more general sense,
perhaps, in Job xiv. 17. In Cant. i. 13 the “bundle
of myrrh ” seems to mean a little perfume-bag hung
around the neck of a woman.

J. JR. W. M. M.

BAGDAD : Capital of the Turkish vilayet of the
same name, which is situated in lower Mesopotamia
on both sides of the Tigris. The vilayet formerly
extended from Diabekr to Yemen, with the Persian
frontier as its eastern border ; but in 1878 the vilayet
of Mosul was separated from it, and in 1884 also that of
Bassora. According to Arabic tradition, the town
of Bagdad was founded in the middle of the eighth
century by the Abbassid calif Abu Ja'far Mansur.
But the fact that a Babylonian city named Bagdad
is already mentioned in the Talmud (Ket. 74, Zeb.
9a) proves that the calif Mansur only rebuilt and
enlarged the old Persian City of Bagdad. That Bag-
dad was originally a Persian city is also proved by
the name, which is Persian. Being situated on the
left bank of the Tigris, the town was in close proxim-
ity to the two centers of Jewish spiritual life, Sura
and Pumbedita. As the calif was anxious to see the
population of his new residence increase, he offered
no resistance to Jews settling there and forming a
community. They became so numerous that one dff
the bridges over the Karkhaya canal in the western
suburb was called “Kantarah-al-Yahud ” or Jews’
Bridge, also Bridge of the Jews’ Fief (G. Le Strange,
“Baghdad under Abbaside Caliphate,” p. 150), and
Yakut mentions that the Jewish quarter, called
“ Dar al-Yaliud,” was in the neighborhood (iv.1045).
The Jews were, of course, occasionally troubled by
revivals of the restrictions to which non-Moslems
were subject. These regulations were first renewed
by Harun al-Rashid (786-809), who ordered that Jews
and Christians should wear distinguishing marks on
their clothing, refrain from riding on horseback, and
suffer other similar humiliations. Aft-
Under the crward these restrictions were relaxed,
Abbassid but were again imposed by Al-Muta-

Califs. wakkil (880), who went so far as to
convert the synagogues into mosques.
Notwithstanding this, Jews are found holding state
offices under Al-Mutadid (892-902).

As the seat of the califate, Bagdad soon rose to a
conspicuous height. It was a home for Jewish
learning; and a number of men prominent in the
history of that time had their home there. Aaron
ben Samuel ha-Nasi, of Babylon, the mystic of
the ninth century, came to Italy from this city
(Graetz,“ History of the Jews,” Hebrew transl., v.,
Appendix, p 46). Its importance at the time of the
Geonim must not be underrated, as it is often men-
tioned at this time under the name of “ Babylon ”
(feu) (see Babylonia). (On the name nj’iy, see
Steinschneider, “Polem. und Apolog. Lit.” p. 293;
idem, “Hebr. Bibl.” xiii. 90; “Jewish Quarterly Re-
view,” xii. 115). Bagdad belonged rather to Pum-
bedita than to Sura; but the heads of the Jewish
community in both places came to the calif’s city in
order to swear allegiance to the “resh galuta” or ex-
ilarch (Geiger, “ Wissenschaftliche Zeitsclirift,” v.
398; Griitz, “Gesch. der Juden," v. 479).

The Jews of Bagdad must have been affected by
the Karaite schism. Ishmael of ‘Akbara (c. 840)
came from a place only seven miles from the city ;
and Abu al-Sari Salh ben Mazliali (eleventh century)
preached publicly in the streets against the Rabbin-
ites. He was answered in the same way by Jacob
ben Samuel (Graetz, “ History of the Jews, ” Hebrew

Bagdad

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

436

transl., iii. 311). Abu Imran al-Za‘farani,the founder
of a uew sect, was bom in Bagdad in tlie ninth cen-
tury (Graetz, ib. iii. 508).

At the time of the calif Al-Mutadid the Jews of
Bagdad fared well on account of the kind treatment
accorded to them by the vizier ‘Ubaid Allah ibu
Sulaiman. The heads of the community were Joseph
ben Phineas and Natira (Graetz, ib. iii. 274). The
gaon Aaron ibn Sargada (943-960) came from Bag-
dad, and it was here that his relative, Kaslier ibn
Abraham, was called upon to settle a dispute in
which he had become involved (Graetz, ib. iii. 306,
308). About the year 950 the grammarian Dunash
ben Labrat wTas in Bagdad; and in this city the
gaons Hai, Kimui bar Rab Ahai, and Yehudai bar
Samuel were officials (Tijaa N331 TH) before go-
ing to Pumbedita. According to Hai (died 1038)
the Bagdad Jews of his day were accustomed to say
the ‘Abodah of the Day of Atonement both at the
igorning and musaf service (Graetz, ib. iii. 166). It
is also probable that the exegete and traveler Abra-
ham ibn Ezra visited Bagdad between the years
1138 and 1140 (see his commentary to Ex. xxv. 18).
Ibn Ezra’s son Isaac, who probably came with him,
and was baptized, wrote in Bagdad (1143) a poem
in honor of another convert, Nathaniel Hibat Allah
(“Kokbe Yizliak,” 1858, p. 23; Graetz, “History of
the Jews,” Hebr. transl., iv., Appendix, p. 47).

During the twelfth century the Jews of Bagdad
attained again some measure of self-government.
The calif Al-Muktafi appointed a wealthy man, Sam-
uel ben Hisdai, exilarcli in Bagdad. He gathered
the taxes, paying a certain portion over into the
state treasury ; and all important ap-
In the pointments had to receive his sanc-

Twelfth tion. Both Benjamin of Tudela and

Century. Pethaliiah of Regensburg visited Bag-
dad, and have left interesting infor-
mation regarding the Jews there. According to
Benjamin, there were at his time in the city 23 syn-
agogues, 1,000 Jewish families, and 10 yeshibot (rab-
binical schools). According to Pethaliiah, however,
“ At Bagdad there are three synagogues, besides that
built by Daniel on the spot on which the angel
stood on the brink of the river, ... as is written
in the Book of Daniel.” Pethaliiah adds: “The
head of the academy has many servants. They flog
any one not immediately executing disorders; there-
fore people fear him. . . . He is clothed in gold and
colored garments like the king; his palace also is
hung with costly tapestries like that of the king.”

The most prominent heads of the yeshibot were
at that time Ali and his son Samuel. David Alroy
studied under Ali at the time Hisdai was exilarcli
(Wiener, “ ‘Emek ha-Baka,” pp. 27, 167; “Sliebet
Yelmdah,” ed. Wiener, p. 50; Sambari, inNeubauer,
“Medieval Jewish Chronicles,” i. 123; Graetz, “His-
tory of the Jews,” Hebrew transl., iv. 317). The
reputation of Samuel seems to have spread far and
wide; for we learn that Rabbi Moses of Kiev (3Vp)
came from Russia especially to receive information
from him (Epstein, in “ Monatssclirift,” xxxix. 511,
512; Graetz, ib. iv. 44). It was this same Samuel
who, in later years, was a determined opponent of
Maimonides, and who made Bagdad for the time a
very hotbed of anti-Maimonist intrigue (Graetz, ib.

Appendix, p. 34). Maimonides’ favorite pupil, Ibn
Aknin, had formed a plan of opening a school at
Bagdad for the purpose of propagating his mas-
ter’s teachings. Maimonides, however, advised him
against such an action, as he wished to spare him
the opposition which he knew Ibn Aknin would en-
counter (Gi'iitz, “Gescli. der Juden,” vi. 362). Dan-
iel, the son of Hisdai, followed his father in office:
blithe left no sou; and though two of his cousins
in Mosul pretended to hold office, the short-lived
recrudescence of the resli galuta was at an end
(Gratz, “Gescli. der Juden,” vi. 460; Hebrew transl.,
iv. 459, Appendix, p. 59). The anonymous author
of the Hebrew-Arabic Diwan published in “He-
Haluz,” iii. 150 (MS. Bodleian 2424 and MS. in col-
lection of E. N. Adler), who lived before the middle
of the thirteenth century, traveled as far as Bagdad,
where he met the head of the yeshibali (“Jewish
Quarterly Review,” xii. 115, 202).

The Jews of Bagdad diminished largely in num-
bers and influence, not only because of the general
movement of the Jews toward Europe and because
of the Crusades, but also through the storming of
the town by the Mongols. Argliun (1284-91), how-
ever, had a Jewish physician in Bagdad, Sa‘ad al-
Daulali, who was consulted in all financial mat-
ters by the sultan ; but upon the death of Argliun
the position which the Jews had gained through
Sa’ad al-Daulah was quickly lost, and the streets of
the city flowed with Jewish blood (see “Revue
Etudes Juives,” xxxvi. 254).

With the fall of the Abbassid power the eastern
califate Avent to ruin. Very little is known concern-
ing the Jews of Bagdad during the following period,
and we can only find a few notes here and there
in the works of travelers who have passed through
the place. In 1400 the city was besieged by Tamer-
lane, and many Jews who had taken refuge here
from other villages perished (Jost, “Annalen,” 1839,
p. 197). Pedro Teixeira, at the beginning of the
seventeenth century, found in Bagdad 20,000 to
30,000 houses, of which 200 to 300 were inhabited by
Jews. He says that they lived in a certain part of
the town in which their “kanis” (synagogue) was
situated. At the beginning of the nineteenth cen-
tury Ezekiel Bagdagli wras the richest banker in
the city. He became involved in politics and went
to Constantinople, where he exercised great influence
as a court banker (“saraf bashi”). Armenian in-
trigues, however, occasioned his fall, and he was put
to death between the years 1820 and 1826 at Adalia
in Asia Minor (Franco, “L’Histoire des Israelites de
l’Empire Ottoman,” p. 132).

The traveler Benjamin II. was in Bagdad in 1847,
and tells us that the Jews at that time numbered 3,000
families and were living in happy circumstances.
They were under a “ liakam bashi ” appointed by
the Sublime Porte. Their dayyanim or rabbin-
ical chiefs were Jacob ben Joseph, Elijah Obadiah,
and Rabbi Abdola (Abdallah). Every male Hebrew
of the community paid a tax which
In Modern varied between 15 and 120 piasters per

Times. year. Raphael Ivassin was hakam
bashi, and next to him in rank was the
nasi Joseph Moses Reuben. The yeshibali had then
sixty pupils, who were in the charge of Abdullah ben

437

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bag-dad.

Abraham Seumech. Though the Jews inhabited
a certain quarter of the city, to live in that quarter
was not compulsory upon them. Of the nine syna-
gogues which Benjamin the Second mentions, eight
were situated in one court; while the ninth was a
large building, resting on sixteen columns, called
“Bet ha-Keneset Sheik Isaac Gaon,” in a side
room of which building the body of that saint was
interred.

The trade of Bagdad with India was then largely

d’Asie,” ii. 66, 97, 104) there were in the year 1890
53,800 Jew’s in the vilayet of Bagdad, of whom 52,-
500 lived in Bagdad, 500 in Hilla, and 800 in Ker-
bela. He gives the number of primary schools as
52, of synagogues as 26, and of cemeteries 2. The
women and young children wTere at that time en-
gaged in manufacturing what is called the “aga-
bani,” a garment made of European stuffs embroid-
ered with India silk. The trade in Babylonian and
Assyrian antiquities is largely in the hands of the

Girls’ School of the Alliance Israelite Universelle, at Bagdad.

(From a photogr&«ph by D. Gazala, Bagdad.)

in the hands of the Jews, who had manufactories in
Calcutta, Bombay, Singapore, and Canton. This is
corroborated by the evidence of the Rev. Henry A.
Stern (“Dawningsof Light,” p. 46, London, 1854),
who says: “Jews are the governing element of the
place. They have their stored booths in every ba-
zaar, occupy all the principal caravansaries, and en-
tirely control the business of banking and monopo-
lies.” Stern estimated the Jewish population in his
day at 16,000, as against 1,500 Christians and 40,000
Moslems. The Jews were at that time divided into
Persian and Arabian. On March 27, 1845, a “ herein ”
(ban) was launched against all who had any connec-
tion with the missionaries (compare “ Narrative of a
Mission of Inquiry to the Jews from the Church of
Scotland,” 1848, ii. 373). In 1860 H. Petermann of
Berlin found 1,300 Jewish families in Bagdad, of
w’hom 2,300 persons paid the poll-tax. The oldest
Jewish families, he says, came there from Ana on the
Euphrates. According to Cuinet (“La Turquie

Jews of Bagdad (Delitzsch, “Babylon,” 2d edition,
1901, p. 5).

Of the history of the Jews during the second half
of the nineteenth century very little is known. In
1876 and 1877 the city was attacked by a plague, and
the Jews suffered terrible hardships in consequence.
For a time they were compelled to leave the city and
to camp in the wilderness (“ Ha-Zefirali,” iii., No. 26,
p. 202; iv., No. 20, p. 157; No. 24, p. 188; No. 28,
p. 221). The relation of the Jews to their non-Jew’-
ish brethren seems, for the most part, to have been
amicable. In 1860, however, an attempt was made
to deprive the Jews of the Tomb of Ezekiel, situ-
ated a short distance outside of the city, and visited
by Jews in the month of Ab. The Anglo-Jewish
Association interposed in the matter; and the tomb
was given back to its proper owners. A similar dif-
ficulty arose in the year 1889 with regard to a shrine
called “Nabi Yusha”or “Kohen Yusha,” situated
about an hour’s walk from the city in a small building

Bag-dad

Baginsky, Benno

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

438

shaded by eight gigautic trees. The high priest
Joshua (Zech. iii. 1) is said to have been buried here ;
and, according to Teixeraand Benjamin the Second,
the Jews are accustomed to make pilgrimages thither
every month. The shrine is maintained by the con-
tributions of the Jews in Bagdad and in India, and
is used not only as a synagogue, but as a burjring-
place for the rabbis. One of the latter had been
buried there in the year 1889, and because of a dis-
pute as to whether the property really belonged to
the Jews or to the Mohammedans, a persecution of
the former was set on foot, and the principal Jews
of the city, including the chief rabbi, were impris-
oned by direction of the governor. A memorial on
the subject was addressed to the marquis of Salis-
bury Oct. 25, 1889, on behalf of the Jewish Board of
Deputies and the Anglo-Jewish Association, as a re-
sult of which the governor was removed. Other
tombs similarly visited by the Jews of Bagdad are
that of Ezra, near Gurna (Kurna), between Bagdad
and Bassorah, and that of Daniel, near Hillali. In
1899 the Jews numbered 35,000 souls, with about 30
to 35 synagogues known by the name of “Torah.”
Each Torah had a hakam, a “mu'allim kabir”
(senior teacher), and a “mu'allim sagliir” (junior
teacher). The Alliance Israelite Universelle founded
a school for boys there in 1865, which in 1899 had
254 pupils; in 1895 the same body founded a school
for girls which in 1899 had 132 pupils. There is also
a Jewish apprentices’ school for the education of
Bagdad boys along industrial lines. The study of
English has been encouraged by a foundation made
by Silas Sassoon, a member of the Sassoon family
which has its origin in Bagdad, David Sassoon, the
founder of the family, having been born there, 1793.

During the last years of the nineteenth century
a few Hebrew books have been printed in Bagdad,
especially by Solomon Behor Husain ; e.g., pins 13D
TWOlSn (the second part of Solomon Almoli’s work),
1892 ; of Isaac Farid ; the story of Esther

CiriDN ni*p), told in Arabic by Joseph al-Sliamsani;
Tn? r6nn Of Sasshon Mordecai Moses; and ncyo
D’DJ on the wonders which happened in Palestine,
taken from the DPKfiT Of earlier works may

be mentioned pipy ninp PSD of David Salih Ya'kob,
published by Raliamim Reuben Mordecai & Co.,
1867, and D'^yity PSD, printed by Judah Moses
Joshua, 1874.

Bibliography : In addition to the authorities quoted above-
Benjamin of Tudela, Itinerary , ed. Asher, Index, s.v.;
Travels of Rabbi Peiachia, ed. A. Beniseh, pp. 15, 25, 31,
81 ; (i. Le Strange, Baghdad under the Ahbaside Caliphate ,
p. 150, Oxford, ltXJO; M. Streek, Die Alte Landschaft Baby-
lonien noth, den Arabischen Geographen, Leyden, 1900,
p. 85; J. J. Benjamin II., Eight Years in Asia and Africa ,
pp. 109 et seq ., Hanover, 1859; W. Schur, m’nn mine, p. 7,
Vienna, 1882; Morris Cohen, Jewish Home Life in Bagdad,
in the Reports of the Anglo-Jewish Association, 1880, p. 74,
1881, p. 71, 1882, p. 29, 1886, p. 38; compare also ibid. 1889,
p. 18 (Cohen’s articles have been reprinted in AUg. Ze.it. des
Judentlmms, xliv. 538 et seq.).

[Bagdad and its vicinity possess a certain number
of antiquities of Jewish interest. A large mosque,
containing a tomb, is consecrated to the memory of
a holy marabout, Abd el-Ivader, called the Great.
According to local Jewish tradition this is none other
than R. Jose ha-Galili. One hour’s journey from
the city, there is a mausoleum surrounded by eight

almond-trees. Popular belief declares this to be the
tomb of the high priest Joshua mentioned in Zecha-
riah iii. ; Haggai i. 1, etc. The Jews of Bagdad make
pilgrimages to it once a month. Distant a journey
of two days and a half southward of Bagdad is Hil-
leh, where the ruins of ancient Babylon are shown,
and near by is a well, called by the natives “ Daniel’s
Well,” into which, according to local tradition, Dan-
iel was thrown. Near the bank of the Euphrates
is Kabul- Kepil, a village having a tomb which it is
said is that of the prophet Ezekiel. At the side of the
tomb are two ancient synagogues, one of which con-
tains a sacred scroll, which some persons claim was
the property of the prophet, and others that of
Anau, the founder of Ivaraism. This synagogue also
contains a genizah. The village is said to contain
tombs of Zedekiah and other kings of Judah, and of
the prophet Zephaniah. Three hours’ journey from
Bagdad, again toward the south, and not far from
the Tigris, the tomb of Ezra the Scribe is shown,
venerated equally by Jews and Arabs. It is covered
with inscriptions now illegible.]

g. M. Fr.

BAGfi-LA VILLE : Village in the canton Bage-
le-Chalet, department of Ain, France. It was inhab-
ited by Jews in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen-
turies; and in 1331 they were divided into elder and
younger.

Bibliography : Inventaire Sommaire des Archives Depcirte-

mentales, Cote cTOr, iii. 6740, 6748, 6749, 6750, 6753, 6755.

G. I. L.

BAGI : A prominent Karaite family ; lived in Con-
stantinople in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seven-
teenth centuries. The family name, which is vari-
ously written Badschi (Fiirst, “Geschichte des
Karaerthums,” iii. 14), Pegi, Poki (Neubauer, “ Aus
der Petersburger Bibliothek,” p. 55), is, according to
Steinsclineider(“HebraisclieBibliographie,” xx. 94),
derived from the Turkish “Bak” (pronounced
“Bag”). The following members of the family are
those best known :

Elijah Bagi: Scholar; lived at Constantinople
in the first half of the seventeenth century. He is
also called Aphida or Aplida ({■OSX). He was the
author of the following works; (1) “Hilkot Shelii-
tah,” ritual laws concerning slaughtering of animals;
(2) “ Biur ‘ Aseret ‘Ikkarim, ” a commentary on the ten
articles of belief of the Karaites; (3) “MiktabEli-
yahu,” selections of literary essays, letters, and
poems. These three works are mentioned by Simlia
Luzki in his catalogue “Orah Zaddikim.”

Isaac Bagi: Crimean scholar; lived at tliebe-
giuning of the seventeenth century. He is men-
tioned by Luzki ( l.c . 216).

Joseph ben Moses ha-Kohen Bagi : Turkish
scholar; lived at Constantinople at the end of the fif-
teenth century and at the beginning of the sixteenth.
He was the author of the following works men-
tioned by Luzki : (1) “Kiryali Ne'emanali ” (Faith-
ful City), an apology for Ivaraism, in refutation of
the assertion of many Rabbinites that the Karaites
are a remainder of the Sadducees ; (2) “ Iggeret ” (Let-
ter), a decision on a marriage question ; (3) “ Keter
Kehuna ” (Crown of Priesthood), six dissertations on
various subjects; (4) “Shulhan Haberim ” (Table of

439

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bag-dad

Baginsky, Benno

Comrades), on the precepts r(5) “Safali Berurali ” (A
Clear Language), a treatise on religious philosophy ;
(6) “ Iggeret Sukkah, ” on the question whether it is
permitted to light fire in the booth. This question,
which gave birth to many polemics, is decided by
Joseph in the negative.

Moses Bagi: Turkish scholar; lived at Constan-
tinople in the beginning of the fifteenth century.
The degree of relationship between Moses and Joseph
is difficult to establish. Fiirst believes that he was
the father of Joseph, and was consequently called
Moses ben Judah; while Gottlober identifies him
with Moses ben Benjamin, the author of many litur-
gical poems, two of which are inserted in the Karaite
prayer-book (iii. 267, 101 ed. Vienna). Moses was
the author of two works: (1) “Ohel Mosheh” (The
Tent of Moses), on the calendar; (2) “Mizwot
Mosheh” (The Precepts of Moses), on the precepts
contained in the Pentateuch.

Samuel Bagi: Turkish scholar; lived at Con-
stantinople in the first half of the seventeenth cen-
tury. Steinschneider identifies him with a person of
the same name mentioned in the “Iggeret Kelulah ”
(MSS. “Leyden Cat.” p. 127). Samuel is also men-
tioned by Samuel ben David in his relation of the
voyage to Palestine which he made in 164-42 (com-
pare Gurlaud, “Ginze Yisrael,” i. 29).

Bibliography: Fiirst, Geschichte des Kariierthums, iii. 14;
Gottlober, Bikoret le-Toledot ha-Karaim, p. 203: Jost,
Geschichte des Judenthumx unit Seiner Secten , ii. 309;
Gurlaud, Ginze Yisrael, i. 29 ; Neubauer, .-Iks der Peters-
huryer Bibliothek, p. 55; Steinschneider, Hebr. Bibl. xx. 94
et sey.

G. I. Bn.

BAGINSKY, ADOLF ARON : German phy-
sician, and professor of diseases of children in the
Berlin University; born May 22, 1843, at Ratibor
(Prussian Silesia). At the completion of his high-
school education at the gymnasium of his native
town (1861), he studied medicine in Berlin and
Vienna. He was graduated from Berlin University
in 1866, and in the same year accepted the position
of private assistant to Doctor Traube at the cholera
hospital in Berlin ; and in 1868 moved to See-
hausen, near Magdeburg, where he began his career
as a practising physician. Two years later, how-
ever, he accepted the post of chief physician in a
military hospital in Nordhausen, and at the close of
the Franco-Prussian war returned to Berlin, where
he practised medicine, at the same time pursuing
anew the studies which had been interrupted under
the pressure of practical work in different hospitals.
In 1881 Baginsky was appointed privat-doceut at the
University of Berlin; and in. 1892 promoted to an
associate professorship at that institution.

Baginsky has devoted himself to the treatment of
children’s diseases. He isdirectorof the Kaiser und
Ivaiserin Friedrich Kinderkrankenhaus, which he
founded in Berlin witli the assistance of Virchow
in 1890. The Berlin Poliklinik fur Kinderkrank-
heiten was also established in the metropolis through
his efforts. He is, moreover, the founder and editor-
in-chief of the “ Archiv fur Kinderheilkunde,” which
he has published since 1880, in collaboration with
Monti and Herz at Stuttgart. Besides being an
active member of the majority of medical associa-
tions in Berlin, he has taken a leading part in every

movement toward promoting the welfare of children
in the Prussian capital, and belongs to a number of
medical societies, both in Germany and abroad. His
services have been repeatedly recognized alike by
the Prussian and foreign governments, and he is the
recipient of many orders and decorations. His nu-
merous contributions to the science of medicine in-
clude treatises on school-hygiene, “Handbuch der
Schulliygiene, ’’Stuttgart, 1883; and on the cure of
children’s diseases, “Lelirbuch der Ivinderkrank-
heiten,” Berlin, 1892 (these latter have been trans-
lated into several languages); “Practische Beitriige
zur Kinderheilkunde,”- Tubingen, 1880-84. All of
these works have gone through several editions.
Among his other writings, besides a great number
of papers scattered through several medical jour-
nals, may be mentioned: “Pflege des Gesunden und
Kranken Kindes,” Stuttgart, 188.7; “DasLebendes
Weibes,” ib. 1885; “Kost- und Haltekinderpflege in
Berlin,” Brunswick, 1886, etc.

It may be added that Adolf Baginsky is a member
of the several associations and committees formed in
Berlin for the purpose of checking the anti-Semitic
movement in Germany. He is also the author of an
interesting essay entitled, “Die Hygienische Eedeu-
tuug der Mosaisclien Gesetzgebung, ” in which he
comes forward as a stanch defender and enthusiastic
admirer of the hygienic laws of Moses. Notwith-
standing his multifarious labors as author, editor,
teacher, and practitioner, Baginsky takes active part
in the social and religious life of the Jewish com-
munity in Berlin. He was one of the opponents of
the movement recently set on foot to hold Sunday
services in the synagogues of that city. Baginsky
is a member of the Imperial Leopoldina-Carolina
Academy; commander of the Spanish Order Isabella
the Catholic; and was decorated with the Prussian
Order of the Red Eagle, fourth class.

Bibliography: J.Pagel. Biographisches Lexiknn Hervorra-
gender Aerzte lies XIX. Jahrhunderts, s.v.; Richard Wrede,
Das Geistiyc Berlin, vol. iii. s.v.: Wernieh and Hirsch,
Bibliayraphisches Lexicon Hervorragender Aerzte alter
Zeiten und V/ilker, s.v.; Archives of Palestine, x.. New
York, 1893; Brookhaus, Konversations-Lexikon, 14th ed.;
Meyer, Kouversatious-Lexikon, 5th ed.; and private sources.

s. A. S. C.

BAGINSKY, BENNO: German physician;
born at Ratibor, Prussia, May 24, 1848; privat-docent
of the diseases of the ear, nose, and larynx, at the
University of Berlin; anti honorary professor. He
was graduated from the gymnasium in his native
town and studied medicine in Berlin University,
where he received his doctorate in 1870. The same
year he entered the army medical service during the
Franco-Prussian war, accompanying his regiment to
France. At the end of the war Baginsky began the
practise of medicine ; but he soon specialized in the
diseases of the ear, nose, and larynx, to which
branches, since 1880, he has devoted himself entirely.
Four years later he became docent of otology, rhi-
nology, and laryngology, at the University of Berlin.
In 1897 he was made honorary professor.

Both in Germany and abroad Professor Baginsky
by his scientific writings and lectures attained emi-
nence in the profession as a specialist. He has con-
tributed to a number of scientific publications of the
best class, such as “Archiv fur Mikroskopische
Anatomie,” “Archiv fur Pliysiologie, ” “Archiv fur

Bagnol

Bahia

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

440

A,natomieund Pliysiologie,” “Arcliiv fur Pathologic
und Anatomie,” “Deutsche Medicinische Woollen-
schrift,” “Arcliiv fiir Ohrenheilkunde,” “Revue
Nevrologique,” etc. He is also a collaborator of
Eulenberg’s “ Encyclopedia of the Medical Sciences. ”
His writings include a great variety of subjects,
anatomical, physiological, and clinical, of which the
following are the most important: “ Syphilitisclie
Affectionen der Extremitaten und Schiidelknochen,”
Berlin, 1870 (inaugural dissertation) ; “ Die Rliiuo-
skopischen Untersuchungs- und Operations-Me-
thoden,” Berlin, 1878, in Yolkmann’s “Sanunlung
Klinischer Vortriige”; “Ueber die Folgen von
Drucksteigerung in der Paukenhohe und die Funk-
tionen der Bogengiinge,” in “Arcliiv fiir Physiolo-
gic,” 1881, pp. 201-235; “Die Funktion der Gehor-
sclmecke,” in “Arcliiv Anat. und Physiol.” 1883,
xciv. 61-05; “Ueber den Ursprung und clen Centralen
Verlauf des Nervus Acusticus des Kanincliens,” in
“Arcliiv fiir Pathologic und Anatomie,” Berlin, 1886,
pp. 28-46; “Ueber Untersuchungen des Kleinge-
liirns,” in “Arcliiv fiir Pliysiologie,” 1881, pp. 560-
566; “Horsphare und Ohrenbewegungen,” in “Ar-
chives fiir Physiologic, 1892, pp. 227-235; “Zur
Entwicklung der Geliorschnecke,” in “Arcliiv fiir
Mikroskopisclie Anatomie, 1886-87, xxviii. 14-37;
“Ueber das Cholesteatom des Olires,” in “Ber-
linische Ivlinische Wochensclirift,” 1894, xxxi. 598,
629; “Des Phenomenes du Vertige dans les Lesions
de l’Oreille,” in “Revue Nevrologique,” Paris, 1881.

Bibliography: J. Pagel, Bingraphisches Lexihnn Hervor-
ragender Acrzte des XIX. Jalirhunderts ; Wrede, lias
Geistige Berlin , vn!. iii.; Hirscb, Hervorrayende Acrzte
Alter Zeiten und VOlker, s.v.
s. W. S.

BAGNOL. See Levi b. Gehsiion.

BAGOAS : 1. General of the Persian king Arta-
xerxes Oclius (359-338 b.c.) ; is called “ Bagoses ” by
Josephus (“Ant.” xi. 7, § 1). He interfered in the
Jewish party struggles, and forced an entrance into
the sanctuary. 2. Eunuch of Herod the Great.
He was implicated in a conspiracy against the life
of Herod, instigated by four women in the royal
palace and supported by the Pharisees. The Phar-
isees predicted that Bagoas would be king of the
Jews and that he would beget children in some won-
derful manner. The conspiracy was discovered by
Salome; and Herod, old and near his end, finding
that his fears of assassination were not without
foundation, had Bagoas executed (Josephus, “Ant.”
xvii. 2, § 4). According to the Mishnali (Yeb. viii.
4), a person born a eunuch had the power of heal-
ing; and through this the above-mentioned story
finds confirmation. As a special instance, the Mish-
nah mentions a certain Ben Megusat, of Jerusalem,
who was, however, made a eunuch. As classical
authors (Ovid, “Amores,” ii. 2, 1; Pliny, “ Historia
Naturalis,” xiii. 4) use the word “bagoas” as the
equivalent of “eunuch,” it may perhaps be as-
sumed that the “ Megusat ” of the Mishnali is a form
of the same word.

Bibliography: Hc-Haluz, Schorr, viii. 113, x. 7; A. Geiger, in
Jlid. Zeit. viii. 171 ; Krauss, Griechisclie und Lateinische
LehnwDrter, i. 259; see also Kohut, FI. Josephus J lid ischer
Krieg , p. 572, Linz. 1901, who refers to Isa. xvi. 3; Noldeke,
Pcrsische Studien in Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Aka-
demie , exxvi. 28; and Justi, Iranisches Namenbuch, p. 58.
G. S. Kr.

BAGRATUNI (also called Bagarat) : The an-
cestors of the Armenian-Georgian family of Bagra-
tion, the first family entered in the list of the
Russian nobility (published by Count Aleksandr
Bobrinsky, under the title “Dvoryanskie Rody,”
St. Petersburg, 1890). The Bagratiansor Bagratuni
claim to be descendants of King David of Israel.
Moses of Cliorene wrote his “ History of Armenia ” at
the request of Isaac Bagration (Saliak Bagratuni) in
the middle of the fifth century. This historian gath-
ered his information from the Syrian historian Mar
Abbas Katina, who, according to Emin, lived about
150 b.c., and, according to others, in the third cen-
tury c.e. Moses states that King Hracheye (fierce
eyes) joined Nebuchadnezzar in his first campaign
against the Jews, and took part in the siege of Jeru-
salem. From among the captives he selected the
distinguished Jewish chief Sliambat or Smbat (Sab-
bat) and brought him with his family to Armenia.
From this Sliambat the Bagratuni claim descent; and
“ Smbat ” often occurs as a prrenomen in the family.
Vaharsacesl. (2d century b.c.) granted Sliamba Bag-
arat, his counselor, “ the mighty and wise man from
among the Jews,” the hereditary office of placing
the crown on the king’s head at the coronation. It
is said that Bagarat with his regiments took part in
the campaign of Vaharsaces against the Macedo-
nians. When Vaharsaces built a temple in Arma-
vira, he in vain requested the Jew Sliamba Bagarat
to renounce the Jewish faith and to worship the
idols. Arsaces I., son of Vaharsaces (128-115 b.c.),
however, forced the sons of Bagarat to do this. Two
of them gave up their lives for the faith of tlicir
fathers, but the others agreed to go hunting and
participate in war on Sabbath-days, and not to cir-
cumcise their boys.

Under Tigranes II. (first century b.c.), the perse-
cution of the Jews continued ; and one of the Baga-
rats, named Asud, had his tongue cut off for refusing
to worship the idols. Under Arthsham, Enanos, the
head of the family, had the alternative placed before
him of worshiping idols or of being crucified. A
relative, Saria, was put to death in his presence;
and then he and his whole house foreswore
Judaism.

When Thaddai, the disciple of the apostle Thomas,
came to the city of Edessa, he stopped at the house
of the Jewish magnate Tobias, a descendant of the
family of Bagratuni. This Tobias once fled from
the king Arthsham, being determined not to re-
nounce the Jewish faith.

Among the Bagratunis the following Jewish
names were common : Bagadia, Tobia, Senekia (Zede-
kiali), Assud, Sabbatia, Azaria, Enanos (Hananiali).
The family became very powerful, and in the tenth
century of the common era ascended the thrones of
Armenia and Georgia. These names are to the
present day preserved in the families of Bagration.

The foregoing account of the origin of the Bagra-
tuni rests upon the history of Moses of Cliorene.
Another Armenian historian, Bishop Sebeos, who
lived in the seventh century, gives, instead of
Sliamba Bagarat, Bagarat-Tarazian “ from the de-
scendants of Armaniac, the son of Haik, the ancestor
of the Armenians” (“Istoria Pokhoda Iraka v
Persiu,” p. 12; and Von Gutsclimidt, who in his

441

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bag-nol

Bahia

“Kleiue Schriften, ” iii. 282 etseq. suggests that Closes
of Chorene as a court historian was forced to dis-
semble the real origin of the Armenian dynasty in
the interests of Shabat Bagratuni, who led the revolt
against Persian domination).

I. Berkhiu, in his “Rod Bagratuni,” in comparing
the two different accounts, shows (1) that the sources
of Sebeos were known to Moses, who (book i., eh.
xxii.) warns his readers not to believe “such foolish
words, which have not even a semblance of truth” ;
(2) that the vast acquaintance with the historical lit-
erature of his time and the conscientiousness of
Moses of Chorene, “the Tacitus of the Armenians,”
are thoroughly proved, while about the character
of the material of Sebeos we have no basis upon
which to judge; (3) that Moses of Chorene, being
affectionately disposed to the family, would have
been glad to give them a pedigree as descending
from Haik, the father of the nation, if his con-
science would allow him to believe it to be the truth ;
(4) the typical Jewish names of the Bagratuni fam-
ily (quoted above). Emin, the Russian translator
of Moses of Chorene, one of the best authorities on
Armenian history, expressed himself, at the Fifth
Archeological Congress, 1880, as fallows: “Valiar-
shak gives liis attention to the Jew Bagarat, the de-
scendant of Shambat,” etc. It should not be for-
gotten, however, that, according to Gutschmidt and
other critics, Moses of Cliorene’s work is of a later
date than the fifth century, and that his statements
are open to question.

See also Armenia.

Bibliography : Moses of Chorene, History of Armenia, books
ii., iii.; Shopen, Novyya Zamyetki ria Hrevniya Istorii
Kavkaza, etc., St. Petersburg, 1866; A. Harkavy, Oh
Izuchenii Istorii Russkikh Yevreyev, in Razsvyet, 1880,
No. 50; I. Berkbin, Rod Bagratuni, in Voskhod, Nov.-Dee..
1883, pp. 128-153.

G. H. R.

BAGRIS. See Bacciiides.

BAHAMONTE, BENITO LOPEZ: Spanish
Christian ; author of a Hebrew grammar for school
use, entitled, “Gramatica de la Lengua Hebraica,
Escrita en Castellano,” Madrid, 1818 (Kayserling.
“Bibliotheca Espanola,” p. 16).

T. M. K.

BAHIA (the Bay) or SAN SALVADOR : A

city on the eastern coast of Brazil founded by the
Portuguese in 1549. Its official name became Cidade
do San Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos (The
City of the Holy Savior in All Saints’ Bay).

Although the year 1624 is generally assigned as
the date of the earliest mention of Jews in Brazil,
investigation shows that they lived there at a much
earlier period.

As early as 1610 mention is made of the physicians
of Bahia, who are described as being mainly New
Christians, who prescribed pork to
Ruled lessen the suspicion and charges of
by the Judaizing. Pyrard, the historian, who
Portu- visited the place in 1610, states that
guese. a rumor was then afloat that the king
of Spain “desires to establish the In-
quisition here, on which account the Jews are greatly
frightened.”

Whether the persons referred to by Pyrard were
observers of the Jewish faith is doubtful; he proba-
bly meant persons of Jewish race. Certain it is that,
the open profession of Judaism was not tolerated at
the time.

The beginnings of Jewish history at Bahia, as well
as in other portions of Brazil, are wrapped in ob-
scurity, mainly for the reason that the earliest Jew-
ish settlers were Maranos or New Christians. They
had left Portugal, when it became too dangerous for
them to remain there, on account of the extreme vig-
ilance of the Inquisition.

Though the Inquisition wTas never established in
Brazil, its agents were there almost from the very
beginning, and at a very early period New Chris-
tians were sent back to Europe to stand trial before
the Holy Office. On this account it soon became
necessary for the Maranos in the New World to
wear the mask, much as they had done in their
native land. Usually they kept their Judaism se-
cret, particularly at Bahia, for that city soon became
the seat of the Jesuits and the most Catholic place in
the colony, numbering more than sixty-two churches
at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

The secret Jews at Bahia seem to have been very
numerous at the beginning of the seventeenth cen-
tury. In 1618, Don Luiz de Sousa was especially
charged by the Inquisition to send home a list of all
New Christians in Brazil, with the most exact infor-
mation that could be obtained of their property and
place of abode. They were then among the wealth-
iest inhabitants of Bahia, some of them being worth
from 60,000 to 100,000 crusados. “But,” observes-
the historian, “they were despised by their bigoted
countrymen, and were in constant danger of losing
their property through the agents of the Holy
Office.”

At this period the Dutch commenced their ambi-
tious schemes for the conquest of Brazil. In con-
nection with some of the earliest intrigues, special
mention is made of one Francisco Ribiero, a Portu-
guese captain stationed near Bahia, who is described
as having Jewish relatives in Holland.

It was only when some great upheaval took place,
or when some Protestant power obtained the upper
hand in Brazil, that the Jewish population appeared
distinctively as Jews. On such occasions the New
Christians threw off the mask, joined the deliverer,
and openly proclaimed their adherence to the ancient
faith. While hundreds of secret Jews had lived at
Bahia almost from its foundation, it was only at the
period of the Dutch invasion that they appear as
adherents of the Jewish faith. The Dutch war came
to them as a relief, for it alone prevented the intro-
duction of the Inquisition.

The Dutch relied for assistance on the Jews of
Bahia and the comparatively large Jewish popula-
tion of Brazil, when they prepared
Friendly to their plans for the conquest of the
the Dutch, country. The Dutch West India Com-
pany was formed in 1622 in further-
ance of the project, and it is significant to note that
one of the chief arguments in favor of the organiza-
tion was, “that the Portuguese themselves, some
from their hatred of Castile, others because of their
intermarriage with New Christians and their conse-

Bahia

Bahrain

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

442

quent dread of the Inquisition, would either will-
ingly join or feebly oppose an invasion, and all that
was needful was to treat them well and give them
liberty of conscience.”

The Dutch were not mistaken ; when their fleet
■was sent against Bahia, they obtained from the Jews
all the information they required. The city was
captured in 1623, and, true to the policy mentioned,
Willekens, the Dutch commander, at once issued
a proclamation offering liberty, free possession of
their property, and free enjoyment of their religion
to all who would submit. This brought over about
two hundred Jews, who exerted themselves to make
• others follow their example.

Unfortunately for the Jews, Bahia was recaptured
by the Portuguese in 1625; and though the treaty
provided for the safety of other inhabitants, the New
Christians who had placed such trust in the Hol-
landers were abandoned, and five of them were put
to death. Many of the New' Christians seem to have
remained, however, for they are again mentioned in
1630. Probably those who were allowed to remain
had been “reconciled ” by confiscation of property.

The Portuguese city of Recife was captured by
the Dutch in 1631, and immediately thereafter most
of the Jews or New Christians removed
Removed to from Bahia and elsewhere to that city.

Recife. It became the center of Jewish popu-
lation, and wras subsequently described
as being “chiefly inhabited by Jews.” But the
authorities of Bahia became more intensely bigoted
than before, and the slightest suspicion of Judaism
meant transportation for trial.

After 1631, Jews appear in Bahia only individu-
ally, and then invariably in connection with arrest
and trial by the Inquisition at Lisbon. The melan-
choly fate of Isaac de Castro Tartas may serve as an
illustration. Contrary to the advice of his friends,
he left Dutch territory to visit Bahia in 1646. He
wras at once seized, transported, and tried at Lisbon
for Judaizing, and subsequently was burnt at an
auto da fe.

Toward the end of the seventeenth century, Por-
tugal banished to Brazil many Newr Christians who
had become “reconciled.” In time these became a
distinct class at Bahia, and by the middle of the
eighteenth century transportation of New Christians
to Lisbon from Bahia and other cities had become
so common that wdiole plantations lay idle in conse-
quence, and ruin resulted. It wras partly this that
led the Marquis de Pombal to have law's enacted
removing all disabilities from New Christians, ma-
king it penal for any one to reproach another for his
Jewish origin, or to keep lists of persons of Jewish
descent.

This deprived the Holy Office of its most effective
means of accusation, and owing to these liberal pro-
visions the New Christians were ultimately absorbed
in the Catholic population of Brazil.

After 1765, and throughout the nineteenth cen-
tury, Jews are not mentioned as a class at Bahia.

The city contains some Jewish residents to-day,
and a list of the leading merchants published by the
Bureau of American Republics contains a considera-
ble number of unmistakable Jewish names, though
i these seem to be mainly of German origin.

The present constitution of Brazil guarantees to
all liberty of conscience and worship.

Bibliography : Robert Southey, History of Brazil , London,
1822; Robert Grant Wilson, Spanish and Portuguese South
America During the Colonial Period , London, 1884; Neu-
hoff's History of Brazil, in Pinkerton's Travels-, Adolphe
de Beauchamp, Histoire du Bresil, 1815 ; F. Pyrard, Voyage,
etc.; L. Hiihner, in 9 Publications Amer. Jew. Hist.
Soc.; G. Kohut, Martyrs of the Inquisition in South
America, in 4 idem ; Kayserling, Geschichte der Juden in
Portugal, Sephardim ; also sketches in Publications Amer.
Jew. Hist. Soc. Nos. 1 and 3.

A. L. Hu.

BAHIEL (^NTQ; shortened to "|-Q; in Spanish
documents, BAHIEL) BEN MOSES OF SARA-
GOSSA : A physician of the thirteenth century.
He was court physician to King James I. of Aragon,
and in that capacity w'as present at the conquest of
Majorca, where he rendered valuable service as in-
terpreter between the Arabic-speaking Majorcan
Moors and the conqueror, who understood only the
Limousin dialect. In the dispute concerning Mai-
monides’ writings, Bahiel made himself by his zeal
the leading representative of the philosopher’s de-
fenders. In 1232 he wrote the appeal to the Jewish
congregations of Aragon to recognize the excommu-
nication pronounced upon Solomon ben Abraham of
Montpellier and his associates.

Solomon Bahiel : Brother of the preceding ; was
also a physician and interpreter in the suite of King
James I. He was the author of the Arabic procla-
mation in which the Moors were notified of the con-
quest of Majorca and summoned to acknowledge
their submission (“Chronica del Glorios. e Invict.
Rey En. Jaeme,” Valencia, 1557, xl.). In the Mai-
monidean controversy Bahiel sided with his brother.
He died in 1264. The “ Confirmacion en Favor de
Mosse hijo de Bahiel” and “a Favor de Salomon
Bahiel,” in regard to the legacy of Solomon Alfa-
quin, may perhaps refer to two sons of Solomon
Bahiel. They are dated 3 Kal. April, 1264, and 6 Id.
May, 1264.

Bibliography: Kayserling, Gesch. der Juden in Spanien
und Portugal, i. 160,218; Iggerot ha-Rambam, ed. Prug, pp.
34a, 35b ; Briill, Jahrbiicher, iv. 22; Griitz, Gesch. der Ju-
den, vii. 33, 57 ; Jacobs, Sources, pp. 285, 286.

g. M. K.

BAHIR ( full title, SEFER HA-BAHIR=“ The

Luminous Book ”), or MIDRASH R. NEHUNYA
BEN HA-KANAH : Pseudonymous work attrib-
uted to the tanna Nehunya ben lia-Kanah, a contem-
porary of Johanan ben Zakkai (first century) because
it begins with the words, “R. Nehunya ben lia-
Kanah said ” (HJpn p X'l’iro "I No reference,

however, to the work is to be found in Jewish liter-
ature before the thirteenth century,
Authorship which fact is sufficient to dispose of
Erro- the idea that the authorship can he
neously ascribed to Nehunya. Nahmanides,
Ascribed, in his commentary on the Pentateuch
(Gen. i. ), or, according to Steinschnci-
der, Ephraim ben Samson (compare “Hebr. Bibl.”
1872, xii. 116; 1874, xiv. 132) w'as the first to quote
the work under the title “Midrash R. Nehunya ben
lia-Kanah.” The “Bahir” contains cabalistic ex-
planations on the vowels and accents, which were
introduced into Hebrew about the seventh century.

The opinion now prevailing is that the “ Bahir ”
was written in the thirteenth century by Isaac the

443

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bahia

Bahram

Blind, or in his school (compare Bahya ben Asher’s
commentary on the Pentateuch, Ex. xxiv.). The
first sentence, D’priKQ N1H TH3 UN INI
“ And now men see not the light which is bright in
the skies” (Job xxxvii. 21), being isolated, and hav-
ing no connection with what follows, is taken to be
an esoteric allusion to the blindness of its author
(compare Landauer, in “ Literaturblatt des Orients,”
vi. 215; Jellinek, “Auswahl,” p. 14).

The “Bahir” assumes the form and style of an ex-
egetic Midrasli on the first chapters of Genesis. It
is divided into sixty short paragraphs, and is in the
form of a dialogue between master and disciples.
The names which occur most frequently are those
of Rehuma, II. Ainorai, and R. Berekiali, who are
otherwise unknown. Except in the first sentence, the
name of Nehunya ben lia-Kanah is never mentioned.

The world, according to the “Bahir,” is not the
product of an act of creation. Like God, it existed
from all eternity, not only in poteutial-
Its View of ity, but in actuality; and the Creation
Creation, consisted merely iu the appearance of
that which was latent in the first
“Scfirah,” “Or ha-Ganuz,” or, as it is called, “Keter
‘Elyon,” which emanated from God. This Sefirah
gave birth to “ Hokmali ” (Wisdom), from which
emanated “ Binali ” (Intelligence). From these three,
which are the superior “Setirot” or “Ma’amarot,”
and form the primary principles of the universe,
emanated, one after another, the seven inferior Sefi-
rot from which all material beings are formed (com-
pare Pirke II. El. iii., N-QJ nnOND mtl’lD

1^13 “Through ten ma’amarot the world

was created, which are reduced to three,” etc.). All
the ten Setirot are linked one to the other, and every
one of them has an active and a passive quality —
emanating and receiving. The efflux of one Sefirah
from another is symbolized in the form of the letters
of the Hebrew alphabet. Thus the gimel (J), shaped
like a tube open at each end, represents a Sefirah,
which receives strength at one end and discharges it
at the other. The ten Setirot are the energy of God,
the forms iu which His being manifests itself.

The “ Bahir ” adopts metempsychosis and solves
by it the question why the just suffer in this world,
while the wicked are prosperous: “The just may
have been wicked in their former lives, and the
wicked righteous” (§ 58).

These are the main theories developed in the
“Bahir,” with many digressions of parables and
mystic explanations of diverse precepts and of let-
ters and vowels. The influence of the
Similarity “Sefer Yezirali” is evident. The most
to the striking example of its dependence
“ Sefer on the “ Sefer' Yezirali ” is its explana-
Yezirah.” tion of the raising of the hands (“ nesiat
kappayim”)by the priests in pronounc-
ing the benediction:

“Bahir,” § 48.

D'TO P'Nl awn

nn'DD •'? top nijjaxN
“ Because the hands, having
ten Angers, allude to the ten
SeArot.”

“ Yezirah,” 1. 3.

Ptt’j? hid nD'Sa pvvdd -\vy
nqnxa

“ The ten 1 SeArot belimah '
(out of naught) are analogous
to the ten Angers.”

Although, considered by itself, the “Bahir” is a
dull work, full of contradictions and one of the most

obscure of books, it is very important for the history
of the development of Jewish mysticism ; being a
rough outline of what the Zohar was
An Outline destined to be. The fact that the titles
of the of both are synonyms — one drawn
Zohar. from the verse in Job (xxxvii. 21),
“which is bright [‘bahir’] in the
skies ” ; the other, from a similar verse iu Daniel
(xii. 3), “And they that be wise shall shine as the
brightness [‘ ke-zoliar ’] of the firmament ” — is very
suggestive.

Another interesting point in the “Bahir” is the
strange emphasis laid upon a celestial trinity, which
became even more accentuated in the later cabalistic
writings (“ Bahir,” § 48).

Bibliography : Landauer, In Literaturblatt des Orients, vi.
314; Mllsabagi, Bahia, p. 20; Jellinek, Beitrdge zur PliL
losophie mid Kabbala, i. 72; Zunz, G. V. p. 417; Ehrenpreis,
Die Entwickelung der Emanationslehre in dev Kabbala
des XIII. Jahrhunderts, pp. 20-24 ; Gratz. Gesch. der Ju-
den, vii., note 3; Bloch, in Winter and Wiinsche, Jlhlische
Literatur , iii. 257-200.

K. I. Bk.

BAHRAM GOR. See Persia.

BAHRAM TSHUBIN (“ The Wooden ”) : Per-
sian general; king of Persia from June 27, 590, to
June 26, 591. Hormiz IV. (578-590), through his
cruelty, brought the empire to the brink of destruc-
tion. His subjects were dissatisfied ; and the polit-
ical enemies of Persia entered its territory and pos-
sessed themselves of the country. The Jews were
barbarously persecuted at the instigation of the
Magi, and the academies of Sura and Pumbedita
were closed. Bahram, after having delivered his
country from the enemies, rose against the unworthy
king, dethroned him, and threw him into prison, iu
which he was murdered in 590.

At first, Bahram governed in the name of Prince
Cliosroes II. ; but soon ascended the throne iu his
own name. The Jews of Persia and Babylonia
seem to have hailed him as their deliverer, for the
Byzantine historian Theopliylactus Simocatta tells
us that they supported him with troops and money
against the Persian nation, which turned toward
Cliosroes II. (Parviz), the heir of Hormiz, though
the Persian and Arabic sources know nothing of this.
Bahram showed himself grateful to the Jews, and
the reopening of the academy at Pumbedita under
Mar bar Rab Hanan, of which She lira speaks, may
be due to the benevolence which Bahram showed
those who had aided him.

Unfortunately Bahrain’s rule did not last. Mau-
rice, the Byzantine emperor, to whom Prince Cliosroes
had fled, sent an army with which the Persians
united to make war upon Bahram, and the Jews
paid dearly for their attachment to the usurper.
At the capture of Mahuza, a town containing a
large Jewish population, the Persian general Me-
bodes put the greater part of the Jews to death.
Bahrain’s army was vanquished, and he himself
compelled to take refuge with the Huns.

Bibliography: Sherira’s letter in Neubauer, Medieval Jew.
Chronicles, i.35, line 4; De Sacy, Memoire sur Diverses An-
tiquites de la Perse , pp. 395 et seq .; Niildeke, Gesch. der
Perser und Araber, pp. 270 ct seq., pp. 474 et seq.; Justi,
Gesch. des Alten Persiens, pp. 235 et seq.; Gratz, Gesch. der
Juden , v., note 3, pp. 428 et seq.

G. I Br.

Bahtawi

Banurim

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

444

BAHTAWI, ABU YA'AKUB JOSEPH,
THE BABYLONIAN : Karaite scholar; flour-
ished iti the ninth century. He was called “the
teacher of the diaspora,” and esteemed for his bril-
liant intellect. None of his works has survived ; but
many of them are known by quotations made by
Karaite writers. Solomon b. Yeruham, in his “Mu-
kaddimah ” (Introduction to the Decalogue), mentions
Bahtawi’s “Sefer lia-Mizwot” (Book of Precepts);
and Jephet ben Ali in his commentary upon the
Book of Daniel refers to Bahtawi’s Biblical commen-
taries. Bahtawi was known chiefly as “ha-medak-
dek ” (the grammarian), and his etymologies are
quoted by the Karaite lexicographer David b. Abra-
ham Alfasi. Bacher identifies him with Abu Ya‘a-
kub Joseph ben Noah, but this is questioned by
Poznanzki.

Bibliography : Pinsker, in Lihttutr Kaiimoniynt, p. 110. Ger-
man p. 01 ; Geiger, in JiUl. Zeitxehrift , v. 177 ; Poznanzki, in
Jew. Quart. Rev. viii. 60S; Bacher, in Rev. Et. Jui res, xxx.
251.

K. I. Bit.

BAHUR (-lira; plural D'YIPD, BAHURIM):

“A youth,” particularly a student of the Talmud
among the Ashkenazic Jews; called also “yeshibah
bahur” (academy youth), and in Yiddish, “orem
holier ” (poor young man). In Biblical Hebrew the
word signifies an adult but unmarried youth ; in Neo-
Hebrew also a young married man (Ruth R. iv. 10;
“Bahurali,” the feminine, is also employed to desig-
nate a young married woman, Gen. R. lxxi. 9).
From the end of the fourteenth century, however,
“Bahurim” has become the standard expression for
students of the Talmud, who were generally youth-
ful. In the responsa of MallaRIL, No. 96, the word
“ Bahur ” seems to be a title of honor for married men
also; and Rabbenu Tam, in “Sefer ha-Yashar,” ed.
Rosenthal, Num. xxvii., beginning, even applies toa
certain great scholar the expression “Bahur zaken.”
Compare also “Shibbale lia-Leket,” pp. 55, 267.

From the fourteenth century, descriptions of the
life of the Bahur are numerous, and they afford
valuable information not only concerning the condi-
tion of Talmud-study in those days, but also of the
social and intellect ual life of the Jews at large. The
persecutions after the Black Death (1348) decimated
many flourishing Jewish communities; the pesti-
lence itself, massacre, conversion to Christianity,
and emigration made terrible inroads into their
numbers. Under such circumstances those parents
were few indeed who could provide their children
with that careful religious education
The which had been customary among
Itinerant them; their own needs and the uncer-
Bahur. tainty of their position effectually
preventing this. Moreover, the acad-
emies and study-houses for adult use, which had
been, in happier days, a part of every Jewish com-
munity in Germany, were closed. It was under such
conditions that the wandering life of the Bahur came
into existence: he journeyed from town to town;
traversing various countries, and halting now and
again to sit at the feet of some scholarly rabbi. This
vagabond life entailed the utmost poverty, and
many such students were exposed to assault and
murderous attack by the way; nevertheless, they

devotedly begged their way from the Rhine to
Vienna, from North Germany to Italy.

But such a life was not of a nature to exert the
best moral or scholarly influence over young men ;
and many found the chief attraction in its adventur-
ousness. Even when a Bahur settled permanently
in a town, in order to prosecute his studies earnestly,
his life became by no means enviable. In his rela-
tion to his teacher, who was usually the rabbi of
the town, nothing was left to be desired: the rabbi
was always considerate and tender toward his pupils,
who, on their part, evinced the greatest reverence
for their “master.” His relations to the members of
the community were not always so genial; as, for
instance, when so mild a man as the Maliaril excom-
municated a member of the congregation for em-
ploying an insulting expression to a Bahur. This
rabbi, who had never before laid a ban upon any
one, felt compelled to uphold the honor of the Ba-
hurim by such an extreme measure.

The Bahurim were generally lodged in the Ba-
hurim-house, an institution usually found, at the
beginning of the fifteenth century, in every city
whose rabbi had, by his learning, proved an attrac-
tion to itinerant students. The cost of their main-
tenance was defrayed by voluntary contributions
from every quarter, although it is not clear whether
they received their meals in the Bahurim-house or,
as in later times, were sent for their daily food to the
tables of the more affluent members of the commu-
nity. Gudemann’s endeavor to throw light upon this
point (“Geschichte des Erziehungswesens,” iii. 87)
is hardly satisfactory. Frequently the rabbis lived
with the Bahurim, exerting thus a very beneficial
influence upon them; and when they did not actu-
ally dwell together, the students were repeatedly in-
vited to the rabbi’s table on special occasions. On
the last day of Passover, on the first of Pentecost,
and on Purim, the Bahurim and some members of
tli" congregation were always invited to a little
fcoiive gathering at the rabbi’s house. To these
meals witty and sagacious questions from the field
of their studies lent special zest; and on Hanukkah
the Bahurim were encouraged to launch all man-
ner of riddles, rimes, and anecdotes. The special
“Scholars’ Feast” was, however, Lag Ba-‘Omer
(the 33d of the ‘Omer), when trips into the country
were made amid much rejoicing and merrymaking;
for the students never permitted themselves to feel
overcome by the earnestness of their Talmudic stud-
ies to a degree that would deprive them of all taste
for the jovial and happy side of life. They were
the custodians of Jewish wit, too few expressions
of which have, unfortunately, been preserved, but
that distinguished itself in ingenious and surpri-
sing applications of Bible verses and Talmudic pas-
sages to passing circumstances, and of which some
specimens have been published by Briill, from a
manuscript, in his “Jalirbuch” (ix. 16-19). From
these applications gradually developed those numer-
ous parodies which arose in Neo-Hebrew literature.
There were, of course, black sheep among these Ba-
hurim, who distinguished themselves by excesses in
one way or another and occasioned much sorrow to
the community; some, indeed, were even guilty of
setting up shameful opposition to theii teachers

445

TIIE .JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bahtawi

Bahurim

(Israel Bruna, Responsa, No. 203; Gudemanu, l.c.

p. 88).

The Bahurim circles of the fifteenth century con-
tributed a peculiar form of literature, which received
the name of “Kobe?” or “Likkutim” (Collection).
Their poverty precluded the possession of anything
like an adequate supply of books for
The Kobez. their studies; they would, therefore,
remain until any hour of the night in
their rabbi’s library, copying into manuscript-books
such portions of valuable manuscripts, lectures, and
responsa as they needed, to which they added learned
remarks, gathered from all sources, and much of
their own thought as well. Not a few yielded to
this opportunity for plagiarism, and published their
“Collections” as original; indeed, it even sometimes
happened that when a rabbi availed himself of the
services of some promising scholar as amanuensis,
the latter covertly made a second copy of the work
and proclaimed it as his own.

The preceding details refer, of course, only to the
early part of the fifteenth century. The invention
of printing gradually relieved the scarcity of books ;
from the time of the Reformation the social life of
the Jews became more stable and secure, though
perhaps not much happier; and the itinerant life of
the Bahur gradually ceased. From the middle of
the sixteenth century, Talmudic study centered in
Poland and there attained a development till then
unequaled. The Jews in Poland were moderately
prosperous as late as the Cossack persecutions (1648) ;
and the Bahurim shared in the general happiness.
In families having marriageable daughters, the poor
but scholarly German Babur became a welcome
“eligible.” The annual fairs at Lemberg and Lublin,
Jereslaw and Saslow were thronged by rabbis, with
their most intellectually promising Bahurim, and by
fathers of female candidates for matrimony ; and the
greater the intellect on the one side, the greater the
dower on the other. Nathan Hannover, an eye-
witness of the Cossack persecutions, in his work
“Yewen Mezulah,” 11a (ed. Venice) , gives the fol-
lowing description'of the position of the Bahur in
Poland in his time : “ In every congregation there
are Bahurim, who receive weekly stipends to enable
them to pursue their studies with the head of the
yeshibali. Each Bahur took charge of two boys
(just as the Christian students did in Germany), to
whom they would impart instruction, and for
these lads also the congregation provided meals.
Nevertheless many wealthy members of the con-
gregation considered it an honor to have the Bahur
and his charges as guests at their table, although
the congregation sufficiently provided for their
support.” The cruel persecutions of the Polish Jews
in the second half of the seventeenth century resulted
in the emigration of the leading Talmudists of Poland
to Germany, and with them went their Bahurim (see
Auerbach, “Gesch. der Israelitischen GemeindeHal-
berstadt,” p. 64, concerning Hirscli Bialeli). Poland
still remained, however, the classic land for the study
of the Talmud; and the Polish Bahur of 1902 can,
therefore, look back upon four centuries of history
in that country.

The ideal of a Polish Bahur to-day is the same as
of old ; namely, to become a thorough Talmudist, and

to this end he will sacrifice every comfort and ad-
vantage. As regards privations and sufferings, his
life is similar to that of the German Bahur of the
fourteenth century. Such a one, probably already
developed into an expert Talmudist in his native
town, travels to some yeshibali, or to
The a place where he can prosecute his
Modern studies, with others like himself, witli-
Bahur. out any teacher. In the former case
he is restricted to the very limited
maintenance afforded him by the yesliibah, the funds
of which frequently barely suffice to furnish bread
and water. Somewhat more favorable is the condi-
tion of a Bahur who settles in a town where there is
no yeshibali, and who finds there many pious Jews
willing to give him a “day ” ; that is, a day’s meals.
This custom of feeding the Bahurim by billeting
them daily upon the members of the community
originated in Poland (see Nathan Hannover, l.c. 11a,
and compare also W. Buchner, “Zebed ha-Meli-
zah,” 1 a, toward the end), and spread to Germany.
Through the influence of Elijah Wilna the system
was abolished in most Lithuanian yeshibot, and to-
day it is to be found only in certain towns where a
few Bahurim dwell. Even in these places it is now
considered a somewhat degrading mode of providing
for the Bahurim (compare Bernstein, in “ Ha-Shahar,”
vi. 405, 406, who draws, however, too dark a pic-
ture). On the other hand, a man like Judah Lob
Gordon can not withhold his admiration for the en-
thusiasm, frugality, and idealism of the yeshibali
Bahur; and in a truly poetical manner he compares
the fate of the Bahur with that of Israel in general
(Judah Lob Gordon, “Shire Jehudah,” iii. 86, 87).

In Germany, from the time of Mendelssohn, the
yeshibot, with their Bahurim, rapidly grew fewer,
and within the last fifty years they have entirely
disappeared. Now the word “Bahur” denotes an
awkward, helpless fellow who has not discarded the
clumsy ways of the Ghetto. Borne calls Heine a
Bahur because he “cracks jokes in a genuinely Jew-
ish manner ” ; while Varnhagen von Ense, in a letter
to E. Gans, pays the same compliment to Borne in
the words, “ He is as genuine a Frankfort Bahur,
with all the faults of one — possibly with all the vir-
tues of one — as there ever can be ” (Karpeles, in the
“Allg. Zeitung des Judenthums,” lxv. 451, 452).
Hungary contains to-day many yeshibot with their
attendant Bahurim, many of whom every year enter
the regular rabbinical seminaries. The proverb
runs there and in other lands, “You can make any-
thing out of a Bahur,” thus indicating the fact that
on leaving the yeshibali most Bahurim enter any of
the avenues of commerce or professional life. See
Education, Pilpui., Yesiiibah.

Bibliography: Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages,
index ; Berdyezewski, in Ha-Kerem , pp. 70-77 ; Gudemann,
Gesch. des Erziehu iiyswesens, iii. 58-88; idem, Qvellen-
schriften zur Gesch. desUnterrichts.xxix. 94,105; Smolensky,
Ha-Toith he-Darke ha-Hayyim , pp. 20-39; Horowitz, Derek
‘ Ezha-Hayyim ; Liebermann (pseudonym, A. Freeman), Ha-
Emet , i.' 23-25; Pasrheles, Kronpriitendent und Bncher. in
his Sippurim , v. 294-382; Low, Lebensalter , pp. 123, 124.

G. L. G.

BAHUR, ELIJAH. See Levita, Elijah.
BAHURIM : A locality in Benjamin to which
Phaltiel accompanied his wife Michal from Gallim,
when she was being conducted to David at Hebron

Bahya ben Asher
Bahya ben Joseph

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

446

(II Sam. iii. 16). After David, in his flight from
Absalom, had passed over Mt. Olivet, he came to
Baliurim, where he was confronted by Shimei, who
cursed him (II Sam. xvi. 5; compare xix. 17; I
Kings ii. 8). Shortly afterward, Jonathan and Ahi-
maaz, of priestly descent, having been discovered in
their place of concealment at En-rogel, betook them-
selves to Baliurim, where they hid themselves in a
well (II Sam. xvii. 18). This towu, which, according
to Josephus (“Ant.” vii. 9, § 7), was situated in the
neighborhood of Jerusalem, existed at the time of An-
toninus (ed. Gildemeister, p. 12). The Targum iden-
tifies Bahurim with Almon (Jos. xxi. 18), the present
‘ Almet, which lies to the northeast of Anatoth ; and
the same view is maintained by Schwarz, Marti, and
others. The assumption of von Kasteren is more
probable, however, that the places are not the same,
and that Bahurim lay on the old road from Jerusa-
lem to Jericho, where its site is marked by some ruins
(“Zeit. Deutsch. Palast. Ver.” xiii. 101 et seq.).
j. jr. F. Bu.

BAHYA (BEHAI) BEN ASHER BEN
HALAWA : Oue of the most distinguished of the
Biblical exegetes of Spain; born about the middle
of the thirteenth century at Saragossa; died 1340.
A pupil of Solomon ben Adret, Bahya did not, like
his eminent teacher, devote his attention to Tal-
mudic science, but to Biblical exegesis, taking for
his model Moses ben Nahman, the teacher of Solo-
mon ben Adret, who was the first to make use of the
Cabala as a means of interpreting the Scriptural
word. He discharged with zeal and
Introduces earnestness the duties of a darshau in
Cabala into Saragossa, sharing this position with
Bible several others, and on this account re-
Exegesis. ceiving but a small salary, which was
scarcely enough to support him and
his family; but neither his struggle for daily bread
nor the reverses that he suffered (to which he re-
ferred in the introduction to his commentary on the
Pentateuch) diminished his interest in religious stud-
ies in general, and in Biblical exegesis in particular.

Bahya’s principal work was his commentary on
the Pentateuch, in the preparation of which he thor-
oughly investigated the works of former Biblical
exegetes, using all the methods employed by them
in his interpretations. He enumerates the following
four methods, all of which in his opinion are indis-
pensable to the exegete: (1) The “ Peshat, ” or the
simple and direct exposition advocated byRashi and
Hananel ben Hushiel, whom Bahya recognizes as
authorities, and whose works he industriously em-
ploys. (2) The “Midrasli,” or the haggadic exege-
sis, accorded considerable space in his commentary ;
there being scarcely a haggadic work which has not
been employed by him. However, he usually con-
fines himself to a literal quotation without further
exposition. (3) The method of Reason, or philo-
sophical exegesis, the aim of which is to demonstrate
that philosophical truths are already
His Com- embodied in Holy Writ, which as a
mentary. work of God transcends all the wisdom
of man. He therefore recognizes the
results of philosophical thought only in so far
as they do not conflict with Scripture and tradition.

(4) The method of the Gabala, termed by him “ the
path of light,” which the truth-seeking soul must
travel. It is by means of this method, Bahya be-
lieves, that the deep mysteries hidden in the Scrip-
tural word may be revealed, and many a dark pas-
sage elucidated.

Bahya’s commentary derives a particular charm
from its form. Each parashah, or weekly lesson, is
prefaced by an introduction preparing the reader
for the fundamental ideas to be discussed ; and this
introduction bears a motto in the form of some verse
selected from the Proverbs. Furthermore, by the
questions that are frequently raised the reader is
compelled to take part in the author’s mental proc-
esses; the danger of monotony being also thereby
removed. The commentary was first printed at
Naples in 1492; and the favor which it enjoyed is
attested by the numerous supercommentaries pub-
lished on it. Owing to the large space devoted to
the Cabala, the work was particularly valuable to
cabalists, although Bahya also availed himself of
non-Jewish sources. Later editions of the commen-
tary appeared at Pesaro, 1507, 1514, and 1517; Con-
stantinople, 1517; Rimini, 1524; Venice, 1544, 1546,
1559, 1566, and later. Not less than ten supercom-
mentaries are enumerated by Bernstein (“Monats-
sclirift,” xviii. 194-196), which give further evidence
of the popularity of the work.

Bahya’s other great work, the “ Kad lia-Kemah ”
(Flour-Jar), called by David Gans “ Sefer ha-Dera-
shot” (Book of Discourses), consists of sixty chapters,
alphabetically arranged, containing discourses and
dissertations on all the requirements of religion and
morality as well as on the principal ceremonial ordi-
nances. Its purpose is to preserve and promote the
religious and moral life. In clear and simple lan-
guage, and with great minuteness of detail, the
author discusses the following subjects: belief and
faith in God ; the divine attributes and
Other the nature of Providence; the duty of

Works. loving God, and of walking before
Him in simplicity and humility of
heart; the fear of God; prayer, and the house of
God; benevolence, and the love of mankind; peace;
the administration of justice, and the sacredness of
the oath ; the duty of respecting the property and
honor of one’s fellow man; the high value of the
days consecrated to God, and of the ceremonial ordi-
nances. The entire work is distinguished by a fer-
vid piety, coupled with broad-mindedness which can
not fail to appeal to the heart of the reader. It lays
special stress on the duty of righteousness toward
the non-Jewish brother. Numerous passages are
borrowed from his own commentary and from the
works of Abraham ben Hiyyali and of Moses b.
Nahman. While the commentary on the Pentateuch
was written for the scientifically educated, the “Kad
lia-Kemah ” was intended for a wider circle of read-
ers. Of the many editions which appeared, the first
one is that of Constantinople, 1515; then one in
Venice, 1545; Lublin, 1596, and others; a critical
edition by Breit, Lemberg, 1880. A third work of
Bahya, also published frequently, and in the first
Mantua edition of 1514 erroneously ascribed to Moses
ben Nahman, bears the title of “Shulhan Arba‘ ”
(Table of Four [Meals]). It consists of four chap-

447

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bahya ben Asher
Bahya ben Joseph

ters, the first three of which contain religious rules
of conduct regarding the various meals, while the
fourth chapter treats of the banquet of the righteous
in the world to come.

A fourth work of Bahya, edited by M. Homburg
under the title of “Soba‘ Semahot” (Fulness of Joy),
as being a commentary on Job, is, according to B.
Bernstein, in “Magazin fur die Wissenscliaft des Ju-
dentliums,” xviii. 41, nothing but a compilation of
the two last-mentioned works of Bahya.

A fifth work written by Bahya under the title of
“Hoshen ha-Mishpat ” (Breastplate of Judgment), to
which reference is once made in his commentary as
a book in which he dwelt at greater length on the
nature and the degrees of prophecy, has been lost.
Another cabalistic-exegetical work by Bahya under
the title “Seferha-Emunaweha-Bittahon” (Book on
Belief and Trust), edited first in a collection, “ Arze
Lebanon,” Venice, 1601, only the first chapter of
which justifies the title, while the following twenty-
five chapters treat of the name of God, prayer, the
benedictions at meals, the Patriarchs and the Twelve
Tribes, has also been erroneously ascribed by the
cop3'ists to Moses ben Naliman (see Perles,“ Monats-
sch.” vii. 93; Steinschneider, “Cat. Bodl.” col. 1964;
Jellinek,“Beitrage z. Kabbala,” i. 40 et xeg.), but has
been shown by Reifmann(“ Ha-Maggid,” 1861, p. 222)
and Bernstein (l.c. 34) to have all the characteristics
of Bahya’s method and style, and appears to be older
than his commentary. Bahya’s works possess espe-
cial value both for the student of Jewish literature,
owing to the author’s copious and extensive quota-
tions from Midrashic and exegetical works which
have since been lost, and for the student of modern
languages on account of the frequent use of words
from the vernacular (Arabic, Spanish, and French)
in explanation of Biblical terms. They also contain
interesting material for the study of the social life
as well as for the history of the Cabala, the demon-
ology and eschatology of the Jews in Spain, as Bern-
stein in his instructive article (l.c.) has shown.

Bibliography: Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. pp. 777-780; Win-
ter and Wtinsche, Die Jtidisctie Literatur , ii. 321, 433-434;

B. Bernstein, in Magazin flir die Wixsemchaft des Juden-

thums , xviii. (1891), pp. 27-47, 85-115, 165-196.

k. P. B — K.

BAHYA BEN JOSEPH IBN PAKUDA

(also known as Behay and Bahie): Dayyan and
philosopher; flourished at Saragossa, Spain, in the
first half of the eleventh century. He was the au-
thor of the first Jewish system of ethics, written in
Arabic in 1040 under the title “ A1 Hidayah ila Faraidi
al-Kulub ” (Guide to the Duties of the Heart), and
translated into Hebrew by Judah ibn Tibbon in the
years 1161-80 under the title “Hobot ha-Lebabot”
(Instruction in the Duties of the Heart). Of his life
nothing is known except that he bore the title of
dayyan or judge at the rabbinical court. In com-
posing the work toward the close of his life, Bahya
desired, as he says in the introduction, to supply a
great need in Jewish literature, neither the Tal-
mudists nor the philosophical writers having thereto-
fore made any attempt to bring the ethical teachings
of Judaism into a system. Bahya found, on the one
hand, the majority of the rabbis paying attention
only to the outward observance of the Law, “ the

duties to be performed by the parts of the body ”
(“ hobot ha-ebarim”), without regard to the ideas and
sentiments embodied in the 613 laws of Moses, “ the
duties of the heart” (“hobot lia-leb”); and, on the
other hand, the people at large disregarding all duties
incumbent upon them, whether outward observances
or moral obligations. Even the stu-
System of dent of the Law was often prompted

Ethics. only by selfish and worldly motives.

Bahya therefore felt impelled to make
an attempt to present the Jewish faith as being es-
sentially a great spiritual truth founded on Reason,
Revelation (the written Law), and Tradition, all
stress being at the same time laid on the willingness
and the joyful readiness of the God-loving heart to
perform life’s duties.

An original thinker of high rank, thoroughly fa-
miliar with the entire philosophical and scientific Ara-
bic literature, as well as with the rabbinical and
philosophical writings of the Jews (of which lie
gives a valuable synopsis in the introduction), Bahya
combined in a rare degree great depth of emotion,
a vivid poetic imagination, the power of eloquence,
and beauty of diction with a penetrating intellect;
and he was therefore well fitted to write a work the
main object of which was not to argue about and
defend the doctrines of Judaism, but to appeal to
the sentiments and to stir and elevate the hearts of
the people. He was also broad-minded enough to
quote frequently the worksof non-Jewish moral phi-
losophers, which he used as a pattern. The “ Hobot
ha-Lebabot” was intended to be, and it deservedly
became, a popular book among the Jews throughout
the world, and parts of it were recited for devotional
purposes during the Penitential Days, as is the peni-
tential hymn “Bareki Nafshi,” composed by Bahya,
which, embodied in the Roman ritual, has found a
place also in Einliorn’s and Jastrow’s liturgies for
the Day of Atonement.

From the style of his writings and the frequent
and apt illustrations he uses, it appears more than
probable that Bahya was a preacher of rich expe-
rience; while his great personality — a soul full of
the utmost piety coupled with touching humility and
a spirit of tolerance — shines through every line.
Though he quotes Saadia’s works frequently, he
belongs not to the rationalistic school of the Motazi-
lites whom Saadia follows, but, like his somewhat
younger contemporary, Solomon ibn Gabirol (1021-
1070), is an adherent of Neoplatonic mysticism, often
closely imitating the method of the Arabian ency-
clopedists known as “the Brothersof Purity, ”as has
been shown by Kaufmann, “Die Theologie des
Bacliya ibn Pakuda,” pp. 202-204. Strangely in-
clined to contemplative mysticism and

Bahya’s asceticism, Bahya had nevertheless the
Neo- common sense to eliminate from his
platonism, system every element that might ob-
scure the pure doctrine of Jewish mon-
otheism, or might interfere with the sound, practical
teachings of the Mosaic and rabbinical law. He-
wanted to present a religious system at once lofty
and pure and in full accord with reason.

The many points of contact that Bahya has with Ibn.
Gabirol and Gazzali (1059-1111) have led Rosin and
Briill to assume that Bahya borrowed largely from.

Bahya ben Joseph

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

448

tooth, and that consequently he lived at a later time
than is assumed by Kaufmann. who holds that both
Ibn Gabirol and Gazzali were indebted to Baliya (see
Kaufmann, l.c. pp. 194, 198. 207; Rosin, “Die Ethik
des Maimonides,” p.13; Brull,“ Jahrb.” v. 71 et seq.).

The “Hobot ha-Lebabot” is divided into ten sec-
tions termed “gates,” corresponding to the ten fun-
damental principles which, according to his view,
constitute man’s spiritual life. The essence of all
spirituality being the recognition of God as the one
maker and designer of all things, Bahya makes the
“Sha'ar ha-Yihud ” (Gate of the Divine Unity, or of
the monotheistic faith) the first and foremost section.
Taking the Jewish Confession, “Hear, O Israel; the
Lord our God the Lord is One,” as a starting-point,
the author emphasizes the fact that for religious life
it is not so much a matter of the intellect to know
God as it is a matter of the heart to own and to love
Him. Yet it is not sufficient to accept this belief in
God without thinking, as the child does, or because
the fathers have taught so, as do the blind believers
in tradition, who have no opinion of their own and
are led by others. Nor should the belief in God be
such as might in any way be liable to be understood
in a corporeal or anthropomorphic sense, but it
should rest on conviction which is the result of the
most comprehensive knowledge and research. Far
from demanding blind belief — which is
His anything but meritorious — the Torah,
Religious on the contrary, appeals to reason and
Ptoi- knowledge as proofs of God’s exist-

losophy. ence, as is shown, for instance, in Deut.

iv.6. It is therefore a duty incumbent
upon every one to make God an object of speculative
reason and knowledge, in order to arrive at true faith.

Without intending to give a compendium of meta-
physics, Bahya furnishes in this first gate a system
■of religious philosophy that is not without merit.
Unfamiliar with Avicenna’s works, which replaced
Neoplatonic mysticism by clear Aristotelian thought,
Bahya, like all the Arabian philosophers and theo-
logians before him, bases his arguments upon Crea-
tion. He starts from the following three premises:
(1) Nothing creates itself, since the act of creating
necessitates its existence (so also Saadia, “Emunot,”
i. 2); (2) the causes of things are necessarily limited
in number, and lead to the presumption of a first
cause which is necessarily self-existent, having
neither beginning nor end, because everything that
has an end must needs have a beginning; (3) all
composite beings have a beginning; and a cause
must necessarily be created. The world is beauti-
fully arranged and furnished like a great house, of
which the sky forms the ceiling, the earth the floor,
the stars the lamps, and man is the proprietor, to
whom the three kingdoms — the animal, the vege-
table, and the mineral — are submitted for use, each of
these being composed of the four elements. Nor
does the celestial sphere, composed of a fifth element
— “Quinta Essentia,” according to Aristotle, and of
fire, according to others — make an exception. These
four elements themselves are com posed of matter and
form, of substance and accidental qualities, such as
warmth and cold, state of motion and of rest, and so
forth. Consequently the universe, being a combina-
tion of many forces, must have a creative power as

its cause. Nor can the existence of the world be due
to mere chance. Where there is purpose manifested,
there must have been wisdom at work. Ink spilled
accidentally upon a sheet of paper can not produce
legible writing.

Bahya then proceeds, following chiefly Saadia and
the Motekallamin (teachers of the Kalarn), to prove
the unity of God by showing : (1) All
Unity classes, causes, and principles of things

of God. lead back to one principal cause. (2)
The harmony of all things in nature,
the interdependence of all creatures, the wondrous
plan and wisdom displayed in the structure of the
greatest and smallest of animal beings, from the ele-
phant to the ant, all point to one great designer — the
physico-tlieological argument of Aristotle. (3) There
is no reason for the assumption of more than
one creator, since the world manifests but one plan
and order everywhere. No one would without suf-
ficient cause ascribe a letter written altogether in the
same style and handwriting to more than one writer.
(4) The assumption of many creators would necessi-
tate either a plurality of identical beings which, hav-
ing nothing to distinguish them, could not but be
one and the same — that is, God — or of different
beings which, having different qualities and lacking
some qualities which others possess, can no longer
be infinite and perfect, and therefore must themselves
be created, not self-existent. (5) Every plurality, be-
ing a combination of units, presupposes an original
unity; hence, even those that assume a plurality of
gods must logically admit the prior existence of a
Divine Unity — a Neoplatonic argument borrowed by
Bahya from the Brothers of Purity. (6) The Creator
can not share with the creatures accidents and sub-
stance. The assumption of a plurality, which is an
accident and not a substance, would lower God, the
Creator, to the level of creatures. (7) The assumption
of two creators would necessitate insufficiency of
either of them or interference of one with the power
of the other; and as the limitation deprives the Crea-
tor of His power, unity alone establishes Divine
omnipotence.

After having thus proved God’s unity, Bahya en-
deavors to define God as the absolute unity by dis-
tinguishing His unity from all other possible unities.
There is, he says, a unity that is obviously only ac-
cidental, as, for example, that of an army consisting
of many soldiers; and there is another unity, the
accidental character of which is less visible, as. for
instance, that of the body, which consists of matter
and form. Contrasting with this, there is the sub-
stantial unity presented by the unit which forms
the unit and the basis of all numbers. Still this
unity exists only as an idea. But there is a substan-
tial unity which exists as the reality of all truth.
Not subject to any change or accident, it is the root
of all things, and has no similarity to any other
thing. This real unity, necessitated by the plurality
of all things as their root and eternal cause, is God.
Every other unity of things is accidental, since com-
posite; God alone is the true unity; nothing exists
beside Him that is absolutely and eternally one.

Adopting this Neoplatonic idea of God as the one
who can only be felt by the longing soul, but not
grasped by the reason, Bahya finds it superfluous to

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II— 29

Page from Editio Princeps of “ Hobot ha-Lebabot,” Naples, 1489.

(In the Library of Columbia University, New York.)

Bahya ben Joseph

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

450

prove the incorporeality of God. The question with
him is rather, How can we know a being who is so
far beyond our mental comprehension

Attributes that we can not even define Him?

of God All In answering this, Bahya distin-

Negative. guishes between two different kinds
of attributes; namely, essential at-
tributes and such as are derived from activity.
Three attributes of God are essential, though we de-
rive them from creation : (1) His existence; since a
non-existent being can not create things; (2) His
unity ; (3) His eternity ; since the last cause of all
things is necessarily one and everlasting. But these
three attributes are one and inseparable from the
nature of God; in fact, they are only negative at-
tributes: God can not be non-existent, or a non-
eternal or a non-unit, or else He is not God.

The second class of attributes, such as are derived
from activity, are most frequently applied to God
in the Bible, and are as well applied to the creatures
as to the Creator. These anthropomorphisms, how-
ever, whether they speak of God as having manlike
form or as displaying a manlike activity, are used in
the Bible only for the purpose of imparting in homely
language a knowledge of God to men who would
otherwise not comprehend Him ; while the intelli-
gent thinker will gradually divest the Creator of
every quality that renders Him manlike or similar to
any creature. The true essence of God being inac-
cessible to our understanding, the Bible offers the
name of God as substitute; making it the object of
human reverence, and the center of ancestral tradi-
tion. And just because the wisest of men learn in
the end to know only their inability to name God
adequately, the appellation “ God of the Fathers ”
will strike with peculiar force all people alike. All
attempts to express in terms of praise all the quali-
ties of God will necessarily fail (Ber. 33 b).

Man’s inability to know God finds its parallel in
his inability to know his own soul, wdiose existence is
manifested in every one of his acts. Just as each of
the five senses has its natural limitations — the sound
that is heard by the ear, for instance, not being per-
ceptible to the eye — so human reason has its limits
in regard to the comprehension of God. Insistence
on knowing the sun beyond what is possible to the
human eye causes blindness in man; so does the in-
sistence on knowing Him who is unknowable, not
only through the study of His work, but through
attempts to ascertain His own essence, bewilder and
confound the mind, so as to impair man’s reason.

To reflect on the greatness and goodness of God,
as manifested throughout creation, is consequently
the highest duty of man ; and to this is devoted the
second section of the book, entitled “Sha’ar lia-Belii-
nali ” (Gate of Reflection). Men, as a rule, fail to
appreciate the mercies of God, either because their
insatiable longing for pleasure deprives them of the
sense of gratitude, or because they are spoiled by
fortune, or dissatisfied and disappointed in their ex-
pectation of life. All the more necessary is it to
contemplate the active working of God in order to
penetrate as far as possible into the Divine wisdom,
which, while ever the same, is infinitely manifold in
its effects, just as the rays of the sun differ in color
according to their mode of refraction.

Bahya here presents a beautiful and interesting
system of natural philosophy, the teleological charac-
ter of which indicates its provenience
His from the Brothers of Purity, as well as

Natural from Galen, whom he mentions in par-
Phi- ticular. Following the idea expressed

losophy. in Prov. ix. 1, “Wisdom hath builded
her house, hewn out her seven pillars,”
he points out a sevenfold manifestation for the crea-
tive wisdom in (1) the combination of the elements
of which the earth forms the center, with water and
air surrounding it and fire placed above; (2) the per-
fection of man as the microcosm ; (3) the physiology
and intellectual faculties of man; (4) the order of the
animal kingdom ; (5) that of the vegetable kingdom ;
(6) the sciences, arts, and industries of man ; and (7)
the divine revelation as well as the moral and social
welfare of all the nations. But, as has been said by
one of the sages, “True philosophy is to know one-
self.” It behooves man to ponder on his own won-
drous formation in order to recognize the wisdom of
his Maker in observing the process of transformation
of the elements into vegetation, which as food turns
into marrow and blood, and builds up the animal
body, which again, when joined to the soul — a spiri-
tual, ethereal body akin to the celestial spirits — be-
comes a thinking, striving, and struggling man.
How diverse the qualities of soul and of body ! and
yet they are united by the breath of life, the blood,
and the nervous system! And how wisely are all
the tender organs shielded by flesh, skin, hair, or nail
against the perils surrounding them! And what
marvelous foresight is exhibited in the way the in-
fant is sheltered in the womb against the harmful
influences of the atmosphere and nourished like
a plant until it enters life, when the blood in the
mother’s breast is transformed for it into nurturing
milk. The long dependence of the child upon the
mother, the gradual awakening of the senses, and the
slow development of the intellect lest its state of
helplessness become unbearable, the frequent shed-
ding of tears, even the mode of teething and the fre-
quent sicknesses that befall children, betoken an es-
pecial training of man for the higher objects and
obligations of life.

Bahya then surveys the entire physiology and
psychology of man; showing the wisdom displayed
in the construction of each organ and of each faculty
and disposition of the soul; also in such contrasts as
memory and forgetfulness — the latter being as nec-
essary for the peace and enjoyment of man as is the
former for his intellectual progress. In nature like-
wise, the consideration of the sublimity of the heav-
ens and of the motion of all things, the interchange
of light and darkness, the variety of color in the
realm of creation, the awe with which the sight of
living man inspires the brute, the wonderful fertil-
ity of each grain of corn in the soil, the large supply
of those elements that are essential to organic life,
such as air and water, and the lesser frequency of
those things that form the objects of industry and
commerce in the shape of nourishment and raiment
— all these and similar observations tend to fill man’s
soul with gratitude and praise for the providential
love and wisdom of the Creator.

This necessarily leads man to the worship of

451

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Bahya ben Joseph

God, to which the third section, “ Sha'ar ‘ Ahodat Elo-
him”(Gate of Divine Worship), is devoted. Every
benefit received by man, says Bahya, will evoke his
thankfulness in the same measure as it is prompted
by intentions of doing good, though a portion of
self-love be mingled with it, as is the case with what
the parent, does for his child, which is but part of
himself, and upon which his hope for the future is
built; still more so with what the master does for
his slave, who is his property. Also charity be-
stowed by the rich upon the poor is more or less
prompted by commiseration, the sight
Worship of of misfortune causing pain of which
God. the act of charity relieves the giver;

likewise does all helpfulness originate
in that feeling of fellowship which is the conscious-
ness of mutual need. God’s benefits, however, rest
upon love without any consideration of self. On
the other hand, no creature is so dependent upon
helpful love and mercy as man from the cradle to
the grave.

Worship of God, however, in obedience to the
commandments of the Law is in itself certainly of
unmistakable value, inasmuch as it asserts the higher
claims of human life against the lower desires awa-
kened and fostered by the animal man. Yet it is not
the highest mode of worship, as it may be prompted
by fear of divine punishment or by a desire for re-
ward; or it may he altogether formal, external, and
void of that spirit which steels the soul against every
temptation and trial. Still the Law is necessary as a
guide for man, says Bahya, since there exists in man
the tendency to lead only a sensual life anil to in-
dulge, like the brute, in passion and lust. There is
another tendency to despise the world of the senses
altogether, and to devote oneself only to the life of
the spirit. Both are abnormal and injurious: the
one is destructive of society ; the other, of human life
in both directions. The Law therefore shows the
correct mode of serving God by following “ a mid-
dle way,” alike remote from sensuality and con-
tempt of the world. The mode of worship prescribed
by the Law has therefore mainly a pedagogical value,
asserts Bahya. It educates the whole people, the
immature as well as the mature intellects, for the
true service of God, which must be that of the heart.

Here an exposition of the teachings of
Pedagogic- the Law and the Rabbis is given, with

al Value the view of emphasizing the need of
of the Law. spirituality without which all the ob-
servances of the ceremonies and the
painstaking study of the dry volumes of rabbinical
law fail of their purpose.

A lengthy dialogue follows, between the Soul and
the Intellect, on Worship, and on the relation of Free
Will to Divine Predestination ; Bahya insisting on
human reason as the supreme ruler of action and in-
clination, and therefore constituting the power of
self-determination as man’s privilege. Another sub-
ject of the dialogue is the physiology and psychol-
ogy of man with especial regard to the contrasts of
joy and grief, fear and hope, fortitude and cow-
ardice, shamefulness and insolence, anger and mild-
ness, compassion and cruelty, pride and modesty,
love and hatred, generosity and miserliness, idleness
and industry — ten pairs of faculties of the soul

which occur also in Ibn Gabirol’s “Tikkun Middot
ha-Nefesh ” (see Kaufmann, “ Theologie des Bachya
ibn Pakuda,” pp. 194 et seq. ; Rosin and Brull, l.c.),
and may have been borrowed from an older Arabic
source.

Trust in God forms the title and the subject of the
fourth gate, “ Sha'ar lia-Bittahon. ” Greater than the
magical power of the alchemist who creates treasures
of gold by his art is the power of trust in God, says
Bahya; for he alone who confides in God is inde-
pendent and satisfied with what he lias, and enjoys
rest and peace without envying any one. Yet only
God, whose wisdom and goodness comprise all times
and all circumstances, can be implicitly confided in;
for He provides for all His creatures out of true love,
and with the full knowledge of what is good for
each. Particularly does He provide for man in a
manner that unfolds his faculties more
Divine and more by new wants and cares, by
Providence, trials and hardships that test and
strengthen his powers of body and
soul. Confidence in God, however, should not pre-
vent man from seeking the means of livelihood by
the pursuit of a trade; nor must it lead him to ex-
pose his life to perils. Particularly is suicide a crime
often resulting from lack of confidence in an all-wise
Providence. Likewise is it folly to put too much
trust in wealth and in those who own great fortunes.
In fact, all that the world offers will disappoint man
in the end; and for this reason the Saints and the
Prophets of old often fled their family circles and
comfortable homes to lead a life of seclusion devoted
to God only.

Bahya here dwells at length on the hope of im-
mortality, which, in contradistinction to the popular
belief in bodily resurrection, he finds intentionally
alluded to only here and there in the Scriptures, in
view of the immature and childlike understanding
of the multitudes, who need a training to morality
by threats and bribes, by rewards and punishments,
that appeal to the sense. To Bahya the belief in
immortality is purely spiritual, as expressed in Zech.
iii. 7, “I give thee places among these that stand
by.” His frequent recurrence, however, to the
Saints, whom he lauds for their ascetic life, as show-
ing their perfect confidence in God and
Immor- their hope in the soul’s future, betrays
tality of the singular dualism pervading his
the Soul, system — on the one hand, a mysticism
derived from Arabic thinkers; and, on
the other, the practical common-sense religion of the
Jewish Law.

Sincerity of purpose is the theme treated in the fifth
“gate”, called “Yil.iud ha-Ma‘aseh” (Consecration
of Action to God) ; literally, “ Unification of Action.”
Nothing is more repulsive to the pious soul than the
hypocrite, who is far worse than the heathen that
worships idols, but does not deceive men and insult
God’s majesty as does the hypocrite. But it is char-
acteristic of the age in which Bahya lived that he
regarded skepticism as the chief means of seducing
men to hypocrisy and all other sins. At first, says
Bahya, the seducer will cast into man’s heart doubt
concerning immortality, to offer a welcome excuse
for sensualism ; and, should he fail, he will awaken
doubt concerning God and divine worship or reve-

Bahya ben Joseph

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

452

lation. Not succeeding therein, lie will endeavor to
show the lack of justice in this world, and will deny
the existence of another world which is
Hypocrisy to readjust the wrongs of the one that
and Skep- now is ; and, finally, he will deny the
ticism. value of every thought that does not
redound to bodily welfare. Where-
fore, man must exercise continual vigilance regard-
ing the purity of his actions.

The sixth gate, “Sha'ar ha-Keni‘ali,” deals with
humility (“ keni‘ah ”). This has its seat within, and
is manifested in gentle conduct toward one’s fellow-
man, whether he be of equal standing or superior, but
especially in one’s attitude toward God. It springs
from a consideration of the low origin of man, the
vicissitudes of life, and one’s own failings and short-
comings compared with the duties of man and the
greatness of God; so that all pride even in regard to
one’s merits is banished. The high priest himself,
in order to learn humbleness in his high station, had
to remove the ashes from the altar every morning
(Lev. vi. 3). The conditions of humility are medi-
tation on God’s greatness and goodness, observance
of the Law, magnanimity toward the shortcomings
of others, patience to endure without complaint
every hardship that God imposes, kindness to others
and charitable judgment of their do-
Humility. ings, and forgiveness of injuries re-
ceived. Especially is humility shown
in refraining from finding fault in others, and in pa-
tiently bearing insults from them. Pride in outward
possessions is incompatible with humility, and must
be suppressed; still more so is pride derived from
the humiliation of others. There is, however, a
pride which stimulates the nobler ambitions, such as
the pride on being able to acquire knowledge or to
achieve good : this is compatible with humility, and
may enhance it.

The practical tendency of the book is particularly
shown in the seventh section, “ Sha'ar lia-Teshubah ”
(the Gate of Repentance). The majority even of the
pious, the author says, belong not to the class of
those who have kept free from sins, but to such as
feel regret at having committed them ; wherefore,
the prayer for divine forgiveness is one of the first
of the eighteen benedictions. As there are sins both
of omission and of commission, man’s repentance
should be directed so as to stimulate good action
where such had been neglected, or to train him to
abstain from evil desires where such had led to evil
actions, just as the cure of a patient is of a stimula-
ting or prophylactic character, according to the
cause of his sickness. Repentance consists in: (1)
the full consciousness of the shameful act and a pro-
found regret for having committed it; (2) a deter-
mination of change of conduct ; (3) a candid confes-
sion of the sin, and an earnest supplication to God
asking His pardon; (4) in a perfect
Re- change of heart. True repentance
pentance. shows itself in fear of the deserved
divine punishment, in contrition of
soul, in tears and sighs, in outward signs of grief-
such as moderation of sensual enjoyment and dis-
play, and foregoing pleasures otherwise legitimate
— and in a, humble, prayerful spirit and an earnest
contemplation of the soul’s future.

Most essential is the discontinuance of sinful
habits, however excusable in themselves; because
the longer they are adhered to, the more they grow
from thin threads into thick ropes which can no
longer be tom asunder. An especial hindrance to
repentance is procrastination, which waits for a to-
morrow that may never come. After having quoted
sayings of the rabbis, to the effect that the sinner
who repents may rank higher than he who has never
sinned, Bahya quotes the beautiful words of one of
the masters to his disciples: “Were you altogether
free from sin, I should be afraid of what is far
greater than sin — that is, pride and hypocrisy.”
After having dwelt upon the mode of making amend-
ments for wrongs done to one’s fellow-man, and of
preparing the soul to meet its Maker in perfect pu-
rity, the author closes the section with the story —
taken, as he says, “ from the ancients ” — of a traveler,
who, laden with heaps of silver coins, cast them, in
his folly, into the stream which he wanted to pass,
expecting to pave a way across, but found that all
his coins had disappeared save one with which he
paid the ferryman to carry him across. Repentance
is the one coin that will carry man across the stream
of life to the shore of eternal salvation, when all life’s
treasures have been foolishly spent.

The next gate, entitled “Sha'ar Heshbon ha-
Nefesh ” (Self-Examination), is of the same admoni-
tory character as the preceding one. It contains a
solemn exhortation to take as serious and lofty a
view as possible of life, its obligations and opportu-
nities for the soul’s perfection, in order to attain to
a state of purity in which is unfolded the higher
faculty of the soul, which beholds the deeper mys-
teries of God, the sublime wisdom and beauty of a
higher world inaccessible to other men

Seeing — a state reached only by the truly
God. righteous ones, the chosen ones of God,
where one is capable of “seeing with-
out eyes, of hearing without ears, of speaking with-
out tongue, of perceiving without the sense of per-
ception, and of arriving at conclusions without the
methods of reason.”

Bahya, following the example of the Arabian en-
cyclopedists, advocates a mysticism which might
have led him far away from the path of the Law and
of philosophy, had he not continually insisted on the
observance of the prescribed forms of prayer, of
worship, and of study of the Law, with the view
of using them as means of elevating the soul to those
heights of contemplation of the Divine accessible
only to the pure in heart. Accordingly, he devotes
the following section, entitled “ Sha'ar ha-Perisliut ”
(Gate of Seclusion from the World), to the problem
that is uppermost in his mind, the relation of true
religiousness to asceticism. Abstinence, or seclusion
from the world, is, according to Bahya, a necessary
discipline to curb man’s passion and to turn the soul
toward its higher destiny, which is to rise, amid all
earthly temptations and trials, to the station of an-
gelic beings. Still, as the normal law of human life
requires the cultivation of a world which God has
formed to be inhabited, and the perpetuation of the
race, asceticism can only be the virtue of a few
chosen ones who stand forth as teachers of a higher
art of life; but, in the same measure as the masses

453

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bahya ben Joseph

inclined at all times toward sensualism, in the same
measure there arose Nazarites, prophets, and saints
in the midst of them to point to the higher needs
of the soul.

But there are different modes of seclusion from
the world. Some, in order to lead a life devoted to
the higher world, flee this world altogether, and live
as hermits far away from all civilization, quite con-
trary to the design of the Creator; others retire from
the world’s turmoil and strife and live
An a secluded life in their own homes ; a
Ascetic third class, which comes nearest to the
Life. precepts of the Law, participates in
the world’s struggles and pursuits, but
leads a life of abstinence and moderation, regarding
this world as a preparation for a higher one. The
object of all religious practise is the exercise of self-
control, the curbing of passion, and the placing at
the service of the Most High of all personal posses-
sions and of all the organs of life. Accordingly, the
generation of the Patriarchs, being less passionate,
required fewer legal restrictions than the people of
Israel in Canaan surrounded by idolatrous nations,
where the Nazarites and Prophets, who led a life
of abstinence, became a necessity for them. Some
such discipline of abstinence Bahya recommends,
as an offset against worldliness, for an age like
his own, when the people display unbridled pas-
sions and low desires; and he quotes from some
Arabian moralist a lengthy admonition in this
spirit.

The aim and goal of all ethical self-discipline he
declares to be the love of God, which forms the con-
tents of the tenth and last section of the work,

“ Sha’ar Ahabat Elohim ” (The Gate of the Love of
God). This is explained as the longing of the soul,
amid all the attractions and enjoyments that bind
it to the earth, for the fountain of its life, in which
it alone finds joy and peace, even though the greatest
pains and suffering be imposed on it. Those that
are imbued with this love find easy every sacrifice
they are asked to make for their God ; and no selfish
motive mars the purity of their love. Thus was the
love of Abraham and Job, of Daniel and all the
saintly martyrs, filled with the joy of self-sacrifice.

For those that truly love their God the
Love 613 commandments of the Torah are
of God. rather few in number, their whole life
being consecrated to the God with
whom they are one. As characteristic of this per-
fect unity of the loving sold with its God, Bahya
tells of a saint found sleeping in the desert, who,
when asked whether he had no fear of the lions in
the vicinity, answered, “I should feel ashamed of
my God, did I entertain fear of any being besides
Him.” And yet Bahya is not so one-sided as to rec-
ommend the practise of the recluse, who has at heart
only the welfare of his own soul. A man may be
as hol)r as an angel, yet he will not equal in merit
the one that leads his fellow-men to righteousness
and to love of God.

The “ Hobot ha-Lebabot ” contains many gems of
thought and beautiful sayings collected from the
Arabic literature; and on account of its deep relig-
ious sentiment it became a treasury of devotion for
the Jews during the Middle Ages. A number of

compendiums of the work were composed and pub-
lished for this purpose.

According to Steinschneider, one was written as
early as the thirteenth century by a grandson of
Meshullam b. Jacob of Lunel, and reedited (not com-
posed, as was formerly assumed) by Jacob Pan in
1614. Another compendium for the Penitential Days
was composed by Menahem ibn Zeral.i and embodied
in his “ Zedah la-Derek ” (1374).

Two Arabic manuscripts of the “Hobot ha-Leba-
bot ” exist, one in Paris and another in the Bodleian
Library, Oxford ; but they show essential variations,
and seem therefore to present two different redac-
tions. They are, according to Steinschneider, in “Jew.
Quart. Rev. ” xiii. 452, “ being prepared for the press. ”

Judah ibn Tibbon translated the first section of
the book for Meshullam ben Jacob of Lunel in 1161,
and the rest between 1170 and 1198. Meantime Jo-
seph Iyimhi of Narbonne made another translation, of
which only the section on Repentance, “ Sha’ar ha-
Teshubah,” has been preserved. It was published
by Jellinek, together with Ibn Tibbon’s translation,
at Leipsic in 1846.

Jacob Roman of Constantinople intended to pub-
lish the Arabic text with a Latin translation in 1643.
A comparison of the translations with the Arabic
original (Cairo MS.) was begun by Jehiel Judah b.
Joseph Moses Lewensolm in a pamphlet entitled
“Hayye Lcbabot,” Vienna, 1872, and New York,
1885. According to Steinschneider, the Paris manu-
script differs considerably from the text that Ibn
Tibbon translated.

The first edition of Ibn Tibbon’s translation ap-
peared in Naples in 1489 ; a less correct one in Venice
in 1548; and a more critical one, with register and
index, in Mantua in 1559. The best critical edition,
based on eight manuscripts, is the one published by
Isaac Benjacob, together with a brief commentary
and a valuable preface and fragment of Kimlii’s
translation by Jellinek, Leipsic, 1846. Hebrew com-
mentaries, together with the text, appeared as fol-
lows: (1) “Manoali ha-Lebabot,” by Manoah Handel
b. Shemariah of Poland, Sulzbach, 1691, together
with a German translation by Isaac b. Moses, Amster-
dam, 1716; another with a German translation by
Samuel Posen, Forth, 1765; (2) “Marpe la-Nefesh,”
by Raphael b. Zachariali Mendel of Frankfort -on-tlie-
Oder, Oleknitz, 1774; (3) “Toledot Aharon,” by
Hayyim and Isaacs, sons of Israel Somesz ; (4) “ Ne-
edar ba-Kodesh,” by Moses b. Reuben of Yurburg,
Grodno, 1790; (5) “Pat Lehem,” by Hayyim b.
Abraham ben Aryeh Loeb Cohen, darshan of Mohi-
lev, published with text under the title of “Sim-
liat Lebab,” Sokolow, 1803; (6) “Or la-Yesharim,”
by Raphael J. Ftirstenthal, together with a German
translation and the text, Breslau, 1836.

The following translations have been published:
In Portuguese by Samuel b. Isaac Abbas, Amster-
dam, 1670; in Italian in 1847 ; modern German trans-
lations were attempted in 1765; Spanish by Joseph
Pardo, Amsterdam, 1610; Ladino by Zaddik b. Jo-
seph Firmon, Venice, 1703, and Isaac Bellagrade,
Vienna, 1822 ; German, besides those mentioned, by
Mendel E. Stern, Vienna, 1856, and by Mendel
Baumgarten, with preface by Abraham Geiger,
Vienna, 1854.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

454

Bahya ben Joseph
Bailly, Jean-Sylvain

Bahya’s teachings were influenced by the Sufi
theories which were in vogue at that epoch. With-
out going so far as to pronounce a deprecatory judg-
ment on the ritual ceremonies, as the Sufis did,
Baliya seems to have attached no great importance
to them. “The precepts prescribed by the Law,”
says he, “are only 613; those dictated by the intel-
lect are innumerable.” This is precisely the argu-
ment used by the Sufis against their adversaries, the
Ulemas (compare Von Kreme,“ Notice surSha’rany,”
in “Journal Asiatique,” 1868, p. 253).

The title of the eighth gate, “ Muhasabat al-Nafs ”
(Self-Examination), is reminiscent of the celebrated
Sufi chief Abu Abd Allah Haritli b.
The Sufis. Asad (tenth century), who has been
surnamed El Muhasib (“ the self-exam-
iner”), because — say his biographers — “he was al-
ways immersed in introspection ” (compare Haji
Khalifah, s.v. “Radyah”; Abu-al-Fida, “Annal
Mosl.” ii. 201, 698).

Jami, in describing the life of the Sufis, says:
“The aim that the Sufis pursued was a perfect union
With God, or rather a kind of absorption of their in-
dividuality in the Deity. This absorption can be
attained only gradually by cultivating self-renunci-
ation, perfect indifference to all externals, and the
effacement of all affection and will ” (“ Notices et Ex-
traits,” xii. 291). Such theories are often repeated
by Baliya in the last three gates. In the short in-
troduction to the ninth gate, Bahya says: “As in
speaking in the preceding gate of self-examination,
as withdrawal of the world was considered one of its
conditions, I thought it fit to annex to
His “ Re- it an exposition of the different forms
flections on of withdrawal and the form that is
the Soul.” obligatory to the men of the Law.”

In adding the words “ to the men of
the Law,” which are repeated several times in this
gate, Baliya had in view the asceticism of the Sufis.
However this may be, Baliya knewr how to find the
pearls in the heap of dust accumulated in the mys-
tical literature of the Sufis; and his work exercised
the most salutary influence upon Jewish religious
life during many centuries. His proofs of the exist-
ence and unity of God, although all drawn from
Arabic sources, and chiefly from the Encyclopedia
of the Brethren of Purity, became classic, and were
copied by many Christian scholastics (compare
Thomas Aquinas; see also Fenelon, “ (Euvres Com-
pletes,” pp. 701 et seq.).

Baliya ’s style, although diffuse, like all Arabic
philosophical writings, is clear and very often elo-
quent. Unfortunately, the same can

Baliya’s not be said of the Hebrew translation
Style. of his work, and consequently of all
the modern translations made from the
Hebrew. Judah ibn Tibbon made it his duty to
translate verbatim, frequently without having pene-
trated into the author’s thought : he thus became a
source of misinterpretation. Many passages in the
Hebrew translation are veritable enigmas; and the
commentaries that have been grafted on the transla-
tion of this simple work — a work designed by its
author for the multitude — are unable to solve these
enigmas correctly, on account of the mistakes of the
translator.

Another philosophical work of Baliya, entitled
“Ma‘ani al-Nafs” (Reflections on the Soul), was dis-
covered six years ago in a manuscript at the Biblio-
theque Nationale of Paris. This manuscript, which
is quite old, bears on the title-page the name of
Baliya ben Joseph ibn Pakuda as author. The au-
thenticity of the authorship of this work, questioned
by J. Guttmann, in “Monatsschrift,” 1897, pp.
241-256, has been recognized by all Orientalists who
were enabled to compare this manuscript with the
original of the “ Duties of the Heart ” (compare
Schreiner, in “Zeit. fur Hebraisclie Bibliographic, ” i.
121-128; Kaufmann, in “Revue Etudes Juives,”
xxvii. 271 ; J. Derenbourg, ib. xix. 306). At any
rate, the philosophical theories expounded in the
“ Reflections on the Soul ” are in perfect accord with
those expressed here and there in the “ Duties of the
Heart.” The influence of Neoplatonism and the
Kalam is apparent in both works, a fact that proves
beyond any doubt that the “ Reflections on the Soul ”
were written no later than the eleventh century — that
is to say, in Bahya’s era.

The “Reflections on the Soul,” translated from
Arabic into Hebrew under the title “Torot ha-
Nefesh ” (Teachings on the Soul), with a French re-
sume by I. Broyde (Paris, 1896), is divided into
twenty-one chapters, in which the author endeavors
to reconcile the Neoplatonic psychological system.
Bahya refers in this work to two other writings of
his, which are no longer extant : (1) “ Bareki Nafshi,”
a psychological Hebrew poem to which the “ Reflec-
tions on the Soul ” serves as a commentary ; and (2)
“ Alnask wal-Nazam fi al-Khalikah ” (Order and Gra-
dation in Creation).

[Baliya also composed a number of liturgical
poems, full of great religious fervor, part of which
have found a place in the Roman Malizor, while
some are still in manuscript in the Bodleian Library,
Oxford. The best-known poem is the one beginning
with “Bareki Nafshi,” which was translated by De-
borah Ascarelli into Italian in 1601, and was para-
phrased in Italian by Johanan Alatrino, 1628; in
German, by Michael Sachs in his “Die Religiose
Poesie der Juden in Spanien,” and in English by M.
Jastrow in his prayer-book.

A description of these liturgical poems by Baliya
is given by Laudsliutliin “ ‘Ammudeha-‘Abodah,”i.
49, Berlin, 1857. A selihali by Bahya is published
in Koback’s “ Jescliurun,” iv., Hebrew part, 1864,
pp. 183,184],

Bibliography: Dukes, Zur Kenntniss der Neuhebrilischcn
ReligiOsen Poesie , pp. 85 et seq., 1842 ; Geiger, Die Ethische
Gmndlaqe des Buches liber die Herzenspflichten, in ed.
Baumgarten, xiii.-xxii., 1854; Briill, JcihrbUcher . v., vi. 71
et seq.\ Munk, Melanges, p. 482, note 3 ; Karpeles, Gescli.
del' Jildischen Literatur, i. 483-486; Michael, Or ha-Hay-
yim, No. 563 ; Steinsehneider, Cat. Bodl, pp. 780 et seq.\
idem, Hebr. Uebers. §§ 214-217, and Jew. Quart. Rev. xiii.
452; Kaufmann, Die Theologie des Bahya ibn Pakuda ,
Vienna, 1874, in Sitzungsberichte der Philosophisch-Histo-
rischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Acadcmie der Wisscn-
schaften in Wien , lxxvii.; Rosin, Die Ethik des Maimon ides,
1876, p. 13 ; Eisler, Vorlesungen iiber die Jtidische Philoso-
phic des Mittelalters, i. 43-57, Vienna, 1876; J. Reifmann, in
Graeber's mnson -ixin, 1888, ii. : J. Guttmann, Monats-
schrift, xii. 241-256.

K. I. Bit.— K.

BAIERSDORF : Small city in Bavaria, near
Erlangen, once the summer abode of the margraves
of Kulmbacli-Bayreuth. Little is known concerning
the history of the Jews there. It is certain that in the

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fourteenth century a Jewish community had been
established; and as the seat of the rabbinate for all
the Jews of the principality of Bayreuth, it must
have had some importance, considering the small-
ness of the place. The cemetery adjoining the
synagogue was used by the Jews of the surrounding
district extending over many miles: it contains many
tombstones, some of which are said to date from the
beginning of the fifteenth century. A number of
court Jews at Baiersdorf became “barnossen” (pres-
idents) of the entire Jewish community in the prin-
cipality ; and in 1728 Moses Goldschmid, court agent,
was appointed rabbi of the province by the mar-
grave.

The best known of all the court Jews living there
■was Samson (ben Judah Selke) of Baiersdorf. He
was a great “ shtadlan ” (official head of the Jewish
community) and benefactor, and in 1712 erected a
stately synagogue entirely at his own expense. The
synagogue possesses valuable old candelabra and
hangings. The Jewish hospital is mentioned as
early as 1530. Samson’s son-in-law, Moses Hameln,
rabbi at Baiersdorf, has been immortalized through
the memoirs of his mother, Gluckel von Hameln,
which memoirs, by Moses’ directions, were copied
from the original manuscript.

Among the notable personages of Baiersdorf in the
second half of the eighteenth century were David
Disbeck, author of “ Pardes David ” and rabbi there
and in Metz ; his son Simon, and grandson Moses,
both scholars; Noah Hirscli Berlin, and W. Cohn.
Berlin was rabbi of the principality and had his resi-
dence at Baiersdorf, but later was called to Mayence
and Hamburg. Cohn was the last district rabbi of
Baiersdorf.

Though the community has inherited a considera-
ble number of institutions, it is now in a state of
decay. In 1834 there were about 100 families, aggre-
gating about 400 souls; but the emigration of the
younger element to the United States (among others,
the founders of the well-known banking-house of
Seligman in New York, the Lehmayer and Loli-
man families), and the removal of the more prosper-
ous members of the community to larger cities,
gradually reduced the number to less than a dozen
families. See Bayreuth.

Bibliography : Lang, Neuere Oesch. de s FUrstenthums

Bayreuth, 1798; Buck, Gesch. von Baiersdorf, 1831;

Hubscli, Gesch. von Baiersdorf, 1862; Archiv fiXr Gesch.

und Alterthumskunde von Oberfranken, iii., No. 1, 1845;

Memoiren der Gt ticket von Hameln, ed. Kaufmann, 1896.

D. A. E.

BAIERSDORF, SAMSON BEN MANASSE:

Court Jew of the margrave Christian Ernst of Bran-
denburg-Bayreuth ; died in 1712. He was highly es-
teemed at the court of the margrave, at the same
time using his influence for the good of his coreligion-
ists. It was chiefly through his influence that they
were allowed to stay in the land in peace. In 1700,
for a short time his position at the court was shaken
by a hostile counselor of the margrave, but it was
soon reestablished. In the same year he gave his
daughter in marriage to a son of Gluckel Hameln,
Moses Hameln, who became later on rabbi at Baiers-
dorf and to whom is owing the preservation of the
valuable memoirs of Gluckel.

In 1714 Baiersdorf was calumniated by the baptized

Baiiya ben Joseph
Bailly, Jean-Sylvain

Jew Philipp Ernst Christfels, and engaged in a law-
suit, the issue of which is not known.

Bibliography : Haenle, Gesch. der Juden im Elicmaligen
Ftirstentlmm Ansbach, p. 80: Memoiren der Glttckel von
Hameln, ed. Kaufmann, pp. 252. 255, 270, 290; Ziemlich, End
Bticher-Conflscation zu Fttrth, in Kaufmann-Gedenk-
buch, 1901.

o. A. Fe.

BAIGNETJX-LES-JT7IFS : Capital of a can-
ton, arrondissement of Ckatillon-sur-Seine, Cote
d’Or, France. As the name indicates, there were
Jewish inhabitants in this place during the Middle
Ages. A secret inquiry was made between 1306 and
1308 into the debts due to the Jews. A century later
Jews were still in the community.

Bibliography : Inventaire Snmmairc de s Archives Depart e-
mentales: Cote d'Or, ii. 4032, iv. 414.

D. I. L.

BAIL ; In English and American lawT, the obliga-
tion of sureties in a sum named, that the person
under arrest in a civil or criminal cause will, if set
at large, deliver himself up to stand trial and submit
to judgment. Such obligation is unknown to Jew-
ish law. There could not be Bail in civil causes, for
there was no arrest for debt. In criminal, at least
in capital, cases it was the duty of the court to hold
the accused “ in ward ” till his guilt or innocence,
and the mode of punishment, should be ascertained.
The Talmud (Sanh. 785) draws this rule from the case
of the blasphemer (Lev. xxiv. 12) and of him who
gathered sticks on the Sabbath (Num. xv. 34). And
as trials were very prompt and speedy — whether the
punishment was death or stripes — the hardship of
imprisonment without Bail, if the prisoner proved
innocent, was not great.

The Talmud (Sanh. 785) applies the law of impris-
onment to one that has beaten or wounded another
so sorely as to confine him to his house (Ex. xxi. 18,
19). It comments on the words, “If he rise again
and walk upon his staff, then he that smote him
shall be quit,” thus: “This can not mean that the
smiter shall be free from the death penalty ; for this
he is, of course, not having killed anybody; but
that, then, he shall be freed from custody. But the
old halakic Midrasli Mekilta (Mishpatim vi.) says on
this verse: ‘ You would think that the smiter might
furnish sureties and then go at large; but no, we
are taught here that he is imprisoned till the
wounded man is healed.’ In fact, to take Bail while
the stricken man may die of his wound, and his
smiter thus incur the guilt of blood, would, in spirit
and effect, violate the law, ‘ Ye shall take no ransom
for the life of a manslayer ’ (Num. xxxv. 31); more-
over, as a rich man can readily give Bail and the
poor man can not. the release of the prisoner on Bail
would run counter to that other oft-repeated rule of
the Torah, ‘One law there shall be to you.’ ”
j. sk. L. N. D.

BAILLY, JEAN-SYLVAIN: Astronomer and
publicist; born in Paris Sept. 15, 1736; guillotined
Nov. 12, 1793. He was elected a member of the
Academie des Sciences in 1763 and of the Aca-
demic Framjaise in 1784. In 1789 he was elected by
the- citizens of Paris deputy to the States General.
He w-as chosen president of that body on June 3 of
the same year. In the following month he w-as
elected mayor of Paris. Ranged on the side of

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456

moderation and justice, Bailly’s sympathies went
out to the alien and the oppressed. He was one of
that group of liberal-minded men who emancipated
the Jews; obtaining the passage of the decree of
Sept. 27, 1791 (confirmed Nov. 30 of the same year),
which declared the latter to be French citizens, with
all rights and privileges. This decree repealed the
special taxes that had been imposed on the Jews,
as well as all the ordinances existing against them.
Neither threats nor ridicule could deter Bailly in this
matter, as was to be expected from his unswerving
adherence, at great personal risk, to what he consid-
ered to be the duties of a just and upright magis-
trate.

On the occasion of the arrest of Louis XVI., Bailly
was obliged to disperse by force of arms the crowds
that gathered at the Champ de Mars to demand the
deposition of the king (July 17, 1791). This act
cost Bailly his popularity. Resigning his office, he
fled ; but, being recognized, he was brought to trial
before the Revolutionary tribunal, and guillotined.

Bibliography : M. Schwab, Histoire des Israelites , 2d ed„ p.

286 ; Leon Kahn, Lcs Juifs de Paris Pendant la Revolution

Frangaise, p. 59, note 3.

G. M. S.

BAILMENTS : Delivery of personal property
for the purpose of a trust. A bailment arises when
one person (the bailee) is lawfully put in the posses-
sion of goods belonging to another (the bailor) with
the understanding that he will return them. The
law of Bailments deals mainly with the duty of the
bailee to return the things held in bailment and the
grounds for not returning them in good condition.

I. The Scriptural law of Bailments is given in Ex.
xxii. 6-14 (A. V. 7-15) ; and there is also a reference
to deposits in Lev. v. 20-26 (A. V. vi. 1-7). In the
former text the first paragraph (verses 6-8 [A. V.7-9])
speaks of entrusting money or implements to the care
of a neighbor ; and as such deposits are

Classes usually accepted without reward, this
of Bailees, passage is understood as referring
to the “ gratuitous keeper ” (“ sliomer
hinnam ”). The next paragraph (9-12) speaks of put-
ting animals into the care of another; and as animals
are placed every day in the care of a shepherd work-
ing for hire, this paragraph is understood to refer to a
paid keeper or “ receiver of hire ” (“ sliomer sakar ” or
“nose sakar ”). Verses 13, 14 (A.V. 14, 15) speak of
one who “ borrows ” some specific thing, known in
Hebrew as “slio’el,” while he who borrows money is
known as “loweli.” The sages, however, recognize
a fourth kind of bailee : one who rents or hires an ar-
ticle (“ soker ”), and they place him in a more favored
position than the borrower, in analogy to the greater
favor that is shown to the gratuitous keeper as com-
pared with the receiver of hire. Thus the Mishnah
(B. M. vii. 8; Sliebuot viii. 1) enumerates four
bailees (“ shomerim ”): (1) the borrower; (2) the gra-
tuitous keeper ; (3) the receiver of hire; and (4) the
hirer. These classes are well known to the Roman
jurisprudence and to the common law of England;
but the special liability of common earners, who are
in our own time the most important of all bailees, is
unknown to Bible and Talmud.

The same degree of care and extent of liability
are placed upon the hirer as upon the receiver of

hire: thus there are indeed four bailees; but, as the
Talmud puts it, only three rules govern their liabil-
ity (B. M. 93r<). The “higher care,” spoken of in the
Talmud as resting upon the paid keeper as compared
with the gratuitous one, bears in its counterpart
some analogy to the levis culpa and lata culpa of the
Romans; and while the main distinction (in the
Scripture the only distinction) lies between “com-
pulsion” (“ones”) — that is, overpowering force, the
Roman vis major — on the one side, and “theft or
loss,” the result of the keeper’s negligence, on the
other, the Talmud speaks of a “ greater force, ” which
is irresistible (like the “actof God,” or of the king’s
enemies in the English law of common carriers),
and of a “minor force,” which a thoroughly faith-
ful keeper might meet and overcome (Maimonides,
“ Yad,” Sekirut, i. 2).

Another distinction, found in the very words of
the Bible (Ex. xxii. 14), applies to borrower and hirer
alike; “If the owner thereof be with it [the hired or
borrowed article], if he be a hired man and has come
for his hire, he [the borrower or hirer] need not pay.”
This is construed to mean: If the owner of the arti-
cle, generally a draft-animal, is engaged at or before
the time at which the article is borrowed or hired ;
if he is thus engaged, whether for hire or without it,
the hirer or borrower is free from liability except for
misappropriation (B. M. viii. 1, and discussion in
Gemara 945 et seq.).

It may be here remarked that when A borrows an article
from B, without any hire or compensation, and nothing is said
about the length of time for which he may keep it, he must re-
store it on demand ; but if B lends the article for a fixed time,
or for doing some named task, A may keep it for the whole
time, or during the performance of the task, though he has
given no consideration. For here is a gift of the use with de-
livery of possession ; and such a gift is as irrevocable as a like
gift of the thing itself (Maimonides, She’elah, i. 5).

The word peshVut (lit. “unfaithfulness”) answers to the
Latin culpa , or fault, and to the “ negligence ” of the English-
American law.

II. The Mislinah, in the two places indicated above,
states the general rules thus : “ The gratuitous keeper
swears about everything [clears himself by his oath
in all cases, according to Ex. xxii. 7 (A. V. 8)] ; the
borrower pays in all cases ; the receiver

General of hire and the hirer swear about the

Rules. crippled or captured or dead beast, but
pay for what is stolen or what is lost.”
The exceptions to these rules will be stated later in
this article.

1. The Borrower (“ Sho’el”): The borrower of
beasts, implements, or other movables, when the
presence of the owner is not stipulated for, pays not
only for loss or theft arising from his neglect, but
even for the result of irresistible force— in the words
of the text, “for if it die, or be hurt, or driven away ”
(Ex. xxii. 9 [A. V. 10]). For the death of animals,
however, the borrower is excused, if it results from
the very kind of work for which the beast was bor-
rowed, provided the borrower does not task the
beast beyond its strength. (Maimonides, for reasons
unexplained, has in his code changed the words of
the Talmud [B. M. 965, and frequently] “died by
reason of the work,” nDTO. into “died at the

time of the work, ” nytlO- ) The reason of the

exception is this: As the work done which caused
the death was in the contemplation of both borrower

457

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bailments

and lender, the result must also have been in their
contemplation. In like manner, if a man borrows an
ax for cutting down trees, and it breaks in the act of
striking a tree, the borrower is not responsible. But
if a man borrows a spade to dig up a certain garden,
and he uses it upon another garden, he is responsible
for the breakage. Where the article is put in worse
shape while in the hands of the borrower, the differ-
ence in value is assessed and must be paid. This
applies to a beast also : If the borrower fails to feed
it properly, and by reason thereof it is returned to its
owner in worse condition than when it was received,
lie must answer for the depreciation (Maimonides,
“ Yad,” She’elah u-Pikadon, i. 1-9).

Where, by the death of the borrower, a borrowed
beast or article passes into the hands of his heirs,
the Talmudic sages are divided on the question,
whether the heirs are liable even to the extent of
other estate falling to them for the destruction of
the thing by “force” (Ket. 346; B. K. 112a). Mai-
monides in his code (She’elah i. 5) says they are;
while R. Joseph Caro, in his comments on that code,
wonders at this, and claims that the weight of Tal-
mudic authority lies the other way.

Where the presence or services of the owner are
obtained, the borrower does not answer even for
the result of negligence (“ peshi'ut ”). An agent of
the owner does not satisfy the rule; his slave does.
A wife is supposed to be present at all times; hence
he who borrows an article from his wife is not re-
sponsible for accidents (She’elah, ii. 1, 5, 7).

Where the article is sent by the lender to the bor-
rower, the latter's liability for unavoidable accident
begins only when it reaches the house or grounds of
the borrower, even though the lender should have
chosen an agent or son of the borrower as his mes-
senger. But if the borrower chooses the messenger,
he is answerable for whatever happens after the
thing comes to such messenger’s hands ( ib . iii. 1).

When an unmarried woman borrows an article and
marries, and the husband takes possession, not know-
ing that it is borrowed, he is not responsible even
for negligence ; but if he knows that it is borrowed,
he becomes answerable in her place (ib. ii. 11).

2. The Gratuitous Keeper (“ Shomer 3Jin-
nam”): A preliminary question may arise as to
money, whether it becomes a special deposit or a loan.
When money, whether sealed or loose, is handed to
a private person for safe-keeping, it is presumed that
he will not use it in his business, but
Gratuitous will put it in a safe place. If he does

Keeper. the latter, he will be excused for loss
like other gratuitous keepers. But if
money is handed to a banker (“shulhani”) other-
wise than in a sealed or privately knotted bag, it is
presumed to be for use in his business, and he be-
comes liable for it as a debtor. The better opinion
applies the same rule to shopkeepers as to bankers
(Mishnah B. M. iii. 10, 11). When the owner calls
for his deposit, and it is missing in part or in whole,
the depositary is put to an oath, by which he has to
affirm (1) “I have not put my hand upon it ” (in the
words of Scripture, Ex. xxii. 7, Hebr.); (2) “I have
not been faithless about it ” (lo-fasha‘ti) (B. K. 1076) ;
(3) “It is not in my possession.” The second of
these avowals means, “ I have kept the thing in the

manner of keepers. ” What is meant by “ the manner
of keepers” depends on the nature of the deposit.
Some things, such as planks or stones, are kept in
an open yard; heavy skeins of flax and the like may
be laid down in an inner court ; a garment or shawl
is kept in the house; more valuable things — e.g.,
silks or gold and silver vessels — are locked up in a
box or turret. When the keeper puts the deposit in
some place which is not for a thing of its nature,
even if he puts it alongside his own similar goods,
and it is lost or stolen, he is answerable, as is the
case when the deposit at the improper place is met
by vis major, such as a fire or the col-
Place lapse of the house. This is upon the
of Deposit, principle that where faithlessness is
the earliest cause of the loss or de-
struction, force coming in afterward is no excuse.
On like grounds it was held that where the deposi-
tary hid coins entrusted to him in a hut made of
reeds — a safe enough hiding-place against thieves,
but unsafe against Are — he “began with faithless-
ness, ” and he was held liable, though the coins did not
perish by fire, but were stolen (B. M. 42a; She’elah,
iv. 2, 3).

In Talmudic and even in much later times (B. M.
l.c., followed by Maimonides and other codifiers), it
was thought that burial in the ground or inside of a
brick wall was the only fit means for the safe-keep-
ing of gold or silver coins. According to some au-
thorities, this would apply also to silver in bars, and
certainly to gold bars, precious stones, and like
articles of great value with small bulk and weight.

When one receives money to carry from place to
place, or to his own home for safe-keeping there, he
must carry it well tied up, and belted in front of his
body (She’elah, iv. 6).

A man who is chosen by his neighbor to safeguard
his goods has no right ro entrust them to another; if
he does, he is responsible, unless this other person
can prove that he lias kept them well. But it is
always supposed that a gratuitous keeper takes his
wife and other adult members of his family (such as
his mother living with him) and his servants into
his confidence; and where he in good faith bids one
of these to put the deposit in a safe place, he will
not be held answerable for accidents, except such as
occurred by their mistakes (ib. 8).

Where one has been entrusted with grain or like
produce, he should not mix with his own what is
thus deposited ; but should he do so, and there be a
diminution in the whole amount — as generally hap-
pens in course of time — a certain ratio is allowed
for yearly shrinkage; thus: 4£ kabs in the kor (180
kabs) on wheat and shelled rice ; 9 kabs on barley
or millet; 18 kabs on spelt, linseed, or unshelled
rice. On wine the outage is one-sixtli ; on oil 3 per
cent: one-half for absorption in earthen vessels, and
one-half for lees; if the vessels are old, only 1^ per
cent (ib. v. 5).

The keeper of the article must never use it ; even
if it be a scroll of the Law, he should only unroll it
once a year to air it, and similarly with other books.
He must not lend the article to another ; to do so is
a “putting forth of his hand,” which makes the
keeper responsible for loss from any cause (ib. vii.
4). If the keeper of a barrel of wine lifts or moves

Bailments

Baja

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

458

it, and takes out a part for himself, he becomes re-
sponsible for the whole (Hoshen Mislipat, 292, 2).
If, when called upon to return the deposit, he can
not tell where it is, he can be made to pay the value
at once (She’elah, iv. 7). If the goods in his hands
(such as grain) are deteriorating or shrinking in the
ordinary way. it is no ground for interference; if,
through dry-rot, mice, or like causes, they are less-
ening or spoiling more rapidly, the depositary should
have them sold by order of court, let a stranger buy
them, and safely keep the proceeds of the sale for
the owner (ib. vii. 1, 2).

When, on demand, the depositary can not produce
the deposit, he may, instead of making the threefold
oath given above, offer payment of the value ; but
this can be done only when the deposit is of money,
or of articles like grain, fruits, or other produce
which can be bought in the open market. When
the article is an animal or implement that may have
a special worth to the bailee or to the owner, the
latter may compel him to swear, “ The article is not
within my possession,” before accepting payment
(ib. vi. 1).

3. The Receiver of Hire (“ Nos£ sakar”) : In
Talmudic as well as in Biblical times, he was gener-
ally a shepherd. A very high degree of diligence was
exacted upon the precedent of “our father Jacob,”
who could truthfully say, when he kept Laban’s
flock for reward : “ In the day the drought consumed
me, and the frost by night ” (Gen.

Keeper xxxi. 40; see B. M. 936). Not every
or Receiver wild animal is held to be a superior
for Hire, force: one wolf is not; two wolves
are ; two dogs are not. A robber, at
least an armed one, is held to be such, even if the
shepherd be armed ; for he need not risk his life. A
lion, a bear, a leopard, a panther (irapJa/hc), or a ser-
pent is a force that excuses, but only when the ani-
mal comes of itself; when the shepherd takes his
flock toward the lair of the noxious beast or of rob-
bers, he is not excused (Sekirut, iii. 4). To hold the
keeper thus liable for stock torn by a wild beast in
any case seems to be against the plain words of Ex.
xxii. 12 (A. Y. 13): “If it be torn in pieces, let him
bring it for witness : he shall not make good that
which is torn.” But in accordance with the adopted
interpretation of the verse in the oral law, the Tar-
gum renders the italicized words as “ let him bring
witnesses of the tearing ” ; indicating that though
the ox or lamb has certainly been torn by wild
beasts, there is a question of fact, to be answered
by witnesses, how it came to be torn (see B. K. 106
et seq.). Loss by shipwreck is ascribed to irresist-
ible force, and always falls on the owner (Sekirut,
i. 2).

When the beast entrusted to the keeper dies a
natural death, he is excused ; but not when he has
by insufficient food or ill-treatment caused its death.
Where the beast has climbed to the top of a cliff and
falls down, its death is held unavoidable, but not so
if the shepherd has led it up, and it then falls
down (ib. iii. 9). By the plain words of Scripture,
the hired keeper is liable for a beast that is stolen
or strayed, and, by analogy, for articles that are
stolen, mislaid, or lost sight of. He is, of course,
liable in all cases in which a gratuitous keeper is

bound to make compensation, and has eventually to
take the same oath (ib. ii. 3).

When a hired keeper (or a hirer) lends the thing
to another, who as borrower is bound for destruction
by superior force, he may collect compensation from
the latter, but only for the benefit of the owner (ib.
i. 6).

4. The Hirer (“Soker”): The hirer is liable
in all cases in which the hired keeper is, unless, like
the borrower, as shown above, he is discharged from
liability by the presence or constructive presence of
the owner (ib. i. 2).

III. While it is often said that stipulations run-
ning counter to the Mosaic law are void, and though
among the early sages R. Mei'r sought to apply this
rule even where nothing but the payment of money
was involved, such stipulations are held good as to
contracts involving money only when they precede
the act by which the contract takes effect. Hence a
gratuitous keeper can exempt himself by contract
from the oath of exoneration, the borrower from
payment in all or in any cases, the hirer or receiver
of hire from oath and payment ; or any keeper may
stipulate for a less than the customary degree of
care. Under an institution of the early ages a bail-
ment, like a sale (see Alienation), becomes effectual
only when the thing entrusted, loaned, or hired
comes to the bailee’s hand: thus the word limiting
the bailee’s duties can be spoken or written before
the bailment takes effect (Mislmah B. M. vii. 10, 11,
and Gemara on same, 94a).

Where a man receives money, not for the purpose
of keeping it for the owner, but to apply it to a
charity or to distribute it among the poor — the spe-
cial objects of the bounty not being named — the
Biblical law on Bailments does not apply in express
terms, nor does the rabbinic interpre-
Exceptions tation which requires a certain degree
to Bailee’s of care. Nor do the above rules apply
Responsi- to a bailment of slaves, or to one of

bility. deeds or bonds; or to the goods of
the sanctuary or to those of Gentiles
(Hoshen Mishpat, 301, 1).

Disputes often arise on other questions than the
cause of the loss, and these are settled by the ordi-
nary presumptions and rules of evidence. Thus the
Mislinali (B. M. viii. 2) already puts the case of A
letting B have one cow for hire, and lending him
another cow gratis. One cow dies. A says it was
the loaned cow ; B says he does not know which it
was; or vice versa. The Mislmah says that in all
such cases the party making the certain statement
wins ; which position is controverted in the Gemara
on general grounds reaching beyond the law of Bail-
ments (B. M. 97a et seq.).

When the delivery of a thing as a deposit is proved
by witnesses, the depositary can not by his unsup-
ported word claim the thing as having been subse-
quently bought by him or received as a gift. Hence
the owner can without oath reclaim the thing from
the depositary’s heirs. And further, even without
witnesses the owner may recover from such heirs if
he can give a striking description, can show that he
was not a frequent visitor at the depositary’s house,
and that the latter was not reputed to be the owner
of the thing in question (Ket. 856; She’elah, vi. 4).

459

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bailments

Baja

In speaking of the gratuitous keeper, the text
says: “ If the thief be found, he shall pay twofold ”
(Ex. xxii. 6 [A. Y. 7]). Whom must he pay? Ordi-
narily he must pay the owner ; but if such keeper
or any other bailee has already for any reason satis-
fied the owner, the right in the stolen thing enures
to such bailee, and the thief must give him — the
bailee, not the owner — the double compensation
(B. M. iii. 1; Maimonides, “Yad,” Genebah, iv. 8).

The provisions for a guilt-offering and for the res-
titution of one-fifth in addition to the value by a
faithless but repentant bailee, in Lev. v. 21-26 (A.
Y. vi. 1-7), are also discussed in the Mishnali and Tal-
mud. For this phase of the subject see Embezzle-
ment.

IV. What has been said in Assault and Bat-
tery as to the qualification of the judges applies
with even greater force to the trial of causes arising
out of the loss or destruction of property left in the
hand of bailees. For thrice in the verses of Ex. xxii. (7,
8, bis), which refer to a deposit, the title of “ Elohim ”
— God or gods — is given to the judges ;
Distinction they must therefore be ordained judges
Between who have received their “ semikah ”
Compensa- (ordination) in the Holy Land from
tion and an unbroken line of ordained elders.
Penalty. Nevertheless, in the Babylonian Tal-
mud (B. M. 96* and elsewhere) reports
of cases are given in which one or the other of the
chief rabbis at Sura or Mata Mahasia of the Babylo-
nian academies decide cases of bailment; but in no
case does the judge award a double compensation:
none but an ordained judge would have attempted
to impose such a penalty (“kenas”). The Hoshen
Mishpat also, while it only deals with the law as
actually practised at a much later period, discusses
(291-305 and 340-347) the responsibilities of the four
kinds of bailees without referring to double compen-
sation or to the penalty of one-fifth which, under
the ordinance in Leviticus, the repentant bailee was
to add to the principal.

Bibliography: This article follows in the main the truidance
of Maimonides in Fad ha-Hazakah , She'elah u-Pikadon, and
Sekirut. The Talmud deals with the subject in chapters iii.,
vii., and viii. of Baha Mczi'a. The Talmudic law of Bailments
lias been treated by the following modern authors : 1. M. Rab-
binowicz. Legislation Civile du Thalmud , ii.. Introduction,
pp. 64-84, Paris, 1877 : Spiers, School Sustem of the Talmud,
pp. 58-106, London, 1898.

j. sr. L. N. D.

BAIRAMCHE. See Bessarabia.

BAJA : City on the Danube, in the county of
Bacs-Bodrog, Hungary. As early as the end of the
eighteenth century, Baja, owing to its favorable loca-
tion, was a bustling commercial town. The first
Jewish families probably settled there toward the
middle of that century and formed a small commu-
nity. The great conflagration that swept over the
city, May 1, 1840, destroyed the synagogue and the
Jewish school, together with the communal archives,
so that no reliable data remain concerning the organ-
ization of the community and the first decades of its
existence. The first entries in the old “Hebra” book
are dated March 6, 1791, the names being those of
persons deceased in 1789. The beginnings of the
community therefore probably do not date much
earlier.

One of the earliest rabbis, and perhaps the very
first, was Isaac Krieshaber (later in Paks); and he
was succeeded in 1794 by Isaiah Moorberg, or, as he
calls himself, Isaiah Kahaue, who devoted himself to
cabalistic studies, and resigned in 1805. The com-
munity then chose for its rabbi Meir Ash (a sur-
name abbreviated from “Eisenstadt”), distinguished
for his piety, firm character, and Talmudic learning.
He was an intimate friend of Gotz Schwerin, a
considerably older man, who had settled at Baja a
few years earlier. In order to enable his friend to
succeed to the rabbinate, Ash resigned his office in
1815, continuing his rabbinical activity in other cir-
cles. Under the new rabbi the community grew in
numbers and reputation, becoming one of the most
flourishing and important in the whole district.

In the midst of this prosperity, that boded well
for the future of the community, a conflagration oc-
curred in Baja, as stated above, which destroyed
2,000 houses, the synagogue, the communal house,
the school, the hospital (that also served as a shelter
for homeless strangers), and the bath-house. The
whole city, in fact, was a mass of smoking ruins.
All the members of the community, except three,
were rendered destitute. Gotz Schwerin (now an
octogenarian) found refuge in a house on the out-
skirts of the city. He manifested an untiring activ-
ity in the relief of his flock and the rebuilding of the
synagogue, appealing to communities and rabbis
far and near, and to his many friends and disciples
both at home and abroad. His efforts were very
successful, and he received large contributions. The
scattered members of the community returned, and
were joined by others who were attracted by the busi-
ness activity incident to the rebuilding of the city.

Within two years the new synagogue was begun.
Some influential members took this occasion to press
for the introduction of changes in the ritual which
they had seen adopted in the progressive synagogue
of Budapest. Schwerin offered little opposition ; and
the Orthodox interior arrangement was therefore
abandoned, and a modern order of services adopted,
which subsequently served as model for many other
communities. The new building was dedicated
Sept. 26, 1845. Jacob Steinhardt, rabbi of Arad,
delivered the address in Hungarian, while Schwerin
lighted the perpetual lamp and pronounced the ben-
ediction. After thirty-six years of beneficial activ-
ity, Schwerin died Jan. 15, 1852. He was succeeded
by Moses Nasclier, upon whose death, Feb. 13, 1878,
Dr. Leopold Adler was called to the rabbinate.

With the reform of the services, reform of the
system of education went hand in hand. In the
thirties the congregation established an elementary
school, which was reorganized in 1846 under the
name of “ Israelitische Deutscli-Ungarische Primiir
Schule.” This school consisted of four classes. Em-
ploying superior teachers, it was attended even by
non-Jews, and stood high with the educational au-
thorities. In the fifth decade the community also
established classes for girls. In all its intellectual
endeavors it was supported by the old Talmud-
Torali Society, which attended to the poor and took
its share of the communal burdens. In 1901 the com-
munity supported a kindergarten, a primary school
for boys and girls (four classes), and a grammar

Bajazet II.
Bakhmut

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

460

school for boys and girls (four classes) with 12
teachers and 428 pupils. A more thorough instruc-
tion in religion is provided in the Talmud-Torali
school recently erected, in which the more advanced
scholars are introduced to the study of Scripture.
Many who have achieved distinction in various de-
partments of activity have received their education
here.

The philanthropic institutions include a Hebrali
Kaddishah, a Jewish Women’s Society, and a Young
Women’s Society, which supports a kitchen for poor
school -children.

Bibliography: S. Kohn, Kohn Schwerin G/jtz, Elet-es Kor-

rajz , Budapest, 1898 ; Poliak Mono a Bajai Zsidu HitkOzsey

Iskoldinak TOrtenete, Ba.ia, 1896.

D. E. N.

BAJAZET II. : Turkish sultan ; born 1447; suc-
ceeded in 1481 ; died 1512. During his reign the Jews
enjoyed a period of complete and uninterrupted
peace, which was reflected in the flourishing condi-
tion of Jewish culture and letters. Under Bajazet
II. there were learned Sephardic Jews who occupied
themselves not only with the Talmud, but also with
the secular sciences. Among such scholars were
Mordecai Comtino (1460-90), an astronomer and
mathematician, whose Jewish and Karaite disciples
included Elijah Bashyatzi, Caleb Afendopolo, and
Joseph Ravizi; Solomon ben Elijah Sharbit lia-
Zahab of Salonica and Ephesus (1470-1500), preacher,
poet, and grammarian ; Shabbethai ben Malkiel
Cohen, who had gone to Turkey from Greece; and
Menaliem Tamar, a liturgical poet (1446-1500). As
early as 1483 there was a Jewish printing establish-
ment in Constantinople.

The moral condition of the native Jews was, how-
ever, not entirely satisfactory, as is proved by inci-
dents in their communal history, such as the quarrel
between Rabbi Joseph Colon of Mantua and Moses
Capsali, chief rabbi of Turkey, about a collection for
the poor of Jerusalem. But the situation improved
with the arrival of exiles from Spain (1492), who were
received most kindly by the sultan. Bajazet showed
himself at this critical moment not only more com-
passionate toward them, but also more prudent and
politic than the Christian princes. He recognized
that these refugees from Spain, Portugal, and others
later from Naples were of value to liis empire by
reason of their intellectual capacity.

In 1492 Bajazet ridiculed the foolish conduct of
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain in expelling a class
of people so useful to their subjects. “You ven-
ture to call Ferdinand a wise ruler,” he said to his
courtiers — “he who has impoverished his own coun-
try and enriched mine ! ”

Bajazet addressed a firman to all the governors of
his European provinces, ordering them not only to
refrain from repelling the Spanish refugees, but to
give them a friendly and welcome reception. He
threatened with death all those who treated the
Jews harshly or refused them admission into the
empire. Moses Capsali, referred to above, who prob-
ably helped to aroifse the sultan’s friendship for the
Jews, was most energetic in his assistance to the
exiles. He made a tour of the communities, and
was instrumental in imposing a tax upon the rich,

to ransom the Jewish victims of the persecutions
then prevalent.

Thus several thousands of emigrants established
themselves in Turkey ; and in less than a generation
they possessed themselves of the administration of
the Jewish communities and exercised a preponder-
ant influence upon them, creating, as it were, a spe-
cies of Oriental Spain.

Bibliography: A. Danon, in the journal Yosef Da'at, No. 4,

1888 ; M. Franco, Histoire des Juifs dans V Empire Ottoman *

pp. 35 et scq.

g. A. D.

BAK : A family of Hebrew printers in Italy and
Prague, who exercised their craft for two centuries.
The name is said to be an abbreviation of “Bene
Kedoshim ” (Children of the Holy), an assumption,
however, which is somewhat improbable. The
principal members of the family were the following:

1. Gerson Bak : Progenitor of the family ; flour-
ished during the first quarter of the sixteenth cen-
tury in Italy.

2. Israel ben Joseph Bak: Son of Joseph.
Pressman from 1686 to 1691 with the firm of Judah
Bak’s Sons, and in 1695 with that of Judah Bale’s
Grandsons. The last-mentioned establishment, alscy
called “Bakische (or Pakische) Buchdruekerei, ”
flourished after 1697, and was conducted by Israel
and Moses Bak (No. 9). Afterward the business was
carried on by the sons of Judah Bak (No. 8) and of
Yom-Tob Lipman Bak (No. 11).

3. Jacob ben Gerson Bak (also called Wal or
Wohl) : Son of Gerson. Printer; died in 1618. In
1595 he published at Verona the Midrash Tanhuma,
with an elaborately embellished title-page. After
1605 he was engaged in printing at Prague. His
first work published there (1605) was the “ Sabbat-
Yozerot,” based upon the Polish ritual and written
in the Judteo-German dialect. Until 1615 he was
occasionally associated with Jacob Stabnitz. Jacob
left two sons, Joseph (No. 5) and Judah (No. 7).

4. Jacob ben Judah Bak: Son of Joseph. Press-
man at Lublin about 1648 ; died in 1685. In 1680 he
completed, at Weckelsdorf, the “Mahzor,” based on
the German ritual, which had been begun at Prague
in the previous year — the only Hebrew work ever
published at the former place.

5. Joseph ben Jacob Bak: Brother and part-
ner of Judah (No. 7). Together, under the firm-
name of “ The late Jacob Bak’s Sons, ” they conducted
the business from 1620 to 1660.

6. Joseph ben Judah Bak: Son of Judah.
Printer of the seventeenth century. In 1679 and
1684 he was in the printing business by himself and
in 1686 in association with his nephew Moses (No. 9).

7. Judah ben Jacob Bak : From 1661 to 1669
sole proprietor of the printing business formerly
carried on by himself and his brother Joseph (No. 5).
He died in 1671 and left the establishment to his sons
Jacob (No. 4) and Joseph (No. 6) who, under the
firm-name of Judah Bale’s Sons, conducted it from
1673 to 1696.

8. Judah ben Moses Bak: Compositor of the
eighteenth century. He was first engaged in the
printing-house of his father, from 1705 to 1720, but
carried on an independent establishment from 1736
to 1756, when he became associated with his brother,

461

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bajazet XI.
Bakhmut

Yom-Tob Lipman (No. 11). His wife died in Elul,
1760, and he was already advanced in years when he
lost his son Moses Lob (No. 10).

9. Moses ben Jacob Bak: Printer, and partner
of Joseph ben Judah (No. 7). Died Tammuz 14,
1712.

10. Moses Lob Bak: Compositor in the print-
ing-office of his father, Judah (No. 8), in 1757, and
son-in-law of Mendel Steinitz.

11. Yom-Tob Lipman Bak : Printer from 1757
to 1789. The firm of Bak was still in existence in
1784 under the title of “Bakische uud Cazisclie Pri-
vilegirte Buclidruckerei.”

Bibliography : Zunz, Z. G. p. 264; Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl.

Nos. 7835-7844; Hock, Die FamiUe>i Progs, s.v. Back;

Simonsen, Hebraisk Bogtryk i Odd re o g Nyerc Tid, p. 20,

Copenhagen, 1901; Grunwald, in Jlldisches Literaturblatt,

xxii. 35.

G. A. F.

BAKBUK, SONS OF : A family of Nethinim
that returned with Zerubbabel (see Ezra ii. 51 and
the corresponding list of Neh. vii. 53). The identifi-
cation of these with “ the sons of Acub ” mentioned
in I Esd. v. 31 (compare Ezra ii. 45) is doubtful.

J. jr. G. B. L.

BAKBUKIAH : A Levite who returned with
Zerubbabel (Neh. xii. 9); “second among his breth-
ren” (Neh. xi. 17). He was one of those that lived
in Jerusalem, and was a porter of the storehouse at
the gate (Neh. xii. 25). G. B. L.

j. jr. ‘ ■* '

BAKER: Among the Hebrews the task of pre-
paring the daily supply of fresh bread fell to the
housewife. It was only in the larger cities that pro-
fessional bakers were found, and, even in these, not
at a very early date. Bakers and baking are men-
tioned in Gen. xl. 2; Hosea vii. 6. Mention is made

Egyptian Baker.

(From 11 Zeitschrift der Egyptischen Sprache.”)

of a “street of bakers” in Jerusalem in the days of
Jeremiah (Jer. xxxvii. 21); and one of the towers at
the city wall bore the rather curious name of “ Tower
of the Ovens” (Neh. iii. 11, xii. 38; see Josephus,
“Ant.” xv. 9, § 2). See Bread and Baking.

j. jr. I. Be.

BAKEWELL HALL : A large building in the
neighborhood of the Guildhall, London, on the site
now occupied by Gresham College. In a document
at the British Museum (Add. MS. 4542, f. 37), a syn-

agogue of the Jews is described as being on the same
site; and Stow (“Survey of London,” ed. Thoms,
p. 108) refers to the tradition that Bakewell Hall
was once a Jewish synagogue. It was built on land
that originally belonged to Josce of York. At his
death it escheated to the king and passed to Samuel

Old London Jewry, Showing (A) Location of Bakewell Hall.

(From Ralph Aggas’ “ Map of London,” 1586.)

Hoppocole, and then to Ysaac the “ Cyrographer,”
who handed it over to his son Samson. It ultimately
came into possession of Aaron fil. Vives in 1281, and
was in the hands of his mother at the expulsion in
1290. It was the only synagogue in London in
preexpulsion times that was not confiscated and re-
mained in possession of the Jews down to the expul-
sion in 1290. It has been suggested that the name
was derived from “Batliwell Hall,” and that the
“ mikweh,” or ritual bath, of the London Jewry was
also situated in the same building.

Bibliography: Jacobs, in Papers of A nglo- Jewish Exhibi-
tion, p. 11; idem, Jcit's of Angevin England, pp. 234-236;
idem, Jewish Ideals, p 170; Abrahams, Jewish Life in the
Middle Ages, p. 73.

G. J.

BAKHCHI-SARAI (Tatar for “a palace sur-
rounded by gardens ”) ; Former residence of the
Tatar khans (fifteenth century to 1783); now a town
in the government of Taurida (Crimea), Russia, sit-
uated on the rivulet Churuksu, nearly midway be-
tween Simferopol and Sebastopol. In a total popu-
lation of 13,377, mostly Tatars (in 1881), about
seventy families were Karaites and about twenty
families Talmudical Jews. The Karaites trade
largely in dress-stuffs, mercery, and groceries, while
most of the Talmudical Jews are artisans. Both
communities have their synagogues.

Bibliography : Mandelstamm, Hazon la-Mo'ed, iii. 16, Vienna,
1877; Deinard, Massa' la-liazi ho-I Krim, p. 104, Warsaw,
1879; Entziklopedicheski Slovar, iii. s.v., St. Petersburg,
1892.

g. H. R.

BAKHMUT : City in the government of Yeka-
terinoslav, Russia. It has 4,000 Jews in a popula-
tion of 19,000. The district of Bakhmut, including
the city, lias a Jewish population of 9,469 in a total
of 332,171. Until 1882, the Jews of the vicinity of
Bakhmut rented land for cultivation; but since the
law of May 3, 1882, only 10 or 15 of them hold land
in Christians’ names and sublet it to peasants. There
are 583 artisans among the Jews, including 185 tai-
lors. The lamentable condition of the latter is due

Baki, Simson
Baking

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

462

to the steady influx of other Jewish artisans. The
city has a Talmud Torah, a private school for Jews,
and 9 “heders” with 155 male pupils.
h. r. S. J.

BAKI, SIMSON : 1. Born either in Germany
or Italy, and very probably related to the Bachi
family, members of which flourished successively at
Vercelli and Casale. He lived about 1582-84, and
wrote at these dates from Safed and Jerusalem three
letters, which were recently published by David
Kaufmann in A. M. Luncz’s “Jerusalem,” vol. ii. ,
Jerusalem, 1887, Hebrew section, pp. 141-147 ; com-
pare also Steinschneider in the same periodical, vol.
iii., Jerusalem, 1889, pp. 56, 57, No. 335, who calls
him “Back.”

1. g. G. A. K.

2. Rabbi at Casale; flourished about the middle
of the eighteenth century. He was a contemporary
of Moses Zacuto, and was, it is assumed by some,
the descendant of Simson Baki, 1, or in some way
related to him. According to Rabbi Benjamin Cohen
of Reggio, who was Bald’s pupil, he died on the
lltli of Sivan, 5451 ( = 1691 ; compare “ Gebul Binya-
min,” ii., No. 44). Baki seems to have been a mys-
tic. From one of the epistles of the cabalist Moses
Zacuto, bearing the date 1672 (t'Oin nVUK, No. 2),
it appears that he was very superstitious, for he
complains of his ill -success at exorcising the evil
spirit with which a woman was possessed, where-
upon Moses Zacuto recommended the burning of
sulfur along with the use of the Ineffable Name to
obtain the desired effect. In common with all his
countrymen, Baki was a fervent champion of Sliab-
bethai Zebi, and transmitted to him from Italy a let-
ter avowing allegiance to his cause. As a writer he
does not appear to have been active beyond the com-
position of a commentary on Lamentations and the
Song of Songs mentioned in the “Epistles of Moses
Zacuto,” entitled roc6 HNISI, which latter is still ex-
tant in manuscript. Bibliographers do not allude
to it at all, except Benjacob, “Ozar ha-Sefarim,” p.
549, note; 217.

Bibliography: Nepi-Ghirondi, Toledot Gedole Yisrael, 1856;
p. 331, Gratz, Gcscli. der Juden , 2d ed., x. 323; Briill,
in Haharmel, new series, iv. 168; Briill’s Jdhrb. ix. 175,
notel; D. Kaufmann, in Luncz’s Jerusalem, ii., Jerusalem,
1887, Hebrew section, p. 142 ; A. Jellinek, in the Zunz-Juhel-
schrlft , Berlin, 1884, Hebrew section, p. 86; Mortara, Indice
Alfabeticn, Padua, 1886, p. 5, s.v. Bachi , who mentions two
Simsons, who are, without doubt, identical. Another died
in 1885.

K. G. A. Iv.

BAKING. — Biblical Data: The bread of the
ancient Hebrews, like that of the Palestinians to-
day, was not in the shape of thick loaves, but of thin
cakes (see Bread). Originally these were baked by
kindling a fire on the sand or on small stones, and
then, when the sand or stones had become sufficiently
heated, brushing away the fire and ashes and laying
the thin cakes of dough upon the sand or stones and
covering them with glowing ashes. A few minutes
sufficed to bake this bread. Such is the description
given by Epiphanius (De Lagarde, “Symmicta,” ii.
188), who explains the Septuagint eyicpvdia as refer-
ring to “ the hiding ” of the cakes under the ashes
(compare the Vulgate pants subcinerarius). The

Hebrew expression D'SV"l TUP in I Kings xix. 6,
rendered as “cakes baken on the coal,” is also most
probably to be understood as meaning cakes baked
on glowing stones (see Robinson, “Biblical Re-
searches,” ii. 416; Doughty, “Arabia Deserta,” i.
131). Another method of baking, prevalent still
among the Bedouins, is to employ a heated iron
plate in lieu of sand or stones (^T"Q D3no. Lev. ii.
5; Ezek. iv. 3). The reference in I Chron. ix. 31 is
probably to bread baked in this way.

The Jew's that were settled in the land, no doubt,
as a general thing, had ovens in their houses (Ton,
“ tannur ”). The modern Palestinian oven, which, in
ancient times, could certainly not have been more
primitive, consists generally of a clay pan, which is
placed upon small stones with dung-fuel heaped
around and over the pan. The dung is kindled and

Modem Baking-Oven in Syria.

(From Benzinger, “Hebraische Archlologie.”)

the bread then laid upon the heated stones under
the pan. This is evidently an elaboration of the
process above described. Another form of oven,
however, is also used, consisting of a clay cylinder
narrower toward the top. Fire is kindled inside
this, and the cakes of bread are stuck upon the
heated inside walls. The ancient Egyptians laid
the cakes upon the external walls of the oven, as the
drawings show.

Bibliography: Wilkinson, Ancient Egypt, 1878, ii. 34: Er-
man, Aegypten und Aeggptisches Lehen , 1885, pp. 191 et
seq.; see also the cuts of the modern oven in Benzinger,
Arehtinlngie, 1894, pp. 86, 87 ; Nowack, Lelirhuch der Hchr.
Arehiiolngie , 1894; Vogelstein, Die Landwirthscliaft in
Pal/lstina zur Zeit der Mishnali , Berlin, 1894; and the
works referred to in this article,
j. jr. I. Be.

In Rabbinical Literature; Rabbinical, and

especially tannaitic, literature gives more detailed in-
formation respecting baking than any other handi-
craft. This is due to the fact that the Temple ritual
included no less than twelve distinct meal-offerings
which were of the greatest importance in the Hala-
kah. The flour used was made from wheat crushed

463

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baki, Simson
Baking:

with a pestle; the grains being ground for fine pa-
stry. It was then strained through a sieve once or
oftener, and, after being mixed with water, was
kneaded thoroughly. Leavened dough or other
leavening material was generally used for baking
outside the Temple. The process of
Fermenta- fermentation is minutely described in
tion. the Talmud in passages relating to the
making of the unleavened bread for
Passover (Pes. 366, 37 a and 6, 41«, and in many
other places; see Mazzot).

Besides the ordinary mode of preparing dough in

Temple being of metal. They were a haudbreadth
narrower at the top, where the opening was made.
After the oven was filled, this orifice was closed with
a lid, and in order to avoid too rapid
Ovens. cooling the edges of the cover were
cemented with clay. The lower and
smaller opening, which served for the removal of the
ashes, was also cemented. This primitive oven was
not, however, the only one known in ancient times,
the ’JITS, tpovpvos, imported from Greece as its name
shows, being also used (Bezah 34« ; Keliin xi. 4; and
in many other places). This oven rested upon a

Egyptian Royal Bakery, Showing Various Processes of Baking.

(From Wilkinson, “ Vncient Egyptians.”)

a kneading-trough, there were other methods. It
was sometimes made by pouring flour into boiling
water; sometimes by pouring the boiling water on
the tiour, after which the mass was kneaded (Hallah

i. 6; Pes. 376; Tosefta, Hallah, i. 2; Yer. ib. i. 58a;
compare Maimonides, Commentary to Mishnah).
When thoroughly mixed, the dough was placed on
boards (“arukot”), to be stretched, rolled, and
molded into the desired shape. Usually it was
shaped by hand, but occasionally special forms were
used. The size and weight of the bakers’ loaves
were always uniform (Mishnah B. M. ii. 1 ; compare
Rashi, ib.); those made at home differed accord-
ing to individual taste and desire (Mishnah B. M.

ii. 2).

Ovens were of clay, stone, or metal ; those in the

round or four-cornered foundation; sometimes a
cupola-shaped dome was placed upon the ground and
the loaves upon it were baked by a fire beneath.
The loaves were placed against the inner wall of
the oven, and considerable dexterity and practise
were required to remove the baked bread with-
out injuring it (Kelim viii. 9; v. 10, 11; compare
Gerslion of Radzyn’s Maseket Kelim (Yosefow,
1873), ad loc. and “Zeit. Deutsch. Palast. Yer.’’ iii.
Ill, 112).

As stated above, the Talmud pays particular at-
tention to the bread or cakes used in Temple offer-
ings. With the exception of the bread of the thank-
offering (min 'Dr6) and the two breads (Dn^n 'ntf’>
used at Pentecost, all meal-offerings were unleav-
ened. The priests, who kneaded the dough with.

Baking

Baku

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

464

lukewarm water, took great care to prevent fermen-
tation. The “ two loaves ” were both kneaded as
well as baked separately; they were
The “ Two four-cornered, seven handbreadths
Loaves.” long, four handbreadths wide, with
corner-pieces (“horns”) of four fin-
gers’ length (Men. xi. 1, 4).

A special knack and dexterity were necessary for
the baking of the sliowbread (D'JSn Dr6), which the
Talmud describes in detail. Each loaf
The Show- was kneaded singly, but every two
bread. loaves were baked together. Three
(golden) forms or molds were used in
the course of preparation ; in the first the dough
was kneaded, in the second the bread was baked,
and into the third it was put, immediately after
being taken from the stove, iu order to preserve its
shape (Men. xi. 1, 94c ; see Maimonides, “Yad,”
Temidin u-Musafin, v. 6-8). The preparation of
this bread was so intricate that only one family, the
Garmu, was deemed sufficiently expert in the art,
and accordingly its members charged high prices
for their services (Yoma 38 d).

Baking was a developed trade even in Jeremiah’s
time (Jer. xxxvii. 21), and was continued as such in
the Talmudic period. It is remarkable, therefore,
that in the Hebrew as well as in Aramaic portions
of the Talmud the baker bears an Assyrian appel-
lation, Dinro (for the Assyrian derivation of this
word, see Zimmern, “Z. D. M. G.” liii. 115 et seq . ;
see, however, Jastrow, “ Dictionary,” s.v. Oinnj). In
Talmudic times, women followed the baker’s trade,
selling their wares in the market-
Women as places (Hallah ii. 7; see also Ber.
Bakers. 58 5). In the larger cities, the bakers
did not sell their own bread, but dis-
posed of it to dealers (Demai v. 4; ‘Ab. Zarah 355,
555, where the Tosafists give the correct explanation).
In addition, there were large bakeries where dough
was baked which had been prepared at home. Since
many different individuals had bread baked in these
ovens, each loaf, to prevent disputes, was distin-
guished by some little token, such as a pebble, a
bean, etc., which was pressed upon the loaves (Tebul
Yom i. 3). See Dietary Laws, Mazzot, Hallah.

Bibliography: G. L8wy, Technologic und Terminologie der
Ml'tller und Bdcltcr in den Rablrinixchen Qnellen, Leipsio,
1898. On Baking in Csesarea, see Backer, Monatssclirift ,
1901, p. 299.

j. sr. L. G.

BAKONYI, SAMUEL; Hungarian deputy and
publicist; born in Debreczin July 22, 1862. After
graduating in law at the Universitj' of Budapest, he
settled in his native town, where he soon became
prominent in the public affairs of the city and the
Jewish congregation, through his journalistic activ-
ity and his exceptional oratorical powers and wide
juristic knowledge. He became one of the leaders
of the liberal ecclesiastical reform movement, which
began in Debreczin, called “the Calvinistic Rome,”
with the result that, although a Jew and dwelling
in a Protestant town, he was elected in 1901 to the
Parliament on the platform of the liberal Kossuth
party. As an expert criminal lawyer he holds an
appointment upon the law committee of the Hun-
garian Parliament.

s. L. Y.

BAKRI, DAVID BEN JOSEPH COEN:

Chief of the Algerian Jews; financier; born about
1770; decapitated Feb. 4, 1811. His great financial
abilities placed him early at the head of the impor-
tant firm “Bakri Brothers,” founded by his father.
In 1797 David married Aziza, a niece of the pow-
erful Naphtali Busnash, who at that time became
a partner in the firm, which then assumed the name
“ Bakri Busnash. ” Supported by the regency, which
was but a tool in the hands of Busnash, and skilfully
managed by David, the extent of the company’s
transactions attained the highest proportions. Their
vessels plowed the seas ; and many European gov-
ernments entrusted them with the management of
their Algerian money affairs. On several occasions
they dared to defy the British government in pur-
chasing from French privateers the vessels that they
had captured from the allies. During the dearth iu
France they supplied the latter with a considerable
quantity of wheat on credit ; and on their advice the
dey authorized a loan to the French Directory of
five million francs, the credit for which was even-
tually transferred to them. The settlement of this
loan brought about thirty years later the definite
rupture between the regency and France, and, finally,
the conquest of Algeria by the French. On the
assassination of Busnash and the anti-Jewisli riots
which followed it, the firm “Bakri Busnash ” became
insolvent ; and David himself was thrown into prison
under the pretext that the firm owed the regency a
sum of five million francs. Set free on a promise
to pay the alleged debt, he soon built up the firm
“Bakri,” owing to the help he received from sev-
eral European governments for the services he had
rendered them. He even succeeded in winning the
confidence of the new dey, who appointed him in
1806 chief of the Algerian Jews. This post proved
fatal to him. His irreconcilable enemy, David Duran,
who coveted this office, was unscrupulous in his
efforts to undermine Bakri’s position. The latter
was accused of high treason and decapitated.
Bibliography : Block, Inscriptions Tumulaires , pp. 88 et seq.

D. I. Br.

BAKRI, JACOB COHEN : French consul at
Algiers before its conquest by France; born in
Algiers in 1763; died at Paris Nov. 23, 1836. Im-
mensely rich, and highly esteemed for his abilities
and character, he was appointed consul under the
Restoration. In 1827, under Charles X., he negoti-
ated with the dey, Hasan, in reference to a claim
made by the French government. In the course of
this negotiation, Bakri, defending with vehemence
the French interests, was insulted by the dey. The
French government regarded this as a national af-
front, and declared war, the result of which was the
conquest of Algiers and the banishment of the dey.

Leaving Algiers at the outbreak of the war, Bakri
settled in Paris, where he was continually annoj ed
by his creditors, by reason of his inability to avail
himself of a debt due to him from the Spanish gov-
ernment, amounting to 35,000,000 francs.

Bibliography: Jost, Neuere Gesch. der Israeliten , ii. 210;

Allg Zeit. des Jud. 1838, p. 216. See Algiers.

s. I. Br.

BAKRI, JOSEPH COEN : Chief of the Alge-
rian Jews; financier; born at Algiers iu the middle

465

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baking

Baku

of the eighteenth century; died at Leghorn in 1817.
He was the founder of the renowned firm “ Bakri
Brothers,” which played so great a part in the poli-
tics of Algeria during half a century. At the death
of his son David, Joseph undertook the management
of the affairs of the firm, and was appointed by the
dey chief of the Algerian Jews. This dignity,
which had been so portentous to his son, brought
him misfortune too. In 1816 he was banished from
Algeria, and his possessions were confiscated by the
dey. Subsequently he removed to Leghorn, where
he spent the closing years of his life unbefriended
and in poverty.

Bibliography: Bloch, Inscriptions Tumulaires , p. 118.

D. I. Br.

BAKST, ISAAC MOSES : Lecturer at the
Jewish Rabbinical College of Jitomir; died there
June 18, 1882; the father of Nicolai Bakst. He
wrote “Sefer lia-Hinnuh,” Jitomir, 1868 — a Hebrew
method for beginners, adapted for Jewish Russian
schools. For many years he owned a Hebrew print-
ing-office in Jitomir.

Bibliography : Zeitlin, Bibliotheca Hebraica, p. 15 (here

Isaac Bakst’s name is spelled “ Baxt”).

H. R.

BAKST, NICOLAI IGNATYEVICH: Rus-
sian physiologist; born in 1843. He studied at St.
Petersburg University, from which he graduated
Bachelor of Natural Science in 1862. He was then
sent abroad by the Ministry of Public Instruction for
a period of three years to prepare himself for the
professorship of physiology. Upon his return he
lectured at the St. Petersburg University as privat-
docent; he also lectured to the women medical stu-
dents from 1881 till the separate lectures for women
were abolished. In 1886 he was appointed member
of the committee of science at the Ministry of Public
Instruction.

Bakst’s principal physiological writings are:
“ Versuclie liber die Fortpflanzungsgeschwiudigkeit
der Reizung in den Motorischen Nerven des Men-
sclien ” (published with the approval of Helmholtz
in the “ Monatsberichte der Akademie der Wissen-
schaften zu Berlin,” 1867); “Neue Versuclie liber
die Fortpffanzungsgeschwindigkeit der Reizung in
den Motorischen Nerven des Menschen” (ib. , 1870);
“Ueber die Zeit, Welche Nothig 1st, Damit eiu Ge-
siclitseindruck zum Bewusstsein Ivommt ” (ib. , and
more extensively in “ Pfliiger’s Archiv ftir Physiolo-
gic,” i v . ) ; “Die Folgen Maximaler Reize von Un-
gleic-her Dauer auf den Nervus Accelerans Cordis”
(in the “Archiv fur Anatomie und Physiologie,”
1877); “Die Verkiirzung der Systolenzeit Durch
Nervus Accelerans Cordis” (in the “Arch. f. Anat.
und Physiol.” 1878) ; “ Kalorimetricheskoe Opredye-
lenie Krovi” (in S. I. Cliirgev’s work “Statika
Krovi,” St. Petersburg, 1881); “Kurs Fiziologii
Organov Chuvstv ” (St. Petersburg, 1886); “O Ma-
terializmye Yestestvennykh Nauk” (in “Znanie,”
1871, No. 10); “O Znachenii Fisiologii pri Izu-
chenii Meditziny ” (St. Petersburg, 1881) ; “ Pamyati
N. I. Pirogova,” in commemoration of N. I. Pirogov
(St. Petersburg, 1882); and “R. Stolyetnemu dnyu
Konchiny Moiseya Mendelsona ” (St. Petersburg,
1886).

Besides these contributions, Bakst, in the eighties,
wrote numerous articles on various public topics in
the “Golos,” and has translated from the German
and from the English Karl Ritter’s lectures on
geography under the title “Istoriya Zemlevye-
deuiya i Otkryti po Etomu Predmetu ” (St. Peters-
burg, 1864); Odling’s lectures on chemistry under
the title “Zhivotnaya Khimiya” (St. Petersburg,
1867) ; and M. Sclileiden’s “ Das Alter des Mensch-
lichen Geschlechts” (“Drevnost Chelovyecheskavo
Roda ”) (St. Petersburg, I860).

Bibliography: S. a. Vengerov, Kritiko-Bioyraftcheski Slo-

var , v. ii., St. Petersburg, 1891.

H. R.

BAKST, OSSIP ISAAKOVICH: Son of Isaac
and brother of Nicolai Bakst; died Oct. 8, 1895; was
employed as interpreter (dragoman) in the Asiatic
Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, and is
known also as a publisher of Russian translations
of scientific works, such as Helmholtz, Schleiden,
Claude Bernard, Draper, etc. He published a Rus-
sian translation of Emanuel Hecht’s “Israel’s Ge-
sehiehte, von der Zeit des Bibel-Abschlusses bis zur
Gegenwart,” St. Petersburg, 1866, 2d ed., 1881, as
well as a Russian translation of the last volume of
Griitz’ “ Geschichte der Juden,” St. Petersburg, 1884.

Bibliography: Nedyelnaya Khronika Vos khoda, 1895, No.

40 : and private sources.

s. H. R.

BAKU : Seaport, in the government of the same
name, Transcaucasia, Russia, situated on the pen-
insula of Apsheron, on the west coast of the Caspian
sea. The naphtha-wells of Baku have long been
known to fire-worshipers. It is supposed that in the
early time of the Sassanids the city of Bagahan oc-
cupied the site of Baku. Baku is known to have
existed in the fourth century. The name is derived
from the Persian Bad- Kobe, which denotes “the
blow of the wind, ’’signifying the strong north-north-
west winds that blow there. In the eighth century
Baku came into the possession of the Arabs, and,
after the downfall of the califate, into the hands of
the princes of Shirvan.

The monk Wilhelmus de Rubruquis, who was
sent as ambassador by King Louis IX. to the Tatar
khan in 1254, in describing the old walls near the
sea and the road to Baku, relates that the whole
country was largely inhabited by Jews.

In 1794 about a dozen Jewish families from Jilan,
Persia, settled in Baku, and lived in rented houses
iu the fourth or outer wall of the city. Their syna-
gogue was also in a rented building, and they had
two rabbis, Ephraim and Abraham ben Joseph.
After the annexation of Baku by Russia, in 1806,
the Persian inhabitants started a riot in the Jewish
quarter, and although it was quelled by the Russian
general, the Jews decided to remove to Ivuba, which
then had a Jewish population of from 700 to 800
families. From that time until late in the eighties,
only a few Jewish soldiers — veterans of the time of
Emperor Nicholas I. — and some privileged mer-
chants were permitted to live in Baku. With the
development of the petroleum trade, in which the
Rothschilds, who have established an office in Baku,
were largely interested, Baku became one of the
larger cities of Russia, the total population increas-

II.— 30

Balaam

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

466

ing from 12,333 in 1867 to 112,000 in 1897. The Jew-
ish population increased proportionately, numbering
2,000 in 1899.

The Jewish community of Baku is now one of the
most advanced, and its affairs are well managed. It
possesses a religious school for children, and a new
synagogue was erected in 1901 at a cost of 100,000
rubles.

In the government of Baku the Caucasian Jews in
1900 numbered 8,630, and were distributed as fol-
lows: city of Kuba, 7,000; Mudzy, 950; Aftaran-
Mudzy, 680.

In the country round Baku Professor Hahn of
Tiflis discovered in 1894 a Jewish tribe which had
never before been recognized as descendants of
Israel. The members of this tribe lived in villages
in the neighborhood of Baku and Elizabetlipol, shut
in by insurmountable mountains, and occupied
themselves with cattle-breeding and agriculture.
They claim to be the remainder of the exiles from
the land of Israel in the time of the First Temple.
The language of these mountain Jews, which con-
tains unmistakable traces of Hebrew, is related to
that of the Ossetines, who are also considered to be
of Israelitish origin.

Bibliography: Semenov, Slovar Rossiskoi Imperii, i. s.v.;
Guillaume de Rubrouck, Recit cle Son Voyage, etc., pp. 280,
281, Paris, 1877 ; I. Chornv, Sefer, ha-Masa'ot , pp. 202, 203 ;
Voskhod, 1901, No. 9 ; David A. Louis, The Baku Petroleum
District of Russia, in Engineering Magazine, 1898, p. 986;
Regesty i Nadpisi, No. 177 ; Von der Hoven, in Budushch-
nost, 1900, No. 52 ; Katz, Die Juden im Kaukasus, p. 17,
Berlin, 1894.

H. R.

BALAAM (Hebr. Bil'am; Septuagint,

B af-aap.). — Biblical Data : A son of Beor and a

Balaam and the Ass.

(From a “ Teutsch Chumesh.”)

prophet of Pethor in Mesopotamia. The n irrative
relating to Balaam is found in Num. xxii.-xxiv.
According to this narrative, Balak, king of Moab,
sent messengers to the soothsayer, requesting him to
come and pronounce a curse against Israel, with
whom the Moabites were at war, and of whom they
stood in dread. Balak hoped, with the aid of the
soothsayer’s powerful curse, to overcome his foe.
His confidence in Balaam is illustrated by the
declaration he makes to him : “ I know that he
whom thou blessest is blessed, and he
Balak wdiom thou cursest is cursed ” ( ih . xxii.

Solicits 6, R. V.). Balaam, after consulting
His Aid. God, is forbidden to go back with the
Moabites, and he accordingly refuses,
despite the gifts that the messengers of Balak had
brought with them for him. Balak, being deter-

mined to secure the prophet’s services, sends other
and more distinguished messengers, who, as the nar-
rative puts it, are empowered to promise still greater
rewards and honor to the soothsayer if he will accede
to Balak’s wishes. Balaam, although anxious to go,
again refuses; declaring that even if Balak were to
give him his house full of silver and gold, he can not
do contrary to God’s command. However, he begs
the embassy to await a second consultation with the
Lord. This time God permits the soothsayer to go
to Balak, but enjoins upon him to do only “ the word
which I shall say ” (xxii. 20). Balaam then arises
and departs with the Moabites, riding upon his ass.
But notwithstanding the previous permission, God’s
anger is kindled at Balaam as he goes; and the
angel of the Lord with a drawn sword in his hand
shows himself accordingly to the ass, which refuses
to proceed along the road despite Balaam’s efforts
to urge it. Three times the angel, invisible as yet
to Balaam, puts himself in the path of the ass, which
is beaten by its master for its refusal to proceed.
The ass is then given the power of addressing its
rider in human speech, and asks him
His Ass reproachfully why it has been smit-
Speaks. ten. The soothsayer, apparently not
astonished by the miraculous speech,
replies angrily that, were a sword in his hand, he
would willingly kill the ass. The angel then be-
comes visible to Balaam, and the soothsayer falls on
his face before the vision. Balaam confesses his sin
to the angel and offers to return to his own land, but
the divine messenger permits him to go on with the
Moabites, enjoining him to say “only the word that
I shall speak unto thee” (xxii. 35).

Chapters xxiii.-xxiv. contain the detailed account
of four oracles that Balaam uttered to Balak concern-
ing Israel. The soothsayer directs Balak to offer sac-
rifices to God of seven oxen and seven rams on seven
altars built on a high place, Bamoth-baal, where he
could see “the utmost part” of Israel (xxii. 41).
Balaam then utters the first inspired oracle in favor
of Israel, a people that “shall not be reckoned
among the nations ” (xxiii. 9). Impressively he con-
cludes :

“ Who can count the dust of Jacob,

Or number the fourth part of Israel ?

Let me die the death of the righteous,

And let my last end be like his ” (xxiii. 10, R. V.).

Balak moves the seer to another point of outlook,
the top of Mt. Pisgali, where the entire Israelitish
camp is visible. Here again Balaam receives an ora-
cle even more strongly commendatory of Israel than
the first: “The Lord his God is with
His Four him ; ... he hath, as it were, the
Oracles, strength of the wild ox ” (xxiii. 21, R.

V.). What Israel accomplishes is not
by enchantment, but by God’s own might. Com-
paring Israel to a lion, he says:

“ Behold, the people riseth up as a lioness,

And as a lion doth he lift himself up ;

He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey.

And drink the blood of the slain ” (xxiii. 24. R. V.).

Balak then begs Balaam neither to curse nor to bless,
but to remain silent as to Israel’s future. Balaam re-
plies that he must do as directed by God. The king
then takes the soothsayer to Mt. Peor, but is once
more disappointed. The prophet in his third utter-

467

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Balaam

ance is impressed by the magnificent sight of Israel’s
encampment (xxiv. 56-6, R. V.):

“ As valleys are they spread forth,

As gardens by the river-side,

As lign-aloes which the Lord hath planted.

As cedar-trees beside the waters.”

Balak is at last infuriated and would dismiss Ba-
laam at once, but the latter pours forth his fourth
and last prophecy of the rise of a tribe in Israel that
will secure for the Hebrews decisive victories over
Moab and Edom; to which are added short denun-
ciations of Amalek and the Kenites. The king then
permits the prophet to return to his home. The
four oracles are in poetic form and belong to the
best specimens of a certain species of ancient He-
brew poetry. They are all characterized by a rich
imagery, and the diction is at once impressive and
stately. The third, xxiv. 5, beginning,

“ How goodly are thy tents, 0 Jacob !

Thy Tabernacles, 0 Israel,”

is particularly fine.

Balaam is mentioned in Micah vi. 5. Very sug-
gestive is the article “Haman, Bileam, und der Jii-
disclie Nabi,” by Steinthal, in “Zur Bibel- und Re-
ligionsphilosophie,” Berlin, 1890.

J. jr. I. M. P.

In Rabbinical Literature : Balaam is repre-
sented as one of seven heathen prophets ; the other
six being Balaam’s father, Job, and his four friends
(B. B. 156). He gradually acquired a position among
the heathen as exalted as that of Moses among the
chosen people (Num.R.xx.l). At first a mere inter-
preter of dreams, Balaam later became a magician,
until finally the spirit of prophecy descended upon
him (ib. 7). He possessed the special gift of being
able to ascertain the exact moment during which
God is wroth — a gift bestowed upon no other crea-
ture. Balaam’s intention was to curse the Israelites
at this moment of wrath; but God purposely re-
strained His anger in order to baffle the wicked
prophet and to save the nation from extermination
(Ber. 7a). When the law was given to Israel, a
mighty voice shook the foundations of the earth;
so that all kings trembled, and in their consterna-
tion gathered about Balaam, inquiring whether this
upheaval of nature portended a second deluge ; but
the prophet assured them that what they heard was
the voice of the Almighty giving the sacred Law to
His children of Israel (Zeb. 116a).

Nevertheless, it is significant that in rabbinical
literature the epithet “ rasha‘ ” (the wicked one) is
often attached to the name of Balaam (Ber. l.c. ;
Ta‘anit'20a; Num. R. xx. 14). He is pictured as
blind of one eye and lame in one foot (San. 105a) ;
and his disciples (followers) are distinguished by
three morally corrupt qualities, viz., an evil eye, a
haughty bearing, and an avaricious spirit— qualities
the very opposite of those characterizing the disci-
ples of Abraham (Ab. v. 19; compare Tan., Balak,
6). Balaam received the divine communication at
night only — a limitation that applies also to the
other heathen prophets (Num. R. xx. 12). The Rabbis
hold Balaam responsible for the unchastity which
led to the apostasy in Shittim, and in chastisement
of which 24,000 persons fell victims to a pestilence
(Num. xxv. 1-9). When Balaam, “the wicked,”

saw that he could not curse the children of Israel,
he advised Balak (intimated in Num. xxiv. 14) as a
last resort to tempt the Hebrew nation to immoral
acts and, through these, to the worship of Baal-peor.
“The God of the Hebrews,” adds Balaam, “hates
lewdness; and severe chastisement must follow”
(San. 106a; Yer. ib. x. 28d; Num. R. l.c.).

The Rabbis, playing on the name Balaam, call him
“ Belo ‘Am ” (without people ; that is, without a share
with the people in the world to come), or “Billa*
‘Am” (one that ruined a people); and this hostility
against his memory finds its climax in the dictum
that whenever one discovers a feature of wickedness
or disgrace in his life, one should preach about it
(Sanh. 1066). In the process of killing Balaam (Num.
xxxi. 8), all four legal methods of execution — sto-
ning, burning, decapitating, and strangling — were
employed (Sanh. l.c.). He met his death at the age
of thirty -three (ib.) ; and it is stated that he had no
portion in the world to come (Sanh. x. 2 ; 90a). The
Bible devotes a special section to the remarkable
history of the prophet, in order to answer the ques-
tion, why God has taken away the power of proph-
ecy from the Gentiles (Tan., Balak, 1). Moses is
expressly mentioned as the author of this episode in
the Pentateuch (B. B. 146).

J. sr. H. M. S.

■ Critical View : Nearly all modern expositors

agree that the section xxii.-xxiv. belongs to the com-
posite document JE.

In xxii. Balaam, according to J, is requested by
the messengers of Balak to come and pronounce a
curse against the Israelites, of whose growing power
the Moabite chief is not unreasonably in dread. Ba-
laam is willing to go, but assures Balak that he can
not exceed the command of Yhwh, even though
Balak were to give him his house “ full of silver
and gold ” (xxii. 18). The episode of the ass is then
told.

The E account simply states that Balaam was
summoned by Balak, but that he did not consent to
go until God (Eloliim) appeared to him in a dream
and gave him permission (xxii. 19-21). The episode
of the journey (xxii. 22 et seq.) belongs entirely to J.

A comparison between xxiii. (E) and xxiv. (J)
will show that the J account is much more pictur-
esque than that of E, and has, moreover, none of
the latter’s elaborate and somewhat stilted detail.
Whether the four poems are to be attributed, just
as they stand in xxiii. and xxiv., to E and J respect-
ively, is a matter of doubt. It is much more prob-
able that an ancient poem about Balaam had been
used by both the J and E accounts, which the later
J and E redactor divided in the manner in which it
now appears.

As to the age of the respective accounts, the nu-
cleus of the narrative must have originated at a com-
paratively late date, after Israel had

Age of acquired a permanent ascendancy over
Narrative, the other Canaanitish nations. The
tale of the talking ass must be re-
garded as a bit of primitive folk-lore, introduced into
the narrative as a literary embellishment.

It is generally supposed by critics that the three
short oracles in xxiv. 20-24 are a later accretion by

Balaam

Balak

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

468

a writer other than the author of the four longer
poems.

A different tradition about Balaam exists in the
Priestly Code (P), where Balaam is
Balaam in represented as a Midianite, who at-
Priestly tempted to seduce Israel by immoral
Code and in rites (Num. xxxi. 16). According to
Deu- this account, which probably depends
teronomy. upon Num. xxv. 6-15, Balaam was
afterward slain with the Midianitish
princes (Num. xxxi. 8; Josh. xiii. 22).

The allusion to Balaam in Dent, xxiii. 4, 5 (com-
pare Nell. xiii. 2) states that the prophet was hired
to curse Israel and that Yhwh turned the curse into
a blessing, thus implying that the prophet was anx-
ious to accede to Balak’s desire (compare also Josh,
xxiv. 9). Such an idea might have been obtained
from Num. xxiii. 4, where Balaam tells Elohim ex-
plicitly that he has offered a bullock and a ram on
seven altars, thereby implying a hope that God will
inspire Balaam to curse Israel.

Opinions vary greatly as to the derivation and
meaning of the name Balaam. It is generally con
sidered to be a compound of “Bel” and ‘“Am,” and
since both “Bel” and ‘“Am” are names of deities
among Semites, the name may either represent a
combination of two deities (‘“Am” is “Bel”) or
“ Bel ” may be used in the general sense which it ac-
quired of “ lord ” : the name would then be inter-
preted “ ‘Am is Lord.”

Bibliography : Kuenen, Theolog. Tijdschrift, 1884, xviii. 497-
540; Van Hoonacker, Observations Critiques Concernant
Bileam , in Le Museon , 1888; Hal6vy, Revue Semitique ,
1894, pp. 201-209 ; Delitzsch, Zur Ncuesten Literatur liber den
Abscli nitt Bileam, in Zeitsehrift der Kirchlichen Wissen-
schaft, 1888 ; Cheyne, in Expository Times, 1899, x. 399-403 ;
and the various commentaries on Numbers.

J. JR. J. D. P.

In Mohammedanism : It is very doubtful

whether there is any reference to Balaam in the
Koran. The commentators apply to him, but with
reservations, sura vii. 174 et seq. : “ And recite against
them [the Jews] the story of him to whom we
brought our signs, but he separated himself from
them; then Satan followed him, and he was of those
that go astray. And if we had willed, we had ex-
alted him through them, but he inclined toward the
earth and followed his desire. His likeness was the
likeness of a dog; if you attack it, it pants, and if
you leave it alone, it pants.” The Moslem commen-
tators explain that Balaam was a Oauaanite who had
been given knowledge of some of the boobs of God.
His people asked him to curse Moses and those who
were with him, but he said, “ How can I curse one
who has angels with him?” They continued to
press him, however, until he cursed the Israelites,
and, as a consequence, they remained forty years in
the Wilderness of the Wanderings. Then, when he
had cursed Moses, his tongue came out and fell upon
his breast, and he began to pant like a dog.

The story as told by Tabari (“Anuales,” ed. De
Goeje, i. 508 et seq.) is somewhat more Biblical.
Balaam had the knowledge of the Most Sacred Name
of God, and whatever he asked of God was granted
to him. The story of the ass, etc., then follows at
length. When it came to the actual cursing, God
“turned his tongue” so that the cursing fell upon

his own people and the blessing upon Israel. Then
his tongue came out and hung down on his breast.
Finally, he advised his people to adorn and beautify
their women and to send them out to ensnare the
Israelites. The story of the plague at Baal-peor
and of Cozbi and Zimri (Num. xxv. 14, 15) fol-
lows. According to another story which Tabari
gives, Balaam was a renegade Israelite who knew
the Most Sacred Name and, to gain the things
of this world, went over to the Canaanites. Al-
Tha'labi (“Kisas al-Anbiyya,” pp. 206 et seq., Cairo
ed., 1298) adds that Balaam was descended from
Lot. He gives, too, the story of Balaam’s dream,
his being forbidden by God to curse Israel. An-
other version is that Balak, the king of Balka, com-
pelled Balaam to use the Most Sacred Name against
Israel. The curse fell automatically, and Moses,
having learned whence it came, entreated God to
take from Balaam his knowledge of the Name and
his faith. This being done, they went out from him
in the form of a white dove.

Other interpreters, however, refer the passage
in the Koran to Umayya b. Abi al-Salt al-Thakafi,
one of the seekers of religious truth in the time of
Mohammed, who had read the books and aspired to
be the expected prophet. He refused to embrace
Islam, and this passage was revealed in conse-
quence (Herbelot, “Orient. Bibliothek ”). Some
scholars find in Lokman the Arabic parallel to
Balaam.

J. jr. M.

In Hellenistic and Haggadic Literature:

The Alexandrian Jews made Balaam an object of
popular legend as a great sorcerer. Philo (“ De Vita
Moysis,” i. 48) speaks of him as “a man renowned
above all men for his skill as a diviner and a prophet,
who foretold to the various nations important events,
abundance and rain, or droughts and famine, inun-
dations or pestilence.” Josephus (“Ant.” iv. 6, § 2)
calls him “the greatest of the prophets at that time.”
He has been identified with Bela, the son of Beor,
and first king of Edom (Gen. xxxvi. 32; Targ. Yer.,
Ibn Ezra and Ziuni to the passage); with Eliliu, the
friend of Job (Yer. Sotah v. 20tf); with Kemuel, the
father of Aram (Gen. xxii. 21 ; compare Targ. Yer.,
“ head of the enchanters of Aram ” ; and Yalk. , Num.
i. 766), and with Laban (Targ. Yer. to Num. xxii. 5;
compare Gen. B. 1 vii. , end; and Sanli. 105a, where
Laban is identified with Beor, the father of Balaam),
being a master of witchcraft, the skill of the sons of
the East (Gen. xxx. 27; Isa. ii. 6; Num. xxiii. 7).

Balaam’s residence was Padan-aram, but his fame
as “ interpreter of dreams ” gave his city the name
“ Petor ” (m3 = “ to interpret ”). His great wisdom
made him vain, and he became a foolish man — “ ben
be‘or” (ij ]2 = “fool”; Targ. Yer. to Num. xxii. 5).
The story of Moses’ war with the Ethiopians, as re-
lated by Josephus (“Ant.” ii. 10) after Hellenistic
sources, was in olden times brought into connection
with Balaam. Balaam (see Sanli. 106a; Sotah 11a;
Jellinek, “B. H.” ii. 3; “ Chronicles of Jerahmeel,”
translated bjr Gaster, xliv. 9, xlvi. 15) was one of the
three counselors consulted by Pharaoh in regard to
the Hebrews whose rapid increase provoked his fear.
Jethro spoke in their favor and fled to Midiau to

469

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Balaam

Balak

escape the king’s anger; Job withheld an opinion
and was punished afterward by a life of suffering;
Balaam advised Pharaoh to drown all the Hebrew
babes. Again, when the child Moses had taken the
crown from the king’s head and put it on his own,
thus recalling to Pharaoh his dream foreboding evil
to the kingdom, Balaam advised Pharaoh to slay
Moses.

When Pharaoh’s daughter threatened to take the
life of Balaam, he fled with his two sons, Jannes
and Jambres, the renowned wizards, to Ethiopia;
there, during the absence of the king, who had gone
to war against the people of Syria, he instigated a
rebellion, making himself king, and his sons cap-
tains of the host. He raised high walls on two sides
of the capital, dug pits on the third side, filling them
vwith water, and on the fourth side, by means of
witchcraft, placed serpents to render the city unap-
proachable. For nine years the king’s army be-
sieged the capital, unable to enter;

Balaam then Moses on his flight from Egypt
and Moses, came there and became the king’s
counselor and, as the king’s death soon
followed, his successor. He required each warrior
to fetch young storks (or ibises) from the forest, and
soon the serpents disappeared and the city was cap-
tured. Balaam and his sons fled to Egypt, where
they became the master-magicians who opposed
Moses and Aaron at the court of Pharaoh (Targ.
Yer. to Ex. vii. 11; “Chronicles of Jerahmeel,”
xlvii. 6, 7; Yaik., Ex. 168).

When Balaam went forth later to curse the Israel-
ites in the wilderness, he again had with him his
sons Jannes and Jambres (Targ. Yer. to Num. xxii.
22). His witchcraft had no effect on Israel, because
the merits of their ancestors shielded them and an-
gels protected them (Tan., ed. Buber, Balak, xvii.,
xxiii. ; Targ. Yer. to Num. xxiii. 9, 10, 23; Samari-
tan Book of Joshua, ch. iii.). He then resorted to
the strategem of seduction. After having, by divine
inspiration, predicted the destiny of the people of
Israel, and having spoken even of the Messianic
future (Josephus, “ Ant.”iv. 6, §§4, 5; Philo, l.c. 52),
he advised Balak to_ select the liand-
The somest daughters of the Midianites,
Strategy who should lead the Israelites to idol-
of Balaam, atry (Josephus, l.c., §§ 6-9; Philo, l.c.

54-56 ; Samaritan Book of Joshua, iv.).
This plan was executed, and 24,000 Midianite women
caused as many Hebrew men to fall (Targ. Yer. to
Num. xxiv. 25; Samaritan Book of Joshua, iv.).
Phinehas decided to avenge the wrong upon Balaam.
Seeing his pursuer, the latter resorted to witchcraft
and flew up into the air ; but Phinehas made use of
the Holy Name, seized him by the head, and un-
sheathed his sword to slay him. In vain did Ba-
laam entreat his conqueror, saying : “ Spare me and
I will no longer curse thy people.” Phinehas an-
swered, “ Thou, Laban the Aramean, didst intend to
kill Jacob our father, and thou didst invite Amalek
to make war against us; and now, when thy wiles
and sorceries were of no avail, thou didst lay pitfalls
for 24,000 Hebrews by thy wicked counsel. Thy
life is forfeited.” Whereupon Balaam fell, pierced
by the sword (Targ. Yer. to Num. xxxi. 8; Sanh.
1066).

Henceforth he became the type of false prophets
seducing men to lewdness and obscene idolatrous
practises (Rev. ii. 14; II Peter ii. 15; Jude 11 ; Abot
v. 19). The name “ Nicolaitanes, ” given to the Chris-
tian heretics “holding the doctrine of Balaam” (Rev.
ii. 6, 15), is probably derived from the Grecized form
of Balaam, DJ?b = NAo-Hdof, and hence also the
pseudonym “Balaam,” given to Jesus in Sanh. 1066
and Git. 57 a. See Geiger, “Bileam and Jesus,” in
“ Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift filr Jiidisclie Theolo-
gie,” vi. 31-37.

The life of this sorcerer was further detailed in the
“Sefer ha-Yashar” legends and by the later cabal-
ists(Yalk., Reubeni to Balak). Balaam's ass formed
an especial object of liaggadic interpretation and
embellishment. “ The speaking mouth of the ass ”
was declared to be one of the ten miraculous things
that God had created in the twilight of the sixth
day (Abot v. 6). Targ. Yer. to Num. xxii. 30 gives
a long monition which the ass offers to her foolish
master.

Bibliography : Hamburger, it. B. T. i. s.v.

J. SR. K.

BALADAN. See Berodacii-baladan.

BALAK. — Biblical Data : According to Num.
xxii. -xxiv., Balak was king of Moab when the
Israelites emerged from their wanderings in the wil-
derness to the conquest of the East Jordanic land.
Alarmed by the victories and numbers of the in-
vaders, he summoned the prophet Balaam, who lived
on the banks of the Euphrates, to curse them, be-
lieving, like most of the ancients, in the potency of
a curse to work evil upon those against whom it
was pronounced. In his zeal Balak offered rich sac-
rifices in order to place the Deity under obligations
to grant his heart’s desire; but lie met with disap-
pointment, for the prophet, acting under the direc-
tions of Yhwh, uttered blessings instead of curses
upon his foes, the Israelites, and predicted for them
victories and glories.

J. JR. C. F. Iv.

In Rabbinical Literature : Balaam prophe-
sied that his fellow-countryman Balak would one
day be king. Balak was the son, not of a king, but
of an unimportant prince, and was for some time a
vassal of Silion, king of the Amorites. When Sihon
died, Balak became his successor, and, seeing the
prophecy of Balaam fulfilled, he sent for the latter.
Balak was himself a skilful sorcerer and knew that
a great calamity was to befall Israel, but did not
know how he could be instrumental in bringing it
about, so he desired the assistance of Balaam. His
fear of Israel was chiefly due to the fact that the
Israelites were at peace with Ammon, while Moab,
his own kingdom, suffered from their arrogance,
though God had forbidden them to wage actual war
against it. Balak knew human nature well, and,
aware of Balaam’s greed, promised him wealth and
honor in return for his assistance. But, after the
latter came, Balak showed himself a niggard.

“The pious,” says the Midrash, “promise little,
but do much ; Abraham invited the angels to a bite
of bread and entertained them royally. The godless
promise much and do little, as is shown by the ex-
ample of Balak” (Num. R. xx. 2, 3, 17; Tan., ed.

Balance

Balearic

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

470

Buber, Balak, 3-9, 15). His hatred of Israel was so
great that he even gave his own daughter to seduce
the Israelitish noblemen. She was the woman slain
by Pliinehas (Num. xxv. 15). Here “ Zur ” is onty an-
other name for “Balak” (Num.R. l.c. 7, 24; Sauh.82«).

J. sr. L. G.

Critical View : The narrative is drawn from

the two old prophetic sources designated (J and E) of
the Pentateuch. These in turn may have as their
basis some historical incident. In any case the story
is a very ancient testimony to the early opposition
between the Moabites and the Israelites. The aim of
the story is to show that the Hebrews were from the
first especial objects of Yhwh’s favor. See Ba-
laam.

j. jr. C. F. K.

BALANCE : The word is used for three Hebrew
words: (1) “mo’znaim” (Jer. xxxii. 10; Job vi. 2;

Ps. lxii. 9; Isa. xl. 12, 15; Lev. xix. 36; Job xxxi.
6; Prov. xi. 11, etc.). (2) “kaneh” (Isa. xlvi. 6),
and (3) “peles” (Prov. xvi. 11). The Balance, as
used among the Hebrews, consisted probably of a
horizontal bar either pivoted on a perpendicular rod
(for a similar Egyptian Balance see Erman, “ Ha gyp -
ten,” i. 615) or suspended from a cord and held in
the hand. At the end of the horizontal bar were
either pans or hooks from which the things to be
weighed were suspended in bags. Abraham is rep-
resented as weighing money (Gen. xxiii. 16); and
although the Balance in early days was rather rudely
constructed, the weighing could be done accurately.
The system was, however, very liable to fraud ; and
the necessity of righteous weights is enforced again
and again (Lev. xix. 36; Prov. xvi. 11, xx. 23;
Amos viii. 5; Micah vi. 11). See also Weights and
Measures.

g. G. B. L.

BALANDZHAE. See Chazar.

BALASSA, JOSEPH: Hungarian philologist;
born 1864, in Baja, Hungary; studied in Budapest,
where he graduated in philosophy, and where he
holds a professorship in the gymnasium. His wri-
tings upon philology and general phonetics have

been collected for publication by the Royal Hunga-
rian Academy of Sciences. The following have ap-
peared so far: “The Elements of Phonetics,” Buda-
pest, 1886 (in Hungarian) ; “ Classification and Char-
acteristics of the Hungarian Idioms,” Budapest, 1891
(in Hungarian); “Ungarische Plionetik und Formen-
lehre,” prize essay, Budapest, 1895, in German;
“Deutscli-Ungarisclies Worterbuch,” Budapest,
1899; “Die Ungarische Sprache,” Budapest, 1899.

s. L. Y.

BALDACHIN. See Huppah.

BALDNESS : The Hebrews gave much care to
the cultivation of their hair, which they kept long
(compare Ezek. xliv. 20) except on such occasions as
are mentioned, Lev. xiii. 45, x. 6, etc. (R.V.), and al-
ways well oiled; and accordingly considered Bald-
ness as a still greater reproach than did the classical
nations (compare II Kings ii. 23, “bald head,” as an
abusive term). Nevertheless, Baldness could not
have been very rare, if it be considered that the
Egyptian wall-paintings figure the old princes and
chiefs of the Semites, more often than not, as bald-
headed. The same conclusion may be drawn from
such passages as Lev. xiii. 40, 41, where Baldness
on the crown is referred to, and Baldness in front —
euphemistically designated as “high forehead,” it
would seem. Names like Kareah and Korah, which
signify “bald,” are also quite common.

Most of the passages of the Old Testament, how-
ever, in regard to Baldness refer to the total or partial
shaving of the head as a sign of mourning — like cut-
ting the beard, wearing sackcloth, and other disfig-
urements. In Deut. xiv. 1, “baldness between the
eyes [that is, perhaps, on the forehead] for the dead ”
is forbidden ; “ to make baldness upon the head ” is
specially prohibited to priests (Lev. xxi. 5; compare
Ezek. xliv. 20).

Numerous passages show that, in pre-exilic Israel,
such shaving (or clipping) was general (compare
Amos viii. 10; Isa. xv. 2, iii. 24 [of women], xxii. 12;
Ezek. vii. 18; Job i. 20; Micah i. 16). A complete
shaving, a “baldness as the eagle” (or rather “vul-
ture ” ; compare R. V. margin), is mentioned. Par-
tial shaving of the corners of the head and beard is
referred to and prohibited (Lev. xix. 27). The long
temple-locks of the Ashkenazim (“peies”) can be
traced back to this passage. Opposed to the cus-
tom of wearing temple-locks is that of the desert
tribes, of always cutting the hair at the sides of the
forehead and neck, compare Jer. ix. 26, xxv. 23, xlix.
32 ; Herodotus, iii. 8 ; Egyptian representations ; and
see Beard.

The mourning custom of “ shaving ” the head is
attributed to the Philistines (Jer. xlvii. 5), to the
Moabites (Isa. xv. 2; Jer. xlviii. 37), to the Tyrians
(Ezek. xxvii. 31). The customs of most ancient
nations were analogous. If Herodotus is to be
trusted, the Egyptians formed an exception, and
shaved the head regularly (Her. iii. 12), but allowed
the hair to grow in mourning (idem, ii. 36) ; see, how-
ever, Wiedemann, “ Herodot’sZweitesBucli,” p. 157.
on these statements of Herodotus, which are, to say
the least, of too general a nature to warrant definite
conclusions.

j. jr. W. M. M.

471

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Balance

Balearic

BALEARIC ISLES : A group of islands in
the Mediterranean, belonging to Spain, situated to
the east of Valencia, the three principal of which are
named Majorca (Spanish, Mallorca), Minorca (Me-
norca), and Ivica or Iviza (Ibiza). The group first
formed the kingdom of Majorca; later it became a
Spanish province under the domination of Aragon.
According to the chroniclers, there were Jewish in-
habitants in the Balearic Isles as early as the second
century. In the fifth century, at the
Early instigation of Bishop Severus, a per-
History. sedition of the 'Jews took place in
Mahon (Magona), the capital of Mi-
norca. As a result, a number of Jews, including
Theodore, a rich representative Jew who stood high
in the estimation of his coreligionists and of Chris-
tians alike, underwent baptism.

In consequence of the persecutions of the Almo-
hades in Spain (1146), the number of Jews on the isl-
ands increased, and in Palma, the capital of Majorca,
a large synagogue and two smaller ones were erected.
The Jews engaged in trade and agriculture; and
estates, both hereditary ( rahals ) and leasehold ( algu -
erins), were held in Inqua, Petra, and Montuiri by
the community ( almodayna ), as well as by individ-
ual Jews. Among the latter were Almo, Zadic,
Astruc de Tortosa, and his three brothers (Dameto,
“Historia General del Reyno Balearico,” pp. 277 et
scq. ; “Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos para la
Historia de Espana,” ix. 14, 18, 20, and elsewhere,
Barcelona, 1856).

Jaime I. (1213-76) of Aragon, who carried in his
train Don Bachiel of Saragossa to act as in-
terpreter, conquered Majorca on the last day of
the year 1229, and annexed it to his
Under kingdom. He gave the Jews a quar-
Aragon ter in the neighborhood of his palace
from 1229. for their dwellings, granted protection
to all Hebrews who wished to settle
on the island, guaranteed them the rights of citizens,
permitted them to adjudicate their own civil dis-
putes, to kill cattle according to their ritual, and to
draw up their wills and marriage contracts in He-
brew. Christians and Moors were forbidden, under
severe penalties, to insult the Jews or to take earth
and stones from their cemeteries; and the Jews were
ordered to complain directly to the king of any act
of injustice toward them on the part of the royal offi-
cials. They Avere allowed to charge 20 per cent
interest on loans, but the amount of interest was not
to exceed the capital.

In case a Jew practised usury, the community
was not held responsible. The penalty for lending-
money on the wages of slaves hired out by their
masters was loss of the capital. Jews could buy
and hold houses, vineyards, and other property in
Majorca as well as in any other part of the king-
dom. They could not be compelled to lodge Chris-
tians in their homes: in fact, Christians were forbid-
den to dwell with Jews: and Jewish convicts were
given separate cells in the prisons. If the slave of
a Jew or Moor adopted Judaism or Mohammedan-
ism, he had to be set free and was required to leave
the island.

Jaime II. (1291-1327) confirmed the Jews in all the
privileges conferred on them by his predecessor: he

also allowed them to build a synagogue in the new
“ Calle ” (Jews’ quarter), and to own a cemetery.
Unlike the Jews of Aragon, the Jews from the Bale-
aric Isles were exempt from the duty of furnishing
beds and bread to the royal family or to the gov-
ernor. Moreover, they were not forced to pay the
special taxes demanded of the Jews of Catalonia and
Aragon.

The Jews of Majorca, Minorca, and Ivir;a alwaj’S
formed one congregation. The Christian propa-
ganda, here as well as elsewhere, grew ever stronger.
Endeavors were made to convert Jews, and a similar
theological controversy to that which occurred in
Aragon took place in 1286 (Fr. Carben, “Flagellum
Hebraicum,” Venice, 1672). Some-
Growth what later, priests forced themselves
of Intoler- into the Jewish quarter; a tumult
ance. arose, representative Jews made com-
plaint (1305), and the clergy were ab-
solutely forbidden to enter the Jewish quarter or
the homes of Jew’s unless accompanied by a bailiff
or an official of the governor. Fearing expulsion,
the fate of their coreligionists in France (1306), the
Jews of Majorca, after the death of the humane
Jaime I., addressed themselves (1311) to the new
king, Sancho I., with a request for protection; and
he confirmed their privileges.

Evil times for the Jews in the Balearic Isles began
with the Council of Vienne (1312), which prohibited
all intercourse between Jew and Christian, and
urged the clergy to the conversion of
Per- Jews. Unfortunately the Jew’s of the
secutions islands were thoughtless enough to
by the convert to Judaism (1314) two Chris-
Church. tians from Germany, who had been
refused admission to Judaism by a
number of Spanish rabbis, even by those of Gerona
and Lerida. As soon as Bishop Villanova of
Majorca heard of the conversion, he imposed a fine
of 150,000 florins on the Jews. The king, besides,
confiscated their books and all their personal prop-
erty and real estate, and converted into a church their
beautiful synagogue which had been scarcely com-
pleted. On payment of 95,000 florins they w’ere
granted immunity from further penalties, and they
were allowed to build another synagogue in the place
of that taken from them. In order to raise the enor-
mous sum, the heads of the congregation placed
(1315) a tax upon everything — on wine, meat, bread,
whatever was bought and used, on their stock of
merchandise, and even on new clothes. The tax was
to be levied for ten years, and was sanctioned by a
royal statute. At the same time a petition was ad-
dressed to the king, praying him to restore to the
Jews all their former privileges, and to order that in
the future no Jew should be forcibly baptized; that
a Jew’ sentenced to death should be hanged, like a
Christian, by the head and not by the feet; that the
inquisitor should always examine a Jew’ id the pres-
ence of a bailiff or his representative; and that a
Jew should be free to have an advocate. The Jews
strained every effort in order to pay the fine, and in
1328 the amount was cleared. The avaricious San-
cho in his own interest granted them freedom to
trade, and in 1318 gave them the assurance that
neither they nor their descendants should be expelled

Balearic

Ballads

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

472

from the Jewish quarter, which was surrounded with
walls and provided with gates.

Jaime II., the nephew of Don Sancho, succeeded
him, hut was under the guardianship - of his uncle
Philip. At the beginning of his regency, Philip,
in the king’s name, confirmed all the privileges of
the Jews, and in 1325 bestowed on them the right of
citizenship. He protected them from forcible bap-
tism, and strictly forbade the baptism of their chil-
dren against the parents’ will. Permission was
granted them (1331) to build a new synagogue in
their quarter, but it was not to be too elaborate. As
one means of preventing the erection of a handsome
building, Jaime collected all their money into the
state treasury. Under Pedro IV. (1336-87), who
in 1344 united Majorca with the kingdom of Aragon,
the Jews of the Balearic Isles lived unmolested, with
all their rights safeguarded; but at the time of the
hostile agitations against the Jews in Spain their
peaceful condition likewise came to an end.

The greater the indebtedness of the Christians to
the Jews, the more inimical became their attitude.
As a result of this state of affairs, the governor of
the islands forbade (1390) all Jews to carry weapons,
even in their own quarter, or to leave their homes
two hours after sunset without carrying a light.
After the outbreaks in Valencia and Barcelona (1391),
the governor had to interfere for the safety of the
Jews’ quarter in Palma. On Aug. 24,
The 1391, the long-dreaded calamity fell
Massacre upon the community of Majorca. Jew-
of 1391. ish homes were sacked; and even the
houses of Christians sheltering Jews in
concealment were not spared. About 300 Jews were
put to death, 800 saved themselves in the royal cas-
tle, and the rest underwent baptism. When Queen
Violante was informed of the outrage, she con-
demned the inhabitants of the islands to pay a fine
of 150,000 florins (or, according to some authorities,
104,000 florins). A year later (1392), however, Juan
I. granted full amnesty to all who had practised vio-
lence against the Jews or “the Calle,” because they
had done it for the welfare of king and state; and
he further declared all debts of the Christians to the
Jews to be null and void.

Soon after the catastrophe of 1391 the Jews began
again to settle on the island, and on Jan. 21, 1393,
the governor issued an edict for their protection,
providing that a citizen who should injure a Jew
should be hanged, and that a knight for the same
offense should be subjected to the strappado. The
advantageous position of the islands, the trading-
point midway between Catalonia, Provence, and
Sicily, attracted thither many of the Jews of Pro-
vence and Sicily, besides some from Tunis, Algiers,
and other African cities. In the height of their
prosperity there were in Majorca more than a thou-
sand Jewish families. Among those
Re- who settled there were a number of
settlement, people of treacherous character, who
acted as informers against their fellow-
Jews, and, through malice and envy, or in order to
extort money, bore false witness against men of
blameless reputation, until, at the request of the
community, they were expelled from the island.

The Jews, with the sanction of the king, had their

own organizations and secretaries or representatives
appointed by themselves. The following are fre-
quently mentioned as acting in that capacity in the
first half of the fourteenth century; Abraham Mala -
quin, Hayum Cohen, Jucef Barqui, Vital and Judah
Cresques, Jacob Cohen, Rafael Dayen (J"1), the fam-
lies Natgar, Sasportas, Xulelli, Moses Ramon, Sadou
(Sadoc) b. Daliut (David). The last is probably not
the same as the Sayd b. David who was publicly
burned (Aug. 12, 1381) for incontinence with a nun.

The congregation had the Catalonian-Africau
ritual, with regulations similar to those of the con-
gregation at Perpignan: among others was the
enactment (1319) that Jews and Jew-

Internal esses should not wear clothes of finer
Conditions, material than that specified in the
code of the organization. Transgres-
sors of this law were to be punished bodily after
the king’s consent had been obtained, or were to be
excommunicated.

The Jews of the islands soon forgot their bit-
ter experiences of 1391. Waxing arrogant from
wealth, they became indifferent to religion, disre-
garded the most important religious obligations,
assumed Christian names, and intermarried with
Christians. The deep-rooted hate of the passionate
folk of Majorca was nourished by the bigoted Fer-
dinand of Aragon (1412-16), who issued a decree
against the Jews (March 20, 1413), by

Renewed which they were compelled to dwell
Oppression exclusively in the Jewish quarter, and
1413. were forbidden to eat or drink with
Christians ; to employ Christian nurses
or other servants ; to attend Christian marriages or
funerals ; to adopt the title “ Don ” ; to hold any pub-
lic office ; to carry weapons, such as swords or dag-
gers; to use any costly material for their clothes; to
wear silk, fur, or any ornaments; to sell any food-
stuffs to Christians; to make them gifts of pastry,
meats, or drinks ; to be physicians to them, or to give
them any medicine. Moreover, they had to wear
the badge that marked the Jew. Christian women,
whether married or unmarried, and courtezans,
were strictly prohibited from visiting the Jews’
quarter by day or night. Jews who wished to be
baptized were not to be deterred by any one from
their resolve ; and the officers of the king were or-
dered to prevent Jewish women converted to Chris-
tianity from emigrating to Africa, since they reverted
to Judaism when there and sent for their children to
follow them. Toward the end of August, 1415,
Vincente Ferrer came to Majorca in order to con-
vert the Jews, and pursued this work for nearly six
months.

Twenty years later (1435) occurred the calamity
long dreaded by Simon Duran. In order to set the
gullible people against the Jews, a malevolent report
was spread that the Jews of Palma had crucified a
Saracen during Holy Week. The Jews charged
with this crime were promptly put in chains. Their
fellow-Jews interceded for them, and at the bidding
of the governor they were removed from the episco-
pal keep and taken to the state prison. The clergy,
enraged at this step, incited the people against the
governor, and still more violently against the Jews.
A tribunal, composed chiefly of Dominicans and

473

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Balearic

Ballads

Franciscans, was formed. One of the imprisoned
Jews was stretched on the rack ; he confessed to
everything asked of him, and named as partners in
the crime all whose names were suggested to him.
Suddenly a wretched creature, the merchant Astruc
Sibili, had himself brought before the governor and
laid the blame on the whole Jewish community.

Palma fell into an uproar. The Jews
Uprising fled to the mountains ; but the infuri-
in 1435. ated mob dragged them from their
hiding-places, and led most of them
back to Palma in exultation. After five days’ pro-
ceedings, the expectant populace was notified of the
sentence pronounced on the innocent Jews. Astruc
Sibili and three accomplices were to be burned alive,
but in case they submitted to baptism they should
be pardoned to the extent of dying upon the gallows.
Astruc Sibili accepted baptism, and all the others
seduced by promises followed his example. On the
representations of the clergy the governor granted
them their lives.

A few faithful Jews succeeded in making their
escape. The synagogue had been ruined several
years before, and though now and then a Jew
settled on the islands, there came to be practically
no Jews there. The Inquisition began its horrible
work. In 150(5, t went}' -two Jews, condemned,
though either dead or absent, were burned in effigy ;
again, in 1509 and 1510, some Jews and Jewesses
were publicly burned in effigy; and in 1511 sixty-
two Jews who had escaped from the Inquisition were
punished in the same way.

The secret Jews, in great number on the island of
Majorca, were not called “ Maranos ” or “ New Chris-
tians,” but “people from the Calle” or Chuetas.

A number of well-known rabbis and scholars from
Catalonia and Provence dwelt on the island of Ma-
jorca. Among them were: Sliem-Tob Falcon, who
instituted there a number of ritual observances;
Aaron ha-Kohen, who wrote his ritual code, “Or-
hot Hayyim,” at Majorca; Joseph Caspi, a well-
known writer ; Isaac b. Nathan, diligent translator
from the Arabic; and the physicians Moses Rimos
and Eleazar Ardot, the latter of whom was born on
Majorca, as was also Simon ben Zemah Duran.

Minorca became an English possession in 1713, and
willingly proffered an asylum to a number of Jewish
families from African cities. A synagogue was soon
erected in Mahon. The fact that Jews and Moors
were settled there was sufficient reason for Spain to
join with France in order to drive the English from
the island. When the Duke of Crillon landed on the
island (August, 1781), Jews, Greeks, and Moors,
three thousand men in all, rose up and threatened
the life of the duke. After a short resistance, how-
ever, Mahon surrendered ; and, with the English gar-
rison, the Jews abandoned the city and the island.

Bibliography : Kayseri mg. Gesch. der Juden in Spanien
und Portugal, i. 155-177 : idem. Revue Etudes Juives, iv.
31-56, xxxlx. 343 et seq ., xl. 63 et seq. ; Bole tin de la Real
Academia de la Historia de Madrid , 1900, xxxvi. 1-5.

D. M. K.

BALI, ABRAHAM BEN JACOB: Karaite
physician and hazan; lived at Foli (’VlS?) in the sec-
ond half of the fifteenth century. He was the pupil
of Shabbethai ben Melkiel Cohen, and the author of

the following works, for the most part still in manu-
script (St. Petersburg MSS. Nos. 621, 648, 659, 695,
696): (1) “Iggeret Issur Ner Shel Shabbat” — on the
prohibition against using fire on the Sabbath. The
work is divided into three chapters, and was written,
as the author states in the introduction, at the
request of his disciples, Joseph ben Moses Bagi and
Joseph ben Caleb. It is especially directed against
Elijah Basliyatzi, who, like his father Menahem,
permitted the use of fire ; (2) “ Iggeret ha-Zom be-
Shabbat,” on fasting on Saturdays, ed. by Firko-
witz; (3) “Iggeret be ‘Inyan ha-Kolianim,” on the
question whether a Rabbinite Cohen on becoming a
Karaite can continue to enjoy the privileges of a
Cohen ; (4) “ Ma’anmrbe-Tnyan ha-Tbbur, ” a treatise
on the calendar; (5) “Perush ‘Inyan Shehitah,” a
commentary on the laws concerning the slaughter-
ing of animals, as these laws are expounded by
Aaron ben Elijah in his “ Gan ‘Eden ” — Bali endeav-
oring in this work to refute the criticisms made
against the Karaites by Solomon Sharbit ha-Zahab,
Mordecai Comtino, and Moses Capsali ; (6) “Perush
‘al-IIegyonot,” a commentary on the first chapter of
Gazzali’s “Mukasid al-Filasufah,” treating of logic.
In the preface to this work Bali says that he made
use of the translation of Moses Narboni. (7) A com-
mentary on Al-Farabi’s five chapters on logic. Be-
sides these works, Bali wrote many liturgical poems
which are printed in the Karaite prayer-book.

Bibliography: Steinsehneider, Hehr. Bibl. xx. 96; idem.
Helm. Uebers. pp. 45, 331 ; Neubauer, Aus der Petersburg er
Bibliothek, p. 63; compare, also, Fiirst, Gescliichte des
Karderthums, ii. 393-394 ; Jost, Gesch. des Judenthunus und
Seiner Secten. ii. 369.

G. I. Br.

BALI, MOSES BEN ABRAHAM: Karaite
physician and hakam at Cairo at the end of the fif-
teenth century and at the beginning of the sixteenth.
He was the author of 224 poems, finished in 1489,
on the weekly lessons, entitled “Sefer Zerah.” An-
other selection of 237 poems for Saturdays and feasts
was written by him about 1500 under the title “ Tah-
kemoni.” Bothworksare still extant in manuscript
in the Firkowitz collection at St. Petersburg. Be-
sides these Bali wrote many liturgical poems which
have been wrongly ascribed to Moses Dari, who
bears the same Hebrew name, “ Moses ben Abraham ”
(compare Pinsker, “Likkute Kadmoniyyot,” p. 124).

Bibliography : Fiirst, Gesch. des Karderthums, iii. 394 ;
Geiger, IVissenschaftliche Zeit. ili. 443.

k. I. Br.

BALLADS, JEWISH. See Folk Songs.

BALLADS ON JEWISH SUBJECTS : In the

folk-poetry of Europe a certain number of ballads
deal with Jewish subjects or with Jewish persons.
Of these may be mentioned a Neo-Greek ballad on a
Jewess given in Fauriel, “ Chantes Neolielliniques ” ;
but the ballads generally deal with the deeds of
Jews corresponding to the anti-Semitic conception
of them current in the popular mind. Thus the
legend of the death of Little St. Hugh of Lincoln is
enshrined in several ballads in French, English, and
Scottish, to be found in Child’s “English and Scot-
tish Ballads,” iii. 233-254, where a full bibliography
is given (see also Hugh of Lincoln). Another pop-
ular ballad is that of the Jewish boy who, after
accompanying his Christian playmates to confession.

Ballaghi

Balm

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

474

becomes a Christian, but is thrown by his inhuman
father into a furnace, whence he is rescued by the
Virgin Mary. Nearly forty different versions of this
ballad are known: five in Greek, nineteen in Latin,
eight in French, one in Spanish, two in German, two
in Arabic, and one in Ethiopic. Many of these are
given and the rest referred to in G. Wolter, “Der
Juden Knabe,” in “Bibliotheca Normanica,” No. 2,
Halle, 1879. The original story appeared in Eva-
grius Scliolasticus (died after 594), “Historia Eccle-
siastica,” iv. 35, whence it was taken into Gregory
of Tours and probably from oral tradition into
Botho’s “Liber de Miraculis St. Marias Virginis.”
Besides the foregoing, the story of Shylock occurs
in the “Ballad of Gernuto the Jew,” in Percy’s
“Reliques of Ancient Poetry.”

G. J.

BALLAGHI, M. See Bloch, M.

BALLARAT : City in Victoria, Australia.
Three years after the discovery of gold, in 1851, a
congregation was formed with Henry Harris as
president and Julius Wittowski as treasurer; and
the Mount Zion synagogue was built the next year.
In 1 861 a more commodious building, which included
rooms for a minister’s residence and a Hebrew
school, was erected at the corner of Barkly and Prin-
cess streets, on land granted by the government. The
successive ministers have been Revs. S. Herman, I.
Stone, D. Isaac Ollendorf, and I. M. Goldreich, the
last of whom was installed in 1867. The community
maintains a Philanthropic Society founded in 1857,
which is affiliated with the Anglo-Jewish Associa-
tion.

Bibliography: Harris, Jewish Tear Booh, 5662.

j. S. Si.

BALLIN', ADA SARA : English author and
journalist; born in London, England; educated at
University College, London, where she obtained
scholarships in Hebrew and German. She devoted
herself to the subject of sanitation, and lectured for
the National Health Society for several years. Mrs.
Ballin devoted herself especially to the hygiene of
children, and produced a monthly journal entitled
“Baby, the Mother’s Magazine,” which is still cur-
rent and which was followed by “Womanhood,” an
illustrated journal dealing with feminine matters in
general.

Mrs. Ballin has published an extensive series of
works, the first of which was a “ Hebrew Grammar
with Exercises,” written conjointly with her brother,
1881 . This was followed by : “ The Science of Dress
in Theory and Practice,” 1885; “Health and Beauty
in Dress,” 1892; “Personal Hygiene,” 1894; “How
to Feed Our Little Ones,” 1895; “Bathing Exercise
and Rest,” 1896; “ Early Education, ” 1897; “Chil-
drens Ailments,” 1898.

Bibliography : Jacobs, Jewish Year Book, 1900, p. 247.

BALLIN, JOEL: Danish engraver, born in
Vejle, Jutland, March 22, 1822; died in Copenhagen,
March 21, 1885. He was a son of a merchant, Jo-
seph Ballin, and his wife, Hanne Feiser. At the
age of eleven he went to Copenhagen to study art in
order to become a painter; but his studies at the
Academy of Art progressed slowly, as he was ol liged

to work for his living, and he was twenty years old
when he entered the modeling class. The year be-
fore this he had exhibited his painting, “ The Proces-
sion in the Synagogue at the Feast of Tabernacles.”
A new method of reproduction, “the chemitype,”
which was at that time invented, attracted Baffin's
attention, as he hoped by the study of this specialty
to secure himself a position in the world. In 1846
he left Denmark and went to Leipsic to finish his
artistic education ; but he soon saw that he had no
prospect of reaching any degree of perfection in this
branch of the art without a thorough study of en-
graving. Meanwhile he exhibited some samples of
“ cliemitypes ” which showed so much talent that
the Danish government supplied him with sufficient
means to go to Paris, where he arrived Oct. 5, 1848.
He would probably never have left that city if the
Franco-German war of 1870 had not forced him to
move to London.

In Paris he finished the studies of engraving that
he had commenced in Leipsic, and in 1850 exhibited
two engravings. They attracted the attention of
the Academy of Art in Copenhagen, and he received
from that institution 600 rigsdaler a year for two
years, and in 1853 from the Danish government 350
rigsdaler. This recognition helped to make his fame,
and to place him financially in such a position that
in 1853 he was able to visit Copenhagen and marry
Helene Levin.

Baffin’s first large engravings were Ostade’s “Le
Maitre d’Ecole ” and Jean Victor’s “ A Young Girl.”
His publishers in Paris preferred to have the engra-
vings made on steel plates, as these could stand a
larger number of impressions, and Ballin therefore
adopted a new method for the hard plates — a method
which he brought to such perfection that they could
scarcely be distinguished from copper-plates.

He took the gold medal of the third class at the
Paris exhibition in 1861 ; and in 1862 he was made
a knight of the Dannebrog, after having exhibited a
large collection of engravings at the Cliarlottenborg
exposition, Copenhagen.

From 1870 to 1883 he lived in London, where he
engraved Edward Long’s “The Pool of Bethesda.”
This he sent to the Academy of Art in Copenhagen
in acknowledgment of his election in 1877 to mem-
bership in that institution.

In 1883 Ballin was called to Copenhagen to be-
come a teacher of young engravers and to reproduce
important Danish works of art. He did not, how-
ever, live long enough to become the founder of any
artistic school.

His most important engravings from famous paint-
ings, besides those mentioned above, were Knaus’s
“The Baptism”; Gustave de Brion’s “Saying
Grace” and “The Wedding”; Protais’ “Before the
Battle” and “After the Battle”; and Carl Bloch’s
“Bishop Ronnow Protected by Hans Tavsen,” and
Marstrand’s “Christian IV. on His Ship Trefoldig-
heden.”

Bibliography: Bricka, Dansk Bingrafish Lexikon.

s. L. N.

BALLIN, SAMUEL JACOB : Danish physi-
cian; born at Copenhagen, Oct. 21, 1802; died there
March 24, 1866. He was the son of a merchant,
Jacob Levin Ballin, and his wife, Susanne Melchior.

475

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ballagrhi

Balm

His parents died early, and he was brought up by
his uncle L. S. Trier, whose daughter Dorothea later
became his wife. Until 1820 he attended the Borger-
dykskols in Copenhagen, when he entered the uni-
versity, where he passed the medical examination
in 1826. For some years he was assistant physician
at the Frederik’s Hospital in Copenhagen, and took
an active part in founding the society of physicians
called “Phjliatrien,” 1829. From 1831 to 1832 he
traveled, by royal order, in foreign countries, study-
ing the Asiatic cholera ; and after his return pub-
lished a valuable dissertation on this subject for the
degree of licentiate. In 1836 he took the degree of
M.D., and after that practised medicine in Copen-
hagen, at the same time holding the public position
of district physician. Later he was appointed par-
ish physician of the Jewish community in Copen-
hagen, and held that position for a number of years.
In 1853, during the cholera epidemic in Copenhagen,
he became chief physician of the cholera hospital
and a member of the board of health, receiving also
the title of professor.

Besides Ballin’s extensive practise as physician
and his activity for the advancement of the science
of medicine, he took an active part in the political
and national movements of his time. He was a
member of the National Liberal Party and was en-
thusiastic for the then prevailing idea of a Scandina-
vian union (Scandinavism).

Bibliography : Bricka, Dansk Biograflsh Lexikon.

s. L. N.

BALLY, DAVICION : Rumanian patriot ; born
at Bucharest Jan. 29, 1809; died at Jerusalem May
2, 1844. His great-grandfather, Chelebi Men-
tesh Bally, banker to the grand vizier of Constan-
tinople, aided Nicolas Mavrocordato to ascend the
throne of Wallacliia in 1716, and was taken by him
to Bucharest, where, in recognition of his services,
he was made a court counselor and received various
privileges and exemption from taxation for himself
and his descendants.

Bally’s grandfather, Isaac, inherited the privi-
leges of his father, and became the intimate coun-
selor of many of the Plianariot princes: he was
especially favored by Mavrogheni, whom he aided to
mount the throne. His father, Abraham, studied
at Leipsic, then established himself as wholesale
merchant in Bucharest, and exercised considerable
influence with the Boyars. When Davicion Bally
was twelve years old his father died, and it seemed
as if the son would have to terminate his studies at
that age, for the father’s partner defrauded the fam-
ily out of almost all their possessions; but, thanks
to an excellent library which the elder Bally left
Davicion, he familiarized himself with the Ru-
manian, Greek, French, Italian, and German lan-
guages, in addition to Spanish, which he had learned
in his father’s house. He also made considerable
progress in the study of Hebrew.

Bally occupied himself at first in the law office of
his uncle, who had studied law at Leipsic, but was
soon appointed “ camarash ” (treasurer) of the salt
magazines established in the Danube ports; in this
capacity in 1829 he saved from destruction the large I
stores of provisions and ammunition which the Rus-
sians had gathered at Zimnicea during the war !

against Turkey. In recognition Czar Nicholas I.
conferred upon him the Order of St. Anne, sending
it personally by the hand of General Kisselef, and
awarded him the privilege of trading unrestrictedly
throughout the Russian empire. In
His Public 1836 Bally was appointed cashier of

Services, the “agie” (police department), an
office which he occupied for ten years
without any remuneration. An ardent patriot, he
even frequently provided the necessary funds for
his office, at the same time contributed to the es-
tablishment of the first fire-brigade in Bucharest,
and maintained at his own expense a band of Italian
artists who were invited to that city to foster a taste
for the theatfir in Wallacliia. In 1848 Bally em-
braced the cause of the Revolution, and united him-
self intimately with its leading spirits, whom he
saved from death by proclaiming the Revolution
before the instant agreed upon. He had learned, in
fact, that the minister had become aware of their
preparations, and was proceeding to crush the move-
ment by the execution of its chief promoters. Bally
rendered great services to the revolutionary govern-
ment, and at the risk of his life helped certain mem-
bers of the fallen regime to places of safety. But
the Revolution failed three months later, and Bally
aided those banished, and only escaped exile himself
through his intimate relations with certain influen-
tial Boyars. Nevertheless, he was the subject of
sharp animosity; lie was trapped in a snare set for
him, and lost the greater part of his fortune.

Jew at heart he always was, and permitted no
journalistic attack upon his people to pass without
protest. When in 1858 there appeared in Bucharest
a venomous pamphlet entitled “ Prashtia ” (The
Sling) and issued from the printing-office of the arch-
bishop, C. A. Rosetti, chief of the Liberal party,
flayed the publication in the “Romanul” at Bally’s
request; and at the same time the latter made repre-
sentations to the prince-kaimacam, requesting the
confiscation of the defamatory libel.

Bally was repeatedly elected member of the admin-
istrative council of the Sephardic community, and
there maintained himself as a champion of much-
needed progress and reform. He had the statutes
amended so as to permit a fairer representation,
introduced the distribution of clothing and shoes to
poor children, projected a series of reforms for the
Talmud-Torah (1863), which later became a modern
school, established a free loan institution (1'860), and
a society for free medical attendance (1872). He
found time withal for literary pursuits, and left be-
hind him many manuscripts in Judseo-Spanisli.

His patriotic dreams for his people underwent a
rude awakening by the continuous persecutions of
the Jews inaugurated in 1866 by his former friends
and allies of the Revolution of 1848; his old age
was embittered by this experience, and he left
Bucharest for Jerusalem in August, 1882, dying
there two years later.

Bibliography: M. Schwarzfeld, Davicion Bally, in Anuarul

Pentru Israelitzi , ix. 1-39, Bucharest, 1886.

s. E. Sd.

BALM ; A term used six times in the A. Y. as a
translation of the Hebrew words '"IV, v"l¥, and W-
It is everywhere rendered resina in the Vulgate.

Balm

Baltic

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

476

The margin of the A. V. in Ezek. xxvii. 17 reads
“rosin.” The six passages in which the word is
found show that Balm was a useful article of com-
merce and presumably a product native in Palestine,
especially in Gilead. Its first mention is (Gen.
xxxvii. 25) in connection with the caravan of Isli-
maelitish traders who were taking it, with spicery
and myrrh, down to Egypt. The next mention
(Gen. xliii. 11) gives it as one of the articles which
formed the present that Jacob’s sons carried to Jo-
seph as Egyptian ruler, on their second journey in
quest of food. Neither of the above references is
determinative of the nature of Balm, beyond the fact
that it was classed with spices, myrrh, honey, nuts,
and almonds as an article of noteworthy value.
The three passages in Jeremiah are of especial inter-
est, in that they specify it as containing peculiar and
important healing properties. In the first (ib. viii.
22), the questions “ Is there no balm in Gilead ; is
there no physician there ? ” point both to its medic-
inal properties and to its source. The second (ib.
xlvi. 11), “Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O
virgin, the daughter of Egypt : in vain shalt thou use
many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured,” con-
firms both inferences of the first. The third (ib. li.
8), “ Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed : howl
for her ; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be
healed, ” testifies to the commonly accepted healing
value of this Balm. The last passage (Ezek. xxvii.
17) specifies Balm simply as one of the products that
were prominent in the commercial exchanges which
Palestine made with Tyre. Taken together, these
passages determine (1) that Balm was native in
Palestine, particularly in Gilead ; (2) that it was a
valuable article of commerce ; and (3) that it pos-
sessed remarkable healing properties.

Now, what is the modern representative of this
ancient article ; and what is the tree, if tree it was,
that produced it? The R. Y. of Gen. xxxvii. 25,
margin, reads “mastic,” which would be the resin
yielded by the Pistacia Lentiscus (Thiselton-Dyer,
“Ency. Bibl.” col. 465), a tree that flourishes on the
coast and lower mountains of western Palestine, but
not on the east of the Jordan (Post, in Hastings’
“Diet. Bible”). Tristram, however (in “Nat. Hist,
of the Bible ”), says that it is found to-day in all
parts of Palestine. There is no evidence in the pas-
sages in O. T. above noted that the Balm was aro-
matic as well as medicinal (compare Post, l.c.). It
may be that this Balm included (as hinted in Gese-
nius-Buhl, “ Worterb.” 18tli ed.) the gum which was
exuded from the terebinth. In fact, Tristram (ib. p.
400) and Thomson (“ The Land and the Book,” ii. 20)
state that the terebinth is to-day tapped for tur-
pentine by the natives. There is another shrub,
“zakkum” or “zokom,” from which the Arabs to-
day manufacture an oil that they sell to pilgrims as
Balm of Gilead (Tristram, ib. p. 366) ; this, however,
is regarded merely as a modern substitute (“Ency.
Bibl.” l.c,).

j. jr. I. M. P.

BALSAM : Word used as the translation (R. V.,
margin) of the Hebrew (Cant. v. 1) and of Hlliy
(ib. v. 13, vi. 2), for which the A. Y. has
“spice.” An aromatic gum or spice, probably the

product of a Balsam tree or plant. The Balsam tree
of Jericho is noted among ancient writers — Theo-
phrastus, Strabo, Pliny — for its medicinal and highly
agreeable aromatic qualities. The so-called Mecca
Balsam is generally conceded to be the product of the
Balsamodendron opobalsamum. It is reported that
the Balsam has disappeared from Jericho. The
product of the Balsam is known in Arabic as balasdn
from a balasdn tree, from which balsampn (Greek),
balsamum, balsam, and balm are probably derived.
The so-called “ balm of Gilead ” — made by the monks
of Jericho and sold to travelers to-day — is a product
of the Balanites JEyyptiaca. See Balm,
j. jr. ' I. M. P.

In Hellenistic and Rabbinical Literature :

Balm or Balsam (Aramean, DD^D, pOD^A pDD^QN.
PDDISK, and for opobalsamum pOD^313X and
pOD^SlDN), called by Pliny (“Naturalis Historia,”

The Balsam Plant, Showing the Flower (1) and Fruit (2).

xii. 53) “a plant which nature has bestowed only
upon the land of Judea,” was cultivated especially
in what Pliny (l.c.) and Strabo (p. 763) call the royal
gardens near Jericho (in’Y mD’TlD, Tosef., ‘Ar. ii.
8), the juice obtained by incision being used for
medicinal purposes, and the wood for its fragrant
odor. According to Diodorus Siculus (ii. 48, xix.
98), a certain hollow in the neighborhood of the
Dead Sea was the chief home of the Balsam, which
was “ found nowhere else in the world. ” Both state-
ments are confirmed by Josephus, who relates that,
according to popular belief. Queen Sheba brought
the root from Arabia to King Solomon as a gift, and
that the Balsam trees of Jericho yielded the most
precious products of the land, the “only balsam in
the world,” thus making that part most valuable as
a royal revenue; wherefore Antony took it away
from the Jews and gave it to Cleopatra (“Ant.” viii.
6, §6; xv. 4, § 2; “B. J.” i. 6, §6; 18, §5; iv. 8, §3).
In “Ant.” ix. 1, § 2, he speaks of the opobalsamum
that grows at Engedi.

477

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Balm

Baltic

Tlie words in Jer. lii. 16, “ Nebuzar-adan, the cap-
tain of the guard, left the poor of the land to be
vine-dressers and husbandmen,” are referred, in
Shab. 26a, to the gatherers of the opobalsamum in
the neighborhood of Engedi and Ramata. Jerome
also, in his commentary to Cant. i. 14, refers the
“ vineyards ” there mentioned to the Balsam planta-
tions of Engedi (compare Eusebius, “ Onomasticon,”
s.v. “Engedi”). With what feeling the Romans
looked upon the Balsam of Judea may be learned
from the fact that Vespasian and Titus exhibited the
Balsam shrub of Judea as one of the trophies at their
triumphal procession (Pliny, l.c.)\ but no less char-
acteristic are the rabbinical ordinances: “Blessed be
the Lord who has created fragrant trees,” recited
only over either the opobalsam belonging to the
house of Rabbi Judah of Tiberius or the one be-
longing to the imperial house of Rome; and the
benediction recited over the oil of the opobalsam:
“Blessed be the Lord who created the (fragrant) oil
of our land,” or, according to one authority, simply
“ fragrant oil ” (Ber. 48a; see Rashi, l.c., and Musafia
to ‘Aruk, s.v. where the name “Jericho,”

as the home of the Balsam, is combined with the
noun “ reah ” = fragrant odor). Many passages
in the Talmud and Midrash mention opobalsam
(ptDDISX) as used for the anointment of kings (Yer.
Sotah viii. 22c), or as an alluring ointment employed
by the frivolous women of Jerusalem (Lam. R. to
iv. 15), or as a merchandise (Yoma 39a), or by
thieves as a means of scenting the strong boxes of
rich people (Sanh. 109a), or as carried about in a
flask (Gen. R. xxx., xxxix., aud elsewhere); and
there is also special mention of streams of opobal-
sam oil which flow for the enjoyment of the right-
eous in the world to come (Yer. ‘Ab. Zarali iii. 42c;
Ta’anit 25a; compare Apoc. Paul xxiii., xxviii.).

Bibliography: Cheyne and Black, Encyc. Bibl. s. v. Balm ;

Winer, B. R. s. v.

J. SR. Iv.

BALTA : A town in Russia, situated near the
Rumanian and Turkish frontiers. Its Jewish com-
munity dates from about the middle of the eight-
eenth century. When Balta was founded, it was
divided into a Polish part, called “ Josepligrod,”
under the dominion of Poland, and a part called
“Balta,” under the rule of Turkey, the River Ivo-
dyma separating these districts and serving as
boundary line between them. Jewish settlements
were established in both sections when the rebellion
of the Cossacks or the Haidamaks broke out in 1768.
These bandits perpetrated a terrible massacre among
the Poles and Jews of Uman and its neighborhood.
A large number of Jews sought to flee to the fron-
tier town Balta, seeking the protection of the Turk-
ish government. The Haidamaks pursued and over-
took a part of them in the open steppe near Balta,
and slaughtered them ([Tammuz] July, 1768). The
Jewish community of Balta sent messengers offer-
ing a large amount to redeem from the bandits the
bodies of the slain, in order to bury them according
to Jewish rites. But the Jews of Balta themselves
were made to feel the heavy hand of the Haidamaks.
A new band entered Balta and was opposed by a
regiment of Tatars, but during the struggle many

Jews were slain and their property seized by both
sides. After this uprising war broke out between
Russia and Turkey, lasting some years and ending
in the victory of the former.

By the treaty of Jassy, in 1791, Balta came, with
other Turkish cities, under the domination of Rus-
sia. In 1797 Balta was made a district town of the
government of Podolia. Commerce in grain and
horses largely developed, and the Jewish population
increased, until in 1890 the number of the Jews in
Balta was about 27,000 (79 per cent of the total pop-
ulation of the town). The number of synagogues
and houses of prayer was seventeen. In 1882, at
the time of anti-Jewish riots (see Pogromy) in South
Russia, the riot in Balta, March 30, surpassed all
others in extent and violence and attained mournful
celebrity among the Jews of Europe and America.
A letter sent by the committee organized to succor
the destitute Jews of Balta, to the editor of the
“Voskhod,” on April 9, and signed by the rabbi,
runs as follows: “ Balta is turned into a desert. All
the merchandise and household goods of the [Jew-
ish] inhabitants are plundered. The number of
wounded reaches two hundred, of whom three have
already died. The loss of property amounts to one
and one-half million rubles. More than 5,000 fami-
lies are utterly ruined. Mothers and daughters were
violated.” But in reality the calamity was much
greater, for this information was published under
Russian censorship, and the hands of the Russian
officials, especially those of the minister Ignatiev,
were not innocent of the blood spilled in Balta. It
is an established fact that the anti-Semites among
the authorities secretly encouraged the rioters.

In later years the commerce of Balta, consisting
mainly of the export of grain to Odessa, has declined.

Bibliography: Baiinski i Lipinski, Starnzytna Polska, iii.

476; Ma'asse Gedolali min Gczerat Uman ve-Ukraina ,

Wilna, 1845; extract of same published in H. J. Garland’s

Korot ha-Gczernt ‘al Yisrael, pp. 75-77, Odessa, 1892 ;

K hrnnikn Voskhoda, 1882, Nos. 16, 17,34; Razsryet, 1882;

Rnsski Yevrei, 1882; Brockhaus-Etfron, Encyclopedia (Rus-
sian), ii. 820.

II. R. S. M. D.

BALTHAZAR. See Belshazzar.

BALTHAZAR, OROBIO DE CASTRO. See

Castro, Balthazar Orobio de.

BALTIC PROVINCES: The three Russian
governments bordering the Baltic sea — Courlaud,
Livonia, and Esthonia ; belonging formerly to Swe-
den, with the exception of Courland, which was a
dependency of Poland and came into possession of
Russia, in part at the beginning of the eighteenth
century, and the remainder in 1809. The Jewish
population was (1897) about 100,000, out of a total
population of 2,386,998.

The Jews of the Baltic Provinces differ considera-
bly from other Russian Jews. Their habits, lan-
guage, and dress are generally much like the Ger-
man, and, being less crowded and more prosperous
than their Lithuanian or Polish coreligionists, their
physical development is more satisfactory. The
average height of the Baltic Jews called to military
service is 163-164 centimeters, while that of the Po-
lish-Lithuaniau is only 161-162. In the cities near
the German boundary they are more Germanized
than in those adjoining Lithuania and White Rus

Baltic

Baltimore

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

478

sia. The commercial affairs of the Baltic Jews were
long governed by “kahals,” who were abolished
June 5, 1893. While the legal status of the Jews of
the Baltic Provinces has varied under different ru-
lers, they are not included in the list of governments
issued by Russia in 1890, but belong to the Pale of
Settlement. Jews from other governments have
no right to live there. In Courland as well as in
Slilock, only those have the right of permanent set-
tlement who were registered in the census of April
25, 1835. From among the Jews of Slilock, only
those may permanently reside in Riga (Livonia) who
actually lived there before Dec. 29, 1841. Among
the Slavonic inhabitants of the empire, the Baltic
Jews are treated with more toleration than the oth-
ers, as they have generally passed as Germans in the
interior of Russia. A large number are artisans,
and when Emperor Nicholas I. issued the order,
April 13, 1835, permitting his Jewish subjects to
join the peasant class in New Russia in agricul-
tural colonies, the first who sought to be colonized
were seventy families from Courland. The Jews of
the Baltic Provinces are fond of emigrating, and are
occupied as artisans, teachers, clerks, bookkeepers,
and small traders all over the world. In the United
States alone, according to the “ Courliinder Vereine,”
and congregations, there are probably about 25,000
Jews from the Baltic Provinces, and about 10.000
of that number live in Greater New York and
vicinity.

From the Church statutes of the archbishop Hen-
ning of Riga for the year 1428, it is evident that
Jews lived at that time in the Baltic Provinces as
occasional traders. But they did not settle there
permanently until the adoption of Courland by Po-
land in 1561. Even later they were without clearly
defined privileges, with the exception of the district
of Pilten and the town of Hasenpot, where they en-
joyed the rights of citizens. On the annexation of
the “ Inflandt ” territory by Russia under Peter the
Great, no reference was made to the Jews; but un-
der Anna Ivanovna the deputies of the Livonian
nobility complained of the influx of foreigners to
the senate, and especially of Lithuanian and Cour-
laud Jews.

For a detailed history of the Jews in the separate
governments of the Baltic Provinces, see Courland,
Riga, Mitau.

3innoGRArnv : Mysh, Rukovodstv n k Rmskim Zalwnam n
Yevreyakli , 2d ed„ pp. 21, 57, 135, 214, 216, 221, St. Peters-
burg, 1898 ; Anutcliin, in Entziklopediciheski Slovctr, xxvii.
133 ; Orshanski, Rusxkoc Zakonodatebitvo n Yevreyakli , pp.
374-385, St. Petersburg, 1877 ; A. Pumpyanski, Yevrei Lifly-
andskoi i Kurlyavdslan Gubernij , in Yevreiskiya Zapiski,
1881, pp. 1-ii: Vosklwd, 1885, pp. 2, 3, 7, 8; Rizhski, Vyestnik ,
1886, Nos. 224, 2552: Weissenberg, Die SUd-Russiscfien Ju-
den, 1895, passim ; Blecbmann, Ein Beitrag zur Anthro-
pologic tier Juden, p. 47, passim, Dorpat, 1882; Wunderbar,
Gesehichte der Judenin Liv.- und Kurland, Mitau, 1851.

II. It. M. R.

BALTIMORE : Port of entry and principal city
of the state of Maryland, situated on an estuary of
the Patapsco river about 12 miles from Chesapeake
bay.

It can not be determined when Jews first settled in
Baltimore. There were none among the buyers of
lots when Baltimore Town was laid out in 1729-30;
but as Jews are known to have been resident in Mary-

land in the middle of the seventeenth century (see
America), it is not hazardous to suppose that the
quickly growing town attracted some of their de-
scendants early in its history. Family traditions,
not yet verified, seem to point to the presence of
Jews in Baltimore in the middle of the eighteenth
century. In his “ The Hebrews in America ” (p. 93),
Isaac Markens mentions Jacob Myers as the earliest
Jew in Baltimore, probably basing his assertion
upon the following passage from Griffith's “Annals
of Baltimore” (1824), p. 37: “In 1758 Mr. Jacob
Myers took the southeast corner of Gay and Balti-
more streets and built an inn.” There is reason to
believe, however, that Myers was not a Jew. “The
Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser ” — the
earliest paper published in Baltimore — the first is-
sue of which appeared in 1773, shows by its adver-
tisements for that year that Jews were then settled

Temple Oheb Shalom, Baltimore.

(From a photograph.)

in Baltimore as traders, especially in West Indian
products. Tlie most substantial of these merchants
apparently was Benjamin Levy, probably the same
mentioned in the “Publications of the American
Jewish Historical Society ” (i. 21). In 1781 Jacob
Hart, father-in-law of Haym M. Salomon, headed
a subscription of £2,000 (810,000) loaned to La-
fayette for the relief of the detachment under his
command.

The existence of a Jewish cemetery in 1786 indi-
cates a Jewish community of some size. How long
previous to that year the cemetery had been estab-
lished is not known. The earliest mention of it oc-
curs in a document (in the possession
Cemetery of Mr. Mendes Cohen of Baltimore),
as Early as dated July 12, 1786, headed “Mr. Car-
1786. roll’s [Charles Carroll of Carrollton]
claims.” It is a “ list of the names of
the Persons who occupy the ground (supposed to be
about 2 acres) on the east side of Jones’s Falls, . . .
with an account of the improvements.” One of the
items is “ The Jews burying-ground, 1 small lot en-
closed,” situated in Eusor’s Town, now Jew alley,

479

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baltic

Baltimore

near East Monument street. At present one part is
occupied by the meeting-house of an African con-
gregation; and the rest is a dumping-ground for
refuse. A deed dated Dec. 26. 1801, conveys this
same burying-ground from Charles Carroll to Levi
Solomon and Solomon Etting, for a consideration of
five shillings ; and another, dated Dec. 29, 1801, for
a consideration of $80 current money, conveys it to
the same parties from Wm. McMeclien and John
Leggett. Interment is known to have been made in
it as late as 1832, the very year in which the oldest
Jewish cemetery now in use was established. No
indications can be discovered of the removal of re-
mains buried in it when the cemetery was aban-
doned. On the testimony of a resident close by, the
last tombstone was removed, surreptitiously, presu-
mably for building purposes, as recently as from
forty to fifty years ago.

With the advent of the Etting family the history
of the Jewish community in Baltimore becomes more
consecutive. It is uncertain when the Etting broth-
ers, Reuben and Solomon, together with Levi Solo-
mon, their uncle, came to Baltimore
The Etting- from York, Pa. On Jan. 4, 1796, Sol-
Family. omon Etting’s name appears in the
“Advertiser” as one of five persons
authorized “to receive proposals in writing for a
house or suitable lot ” for a bank to be established in
Baltimore Town. But there are indirect indications
that the family settled in Baltimore before 1787. In
the list of stockholders of the same bank, published
at the end of 1796, appear the following names : Solo-
mon, Kitty, Reuben, Shinah, and Hetty Etting;
Jacob F., Philadelphia, Benjamin, and Hetty Levy;
and Levy and Myer Solomon. In the first directory
of “Baltimore Town and Fell’s Point,” also pnb-
lislied in 1796 — the year of the incorporation of Bal-
timore as a city — there are, in addition to the above,

two Harts, three Jacobs, Philip Itzclikin, Kahn,

Benjamin Lyon, Solomon Raphael, and Isaac Solo-
mon; and in the lists of letters remaining at the
post-office occur the names of Hliym Levenstene and
Benjamin Myers. It is a conservative estimate, then,
to put the Jewish population of Baltimore in 1796 at
fifteen families.

In 1798 the Collmus family arrived from Bohemia;
and in 1808 the six sons of Israel J. Cohen came,
with their mother, from Richmond, Va. The Co-
hens and the Ettings played a prominent part in the
history of Baltimore Jewry, and in that of the city
also. Both families acquired an enviable reputation
for integrity and business tact ; and their members
were honored with offices of trust, by corporations
and in the city government. Their names figure
most prominently in the emancipation struggle of
1818-26, during which time the “Jew Bill” was
debated in the legislature of Maryland. This bill
proposed “to consider the justice and
Jews expediency of extending to those per-
Elected to sons professing the Jewish religion
City the same privileges that are enjoyed
Council, by Christians.” Immediately upon its
passage, and its ratification in the leg-
islative session of 1825-26, it was applied practi-
cally in the election of Solomon Etting and Jacob I.
Cohen, Jr., to seats in the city council of Baltimore.

After 1826 the recorded history of the Jews of Bal-
timore ceases to be the history of prominent individ-
uals, and becomes that of a community. Almost
coincidently with the removal of civil

Religious disabilities occurs the first of a series of

Worship regular meetings for religious services.

Organized, whose continuity has been uninter-
rupted. According to the recollec-
tions of one participant still living, this meeting took
place in Holliday street, near Pleasant street, at the
house of Zalma Rehine, a former resident of Rich-
mond, Ya. , and an uncle of Isaac Leeser. This may
possibly have been the beginning of the congrega-
tion Nidclie Israel, now known as the “Baltimore
Hebrew Congregation,” or more familiarly as the
“Stadt-Schul,” probably because almost simultane-
ously with its origin another settlement of Jews, at
Fell’s Point — an outlying and at first separate dis-
trict— began to crystallize into a congregation, still
called the “Fell’s Point Hebrew Friendship Congre-
gation,” and regularly organized since 1838. The
Nidche Israel soon found it necessary to rent rooms
on North Exeter street, near what is now Lex-
ington street. Thence the congregation moved
to a one-story dwelling off High street, near the
bend between Fayette and Gay streets, or near what
is now Lexington street, the entrance being through
a narrow alley. In 1837 a three-story brick building
was bought, at the southwest corner of Harrison
street and jEtna lane. In 1845 the congregation re-
moved to Lloyd and Watson streets, the new syn-
agogue being dedicated by the Rev. S. M. Isaacs of
New York and the Rev. Isaac Leeser of Philadel-
phia, together with the ministers of the congrega-
tion, A. Rice and A. Ansell (Anshel). Here it wor-
shiped until April 6, 1889, when the fine building
now occupied was erected on Madison avenue and
Robert street. The date of the congregational
charter is Jan. 29, 1830 (supplementary act, 1851).
The incorporators were Moses Millem (Mulheim),
Joseph Osterman, John M. Dyer, Louis Silver, and
Levi Benjamin.

The first rabbi of the congregation was the above-
mentioned Abraham Rice (Reiss), whose piety and
upright character have left a lasting impress upon
the community, especially through his influence
upon the youths he taught, some of them its present
leaders. Rice established a school for instruction
in Hebrew in 1845, and he officiated as the rabhi
of the congregation from 1840 to 1849, and again
from the spring of 1862 to Oct. 29 of the same year,
the date of his death. The other rabbis of the con-
gregation have been: Julius Spiro, in conjunction
with Mr. Rice (1846-47); Henry Hochheimer (1849—
59); B. Illoway (1859-61) ; Abraham Hofman (1868-
73); Maurice Fluegel (1881-84); A. S. Bettelheim
(1886-90); and the present incumbent, Adolf Gutt-
macher (1891). The burial-ground belonging to the
congregation wTas bought in 1832, at which time it
covered three acres.

The rabbis of the Fell’s Point Congregation, now
worshiping on Eden street, have been : Aaron Gunz-
burg (1848-56) ; Henry Hochheimer (1859-92), now
rabbi emeritus; W. Willner (1892—94) ; Clifton II.
Levy (1894-96); and the present incumbent, M.
Rosenstein (1896). This congregation, as well as the

Baltimore

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

480

the one or two “liebrot” of which records up to
1842 have been preserved, had separated from, or
organized themselves independently of, the mother
congregation, Nidche Israel, only for reasons of con-
venience, on account of the extended space over
which the community was scattered.

In 1842 the desire for a radical change in the
liturgy resulted in the formation of the Har Sinai
Verein, whose rabbis have been: Max Sutro (about
1842); Moritz Brown (about 1849-55); David Ein-
horn (1855-61); S. Deutsch (1862-73); Jacob Mayer
(1874-76); E. G. Hirscli (1877-78); S. Sale (1878-83);
David Philipson (1884-88) ; Tobias Shanfarber (1888-
OS); and the present incumbent, Charles A. Ruben-
stein (1898). The congregation recently erected a
new house of worship on Bolton and Wilson streets.

A similar desire for a revised liturgy, but along
more conservative lines, led to the formation of the
Oheb Shalom Congregation in Sept., 1853, on the
part of a number of dissidents from

“ Oheb the original body. The rabbis of this

Shalom” congregation, whose new synagogue
Congrega- on Eutaw place and Lanvale street is
tion. considered one of the most beautiful
structures in the city, have been the

following: Salomon (1854) ; S. M. Laudsberg

(1856-57); Benjamin Szold, now rabbi emeritus
(1859-92); and the present incumbent, William Ro-
senau (1892). Alois Kaiser, known as a composer of
synagogue music, has been the cantor of this con-
gregation since 1866.

This was followed by the formation of three
Orthodox congregations, the earliest of which was
the Bikur Cholim Congregation, incorporated in
1865. The Chizuk Emoonah Congregation was
formed in 1871 by dissidents front the Baltimore
Hebrew Congregation, which had begun to intro-
duce innovations into the synagogue service. The
only rabbi of the Chizuk Emoonah has been Henry
W. Schneeberger, who has occupied the rabbinate
since 1876. A new synagogue has recently been
built by the congregation at McCulloh and Mosher
streets. In 1878, the Shearith Israel Congrega-
tion was formed by the consolidation of two small
congregations. S. Schaffer has been its rabbi since
1893.

Since then, in the organization of the twenty other
congregations existing in Baltimore, — only eight of
which have a house of worship of their own, — the
determining factor, in a few cases, has been conve-
nience of locality, but more frequently the bond of
national affiliation brought from European coun-
tries and reenforced by conservatism in religious
sentiment.

An attempt was made in 1856-59 to hold services
according to the liturgy of the Sephardim, of which
S. N. Carvalho was the chief promoter. The con-
gregation was regularly organized in 1857, under
the name “Beth Israel,” with Jacob M. De Solla as
minister. This completes the religious history of
the community.

Of the eight large cemeteries in the city, one,
called “Rosedale,” is used by seven congregations
and three societies; another, on the Philadelphia
road, by eight congregations and two societies; and
a third, on the Washington road, by three congrega-

tions and one society. Each of five congregations,
the Baltimore Hebrew, the Fell’s Point, the Har
Sinai, the Oheb Shalom, and the B‘nai Israel, has a
cemetery of its own. Besides, there is a small ceme-
tery, now disused, on the Philadelphia road, which
was formerly maintained by what was called, for
unknown reasons, “Die Irische Hebra.” The Cohen
family and the Etting family own private cemeteries.

The first charitable association was the Hebrew
Assistance Society (1843?), incorporated in 1856 as
the “ Hebrew Benevolent Society of Baltimore. ” In
the latter year was founded also the He-
Charitable brew Ladies’ Sewing Society, which,
Societies, though an independent body, has
always adapted its activities to those
of the general organization. The building of the
Hebrew Hospital and Asylum Association — a society
for the care of the sick and the shelter of the aged —
was dedicated in 1868, the first steps toward this
end having been taken in 1859; and in 1872 the He-
brew Orphan Asylum, which now cares for seventy-
five inmates, was established. Both these institu-
tions have active auxiliary organizations. The other
charitable institutions with permanent homes are the
Hebrew Friendly Inn and Aged Home, established in
1891, and the Working Girls’ Home, founded in 1899
by the Daughters in Israel, and supported by that
association.

There are, besides, two Hebrew free burial socie-
ties, a Hebrew free loan association, the Daughters
in Israel of Baltimore City (a personal service sister-
hood with various activities), and a number of mu-
tual benefit and relief associations. The Baron de
Ilirsch Fund from the first established a local com-
mittee in Baltimore, whose affairs have been admin-
istered by Dr. A. Friedenwald.

Congregational schools, at which daily" instruction
was given in Hebrew and German, and later in Eng-
lish, flourished until after 1870. The most success-
ful were conducted by Joseph Sachs
Edu- and Jonas Goldsmith. The Society
cational for Educating Poor and Orphan He-
Establish- brew Children (now named “ Hebrew
ments. Education Society of Baltimore ”) was
founded in 1852, and incorporated in
1860. At present (1901), it has two schools, a daily
Hebrew school, and a weekly mission school for
religious instruction, whose work is supplemented
by that of the Frank Free Sabbath School, estab-
lished and supported by Mrs. S. L. Frank. The first
Sunday-school, patterned after the one founded by
Miss Rebecca Gratz in Philadelphia, was opened in
1856. In it a large number of children were taught
during the years preceding the establishment of con-
gregational religious schools. The Talmud-Torah
School, with a building of its own, was established
in 1889, and the Hebrew Free Kindergarten and Day
Nursery in 1895. The organization known as “ The
Maccabeans” maintains an evening class and a
library for the use of boys and young men ; continu-
ing in a measure the work begun by the Night
School, existing from 1889 to 1899 under the auspices
of the Isaac bar Levison Hebrew Literary Society,
and supported in part by the Baron de Hirscli Fund,
for the purpose of teaching English to immigrants.
At three different times short-lived attempts have

481

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baltimore

been made to maintain Young Men’s Hebrew asso-
ciations, the first of which existed from 1854 to 1860.
At present there are several clubs, three with club-
houses, and a number of pleasure societies and lit-
erary and musical associations.

There are three Zionist societies; a branch of the
Alliance Israelite Universelle; a section and a junior
section of the Council of Jewish Women; six lodges
of the Independent Order B‘nai B rith ; three of the
Independent Order B'ritli Abraham ; one of the Inde-
pendent Order Free Sons of Israel; three of the In-
dependent Order Free Sons of Judah; four of the
Independent Order Sons of Benjamin; live of the
Order Ahawas Israel ; seven of the Order B'ritli Abra-
ham ; and one of the Order Kesher Slid Barzel.

The Jewish newspapers published in Baltimore
have been the following: “ Sinai ” (a German period-
ical, edited by Dr. D. Einliorn, 1856-61, and one year
in Philadelphia) ; “ The Jewish Chronicle ” (1875-77) ;
“ Der Fortschritt ” (Yiddish, June-July, 1890); “ Der
Baltimore Israelit ” (Yiddish, 1891-93) ; “ Ha-Pisgah ”
(Hebrew, 1891-93, continued in Chicago); “Jewish
Comment” (1895); and “ Der Wegweiser ” (Yiddish,
1896).

The Jews of Baltimore have participated fully in
the civic life of the town and the state, and have
taken some part in national affairs. In the city,
Jews have filled numerous minor of-
In Public flees, notably as couneilmen, justices
and Pro- of the peace, supervisors of elections,
fessional and in the city law department, as
Life. well as on boards and special commis-
sions. Myer Block is judge of the
Orphans’ Court in Baltimore; Jacob H. Hollander
was secretary to the International Bimetallic Com-
mission, and the first treasurer of Porto Rico under
American jurisdiction. Isidor Ravner served as
representative in the fiftieth, t lie fifty -second, and the
fifty-third congresses, after having sat in the House
of Delegates and the Senate of the state ; at present
he is attorney-general of the state. Among the state
senators have been Jacob M. Moses and Lewis Put-
zel; and among the delegates the following: Meu-
des I. Cohen, Martin Emerich, Harry A. Fuld, M.
S. Hess, Emanuel II. Jacobi, Martin Lelnnayer,
Lewis Putzel, and Charles J. Wiener. In the busi-
ness world the Jews of Baltimore occupy an impor-
tant position. The clothing manufacturing trade is
entirely in their hands, and to a great extent they
control the manufacture of all wearing apparel for
men, including straw hats. Several of the largest
department stores are conducted by Jews; and as
financiers they bear an enviable reputation for pro-
bity and for a spirit of far-sighted and cautious
enterprise.

Baltimore Jews have had prominent representa-
tives in all the professions. Jewish physicians, men
and women, have occupied positions as professors
in the medical colleges, among whom may be men-
tioned A. B. Arnold, Joshua I. Cohen, Aaron Frie-
denwald. Harry Friedenwald, and Julius Frieden-
wald; a few Jews have devoted themselves to the
writing of medical and legal works; there are Jew-
ish journalists on the editorial staffs of several of the
daily newspapers; the following Jews have been
connected with Johns Hopkins University in the
II.— 31

capacity of professors and instructors: J. J. Syl-
vester, Fabian Franklin, Abraham Cohen, Maurice
Bloomfield, Cyrus Adler, J. H. Hollander, Simon
Flexner, Caspar Levias, and William Rosenau ; in
the public schools upward of sixty Jewish teachers
are employed ; Ephraim Keyserhaswon reputation
as a sculptor, and Meudes Cohen as a civil engineer.

The wider educational life has found promoters
among the Jews. Jacob I. Cohen, Jr., was active
in the establishment of the public-school system of
Baltimore; and his nephews were instrumental in
placing in the Johns Hopkins University the “Co-
hen Collection of Egyptian Antiquities,” collected
by his brother. Col. Mendes I. Cohen, in Egypt.
At the same university Leopold Strouse established
a rabbinical library, to which he makes annual
additions; Mrs. 8. L. Frank and Albert W. Ravner
have founded a Semitic fellowship in memory of
their father, William S. Rayner ; and Henry and Mrs.
Sonneborn have presented the university with a col-
lection of Jewish ceremonial objects. At the Cohen
residence is a library valuable to Bible students, col-
lected by Dr. Joshua I. Cohen (a catalogue of this
library, compiled by Cyrus Adler, was privately
printed in 1887).

Jews enlisted from Baltimore for service in each of
the national wars. Nathaniel Levy fought under
Lafayette in the campaign of 1781 ; and Reuben
Etting (not the one mentioned above)
Military was taken prisoner by the British at
Services. Charlestown. Among the defenders
of Fort McHenry, near Baltimore,
during the War of 1812-14, were the brothers Men-
des I. and Philip I. Cohen. In the Mexican war,
Moritz Henry Weil served as a private in Company
A, Third Regiment, United States Artillery, and
Louis Hamburger as a private in Company C, Balti-
more Battalion. A company of militia composed
entirely of Jews was formed, with Levi Benjamin
as first lieutenant ; but it is not probable that it saw
active service. In the Civil war there were as many
Baltimore Jews in the Confederate as in the Federal
army. Leopold Blumenberg served as brevet brig-
adier-general, United States Volunteers, Fifth Mary-
land Infantry (see S. Wolf, “The American Jew as
Patriot, Soldier, and Citizen,” pp. 199, 200, 412).
To the Spanish-American war, Baltimore Jewry sent
its due quota of soldiers (see “ American Jewish Year
Book,” 5661, pp. 563-565).

A few street names reveal the early presence of
Jews: There are two alleys, each called “Jew alley,”
one in the eastern section of the city, on which the old
burying-ground is situated; and the other in the
western section, probably deriving its name from resi-
dences of Jews on Eutaw street; Abraham street, in
close proximity to the old burying-ground ; Cohen
alley, so named from the residence of one of the
Cohen brothers on Mulberry street; and Etting
street, of obvious derivation.

In 1825, while the “Jew Bill” was under discus-
sion, Solomon Etting computed the number of Jews
in Maryland to be 150. A directory
Statistics, of 1835 gives the names of 40 house-
holders in Baltimore, identified as Jews
by a Jewish resident whose memory goes back to
that year. To these can be added at least 15 more

Bamab

Bamberger

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

482

names culled from the records of the Baltimore
Hebrew Congregation, making a Jewish population
of about 300 souls, bearing such names as Cohen,
Dyer, Friedenwald, Horwitz, Kayton, Keyser,
Preiss, and Rosenstock, whose descendants are still
prominent in Baltimore and other cities. In the
“ Occident ” of Dec. , 1856, an anonymous correspond-
ent puts the number of Jews then residing in the
city at 8,000 — obviously an exaggerated estimate.
In 1901 estimates of the Jewish population vary from
35,000 to 40,000, in a total population of 508,957.

Bibliography : Archives of the congregations; files of the

Occident and of the local newspapers ; personal reminiscences

of older members of the Jewish community ; Publications of

the American-Jewish Historical Society, No. 1, pp. 21,32;

No. 2, pp. 65, 66 ; No. 4, pp. 94-96.

A. H. S.

BAMAH: This word, which ordinarily desig-
nates a “ high place ” (see High Places), is intro-
duced in Ezek. xx. 29 as a generic name for an idol-
atrous place of worship for the purpose of playing
upon the word, as though “Bamah” were com-
pounded from “ ba ” (come) and “ mah ” (whereunto) ;
the term being thus interpreted as a place to which
people come — that is, for worship.

j. jr. G. B. L.

BAMBERG : City in Upper Franconia, Bavaria.
As early as the beginning of the eleventh century
Jews had settled at Bamberg. In the second half of
the twelfth century Benjamin of Tudela, at the end of
his “ Travels,” mentions its large congregation, which
included many scholars and rich men. In 1096
Emicho of Leiningen instigated a massacre among
the Jews; in 1218 two Jews were martyred; and in
1298 the Jews suffered terribly at the hands of Rind-
fleisch and his bands, one hundred and thirty-five
of them being murdered. They were persecuted
so atrociously at the time of the Black Death, in 1349,
that they set fire to their own houses and sought
death in the flames. The prince-bishop then took
possession of such of their houses as were left, and
also of the synagogue. Bishop Anton protected
them because a rich Jew of Bamberg lent him large
sums of money. They were expelled in 1442, but
returned in 1453.

In 1451 Johann von Capistrano, the “Scourge of
the Hebrews,” preached against the Jews in the
cathedral of Bamberg. They were forced to listen
to the mission sermons of a Dominican monk,
and, as they steadfastly refused to be converted,
they were once more expelled in 1478. Within
twenty-five years, however, they had again re-
turned to Bamberg. In the sixteenth century they
were often threatened with expulsion. During
the Thirty Years’ war they, together with their
fellow-citizens, suffered at the hands of the Swedes.
Better days came with the second half of the
seventeenth century. In 1683 they prevented an
expulsion by sacrificing large sums of money.
During a commercial crisis in 1699 the populace
rose up against the Jews, and one Jew saved him-
self by throwing prunes from a gable-window
down upon the mob. That event, the 29th of
Nisan, called “ Zwetschgen-Ta'anit ” (Prune-Fast),
is still commemorated by a fast and a Purim festiv-
ity. At that time many communities in the vicinity

of Bamberg were plundered. Emperor Leopold
ordered an investigation of the affair and had the
leaders punished. In 1737 the number of Jews per-
mitted to live at Bamberg was fixed at forty-eight,
each of whom must possess 2,000 thalers, a sum that
was increased in 1747 to 4,000. Not until 1813 was
the Jews’ matriculation (“ Judenmatrikel ”) substi-
tuted for the letter of protection.

The first synagogue of the community became the
“ Marienkirche ” after the persecution of 1349, and
when it fell into decay in 1470 a new church was
built on the site. The second synagogue escaped a
similar fate after rhe expulsion of 1478, being bought
by Jacob Iverpf, a Jew of Nuremberg. In 1561 the
community rented a rear building for its third place
of worship, which was changed into a synagogue in
1679. The fourth synagogue was erected on the
same site in 1853. Bamberg at all times had a
ghetto. The cemetery was outside of the Sandthor
until 1478, having been enlarged in 1407. In the
sixteenth century the Jews of Bamberg buried their
dead in Zeckendorf, and after the middle of the eight-
eenth century in Walsdorf; but since 1851 they have
had a cemetery of their own.

In harmony with the importance of the community
the rabbinate was occupied by eminent men. Sam-
uel of Bamberg, well known as halakist, exegete,
and piyyut expounder, lived there about 1220.
Israel of Bamberg, author of Tosafot (about 1250),
succeeded him. Rabbi Feyst is mentioned about
1403. More famous than any of these was David
Sprinz (about 1445), who went later to Nuremberg.
Moses Minz, the last great representative of Tal-
mudic learning among the German rabbis of the Mid-
dle Ages, lived at Bamberg from 1469 to 1474. Rabbi
Samuel Meseritz, author of the collection of formu-
las and documents “ Nalialat Shib'ah ” (Amsterdam,
1667-68), was at Bamberg from 1661 to 1665. His
successors were; Moses Furth, 1665-67; Enoch
Levi, 1674-78; Mordeeai Lipschiitz, 1678-85; Men-
del Rothschild, 1686-1718; Moses Broda, 1718-33;
Nathan Utiz, 1734-42; Joseph Breslau, 1743-52;
Abraham Maler, 1752-57; Tewele Sclieuer, 1759-67;
Judah Katz, 1770-88; Lob Berlin, 1789-94; Uri
Feist, 1797-1802; Joseph Gersfeld, 1802-14; Sam-
son Wolf Roseufeld, Joseph Kobak (b. 1864), and
Dr. A. Eckstein (in 1901). The Jews in Bamberg
numbered, in 1403, 37; in 1633, 10; in 1664, 10; in
1690, 24; in 1737, 60; in 1763, 69; in 1901, the com-
munity numbered 1,350 persons.

Bibliography : A. Eckstein, Gesch. der Juden in Ehemaligen

FUrstbistum. Bamberg, Bamberg, 1898.

g. A. F.

BAMBERG, FELIX: German publicist; born
at Unrulistadt, Germany, May 17, 1820; died in
Saint-Gratien, near Paris, Feb. 12, 1893. He stud-
ied philosophy and history in Berlin and Paris ; be-
came consul at Paris for Prussia and Brunswick in
1851, and for the North-German Federation in 1867.
In 1870 Bamberg was despatched to the headquar-
ters of tlie Germany army in Versailles, where he
was placed at the head of the press department; and
a year later, in the capacity of political adviser, he
became attached to Manteuffel, then commander-in-
chief of the troops occupying France. In 1874
Bamberg became German consul at Messina, and

483

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bamah

Bamberger

during 1881-88 served as consul-general at Genoa.
His principal works are: “Gescliichte der Februar-
Revolution und der Ersten Jahre der Franzosiscben
Republik von 1848,” Brunswick, 1849; “Ueber den
Einfluss der Weltzustiinde auf die Ricbtungen der
Ivunst und ilber die Wcrke F. Hebbel’s,” Hamburg,
1846; “Tilrkisclie Rede,” Leipsic, 1856, a bistory of
tbe Eastern question, which lias also been translated
into French; “Geschichte der Orientalischen Auge-
legenlieit im Zeitraum des Pariser und Berliner
Friedens,” published in Oncken’s “Allgemeine Ge-
schichte,” Berlin, 1888-92. In addition to these
works, Bamberg edited Hebbel’s diaries, under the
title of “ Tagebiicher Hebbel’s,” Berlin, 2 vols., 1884-
87; and Hebbel’s correspondence, entitled : “F. Heb-
bel’s Briefwechsel mit Freunden und Beriihmten
Zeitgenossen,” Berlin, 1890-92, 2 vols.

Bibliography : Meyer, Konversations-Lexikon.

s. B. B.

BAMBERG, SAMUEL (known also as Sam-
uel of Bamberg or Babenberg, p~iUJ32D f’NlDEl'
p"IJDJ130 Halakistandliturgist; lived about

1220. He was born iu Metz, where he attended the
rabbinical school, and was one of the best-known
German Talmudic scholars. His teachers were his
father, Baruch ben Samuel, the well-known poet and
halakist, and Eliezer b. Samuel of Metz. He was
himself the teacher of Mei'r of Rothenburg, to whom
he must have been related, since he is cited by Mei'r
as “ my revered relative.” He was in correspondence
with Eliezer ben Joel ha-Levi, Simhah of Speirs, and
Isaac ben Moses of Vienna. Of Bamberg’s private
life nothing is known, though it is hardly probable
that he spent some time in France, as Cohn (“ Monats-
schrift,” 1878, p. 177) and Perles (Gratz, “Jubel-
schrift,” p. 18) think. He had two daughters,
named Yiska and Gentil. Samuel is mentioned in
the “Memorbuch” of Nuremberg, though it is
hardly possible that he ended his life in that city.

As a halakist Samuel was inclined to a liberal in-
terpretation of the Law, especially when it did not
concern a direct Biblical command. For this at times
he was called to account by his famous pupil Mei'r
of Rothenburg, who, however, thought so highly of
him as to write; “No thought escapes thee; thou
bringest light to that which is hidden, and thou art
armed with learned weapons as is a hero for the
strife.” As a jurist Samuel is especially mentioned
in matters relating to marriage laws. No separate
work on Halakali is left by him ; but his responsa
on various questions are to be found in the works of
others; e.g., Mordecai b. Hillel and Mei'r of Rothen-
burg. For a long time Bamberg wras supposed to
have been the author of the “ Likkute lia-Pardes ” :
Moses Isserles believed even that he was the pupil of
Rashi. Eckstein has proven that these surmises are
impossible; and Epstein has shown that the work
comes from the school of Isaiah of Trani (“Monats-
schrift,” lxiv. 29 et seq., 53 et seq.). A few of his
exegetical remarks are mentioned by later scholars
also. His explanations of various parts of the
Malizor are several times cited, and it is probable
that he composed a commentary on this work, a
copy of which is perchance in the library of David
Kaufmann (Gratz, “ Jubelschrift,” p. 18).

Characteristic of the man is his saying, “It is
more praiseworthy to make a gift for the education
of the young than for the keeping up of the syna-
gogue,” especially as Samuel was influential in the
formation of the South-German ritual and was al-
ways anxious that the synagogue service should be
carried on in an orderly fashion.

Bibliography : Eckstein, in Ratimer’s Litcraturhlatt , xxii.

Nos. 46 and 47 ; idem, Gesch. der Juden in Bamberg, pp.

140 et seq., 297 et seq. ; Salfeld, Das Mart grab igium lies

NUrnberqcr Me mnrhv dies, pp. 88, 293, 383; Zunz, It it us, p.

200; Steinschneider, Cat. Boat. No. 7013; Michael, Or ha-

Hai/yim, No. 1203.

L. G. G.

BAMBERGER, B^LA: Hungarian lawyer and
writer on political economy; born at Szegedin, Hun-
gary, in 1854; studied law at Vienna and Budapest.
He is an authority on the currency question. His
works, “Die Vorgeschichte und Finanziellen Folgen
der Nordamerikanischen Valuta-Frage ” (Budapest,
1890) and “Die Bbrsen-Steuer ” (Budapest, 1895),
were awarded a prize by the Royal Hungarian Acad-
emy of Sciences.

s. L. V.

BAMBERGER, EDOUARD ADRIEN:

French deputy and physician; born at Strasburg
Sept. 25, 1825. After obtaining the degree of B.A.
in 1843 he devoted himself to medicine, iu which he
obtained a doctor’s degree in 1847. Although active
in the medical profession, he devoted himself to phi-
losophy and general literature. He moved to Metz
in 1858, and in 1867 he was elected member and later
vice-president of its Educational League, before
which he delivered a great number of lectures on
philosophy, science, and hygiene. He also contrib-
uted to divers journals essays advocating compul-
sory education, abolition of capital punishment, and
freedom in thought. Attached as he was to repub-
lican ideas, he strenuously opposed the policy of
Napoleon III. and indicated its dangers. At the
election of a national assembly to consider the peace
preliminaries of Feb. 8, 1871, he was elected parlia-
mentary representative for the Moselle district with
33,632 votes. Having voted against the treaty which
severed his native country (Alsace-Lorraine) from
France, he tendered his resignation, together with
his colleagues of the annexed departments. How-
ever, after the insurrection of March 18, 1871, fol-
lowing a call of Thiers, he resumed his seat as a dep-
uty at Versailles. At the election of Feb. 20, 1876,
he was elected representative for Neuilly-on-the-
Seine with 4,893 (of 9,536) votes. He took his seat
among the republican majority and voted steadily
with them. After May 16, 1877, he was a member
of the protesting group of 363, and at the dissolu-
tion of Parliament (by MacMahon) he was reelected
Oct. 14, 1877, in the second parliamentary district
(conscription) of St. Denis, with the strong vote
of 8,871 against 3,204 obtained by his opponent,
Pierre Leonce Detroyat, editor of “Liberte,” a Bona-
partist paper. But at the elections of August, 1881,
owing to the indifference of a certain number of
moderate republicans, he was defeated by his oppo-
nent, Dr. Villeneuve, a socialist and communard.
In 1881 Bamberger was appointed assistant librarian
to the Museum of Natural History, which position
he has since occupied.

Bamberger, Isaac
Bamberger, Seligman

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

484

Although detached from practical Judaism, Bam-
berger has remained a Jew by conviction, ami never
concealed the religion in which he was born. Dur-
ing the parliamentary debates on the law concerning
child-labor he urged that Jewish apprentices be ex-
empt from working on Saturday. His amendment
was, however, rejected. Bamberger published:
“ Etude sur le Travail des Enfants dans les Manu-
factures” (1873-74); “Etude sur le Socialisme en
Russie,” etc.

Bibliography : Nouveau Larousse must re ; Dictionnaire

Biographique <V Alsace-Lorraine, 1890, vol. i.

S. I. B.

BAMBERGER, ISAAC : German rabbi ; born
at Augenrod, in the grand duchy of Hesse-Darm-
stadt, Nov. 5, 1834; died at Konigsberg Oct. 26,
1896. He received elementary instruction in Hebrew
from his father, Mayer Bamberger, who was for fifty
years a teacher in Angenrod, attended the Realschule
in Alsfeld, and Dr. Miller’s institute in Fulda. He
finished his preparatory education at the gymnasium
in Giessen. Afterward he entered the University of
Giessen, where he studied philosophy and philology;
receiving at the same time instruction in rabbinical
branches from Dr. Levi, the local rabbi. After hav-
ing graduated as Pli. D. at the University of Giessen
in 1861, he went to the Breslau Jewish Theological
■Seminary, where he devoted himself to the study of
Jewish theology. He was graduated as rabbi in
1861, and in 1865 he was called to Konigsberg as
rabbi of the Reform congregation to succeed the late
Rabbi Saalscliiitz. He held this position until his
•death, devoting himself entirely to pliilanthropical,
educational, and communal work.

Bamberger distinguished himself especially by his
untiring efforts for the amelioration of the condition
•of the Russian Jews, who flocked to Konigsberg in
large numbers after 1882, when the persecutions as-
sumed a serious extent; but the needs of his own
community also found in Bamberger an equally
■ardent worker. He organized the following socie-
ties and institutions: A society to assist indigent
Jewish students; the union of the Jewish congrega-
tions of East Prussia ; a society for the prevention
of pauperism; an orphan asylum, known as “Dr.
Koch’s Waisen-Erzieliungs-Anstalt ” ; a society for
providing the poor with fuel; a union of Jewish
Babbatli -school teachers in East Prussia; and a soci-
ety for providing poor school-children with winter
clothes. He was also a zealous member of the Al-
liance Israelite Universelle, which he represented for
more than twenty years in eastern Prussia. He
was one of the founders of the “ Deutsch-Israeii-
tischer Gemeindebund ” (Union of German Congrega-
tions); and of the Deutseher Rabbiner-Verein (Union
•of German Rabbis); the latter elected him several
times as presiding officer at its meetings.

Bamberger was a man of thorough training, and a
forcible speaker, justly esteemed for his tact in pub-
lic addresses. His death occurred before the dedica-
tion of the beautiful new synagogue at Konigsberg,
for the erection of which he had worked so zealously.

Bibliography : Ally. Ze.it. des Jud. 1896, pp. 532,533; Re-
form Advocate , Nov. 21, 1896; and private sources.

s. D.

BAMBERGER, LUDWIG; German deputy
and political economist; born in Mayence July 22,
1823; died in Berlin March 14, 1899. He studied
law in 1842-45 at the universities of Giessen, Hei-
delberg, and Gottingen; and during the following
two years he was attorney at law in his native city.
He became involved in the revolutionary move-
ment of 1848, being at that time editor of the
“ Mainzer Zeitung ” ; enlisted in the ranks of the vol-
unteers; and took an active part in the insurrection
of the Lower Palatinate in 1849. When, with the
assistance of Prussia, the rising was quelled, Bam-
berger, among others, was sentenced to imprisonment
by the tribunals of Mayence, and condemned to death
by the Bavarian authorities. He fled to Switzerland,

Ludwig Bamberger.

and thence went in succession to England, Bel-
gium, and Holland, earning a living mainly by work
for different commercial houses; and, finally, took
up his abode in Paris, where lie became manager of
the large banking firm of Bischoffslieim & Gold-
schmidt in 1853. He remained in this position until
the general amnesty granted to political offenders in
1866. Bamberger thereupon returned to Mayence,
and, two years later, was elected to the newly estab-
lished Parliament of the Zollverein.

At the beginning of the Franco-Prussian war the
reputation of Bamberger as a talented and successful
writer on political and economic subjects, his well-
known sympathies for the so-called “Deutscli-Na-
tional Liberalen,” and his exceptional familiarity
with existing conditions in France induced Prince
Bismarck, in August, 1870, to entrust to him the
management of a considerable part of the political

485

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bamberger, Isaac
Bamberger, Seligman

campaign waged in tlie interests of his national pol-
icy. In 1871 Bamberger was elected to the first
German Reichstag, and from 1873 represented in it
the electoral district of Alzey-Bingen ; at the begin-
ning of his parliamentary career faithfully clinging
to the National Liberal party, of which he became a
leader. He exercised great influence on financial
and economic legislation, especially in giving sup-
port to the maintenance of a gold standard. He was
an enthusiastic champion of free trade, and presi-
dent of the association, which he founded, for the
promotion of that ideal. Loud in his denunciations
of the professorial socialists, “Katheder Socialisten,”
he at the same time courageously assailed the pro-
tection policy which was inaugurated by Bismarck in
1879 for the purpose of accomplishing the economic
unification of Germany. Thus brought into oppo-
sition with the majority of the National Liberal
party, Bamberger resolved to break away from it,
and in 1880, with a number of political followers,
formed the so-called “secessional faction,” afterward
named “Liberale Vercinigung.” To justify his
course, he published (anonymously) a pamphlet en-
titled “Secession,” which passed through four edi-
tions within a year (Berlin, 1881). After the fusion of
the secessional faction with the German Liberal party
in 1884, Bamberger became identified with the latter,
and bitterly opposed Bismarck’s administration, es-
pecially at the time when the government recklessly
plunged into a colonial policy. Upon the disintegra-
tion of the German Liberal party in 1893, Bamberger
attached himself to that faction known as the
“ Deutschfreisinnige Vereinigung.” This was his
last parliamentary record, as he failed to be elected
to the next Reichstag.

Among his numerous contributions to political
and national-economic literature may be men-
tioned: “ Die Flitterwoclien der Pressfreiheit,” Ma-
yence, 1848; “Erlebnisse aus der Pfalzischen Erhe-
bung,” an interesting and instructive tale of the
author’s experiences during the insurrection of the
Palatinate, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1849; “Juclilie
nacli Italia” (anonymous), Bern, 1859 — in which the
author exhorts the Germans to take sides with Italy
in her struggle with Austria, and thus accomplish
the unification of Germany by the exclusion of Aus-
tria; “Adam Lux,” in the “Revue Moderne,” 1866;
“Monsieur de Bismarck,” Paris, 1868 (in the same
year a German edition appeared in Breslau, and
one in English in 1869); “ Vertrauliche Briefe aus
dem Zollparlament,” Breslau, 1870; “ZurNaturge-
schichte des Franzbsischen Krieges,” Leipsic, 1871;
“ Die Aufliebung der Indirecten Gemeinde-Abgaben
in Belgieu, Holland, und Frankreicli,” Berlin, 1871;
“Die Fiinf Milliarden,” ib. 1873; “Zur Deutsclien
Miinzgesetzgebung,” ib. 1873; “Die Arbeiterfrage
Unter dem Gesiclitspunkte des Vereinsrechts, Stutt-
gart, 1873 (an attack on socialist professors, which
evoked a reply from Brentano under the title, “ Die
Wissenscliaftliche Leistung der Herrn Ludwig Bam-
berger,” Berlin, 1873; “Die Zettelbank vor dem
Reichstag,” two editions, Leipsic, 1874; “Reiehs-
gold: Studien liber Wahrung und Wechsel,” three
editions, Leipsic, 1876; “Deutschland und der So-
cialismus,” two editions, ib. 1878; “Deutschland
und Judenthum,” two editions, ib. 1880; “Die

Verschleppung der Deutschen Miinz-Reform,” Co-
logne, 1880; “Die Seliicksale des Lateinisclien
Miinzbundes ” ; “ Ein Beitrag zur Wiihrungspolitik, ”
Berlin, 1885; “ Die Socialistische Gefahr: Ein Nacli-
wort zu den Verhandlungen des Reichstags vom
Marz und April d. J.,” Minden, 1886; “National,”
Berlin, 1888; “ Die Naclifolge Bismarcks,” ib. 1889;
“ Zum Jahrestag der Ent lassung Bismarcks, ” ib. 1891 ;
“Silber,” three editions, Berlin, 1892; “Die Stich-
worte der Silberleute,” five editions, ib. 1893.

He contributed, moreover, to the “ Deutsche Rund-
schau,” the “Allgemeine Zeitung,” “Unsere Zeit,”
“Die Gegenwart,” “Die Tribune,” etc. During his
last years he was engaged in collecting his works,
of which a complete edition appeared in Berlin, in
five volumes (1895-97). Among his contributions
to the weekly, “ Die Nation,” the following have ap-
peared in book form under separate titles: “ Wand-
lungen und Wanderungen in der Sozialpolitik,” Ber-
lin, 1898; “Bismarck Posthumus,” being discourses
on Bismarck’s “Gedanken und Erinnerungen,” ib.
1899.

Bibliography: For autobiographical information consult
Erinnerungen von Ludwig Bamberger, ed. by Paul Nathan,
published by Georg Reimer, Berlin. 1899 ; Brookhaus, Kon-
versatUms-Lexikon , 14th ed.; Meyer. Konversations-Lexi-
kon, 5th ed.; A. de Gubernatis, Dietumnaire International
des Ecrivains du Jour, Florence, 1888-91 ; G. Vapereau,
Dictionnaire Univcrsel des Contemporains, Paris. 1898;
see also La Orande Encyclopedic; Dr. Hermann Oncken,
Ludwig Bamberger. a sketch of his life in the Picii.ssi.se/ie
JahrbUcher, ed. by Hans Delbriick, vol. 100, Berlin, 1900.

S. A S. C.

BAMBERGER, SELIGMAN BAERi Hebrew
name, Isaac Dob) : Talmudist of the old school and
leader of the Orthodox party in Germany; born
at Wiesenbronn, near Kitzingen, Bavaria, Nov. 6,
1807; died at Wurzburg Oct. 13, 1878. His strictly
Orthodox parents sent him, when he was fifteen years
old, to the yeshibah at Fiirth, where he pursued ex-
clusively the study of the Talmud under Wolf
Hamburger and Judah Lob Halberstadt. He was
an eager and able student, and at the end of five
years obtained his diploma as rabbi. In accordance
with the olden pious standpoint, the idea of making
a profession of the Torah did not enter Bamberger's
mind ; and he opened a general business store in his
native town. Rabbinical studies, however, contin-
ued to be his chief employment. The following
episode shows his enthusiasm for things spiritual:
A customer once came into his place of business
while he was deeply absorbed in his folios, and he
called out impatiently : “ Is there no other shop in
this place, that you must come and disturb me?”
— and continued his reading. When Bamberger left
the synagogue early in the morning.
An En- he was wont to say : “ If only no cus-
thusiastic tomers come to-day, so that I may not
Student, be bothered in my studies!” With
such commercial principles it is no
wonder that his trade decreased; and as his family
grew larger, the capital with which he started — the
dowry of his wife, daughter of Rabbi Seckel
Wormser of Fulda, to whom he was married in
1829 — dwindled away, and his business had to be
liquidated. But Bamberger’s reputation as a Tal-
mudist and a zealous representative of Orthodoxy
was ever on the increase ; and while he was still a

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486

tradesman, pupils came to him from all parts of Ger-
many. Among them were some who later attained
to prominence, especially in Orthodox circles.

Through contact with his pupils, who prepared
for the university while pursuing their rabbinical
studies, Bamberger gradually came to see tliata rep-
resentative of Orthodoxy ought to have some knowl-
edge of secular science also, though he himself pos-
sessed no systematic knowledge of the German
language or of literature in general. Though no
profound scholar, he was endowed with a fine tena-
cious memory which stood him in good stead in his
endeavors to familiarize himself with what he called
“secular knowledge.” In 1836 the Bavarian gov-
ernment convoked an assembly of Jewish notables
to report on various points in the
Bamberger Jewish religious law. The Orthodox
and staked their hopes on Bamberger,
Reform in whom they delegated in place of Abra-
Bavaria. ham Bing, rabbi at Wurzburg, who
was unable to represent them. It was
chiefly due to Bamberger’s energy and tenacity of
purpose that the results of the meeting accorded
with the wishes of the Orthodox party and not of
the liberal-minded, who had expected much from it.

In consequence of his success, Bamberger’s friends
and colleagues begged him to become a candidate
for the rabbinate of Wurzburg, which Bing's death
in 1839 had left vacant. By its choice of a rabbi,
W iirzburg, the seat of a university attended by many
Jewish students of theology, would in a certain sense
be a determining factor in the conflict between Re-
form and Orthodoxy. Bamberger’s victory after a
long and severe struggle had in fact been the tri-
umph of Orthodoxy.

As soon as Bamberger assumed the office of dis-
trict rabbi at Wurzburg (April, 1840), he opened a
yeshibali, probably the last important one in Ger-
many. Through his learning and extreme piety,
but chiefly through the real nobility
District and modesty of his nature, he exerted
Rabbi at a great influence on those who came
Wurzburg, into personal relations with him: his
pupils especially, to whom his attitude
was that of a fatherly friend, loved and honored
him. His capacity for work was remarkable. His
duties as rabbi of a large congregation and district,
and as director of a rabbinical school, did not keep
him from devoting time to other philanthropic and
practical affairs. There was a great lack of Jewish
teachers in Bavaria, and, after exerting himself two
years in promoting the establishment of a Jewish
teachers’ training institution, in 1864 he succeeded.
He obtained the necessary money, undertook the
whole organization of the work, and even provided
for the board and lodging of the pupils, who were
generally poor. Bamberger worked also in behalf
of the proper education of children, and by 1855 he
obtained from the Wurzburg congregation enough
money for a Jewish elementary school, one of the
first of its kind in Germany.

Bamberger was one of the last rabbinical writers
in Germany. Though his works show him to have
been a great Talmudist, the}' have a practical end, the
instruction of the people in the scrupulous adherence
to the Jewish laws as codified in the Shullian ‘Aruk.

His first work was “Meleket Shamayim” (The Work
of Heaven, Altona, 1853; 2d ed., Hanover, 1860).
It puts in clear, easy form the Talmudic- rabbinical
regulations for the making of Torali-scrolls, tefilliu,
and “mezuzot,” and thoroughly explains them.

The book is specially meant for the writers of
Torah-scrolls, giving all the details concerning the
preparation of the parchment to be used, the mode
of writing, and so on. Another work by Bam-
berger, a short book written in the Ger-
His Works, man language in Hebrew characters,
is entitled “ Amirah le-Bet Ya'akob ”
(An Address to the House of Jacob ; Filrth, 1858, and
several other editions). It is on the three ceremonial
chief duties of Jewish housewives, Hallaii, Niddah,
and the kindling of the Sabbath light (see Sabbath,
Lights of), and has done more than the oratory of
Orthodox rabbis for the preservation of these cus-
toms. Bamberger’s “Moreh la-Zobehim” (Filrth,
1863) is a good text-book on the slaughtering of ani-
mals for food, and gives many learned elaborations
of the ritual laws concerning “shehitali.” “Na-
halat Debash ” (Inheritance of Honey, 1867), a com-
pendium of the laws concerning Halizah, is intended
mainly for scholars; while the commentary “Yiz-
hak Yerannen” (Isaac Will Rejoice), (Filrth, 1861-
62) on Isaac b. Judah ibn Gayyat’s “ Sha’are Simhah ”
is of a wholly Talmudic-scientific character. This
last is an excellent work of great use for the proper
understanding and appreciation of the old system of
codifications. “ Kore be-Emet,” in two volumes (vol.
i., Frankfort-on-tlie-Main, 1871; vol. ii., Mayence,
1878), is devoted to those passages of the Bible which
the Talmud and Midrash explain either by the sub-
stitution of a consonant, the change of a vowel, or
the transfer of letters. Bamberger points out that
in these cases the Talmud and the Midrash do not
aim at critical textual changes, their method being
merely that of their general hermeneutics. On the
whole, Bamberger’s view is correct; but his attempts
to prove the necessity for the method from the con-
text of the passages are unscientific.

Bamberger wrote a pamphlet on the emancipation
of the Jews, in which he gives a clear and trust-
worthy statement of the attitude of the Talmud
toward non -Jews. The occasion of the pamphlet
was the action of the Bavarian chamber in 1850 in
regard to granting civic rights to the Jews.

Bamberger’s energies were bent on the one task
of preserving and spreading Orthodox Judaism. He
was no fanatic, however; and his disputes with his
opponents never became personal. His attitude in
regard to the question of the withdrawal of Jews
from the community affords an instance
The of this moderation. The question arose
Question of when on July 28, 1876, the German
With- law permitted Jews to secede from
drawal. their religious community. Samson
Raphael Hirscli thereupon declared
that it was the duty of the Orthodox to separate
from an un-Orthodox community; and this led to
conflicts in many congregations in Germany ; but the
final result was unfavorable to Hirscli, whose efforts
for separation were limited to a comparatively small
field. This was due chiefly to Bamberger; for his
reputation as a great Talmudist and as a veteran iu

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Bamberger, Selig-man
Ban

the cause of Orthodoxy gave weight to his opinions.
In contrast to Hirsch, Bamberger was no extremist,
but a conservative. Hirsch opposed Reform on the
principle that “history must turn back”; and lie
had his own system for a “scientific construction of
Judaism.” Bamberger, however, resisted Reform
simply because it was an innovation in opposition
to traditional Judaism; and this reverence for the
old prevented him from denying the term “Jewish”
to communities whose history had been known as
Jewish for hundreds of years. The dispute contin-
ued with some heat, and ended only with Bamber-
ger’s death.

Bibi.iography: N. Bamberger, Rabbiner Seligman Bilr

Bamberger, Wurzburg, 1897 ; Fuenn, Kcneset Yisrael, p.

595 ; Kayserling, in Gedenkbliltter. 1892, p. 6 ; idem, in Allg.

Ze.it. des Judenthums, 1878, p. 716; Lehmann, in Israelit,

1878, pp. 1078-1081.

L. G.

BAMBERGER, SOLOMON : German rabbi and
Talmudic author; born in Wiesenbronn, Bavaria,
May 1, 1835. He is the son of the eminent rabbi
Selignian Baer Bamberger, from whom he re-
ceived his first instruction in Talmud. After having
privately acquired the necessary knowledge in sec-
ular branches, he passed his examination as rabbi
at Wurzburg in 1860, and in the following year
was appointed substitute rabbi (Rabbi natsverweser)
at Hassfurt. From 1864 to 1872 he was Klaus rabbi
of Sulzburg; from 1872 to 1880 of Lengnau-Endin-
gen, Switzerland; from 1880 to 1887 of Niederha-
genthal, Alsace ; and since 1887 of Sennheim, Alsace.

Bamberger wrote lexicographic notes on various
Talmudic treatises, under the title “Limmud ‘Aruk,”
of which there have appeared those on Shabbat
(Fiirth, 1868), Berakot(1872), Rosh ha-Shanah, Ta‘a-
nit, Sukkah (Mayence, 1890), and Megillali (Berlin,
1897). In the last-named are included some re-
sponsa of his father’s. Additions to Bamberger’s
notes on Berakot and Shabbat are published under
the title “Hegyon Shelomo” (Mayence, 1898). He
also translated his father’s manual on Shehitali,
“More la-Zobehim ” (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 18941.

s. M. L. B.

BAMOTH-BAAL (“The Heights of Baal”):
An elevated point in the land of Moab (Num. xxii.
41), which was allotted to the Reubenites (Josh. xiii.
17). It is probably identical with the Bamoth be-
tween Nalialiel and the “valley that is in the coun-
try of Moab, to the top of Pisgali,” mentioned in the
list of stopping-places in Num. xxi. 19 et seq. Beth-
bamot in the Moabite Stone, line 27 (perhaps this
is also the reading of Isa. xvi. 2), may also be consid-
ered as connected with it. According to the allot-
ments in Josh. xiii. 17, some take the place to be on
Mount ‘Attfirus. G. A. Smith (“Historical Geog-
raphy of Palestine,” p. 562) is inclined to the opinion
of Conder (“ Hetli and Moab,” pp. 189 et seq.) that it
is located at one of the many cromlechs above the
Wady Deluded, northeast of the Dead Sea. The
statement of Eusebius, which places it on the Arnon,
can not possibly be correct.

J. jr. F. Bu.

BAMPI, ISSACHAR DOB BAER : Scholar
and philanthropist; born 1823 at Minsk, Russia;
died there March 10, 1888. He received a thorough

Biblical and Talmudical education, was a good He-
braist, and every day for the last thirty years of his
life lectured on a chapter of the Bible in his private
synagogue. Bampi devoted himself specially to
tracing the Jewish religious customs to their sources
in both Talmuds and in the Midrashim, and is said
to have left in manuscript a work on that subject
entitled “ Mekor Minhagim” (Source of Customs). A
few extracts from that work were published in the
year book “Keneset Yisrael,” 1888, ii. , and in the
“ Ha-Kerem.”

Bampi was on equally good terms with the ortho-
dox Talmudists and with the progressive “Maski-
lim.” Among the many Hebrew scholars whom he
aided in the publication of their works was Kalman
Schulman, who dedicated to Bampi the third vol-
ume of his “Toledot Hakme Yisrael ” (Wilna, 1883).

Besides being one of the first and most enthusiastic
members of the old Hobebei Zion of Minsk, Bampi
was also a contributor to most of its charitable in-
stitutions and an active worker in communal affairs.
After his death Bampi’s valuable library, compri-
sing about 6,000 volumes — mostly Ilebraica, which
he had collected at great cost during many years —
was sold to A. L. Friedland. These books formed
an important part of the Friedland c ollection, which
was later donated by its owner to the library of the
Asiatic Museum in St. Petersburg. Many of Bampi’s
books contain marginal notes in his handwriting.

Bibliography : Keneset Yisrael, 1888, iii. 644 ; Ha-Asif, 1889,

v. 96.

L. G. P. Wl.

BAN “ herein " : A proclamation devoting or
consecrating to the Deity persons or things to be
excluded from use, or, as was the rule in Biblical
times, to be utterly destroyed. The noun “herem,”
or the verb “heherim,” translated in A. Y. “utterly
destroyed ” (Ex. xxii. 19 [R. V. 20] ; Num. xxi. 2, 3;
Dent. ii. 34, vii. 2; I Sam. xv. 3), “devoted” (Lev.
xxvii. 28, 29; Num. xviii. 14), “dedicated” (Ezek.
xliv. 29), or “ consecrated ” (Micali iv. 13), also, rather
inaccurately, “accursed ” (Josh. vi. 17; vii. 1, 11-15),
denotes, like “hekdesli ” from “kodesh ” (Jer. xii. 3),
consecration or separation ; being derived from the
same root as the Arabic “ haram ” (sacred territory) and
“harim” (forbidden ground) or “harem” (forbidden
person ; compare the Assyrian “ harimtu,” hierodule).
Whatever is devoted or banned (“herem”) is “most
holy unto the Lord ” (“ kodesh kodashim” ; Lev. xxvii.
28). The practise of devoting to the Deity the spoils
of war, persons or things, found among all ancient
nations and primitive tribes, is inseparably con-
nected with the idea of a holy warfare which claims
ail booty for the god who leads to victory and in
whose honor the captured foes, as well as goods, are
destroyed on the spot (see, concerning the Teutonic
and Celtic tribes, Tacitus, “Annales,” i. 61, xiii. 57;
Caesar, “De Bello Gallico,” vi. 17; respecting the
Indians, Waitz, “ Anthropologie,” iii. 157; and for
the Arabs, the passages quoted by Schwally,“ Kriegs-
alterthuemer,” pp. 35-38).

King Mesha of Moab tells in his inscription (lines
16-18) how, after having carried off the vessels of
Yhwh from the city of Nebo and dragged them be-
fore Kemosh, his god, he devoted (“ lieheramti ”)
7,000 prisoners to Ash tor- Kemosh, and how he

Ban

Baneth

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

488

“slew the inhabitants of Attarot as a spectacle to his
god Kemosli ” (line 12). As a rule, the people, be-
fore going to war, devoted, in the form of a vow,
the whole booty to the deity in order
Ban to secure its victorious aid. So did
Devoted to the Teutons and Gauls, according to
the Deity. Tacitus and Caesar; and in like man-
ner did Israel vow to “ ban ” the Ca-
naanites and their cities in case God would deliver
them into his hand: “and they banned [A. Y. “ut-
terly destroyed ”] them and their cities: and he called
the name of the place Hormah ” (Num. xxi. 3).

The people of Israel being throughout the entire
pre-exilic history engaged in a warfare against idol-
atrous nations, the view of the consecration of the
booty, whether expressed beforehand in a vow or
not, lent its coloring to every battle ; consequently,
the doom of the Ban fell not only upon the persons
and things captured, but also upon him who ap-
propriated them, and even upon the very house
where the devoted thing was sacrilegiously placed.
Thus, before the capture of Jericho, Joshua (vi. 17,
18) proclaimed that the city and all that was therein
should be devoted to the Lord ; and he warned the
people, saying: “Keep yourselves from the ban
[A. V. “accursed thing”], lest ye make yourselves
ban [A. V. “accursed ”], when ye take of the ban [A.
V. “accursed thing”], and make the camp of Israel
a ban [A. V. “a curse ”], and bring doom upon it [A.
V. “trouble it”].” Accordingly, “all the silver and
gold and the vessels of brass and iron are conse-
crated [“ kodesh ”] unto the Lord : they shall come
into the treasury of the Lord . . . and they devoted
[“ vayaharimu ” ; A. V. “ utterly des-
Achan and troyed ”] all that was in the city, both

Agag. man and woman, young and old, and
ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge
of the sword ” (Josh. vi. 19-21). In taking of the
devoted booty, Aclian, therefore, brought doom upon
the whole people; and they themselves came under
the ban (A. Y. “curse”) until he and his household,
upon whom the Ban rested, were exterminated (Josh,
vii. 11-15, 25). Likewise, in the war against Ama-
lek, Samuel caused the people to devote (A. V. “ ut-
terly destroy ”) all that Amalek had, without sparing
any one, and to “slay both man and woman, infant
and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass ” (I Sam.
xv. 3). Saul, however, “banned [A. V. “utterly
destroyed”] all the people with the edge of the
sword, but . . . spared Agag and the best of the
sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the
lambs, and all that was good ” (ib. 8, 9) ; banning only
that part of the property which was vile and refuse.
He thereby provoked the wrath of God; and in ful-
filment of the Ban, Agag was hewn in pieces before
the Lord (ib. 32). The oath of King Saul not to eat
anything until the battle with the Philistines was
decided, the violation of which almost cost Jona-
than his life (I Sam. xiv. 24-46), does not fall under
the category of “lierem,” or Ban; it was a vow like
Jephtliak’s.

The Ban as a primitive war measure was especially
enforced in the Deuteronomic legislation: “When
the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee thou
slialt smite them, and ban [A. V. “utterly destroy ”]
them ” (Dent. vii. 2). “ Thou slialt not covet [A. V.

“desire”] the silver or gold that is on them [the
graven images] . . . neither shalt thou bring an
abomination unto thine house, lest thou
Ban be a ban [A. V. “ accursed thing ”] like
in War. it ” (ib. vii. 25, 26 ; compare ib. xx. 16-
18). This is accordingly related as
having been carried out by Joshua (Josh. x. 1, 28-40;
xi. 11-21 ; but compare I Kings ix. 21). With some
modification it is told of Silion, king of Heshbon :
“We took all his cities at that time, and banned [A.
V. “ utterly destroyed ”] the men, and the women,
and the little ones . . . only the cattle we took for
a prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities
which we took ” (Deut. ii. 34, 35).

The idolatrous Israelite city was to be treated in
the same way as the Canaanite: “Thou shalt surely
smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of
the sword, banning it [A. V. “ destroying it utterly ”],
and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with
the edge of the sword. And thou shalt gather all
the spoil of it into the midst of the
Against street thereof, and shalt burn with fire
Idolatrous the city and all the spoil thereof as a
Cities. holocaust [A. V. “ every whit ”] to [for]
the Lord thy God : and it shall not be
built again [A. V. “aheap forever ”], and there shall
cleave nought of the devoted [A. V. “ cursed ”] thing
to thine hand” (Deut. xiii. 16-18 [15-17]). The
banned city was made a place of desolation. So in
the case of Jericho (Josh. vi. 26; I Kings xvi. 34)
and Ai (Josh. viii. 28, “shemamah”; compare Judges
ix. 45); and this probably led later on to an identifi-
cation of “ herein” with “ shammata” (desolation ; see
Anathema). Somewhat modified for the occasion,
the Ban was also proclaimed in the Benjamite war:
“ Ye shall ban [A. V. “ utterly destroy ”] every male,
and every woman that hath had intercourse with
[A. V. “lain by”] man” (Judges xxi. 11, 12; com-
pare Num. xxxi. 17 etseq.); I Kings ix. 21; IIKiugs
xix. 11; Jer. xxv. 9, 1. 26, li. 26; Mai. iii. 24; Zach.
xiv. 11).

The man or the people under the Ban (“ ish hermi ”
= a man of my ban [A. V. “ a man whom I ap-
pointed to utter destruction”], Kings xx. 42; or
“ hermi ” = the people of my ban [A. V. “of my
curse”], Isa. xxxiv. 5) must not be allowed to escape
their doom. All the idolatrous nations are under the
Ban (Isa. xxxiv. 2; Jer. xxv. 9; Micah iv. 13).

In the same degree as the Ban proved to be a rigid
war measure against idolatrous nations, it was re-
sorted to also in the case of idolatrous individuals.
Hence the law set down already in the oldest legis-
lation, “He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto
the Lord only, he shall be banned ” (A. V. “ utterly
destroyed,” Ex. xxii. 19 [20] ), and the one in Lev.
xxvii. 29, “None devoted, which shall be devoted
of men, shall be redeemed; but shall surely be put
to death,” seem to deal with the case of an idolater
(see the commentaries of Dillmann, Driver, and
Kalisch).

In an altogether different sense is the word
“ herein ” (devotion) used in the last-mentioned verse,
as well as inEzek. xliv. 29, and Num. x viii. 14. It is
the thing devoted by virtue of a simple vow which
is declared to belong not to the Lord, but to the
priest. In this sense the Rabbis read also Lev. xxvii.

489

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Ban

Baneth

29 (see Sifra and Targ. Yer.) as referring to the vow
of the value of a criminal guilty of capital punish-
ment. Here “herein ” is the same as the rabbinical
“ hekdesli.”

In post-exilic times the herein as a war measure
against idolaters no longer found any application.

Nevertheless it was employed as a
Post- means of ecclesiastical discipline to
Exilic Ban. keep the community clear of unde-
sirable. semi-heathenish elements; and
when the new constitution was to be adopted for
the new colony, those that would not participate in
the assembly of the children of the captivity, had,
according to the counsel of the princes and elders,
all their substance devoted (A. Y. “ forfeited ”), and
were themselves separated from the community
(Ezra x. 8). Here. the Ban, or herein, assumed a
new meaning: it meant no longer destruction, but
confiscation of goods, and excommunication — pos-
sibly exposure to starvation (“shammatta”; see
Anathema) — of the person; see Banishment, Ex-
communication.

Bibliography: Chevne and Black, Encyc. Bibl. s.v. Ban;
Hastings, Diet, of the Bible , s.v. Curse; Riehms, Hand-
•wCrrterbuch, and Hamburger, It. B. T„ s.v. Batin ; Nowaek.
HebrUische Archiiologie, 1874, ii. 266 et seq.; Benzinger,
Hebrliisehc Archdologie , 1874, p. 363; R. Smith, Religion
of the Semites, 1889, pp. 434 ets eq.; F. Sohwally, Semitische
Krieqsalterthlimer, 1901, part 1 ; S. Mandl., Der Bcinn,
Bruenn, 1898.

BAN A AH, TANNA. See Bannaah.

BAND, MORITZ : Austrian writer and art
critic ; born Oct. 6, 1864. At an early age he began
to write for the press, chiefly feuilletons, humorous
sketches, and sporting news. He published: “En-
cyklopadie des Buchliandlerischer Wissens,” Wei-
mar, 1887; “Semmering-Fuhrer,” Vienna, 1888;
“Rosl,”an operetta, 1888; “Dur und Moll,” 1888;
“Der Letzte Bombardier,” a comedy, 1889; “Aus
dem Pensionat,” a comedy, 1889; “Handbuch des
Radfahrsports,” 1895; “Angioliua,” a novel, 1896;
“Die Hoclizeitsreise,” an operetta, 1900; “Die
Sphynx,” an operetta, 1900. In addition to these,
Band edited: “Unsere Kunst” in “ Wort und Bild,”
1889; and “Wiener Kunstler-Dekameron,” 1891.

Bibliography: Eisenberg, Das Geistige Wien, i. 17; Kiirsch-
ner, Dcutscher Literatur-Kalender, 1901.
s. M. B.

BANDMANN, DANIEL E. : German-Ameri-
can actor ; born at Cassel, Germany, in 1840. He made
his debut at the Court Theater, Neu Strelitz, when
eighteen years old, playing for the next five years
mainly in' German versions of Shakespearian plays.
In 1863 he left Germany for the United States,
where he appeared in an English part, Jan. 15, at
Niblo’s Garden. During the five years following
he toured throughout the United States, his princi-
pal and most popular role being Shylock. Early in
1868 he went to London, where he appeared at the
Lyceum Theater (Feb. 17) in the title-role of Brack vo-
gel’s “Narciss,” founded on Diderot’s “Neveu de
Rameau” (1760). His next role was Vyryan in
BulwerLytton’s“Tlie Rightful Heir” (Oct. 3, 1868),
followed by the title part in “ Othello ” (Nov. 30).
In the following year he went to Australia, whence
he returned to England by way of the United States
(1870-71). His next appearance was at the Queen’s

Theater, London, in Tom Taylor's “Dead or Alive”
(June, 1871). Next he played Hamlet at the Prin-
cess Theater (Feb. 10, 1873). Since then Band-
mann’s appearances have been mainly in the United
States, where he bought a ranch. In 1901 he ap-
peared in vaudeville in a condensed version of
“The Merchant of Venice.”

Bibliography : C. E. Pascoe, The Dramatic List, 1880, pp. 27-

32; Meyer, Konversat iom-Lexikon .

s. E. Ms.

BANDOFF (BENDOFF or BENDORFF),
BENJAMIN: English pugilist; born in the first
quarter of the nineteenth century ; died after 1865.
Bandoff entered the prize-ring to meet Jerry Dug-
gan, Sept. 20, 1853, having been matched against
him for £10aside. The battle, which continued for
seventy-five rounds, was interrupted by the ap-
proach of darkness, and the match was drawn.
Bandoff next fought George Sims, and was beaten
by him on twro occasions; namely, on Nov. 8, 1854,
and on May 17, 1858. Four years later, how-
ever, Bandoff retrieved his reputation as a fighter
when he met and defeated Hopkinson after a battle
of twenty-eight rounds (April 9, 1862). This vic-
tory was followed by another on Sept. 8, 1863. when
Bandoff defeated the colored Australian, Jackson,
at Home Circuit, after a battle of forty rounds. On
the same spot he fought eighty-six rounds with
Callaghan; but owing to darkness the match ter-
minated in a draw. Bandoff’s last appearance in
the prize-ring was at Thames Haven on Feb. 14,
1865, when he was beaten by John Smith, the
“Brighton Doctor,” aft era contest of sixteen rounds.
Bibliography: The American Jews’’ Annual.

j. F. H. V.

BANETH, EDUARD (EZEKIEL): German
rabbi and scholar; born at Lipto-Szent-Miklos, Hun-
gary, Aug. 9, 1855; son of Bernhard Baneth. After
receiving his preparatory education in his native
city, at the Israclitische Normalschule, and study-
ing the Talmud privately under his father and
under R. Sofer and others at Preslnirg, he entered
the rabbinical seminary of Berlin in 1873, passing
thence to the gymnasium in Gnesen. In 1878 he en-
tered the University of Berlin, studying philosophy
and Oriental languages, especially Arabic. In July,
1881, he received from the University of Leipsic his-
doctor’s degree, “summa cum laude,” and shortly
afterward he received from Dr. Israel Hildeslieimer
a diploma as rabbi. In January, 1882, he entered
upon the rabbinate of Krotoscliin. This office he
resigned in April, 1895, when the administration of
the community introduced, against the wishes of the
majority, certain innovations which he could not
countenance. In December »f the same year he
accepted a call as instructor in Talmudic studies at
the Lehranstalt fur die Wissenschaft des Juden-
tliums at Berlin, which position he still (1901)
holds.

In addition to essays published in various period-
icals, Baneth has written: (1) “Samuel ha-Nagid als-
Staatsmann und Dichter” (“ Monatsschrift.,” 1881,
Nos. ii.-viii. ; appended is a collection of his poems'
in metrical translation); (2) “Ursprungder Sadokaer
und Boethosaer,” Frankfort-on-the-Maiu, 1882; (3)
“Maimuuis’ G’ommentar zum Tractat Abot,” the

Baneth

Banking-

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

490

Arabic original with a new translation in Hebrew,
together with many notes (the first chapter only has
been published in the “ Hiidesheimer Jubelsclirift,”
but without the German translation or the notes),
and (4) “Mischna, Seder Mo'ed,” critical edition with
German translation and commentary (Berlin); (5)
“Maimunis’ Neumondsberechnung," scientific sup-
plement to the sixteenth, seventeenth, and twentieth
annual reports of the Lehranstalt fur die Wissen-
schaft des Judentliums of Berlin. S.

BANETH, EZEKIEL : Hungarian rabbi ; born
1773 at Alt-Ofen ; died Dec. 28, 1854. He was the
son of the learned rabbi Jacob Banet, an eminent
member of the rabbinate of Alt-Ofen, and early dis-
tinguished himself by his penetrating knowledge of
Talmudic literature, to the study of which he de-
voted all his leisure time, even after he had estab-
lished himself in the wool business and married.
Forced by the loss of his property to seek an office,
he officiated as rabbi first at Szeclieny, then at
Paks, and finally at Neutra, where he died at the
-age of 82.

Baneth was highly successful in his rabbinical ac-
tivity, gathering around him large numbers of de-
voted students, many of whom came from great dis-
tances, for his reputation had spread beyond the
limits of his own country. In method he was op-
posed to the “pilpul,” which was then flourishing in
Hungary, his models being the great authors of the
Middle Ages. He paid little attention to the works
of later periods; applying his acumen to the inves-
tigation of abstruse questions, and never indulging
in his lectures in hair-splitting casuistry or in witti-
cisms. Questions were addressed to him from far
and wide regarding difficult problems of the relig-
ious law, which he willingly answered. His re-
sponsa, had he preserved copies of them, would
have filled several large volumes; but he left no
notes of any description. The authors of important
books considered it an honor to obtain from Baneth
an approbation of their works ; but it seems to have
been his principle not to write any books' himself.
A commentary on Tosefta, which, according to the
unconfirmed statement of an intimate friend, he
wrote and kept secret, is said by the same authority
to have been burned by him shortly before his death.
Many anecdotes, shrewd sayings, and witticisms of
his have been preserved.

His scrupulous conscientiousness, self-effacement,
and piety earned for Baneth wide-spread esteem.
Jews and Christians alike revered him as a saint.
The legend that peasants had seen repeatedly a fiery
column over his grave was believed by many, and
is even credited to-day. In conformity with his will,
Baneth was not buried in the place of honor assigned
to rabbis, but in a location set apart for infants.
His grave is surrounded by a railing, the gate of
which is opened only for his descendants, and for
visitors of signal piety.

s. E. Ban.

BANETH, JEEAHMEEL DOB (BERN-
HARD) : Hungarian rabbi ; born 1815 at Szeclieny ;
died Oct. 21, 1871. The youngest son of Ezekiel
Baneth, he was one of the most gifted pupils of his
father, from whom he inherited, together with a

love for Talmudic studies, his amiable character.
After attending for some time the lectures of R.
Moses Sofer of Presburg, he married, Sept. 3, 1840,
Golde, daughter of the merchant David Stossl of
Lipto-Szent-Miklos. Settling in the latter place, he
assiduously devoted himself to the study of the
Talmud. His reputation for scholarship brought
him a number of devoted pupils. In 1868 he ac-
cepted, without compensation, the office of rabbi of
the Orthodox congregation of Lipto-Szent-Miklos,
compelling through his uprightness, peaceable dis-
position, and piety the esteem of the opposing party.
He left a manuscript volume of valuable notes on
the whole Talmud.

s. E. Ban.

BANISHMENT (rU or inn, “hiddiah,” from
mi). — Biblical Data: In ancient Israel an ex-
clusion, permanent or temporary, from the native
land, as a divine punishment. Adam’s Banishment
from the garden of Eden (Gen. iii. 24) and Cain’s
from the presence of the Lord (Gen. iv. 16) were of
this nature. It occurred in ancient times only as a
divine, not as a human, punishment. “ Karet ” (ex-
cision of the soul from among the people ; Gen.
xvii. 14; Ex. xii. 19) was a divine punishment only
and may perhaps have implied Excommunication,
certainly not expulsion from the country. To be
driven away from the land, the inheritance of Yiiwh,
seemed actually tantamount to saying, “Go, serve
other gods” (I Sam. xxvi. 19; compare Dent, xxviii.
64). The flight of Absalom was regarded in this
light, as “ a destruction from the inheritance of the
Lord (II Sam. xiv. 16), unless David would permit
his return to the land. Similarly, Amos speaks in
the name of God to the sin-laden people: “Thou
slialt die in a polluted land : and Israel shall surely
go into captivity forth of his land ” (Amos vii. 17).
The same view is expressed by Hosea ix. 3: “They
shall not dwell in the Lord’s land, but Ephraim
shall return to Egypt and they shall eat unclean
things in Assyria”; and by Ezek. iv. 13: “Even
thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled
bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them ”
— the reason being that, owing to the cessation of
the sacrificial worship in the sanctuary, the relation
to the God dwelling there was regarded as broken.
Only the assurance that “ when they are in the land
of their enemies, the Lord will not cast them away
nor break His covenant with them” (Lev. xxvi. 44),
but “gather them and bring them again to the land
of their fathers” (Deut. xxx. 4, 5), lent to Banish-
ment the character of a temporary punishment, of a
trial and test of faith ; and the prayers offered on
foreign soil were heard because they were directed
toward the sacred dwelling-place, in order to meet
with favor from the Lord in heaven (I Kings viii.
46-49; Dan. vi. 11).

j. JR. K.

In Rabbinical Literature: With reference

to Hosea vi. 7(Hebr.), “ They, like Adam, have trans-
gressed the covenant,” the Banishment of Israel
from the Holy Land is compared with the Banish-
ment of Adam from paradise after his transgression,
both being, as it were, a divorce subsequent to faith-
lessness in the conjugal union (Gen. R. xix.). Ban-

491

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baneth

Banking:

ishment (“galut ”) is the name given in rabbinical
law to the fleeing of the manslayer, in case of an un-
intentional murder, to one of the cities of refuge
(Sifre, Num. 60; Mak. ii. —6). “Banishment as a
divine punishment comes upon men on account of
idolatry, incest, murder, and neglect of the year of
release” (Ab. v. 9 based on Lev. xxvi. 30-34, xviii.
24-28). The Banishment (galut) spoken of by Ab-
talion (Ptollion) in Ab. i. 11 as befalling the wise is
an allusion to political events of the time. The
Pharisees during the reign of Queen Salome Alexan-
dra exerted “the power and authority of banishing
and of bringing back [tiibneiv re nal narayuv ] whomso-
ever they chose,” says Josephus (“B. J.” i. 5, § 2).

Emigration from the Holy Land, if a voluntary
exile, is regarded a great sin by the Rabbis (Ket. 1106
et seq. ; B. B. 91«; Maimonides, “ Yad,” Melakim, v.
9-121. See Exile.

Bibliography: Nowack, Lehrbucli der Hebrilixchen Arcliit-

ologie , 11. 276.

J. SR. K.

BANK, EMANUEL: Russian lawyer; born
at Luknik, government of Kovno, 1840; died at St.
Maurice. Switzerland, July 29, 1891. He was the
son of Baruch (Boris) Bank; but, his parents being
in poor circumstances, he was brought up by his
aunt, Soloveitchik, in company with her son, Eman-
uel, who later became famous in Odessa. On leav-
ing “ lieder ” he attended the school for noblemen at
Poneviezli, and later obtained a gold medal at the
gymnasium of Kovno. In 1860 Bank entered the
University of St. Petersburg, where, under the tute-
lage of an uncle, B. Rosen, who had attained the
rank of privy councilor in the ministry of marine,
he was introduced into influential circles. But the
disturbances fomented by the university students,
and the consequent closing of the lecture-rooms,
compelled him to go to Moscow to continue his
studies. In May, 1864, he entered the service of the
minister of justice, and, after one year, was honored
by an expression of imperial satisfaction for his hav-
ing unraveled the intricacies in the accounts of the
Black Sea division of the fleet, which had been in a
confused state for ten years.

In 1866 Bank was admitted to practise in the
fourth section of the Senate Court of Appeals at St.
Petersburg'. There he was brought under the super-
vision of Valerian Polovtzov, who became president
of the great railroad association, and of Ratkov-Rozh-
nov, afterward mayor of the city. For his debut
Bank committed to memory amass of material for a
report in a very complicated case, and astonished his
hearers by the accuracy of his memory and the clear-
ness of his presentation of the most involved details.

Bank was twice appointed as president of the
Tribunal of Commerce; but Count Pahlen intimated
to him that as a Jew he could not be allowed
to rise higher than general secretary of the Senate,
which post he had occupied since 1868. He was
admitted to the bar in 1870, and later elected to the
municipal council of St. Petersburg; ultimately
coming to be regarded as its special jurist, and rep-
resenting it two successive years in the provincial
assembly. Mayor Likhatchov, also a jurist, joined
cordially in the appreciation expressed for Bank by
his colleagues of the city hall ; and Koni, the Rus-

sian Cicero, was wont to describe the debates be-
tween Bank and Passover, during the lawsuit of the
founders of the “Great Company,” as the most bril-
liant oratorical tournament he had ever witnessed.

Bank’s legal and social successes never caused him
to forget his coreligionists ; and as soon as he was
able to champion the cause of the Jews, he immersed
himself in the affairs of the community and bore his
part in all undertakings for the amelioration of its
wretched condition. He took part in the deputation
presented by Baron Giinzburg to Czar Alexander
III., after the horrible crime of March 1-13, 1881,
assuring him of the loyalty of the Jews. From 1875
until his death Bank was a constant member of the
committee of the Society for the Propagation of
Education Among Russian Jews. His death oc-
curred suddenly, while he was in Switzerland, seek-
ing relaxation from the fatigues of office and from
the rigor of the St. Petersburg climate.

Bank married the sister of Dr. Levinson-Lessing.
Although able to install his nephews in the profes-
sion he had so successfully followed, the unjust laws
of his country closed the bar to Bank’s children on
account of their Jewish faith. No printed or man-
uscript record remains of his numerous orations, be-
yond two or three expositions of important civil
suits. In his youth he translated into Russian an
English grammar by Nurok, and performed other
literary work for the publisher J. Bakst.

ii. R. D. G.

BANK, JOSHUA BEN ISAAC: Rabbi at
Tulcliin, Russia; born at Satanov in the first half of
the nineteenth century. He was the author of the
following works: (1) “Sippurim Nifla’im” (Won-
derful Tales), translated from other languages into
Hebrew verses (Odessa, 1870); (2) “Rosh Millin’’
(Beginning of Words), a concise Ilebrew-Judieo-
German Dictionary (Jitomir, 1872); (3) “Tebusat
Abshaloin ” (The Downfall of Absalom), a tragedy
in verse, with a supplement containing a selection
of tales, legends, epigrams, etc. (Odessa, 1868).

Bibliography: S. van Straalen, Catalogue of Hebrew Boohs

Brit. Mux. p. 19; Zeitlin, Bibliotheca Hebraica , p. 16.

H. R. I. Br.

BANKING: Speaking strictly, Banking means
the taking of money on deposit (banks of deposit),
and loaning it out on interest (banks of issue). In
this sense Banking is comparatively recent ; only a
few banks of deposit existing in the Middle Ages, in
Italy (Florence, Genoa, Lucca), while the earliest
banks of issue of consequence were those of Amster-
dam and Hamburg at the beginning of the seven-
teenth century. The financial activity of the Jews
in the Middle Ages is generally called Banking ; but
this is erroneous, as they did not receive money of
others on deposit, which is an essential element of
Banking. Their operations were more of the nature
of finance banks — that is, loan corporations — and
were conducted under special economic conditions
and relations to the state (see Money-Changing,
Money-Lending, Usury).

All the great Jewish financiers of the Middle
Ages, such as Aaron of Lincoln and Aaron of York
in England, Jahudan Cavalleria and Benveniste da
Porta in Aragon, Esmel de Ablitas in Navarre, and

Banking-

Bankruptcy

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

492

Nathan Official in France, were associated with the
royal treasuries of their respective countries, and in
every instance tlieir property fell into
Medieval the hands of the crown; so that their
Finance, banking operations were in the nature
of indirect taxation. Details are not
sufficiently clear to make a general statement. In
several cases, however, the capital utilized by these
financiers probably belonged in some measure to
other Jews; so that their operations were really in
the form of banking corporations, though the condi-
tions were so dissimilar from those of modern Bank-
ing that it would be misleading to treat them as of
the same order. In more modern times the financial
operations of Jews have been more of the order of
finance loan corporations than of banks of deposit
and issue ; but as a large part of the business of
modern Banking consists of similar loan operations,
there is less impropriety in using the word for the
modern form of Jewish financial transactions (see
also Finance, Stock Exchange).

With the spread of the Maranos throughout the
world-empire of Spain and Portugal (which coun-
tries were united 1580-1640), Jewish commerce en-
tered a new phase, which is represented by the career
of Don Joseph Nasi, who began his life as a banker
in the firm of Mendes at Antwerp, the center of
Spanish commerce. The Maranos became large fac-
tors or merchants, and, owing to the unwise eco-
nomic policy of the Spanish monarch, were enabled
to accumulate large capital from the profits of im-
portation into Europe of the raw products of the
East and West Indies. The firm of Gradis at Bor-
deaux, a branch of the Mendes family, established
relations with Amsterdam as well as with the New
World ; so that ultimately they became the chief ex-
porters from France to Canada (9,000,000 francs
during the Seven Years’ war), besides maintaining
relations with the Maranos in Spain itself (Jacobs,
“Sources,” No. 13, p. 5; Grittz, in “ Monatsschrift,”
new series, vii.-viii.). But among the chattels im-
ported by such merchants was bullion ; and thus
their operations as merchants led to their activity as
bankers. Ferdinand de Carvajal is
Source thus reported to have brought into
of Jewish England no less than £100,000 per an-
Fortunes. num (“Trans. Jewish Soc. England,”
ii. 18). During the latter part of the
seventeenth century and the early part of the eight-
eenth, a number of Marano merchants are found act-
ing as loan agents for European monarchs. Thus
Isaac Suasso, Baron Auvernes de Gras, is said to
have advanced 2,000,000 florins to William of Orange
for the invasion of England. With the great move-
ments of Continental armies in connection with the
wars of Louis XIV. large fortunes were gained by
the Jews as commissaries; and these were then
loaned out in banking operations. Thus, on the one
side, Marlborough’s troops were supplied by Sir
Solomon Medina (“Diet. National Biography,” x.
336) and Joseph C'ortisos; while Jacob Worms per-
formed a similar office for the opposing army of
Louis XIV. Worms afterward settled in Paris as a
banker (Kahn, “Histoire des Juifs a Paris dans la
XVIIP Si£cle,” p. 39).

Meanwhile in Hamburg a bank had been opened in

imitation of the Amsterdam bank; this still exists
under the name of the “ Hamburger Bank.” Among
the chief founders of the new venture was a Marano
named Diego Teixera de Mattos ; and of the forty
original members of the bank twelve were Jews
(Gratz, “Gesch. der Juden,” x. 17, note). Later on,
in connection with the Hamburg bank were the two
Abensurs, financial representatives of the king of
Poland. They represent another source from which
Jewish capital was drawn ; the posi-
Hamburg- tion of the Jews as “ factors ” to the
and Am- Polish nobility in some degree resem-
sterdam. bling the standing and functions of
the Court Jews who slowly collected
around the smaller German courts and who managed
their finance much in the way modern banks do in
the case of court estates. Among these may be men-
tioned Michael of Berlin, court Jew to Joachim II. of
Brandenburg (Gratz, ib. ix. 305, 314); Samson Wert-
heimer at Vienna, and Bassevi von Treuenberg at
Prague (the last two connected with the imperial
finances of the Hapsburgs). In the middle of the
eighteenth century the Pintos, Delmontes, Bueno de
Mesquita, and Francis Mels of Amsterdam were the
leading financiers of northern Europe; while in
London, which, owing to the relations of William
III. with Holland, was financially dependent on
Amsterdam, Mendes da Costa, Manasseh Lopez, and
Baron d’Aguilar held prominent positions. The
very first work on the operations of the Amsterdam
Exchange was written by a Spanish Jew named
Joseph de la Vega.

When French influence became prominent in Hol-
land in 1803, the financial operations of the powers
opposing Napoleon were transferred to Frankfort-
on-the-Main (Ehrenberg,“ Das Zeitalter der Fugger,”
ii. 318), and the financial control of the anti-Napo-
leonic League fell into the hands of Mayer Amschel
Rothschild, court Jew of William I., elector of
Hesse-Cassel. His father, Frederick II., had died in
1785, leaving about £8,400,000, derived chiefly from
the hire of soldiers to the British government to sup-
press the rebellion in America. As the fortune of
the Rothschilds was ultimately dependent on the
manipulation of this, it is curious to reflect that tlieir
financial predominance in the nineteenth century is
in the last resort due to America. It is impossible
in this place to pursue the financial
Rise of the career of the Rothschilds, which is the
Roths- key to the history of Jewish Banking
childs. in the nineteenth century ; but it may
be remarked that the London house
between 1818 and 1832 undertook loans amounting
to £21,800,000, and that as early as 1824 the Paris
house had risen to the position of financial magnates,
undertaking in conjunction with Lafitte and Baring
the French loan of 1824 (Nervo, “ Les Finances
Frangaises sous la Restauration,” ii. 294). (For the
ramifications built up by Mayer Amschel Rothschild
throughout western Europe, see Rothschild.) The
plan adopted by him of establishing branches in the
more important European capitals, over which he
placed his sons, was followed by other Jewish bank-
ing-houses.

With the reconstruction of Europe, after the fall
of Napoleon in 1815, a new financial era began in

493

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Banking-

Bankruptcy

which the capital hitherto diverted to warlike oper-
ations was transferred to industrial enterprise, owing
to the introduction of steam. This was mainly
operated from London with English capital ; and the
Jews did only a small portion of the business con-
nected with the introduction of machinery and rail-
roads into European commerce. But the interna-
tional connections of great Jewish families, such as
the Rothschilds, Sterns, Pereires, Ilirschs, and Biscli-
ofTslieims caused them to be of considerable im-
portance in the issuing of state loans between 1820
and 1860. Up to 1848 the practise of apportioning
loans to large banking firms, who then distributed
them to the public in smaller lots, was carried out;
and in this way the Rothschilds especially had a
quasi-monopoly of the loan market. In the fifties,
however, their monopoly of international finance
was broken down by the formation throughout west-
ern Europe of credit banks, many of them founded
by associations of Jewish bankers of smaller caliber
than the great financial families. Thus the Credit
Mobilier of 1852 was founded by the Pereires, Solo-
mon Heine, and D’Eichthal (M. Aycard, “llistoire
du Credit Mobilier,” 1867). The practise, after
the year 1848, of opening the subscription to the
loans to the public in general also tended to break
down the monopoly of the great Jewish financial
firms.

It may be worth while to remark here that the
idea promoted generally by anti-Semitic writers that
the resources of all Jewish capitalists formed one
fund is ludicrously at variance with
Capitalists the facts of the case. Heine, in a cor-
Invest in respondence to the Augsburg “ Allge-
Railroads. meine Zeitung,” dated May 27, 1840,
and reprinted in “ Franzosische Zu-
stiiude,” refers to Rothschild and Fould as two “ rab-
bis of finance,” opposed just as strenuously to each
other as were once “ Rabbi Shammai and Rabbi Hillel
in the old city of Babylon ” (sic). Jewish firms com-
peted with one another with as much eagerness as
they did against non Jewish firms. The Pereires,
for example, obtained a concession for South Rus-
sian railways against the Rothschilds in 1856 (Reeves,
“The Rothschilds,” p. 334). With the introduction
of railroads on the Continent many of the firms
previously mentioned were closely connected, the
Pereires with those of northern France, theBishoffs-
heims with those of Belgium, and Baron de Hirscli
with those of Turkey. Many Jewish firms and credit
banks, especially the house of Bleichrpeder,were con-
cerned with the growth of railways in Germany and
Austria. It was Baron Bleichroeder who operated
the transfers of the milliards from France to Germany
after the Franco-Prussian war. But with the nation-
alization of the German railroads the field of opera-
tion of the Jewish banking-houses in Germany was
transferred from railroads to other industries which
they have largely helped to create.

Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth cen-
tury, however, others had been learning the secret
■of international connections, and by 1900 the monop-
oly of international finance had largely passed from
Jewish hands. An organized attempt to precipitate
this was made about 1885 by a number of Catholic
financiers in France, who constituted the Union

Generate to overcome the financial predominance
of the Jewish capitalists (Rothschilds, Pereires, etc.);
but it proved a disastrous failure, and much of
French anti-Semitism has been traced to this cause.
Similarly, it is stated that the financial crisis of Ger-
many and Austria in 1873, in which the inflation due
to the introduction of the milliards came to an end,
was also a source of anti-Semitism, because the
shrewdness of the Jewish bankers had foreseen the
crash, and they were enabled to evade it.

After the Crimean war, Jews contributed largely
to the development of Banking in Russia; Barons
Joseph and Horace Giinzburg and
Russian Leon Rosenthal, of St. Petersburg,
Banking organized many commercial banks,
Houses. and placed government loans in the
German and French money-markets.
The Ivronenbergs and Ivan Bliocli, of Warsaw, as
well as Efrussiaud Rafalovich, of Odessa, should be
mentioned in connection with Russian banking.

Attention may be drawn to one side of Italian
Banking with which the name of a Jew is promi-
nently connected, though he himself is not a banker.
The finance minister Luigi Luzzati introduced into
Italy about 1864 the Scliultze-Delitzsch method of
agricultural cooperative banks. This system has
been very effective in helping the Italians to tide
over times of distress, and has quite revolutionized
the condition of Italian agriculture.

In the United States there has never been any
marked influence of capital controlled by Jews
either on the stock exchanges or in the great indus-
trial connections, the opportunities for international
connections being only slight.

But in the two great wars Jewish financiers played
a considerable role, owing doubtless to their European
connections: Haym Solomon in the
In the Revolutionary war (see “ Transactions
United of the Jewish Historical Society of
States. America,” passim), while Seligmau
Bros, and Speyer & Co. financed the
North, and Messrs. Erlanger the South (J. C.
Schwab, “Confederate States of America,” p. 102.
New York, 1901), in the great Civil war. More re-
cently, in the great development of railway finance,
the firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. lias taken a prominent
position.

Altogether, the influence of Jews on Banking has
been only short-lived, and was due to the prelimi-
nary advantage given to them by their international
position, which is nowadays shared by them with
others. It is a significant fact that at the beginning
of the twentieth century the typical Jewish banking-
house of Rothschilds gave up its original foundation
at Frankfort.

d. J.

BANKRUPTCY : In modern law, the proceed-
ing taken by the courts of justice with regard to
debtors unable to pay their debts in full, when all
the creditors become parties to the proceeding. The
object of bankruptcy laws is twofold : first, equality
among creditors ; second, the discharge of the debtor,
so that his future earnings may be free from levy
for his old debts. There is no trace in the rabbin-
ical jurisprudence of anything like a discharge in

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494

Bankruptcy ; on the contrary, Hillel already found
means to abrogate the effect of the Biblical year of
release, the simplest of all laws for the discharge of
poor debtors (see Prosbul). As to equality among
creditors, the Talmud tends very much the other
way ; for every “ shetar ” or sealed bond (obligation
attested by two witnesses) operated from its date as
a mortgage on all of the debtor’s land ; only bonds
of the same date stood on an equal footing ; and in
many places the custom was to mark the hour, and
thus to give preference even between bonds of the
same date. Among debts by simple contracts the
one first ripening into judgment would take priority.
In the later Middle Ages, when the Jews became
landless, and when their little wealth was invested
in jewels, in merchandise and shipping, in silver and
gold, or in loans to the Gentiles, the priority among
bondholders was extended to such personal property
as might be in hand at the time of the insolvency
(as to nature and effect of bonds, see Deeds).

Cases would, however, occur in which execution
was levied on behalf of several creditors of the same
rank, and in which the law had to contrive some plan
of distribution. Here the method of the Itabbis
differs widely from that of modern courts. The
division of the fund is not made in proportion to the
demands, but according to the number of creditors;
none of course to be paid more than the full amount
of his claim. If there are five creditors, and the
smallest claim is less than one-fifth of the fund, it is
paid in full ; the rest of the fund being divided, on
the same principle, among the other four creditors.
The example given in the Hoshen Mishpat puts it
thus: Suppose the fund be 300 dinars, and there are
three creditors with claims for 300, 200, and 100
dinars respectively, each claimant receives one-third
of the fund; i.e., 100 dinars. Again, suppose the
fund be more than 500 and less than 600 dinars, each
claimant receives an amount equal to the smallest
claim, i.e., 100 dinars, and, of the remainder, each
of the two remaining creditors receives an amount
equal to the smallest claim, i.e., another 100 dinars;
and the rest goes to the third claimant (Shulhan
‘Aruk, Hoshen Mishpat, iv. 10).

Another case is mentioned: Where two Jews hold
bonds against a Gentile whose property is proved
insufficient to pay both in full, and the proceeds come
to a Jewish tribunal for distribution, the interest
ranks with the principal, and an objection from the
holder of the junior bond, because the interest arose
after the date of the elder bond, will not be con-
sidered (ib. 15).

These views are sustained by the corresponding
passages in Maimonides, “Yad,” Malveh xx., and
in the Tur, Hoshen Mishpat, civ., and “Bet
Yosef,” ad loc., and run back — that about the man-
ner of distribution among creditors, to Ket. x. 4,
93a; and that about interest, to a principle set forth
in Ket. xii. 1. R. Moses Isserles (to Hoshen Mish-
pat, lxxxvi. 1). however, thinks that the junior
creditor may redeem by paying interest up to the
day.

J. sr. L. N. D.

BANNAAH, BANNAY, BANNAYAH (not
Benajah) : A Palestinian semi-tanna (see Bar

Kappara) at the beginning of the third century.
Not much of a halakic nature from him has been
preserved ; but he is distinguished as one of the great
haggadists of his time. Probably he also enjoyed
the reputation of a saint, as is shown by the mar-
vels related of him in later legends. Regarding
Bannaah’s relation to Rabbi, the collector of the
Mishnah, the following utterance is characteristic:
“ Man should ever penetrate deep into the study of
the Mishnah ; for if he knock it will be opened to
him, be it the Talmud [= Halakah] or the Hagga-
dah” (Pesik. xxvii. 176a; compare Matt. vii. 7:
“ Knock, and it shall be opened unto you ”). Ban-
naali therefore belongs to the few of the semi-tannaim
who fully acknowledged the merit of Rabbi 's collec-
tion of the Mishnah, regarding it as a progressive
step in the development of the taunaitic literature
(compare Yer. Hor. iii. 48c). To the Mishnah of
Rabbi in particular, and to the Halakah in general,
might be applied Bannaah’s remark on Joshua, that
he acted “in accordance with the spirit of the Law
as revealed by God to Moses, also in instances when
not directly instructed by the latter” (Yer. Peali i.
155).

Bannaah’s view on the origin of the Pentateuch is
remarkable as almost bordering on Biblical criticism.
“ The Torah,” he says, “ was given in rolls ” (Git. 60a),
meaning to say that the Pentateuch was promul-
gated in sections, which were afterward joined into
a unity. In haggadic exegesis Bannaah frequently
applies symbolism. For instance, he thinks that
God demanded gold for the Tabernacle, in order that
Israel might in this way do penance for the sin com-
mitted in worshiping the golden calf (Sifre, Deut.
i.). The following words of Bannaah are also note-
worthy: “Saul began to subtilize over the order
which he had received to exterminate Amalek. ‘ If
the men have sinned,’ said he, ‘in what manner
have the women, the children, or the cattle?’
Whereupon there came a voice from heaven that
cried, ‘Be not righteous overmuch’ (Eccl. vii. 16);
that is, ‘ Be not more just than thy Creator (Eccl.
R. vii. 16; and compare Jerome’s commentary, ad
loc.).

Neither the foregoing nor any other passage of
the Haggadali justifies the role of a saint ascribed to
Bannaah in the Babylonian Talmud ; the following
can therefore be accepted only as a legend :

“Bannaah,” relates the Babylonian Talmud, “was in the
habit of marking tombs, in order that persons might guard
themselves against ritual impurity, and, when engaged in this
manner, chanced one day to come upon the cave of Abraham.
At the entrance he found Eliezer, Abraham's faithful servant,
and, being announced by him, thereupon entered. When Ban-
naah, however, endeavored to view the grave of Adam, which
was situated in the same cave [see Adam in Rabbinical Lit-
erature], a voice came from heaven, saying: ‘Thou mayest
look upon the image of My image [Jacob], but not upon My
direct image [Adam].’ But Bannaah had already seen the
soles of Adam's feet, which were like unto two suns” (B. B.
58a).

In another legend the practical wisdom of Ban-
naah is extolled. On one occasion, a man had or-
dered that only one of his (supposed) ten sous was to
be his heir, knowing that only one was his true sen.
Naturally all claimed this distinction; whereupon
Bannaah told them to visit the grave of their father,
and to strike upon it until he should awaken and tell

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them which was the true heir. To this proposition
all assented except the real son, whose filial piety
rebelled against so unnatural an action ; whereupon
Bannaali decided in favor of the latter. In conse-
quence of this judgment, Bannaali was brought
into conflict with the authorities upon the charge of
deciding legal cases without witnesses or convincing
proofs. He was imprisoned; but his astuteness in
explaining a puzzle not only spared him further
punishment, but led to his being installed as judge
over the people. By his ad vice, certain legal inscrip-
tions, which had been cut into the gateway of the
city, were changed (B. B. l.c.). Bannaali counted
among his pupils also Johanan b. Nappaha.

Bibliography : Bactaer, Ag. Tan. ii. 539-543 ; Z. Frankel,
Mcho JiOrYerushalmi , 69a; Weiss, Dor Dor we-Dt>rshau\
iii. 510. A M id rash fragment on the Redemption, with the
title Derasliot R. Bannaali. appeared in Hayyim M. Horo-
witz’s edition of the Tanna debe Eliyahu Zutta, pp. 20-26,
Frankfort-on-tbe-Main, 1882.

j. sr. L. G.

BANNAIM or BANAIffi (D'XJ3) : A supposed
sect of an Essene order, among Palestinian Jews of
the second century. The only passage in which the
name occurs is Mikwaot ix. 6 (Tosef. ib. vi. 14 [vii.
1]), where the following Halakah is recorded by a
tanna of the middle of the second century, concern-
ing the question of dipping the clothing for Levit-
ical purification; “Garments belonging to the Ban -
naim may not have a mud-stain even upon one side,
because these people are very particular concerning
the cleanliness of their clothing, and any such spot
would prevent the purifying water from actually
penetrating the garment as it is usually worn ; but
with a ‘bor ’ [explained as an unlearned and uncul-
tured man], it matters not if his clothing contain a
mud-spot at the time of dipping, for such a one is
not so particular about cleanliness.”

The identity of these Bannaim was lost to the
amoraim of a century later. Hence the term was
explained as “scholars who occupy themselves with
the study of the world’s construction”; so that
“Bannaim” would mean “building-masters” or
“building-students,” from “banah” (to build)
(Sliab. 114a). Similarly to this explanation, Fran-
kel (see below) understood the Bannaim to be an
Essene order who were employed with ax and
shovel (compare Josephus, “B. J.” ii. 8, §9); while
other scholars, such as Sachs and Derenbourg
(“ Essai sur l’Histoire de la Geographic de la Pales-
tine,” p. 166), agree in the main with Frankel, but
explain “Bannaim” to mean “those who bathe,”
from the Judaeo-Aramean word “bauna’a,” equiva-
lent to the Greek fiahaveiov (bath). Thus the name of
this order would then be identical in meaning with
the “Tobele Shaharit” (Hemerobaptists), as the
Essenes are sometimes called. Nevertheless it is
highly probable that the word “Bannaim” in the
above-mentioned Mishnah means simply “bathers,”
without reference to any particular sect, but in con-
nection with the clothing used at the bath. This
is, according to Rashi, the conception of the Alish-
nah held by the amora Simeon b. Lakisli, who ex-
plains by D'^3 (clothes used

in the bath or immediately afterward) (Sliab. l.c. ;
but Jastrow, “Diet.,” and Krauss, “ Lehuworter,”
assign a quite different meaning to pTlK)-

The misunderstanding of this Mishnah originates
in taking “Bannaim” as an antithesis to “bor,” and
this latter as meaning “an uncultured person.” But
“bor” is never found as the antithesis of Essene; a
proper opposition would be “haber” and ‘“Am ha-
Arez.” A comparison of the passage with its par-
allel in the Tosefta, l.c., shows that “bor” means
nothing more than a “ well,” which explanation casts
a quite different light upon the Mishnah and its expo-
sition. The Tosefta reads : “ When mire from a road-
side strip [D'3*nn min’; see Mishnah, l.c. 2] has
fallen upon clothing, there are three varying opin-
ions whether such mud prevents Levitical purifica-
tion. One holds it to be a preventive only when it
goes through both sides of the garment; a second,
that it prevents purification even though it adhere
only to one side ; while an intermediate opinion claims
that if the garment be one belonging to the Bannaim,
the second opinion must be upheld, and if not, then
the first.” So far the Mishnah, to which the Tosefta
adds, “but if the mire comes from a pit [“bor”; the
Mishnah, l.c. 2, calls it nilUH ti’D]. the solution de-
pends upon whether the pit is large and containing
much mud, or small ” (the text is corrupt in the usual
editions, but may be found correct in ed. Zuckerman-
del and in Hai Gaon’s commentary on the Mishnah,
l.c.). According to this view, the Mishnah says noth-
ing about the clothing of a bor, but speaks of the mire
from a pit (bor), which is declared a preventive of
Levitical purification, even though it be upon only
one side of the garment. This explanation of the
Mishnah, current in the gaonic period, was revived
by Elijah Wilna in modern times (see his gloss on
the passage); and if takes the foundation from under
the interpretation of “ Bannaim ” as a class of persons
opposed to the bor. The Mishnah simply says that
bathing-clothes must be scrupulously clean, and that
the smallest stain prevents their Levitical purifica-
tion. Compare Ban us, Bannaah, Essenes.

Bibliography: Derenbourg, as above: Frankel. Zeitschrift
f Ur die Keliyidsen Interessen, lii. 455 (the word "Bannai”
in Kelim xiv. 3, which he includes, can only mean “building-
master” or “builder,” as the context shows): Hamburger,
R. B. T. ii. 84; Jastrow, Dictionary, s.v., who considers
“Bannaim” a contraction of O'NJ p (“one of becoming
conduct, refined ”); Levy, NevhebrUisches mid i hdUUlisches
Wiirti clinch, i. 241 ; Sachs, Bcitrilge, ii, 199.
j. sr. L. G.

BANOCZI, JOSEPH : Hungai ian scholar ; born
at Szt. Gal, county of Veszprein, Hungary, July 4,
1849. He was educated at the schools of his native
town, and afterward at the universities of Budapest,
Vienna, Berlin, Gottingen, and Leipsic, and then
went to Paris and London to finish his studies.
Banoczi became in 1878 privat-docent of philoso-
phy at the University of Budapest, in 1879 member
of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and in 1892
member of the Landesschulrath (royal board of
education).

Banoczi has also occupied various positions in the
Jewish community. From 1877 to 1893 he was pro-
fessor at the Budapest Jewish Theological Seminary,
and became in 1887 principal of the Budapest normal
school for the education of teachers. In 1896 he was
secretary of the Hungarian Society for the Promot ion
of Jewish Literature, and in 1897 member of the
Delegation of Hungarian Jews.

At the insistence of the Bucharest rabbi, Dr. Beck

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496

Banoczi, together with Prof. W. Baclier, took the
necessary steps to save from certain ruin the congre-
gation and schools of the sect of Sabbatarians in
Transylvania who in 1868 became converted to Ju-
• daism.

Banoczi has written the following works: (1)
“ Kant’s Lelire von Raum und Zeit ” (1875) ; (2) trans-
lation of G. H. Lewes’ “ History of Philosophy ”
into Hungarian, 3 vols., 1876-78; (3) “Revai Miklos
Elete es Munkai,” crowned by the Hungarian Royal
Academy of Sciences in 1879; (4) “Magyar Roman-
ticismus ” ; (5) translation of some of Schopenhauer’s
works into Hungarian, 1882; 2d ed.,1892 ; (6)“ Emlek-
beszed Greguss Agostrol,” 1889; (7) translation of
Kant’s “Kritik der Reinen Yeruunft” into Hunga-
rian. jointly with Professor Alexander, 1891; (8)
translation of Burckhard’s “Cultur der Renaissance
in Italien ” into Hungarian, 2 vols., 1895-96.

Banoczi, together with Professor Alexander, edits
the “Filozotiai Jrok Tara”; he lias also edited Er-
delyi’s philosophical writings (1885), and the works
of Kisfaludy Karoly, 6 vols., 1893.

Banoczi’s contributions to Jewish literature are:
(1) “A History of the First Decade of the Budapest
Jewish Theological Seminary ” (Hungarian and Ger-
man), 1888; (2) he edited, jointly with W. Baclier,
the “ Hungaro-Jewisli Review” (“Magyar Zsido
, Szemle ”), 7 vols., 1884-90; (3) he edited, also with
Bacher, “ ‘Eokonyo,” the year book of the Hunga-
rian Society for the Promotion of Jewish Literature,
3 vols., 1897-99.

Banoczi is a contributor to the “ Philosophische
Monatshefte ” and many Hungarian literary maga-
zines; and he lias published some very valuable
papers in the programs of the Normal School for
Teachers. S.

BANQUETS (Hebrew, “mishteh,” from “sha-
tah” = drinking-feast; Talmudical,“se‘udah,” from
“sa‘ad ” = sustenance) : Festive meals on occasions
of the celebration of domestic, communal, and re-
ligious joy, and on welcoming as well as on parting
from friends. Social in character, they originated,
as is now generally assumed, in sacrificial feasts.

As W. Robertson Smith tersely puts it: “A sacri-
fice was a public ceremony of a township; the law of
the feast was open-handed hospitality; no sacrifice
was complete without guests, and portions were free-
ly distributed to rich and poor within the circle of a
man’s acquaintance; universal hilarity prevailed”
(“Religion of the Semites,” 1889, pp. 236-258, with
special reference to I Sam. ix. 13, xx. 6; II Sam. vi.
19; Neh. viii. 10). Participation in sacrificial meals
was equivalent to covenanting with the Deity;
hence the prohibition not “ to eat of the sacrifice ”
of the heathen (Ex. xxxiv. 15; Smith, l.c. pp. 252-
300; Trumbull, “The Blood Covenant,” 1885, pp.
268 et seq.).

In Biblical times the religious nature of these meals
predominated, whether in the harvest
In feast (Deut. xvi. 10, 14; xii. 7, 12, 18;

Biblical Judges ix. 27), or in the covenant

Times. feasts at the union or parting of friends
(Gen. xxvi. 30, xxxi. 54; Ex. xxiv.
5), to which -category belongs also the wedding-
feast (Gen. xxiv. 54, xxix. 22; Judges xiv. 10) or

the thanksgiving feasts (Job i. 4; Ps. xxii. 26, 27;
Estli. viii. 17, ix. 22) or the feast of sheep-shearing
(I Sam. xxv. 36; II Sam. xiii. 23), and probably
also the feast of house dedication, according to Prov.
ix. 1-4. The weaning of a child, usually after its
second year, was an occasion of feasting (Gen. xxi.
8; see Kuobel-Dillmann on the passage). Birthday
feasts are mentioned, but only of non-Jewisli kings
(Gen. xl. 20; II Macc. vi. 7; that cf Herod, in Matt,
xiv. 6, may have been on the day of his accession to
the throne, as seems to be the case with Estli. i. 3, 4,
and Dan. v. 1). The sacrificial feasts, however, in
the course of time, to the chagrin of the Prophets, had
become carousals void of all religious spirit. “The
harp and the viol, the taboret and pipe, and wine
are in their feasts; but they regard not the work of
the Lord, neither consider the operation of his
hands” (Isa. v. 11, 12; compare xxviii. 7, 8, and
Amos vi. 5, 6).

The Talmud discriminates between religious Ban-
quets (“se'udah shel mizwah”), in which the stu-
dent of the Law should participate, and Banquets
of a non-religious, voluntary character (“ se’udah shel
resliut ”), in which the student of the Law should not
participate (Pes. 49«). In the former

In Post- are included :

Biblical 1. The Betrothal and the Wed

Times. ding-Feast (l.c.): The latter, called
also “hillula” (feast of joyful song,
Ket. 8 «; Ber. 31a), lasted seven days (see Judges
xiv. 17; in Tobit viii. 19, twice seven days), a three
days’ preparation being deemed necessary for the
banquet (Ket. 2a. 7 5).

2. The Circumcision Feast (Ket. 8«): The

father of Elisha ben Abuyah invited all the great
and learned men of Jerusalem to the circumcision
feast of his son (Yer. Hag. ii. 77b). The Midrash
ascribes the celebration of this feast to Abraham,
taking the word in Gen. xxi. 8, “Abraham

made a great feast the same day that Isaac was
weaned,” as a Notaricon, jri, “on the eighth
day when he circumcised Isaac ” (Pirke R. El. xxix. ;
Midr. Teh. to Ps. cxii. ; Lekah Tob to Gen. ; Shab.
130«, Tos.). Josephus does not seem to know of the
custom as yet, for he writes (“Contra Ap.” ii. 26):
“ The law does not permit us to make festivals at
the births of our children and thereby afford occa-
sion for drinking to excess.” This is an allusion to
the Greek festival called “ Onomathesia ” (giving of
name), and “ Hebdomeneumenia ” (feast of the week)
(Hermann, “Lehrbucli der Gottesdienstlichcn Al-
terthumer der Grieclien,” § 26, note 6), which occurs
as “shabua* lia-Ben” in the Hadrianic time in the
Talmud (Yer. Ket. i. 25c; B. B. 605; Sanli. 325), but
has been identified with the circumcision feast (Low,
“Die Lebensalter,” p. 89; Spitzer, “Das Malil bei
den Hebraern,” p. 41, note 4).

3. The Bar Mizwah Feast (see Bar Mizwah):
According to some commentators, the passage in
Gen. xxi. 8, quoted above, refers to the banquet
given by Abraham on the day that Isaac was
weaned from the “Yezer ha-Ra‘” (the evil spirit),
and became Bar Mizwah (Gen. R. 53).

4. Feast of the Redemption of the First-
Born Son, see Pidyon ha-Ben. Some find this
referred to under the name of “ Yeshu'a ha-Ben”

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(salvation of the son), mentioned in B. K. 80a (see
Tos. and ‘Aruk, s.v. yij£u ; Solomon ben Adret, Re-
sponsa, Nos. 200 and 708; Sliulhan ‘Aruk, Yoreli
De‘ah, 305, 10). The feast given on the night before
circumcision, called the “Zakor ’’-meal, and the one
given at the naming of the new-born daughter on
the fourth Sabbath, called “Hollekreisch,” are of
late and foreign origin. They are not mentioned in
the older codes, but Israel Isserlein refers to them
in “Terumat lia-Deshen,” p. 269, as does Mordecai
Japlie !n “Lebush,” Yoreli De'ah, 265, 12.

5. The Finishing of a Talmudical Treatise
Called Siyyum : This was also regarded as an
occasion for feasting by students, sufficient even to
permit them to eat meat when otherwise forbidden
(Sliulhan ‘Aruk, Oral.i Hayyim, 1058, 1 ; Magen
Abraham).

6. The Sabbath and Holy-Day Meals :

These, which in later times assumed the character
of simple family repasts permeated by the spirit of
genuine domesticity, were originally Banquets of
the Pharisaic brotherhood, enlivened by song and
discussions, at which the men reclined ; the women
and children — if they took part at all — not beiug
considered as among the number present. Wine at
the opening and closing of the meal was deemed an
ind’spensable feature ; over it the benediction and a
blessing of sanctification of the day were offered by
the one who presided at the table and broke the
bread. Perfumes and ointments as well as a variety
of dishes were characteristics of these meals, to the
preparation of which some would devote a whole
week (Ber. viii. 5; Tos. Ber. vi. 5; Tos. Bezah, ii. 13,
14; Bezah 16a; Pes. R. xxiii. ; Geiger, “Urschrift,”
p. 123; idem, “ Jud. Zeit.” iv. 105 el seq.). These Ban-
quets might not be held, however, at the time of the
public discourses. “Two great families held such
on Saobatli eve and Saturday noon at such an im-
proper time, and were exterminated for such trans-
gression ” (Git. 386). Three meals are prescribed
for the Sabbath; one on the preceding evening; an-
other at noon (to which some add a breakfast in the
forenoon) ; and the third in the late afternoon (Shah.
1176 et seq.). The Passover-eve meal also, although
eminently a family feast, perhaps as early as Mish-
naic times (Pes. x. 4), had originally the character
of a banquet, at which the Pharisaic brothers sat
together eating and drinking, singing hymns, and re-
citing or expounding chapters from Holy Scripture,
as may be learned from the Pesali Haggadah and
the New Testament story of the last supper (Matt,
xxvi. and parallels). Especially were the poor in-
vited as guests. When Tobit had a rich meal pre-
pared for him for Pentecost, he sent out his sou to
invile any poor Israelite he could find to participate
therein (Tobit ii. 1, 2). While the feasters often sat
after Greek fashion with garlands on their heads
(Isa. xxviii. 1 ; Wisdom ii. 7, 8; Josephus, “Ant.”xix.
9, § 1), some deemed it especially obligatory to place
wreaths on their heads at the celebration of the Feast
of Tabernacles (Book of Jubilees, xvi. 24). New
moons also were occasions of great festive meals for
the ancient Pharisaic brotherhoods, as is learned from
R. H. ii. 5, and Maseket Soferim, xix. 9; whereas
the merry Purim Banquets, at which drinking was
a prominent feature (Meg. 76), appear to be older
II. — 32

than the Book of Esther itself (see Purim and the
modern literature on Purim in Wildeboer’s commen-
tary on Esther; Marti, “Kurzer Hand-Commentar,”
xvii. 172-177).

7. Feasts of Joy and Thanksgiving for Vic-
tories of the Jews : Such a one is mentioned (III
Macc. iii. 30-36) as having lasted, like Hanukkali
(I Macc. iv. 59), eight days.

8. Meals of Comfort, “Se‘udat Habraah,”
Given to the Mourners (II Sam. iii. 35; Jer. xvi.
7; Tobit iv. 17; Hosea ix. 4; Josephus, “B. J.” ii. 1,
| 1; idem, “Ant.” xix. 9, § 1 ; Ket. 86: M. K. 56,
25a; Mas. Soferim, xix. 11): These, forming a totally
different class, may have originally been farewell
Banquets to the dead (see Spitzer, l.c. pp. 65 et seq. ;
Schwally, “ Das Leben nacli dem Tode,” 1892, p. 23),
which were changed into gifts to the mourners
(Maimonides, “ Yad,” Abel, xiii. ; Yoreli De'ah, 378).
See Mourning.

The various rules regarding the invitation and
the seating of the guests, the mixing of the wine and
the serving of the dishes, to be observed by the mas-
ter of the banquet, called in Greek “ apxerpixTuvoc,”
by the cook, and the servant of the house (“sham-
mash ”), were no less strictly observed by the Jews
than by the Greeks and Romans, as may be learned
from Ber. vii. ; Tosef., Ber. iv.-vii. ; Derek ‘Erez
Rabba and Zutta. For the Babylonian Jews, the
Persians were guides and patterns (Ber. 616). The
wealthy Jews often followed the ex-
Greek and ample of the Romans in indulging in

Roman sumptuous and boisterous Banquets
Influences, such as are described in Philo, “De
Vita Contemplativa,” §§ 5-7, and
Wisdom ii. 7 et seq. All the more do the Rabbis
warn against luxurious meals (Pes. 49a), and insist
that discussions of Scripture, sacred songs, and,
above all, the presence of students of the Law should
give each banquet a sacred character (Ab. iii. 3).
“ All tables are full of vomit and filthiness without
Makom” (= the name of God) (Isa. xxviii. 8; see
Taylor, “Sayings of the Jewish Fathers,” who re-
fers to Cor. x. 31; Ber. 64a; Sanh. 101a; compare
Ber. 436).

Portions from the Banquets were sent to the poor,
“ to them for whom nothing is prepared ” (Neh. viii.
10), especially on Purim (Estli. ix. 19, 22). Greater
than tlie Banquets given by King Solomon (B. M.
vii. 1) were, according to B. M. 866, those of Abra-
ham, because his hospitality was the greater. Nehe-
miah also kept open house (Neh. v. 17, 18). The
Hasidic Banquets described by Philo (l.c. 8 et

seq.) and Josephus (“B. J.” ii. 8, § 5) gave rise to
the idea of a great banquet of the righteous in the
world to come, also called “se'udah” (Ab. iii. 25;
compare Taylor, l.c. ; Rev. xix. 9, “Se'udah shel
Liviatan”; see Leviathan and Eschatology).

Bibliography: Smith, Diet, of the Bible , s.v. Bouquet;

Winer and Riehtn ; Gastmiililer, in Hauck’s Realencyklo-

pUdic.

BANU AUS : An Arab tribe that came to Medina
together with the Banu Khazraj (about 300), and
settled there among the Jewish inhabitants of the
place. For some time they lived under Jewish pro-
tection and intermarried with them ; but, getting

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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

498

stronger, they gradually made themselves masters
of the place, and oppressed the Jews. Eventually
they invited Mohammed to live in Medina. This
ended in the complete overthrow of the Jews, who
were partly expelled and partly massacred.

g. H. Hir.

BANU BAHDAL : A Jewish tribe in Medina
which dwelt with the Banu Kuraiza. There is
some uncertainty as to the correctness of the name,
as the sources give also the names “Hadal” and
“ Handal.”

g. H. Hir.

BANU KAINUKA'A : A Jewish tribe in north
Arabia, apparently the first Jews that settled at
Medina, and the most powerful of all the Jewish
tribes of the peninsula before Islam. They formed
a gild of goldsmiths. They had also a market-
place, known under the name “ Market of the Banu
Kainuka'a,” which was the general market-place
of the city before Mohammed laid out the great
market-place. Besides this they possessed two
strong castles in the north of Medina. After Mo-
hammed had come to Medina, he endeavored to win
all the Jews over to Islam. Failing in his efforts, he
assumed a more threatening attitude and first de-
clared war on the Banu Kainuka'a. They retired to
their fortresses, but after a siege which lasted fif-
teen days, they surrendered. Mohammed put them
in chains, and wished to have all the men executed.
He was, however, persuaded to spare them on con-
dition that they quitted the town, leaving their goods
and chattels in the hands of the conquerors. Sub-
sequently they settled in Adra'at in the north.

Bibliography : In addition to the biographies of Mohammed,

see Wellhausen, Slcizzen und Vorarbeiten, iv. 10, 14, 82;

Hirschfeld, Essai sur VHiutoire des Juifs de Medine, in

Rev. Et. Juives, vii. 169 et seq., x. 16 et seq.

g. H. Hir.

BANU KUKAIZA : One of the Jewish tribes in
Medina that, like the Banu al-Nadir, seem to have
consisted chiefly of descendants of Aaron. They
inhabited the villages Mahzur, Bir Abba, and Buath
on the eastern side of Medina; and also held forti-
fied positions in the neighborhood. Toward the end
of the fifth century many notable Jews, the major-
ity of whom appear to have belonged to the Banu
Kuraiza, were massacred in consequence of the
treachery of one of the Arab chiefs. A Kuraizite
woman, named Sarah, bewailed the disaster in a
dirge, which is still extant.

The Banu Kuraiza were the last tribe to be at-
tacked by Mohammed, and, as the power of the lat-
ter was on the increase, they had no allies. In order
to have a pretext to fight them, Mohammed charged
them with treason, and declared war against them.
They retired to their castles, hoping for assistance
from the heathen Arabs. The chief of the latter,
Ka‘ab ibn Asad, advised them to make a sortie on the
night of Sabbath, but they refused. Some of them
are said to have embraced Islam. Among these
converts was also a woman who tried to convert her
husband. He, however, rebuked her, and in a short
poem, still extant, exhorted her to return to her old
faith.

The Banu Kuraiza were eventually obliged to

surrender. Mohammed submitted the decision of
their fate to one of his most fanatical followers, who
ordered the men to be killed and the women and
children to be kept prisoners. Seven hundred and
fifty Kuraizites were executed, among whom were
the Rabbi Hukaik of the Banu al-Nadir. The fate
of those slain was bewailed in verse by the Jewish
poet Jabal b. Jawwal. The captive children were
converted to Islam, and one of the women, named
Reihana, was married to Mohammed. For some
time she remained a Jewess, but ultimately adopted
her husband’s faith. The booty was considerable,
and the gain of the Moslems was all the greater, as
many Israelites came to redeem the captive women.

Bibliography; Hirschfeld, Essai sur VHistnire des Juifs de
Medine , in Rev. Et. Juives, vii. 169 et seq., x. 17 et seq.-.
Wellhausen, Skizzenund Vorarbeiten, iv. 7 et seq., 70 et seq.;
Sprenger, Leben und Lchre des Mohammed, Index, s.v.

g. H. Hir.

BANU AL-NApiR : A Jewish tribe in Me-
dina. It appears to have been chiefly composed of
priestly families, as this, together with the Banu Ku-
raiza, was styled “Alkaliiuan” (The Two Priests).
Their habitations were situated in the northern en-
virons of Medina, notably Bu’airah, al-Nawa’im, Mu-
dainib, and the castles of Al-Buwailah, Baraj, Ghars,
and Fadija. At the time of Mohammed the follow-
ing persons were their leaders: Huyayy ibn Akhtab,
his brothers Abu Jasir and Juday, Sallam ibn Mish-
kam, and some others. The poet Ka'ab b. al-Asliraf,
a member of this tribe, the son of an Arab father and
a Jewish mother, was an enemy of Mohammed and
composed poems hostile to his cause. Mohammed,
therefore, wished to be rid of him, and accepted the
services of an Arab who offered to assassinate him.
The deed was done and approved of by Mohammed.
The simile in the Koran (vii. 175), “His likeness is
as the likeness of a dog ” ( kalb ), etc. , is probably
an allusion to “ Ka'ab. ” After his death Mohammed
proceeded to attack the whole tribe. He besieged
them and burnt their palm-trees, which was against
the customs of war in Arabia. The Jews were
obliged to surrender, but were permitted to depart.
Their estates, goods, and chattels were confiscated,
and they were only allowed to take one camel-load
for each group of three persons. They left for the
north, and founded new habitations partly in Kliai-
bar and partly in Syria, near the refugees of the
Banu Kainuka'a. The chief cause of their disaster
was lack of unity.

Bibliography: Hirschfeld, Essai sur VHistoire des Juifs de
Medine, in Revue Etudes Juives, vii. 170 et seq.. x. 169 et seq.;
New Researches into the Composition and Exeqesis of the
Qoran; Wellhausen, Skizzenund Vorarbeiten, iv. 7 etseq.
g. H. Hir.

BANUS : A teacher of Josephus (“Vita,” § 2,
Bavof ; in ed. Niese, Bdpvof). He “ lived in the desert,
used no other clothing than grew upon trees, had
no other food than what grew of its own accord,
and bathed himself in cold water frequently, both
by night and by day ” (ib. ) like the Essenes. Jose-
phus stayed with him three years. Chajes (“Bei-
t.rage zur Nord-Semitischen Onomatologie,” p. 13,
Vienna, 1901) connects the name “Banns” with the
Talmudic “Bannaah.”

Bibliography : Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, 4th ed., iii. 482.
g. S. Kr.

499

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Banu Bahdal
Baptism '

BAPTISM : A religious ablution signifying puri-
fication or consecration. The natural method of
cleansing the body by washing and bathing in wa-
ter was always customary among the Israelites
(see Bathing). The washing of their clothes was
an important means of sanctification enjoined on the
Israelites before the Revelation on Mt. Sinai (Ex.
xix. 10). The Rabbis connect with this the duty
of bathing by complete immersion (“tebilah,” Yeb.
40 b\ Mek. , Bahodesh, iii. ) ; and since sprinkling with
blood was always accompanied by immersion, tradi-
tion connects with this immersion the blood lustra-
tion mentioned as having also taken place immedi-
ate^ before the Revelation (Ex. xxiv. 8), these three
acts being the initiatory rites always performed
upon proselytes, “to bring them under the wings
of the Sliekinali ” (Yeb. l.c.).

With reference to Ezek. xxxvi. 25, “Then will I
sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be
clean,” R. Akiba, in the second century, made the
utterance: “Blessed art thou, O Israel! Before
whom dost thou cleanse thyself? and who cleanses
thee ? Thy Father in heaven ! ” (Yoma viii. 9). Ac-
cordingly, Baptism is not merely for the purpose of
expiating a special transgression, as is the case
chiefly in the violation of the so-called Levitical
laws of purity ; but it is to form a part of holy liv-
ing and to prepare for the attainment of a closer
communion with God. This thought is expressed
in the well-known passage in Josephus in which he
speaks of John the Baptist (“Ant.” xviii. 5, § 2):
“The washing would be acceptable to him, if they
made use of it, not in order to the putting away of
some sins, but for the purification of the body; sup-
posing still that the soul was thoroughly purified
beforehand by righteousness.” John symbolized
the call to repentance by Baptism in the Jordan
(Matt. iii. 6 and parallel passages); and the same
measure for attaining to holiness was employed by
the Essenes, whose ways of life John also observed
in all other respects. Josephus says of his in-
structor Banus, an Essene, that he “ bathed himself in
cold water frequently, both by night and by day ”
(“ Vita,” § 2), and that the same practise was observed
by all the Essenes (“B. J.” ii. 8, § 5).

The only conception of Baptism at variance with
Jewish ideas is displayed in the declaration of John,
that the one who would come after him would
not baptize with water, but with the Holy Ghost
(Mark i. 8; John i. 27). Yet a faint resemblance to
the notion is displayed in the belief expressed in the
Talmud that the Holy Spirit could be drawn upon
as water is drawn from a well (based upon Isa. xii.
8; Yer. Silk. v. 1, 55a of Joshua b. Levi). And
there is a somewhat Jewish tinge even to the proph-
ecy of the evangelists Matthew (iii. 11) and Luke
(iii. 10), who declare that Jesus will baptize with fire
as well as with the Holy Ghost; for, according to
Abbahu, true Baptism is performed with fire (Sanh.
39a). Both the statement of Abbahu and of the
Evangelists must of course be taken metaphorically.
The expression that the person baptized is illumina-
ted (< puTiadcti Justin, “Apologise,” i. 65) has the same
significance as is implied in telling a proselyte to Ju-
daism, after his bath, that he now belongs to Israel,
the people beloved of God (Yeb. 47a; Gerim i.).

According to rabbinical teachings, which domi-
nated even during the existence of the Temple (Pes.
viii. 8), Baptism, next to circumcision and sacrifice,
was an absolutely necessary condition to be fulfilled
by a proselyte to Judaism (Yeb. 46 b, 47i; Ker. 9a;
‘Ab. Zarah 57a; Shab. 135a; Yer. Kid. iii. 14, 64 d).
Circumcision, however, was more important, and,
like baptism, was called a “seal” (Schlatter, “Die
Kirche Jerusalems,” 1898, p. 70). But as circum-
cision was discarded by Christianity, and the sacri-
fices had ceased, Baptism remained the sole condition
for initiation into religious life. The next ceremony,
adopted shortly after the others, was the imposition
of hands, which, it is known, was the usage of the
Jews at the ordination of a rabbi. Anointing with
oil, which at first also accompanied the act of Bap-
tism, and was analogous to the anointment of priests
among the Jews, was not a necessary condition.

The new significance that Christianity read into
the word “Baptism,” and the new purpose with
which it executed the act of Baptism, as well as the
conception of its magical effect, are all in the line
of the natural development of Christianity. The
original form of Baptism — frequent bathing in cold
water — remained in use later among the sects that
had a somewhat Jewish character, such as the Ebion-
ites, Baptists, and Hemerobaptists (compare Ber. iii.
6) ; and at the present day the Sabeans and Man-
deans deem frequent bathing a duty (compare Sibyl-
lines, iv. 164, in which, even in Christian times, the
heathens are invited to bathe in streams).

[Baptism was practised in ancient (Hasidic or
Essene) Judaism, first as a means of penitence, as is
learned from the story of Adam and Eve, who, in
order to atone for their sin, stood up to the neck in
the water, fasting and doing penance — Adam in the
Jordan for forty days, Eve in the Tigris for thirty-
seven days (Vita Adoe et Evse, i. 5-8). According
to Pirke R. El. xx., Adam stood for forty-nine days
up to his neck in the River Gilion. Likewise is
the passage, “ They drew water and poured it out
before the Lord and fasted on that day, and said,
‘We have sinned against the Lord (I Sam. vii. 6),
explained (see Targ. Yer. and Midrash Samuel,
eodem ; also Yer. Ta'anit ii. 7, 65d) as meaning
that Israel poured out their hearts in repentance;
using the water as a symbol according to Lam. ii.
19, “ Pour out thine heart like water before the Lord. ”
Of striking resemblance to the story in Matt. iii. 1-17
and in Luke iii. 3, 22, is the haggadic interpretation
of Gen. i. 2 in Gen. R. ii. and Tan., Buber’s Intro-
duction, p. 153: “The spirit of God (hovering like a
bird with outstretched wings), manifested in the
spirit of the Messiah, will come [or “the Holy One,
blessed be He! will spread His wings and bestow
His grace”] upon Israel,” owing to Israel’s repent-
ance symbolized by the water in accordance with
Lam. ii. 19.

To receive the spirit of God, or to be permitted to
stand in the presence of God (His Shekinah), man
must undergo Baptism (Tan., Mezora1, 6, ed. Buber,
p. 46), wherefore in the Messianic time God will
Himself pour water of purification upon Israel in
accordance with Ezek. xxxvi. 25 (Tan.. Mezora‘,
9-17, 18, ed. Buber, pp. 43, 53). In order to pro-
nounce the name of God in prayer in perfect purity.

Baptism

Bar

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

500

the Essenes (D’JJIJX) underwent Baptism every morn-
ing (Tosef., Yad. ii. 20; Simon of Sens to Yad. iv.
9; and Ber. 22«; compare with Kid. 70a, ‘‘The
Name must be guarded with purity ”). Philo fre-
quently refers to these acts of purification in prep-
aration for the holy mysteries to be received by the
initiated (“De Somniis,” xiv. ; “De Profugis,” vii. ;
“ Quis Rerum Diviuarum Heres Sit?” xviii. xxiii. ;
“Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis,” ii. ; “De Posteritate
Caiui,” xiv., xxviii.).

The Baptism of the proselyte has for its purpose
his cleansing from the impurity of idolatry, and the
restoration to the purity of a new-born man. This
may be learned from the Talmud (Sotah 1 2b) in re-
gard to Pharaoh’s daughter, whose bathing in the
Nile is explained by Simon b. Yoliai to have been
for that purpose. The bathing in the water is to
constitute a rebirth, wherefore “ the ger is like a child
just born” (Yeb. 48//) ; and he must bathe “in the
name of God” — “lesliem shamayim” — that is, as-
sume the yoke of Gcd’s kingdom imposed upon him
by the one who leads him to Baptism (“ matbil ”),
or else he is not admitted into Judaism (Gerim. vii.
8). For this very reason the Israelites before the
acceptance of the Law had, according to Philo on
the Decalogue (“ De Decalogo,” ii., xi.), as well as
according to rabbinical tradition, to undergo the
rite of baptismal purification (compare I Cor. x. 2,
“They were baptized unto Moses [the Law] in the
clouds and in the sea ”).

The real significance of the rite of Baptism can
not be derived from the Levitical law; but it ap-
pears to have had its origin in Babylonian or ancient
Semitic practise. As it was the special service ad-
ministered by Elisha, as prophetic disciple to Elijah
his master, to “pour out water upon his hands” (II
Kings iii. 11), so did Elisha tell Naamau to bathe
seven times in the Jordan, in order to recover from
his leprosy (II Kings v. 10). The powers ascribed
to the waters of the Jordan are expressly stated to
be that they restore the unclean man to the original
state of a new-born “little child.” This idea under-
lies the prophetic hope of the fountain of purity,
which is to cleanse Israel from the spirit of impurity
(Zech. xiii. 1; Ezek. xxxvi. 25; compare Isa. iv. 4).
Thus it is expressed in unmistakable terms in the
Maudean writings and teachings (Brandt, “Man-
daisclie Religion,” pp. 99 et seq., 204 et seq.) that the
living water in which man bathes is to cause his
regeneration. For this reason does the writer of
the fourth of the Sibylline Oracles, lines 160-166,
appeal to the heathen world, saying, “Ye miserable
mortals, repent; wash in living streams your entire
frame with its burden of sin; lift to heaven your
hands in prayer for forgiveness and cure yourselves
of impiety by fear of God ! ” This is what John the
Baptist preached to the sinners that gathered around
him on the Jordan ; and herein lies the significance
of the bath of every proselyte. He was to be made
“a new creature ” (Gen. R. xxxix.). For the term
(puTiodeis (illuminated), compare Philo on Repentance
(“De Puenitentia,” i.), “The proselyte comes from
darkness to light.” It is quite possible that, like
the initiates in the Orphic mysteries, the proselytes
were, by way of symbolism, suddenly brought from
darkness into light. For the rites of immersion,

anointing, and the like, which the proselyte has or
had to undergo, see Proselyte, Ablution, and
Anointing. — K.]

Bibliography : E. G. Bengel, Ueber das Alter der JIM.

Proselytentaufe , Tubingen, 1814 ; M. Schneckenburger,

Ueber das Alter der JIM. Proselytentaufe, Berlin, 1838; E.

Renan, Les Evan yiles, 2ded., p. 187 ; idem. Leg Apbtres, p.

98; idem, Moure- Aurele, p. 527; Scheehter, in Jewish Quar-
terly Review, 1900, xii. 421 ; Schiirer, Gesch. 3d ed„ iii. 129;

Edersheim, The Jewish Messiah, ii. 745.

K. S. Kr.

BAPTISTA or BATTISTA, GIOVANNI
GIONA GALILEO : Baptized Jew, professor of
Hebrew, and librarian of the Vatican ; born in
Safed Oct. 28, 1588 ; died May 26, 1668. His Jewish
name was Judah Jonah ben Isaac. He studied the
Talmud and traveled as a rabbi through Italy and
Poland ; visited Amsterdam ; and was finally elected
day van in Hamburg. In 1625 he returned to Po-
land, and was converted to Christianity in Warsaw.
Expelled from Poland, he came to Italy; was ap-
pointed professor of Hebrew, first in the University
of Pisa, then in the Neophyte College of Rome; and
later was one of the librarians of the Vatican.

The most important of his numerous works are;
(1) a sermon in Hebrew and Latin on the Messiah
and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the
Apostles, Rome, 1653; (2) “Limmud lia-Meshihim ”
(Doctrines of Christianity), a Hebrew translation of
the Italian catechism of Robert Bellarmin, 1658;
(3) “Berit Hadashah,” a Hebrew translation of the
New Testament with a preface by Clement IX., to
whom the translation was dedicated ; (4) “ Hebrew-
Clialdaic Lexicon ” ; (5) a “ Treatise on the Name of
Jesus ” (in manuscript) ; (6) “ Hillufin Sheben Shelo-
shali Targumim, ” a collection of the differences in the
three Targumim. This work was left unfinished;
the manuscript is preserved in the Vatican Library.

Bibliography: Vogelstein and Rieger, Gesch. der Juden in

Rom, ii. 286 et seq. ; Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. i. 720.

D. A. R.

BAPTISTA, GIOVANNI SALOMO RO-
MANO ELIANO: Baptized Jew; ecclesiastical
writer; born at Alexandria, Egypt ; died in Rome
March 3, 1589. He was a grandson of Elijah
Levita, the famous Hebrew grammarian. Baptista
traveled extensively in Germany, Turkey, Palestine,
and Egypt; was a master of Latin, Spanish, and
Turkish ; and taught Hebrew and Arabic in Rome.
His elder brother, Eliano, embraced Christianity, be-
came a priest, and later a canon, under the name of
“Vittorio Eliano.” Exasperated by his brother’s
conversion, Baptista hastened to Venice to rebuke
him and, if possible, win him back to Judaism. But
instead of converting his brother to Judaism, Bap-
tista was himself converted to Christianity. First,
Cantareno, a Venetian nobleman, made an effort to
persuade him; then a Jesuit, Andreas Frusius, suc-
ceeded in convincing him. In 1551, under the name
of “Giovanni Baptista,” he openly declared himself
a Christian, to the great mortification of his mother.

Baptista became a Jesuit; an ecclesiastical writer;
composed a catechism in Hebrew and Arabic; and
was the author of other works of the same character.
The Jews that still remembered his famous grand-
father naturally despised him for his desertion, and
he determined to wreak vengeance on his former
coreligionists. An opportunity soon presented itself.

501

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Bar

Two Venetian patricians, Bragadini and Giusti-
niani, were bitter competitors in the Hebrew print-
ing-trade, and, in their eager desire to crush each
other, hit on the scheme of sending Jewish converts
to Rome to denounce the Talmud and all Hebrew wri-
tings as dangerous to Christianity. Baptista, with
two other baptized Jews, Joseph Moro and Ananel
di Foligno, undertook the mission, and appealed to
Pope Julius III. to destroy the Talmud because of
its alleged denunciation of Jesus, the Church, and
Christianity, which denunciation, they claimed, pre-
vented the conversion of the Jews. Julius III.,
though rather friendly to the Jews — as is shown by
the fact that he had two Jewish private physicians,
Vital Alatino of Spoleto, and the Marano Amatus
Lusitanus — had, unfortunately, no power to settle
the question about the Talmud, as such matters be-
longed to the jurisdiction of the Inquisition, which
was then under the control of Caroffa, a notorious
Jew-hater. Accordingly, the pope was forced, at the
instance of the grand inquisitor, to issue a bull (Aug.
12, 1553) “to the princes, bishops, and magistrates,”
ordering them to confiscate and burn all books of the
Talmud. The Jews were ordered, under penalty of
the confiscation of their property, to deliver all such
books to the officials of the Inquisition; and Chris-
tians were warned not to conceal such books, nor to
assist in writing or printing them. On the Jewish
New-Year’s day, Saturday, Sept. 9, 1553, the officers
of the Inquisition carried the pope’s edict into effect.
Despite the petitions and entreaties of the Jews, all
Talmudic, and a great many other, Hebrew books
were publicly burned on the Campo di Fiore in
Rome. Similar outrages were committed in Ra-
venna, Ferrara, Mantua, Padua, Venice, in the is-
land of Candia (Crete), which was then under Vene-
tian rule, and in all Romagna. The despair of the
Jews was indescribable, and their feelings toward
the apostates that were the cause of their suffering
can be easily imagined. When Baptista came to
Egypt in 1561 on a mission of Pope Pius IV., he was
bitterly persecuted by the Jews of Alexandria at the
instigation of his own mother.

Bibliography: Gratz, Gesch. der Juden , ix. 344 et seq.;
Vogelstein and Rieger, Gesch. der Juden in Rom , ii. 146 c t
seq., 150; Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. i. 811; Joseph ha-Kohen. * Emek
ha^Baha (Wiener’s transl., pp. 89 et seq.. Leipsic, 1885). For
references on the burning of the Talmud in 1553: Gratz,
Gesch. der Juden , ix. 346, note 1.

D. A. R.

BAPTISTS : A Christian denomination or sect
denying the validity of infant-baptism or of any
baptism not preceded by a confession of faith. Bap-
tists and their spiritual progenitors, the Anabaptists
of the sixteenth century (including the Mennonites),
have always made liberty of conscience a cardinal
doctrine. Balthasar Hubmaier, the Anabaptist
leader, in his tract on “ Heretics and Their Burners ”
(1524), insisted that not only heretical Christians but
also Turks and Jews were to be won to the truth by
moral suasion alone, uot by fire or sword ; yet as a
Catholic, but a few years before, he had cooperated
in the destruction of a Jewish synagogue in Regens-
burg and in the expulsion of the Jews from the city.
Hans Denck and Ludwig Hetzer — among the most
scholarly of the Anti-Pedobaptists of the sixteenth
century, who had devoted much time to learning

Hebrew and Aramaic — made, in 1527, a highly meri-
torious translation of the Prophets from the Hebrew
text, and contemplated a mission to the Jews. Their
early death prevented the execution of this purpose.
The Mennonites of the Netherlands, who became
wealthy during the seventeenth century, were so
broad-minded and philanthropic that they made
large contributions for the relief of persecuted Jews.
In England, Henry Jessey, one of the most learned
of the Baptist ministers of the middle decades of the
seventeenth century (1645 onward), was an enthu-
siastic student of Hebrew and Aramaic, and an
ardent friend of the oppressed Hebrews of his time.

The Seventh-Day Baptists of England and
America, from the seventeenth century onward, have
insisted on the perpetual obligation of Christians
to observe the Jewish Sabbath, and have made this
obligation the distinctive feature of their creed.
Many of the Seventh-Day Adventists, especially
those that practise believers’ baptism, have still more
in common with Judaism than have the Seventh-
Day Baptists proper, and their ideas of the Messianic
Kingdom aie in many respects Jewish. The colony
of Rhode Island was founded by Roger Williams
and John Clarke — the former for a time and the
latter throughout his life connected with the Bap-
tists— on the principle of liberty of conscience for
all. Jews early availed themselves of the privi-
leges thus offered, and became influential citizens.
In the latter part of the eighteenth century, Baptists
were foremost in the struggle for civil and religious
liberty throughout the British colonies (United
States); and to Baptists was due, in large measure,
the provision in the United States Constitution
against religious tests of any kind.

Bibliography: Newman, A History of Anti-Pedobaptism,
1897: Brons, Unsprung, Entwickelung, und Schichsale der
Taufgesinnten Oder Mennoniten, 1884 ; Keller, Ein Apostel
der Wiederttlufer (Joh. Denck), 1882; Muller. Gesch. der
Bernishen Tdufer. 1895 ; Ivimey, Hist, of the English Bap-
tists, 1811-18; Oscar S. Straus, Royer Williams, 1894; A. H.
Newman, A History of the Baptist Churches in the United
States , 2d ed., 1898.

J. A. H. N.

BAPUGEE, HASKEL (EZEKIEL) : One of

the Beni Israelites of Bombay, subedar-major in the
Indian native army; died Feb. 14, 1878, and was
buried with military honors by special order of the
officer commanding. He held the rank of sirdar ba-
hadurof the 12th regiment native infantry, and served
with distinction throughout the Indian mutiny.

Bibliography: Anylo-Jcwish Exhibition Catalogue , 1887,
p. 40.

j. G. L.

BAR, Aramaic equivalent of Hebrew Ben, “a
son ” or “ son of. ”

BAR : Town in the district of Mohilev, province
of Podolia, Russia, on the River Rov, affluent of the
Bug; with a Jewish population of 8,000, of a total
population of 10,614 (1897). The Jewish commu-
nity of Bar is one of the oldest of Podolia. The
town was formerly called “ Rov,” and was destroyed
by the Tatars in 1452. In the sixteenth century it
received its new name in honor of the queen BoDa
Sforza, who was born at Bari, in Apulia, Italy, and
by whom it was rebuilt.

Among the seventeen landlords entered in the lists
of the aldermen of Bar in 1565, there are mentioned

Bar

Bar Eappara

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

502

some Jews who bear Slavonic names; e.g., in the
Polish partof the city: Moshko, Volcliko, Schmoila;
and in the Jewish street: Tzimlya (a Jewess), Zliiv-
nitza (= Chaja, a Jewess), Maiko, Sablika, Moshech-
ko, Volchkov, Ivostzina (a Jewess), Marecliko, Bis-
kova (a Jewess) (“Regesty i Nadpisi,” No. 541).

In 1648 Krivonos, by order of Bogdan Chmielnicki,
destroyed the town of Bar (tlien a fortress) and killed
all the Poles and Jews. An old Russian chronicle
of this persecution says that the Cossacks “ flayed
the Jews alive ” (ib. No. 901). The number of Jews
killed at Bar is given as 15,000 by Samuel Faibusli
and Kostomarov, and as 2,000 by Nathan Hannover.
The latter is probably correct, as may be seen from
the South Russian chronicles published bjr Byeloo-
zerski (ib. Nos. 902 and 903) that Krivonos killed
Poles and Jews, together over 15,000. Samuel Phoe-
bus, in “Tit ha-YTawen,” says that there were only
about six hundred Jewish families in Bar at that
time. They were thought to be the wealthiest of
the Jews of Ukraine. “They were killed, together
with the other Jews who had taken refuge there,
making in all about fifteen thousand souls.” One of
those who escaped was Rabbi Joseph, great-grand-
father of the poet Naphtali Herz Wessely. In com-
memoration of this massacre, the order of some of the
prayers was changed in the synagogue of Bar. In
Bar the Jews and Poles fought against the Cossacks.
In 1661 there were in the town only twenty houses
owned by Jews. It came into the possession of
Russia in 1793 (ib. , No. 995). Unfortunately, the
“ pinkeses ” (documents) of the Jewish community
of Bar, containing much valuable historical material,
have been removed, by order of the government, to
Kiev, and are not now accessible.

In the cultivation of tobacco the Jews of Bar are
prominent. In the vicinity of the town are numer-
ous plantations owned and worked by Jews.

Bibliography: Ozar ha-Sifrut, 1890, iii. 137: 1892, iv. 418;

N. Kostomarov, Bogdan Chmielnicki, i. 339-340, St. Peters-
burg, 1884; Nathan Hannover, Yawen Mezulah, Venice, 1653;

Regesty i Nadpisi, St. Petersburg, 1899; Brockhaus and

Efron, Entziklope.dicheski Slovar, St. Petersburg, 1892;

Khrnnika Voskhoda, 1895. No. 12.

D. H. R.

BAR ANINA or HANINA (nj'jn 13) ; Pales-
tinian scholar of the end of the fourth century ; lived
in Bethlehem, where he was the teacher of the church
father Jerome. The Talmudic and Midrashic litera-
ture mentions many lialakists and haggadists whose
fathers were named Hanina, and who, therefore,
were called “Bar Hanina” or “Bar Anina.” It is,
however, impossible to identify any of these with
Jerome’s teacher; nor can it be proved with cer-
tainty from the above-mentioned literature that any
one of such name lived when Jerome studied He-
brew in Bethlehem in the year 386. Jerome men-
tions his teacher by name only twice : once to relate
how the Christians, who held it unseemly that he
should receive instruction from a Jew, ridiculed his
teacher’s name by corrupting it to “ Barabbas ”
(Jerome, “ Apologetici Adversus Ruffinum Libri III.”
i. 13; ed. Migne, ii. 407). His teacher, too, would
no doubt have encountered the animosity of his
coreligionists had they learned that he was teaching
the Bible to a monk (for the prohibition against
teaching the Bible to heathen, see Hag. 13a). Bar

Anina, therefore, could give his instruction only at
night, and probably Jerome paid highly for the
books which his teacher borrowed from the syna-
gogue (Jerome, “Epistola lxxx. ad Pammachium,”
ed. Migne, i. 745).

It is impossible to form any opinion as to the
knowledge and importance of Bar Anina; for Jerome
had other Jewish teachers, and Hebrew traditions in
his works can not, therefore, be attributed specific-
ally to Bar Anina. Jerome’s complete lack of gram-
matical knowledge of Hebrew, and the defective
etymology of this, the greatest Hebraist among the
church fathers, can, therefore, not be laid upon the
shoulders of his teacher; for, in many cases, it is evi-
dent that Jerome has misunderstood his instructors.
The fact, however, may be taken to indicate that
Bar Anina was himself not a very distinguished
scholar. When Jerome says (commentary on Hah. ii.
16), concerning another teacher, that he was called
“Sapiens” (D3n)and “Deuteroses” (NJD) among the
Jews, one may infer that Bar Anina possessed neither
of these titles. Be that as it may, this Bethlehemite
teacher can at least boast of having exerted a com-
manding influence, through his pupil, upon the de-
velopment of the Christian Church. Without his as-
sistance, the Vulgate — the accepted form of the Old
Testament in the Catholic Church for fifteen centuries
— would hardly have come into existence; and he
was, likewise, undoubtedly the means of introducing
to the Church some of the rabbinical exegesis.

Bibliography: Rahmer, Hebrilische Traditional in den
Werken des Hieronymus, i. 8; idem, in his Jlidisches Li-
teraturblatt, xxv. 89-91 ; Weiss, Dor Dorive-Dorshaw, iii. 127.
K. L. G.

BAR COCHBA, BAR COCHBAH. See Bar

Kokba.

BAR DALA, BARDALA, BAR DALIA,
BARD ALIA : A place near Lydda, which once har-
bored a rabbinic seat of learning (B. M. 10a et seq. ;
see Rabbinowicz, “ Dikduke Soferim,” ad loc. ; Bezah
14a, see Rabbinowicz, ib. ; Yer. ‘Er. vi. 24a; Yer.
Kil. i. 27a; Yer. Sheb. ii. 33d). It is supposed to
be identical with Bet-Deli (‘Eduy. viii. 5; Yeb. xvi.
7, in Yer. Mish. and Gemara 16a,“ Badla ”), which is
recognized by some in Wady Ed-Dalia, between
Tibnin and Safed in Galilee; by others, in Bet-Ulia
(Dulia) on the road from Hebron to Jaffa. As the
place was not far from Lydda — so that a Bardalian
was sometimes considered as a Lyddan (Yer. Sanli.
i. 18c) — the latter conjecture is the more probable.
The local name is used in rabbinical literature as a
surname, designating several scholars who hailed
from that place (Abba Cohen of Bardala, Aha
Bardala), and is occasionally employed as a prae-
nomen ; e.g., Bardala b. Tabyome (Hag. 5a; see also
Zeb. 335).

Bibliography: Schwarz, Das Heilige Land, p. 89; Neu-
bauer, G. T. p. 263; Z. Frankel, Mebo, p. 70a; Jastrow,
Diet. p. 190a ; Kohut, Arueli Completum, ii. 185b, ib. 67 a ;
Hirschensobn, Mehkere Arez, p. 75.
j. sr. S. M.

BAR ELASHA. See Ben Elasah.

BAR GIORA, SIMON (called also Simon Gi-
ora) : Jew'ish leader in the revolt against Rome ;
born about the year 50, at Gerasa. To judge from
his name he was the son of a proselyte. The date
of his birth is determined by the fact that he was

503

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bar

Bar Kappara

very young at the time of the war with Nero. He
was distinguished for bodily strength and reckless
courage. After Cestius had been put to flight he
surrounded himself with a band of men and devas-
tated the lands of the Idumeans about Akrabattene ;
but. being pursued by troops from Jerusalem, he
threw himself into the fortress of Masada (Josephus,
“ B. J. ” ii. 22, § 2 ; i v. 9, § 3). He kept up his guerril-
la warfare, however, gradually increasing his troops
until they numbered many thousand Sicarii ; and,
after fortifying Nain, he encamped in the valley of
Paran. Having conquered the Idumeans and mas-
tered Hebron, he swept up to the very gates of
Jerusalem. Here an ambush was laid by the Jews
of the city, and his wife and some of his soldiers
were seized; but Bar Giora compelled them to be
delivered up to him (ib. iv. 9, §§ 8, 10). In the
mean time the Idumeans and the Zealots in Jerusalem
came into conflict (April, 68); and the Idumeans,
suffering defeat, called Bar Giora into the city.
Though Matthias, high priest at the time, had been
instrumental in summoning him, Bar Giora later put
him to death (ib. iv. 9, § 11 ; v. 13, § 1), henceforth
considering himself lord of the city, and maintain-
ing constant strife with John of Gischala, leader of
the Zealots, the latter being outdone in their frenzy
by Bar Giora’s followers, the Sicarii.

The Idumeans, though formerly oppressed by Bar
Giora, now joined their forces to his. From his
strong fortification at Phaselis — in which he garri-
soned his ten thousand soldiers — -lie could command
the whole of Jerusalem (ib. v. 3, £ 1 ; 6, § 1). When
Titus moved up to the walls of Jerusalem, Bar Giora
made peace with John and the Zealots, and in a
number of sallies inflicted serious losses on the Ro-
mans (ib. v. 2, § 4; vi. 1, § 7). After Jerusalem had
been almost entirely taken and the Temple had been
burned down (on the Ninth of Ab), Bar Giora and
other fearless men withdrew to the upper city, from
which they negotiated with Titus, offering to sur-
render on condition that they should be allowed to
go free under oath not to draw their weapons. The
Romans refused, and the struggle broke out afresh.
On the eighth of Elul the upper city also fell a prey
to the flames. John surrendered, but Bar Giora,
resisting to the last, took flight through subter-
ranean passages. Hunger, however, drove him to
come forth. He startled the Roman soldiers by his
sudden appearance in a white shroud; but they
quickly recovered from their fright, seized him, and
led him to Titus. He was kept for the emperor’s
triumph at Rome, where he was dragged through
the streets and then hurled from the Tarpeian rock
(Josephus, “B. J.” vii. 2, § 1 ; vii. 5. § 6; 8, § 1).

Bibliography: Dio Cassius, lxvi. 7: Tacitus, Hist. v. 12;

Egesippus, iv. 22. v. 49 ; Schiirer, Gesch. i. 521 et seq. A pas-
sage in Pf's/fc, It. seems to refer to the subject ( Monats -

schrift , xli. 5(13), also a passage in Ab. R. N., B, c. vii. (Jerusa-
lem vi. 15) .

G. S. Kr.

BAR HEBRA3US. See Gregory bar He-

BRA5US.

BAR JESUS (“ son of Jesu or Joshua”): A
Jewish magician described in Acts xiii. 6-11 as a
“sorcerer, a false prophet,” who, when Paul and
Barnabas came to Cyprus, was found in the company
of Sergius Paulus, the Roman proconsul. He also

bore the title of “Elymas ” (= sorcerer; perhaps re-
lated to D^in, Deut. xiii. 2; explained also from the
Arabic alim = wise). He opposed Paul in his at-
tempt to convert the proconsul; whereupon Paul,
“filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him,”
and cursed him with temporary blindness, calling
him “son of the Devil ” (“Ben Belial ”); and “imme-
diately there fell on him a mist and a darkness,” and
he had to be led by the hand. The proconsul,
“when he saw what was done,” was converted.
Simon Magus, to whom Bar Jesus bears a striking
resemblance, is apparently the person mentioned by
Josephus (“Ant. ” xx. 7, £ 2), as “Simon . . . a Jew,
born in Cyprus,” who “pretended to be a magician,”
one of the friends of Felix, the procurator of Judea,
and employed by him to seduce Drusilla from her
husband, Azizus, king of Emesa. The same Simon
Magus occurs in the story of Peter the Apostle (Acts
viii. 20-24), of which the Paul story obviously forms
a counterpart. New Testament critics therefore
doubt the authenticity of the whole story (see Holz-
mann, on Acts xiii., and P. W. Schmiedel, in “En-
cyc. Bib!.”)

The Syriac, taking offense at “Son of Jesus”
being called “Son of the Devil,” has changed the
name “Bar Jesus” into “ Bar Shuma ” (Son of the
Name); one Latin translation has “Bar Jesuba."
wrhich again has led modern writers like August
Klostermann to new conjectures.

Bibliography : Gheyne, Encyc. Biblica , s.v.; Hastings, Diet,
of the Bible, s.v.

T. K.

BAR KAPPARA (Aramaic; Hebrew, “Ben ha-
Kappar ”) : Palestinian scholar of the beginning of
the third century, occupying an intermediate posi-
tion between tanna and ainora. His real and com-
plete name was Eleazar (there seems to be no ground
for the form “Eliezer”) ben Eleazar ha-Kappar.
This is the form appearing in the tannaite sources,
Tosefta (Bezali i. 7 ; Hullin vi. 3) and Sifre (Num.
42, ed. Friedmann, p. 126): the usual Talmudic
form, “Bar Kappara. ’’and the frequent appellation,
“ Eleazar ha-Kappar Berabbi ” (see Berebi), are ab-
breviations of this.

Like nearly all those who occupied the interme-
diate positions between tannaim and amoraim (called
“semi-tannaim ” for convenience’ sake). Bar Kap-
para was a pupil of Judah I. lia-Nasi; but he seems
to have counted among his teachers, in addition, R.
Nathan the Babylonian (Midi-. Teh. xii. 4, ed. Buber;
other editions and M8S. read “Jonathan”) and R.
Jeremiah ben Eleazar, probably identical with the
Jeremiah mentioned in the Mekiltaand Sifre (Pesik.
xxvii. 1726; Tan., Aliare Mot, vi. [ed. Buber, vii.];
and parallel passages cited by Buber). The strained
relations between Bar Kappara and the patriarchal
house, of which mention will shortly be made, in-
duced him to withdraw' to the south of Palestine.
Bar Kappara set up his academy at Caesarea (con-
cerning TPS or YnND, the alleged res-
His idence of Bar Kappara, in the passage
Academy ‘Ab. Zarah 31a, nothing further is
at Caesarea, known; according to Bacher, “Agada
der Taunaiten,” ii. 505, it may have
been a suburb of Caesarea) ; and his school came to
be a serious rival of Rabbi’s. Among the most

Bar Jfappara
Bar Koaba

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

504

important of its scholars were Hoshayali, “ the father
of the Mishnah” (Ker. 8a), and Joshua b. Levi, the
distinguished liaggadist, who to a large extent trans-
mitted the Haggadali of Bar Kappara (Shah. 75a).
The greatest admirers of Rabbi and the best sup-
porters of the patriarchal house, Hanina b. Hama
and Johanan b. Nappaha, could not refrain from
acknowledging Bar Kappara’s greatness (Niddah
20a ; ‘Ab. Zarali l.c.). It is related of him that once
while walking on the mole of Caesarea and seeing a
Roman that had escaped from shipwreck in utter
destitution, he took him to his house and provided
him with clothing and all necessaries, including
money. Later this castaway became proconsul of
Caesarea, and occasion soon offered itself to show his
gratitude to his rescuer, when Jews involved in a
political disturbance were arrested, and he released
them on Bar Kappara’s intervention (Eccl. R. xi. 1,
on “Cast thy bread upon the waters”).

Of more interest than his contemporaries’ recog-
nition of his greatness as a halakist and a humani-
tarian, are the many characteristic utterances of his
that mark him as a phenomenal personality in his
day. Some examples may be given. He said : “ He
who can calculate the solstices and movements of the
planets [that is, understands astronomy] and fails to
pay attention to these things, to him may be applied
the verse [Isa. v. 12] ‘ They regard not the works of
the Lord, nor the operation of his hands ” (Shab.
75a). This statement about the duty of studying
astronomy and physics gains in significance if placed
in juxtaposition with Bar Kappara's totally different
opinion in regard to the study of the Torah. Accord-
ing to him, if a Jew read only two portions from
the Torah daily — one in the morning
His and one in the evening — he fulfils the

Liberal- precept to meditate in God’s law by

Minded- day and night (Ps. i. 2; Midr. Teh. ad
ness. loc.). Bar Kappara not only admired
natural science, proscribed though it
was by most Jews of the time, who considered it
“Greek learning,” but he also appreciated the Hel-
lenic love of the beautiful ; and probably he was
the sole Palestinian who judged the literary activity
of the Alexandrian Jews favorably. A truly liberal
exposition of his on Gen. ix. 27 was; “The words
of the Torah shall be recited in the speech of Japlietli
[Greek] in the tents of Shem ” (in the synagogues
and schools) (Gen. R. xxxvi. 8).

Bar Kappara’s respect for the exact sciences was
equaled by his aversion for metaphysical specula-
tion, which just at his time flourished in the form of
Gnosis among Jews and Christians. Referring to
Dent. iv. 32, “Ask now of the days that are past,
which were before thee,” Bar Kappara says, “Seek
to know only of those days that followed the Crea-
tion ; but seek not to know what went before ” (Gen.
R. i. 10), meaning to say that the world and the his-
tory of man in the world provide sufficient matter
for the mind’s employment without subtle investi-
gations into hidden mysteries.

Highly characteristic of Bar Kappara’s conception
of life and its ideals is his opinion concerning self-
abnegation; “The Scriptures [Num. vi. 11] say:

‘ The priest shall . . . make an atonement for him
[the Nazarite] for that he sinned by the soul ’ ” [A.

V. “dead”; Hebrew text, “nefesli,” means also
“soul”]. By what soul did he sin? He denied him-
self wine. Now, if the Nazarite who denied himself
wine only is called a sinner, how much more is he a
sinner who has denied himself everything?” (B. K.
915; Ta’anit 11a and parallels; compare Rab’s simi-
lar saying in Yer. Kid., end; see Abba Arika). It
required not a little courage and self-confidence to
declare asceticism sinful at a time when fasting and
abstemiousness of all kinds were held to be the great-
est virtues.

A comparison of this view of Bar Kappara con-
cerning abstinence with Rabbi’s declaration before
his death that he had not experienced
The the slightest sensual gratification in
Patriarchal his life (Ket. 104a), reveals the striking

House. contrast in the conceptions of the two
men. This difference was true no less
in regard to the affairs of daily life than to matters
of the intellect. No greater dissimilarity is possible
than was presented by the majestic repose and
princely grandeur of Rabbi, and the poetic abandon
and gay address of Bar Kappara. Since Rabbi’s
mere presence sufficed to put a check upon Bar Kap-
para, it is possible that a breach between the two
men might not have come to pass had their personal
relations alone been concerned. But the members
of the patriarch’s family, especially Simon, his son,
and Ben Elasah, his son-in-law, rich but unlettered
(Ned. 51a), were frequently subjected to Bar Kap-
para’s biting satire. A somewhat irreverent remark
about Rabbi, which he let slip in Simon’s presence,
was reported by Simon to Rabbi, who informed Bar
Kappara of his firm resolve never to grant him ordi-
nation (M. K. 16a).

According to the Yerushalmi, however, the final
rupture was induced by the following incident:
During a gathering at Rabbi’s house Bar Kappara
remarked to Rabbi’s unlearned son-in-law that it
was conspicuous in him to maintain complete silence
while all others present were asking Rabbi for opin-
ions on subjects of learning. Ben Elasah was at a
loss as to what question to put to his father-in-law,
but Bar Kappara prompting him by whispers in
his ear, he propounded to Rabbi the following riddle :

“ High from Heav’n her eye looks down ;

Constant strife excites her frown ;

Winged beings shun her sight;

She puts youth to instant flight ;

The aged, too, her aspect scout ;

Oh ! oh ! the fugitive cries out.

And by her snares whoe’er is lured

Shall never more from sin be cured ! ”

(Translation by A. Sekles, in " The Poetry of the Talmud,”
pp. 87, 88, New York, 1880.)

When Rabbi turned round after hearing the rid-
dle of his son-in-law, he discovered Bar Kappara
smiling, and exclaimed: “I do not recognize you,
old one! ” (meaning also, “ I do not recognize you as
an elder, a sage ! ”). Bar Kappara now understood
that he would never receive ordination (Yer. M. K.
iii. 81c).

What the riddle really signifies is not known, de-
spite many attempts to explain it. The most prob-
able view is the one taken by Abraham Krochmal that
Bar Kappara intended it as a criticism of Rabbi’s un-
relenting severity toward young and old. The verse

505

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bar Kappara
Bar Kokba

is extremely valuable as a specimen of Neo-IIebraic
poetry in Talmudic times; its few lines furnish,
perhaps, the sole testimony to the activ-
His Poetry, ity of the Jews of that time in secular
poetry. Its language is classic, but
not slavishly so; forceful and pure, yet easy and
flowing. It is a curious coincidence that the one
other specimen of Bar Kappara’s poetry which has
been preserved iu the sources should be the eloquent
■words in which lie proclaimed Rabbi's deatli to the
assembled people of Sepphoris. They are; “Breth-
ren of the house of Jedaiah [an epithet of the inhab-
itants of Sepphoris] , harken unto me ! Mortals and
angels have long been wrestling for the possession
of the holy tablets of the Law; the angels have con-
quered. They have captured the tablets” (Yer. Kil.
ix. 32 *; Yer. Ket. xii. 35a; Bab. Ket. 104« ; Ecel.
R. vii. 11, ix. 10, with many variants of the text,
which is here given according to Eccl. R. l.c. ). Bar
Kappara’s presence in Sepphoris at Rabbi’s death
shows that, despite Rabbi’s unjust attitude toward
him, he duly appreciated his great obligations to his
teacher; and there is no cause to doubt the sincerity
of his grief for Rabbi’s death.

Bar Kappara was especially known to the Aino-
raim as the author of a Mishnah called the Mishnah
of Bar Iyappara (Pesik. xv. 122«; Yer.
Mishnah Hor. iii. 48c; and many other places).

of Bar This Mishnah compilation has not been

Kappara. preserved, and probably at the final
redaction of the Talmud it was no
longer extant (Mei'ri, in commentary on Abot, ed.
Wilna, p. 14, does not mention the fact of having
had such a Mishnah collection [thus Schorr, “He-
Haluz,” i. 44, and A. Krochmal, ib. iii. 118], but a
Baraita cited in Bar Kappara’s name in the Talmud).
Nevertheless, the numerous passages from his Mish-
nah that found their way into the Talmud suffice
for judgment upon its character.

Mei'ri (l.c.) quite correctly designates it as a sup-
plement to the Mishnah of Rabbi, intended chiefly
to explain it, and, on rare occasions, to give differ-
ing opinions (see Baraita). Bar Kappara’s Mish-
nah also presented variants to Rabbi’s Mishnah, and
later on became occasionally so interwoven in the
text of the latter that doubt arose whether the Mish-
nah in question belonged to the one or to the other
(Yer. Pes. x. 37 d). The Mishnah of Bar Kappara
was also used by the redactor of the Tosefta, who
derived many decisions from it (for instances, see
Weiss, “Dor Dor we-Dorshaw,” ii. 219). Whether
Bar Kappara’s Mishnah ever reached Babylonia
has not been definitely ascertained, the one passage
in the Babli referring to it having originated with
Simon b. Lakish, a Palestinian (B. B. 154*). [Com-
pare also Is. Halevy, “Dorot ha-Rishonim, ” ii. 123-
125, who, without sufficient reason, denies the ex-
istence of Bar Kappara’s Mishnah.]

Bar Kappara is the last one in Talmudic times
who is stated to have had knowledge
His of fables. The Midrash (Lev. R. xxviii.
Knowledge 2) relates that because Rabbi did not
of Fables, invite Bar Kappara to the wedding of
his son. Bar Kappara revenged himself
in the following way : At the feast which Rabbi sub-
sequently gave in Bar Kappara’s honor, the latter told

a vast number of fox fables — 300, it is reported —
and the guests left the food untouched in order to
listen to him.

Bibliography: Bacher, Aaaila (lev Tannaiten. ii. 503-520
(for other passages in the same, see the Index); Brtill, Mctio
ha-Mishnah, i. 244, 289-292: Frankel, Darke ha-Mishnah,
p. 313; idem, Mebo, 20 a et seq., 71 o; uriitz. GesCh. dcr
Judcil. 4th ed.. iv. 198, 199, 211: Hamburger, Supplement to-
ff. B. T. pp. 30-38; Kohan, in Ha-Asif, iii. 330-333 (Koban
here first pointed out the identity of Bar Kappara with Eleazar
ben Eleazar ha-Kappar); Abraham Krochmal, in He-Hahiz ,
ii. 84; Rapoport', in Liter at v/rblatt ilex Orients, i. 38, 39’;
Reifmann, Pcshcr Labor ; Weiss, Dor 1 Jar ive-Dorshaw, ii.
191, 219.

J. SR. L. G.

BAR KOKBA AND BAR KOKBA WAR:

The insurrection of the Jews of Cyrene, Cypres,
and Egypt in the last years of the emperor Trajan
had not been entirely suppressed when Hadrian as-
sumed the reins of government in 118. The seat of
war was transferred to Palestine, whither the Jewish
leader Lucwas had fled (Abulfaraj, in Miinter, “Dcr
Judische Krieg,” p. 18, Altona and Leipsic, 1821).
Marcius Turbo had pursued him, and had sentenced
to death the brothers Julian and Pappus, who had
been the soul of the rebellion. But Turbo was him-
self executed upon special orders sent from Rome,

Bronze Coin of the Bar Kokba War.

Obverse: UJtEt P (“Simon”) (error for PJIDSP) Simon, within a
wreath. Reverse: nn[nS], “The Deliverance of

Jerusalem, ” surrounding a cup ; struck over a coin of Titus.

(After Madden, “ Jewish Coinage.”)

and the lives of the brothers were saved (Sifra, Emor,

viii. 9 [ed. Weiss, p. 99d] ; Meg. Ta'anit xii. ; Ta'anit

18*; Sem.viii. ; Eccl. R. iii. 17). Lucius.
War of Quietus, the conqueror of the Jews of
Quietus. Mesopotamia, was now in command
of the Roman army in Palestine, and
laid siege to Lydda, where the Jews had gathered.
The distress became so great that the patriarch Rab-
ban Gamaliel II., who was shut up there and died
soon afterward, permitted fasting even on Hanuk-
kali; though other rabbis, such as the peace-loving,
R. Joshua b. Hananiah, condemned this measure-
(Ta’anit ii.10: Y"er. Ta'anit ii. 66«; Yer. Meg. i. 70r/;
R. H. 186). Soon afterward Lydda was taken and
masses of the Jews were executed; the “slain of
Lydda” are often mentioned in words of reverential
praise in the Talmud (Pes. 50a: B. B. 10*; Eccl. R.

ix. 10). Pappus and Julian were among those ex-
ecuted by the Romans in the same year (Ta'anit 18*;
Yer. Ta'anit 66*). The foregoing are the most im-
portant events of the campaign of Quietus as men-
tioned in rabbinical sources (see also “Revue Etudes
Juives,” xxx. 212).

An ancient Jewish source states that sixteen years
elapsed between the “polemos” (= war) of Quietus
and the rebellion of Bar Kokba (Seder ‘Olam R., at.

Bar Kokba

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

506

the end; compare Azariali dei Rossi, in “Me‘or
‘Enayim,” xix.), and both the Armenian chronicle of
Eusebius (“ Chronicorum Canonum,” ed. Mai and
Zohrab, p. 383, Milan, 1818) and that of Jerome

Bronze Coin of the Second Revolt, First Year.

Obverse: U? dip “ (Simon ”) (forftyDtP) Simon, within a wreath.
Reverse: o8tpn [' ni] in? (“The Deliverance of Jerusalem ”)
surrounding a three-stringed lyre. (British Museum Collec-
tion.)

(After Madden, “Jewish Coinage.”)

mention a Jewish war as occurring during the first
year of the reign of Hadrian. Later events can be
interpreted only by bearing this war in mind. For
if Hadrian, immediately after his accession to the
throne, pursued a pacific policy toward the Jews,
and made concessions to them, he must previously
have felt their resistance (Gratz, “ Gesch. der Juden,”
3d ed., iv. 410). Spartiau, the biographer of Ha-
drian (“ Hadrian,” v. 2), also states that the emperor
wished to have peace throughout the Roman world,
and refers to the restlessness among the people
of Libya and Palestine — a reference undoubtedly
pointing to the Jews. It appears that Hadrian had
already granted permission for the rebuilding of the
Temple; that the Jews of the diaspora had already
begun to return to Jerusalem, and that the brothers
Pappus and Julian had already provided for the ex-
change of foreign money into Roman coin, when,
through the calumny of the Samaritans, Hadrian
ordered the cessation of work upon the
Rebuilding Temple (Gen. R. lxiv.). Of the in-
of the tended rebuilding of the Temple under
Temple. Hadrian, mention is made by Chrysos-
tom (“Orat. iii. in Judacos”), “Chron.
Alex.” (on the year 118), Nicephorus (“Hist. Eccl.”
iii. 24), and Cedrenus (“Script. Byz.” xii. 249). A
• coin of the period, representing a portico with four

Bronze Coin of the Second Revolt.

Obverse: pycif (“Simon ”); cluster of grapes. Reverse: min?
oSaoT (“The Deliverance of Jerusalem”); two trumpets or
pillars. (British Museum Collection.)

(After Madden, “Jewish Coinage.”)

columns, is referred to this movement. The leader
and superintendent of the building — either of the city
of Jerusalem or of the Temple — is said to have been
-the pious proselyte Aquila (Epiphanius, “DePond.

et Mens.” xiv.). Hadrian had not yet dared openly
to prevent the rebuilding of the Temple, but re-
quested that the site of the new structure be some-
what removed from its former location — a condition
which the Jews of course could not accept. They
took up arms and assembled in the Valley of Rim-
mon, on the celebrated historical plain of Jezreel;
and a rebellion seemed imminent, when R. Joshua
b. Hananiah, by convincing the people of the danger
which they were incurring, ultimately succeeded in
pacifying them (Gen. R. lxiv.). But the Jews re-
mained quiet only on the surface; in reality, for over
fifteen years they prepared for a struggle against
Rome. The weapons that the Romans had ordered
to be made by them they intentionally constructed
poorly, so that they might keep them when rejected
and returned to them. They converted the caves in
the mountains into hiding-places and fortifications,
which they connected by subterranean passages (Dio
Cassius, lxix. 12). It is thought that the travels of
the celebrated teacher of the Law, Rabbi Akiba, were
made with the intention of interesting the Jews of
the most remote countries in the coming struggle;
and these travels extended through Parthia, Asia

Copper Coin of the Second Revolt.

Obverse: (“Simon”) (for pyctP) Simon, round a palm-

tree. Reverse: n (probably for [oStt’n' nmtnSl) (“The
Deliverance of Jerusalem ”), with vine branch.

(After Madden, “Jewish Coinage.”)

Minor, Cappadocia, and Phrygia, and perhaps even
to Europe and Africa. Preparations devised on so
large a scale coukl hardly have been instituted with-
out organization, and it may therefore be assumed
that the leader, Bar Kokba, was already quietly
preparing for this war in the first years of the reign
of Hadrian.

Bar Kokba, the hero of the third war against
Rome, appears under this name only among ecclesi-
astical writers : heathen authors do not
Bar Kokba; mention him; and Jewish sources call
His Name, him Ben (or Bar) Koziba or Ivozba.

Many scholars believe this name to
have been derived from the city of Cliezib (Gen.
xxxviii. 5)orChozeba(I Chron. iv. 22), although it is
more likely that it was simply the name of his father.
Others believe that Bar Koziba was a contumelious
appellation (“ Son of Lies ”) bestowed after the unfor-
tunate issue of the revolt. Although this also seems
to be implied by the words of the patriarch, R.
Judah I. (Lam. R. ii. 2), it merely proves that the
luckless hero was early held responsible for the mis-
fortune that had befallen the nation. On the other
hand, it is certain that the name Bar Kokba is only
an epithet derived from R. Akiba’s application of the
verse to Koziba : “ There shall come a star [“ kokab ”]
out of Jacob who shall smite the corners of Moab

507

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bar Kokba

and destroy all the children of Seth”(Num. xxiv.
17). Eusebius also (“Hist. Eccl.” iv. 6, 2) adds to
the name fiapx^x^ai the remark that it signifies
“star,” and so does Syncellus (“ Chronographia,” in
the “ Script. Byz. ” ix. 348), indicating that they knew
that the name was only a figurative one. It is singu-
lar that Syncellus also calls Bar Kokba “an only
son ” (povoyF.vris), which corresponds with the Hebrew
“yahid.” If this is not a Messianic name, as Renan
surmises (“ L'Eglise Chretienne,” 2d ed., p. 200), one
must understand by it the interesting family fact
that Bar Kokba was the only son of his parents ; even
in this trifling circumstance the heated imagination
of the champions of liberty endeavored to find some
special merit. The attempt was also made to dis-
cover in the name of a certain counterfeit coin (“ ma-
liaginot,” Yer. Ket. i. 255) the word povoyevfc (N.
Briill, in “ Jalirbiicher,” i. 183; compare Rapoport,
“ Orient, ” 1840, p. 248) ; and so refer it to Bar Kokba ;
just as the Talmud mentions “ Kozbi-coins ” ; that is,
coins of Bar Kokba (Tos. Ma'as. Sheni i. 6, and Bab.
B. K. 975); but such an interpretation of the word is
rendered impossible by the context. These latter
coins would intimate that Bar Kokba’s name was
Simeon, similar examples of the omission of this
name being afforded by the names Ben Zoma and
Ben Azzai, each of whom was also named Simeon ;
but, as the coins in question have been traced to
Simeon the Hasmonean, their association with Bar
Kokba is untenable (Renan, ib. p. 197).

This is about all that is known concerning the
personality of Bar Kokba ; and even the meager data
here presented are so uncertain that the very name of
the hero is doubtful. Everything else pertaining
to him is mythical. Like the slave-

His Per- prince, “Eunus of Sicily,” he is said

sonality. to have blown burning tow from his
mouth (Jerome, “ Apol. ii. adv. Ruf.”);
such was his strength that he was able to hurl back
with his knees the stones discharged from the Roman
ballistae (Lam. R. ii. 2). Bar Kokba is said to have
tested the valor of his soldiers by ordering each one
to cut off a finger; and when the wise men beheld
this, they objected to the self-mutilation involved,
and advised him to issue an order to the effect that
every horseman must show that he could tear a cedar
of the Lebanon up by the roots while riding at full
speed. Iu this way he eventually had 200,000 sol-
diers who passed the first ordeal, and 200,000 heroes
who accomplished the latter feat (Yer. Ta'anit iv.
68d). It must have been during the war, when he
had already performed miracles of valor, that R.
Akiba said of him, “This is the King Messiah” (*6.);
but he had the presumption — so runs the legend — to
pray to God : “We pray Thee, do not give assistance
to the enemy; us Thou needst not help ! ” (ib. ; Lam.
R. ii. 2; Git. 57 aetseq. ; Yalk., Deut. 946); and it was
inevitable that many persons, among them his uncle
R. Eleazar of Modi'im, should disbelieve in his Mes-
sianic mission.

Jewish medieval sources also mention a son and
a nephew of Bar Kokba. After the death of the
latter, his son Rufus — whose name is rightly ex-
plained as “red ” — succeeded him as ruler, and he,
again, was followed by his son, Romulus; and it was
only in the days of Romulus, the son of Rufus, the

son of Koziba, that the emperor Hadrian succeeded
in quelling the insurrection (Abr. b. David, in
Neubauer’s “ Medieval Jewish Chron-
Jewisli icles,” i. 55). Joseph ibn Zaddik (ib. p.
Medieval 90) mentions Romulus, but not Bar
Sources. Kokba. The earlier Nizzalion (ed.

Hackspa'n) on Dan. ix. 24 adds that Bar
Kokba was of the house of David, an assertion which
appears genuine, inasmuch as such relationship
would have been essential to the Messianic mission.
Both Gedaliah ibn Yahyah, in “ Shalshelet lia-Kabba-
lali” (s.v. “R. Akiba”), and Heilprin, in “Seder
ha-Dorot” (i. 126a, ed. Wilna, 1891), mention three
generations of these kings — a fact controverted by
David Gans in “Zemah David” (part i. for the year
880), who adds, however, that Romulus, like his
grandfather, was called Koziba, and that there is no
discrepancy with the Talmudic records. The twenty -
one years claimed by Gans for Bar Kokba and his
sons can be explained if the whole period from 118
to 135 be accepted, which, however, would only
amount to seventeen years. Singularly enough,
Graetz and other Jewish historians fail entirely to
speak of these Jewish traditions, whereas Milnter
(ib. pp. 47, 75) and Gregorovius (“Der Kaiser Ha-
drian,” p. 195, note 1, Stuttgart, 1884) considered
them at least worthy of mention.

As if to increase the irritation of the Jews, it so
happened that the government of Judea had at this
time been entrusted to one of the most rascally sub-
jects of the Roman empire, the governor-general
Tinnius Rijfus, as he is probably correctly called
(Borghesi, Gregorovius, Renan, Mommsen, and
Schurer; whereas others call him variously Tinnius,
Titus Anuius, or Taciuius, Rufus).
Cause of Rufus offended the Jews in their most
the War. sacred relations. He was reputed to
be a regular debauelier of young
women (G. ROsch, in “ Theol. Studien und Kritiken,”
1873, pp. 77 et seq.), and was probably the prototype
from whom was taken the description of the volup-
tuary Holoferues, as given in the Book of Judith.
Associated with this is the Talmudic saga that the
immediate cause of the war was the insult offered
by the Romans to a bridal couple (Git. 57a). So long
as the emperor Hadrian remained in the vicinity —
that is, in Syria and Egypt (about 130 common era)
— the Jews kept still (Dio Cassius, lxix. 12) and
even struck coins in his honor, which bore the
motto “Adventui Aug. Judaea?,” in commemoration
of the visit of the emperor to Judea. It was prob-
ably at this time that Hadrian desired to erect the
Roman colony JElia Capitolina upon the ruins of
Jerusalem, and to replace the old Temple by one
dedicated to Jupiter Capitoliuus. Dio Cassius, at
least, mentions this fact as the cause of the war,
while Eusebius and other ecclesiastical historians
refer to them as a result. It is therefore assumed
that the building was already begun before the war,
but interrupted by it (Milnter, Graetz, Gregorovius).
The report (Spartian, ch. xiv.) that the Jews were
forbidden to exercise the rite of circumcision may
also have originated after the war ; but Jewish sources
state that in the days of Bar Kokba many who had
before endeavored to disguise the Abrahamic cove-
nant submitted themselves anew to circumcision

Bar Kokba
Bar Mizwah

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

508

(Shab. ix. 1 ; Yer. ib. 17a; Yeb. 72a; Yer. Yeb. viii. 9;
Gen. R. xlvi.). It does not follow, however, from the
preceding passages that the Judseo-Cliristians were
compelled by Bar Kokba to submit to circumcision
(Basnage,“ L'Histoire des Juifs,” xi. 361, Rotterdam,
1707), and the statement that the Christians were
tortured by Bar Kokba if they did not deny Jesus,
is made only by Christian authors (Justin, “ Apolo-
gia,” ii. 71 ; compare “ Dial.” cx. ; Eusebius, in “ Hist.
Eccl.” iv.6, § 2, and in his “ Chronicle,” where he there-
fore calls Bar Kokba a robber and murderer; Jerome,
in his “ Chronicle ” ; Orosius, “Hist.” vii. 13). The
actual reason seems to have been that the Christians
refused to unite with the Jews in the struggle. The
Samaritans, however, participated in the conflict, to
which Jews residing in foreign countries also flocked
in masses, the number of combatants being further
swelled by pagan accessions; and there ensued, as
Dio Cassius observes, a war which was neither of
small proportions nor of short duration.

Rufus could not at first resist the onslaught of the
Jews, to whom he was compelled to relinquish one
place after another almost without a struggle; and
thus about fifty strongholds and 985 undefended
towns and villages fell into their hands (Dio Cassius,
lxix. 14). These fifty strongholds were situated in
Palestine, and may be located with tolerable accu-
racy (“Magazin fur die Wissenscliaft

Publius des Judentliums,” xix. 229; “Monats-
Marcellus. schrift,” xliii. 509), But although the
Jewish arms did not penetrate beyond
the Palestinian border, their success caused the Ro-
mans to become conscious of their danger. They des-
patched Publius Marcellus, legate of Syria, to the aid
of Rufus; but this general also was defeated. It is
uncertain whether the insurgents acquired possession
of Jerusalem : the Jewish sources contain no men-
tion of it; and the coins bearing the inscription, “In
Commemoration of the Liberation of Jerusalem,”
are unreliable because they may have originated
with Simon the Hasmonean. Among the historians,
Graetz is almost the only one that accepts the sup-
position of a conquest of Jerusalem. But if this had
been the case, the insurgents would not have made
Bethar, but Jerusalem, their center of operations.
Moreover, Bethar, according to Eusebius, was situ-
ated in the vicinity of Jerusalem, a statement which
may apply equally to a place north or south of the
Holy City. However this may be, a city of the size
ascribed to Bethar in Jewish sources could never
have arisen in the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem.

Hadrian was now compelled to summon the great-
est general of his time, Julius Severus, from Britain,
to conduct the campaign against the Jews; and Se-
verus was accompanied by the legate Hadrianus
Quintus Lollius Urbicus, former governor of Ger-
mania. Hence it follows (contrary to
Julius the opinion expressed in the Jewish

Severus. sources, in Moses of Chorene’s “ Hist.

Arm.” ii. lvii. ; and in the writings of
Munter and Lebrecht) that Hadrian did not person-
ally participate in the war. The Roman troops en-
gaged in Palestine were the Tenth Legion (Fretentis),
the Second (Trajana), the Third (Gallica), and the
Fourth (Scythica), all drawn from Syria ; but even
with so considerable an army, Severus did not ven-

ture to engage the Jews in open battle. He sought
gradually to dislodge them from their strongholds.
The Romans were compelled to enter from the
north, and here they captured the populous and
well-fortified cities, Kabul, Sicliin, and Magdala,
surnamed Zebuaya (“City of the Dyers”). The
next city invested was the so-called “ Har ha-Melek ”
(Tur Malka, “Mountain of the King”), where a cer-
tain “Bar-Deroma,” possibly identical with Bar
Kokba, commanded on the Jewish side. The Val-
ley of Rimmon, perhaps also called Bik'at-Yadayim,
the starting-point of the rebellion, became the scene
of a murderous conflict (Eliyalm R. xxx. ; compare
Lam. R. i. 16; Gen. R. lxiv.). The Romans are said
to have fought fifty-two battles — according to cer-
tain writers, fifty -four — until, at last, Bethar alone
remained ; and this place finally fell, through treach-
ery, into the hands of the Romans, who would not
for a long time afterward give permission for the in-
terment of the slain.

The war was ended, and Bar Kokba met his death
upon the walls of Bethar. Indescribable misery
spread over Palestine; the land be-
End of came a desert ; the Jews were slaugh-
the War. tered en masse-, and Talmud and Mid-
rash bewail the horrors of the Roman
conquest. According to Dio Cassius, 580,000 Jews
fell in battle, not including those who succumbed to
hunger and pestilence. It must have been regarded
as an evil omen by the Jews that the pillar of Solo-
mon in Jerusalem fell of itself. Indeed, the end of
the Jewish nation had come. The Romans also had
sustained heavy losses ; and it is reported that Hadrian
did not even send the usual message to Rome that
he and the army were well (Dio Cassius, ib.) — a story
which can not be true in view of the opinion already
expressed that Hadrian was not present during the
conflict (see, however, “ Revue Etudes Juives,” i. 49).
Hadrianus was for the second time elected imperator
by the Senate, and Julius Severus was honored
with the ornamenta triumphalia. (The governor of
Bithynia, named Severus, so highly praised by Dio
Cassius, was another person, Sextus Julius Severus.)

This war, designated by the Mishnah (Sotah ix. 14)
as “the final polemos,” had lasted three and one-half
years (Seder ‘Olam R., toward the end, according to
the reading of Dei Rossi ; not two and one-half, as
in the common reading; Yer. Ta‘anit iv. 68d et seq. ;
Lam. R. ii. 2; Jerome on Dan. ix.). But this applies
only to the actual struggle for Bethar ; after the fall
of that city, which, according to the tradition, took
place on the Ninth of Ab, 135, two brothers in Ke-
phar-Haruba, in the vicinity of Tiberias, had still to
be overcome (Yalk., Deut. 946; the Venice ed., how-
ever, reads here “ Kepliar Hananyah,” otherwise as in
Yer. Ta'anit and Lam. R. l.c.). In three cities — Ha-
math near Tiberias, Kephar Lekutyali, and Bethel —
Hadrian had garrisons posted for the purpose of
capturing Jewish fugitives (Lam. R. i. 16; slightly
different in ed. Buber, p. 82). Here, as in the before-
mentioned Valley of Rimmon, the Jews are said to
have been brought in by false promises. Many were
sold into slavery ; and for this purpose a market was
held under the terebinth, which tradition identified
with Abraham’s Oak, where Jews were sold for
the price of a horse. Others were sold at the market

509

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bar Kokba
Bar Mizwah

at Gaza, and the remainder were transported to
Egypt (“Chronicon Alexandrinum,” 224th Olym-
piad, in Hunter, ib. p. 113; Jerome on Zecli. xi. 5;
Jer. xxxi. 15). Some were fortunate enougli to be
able to flee either to Asia Minor (Justin, “ Dialogus
cum Tryphone,” i.), or even to Armenia (Lam. R. i.
15, ed. Buber, p. 77).

The subsequentera was one of danger (“ sha'at ha-
sckauah”) for the Jews of Palestine, during which the
most important ritualistic observances were forbid-
den; for which reason the Talmud states (Geiger’s
“Jiid. Zeit.” i. 199, ii. 126; Weiss, “Dor,” ii. 131;
“Rev. Et. Juives,” xxxii. 41) that certain regula-
tions were passed to meet the emer-
The Age of gency. It was also called the age of
Per- the edict (“ gezerah ”) or of persecution
secution. (“shemad,” Shah. 60a; Cant. R. ii. 5).

The ten martyrs, glorified in legend, in
those days suffered death for their faith; for it was
the aim of the government to destroy the very es-
sence of Judaism by preventing the study of the
Law. Other prohibitions were promulgated con-
cerning the Sabbath, circumcision, tefillin, and me-
zuzali, and constituted a mass of ordinances usually
embraced in the term “the Hadrianic persecution.”
A positively inhuman prohibition was issued which
prevented the Jews from walking in the vicinity of
Jerusalem, so that they could not even pour out their
griefs on hallowed soil. The former plan of Hadrian
was now also put into execution ; after the plow had
been drawn over the Temple mountain, Jerusalem
became a pagan city under the name of “ yElia Capi-
tolina.”

Bibliography : The history of the Bar Kokba war was written
by the rhetor Antonius Julianas, whose work, however, has
been lost. An extract from the report of Ariston of Pella is
given in the Hist. Eccl. iv. 6 of Eusebius. But the principal
source of information is the Hist. Row. lxix. ch. 12-14 of
Dio Cassius, while the Chronic on Alexandrinum and the
work of Moses of Cborene are also valuable. The Jewish sources
are rich in information, but should be consulted with cau-
tion ; and this applies also to the Samaritan Booh of Joshua,
ed. Juynboll, Leyden. 1848. Among modern authors, Miin-
ter, Renan. Gregorovius, Jost, and Graetz are noteworthy ; see
also Derenbourg, Essai sur VHistoire et la Geographic de
la Palestine, pp. 415 et seq., Paris, 1867 ; Scbiirer. Gesch. i.
583 et seq.', Mommsen, ROmisehe Gesch. v. 544 et seq.;
Schlatter, Die Tage Trojans und Hadrians, Giitersloli,
1897; Magazin f. a. Wissenschaft d. Judenthums; Deren-
bourg, Quelques Notes sur la Guerre de Bar Kozeba, in
Melanges de VEcole des Hautes Etudes, Paris, 1878.

G. S. Kr.

BAR KOZIBA. See Bar Kokba.

BAR MIZWAH (literally, “the son of com-
mand, ” “ man of duty ”) : Hebrew term applied to a
boy on completing his thirteenth year, who has then
reached the age of religious duty and responsibility.
The name “ Bar Mizwah ” occurs in B. M. 96a, where
it is applied to every grown Israelite; but in the
sense now used it can not be clearly traced earlier
than the fourteenth century, the older rabbinical
term being “ gadol ” (adult) or “ bar ‘onshin ” (son of
punishment); that is, liable to punisli-
Religious ment for his own misdoings ; see Raslii
Maturity. Nid. 455, on the word The

age of puberty being attained at about
the fourteenth year, the boy that is over thirteen
years of age has the power of making vows or of
consecrating property to holy purposes (Nid. v. 6) ;
he is held to account for his own sins, whereas a
child before that age may die on account of his

father’s sins (Midrash Zutta, Ruth, ed. Buber, p. 47 ;
Yalk., Ruth, 600); and, according to some, the
father’s merit confers benefits upon the son oul}-
until he has reached his “ perek that is, the age of
maturity (Tosef., ‘Eduy. i. 14).

The solemnization of the attainment of the age of
religious maturity takes place on the first Sabbath
of the fourteenth year, when the Bar Mizwah is
called up (see ‘Aliyaii) to read a chapter from the
weekly portion of the Law, either asone of the seven
men or as the eighth, where it is customary to read
the closing chapter and the Haftarah ; and if he be
unable to read, to recite at least the benediction be-
fore and after the reading, while the father offers
silently the rather strange benediction : “ Blessed be
He who has taken the responsibility for this child’s
doing from me ” (see Shulhan ‘Aruk, Orah Hayyim,
ccxxv. 2, note of Isserles, and “Magen Abraham,”
cclxxxii., note 18).

This event is celebrated by joyous festivity, the
Bar Mizwah boy delivering on this occasion a
learned discourse or oration at the table before the
invited guests, who offer him presents, while the
rabbi or teacher gives him his blessing, accompany-
ing it at times with an address (see
Celebration Solomon Luria, “Yam Sliel Shelo-

of Event, moh ” to B. K. vii. 37, and other au-
thorities in “Magen Abraham,” l.c. ;
Low’s “Lebensalter,” pp. 210-217, 410-112). Hence-
forth he is reckoned among the adults to fill the
Minyan, or required number of ten (Shulhan ‘Aruk,
Orah Hayyim, lv. 9 et seq.). Regarding the time
when the boy’s initiation into his religious duties is
to commence, when he is to begin putting on the
tefillin, or when to fast on the Day of Atonement, see
Yoma82a; Shulhan ‘Aruk, Orah Hayyim, xxxvii. 3,
cxvi. 2). Leopold Low (l.c.) has shown that the Bar
Mizwah rite had become a fixed custom only in the
fourteenth century in Germany.

Nevertheless there are many indications, over-
looked by Low, that its origin must be sought in
remote antiquity. Samuel ha-Katan, at the close
of the first century, gives in his saying on the Ages
of Man in the Baraita attached to Abot v. 21 (see
Mahzor Vitry, p.549) the completion of the thirteenth
year as the age for the commandments (“le-miz-
wot ”) ; and the commentary to the passage refers
to Levi, the son of Jacob, who, at thirteen, is called
“ish”(=man; Gen. xxxiv. 25). Simon Zemah Du-
ran, in his “ Magen Abot ” to the Baraita, quotes a
Midrasli interpreting the Hebrew word IT (— “ this ”)
in Isa. xliii. 21 — “This people have I formed for my-
self, they shall pronounce [A. V. “set forth”] my
praise ” — as referring by its numerical value to those
that have reached the age of thirteen. This seems to
imply that at the time the Midrash was composed
the Bar Mizwah publicly pronounced a benediction
on the occasion of his entrance upon maturity. This
is confirmed by the Midrash Hashkem
How It (see Griinhut’s “Sefer lia-Likkutim,”
Originated, i. 3a): “The heathen when he begets
a son consecrates him to idolatrous
practises; the Israelite has his son circumcised and
the rite of ‘ pidyon ha-ben ’ performed ; and as soon
as he becomes of age he brings him into the syna-
gogue and school (‘ bet ha-keneset ’ and ‘ bet lia-mid-

Bar Mi^wab
Bar Shalmon

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

510

rash’), in order that henceforth he may praise the
name of God, reciting the ‘ Bareku ’ (Benediction)
preceding the reading from the Law.” Masseket
Soferim xviii. 5 is even more explicit: “ In Jerusalem
they are accustomed to initiate their children to fast
on the Atonement Day, a year or two before their ma-
turity ; and then, when the age has arrived, to bring
the Bar Mizwali before the priest or elder for bless-
ing, encouragement, and prayer, that he may be
granted a portion in the Law and in the doing of
good works. Whosoever is of superiority in the
town is expected to pray for him as he bows down
to him to receive his blessing.” This then helps to
illustrate the Midrash (Gen. R. lxiii.), which, in
commenting upon the passage (Gen. xxv. 27), “and
the boys grew,” says: “Up to thirteen years Esau
and Jacob went together to the primary school and
back home ; after the thirteen years were over, the
one went to the bet ha-midrash for the study of the
Law, the other to the house of idols. With reference
to this, R. Eleazar remarks, ‘Until the thirteenth
year it is the father’s duty to train his boy ; after
this he must say : “ Blessed be He who has taken
from me the responsibility [the punishment] for
this boy ! “ Why is the evil desire (‘ yezer hara‘ ’)

personified as the great king? (Eccl. ix. 14). Be-
cause it is thirteen years older than the good desire
(‘yezer liatob’).” That is to say, the latter comes
only with the initiation into duty (Ab. R. N., A.
xvi., B. xxx.; Midr. Teh. ix. 2; Eccl. R. ix. 15).
According to Pirke R. El. xxvi., Abraham rejected
the idolatry of his father and became a worshiper
of God when he was thirteen years old. In the
light of these facts the story related in Luke ii.
42-49, as observed by the elder Lightfoot, Wetstein,
and Holtzmann in their commentaries to the passage,
finds its true significance : The child Jesus when only
twelve years of age, having not yet attained the
religious maturity, joined, of his own accord, the
teachers of the Law, and astonished all by his under-
standing and his answers, being, as he said, con-
cerned only about the things of his Father in heaven
(172 pH “Wist ye not that I must be

about my Father’s business? ”). Compare with this
what Josephus writes of himself: “When I was a
child about fourteen years old, I was commended by
all for the love I had for learning, on which account
the high priest and principal men of the city came
to me in order to know my opinion regarding
the accurate understanding of points of the Law ”
(“Vita,” 2).

In Morocco the boy becomes Bar Mizwali when he
has passed the age of twelve years. He usually
learns one of the Talmudieal treatises by heart, and
after he has passed an examination, the rabbis and
the parnasim of the congregation, together with his
relatives and friends, are invited to a dinner the
Wednesday before the Sabbath on which he is to be
“called up” to the Law. The following morning
(Thursday), at the service which takes place in the
boy’s house, the chief rabbi puts the tefillin upon
his arm, and his father those upon his head, while
the choir accompanies the initiation rite with a hymn.
He is then “called up” to the Law; and before the
close of the service he delivers a discourse, partly in
the vernacular, for the benefit of the women who are

present. The rabbis follow with a discussion, and
the Bar Mizwali is then blessed aloud by the whole
assembly. After this he goes around with his tefillin-
bag, and first the men, then the women, and finally
his parents throw silver coins into the bag, which
he then presents to his teacher. A breakfast follows,
in which all take part. On the next Sabbath, the
Bar Mizwali reads the “ Haftarah. ” When he is
called up to the Law, a piyyut is recited, the text
of which is given in the “Allgemeine Zeitung des
Judenthums,” 1839, p. 278, whence the above ac-
count has been taken. See also Banquets.

Regarding a strange custom of cutting a boy’s
hair when he became Bar Mizwali, see Abrahams’
“Jewish Life in the Middle Ages,” p. 144, note 2.
For Bar Mizwali in modern times, see Confirmation.

Bibliography : Leopold L5w, Die Lcbensalter , in Jlidische
Literatur , pp. 210-217, Szeged in, 1875 ; J. ('. G. Bodenschatz,
Kirchliche Verfassung der Heutigen Judcn, iv. 94, 95, Er-
langen, 1748; Giidemann, Geschichte des Erziehungswesens
und der Cultur der Jvden in Deutschland , p. Ill, Vienna,
1888 ; idem, Quellemchriften zur Gescliichte des Unterrichts
und der Erziehung hei den Deutschen Juden , p. 143,
Berlin, 1891, where R. Jair Haim Bacharach’s Rules of Study
for the Bar Mizwali boy are given ; Hamburger, 11. B. T. s.v.
Mizwah ; Schiirer, Gesch. des JUdischen Vo Ikes, ii. 426 ; Cb.
Taylor, Sailings of the Jewish Fathers , 1897, pp. 97, 98; I.
Abrahams, as above.

J. SR. K.

BAR SHALMON -Q) : Legendary son-

in-law of Ashmedai, king of the demons. Bar Shal-
mon, the scholarly and pious son of a rich merchant
who had accumulated great wealth through maritime
ventures, promised his father under oath, when the
latter was on his death-bed, never to undertake a sea
voyage. Indeed, the fortune accumulated by the
old merchant was so considerable that it was not
necessary for the son to expose himself to the dan-
gers of the sea. A few years after his father’s death,
there entered the harbor of the city where Bar Shal-
mon resided a richly laden merchant vessel, the cap-
tain of which informed him that all its cargo of gold,
precious stones, and other valuables were part of his
father’s estate abroad. Bar Shalmon learned further
that this cargo represented but a very small part of
his father’s possessions in foreign lands; and he was
earnestly requested to return in the ship in order to
take possession of his inheritance. Bar Shalmon
pleaded his inability to do so because of his vow.
The captain declined to accept this excuse, on the
ground that he believed Bar Shalmon’s father to
have been mentally incompetent at the time of his
death, as evidenced by the fact that he had not al-
luded, even by a hint, to his vast treasures abroad.

After considerable parleying, Bar Shalmon per-
mitted himself to be persuaded to break his oath;
and he entered upon the voyage. As soon as the
ship was upon the high seas, it sank
Breaks His with all on board, Bar Shalmon alone,
Oath to naked and destitute, being dashed by
His Father, the waves upon a desert island. There
he was pursued by a lion, and sought
refuge in a gigantic tree, upon which there was
perched a fierce vulture (XDlS’p. not to be translated
here as “owl ”). In his terror Bar Shalmon climbed
upon the back of the bird, which was so astonished
by its sudden burden that it remained motionless all
night; and its fright increased when, in the morn-
ing, it saw clearly the man sitting upon it. In its

511

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Bar Mizwah
Bar Shalmon

dismay the bird Hew swiftly across the sea; and to-
ward evening Bar Shalmon discerned laud beneath
him, and even distinguished the voices of children
declaiming the verse of Exodus, “If thou buy a
Hebrew servant,” etc. (xxi. 2). Firmly believing
that the country was inhabited by Jews, Bar Shal-
mon plunged from his great height to the ground.
Bruised in all his limbs and exhausted by hunger,
he crept to the synagogue, which he found locked.
Introducing himself to a boy, with the words of
Jonah, “ I am a Hebrew ; and I fear the Lord, the
God of heaven ” (Jonah i. 9), the latter conducted
him to the rabbi. To Bar Shalmon’s
Falls into dismay, he learned that certain death
the Land of now awaited him ; for he had fallen
Demons, into the realm of the demons (see
Demonology), who would surely kill
him at sight. His prayers and lamentations, how-
ever, aroused the compassion of the rabbi, who
promised to exert his influence in the wanderer’s
behalf. Concealing him in his house for the night,
on the following morning he conducted him to the
synagogue. With a noise like thunder and with the
rapidity of lightning, thousands of demons flew into
the synagogue ; but, although conscious of the pres-
ence of a man, they remained quiet out of respect
to their rabbi. When the hazan had completed
the introductory psalms (“pesuke de-zimrah”) the
rabbi directed him to pause (this presupposes the
Sephardic ritual ; for according to the German min-
hag these psalms are an integral part of the regular
prayers), and requested the congregation not to
harm his charge.

After a long debate, during which the fact was
emphasized that Bar Shalmon, the perjurer, was
deserving of death, it was decided to bring the mat-
ter before King Ashmedai; whereupon the hazan
declared that none should harm Bar Shalmon under
penalty of excommunication. Ashmedai summoned
a tribunal, the members of which were to decide
whether, according to the Torah, Bar Shalmon was
deserving of death. The judges found him guilty,
and did not consider the death-penalty
Saved from too severe for the perjurer. Aslime-
Death. by dai recommended, however, that exe-
Ashmedai. cution be postponed fora day ; and he
kept Bar Shalmon at his house in order
the more effectually to protect him. Meanwhile
Ashmedai found an opportunity of making the closer
acquaintance of Bar Shalmon, in whom he recognized
a great scholar. The king promised to save him
from death provided he would pledge himself on
oath to impart all his wisdom to Ashmedai’s son.
Bar Shalmon agreed to this; and it was arranged
that, before the execution, he should express the
desire to be brought before the king, in order that
the latter might as a scholar pass judgment on a
point in Bar Shalmon’s favor (compare Ashmedai).
The arrangement was carried out; and Ashmedai
announced publicly that Bar Shalmon had not
broken his oath, inasmuch as he had believed that
his father was mentally incompetent at the time of
its exaction.

Bar Shalmon was now exonerated, and he received
the position of teacher in the house of Ashmedai.
Three years later, when the latter undertook a

campaign against a country which had revolted, he-
left Bar Shalmon at home as his representative, en-
trusting him with the keys of all the apartments
in his palace excepting one. Bar Shalmon was curi-
ous to learn what this secret chamber contained ;
and, opening the door, he discovered the beautiful
daughter of the king seated upon a splendid throne.
The princess informed him that her father had long
intended to bestow her upon Bar Shalmon, and that
he was only waiting for the latter to sue for her hand.
She further counseled him to plead his love for her
in defense of his intrusion into the
Becomes secret apartment, in case her father
Ashmedai’s should reproach him for his breach of
Son- faith. Thus it came about that Bar
in-Law. Shalmon soon afterward married the
princess; the wedding being attended
not only by demons, but also by numerous animals
and birds. The bridegroom was compelled to take
a solemn oath that he married the princess solely
because of his love for her, and that he would never
desert her.

Bar Shalmon, however, felt a yearning for his
seaport home which constantly increased in intensity,
so that once, when he beheld the little son with
which the princess had presented him, he sighed
deeply, and his thoughts reverted to his other chil-
dren. The princess questioned him as to the cause
of his sadness, asking whether he had tired of her
beauty or whether there was anything lacking to his
happiness — a situation that vividly recalls the inter-
view between Venus and Tannhiiuser. When she
found that his yearning for home could not be ap-
peased, she granted him a year’s leave of absence,
after he had made both a verbal and a written oath
to return within the appointed time.

A demon transported him to his former home in a
single day, and upon his arrival there Bar Shalmon
told his escort to inform the princess that he would
never return to her. The princess at first refused
to believe this report, and waited until the expira-
tion of the year, when she despatched the same de-
mon to Bar Shalmon to bring him back. Neither
he nor the many other distinguished demons who
were sent could prevail upon Bar Shalmon to keep
his promise ; and all the threats and exhortations of
the princess were unheeded. Ashmedai now became
enraged, and declared his intention of going in per-
son to compel Bar Shalmon to return. The princess,
however, pacified her father, and, ac-
He Deserts companied by a great army of demons,
the proceeded herself in quest of her recre-
Princess. ant husband. Arrived at her destina-
tion, she at first despatched her son
Solomon to his father; but his efforts were fruitless,
Bar Shalmon refusing to return to the demons. The
princess thereupon summoned him before the court,
after she had rejected proposals of her followers to
put her husband to death. The court decided that
Bar Shalmon must either return with the princess or
become divorced from her, in which latter case lie
must return her dowry (Ketubaii). Bar Shalmon
thereupon disdainfully agreed to return all the
wealth of the princess, so long as he should not be
compelled to follow her. This so enraged the prin-
cess that she forthwith renounced her husband;

Bar Shalmon
Baraita

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

512

requesting, however, as a boon, that she be permit-
ted to kiss him before departing. He acceded to the
request; but no sooner had their lips
She Slays met than Bar Shalmon fell dead, the
Him. princess exclaiming; “This is the
punishment for thy perjury and thine
infidelity to God, thy father, and myself.” There-
upon she returned to her own people, but left her
son behind, fearing that his presence might remind
her of his father.

The purpose of the legend, as evident from the
narrative, is to inculcate the sacredness of an oath;
nor can there be the slightest doubt as to its Jewish
origin, the usual superscription, according to which
it is represented as a translation from the Arabic,
being evidently false. The statement that Abraham
Maimon was the translator and even the author of
the legend is likewise incorrect ; for this Abraham
— by whom probably no other than the son of Mai-
monides was meant — in all likelihood did not even
believe in the existence of demons. It is probably
true, however, that the legend originated in the circle
of the Arabian Jevrs, as demonstrated by the many
points of resemblance it bears to the “Arabian
Nights,” the similitude between the characters of
the Jewish legend and the Jewish merchant Benes-
dra (NITy p) and his son Solomon in the “Arabian
Nights” (“Les 1,000 Quarts d'Heure,” Paris, 1715;
German ed. by I)essauer,1844, i. 497 et seq.), as Stein-
sclineider observes, being especially striking. The
names also seem to correspond somewhat ; for “ Bar
Shalmon ” in the Arabian version becomes “ Solo-
mon,” who in the Aslimedai legend, again, is men-
tioned as the son of Bar Shalmon. Indeed, the name
“ Bar Shalmon ” is itself to be suspected, and is prob-
ably corrupted from 13 (Bartholomseus). In

Lev. R. vi. 3 a certain Bartholomseus is mentioned
as an example of a perjurer.

The legend of Bar Shalmon, in the Hebrew litera-
ture known under the title “Ma’aseh Yerushalmi,”
belongs to the most widely popular stories of this
■class ; and even to-day in Russia it is a great favorite
with the children. There are three Latin and two
■German translations of it, and one in Judseo-German
— a fact which furnishes the best proof of its pop-
ularity. There is besides an adaptation in French
by Carlotta Patino Rosa, “Mitra, ou la Demone
Mariee” (Padua?, 1745?).

Bibliography: Steinschneider, Cat. Borth col. TOO; Zanolini.
Lexicon Chaldaico-Rabhinieum, pp. 774-801, which con-
tains a Latin translation from the Hebrew text; Carmoly, in
Oholibah , pp. 40-70; Pascheles, Sippurim, iii. 166; idem, in
Steinschneider, Hchriiische Bibliographic, xvi. 67. xix. 113.
A. L. G.

BAR YOKNI (written "Q and 12): A
gigantic bird mentioned several times in the Talmud.
An authority at the beginning of the third century,
in relating a number of wonders, says that this bird
was so large that once one of its eggs dropping
from a height flooded sixty cities and shattered three
hundred cedar-trees (Bek. 575). In two other pas-
sages the egg and the bird are similarly used as ex-
amples of huge size (Yorna 80« ; Suk. 55, top). The
Talmud identifies Bar Yokui with the ostrich, men-
tioned in Job xxxix. 13, and says that the bird lifts
its egg from the place where it happens to lay it and
flies with it at a great height until it reaches its nest.

where it puts it gently down (Rashi on Bek. l.c. ;
Rashi and Tos. on Men. 665; compare Sifra, Wayikra,
Nedabal), xiv. 13; ed. Weiss, 125). The opinion that
the bird was reserved for the food of the pious in
Messianic times occurs only in Elijah Levita, Tishbi,
s.v. rosy.

The name of the bird, “Bar Yokni” (Son of the
Nest; “ Yokni ”= Arabic “wukanatun,” nest), is
probably due to a prevailing belief that the female
ostrich does not sit upon her eggs, but merely lets
them lie in the nest. Some scholars connect Bar
Yokni with Yaraghna, the swiftest bird mentioned
in the Zend Avesta; but the two do not resemble
each other in their characteristics.

Bibliography; Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, i. 396,
ii. 877; Kohut, Amch Completum, ii. 176, 177; Windiscb-
mann, Zoroastrische Studien, p. 93.
j. sr. L. G.

BARABAS : The principal character in Christo-
pher Marlowe’s “The Rich Jew of Malta,” first pro-
duced at the Rose Theater, Bankside, London, in
1591, and entered in the Stationers’ Books May 17,
1594. The role of Barabas was created by Edward
Alleyn, the founder of Dulwich College. The play
was revived in 1818 at Drury Lane Theater by Ed-
mund Kean, but failed to secure popular approval.
Barabas is an inhuman fiend, with an occasional
lapse into humanity. His predominating traits arc
vicious ingenuity, intensity of vengeful emotions,
a lustful love of gold, and a degenerate desire to
kill. He is the embodiment of all that is thoroughly
bad, and as a character-drawing must rank high —
during the first two acts of the play almost as high
as the Shakespearian Shylock. The latter — harsh
though his methods be — seeks payment of a just
claim ; Barabas seeks revenge ou all humanity —
Christian, or Turk, or Jew. He prostitutes his own
daughter and uses her as a bait for which her two
lovers fight to the death. Shylock has some nobility
of character ; Barabas, none. His money and estates
confiscated by the governor of Malta to pay an over-
due indemnity to the Turks, Barabas, who has hid-
den the greater part of his gold and jewels in his
former home, induces his daughter, Abigail, to feign
conversion to Christianity, that she may reenter the
home, now a cloister, to obtain the hoard. When
Abigail protests, Barabas reassures her with:

"... Tush !

As good dissemble that thou never mean’st
As first mean truth and then dissemble it :

A counterfeit profession is better
Than unseen hypocrisy.”

Having obtained the hoard, Barabas buys a palace
to shame the Christians, and plots vengeance against
the governor of Malta and incidentally against Ma-
thias, the Christian lover of Abigail. By means of
a forged letter he brings Matliins and Loclowick, son
of the governor, into a duel, in which both die.
When Abigail learns of her father’s deed, through
his slave Ithamore, she turns Christian and retires
to the nunnery, her former home. On hearing this,
Barabas sends poisoned broth to the nuns.

Abigail, dying, confesses her father’s villainy to
the two friars, Jacomo and Bernardine, and they be-
come the next victims of Barabas' wrath. He lures
Bernardine into his home by promises of money, and,
aided by Ithamore, strangles him. Then he places

513

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bar Shalmon
Baraita

the dead body in a natural attitude. When Jacomo
arrives he becomes jealous of his brother friar and
brains him. Thereupon Barabas turns him over
to the authorities, who hang him on a charge of
murder.

In the mean time Ithamore has been ensnared by
Bellamira, a courtezan ; and to her and her lover,
Pilia-Borza, he confesses. They seek to blackmail
Barabas-, and he kills them by means of poison
sprinkled on flowers. When taken into custody, he
swallows a sleeping-draft, of “ poppy and cold man-
drake juice.” He is left for dead, and betrays the
city into the hands of the Turks, who make him
governor.

Barabas' next desire is vengeance on the Turks, the
prime instigators of his troubles. He invites their
commander-in-chief to a banquet, prepared in a
room so built that by the cutting of a rope all in the
room would be precipitated into a caldron of boiling
oil. As the Turks arrive, Ferneze, the ex-governor
of Malta, cuts the rope, and Barabas is thrown into
the caldron, from which, dying, he exclaims:

“ Die, life ! fly, soul ! tongue, curse thy fill, and die ! ”
Such is Barabas, the embodiment of devilislmess.
It is only fair to say that three of the Christian char-
acters in the play — the two friars and the courtezan
— are fully as repulsive as Barabas. Remarkable as
was Marlowe’s perception of human nature, his
knowledge of Hebrew nomenclature was decidedly
defective ; for in Act 1, Barabas indicates other Jews
by such names as “Zaareth,” “Temainte,” “Nones,”
and “Kirriali.”

Birliography : Merchant of Venice, in H. H. Furness, The
New Variorum Shakespeare , Appendix, pp. 323-324; Gen-
tleman's Magazine, 1830, c. 593, 594, 596, 597 ; Fuller,
Worthies, ii. 223; Collier, Memoirs of Edivard Alleyn, 1841.

J. E. Ms.

BARABBAS ; Prisoner of the Romans released
by the procurator Pontius Pilate. The reason for
his incarceration is given differently in various
books of the New Testament. In Matt, xxvii. 16,
he is called “ a notable prisoner ” ; according to Mark
xv. 7, and Luke xxiii. 19, he had been implicated
in some insurrection and had committed what was
known to the Romans as murder; John xviii. 40
represents him as a robber. According to the New
Testament account there was a custom to release, at
the request of the people on the day preceding the
festival of Passover, one prisoner condemned to
punishment. When they were given the choice be-
tween Barabbas and Jesus after the latter had been
condemned, they selected Barabbas, possibly on the
ground that he had been engaged in an insurrection
against the Romans. Brandt, following Jerome on
Matt, xxvii. 16, who quotes the gospel of the He-
brews as containing the explanation of Barabbas as
“Alius magistri eorum,” gives as the reason that,
being the son of a rabbi or teacher, he was popular
among the people. This assumes that “ Abba ” is
used in the name “Barabbas” as a common noun,
whereas “ Abba ” is found as a prsenomen as early as
tannaitic times (Yeb. 15 a). If “Abba” were merely
a title of Barabbas’ father, his name could not have
been simply “ Son of Abba.” In fact Origen reports
that in several manuscripts of the Gospels he had
seen the name given as “Jesus Barabbas ” or “Jesus,
II.— 33

son of Abba. ” Accordingly, the first name was after-
ward omitted from the manuscripts of the Gospels
when the name of Jesus had become sacred. Cliajes
(in Hilgenfeld’s “ Zeitschrift, ” xliii. 280) thinks of
the Talmudical name •0"Q (Mak. 5 b), which, how-
ever, still awaits a satisfactory explanation.

With regard to the Roman custom of selecting a
mock king who should die, and another who should
represent the local deity and have all the privileges
of a sacred person, compare Philo, “In Flaecum,”
§§ 5, 6; Fraser, “The Golden Bough,” 2d edition;
and article Jesus.

Bibliography: Brandt, Evangelische Gesch. 1893, pp. 94-

105 ; Folklore, xii. 227.

K. J.

BARACH, M. See Maerzroth.

BARACH, ROSA : Austrian authoress and edu-
cator; born at Neu-Rausnitz, Moravia, May 15,
1841. Educated at her native place and at Vienna,
she settled in the latter city, where she founded a
high school for girls. In 1882 she made a profes-
sional tour in Germany as a reciter. She published
the following novels: “AusEigener Kraft,” 1880;
“Soldaten Fritz,” 1881; “ Gefesselt,” 1882; “Liebes-
opfer,” 1884; “ Aberglauben,” 1890; “ Stiefmiitter-
clien,” 1892; “Alle Drei,” 1893. She wrote also:
“Aus Oesterreiehs Herzen,” patriotic songs, 1882;
“Franz Josef I.,” a biography of the Austrian em-
peror, 1889; “Ein Abend Enter Freimaurern,” a
sketch, 1893.

Bibliography : Eisenberg, Das Geistige Wien, i. 17.

s. M. B.

BARAFFAEL (BARUFFALL), ISAAC :

Italian officer and communal worker; lived in Rome
at the end of the eighteenth century and the begin-
ning of the nineteenth. On the occupation of Rome
by the French, Baraffael was appointed major of
the national forces on March 18, 1798. After the
reconquest of the city by the Neapolitans and their
allies, when a heavy tribute was exacted from the
Jews, Baraffael paid 700 scudi (about §700). In
1811 he was elected deputy -representative of the
Jewish community of Rome.

Bibliography: Vogelstein and Rieger, Gesch. dcr Juden in

Rom, ii. 352 et seg.

s. M. B.

BARAITA (plural Baraitas ; Hebrew plural,
Baraitot) : An Aramaic word designating a tan-
naite tradition not incorporated in the Mislmali;
later it was applied also to collections of such tra-
ditions (“Barayata,” plural of Baraita). The Ara-
maic form is Nrvni, which in an old manuscript
in Griinhut, “Sefer lia-Likkutim, ” ii. 206, is vocal-
ized NiTHl (“ Barayta ”). The form frequently used,
“Boraitha” or “Boraita,” is certainly erroneous; for
it assumes the rendition of “ kamez ” by both “ a ”
and “o” in the same word. The word means “the
outside” ND’JriD or tradition, and is probably an
adaptation of the Neo-Hebraic term
Definition. “ sefarim ha-hizonim ” (outside books),
denoting the Apocrypha (employed
by so early a teacher as Akiba, Sanh. x. 1). The
relation of the Baraita to the Mishnali is thus repre-
sented as similar to that of the Apocrypha to the
canonical Biblical writings.

Baraita

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

514

Another explanation of the term “Baraita” is the
following: The Mishnah — that is, the collection of
tannaite traditions compiled by Judah ha-Nasi —
formed the authoritative subject of instruction in
both the Palestinian and the Babylonian academies ;
whereas the Baraitas were taught in private schools
for the academies (Slierira, “First Letter,” ed. Neu-
bauer, p. 14). Now these preparatory schools, ex-
isting alongside the academies, were designated by
the term “bara” (the outside) (Shah. 1 06a ; Bezah
12/;; Yeb. 776; Sanh. 62/;) ; and later in Babylonia
they were called “tarbiza” (Isaac Halevy, “Dorot
ha-Rishonim,” iii. 226, was probably the first to
prove the identity of the tarbiza with the bara).
A Baraita, accordingly, is teaching delivered in such
sclioolliouses. A point in favor of this explanation
is that it makes clear also the striking designation
for the teacher of a Baraita, “tanna bara,” instead
of “tanna baraya,” the proper form of an adjective.
Thus “ tanna bara ” is neither more nor less than a
“tanna of the bara” (outside school); and his teach-
ing is the Baraita. The fact that the Yeruslialmi
(Pes. vii. 34a; Hallah iv. 59c? ; Yoma vi. 43d) has
“ tanna baraya ” does not disprove this explanation,
as the adjective “ baraya ” merely means “ belonging
to the bara.”

Whatever may have been the original meaning of
the word “Baraita,” it is certain that in the Babylo-
nian Talmud it designates the most varied kinds of
tannaite traditions not contained in
Various the Mishnah, such as Sifra, Sifre,
Kinds of Mekilta, and Tosefta. In the Tal-
Baraita. mud Yeruslialmi, “Baraita” rarely
occurs, but it is not wholly lacking
as Frankel maintains (“Mebo,” 12a) ; see, for in-
stance, Yer. Niddah iii. 50<7. According to Weiss
(“Dor,” iii. 3), Yeruslialmi once gives the Hebrew
equivalent “ Mihuzah ” for the Aramaic “Baraita.”
Ilis statement — which he fails to verify by any ref-
erence— is, however, scarcely correct. (The expres-
sion “ mishnah ha-hizonah ” occurs in Num. R. xviii.
21, a work which, in its present form, is hardly
older than the twelfth century; in ‘Aruk, s.v. “io 1,
and s.v. pnSN; in the writings of the Karaite, Judah
Hadassi; in those of Judah of Barcelona, and in
Halakot Gedolot.

The contents of a Baraita are either haggadic or
halakic, more frequently the latter ; but the propor-
tion of Haggadah to Halakah in the Baraita is quite
different from their proportion to each other in the
Mishnah. For, while the Mishnah rarely gives hag-
gadic matter, the Babylonian treatise Berakot alone
cites fifty Haggadot from the Baraita. The halakic
Baraitas are either purely halakic or
Nature and Midrashic-lialakic ; that is, they either
Sources. simply state a law independently of
Scripture, or deduce legal decisions
from some passage in the Bible by means of certain
hermeneutic rules. The sources used by the Tal-
mud, especially for the halakic Baraitas, are the
extant halakic Midrashim, Mekilta, Sifra, Sifre, Sifre
Zutta, Mekilta de R. Simon, and Mekilta on Deuter-
onomy (the last three only partially preserved in
manuscript form), as well as various tannaitic col-
lections which did not survive the redaction of the
Talmud and of which nothing is now known. To

these lost Midrasliic collections, which were still in
existence at the time of the Amoraim and were the
sources for a large number of the halakic Baraitas,
belong the following: first, those named after the
originator from whose school they issued, as the
Baraita collections of R. Simon, of R. Eliezer h.
Jacob, and of R. Ishmael (the last is often called
“ The Baraita of the school of R. Ishmael ”) ; then
those which are named after their last redactor; e.g.,
R. Hiyyah, R. Hoshaya, and R. Hizkiyah, the last
of whom may be regarded, if not as a tanna, at least
as a semi-tanna (see Bar Kappara), and whose col-
lection marks the transition from the tannaitic to the
amoraic Baraita collections. Concerning the older
pupils of Rabbi — namely, Bar Kappara, Levi, Abba
Arika, and Samuel — it is known that they collected
Baraitas and arranged them according to the Orders
of the Mishnah (for instance, Kid. 76 6; B. B. 526,
where the Baraita collection of Levi is cited as the
“ Kiddushin debe Levi ” ; see Rashbam, ad loc. But
compare also I. Halevy, “Dorot ha-Rishonim,” ii.
119-161).

The great mass of traditional matter presented by
these widely varying Baraita collections may be
separated into two large divisions — the pre-Mishnaic
Baraita and the post-Mislinaic. The
Tannaitic origin and development, form, and

Baraita contents of the two are so essentially
Collections, different that they may be readily dis-
tinguished. Even in the first arrange-
ment of the Mishnah made by the pupils of Shammai
and Plillel in the time of the Temple, considerable
portions of the traditional subject-matter were
omitted. Thus, as was noted by Slierira (First Let-
ter, ed. Neubauer, p. 16), the Talmud (‘Er. 19a)
speaks of a Baraita of the school of R. Johanan b.
Zakkai, which can be taken to mean only that so far
back as the time of Johanan b. Zakkai certain things
were excluded from the authoritative teachings,
which, nevertheless, continued to be transmitted.
When Akiba undertook for the first time a compre-
hensive and systematic collection of the traditional
matter, much was omitted by him, not only through
his frequent and intentional disregard of the old
Halakah, but for the purely economical reasons that
he had to limit himself to a selection from the vast
amount of material at hand. According to a Tal-
mudic passage, not to be taken literally, but doubt-
less containing a foundation of fact, Eliezer b. Hyr-
canus alone transmitted 300 Halakot in a special
case (Sanh. 68a). Most of the. tannaim of Akiba’s
time, like Ishmael and Abba Saul, also occupied
themselves with collections and arrangements of the
old traditions; and their collections, as well as those
of others from which very many Baraitas are derived,
have been preserved in more or less lengthy frag-
ments. Unfortunately, Akiba’s peculiar hermeneu-
tics undid much of the good accomplished by his
methodology; and, indeed, his pupils, R. Mei'r, R.
Judah, R. Simon, and R. Nehemiah, felt themselves
compelled to modify essentially the collection begun
by him ; and in the process many old Baraitas were
again excluded.

The redaction of the Mishnah by Judah ha-Nasi,
which followed, was based chiefly on R. MeVr’s re-
cension of Akiba’s Mishnah. It was owing to the

515

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baraita

great authority with which Rabbi's redaction be-
came invested, that that branch of literature was pro-
duced to which later usage gave the
Effect of name “ Baraita. ” The vast amount of
the matter accumulated from the time of
Mishnah. Hillel’s activity — possibly from earlier
generations — to the time of Judah
ha-Nasi was divided into two groups by his Mish-
nah. It excluded from its contents nearly the whole
lialakic Midrash. Since the Mishnah is concerned
chiefly with judicial statements, and not with causes,
the reason for a Halakah and the means by which it
was produced remain for the most part unknown.
Often no regard is paid in the Mishnah to the opin-
ions of individual authorities; the most recognized
and most wide-spread view is adopted as law; and,
even where varying opinions are cited, the editor
omits, in most cases, the prolix discussions of his
predecessors.

The lialakic Baraitas, therefore, if only those up
to the time of the Mishnah are regarded, consist of
tannaite traditions of the school of Shammai, which
were neglected even by Akiba in his Mishnah, and
naturally were still less heeded by Judah ha-Nasi.
To give an example : In the Mishnah the rule J'X
n“Qy rpf>K> (“ One can not constitute another a

representative [“messenger”] fora crime”) obtains
(see Accessory) ; whereas a Baraita (Kid. 43 a) has
preserved the following tradition : “ Shammai taught,
‘If some one bade a person, Go and kill so-and-so,
he (the sender) has incurred the death-penalty.’”

Another highly characteristic instance
Halakic is the following: The pharisaic concep-
Baraitas. tion, according to which the Biblical
lex talionis is valid only in case of
murder, while for other crimes money compensation
satisfies the law, was no longer an open question
for the Mishnah. Hence, while the Mishnah (B.
K. viii. 1) begins by determining the damages for
bodily injuries, it is learned from a Baraita (ib. 84a)
that this principle was not recognized by the school
of Shammai, and that Eliezer b. Hyrcanus still up-
held the old Sadducean view of the lex talionis (com-
pare Mek., Mishpatim, 8; Geiger’s “ Nachgelassene
Schriften,” v. 163).

It is evident, then, that the Baraita not infrequently
gives the old Halakah, while the Mishnah gives the
later development (see Baraita de-Niddaii). In the
above-mentioned Talmud passage (B. K. 83 b, 84a),
ten Baraitas and Memras present ten different Mid-
rashic reasons for the principle concerning money
compensation for bodily injuries which the Mishnah
assumes to be self-evident. This furnishes an ex-
ample of the wealth of the halakic Midrash in the
Baraita, contrasted with its comparative absence in
the Mishnah.

As has already been observed, some of these ha-
lakic Midrashim have been preserved ; but the purely
halakic Baraita collections — i.e., those without Mid-
rashic support from Scriptures — were completely
supplanted by the Mishnah, and, with the exception
of a few citations in the Talmud, they have entirely
disappeared.

The same was the fate of the haggadic Baraitas ;
for it is highly probable that even Akiba, or at
least his disciples, began Haggadah collections,

arranged according to a certain system. The Book
of Jubilees, as well as scattered haggadic Baraitas,
furnishes plausible grounds for the supposition that
homiletic elucidations and legendary amplifications
based on the Bible text existed at a very early time.
From such Haggadah collections many of the hag-
gadic Baraitas cited in the Talmud and the Midrash
were drawn, and there are numerous indications that
haggadic opinions were early arranged by numbers
(see Baraita of the Forty-Nine Rules), from
which, probably, many Baraitas in numerical form
have been derived (see, for instance, Ber. 3 a, 3b. 10 b,
43 b, and many others enumerated by Weiss, “Dor,”
ii. 240).

Though the old Baraita, as has been shown, is
not only quite independent of the Mishnah, but en-
tirely different from it in character and contents, the
distinguishing feature of the later Baraita, which
originated among the disciples of Judah ha-Nasi, is
its constant relationship with the Mishnah. Expla-
nations and elucidations of the Mishnah, supple-
ments to it, and opposing opinions were all contained
in the Baraitas of Hiyyah, Levi, Bar Ivappara, and
the other pupils of Rabbi. To give an idea of these
Baraitas, the following may serve as an example:
The first Mishnah (Ber. i. 1), which gives the time
set for the reading of the Sliema', certainly originated
in the period preceding the destruction of the Tem-
ple; and the time-limits which it sets for this read-
ing were actually unintelligible and pointless at a
later date. Judah ha-Nasi, who desired his Mish-
nah to be a text-book for instruction rather than a
code of laws, preserved the old formula for the time
of the Shema'-reading current in the academies.
Not so Hiyyah, who in his Baraita changed the for-
mula of the Mishnah in accordance with the condi-
tions prevailing in his day (Yer. Ber., beginning).

At the first blush, these post-Mishnaic Baraitas fre-
quently give the impression of presenting something
quite new. Closer examination, however, reveals
the fact that general rules laid down in the Mishnah
are given a special application in the Baraita. The
Talmud relates that an amora of the second genera-
tion made an interesting wager that he would give
the source in the Mishnah of every teaching in a
Baraita whose author was a disciple of Judah ha-
Nasi (Ket. 6%). Cases in which these Baraitas pre-
sent a view differing from that of the Mishnah are
not very frequent ; but they often give opinions dis-
regarded in the Mishnah, at the same time naming
the authority for them together with the opinion
which the Mishnah holds to be the standard. The
origin of these Baraitas, then, is not to be sought in
any feeling of opposition to the Mishnah — though
this may have played some part — but rather in a
desire to supplement that work. Various passages
of the Talmud, in fact (Naz. 526; B. M. 51a), create
the impression that the disciples of Judah ha-Nasi
were prompted to undertake their work by Rabbi
himself.

Of these Baraita collections only fragments have
been preserved in the Talmuds and Midrashim ; and
probably the Tosefta was in part prepared in accord-
ance with them.

The diverse origins of the Baraitas explain the
varied estimation put upon them during the period

Baraita

Baraita of the Forty-nine Rules

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

516

of the Amoraim, and its unequal influence upon the
development of the Halakah. The time of the first
amoraim was a time of conflict between the Mishnah
and the Baraita ; but at so early a period as that of
the most prominent Palestinian amoraim of the sec-
ond generation the rule had been established that
the teachings not officially delivered in the acade-
mies could not lay claim to authority (Yer. ‘Er. i.

196). In the same spirit was the rule
Authority in the Babylonian Talmud that no re-
of the liance should be placed on Baraitas not

Baraita. embodied in the collections of Hiyyah
and Hosliaya (Hul. 141a et seq .) ; for
these were the only Baraita collections taught in the
academies (Sherira, First Letter, ed. Neubauer, p.
15). But even these favored Baraitas possessed au-
thority only in so far as they did not clash with
the Mishnah (for numerous instances see She-
rira. ib.).

Cases in which the Talmud sides with the Baraita
in opposing the Mishnah are very rare; indeed, only
one such case can be adduced with certainty (Lam-
pronti, “Paliad Yizhak,” i. 52). Nevertheless, cer-
tain amoraim gave special attention to the study of
the Baraita. The principal of these in Babylonia
were Shesliet and Joseph b. Hiyyah, of the third
generation of amoraim, who prided themselves on
their knowledge of the Baraita (‘Er. i. 67a; compare
also the remark of R. Joseph in Git. 66). In general,
however, the Babylonians did not possess so inti-
mate a knowledge of the Baraita as did the Palestin-
ians, who could state the origin and development
of each Baraita with exactitude. If, nevertheless,
some Baraitas remained unknown to the Palestin-
ians, though familiar to the Babylonians, it was
due to the fact that independent Halakot collections
were made in Babylonia, prior to the redaction of
the Mishnah, which never became widely known in
Palestine (Sherira, ib. p. 16). Weiss, however, is
not quite right in asserting (“Dor,” iii. 32) that the
many scholars during the amoraic period, who are
called “ Tannaim ” and are referred to in the Talmud
as “arrangers of ‘Mishnayot’ before the Babylonian
scholars,” were those who carried the Baraitas from
Palestine to Babylonia (I. Ilalevy, “Dorot ha-
Rishonim,” iii. 4, 5; see also Tannaim). They, in
fact, were the very ones who transmitted numerous
Halakot and lialakic Midrasliim, which remained
wholly unknown to the Yerushalmi, and for whose
sources the Palestinian Baraita collections might
have served just as well as the Babylonian.

In post-Talmudic times, “ Baraita ” came to be the
general designation of those works which either
originated or were claimed to have originated in the
time of the Tannaim. Hence, in a wider sense, the
word can be applied to the Tosefta and the lialakic
Midrasliim.

It is probable that the Geonim and later genera-
tions of scholars were acquainted with some Baraita
collections now unknown. Hai Gaon reports that
he saw in the possession of an old scholar supple-
ments to the Mishnah (“Sha'are Teshubali,” 1858,
No. 143).' A Baraita on the stones in the “hoslien”
(breastplate) and “ephod” and on the “degalim”
(banners) was consulted by so late a writer as Mai-
monides, but seems now to be entirely lost (Epstein,

“Mi-Kadmoniyot,” pp. 83-90; compare Mishnah,
Midrash, Tosefta.

Bibliography : Z. Frankel, Darke ha^Mishnah, pp. 218, 311-
313; idem, Mebo , 22 a et seq.; Hoffmann, Zur Kinleituny
in die Halachischen Midraschim, pp. 1-3,79-81; Abraham
Krochmal, Yerushalaim ha-Benuyah , pp. t> et seq.; idem, in
He-Haluz, iii. 118 et seq. ; Nahman Krochmal, Moreh Ne-
buhe ha-Zeman, pp. 200 et seq.; Lampronti, Paliad Yizhak,
1st ed.. i. 52 a et seq., s.v. Nnna ; Oppenheim, 'in Bet' Tal-
mud, ii. 348 et seq.-, idem , in Keneset Yisrael, ii. 50 et seq.-,
Sherira Gaon, First Letter ; Weiss, Dor Dor we-Dorshaw,
ii. 189 et seq., 239-244, iii. 3 ; Zunz, G. V. 2d ed., p. 52.

J. SR. L. G.

BARAITA ON THE (TREATISE) ABOT

(BUNT NJY,-Q), called also Perek R. Mei'r ; and
Perek Kinyan ha-Torah (“ Chapter About Acqui-
sition of the Law ”): A Baraita consisting of eleven
paragraphs on the excellences of the Torah and on
the right way to become acquainted with it. This
Baraita claims to be a supplement to the treatise
Abot, having as a superscription the words; “The
sages taught [“ shanu hakamin ”] in the language
of the Mishnah.” The first part of the sentence,
“ The sages taught,” shows that this section consti-
tutes a Baraita which in the Talmud is cited with
the formula, “ The sages taught. ”

The Baraita mentions, besides R. Mei'r, author of
the first sentence (whence the Baraita is known by his
name), Joshua b. Levi, Simon b. Menasia, Joseb. Kis-
ma, and Simon b. Yohai, whose teaching was trans-
mitted by Simon b. Menasia or, as some versions
have it, by Simon b. Judah. The mention of the
amora Joshua b. Levi in a work claiming tannaite
origin justifies the supposition that the redaction of
this Baraita is of comparatively recent date, belong-
ing to a time in which there no longer existed an
exact knowledge of the chronology of the Tannaim
and Amoraim. Most of the sayings of this Baraita,
with greater or slighter variations, occur in the
Babylonian and the Palestinian Talmud, and in dif-
ferent Midrash collections, in such a way as to make
it apparent that the Baraita de-Abot is more recent
than these works. Coronel, in his “ Hamishah Kun-
tresim,” published (Vienna, 1864), from a manuscript,
a Gemara to this Baraita which was known to many
of the old authorities (compare Kallah). In the edi-
tion of the Talmud by Romm, of Wilua, the Gemara
is reprinted. In the middle of the ninth century,
however, the Baraita already formed a part of the
treatise Abot, and was recited with it in the syna-
gogue on the Sabbath afternoon (Sar Shalom Gaon,
cited in “Siddur R. Amram,” 30a). This was the
custom later, also, both in the Spanish and the Ger-
man rituals.

For the criticism of the text special regard must
be paid to the seventeenth chapter of the Tannadebe
Eliyahu Zutta, in which the Baraita is given in its
entirety, but with different textual readings. The
following two sayings may serve to illustrate its char-
acter: “Every day a voice goes forth from Mount
Horeb and cries out, saying: ‘Wo unto the creatures
[mankind] for the insult they offer to the Law ’ ” (ii. ).
“Seek not greatness for thyself, and desire not
honor. Practise more than thou learnest. Lust not
for the table of kings: for thy table is greater than
their table, thy crown greater than their crown ; and
faithful is thy taskmaster who will pay thee the
wage of thy work ” (v.).

517

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baraita

Baraita of the Forty-nine Rules

Under the title “Baraita Kinyan Torali” R. Noali
Hayyim (Warsaw, 1874) made a collection of all the
passages in the Midrashic and Talmudic literature
bearing upon this Baraita. “Baraita de-Abot” is a
designation also for Abot de-Rabbi Nathan.
Bibliography: Since most editions and translations of Ah nt
contain this Baraita, see the bibliography to Abot : compare
also Baer’s prayer-book, ‘Ahndat Yisrael , pp. 289 et seq. ;
Zunz, G. V. 2d ed., pp. 122, 438.
j. sk. L. G.

BARAITA OF R. ADA (NTS IT STP'-O) : A

Baraita on the calendar. The only one who speaks
of such a Baraita is Abraham b. Hiyya ha-Nassi
(“Sefer lia-Tbbur,” iii. 4), to whom probably are to
be ascribed the words on the Baraita which occur in
the commentary by Obadiah b. David on Maimon-
ides’ “Hilkot lia-Hodesh,”' x. Abraham b. Hiyya
does not seem to have believed that the Baraita
originated in Talmudic times, but rather that it was
composed at the end of the gaonic period. This is
probably true, and does not prejudice the question
of the origin and age of the so-called “Tekufat R.
Ada,” concerning which compare Calendar.

Bibliography: Slonimski, Yesode ha-'lhhur, 2d ed., p. 39;
idem, in Ha-Asif, 1887, pp. 238, 239; Pineles, Darkali xhcl
Torali, p. 253; Zunz, G. V. 2d ed., p. 98; A. Epstein, Mi-
Kadmoniyot lia-Yehudim, p. 20.

J. SR. L. G.

BARAITA ON THE CREATION (SCWO

JYtrN-O HEWl) : 1. See Ma'aseh Bereshit.

2. Under the title n’BWQ ntf'Jim N1Y,_0, L.
Goldschmidt published a work (Strasburg, 1894)
which he gave out to be an Aramaic apocryphon.
But A. Epstein (“ Monatssckrift.,” xxxviii. 479) has
shown that it is a spurious work by Goldschmidt
himself, who translated the Ethiopian Hexsemeron
of Pseudo-Epiplianius into Aramaic, and then edited
it as though it were an old Jewish apocryphon.

,t. sr. L. G.

BARAITA OF R. ELIEZER (~n N1Y,'Q

: The customary name for the Pirke R.
Eliezer among the older scholars, as Raslii and in
the ‘Aruk. Some recent scholars follow their exam-
ple in using this title.

j. sr. L. G.

BARAITA OF R. ELIEZER (more exactly OF
R. ELIEZER B. JOSE HA-GELILI). See Ba-

kaita of the Thirty-two Rules.

BARAITA ON THE ERECTION OF THE
TABERNACLE (pE’Drt NrWO) : A

Baraita cited several times by Hai Gaon, by Nathan
ben Jeliiel in the ‘Aruk, as well as in Raslii, Yalkut,
and Maimonides. Raslii calls it a Mislinah. It treats
in fourteen sections (in the Munich MS., sections i.
and ii. constitute one section) of the boards (sec. i.),
woolen carpets (ii.), and carpets made of goat-hair
(iii.), the curtain (iv.), the courtyard (v.), the Ark of
the Covenant (vi.-vii.), the table (viii.), the candle-
stick (ix., x.), the altar of incense (xi.), the goblets
(xii.), the Levitical services (xiii. ), and the wander-
ing in the wilderness (xiv.). The authorities men-
tioned in this Baraita are; Rabbi (Judah ha-Nasi I.),
Jose, Neliemiah, Judah, Jose b. Judah, Judah b.
Lakisli, Eliezer, Abba Saul, Mei'r, Joshua b. Korha,
Isi (=Isai)b. Judah, Nathan, Simon b. Yohai, and
a pupil of Ishmael not otherwise designated.

With the exception of Isi b. Judah and Judah b.
Lakisli, no authority is here mentioned whose name
does not occur in the Mislinah; and these two are
as old as Rabbi, the author of the Mishnaii. From
this fact, and from the fact that many teachings of
the Baraita on the Erection of the Tabernacle are
cited in the Talmud with the formula “de-tania”
or “tanu rabbanan ” (see proofs in Flesch, p. 7), it
may be assumed that this Baraita was available to
the Amoraim in a fixed form. It is questionable,
however, whether the redactor of the Mekilta and
the redactor of the Sifre drew upon this Baraita.
Mekilta Besliallah, introduction ( 30//, ed. Weiss),
seems to have preserved the Haggadah on the seven
clouds in the wilderness in an older form than that
given by the present Baraita in section xiv. It is
true that this very section may not pertain to the
real Baraita; yet it is quite possible that Sifre, Num.
59, originated from section x. of the Baraita.

Lewy inclines to the supposition that the Baraita
was originally a constituent of the Mekilta of R.
Simon. But an argument against such a hypothesis
is the fundamental difference in the two writings;
the Baraita containing almost no Midrash, while the
Mekilta is composed chiefly of halakic Midrash. The
same reason may serve to refute Briill’s view (“ Jalir-
buclier,” v. 134 et seq., and “ Central-Anzeiger fur
Jildische Literatur,” p. 32), according to which the
Baraita is an addition to the Mekilta.

The text of the Baraita is in general free from in-
terpolations (the words of Isi b. ‘Akkabyah in section
x. do not occur in the Munich MS. ; they found their
way later into the Baraita from Men.
Elements 29«). Nevertheless, the last two sec-
of the tions seem to be later additions from
Baraita. another Baraita (they occur already
in Raslii), which is indicated by the
liaggadic character of the two sections, and by the
fact that the author of “We-Hizhir,” who copied the
Baraita in full, omitted them — probably because he
did not know of them. There is much in favor of
the view of Grunliut and, before him, of Hayyim
M. Horowitz, in “Tosefta ‘Attikata,” i. 7, that both
sections were constituents of the “Baraita of the
Forty-nine Rules.” It is especially noteworthy that
the numbers “four” and “seven ’’are the ones on
which the sections hinge.

Bibliography : Abraham b. Elijah of Wilna. Rah Pe'nlim, p.
39 ; Buber, Yeri'at Shelomoh, p. 15 ; H. Flesch, Die Baraitha
von der Herstellung dcr Stiftshlltte nach der MUnchener
Handschrift, . . . Uchersetzt mid . . . ErlUutcrtA&W) ; Griin-
hut, Sefer ha-Lilfkutim, pp. 11-13, 12b-16n ; Jellinek, ii. H.
iii., xxix.-xxx.; Lewy, Ein Wort Uber die Meltilta deg R.
Simon, Program of the Breslau Seminary, 1889, p. 3 ; Zunz,
G. V. 2d ed., p. 90. Editions: Venice, 1802; Hamburg, 1782;
Offenbach, 1802; Wilna, 1802, by Abraham b. Elijah ; Jellinek,
in D. H. iii. 144-154; Flesch, 1899, from the famous Talmud
Manuscript of Munich.

J. SR. L. G.

BARAITA OF THE FORTY-NINE RULES

(nrra ytf’m D’ymxn xrr-a; usually written
nnD) : Raslii, the Tosafists, Abraham ibu Ezra, Yal-
kut, and Asher ben Jeliiel mention a work, “Baraita
of the Forty-nine Rules,” and make citations from it
(thus, Raslii, ed. Berliner, onEx. xxvi. 5; Yalk.,Gen.
61, calls it “Midrasli Raslii on Ex. xxvii. 6 calls it
“Mislinah”). IbnEzra(“YesodMoreli,”ed. Konigs-
berg, 6a) mentions R. Nathan as the author of the
Baraita. Zunz showed, by referring to a number of

Baraita of the Forty-nine Rules
Baraita on Salvation

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

518

passages in the Talmud, that the tanna R. Nathan,
in the Halakah as well as in the Haggadalx, was ac-
customed to group things arithmetically, and to ar-
range his sayings accordingly. On this observation,
Zunz based the conjecture that “this lost work of
R. Nathan contained a large portion of his Mishnah,
and was arranged in rubrics from one to forty-nine;
so that each rubric, under the introductory formula
“Middah,” mentioned halakic, haggadic, and, in gen-
eral, scientific subjects which belonged in that par-
ticular place in regard to number” (“G. V.” 2d ed.,
pp. 95-97).

From the few fragments of this Baraita preserved
by the above-mentioned authors, only one fact per-
taining to its character can be ascertained, viz., that
it contained haggadic (Yalk. l.c. on the seventy na-
tions) as well as halakic matter, especially such por-
tions of the Halakah as are concerned with exact
measurement; for instance, the measurement of the
Tabernacle and its furnishings (Raslii, l.c.). If from
these short fragments an opinion could be formed
concerning the composition of the Baraita, Zunz’s
assumption would be justified that it contained
Haggadahand Halakah numerically arranged. An-
other assumption of his, however, that it represents
the “ Mishnat R. Nathan ” mentioned elsewhere, is
highly improbable; R. Nathan’s Mishnah was in all
likelihood only a version of Akiba’s Mishnah differ-
ing from the authoritative Mishnah. Against Zunz’s
opinion, compare Eliakim Milsaliagi, “RABIH,” pp.
45, lb.

Steinschneider believed that he had put an end to
all conjecture concerning the Baraita through a
happy find. In the introduction to an edition of the
“ Mishnat lia-Middot, die Erste Geometrische Schrift
in Hebraisclier Sprache ” (Berlin, 1864), he maintains
that this mathematical work, edited by
The him, is identical with the Baraita under
‘ ‘ Mishnat consideration. W ere this the case, the
ha-Middot.” Baraita would be a product of the
ninth or, at the earliest, of the eighth
century, and its birthplace would have to be Baby-
lonia. For, although the scientific terminology of
this, the oldest, mathematical work of the Jews shows
its origin to have been in a time previous to Arabic
influences on Jewish scholarship, yet expressions
like )‘n = Arabic DHD (“arrow ”) for sinus versus, or
niTC'D =Arabic nnSDD for measure, area, show that
the work could not have been written before the con-
tact of the Jews with the Arabs.

But Steinschneider’s assumption can hardly be
supported. The “Mishnat ha-Middot” has nothing
in common with the Baraita cited by the old scholars
under that name : for the citations leave no doubt
that the Baraita, even in its mathematical parts, was
founded on the Bible ; whereas the “ Mishnat ha-Mid-
dot ” is a purely secular work, and, possibly, it drew
upon the same source as did Mohammed b. Musa, the
oldest Arabic mathematician. The plea that the
“ Mishnat ha-Middot ” has not been preserved in its
entirety, and that in its original form there were
references to the Bible for special points, is of no
weight, Since it is absolutely incomprehensible that
haggadic or halakic matter should fit into the frame
of the work as it now is.

The same reason demolishes the hypothesis of

the German translator of the “ Mishnat ha-Middot ”
(“Abliaudlung zur Geschichte d. Matliematik,” in
Supplement to “Zeitschrift fur Matliematik und
Pliysik,” 1880; H. Schapira, “Mishnat ha-Midoth
. . . ins Deutsche Uebersetzt ”), who assumes that
there was a Mishnah with the Gemara on it, and that
citations of the old scholars refer to the Gemara,
whereas the printed text represents the Mishnah
(compare the tanna Nathan, and Baraita on the
Erection op the Tabernacle).

Bibliography : Abraham b. Solomon of Wilna, in the intro-
duction to his edition of Aggadat Bereshit ; idem. Rah
Pe'olim , pp. 86etseq.; Buber, Yeri'ol Shelomoh, pp. 22, 23,
Warsaw, 1896 ; Griinhut, in hraelitische Monatsschrift
(scientihc supplement to JlidiscJie Pres se), vii. 30-31,1898;
idem, Sefer ha-Likkutim, ii. 3 et seq. (Griinhut believes that
he found more citations from the present Baraita in Yalkut ;
the proofs for his assumption are not convincing, at least not
for all the passages in Yalkut, the source of which he con-
siders to be the Baraita); Ziinz, Schapira, and Steinschneider,
as cited above ; Geiger, in Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift file
Jlidische Theolngie , vi. 25-30; Epstein, in Ha-Hoker, i. 35.

J. SR. L. G.

BARAITA ON THE HEAVENLY
THRONE (mmD 'Plan Nrr-Q): See Ma'ase
Merkabaii.

BARAITA OF R. ISHMAEL (n NrV'-Q

: A Baraita which explains the thirteen
rules of II. Islimael, and their application, by means
of illustrations from the Bible. The name is inaccu-
rately given also to the first part of the Baraita,
which only enumerates the thirteen rules. The
Baraita constitutes the introduction to the Sifra, and
precedes it in all editions, containing principles
which in the Sifra are given their application. The
Baraita probably originated in the school of R.
Ishmael ; and in this regard the name is not wholly
erroneous. For details see Ishmael, Tanna, and
Hermeneutics. The Hekalot are also called by
some the “Baraita of R. Ishmael.”

j. sr. L. G.

BARAITA OF R. JOSE ('DV 'll NTV'G) :
Name given by some of the old scholars to the Seder
‘Olam Rabba. Concerning another Baraita of the
same name, see Bru 11, “ Jalirblicher,” v. 99.
j. sr. L. G.

BARAITA OF JOSEPH B. UZZIEL (xm3
p PlDVl) : A cabalistic Baraita, several times
mentioned by Recanati. It is in manuscript form at
Oxford, and is a commentary to the Sefer Yezi-
rah (compare Joseph b. Uzziel).
j. jr. L. G.

BARAITA OF JOSHUA B. LEVI (Kry-Q
“6 p yC'liV 'n). See “Revelation of Joshua b.
Levi,” in article Apocalyptic Literature, Neo-
IIebraic, § 5.

BARAITA ON THE MYSTERY OF THE

CALCULATION OF THE CALENDAR

(mpn TIDl {OY'IP) : A Baraita cited in the Tal-
mud (R. H. 205). Since special care was taken to
keep it secret, it has not been preserved ; but it is
probable that the Baraita of Samuel incorpo-
rated a considerable portion of it. The Talmud cita-
tion from this Baraita has completely puzzled the
commentators, as well as modern students of the
Jewish calendar; and despite many attempts to ex-
plain it, it remains obscure. Compare Calendar.
Bibliography: Slonimski, in Hrt-Maggid , 1864, p. 166; idem,
Yesode ha-'Ibhur, 2d ed., pp. 55, 56.

J. SR. L. G.

519

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baraita of the Forty-nine Rules
Baraita on Salvation

BARAITA DE-NIDDAH (mj"l Nnv,"Q) :

This Baraita, expressly mentioned by Nahmanides,
and probably known to the Geonim and the German-
French Talmudists of the thirteenth century, was
until recently supposed to be lost. It was not pub-
lished until 1890, when it was edited and provided
with an elaborate introduction by H. M. Horowitz.
He gives it in seven recensions, most of which con-
tain only portions of the Baraita, only one manuscript
containing the complete Baraita.

The Baraita consists of Haggadah and Halakah
relating to the Biblical and post.-Biblical precepts in
regard to the Niddah (Lev. xv. 19-33). The prolix,
and in a certain sense exhaustive, introduction does
not succeed in clearing away the obscurity which
envelops everything concerning the Baraita. The
Baraita mentions about twenty-five tannaim and as
many amoraim, among whom, it is noteworthy, there
is not one Babylonian. Its origin, then, is assured as
Palestinian; but this is the only certain point. There
are facts mentioned in the Baraita which clearly in-
dicate a time when any idea of the chronology of the
Tannaim and Amoraim was lacking. Akiba is rep-
resented as conversing with Rabbi ; Hanina b. Dosa
with Hiyyah; and so on. In the present condition
of the Baraita it is almost impossible to decide what
is of early and what of recent times. Consequently,
the question must remain unsettled as to the origi-
nality of the various citations which this Baraita has
in common with other Midrasliim. Horowitz, how-
ever, regards this Baraita as the original in every
point. Only this much must be conceded ; viz. , that
a large part of the Baraita is of ancient origin.

The pervading tendency of the Baraita is to op-
pose the lenient halakic rulings of the Hillelites and
of Akiba, and to take a standpoint which, on the one
hand, touches the Sadducean Halakah,
Sectarian and, on the other hand, the strict in-
Stand- terpretation of the Essenes. The well-
point. known story of the Talmud (‘Er. 136;

Yer. Ber. i. 36) that a heavenly voice
decided in favor of the Hillelites, runs in the Baraita
as follows: “ Blessed be the strict ! These as well as
those [the Hillelites as well as the Shammaites] speak
the words of the living God ; but we must regulate
ourselves according to the teachings of the school of
Sliammai” (p. 21). The old Halakah, probably in-
fluenced by the Essenes and abrogated for the first
time by Akiba (Sifra, Mezora1, end), by which a
woman is virtually prevented at a certain time from
all intercourse with the outer world, is declared to
be binding in a number of passages in the Baraita
(pp. 13 et seq., 21).

The medical and physiological rules in the Baraita
(twenty-six, according to the enumeration of Horo-
witz, Introduction, pp. 56, 57) give rise to the sup-
position that it originated in a place where medicine
was studied assiduously. The Baraita, not unknown
to the Geonim, gradually came to be forgotten in
consequence of its many points of contact with the
teachings of the Karaites, who also accepted the old
Sadducean view of Lev. xii. 4 et seq. ; for such simi-
larity tended to bring it into disfavor.

Bibliography: Briill, in Jahrhtlcher, ii. 124-12fi, v. 99: idem,
in Central-Anzeiger f-Ur JUdische Literatnr, pp. 31, 35 ;
Cti. M. Horowitz, Tnsefata 'Attikata, iv. (containing the In-
troduction) and v. (containing the text of the Baraita), Frank-

fort-on-the-Main, 1890; compare also Schechter, in Jew. Quart.

Rev. iii. 338-342.

J. SR. L. G.

BARAITA OF R. PHINEHAS B. JAIR

(T'N' P DiUD n 1. SeeMiDKASii Tadsiie.

2. A Baraita printed by Grunliut, in “Sefer lia-
Likkutim,” ii. 206-21«. It contains the sayings of
R. Phinehas b. Jair and R. Eliezer ha-Gadol on the
Messianic times and on the various degrees of piety
given in Sotali ix. 15. The character of these say-
ings vividly recalls that of the apocalyptic writer.
This, together with the fact that the aphorism on
the degrees of piety is ascribed to Phinehas b. Jair,
who may be correctly designated as an Essene, gives
likelihood to the assumption that the passages in
consideration are really the fragments of a Baraita
collection with Essenic tendencies in apocalyptic
manner. The doubt that exists whether or not the
sayings of Phinehas b. Jair on the degrees of holi-
ness belong to the Mislmah (see Lipmann Heller, ad
loc.) strengthens the supposition. A saying derived
from the Baraita collection of so holy a person as R.
Phinehas may have been considered worthy of in-
corporation into the Mislmah (see Briill, “Jahr-
biicher,” iii. 125).

J. sr. L. G.

BARAITA ON SALVATION (Nmi!

: A haggadic Baraita, which Schonblum
(Lemberg, 1877) published for the first time in the
collection “Sheloshah Sefarim Niftahim.” It enu-
merates twenty-four sins which delay the [Messi-
anic] salvation and prolong “the end” (“lia-kez”);
i.e., the destined redemption.

For each of these sins a Bible verse is quoted,
which illustrates its gravity. In most cases hag-
gadic narratives are adduced for the same purpose.
These are taken from the Talmud and from Lam. R.
It is questionable whether the Baraita availed itself
of Num. R. as is assumed by the editor. The cita-
tion which might imply such a fact may have been
derived from a source common to the Baraita and
Num. R. Every clue is lacking for a determination
of the exact age of this Baraita. At all events, a
very early Palestinian origin is indicated by the fre-
quent use of Yeruslialmi and Lam. R., and the pos-
sible lack of all citations from Babli.

Some kinship must exist between the Baraita and
the enumeration by Alfasi (Yoma, toward end) of
twenty-four hindrances to repentance. This cata-
logue of sins Maimonides (“Yad,” Teshubah iv.)
reduced to a system in which every point was accom-
panied by an illustrative commentary. In Maimoni-
des’ time the source on which Alfasi drew was no
longer known, and Maimonides merely supposes that
it was of recent origin (“ Peer lia-Dor,” No. 12). Jo-
seph Caro (in his Commentary on Maimonides, or
“Yad,” Hilkot, Teshubah, iv. 1), however, gives in-
formation of a manuscript, according to which the
twenty-four hindrances to repentance formed an in-
dependent Baraita, “in small tracts” (“be-massek-
totketanot”; see Briill, “ Jahrbiicher,” ii. 127).

The Baraita on Salvation and Alfasi agree not only
in regard to the number of the things that prevent
the salvation of mankind in general as well as of the
individual, but also in regard to the nature of these
obstacles. Thus, both enumerate seduction to evil,

Baraita of Samuel
Barak

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

520

the use of pledges entrusted to one’s keeping, un-
controlled temper, discouragement of good deeds,
and others. It is highly probable that the sources
of Alfasi and the Baraita on Salvation are only two
different versions of one and the same Baraita. This
provides the latest possible date for the time of its
origin, since it could not have been more recent than
the beginning of the eleventh century. The Mahzor
Yitry, ed. Horwitz, pp. 724, 725, gives the cata-
logue of sins as Alfasi has done in his version of the
tractate “ Derek Erez R. ”

The narrative concerning the judgment of Solo-
mon, at the end of the Baraita on Salvation, is a later
addition having no connection with the real Baraita.

J. sr. L. G.

BARAITA OF SAMUEL (ijNIDBH Nnv'"D) :

A Baraita of Samuel was known to Jewish scholars
from Shabbethai Donolo in the tenth century to
Simon Duran in the fifteenth century ; and citations
from it were made by them. It was considered as
lost until quite recently, when it unexpectedly ap-
peared in print.

In its present form, the Baraita is composed of
nine chapters, treating promiscuously of astronomy
and astrology. The first chapter deals with the form
of heaven, of Orion, of the Pleiades, of Draco, and
of the planets and their light. The second and third
treat of the movements of the moon and the course
of the Zodiac. At the same time directions are given
for adjusting the gnomon of a sun-dial. The fourth
defines the character of the seasons and the planets ;
the fifth, the orbits of the planets. Directions are
given for calculating Molad and Tekufah. The
sixth imparts the teachings of the Egyptian sages
on the original position of the planets and the divi-
sion of the Zodiac. The seventh chapter mentions
the exact distances of the planets from the earth :
the moon is considered the nearest; Saturn, the most
distant. The eighth chapter deals with the altitudes
of the planets. The ninth chapter discusses the in-
fluence of the heavenly bodies on earthly affairs. It
is conceded that “ the planets in themselves can not
make for good or evil, unless empowered by God.’-

The older scholars considered the author of the
Baraita to be the amora Samuel b. Abba, who, ac-
cording to the statements in the Talmud, was a great
astronomer (it is doubtful whether “Cuzari, ” iv. 29,
refers to an actual astronomical work of Samuel, or
to his astronomical knowledge). The editions have
Samuel ha-Katan as the author. This is hardly
based on a tradition, but rather is due to a combina-
tion of the name “ Samuel ” with Samuel ha-Katan,
who is mentioned as possessing knowledge of the
‘Ibbur (Sanh. 11a). These suggestions of names
have no material value. The very contents and lan-
guage of the Baraita contradict the assumption that
it is the work of amoraim or tannaim. Moreover,
ch. v. designates the year 4536 ( =776 c.e.) as the one
which, with but a slight difference, resembles the
year of the Creation. The courses of the sun and
moon, leap-years, and Tekufah will repeat them-
selves, and calculations must begin anew from this
year.

The earliest date, then, at which the Baraita could
have been written is 776. It is more difficult to

determine the latest date. This question is connected
with that of the relationship of the Baraita to the
Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer. Some have endeavored to
conclude, from citations of the Baraita by Abraham
b. Hiyyali and Judah ha-Levi, that the Baraita and
the Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer originally formed one
work. The portions of the Baraita now existing
prove clearly that the two are fundamentally differ-
ent; neither diction, subject, character, nor aim of
the two works bearing any resemblance. There is,
however, distinct kinship between the two astro-
nomic chapters of the Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer (vi. and
vii.) and the Baraita of Samuel; but it can not be
decided which author borrowed from the other. In
fact, there may have been a third source from which
both drew. Zunz supposes that the astronomic chap-
ters in the Pirke originally had a slightly varying
form from that of the Baraita, and that portions from
each found their way into the other. This would
explain how Abraham b. Hiyyali came to designate
a Baraita as being the work of Samuel and R.
Eliezer. It is certain, however, that all that is
known at present consists of fragments of the
Samuel Baraita.

Steinsclmeider correctly characterizes the Baraita
as somewhat fantastic in its conception of the con-
struction of the world, containing Talmudic ele-
ments, but uninfluenced by Greco-Arabic science.
Its unscientific, half-mystic tendency caused it to
be thrust aside in the Orient through the rising
Arabic science ; while in Europe, especially in France
and Germany, it was regarded with special respect.
From constituents of the Baraita joined with vari-
ous elements of mysticism originated the cabalistic
cosmography, first presented by the Book of Raziel,
and which appears in later works influenced by the
latter (compare Calendar; Pirke de-Rabbi Elie-
zer ; Raziel, Book of).

Bibliography : Editions: Salonica, 1861; Frankfort-on-the-
Main, 1863; Luzzatto, in Kerem Hemed, vii. 61 et seq.; Car-
moly, in Jost’s Annalen , 1840, p.' .425 ; Epstein, in Mi-Kad-
moniyot, pp. 18 etseq.; Philipowski, in his Introduction to
Abraham b. Hiyyah’s Sefer lia-'I bbur, pp. 13-18; Sachs, in
Monatsschrift , i. 280 et seq. ; idem, in his Ha-Tehiyah , i. 20
et seq.; A. Schwarz, Der JUdische Kalender, pp. 20, 21;
Steinsclmeider, Hebr. Bibl. xvii. 8 et seq.; Zunz, G. V. 2d ed.,
pp. 98 et seg.; idem, in Hebr. Bibl. v. 15-20; idem, Gesam-
melte Scliriften, iv. 242 et seq.

,T. SR. L. G.

BARAITA DE-SIFRE (nSDT NJV-Q). See

SlFRE, ZUTTA.

BARAITA OF THE THIRTY-TWO RULES

(nilD DTlKfl Nn,n3, usually written

nrra) : A Baraita giving the thirty-two hermeneu-
tic rules according to which the Bible is interpreted.
Abul-Walid ibn Janah is the oldest authority who
drew upon this Baraita, but he did not mention
it by name. Rashi makes frequent use of it in his
commentaries on the Bible and the Talmud. He
either briefly calls it the thirty-two rules (Hor. 3a)
or designates it as the “ Baraita (or sections 'pID) of
R. Eliezer b. Jose lia-Gelili” (Gen. ii. 8; Ex. xiv.
24). Also the Karaite Judah Hadassi, who incorpo-
rated it in his “Eshkol ha-Kofer,” recognized in it
the work of this R. Eliezer.

It has not been preserved in an independent form ;
and knowledge of it has been gathered only from
the recension transmitted in the methodological work
“Keritot,” by Samson of Chinon. The beginning

521

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baraita of Samuel
Barak

of the Baraita in this recension reads as follows:
“ Whenever you come across the words of R. Elie-
zer b. Jose ha-Gelili, make a funnel of your ear.”
Though this sentence already existed in the Baraita
as known to Hadassi (see Bacher, in “ Monatsschrift, ”
xl. 21), it is naturally a later addition taken from the
Talmud (Hul. 89cr) ; but it shows that the Baraita of
the Thirty-two Rules was early regarded as the
work of Eliezer b. Jose lia-Gelili. There are strong
grounds for the supposition that the opening sen-
tence of the Baraita ran: “R. Eliezer, the son of R.
Jose the Galilean, said.” This is the reading of
Joshua ha-Levi and Isaiah Horowitz (see Bloch, p.
53) ; and it is believed that the name of the author
did not drop out until the addition of the sentence
from the Talmud. Consequently, no adequate rea-
sons exist for doubting the authorship of R. Eliezer.

Distinction must, however, be made between two
different constituent elements of the Baraita. The
enumeration of the thirty-two hermeneutic rules in
the first section constitutes the real Baraita as com-
posed by R. Eliezer; and the explanations of each
rule in the following thirty -two sections form, as it
were, a Gemara to the real Baraita. In these thirty-
two sections sayings are cited of the tannaim
Akiba, Ishmael, Jose, Nehemiah, Nehorai, Rabbi,
Hiyyah, and of the amoraim Johanan and Jose b.
Hanina. Although these names, especially the last
two, show that portions of the Baraita were inter-
polated long after Eliezer b. Jose, yet no general
conclusions may be drawn from it with regard to
the whole work. The terminology is prevailingly
tannaitic, even in the second portion. Bacher (“ Ter-
minologie der Jiidisclien Scliriftauslegung, ” p. 101)
correctly remarks that the exclusively tannaitic ex-
pression “zeker le-dabar” is found at the end of
section ix. (compare also the archaic phrase “ha-
shomea' sabur ” for which “ at sabur ” is usually said).
The second part, therefore, leaving later interpola-
tions out of consideration, may also have sprung
from the tannaitic period, probably from the school
of R. Eliezer. It is noteworthy that the old scholars
make citations from the Baraita which are not found
in its present form, thus casting a doubt upon the
correctness of the present recension (see Reifmann,
pp. 6, 7).

The thirty-two rules are described as those which are
applied in haggadic interpretations (mjn is the right
reading and not mini"!)- This entirely
Her- characterizes the method of the Ba-
meneutics raita; for although the most important
of the lialakic rules of interpretation which

Baraita. originated in the schools of Akiba
and of Ismael (Hillel) are incorporated
in it, the Baraita deals principally with the syntax,
style, and subject-matter of the Bible. Such treat-
ment is of first importance for the interpretation of
the Scriptures; but in the Halakah it is of subordi-
nate value. The Baraita, then, written about 150,
may be regarded as the earliest work on Biblical
hermeneutics, since Philo’s fantastic allegories can
hardly be regarded as such.

Following are two examples from the Baraita,
which illustrate its method. Section ix. (on the ellip-
tical phraseology of the Bible) says: “I Cliron. xvii.
5 reads, ‘ I have gone from tent to tent, and from

tabernacle’ (pD’OO'l)- It should read: ‘and from
tabernacle to tabernacle ’ (‘ u-mimishkan el mish-
kan’); but the Bible here employs ellipsis.” Sec-
tion xxi. says that sometimes a clause which ought
to stand at the end of sentences, conveying one
idea, is interposed between them. Thus, the correct
place for verse 17 of Psalm xxxiv. would be after
18. According to the last rule, whole chapters of the
Bible should be transferred. Thus, Gen. xv. chron-
ologically precedes xiv. These examples suffice to
show that in Palestine scholars early began to de-
vote themselves to a rational Bible exegesis, although
free play was at the same time yielded to haggadic
interpretation (compare Hermeneutics; Eliezer
b. Jose ha-Gelili; Samson of Ciiinon.

Bibliography: Bacher, Agada der Tannaiten, ii. 293-298:
Bloch, in Kobak’s Jeschui'un, ix. 47-58 (a polemic against a
treatise by Berliner on the Baraita. This treatise is not men-
tioned by name, and is not otherwise known to the writer of
the present article); Wolf Einhorn, Sefer Midrash Tannaim ,
1838 (an extract from this work occurs in his introduction to
his commentary on Rabbah, Wilna, 1878); Hildesheimer, in the
Supplement to the third Program of the Ttdbbinical College
of ELxenstadt, 1809; Katzenellenbogen, Netihnt ‘ Olam , 1st
ed., 1822, and 2d ed.. with annotations by M. and S. Straschun,
1858; Konigsberger, in MonatsbUltter f Ur Vergangenheit
und Qegenwart, 1890-91, pp. 3-]0, 90-94, and the Hebrew
Supplement, pp. 1—10 ; Reifmann, Mexhib Dabar, 1806.

J. SR. L. G.

BARAK, — Biblical Data: A warrior; the
son of Abinoam mentioned in Judges iv. 6, v. 12,
as the most important ally of Deborah in the strug-
gle against the Canaanites. Deborah summoned
Barak, the son of Abinoam, from his home at Kcdesh
in Naphtali, and ordered him, in the name of Yhwh,
to take ten thousand men to Mount Tabor. Here
he was attacked, as Deborah had expected, by Sisera,
whose forces were put to flight, and the greater part
of them slain, by Barak’s army. It is noticeable
that Barak appears throughout as secondary to, and
dependent upon, Deborah. For example, when di-
rected to receive Sisera at Mount Tabor, he agrees
to obey on condition only that Deborah should go
with him. The fact that the honor of the expedition
is given to Deborah rather than to him is not to be
regarded as derogatory to Barak. It is merely an-
other indication of his subordinate position (see,
however, Moore, “Judges,” p. 117). Barak joins in
the song of triumph with Deborah (v. 1). Accord-
ing to v. 15, Barak was probably a member of the
tribe of Issacliar. It is interesting to note that the
name “ Barak ” occurs also in Sabean (Dp'll) and Pal-
myrene (pH) inscriptions. “ Barcas,” the surname of
the famous Hamilcar, is the Punic equivalent; in As-
syrian there are various names compounded with
“birka,” and the Babylonian Talmud has also a
name “Baroka.”

j. jr. J. D. P.

In Rabbinical Literature : According to the

Rabbis, “ Barak ” is merely another name for “ Lapi-
doth,” Deborah’s husband (not her son, as Ambrosius
says in “De Viduis,” i. 8, 45). A third name given
him was “ Michael. ” The reason for the three names
is thus given: Barak was an ignorant but pious
man; and not knowing how he could otherwise es-
pecially serve God, he accepted his wife’s proposal
to make candles to be offered by him at the sanctu-
ary of Shiloh. Deborah, therefore, is designated as
“the wife of Lappidoth [Torchlights].” God, who

Barasch, Julius
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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

522

alone knows the inward thoughts of man, said to
the worthy couple, “You have had a pious intention
in making large candles, that their light may be
bright; 1, too, will make your light shine brightly.”
Barak’s real name was Michael, because, like his
namesake, he was to be a messenger of God (Eliyahu
R. ix., quoted in Yalk., Judges, 42 with some vari-
ants; compare also Targ. on Judges v. 23).

According to another explanation Barak received
this name after the victory over the Canaanites,
because he flashed bright like lightning (“ barak ”),
while before that event he was merely a small light,
or “lappidot.” (Pseudo- Jerome on Judges v. 1, ed.
Migne, “ Patrologise Cursus Completus, ” Latin series,
xxiv. 1322). According to others, he was a pupil of
Joshua, and after the latter’s death, of the elders;
hence, at the time of Deborah, the only one who
remained from the olden time (Eliyahu R. l.c. ; Yalk.
l.c.). Barak’s modesty is especially praised; al-
though he was the actual leader in the expedition
against Sisera, he was content to take a second-
ary place, giving to Deborah the credit of the un-
dertaking (Judges iv. 8), and would not go to
war without the prophetess (Gen. R. xl. 4; Yalk.
l.c. 43).

Bibliography : Ginzberg, Die Haggada bei den Kirchen-
vlltern, i. 6.

J. SR. L. G.

BARASCH, JULIUS : Rumanian author and
physician; born at Brody, Galicia, 1815; died at
Bucharest, Rumania, March 31, 1863. His early
education included Talmudic disciplines ; but having
been married against his own desire at the age of
sixteen, and having lost his fortune in disastrous
speculations, he emigrated to Germany to study med-
icine, and in 1841 graduated at Berlin University as
M.D. He practised for a short time in Amsterdam,
and then returned to Brody, presently proceeding
to Jassy, the capital of Moldavia, with the intention
of establishing himself there; but he found he could
obtain no patients among the Galician Jews, who
were numerous there, and who had no confidence in
a physician whom they had known as a child. He
therefore went to Bucharest (November, 1841); but,
finding difficulty there also in acquiring recognition,
he accepted in 1843 the post of quarantine physician
at Calarash, and remained there until 1847, when he
was appointed chief state physician for the district
of Dolj , which post he retained until July, 1851.

While yet a student he published (under the
pseudonym “ Julius Marcussohn B.”) in the “ Allge-
meine Zeitung des Judenthums,” 1839, “Der Chasi-
dismus in Polen,” an essay upon Hasidism in Poland,
exposing the practises of this peculiar sect of Juda-
ism. Before leaving Berlin he commenced in the
“ Literaturblatt des Orients ” (under the pseudonym
“Julius Friedson”) the publication of “Gedanken
ilber Religionsphilosopliiedes Judenthums,” a series
of reflections on Jewish religious philosophy. At
Bucharest, in 1842, he published in
Early the “Allgemeine Zeitung des Juden-
Literary thums ” a review of Isaac Erter’s “ Ha-
Activity. zofe Lebet Yisrael,” in which the lat-
ter satirized the Jews of Galicia. In
the same periodical, he published (under the pseudo-
nym “ Raphael Sincerus ”) from time to time an ac-

count of his travels in Galicia, Bukowina, Moldavia,
and Wallachia. It is about the only description
extant of the inner and social life of the Jews of the
Rumanian principality. He meditated at the same
time the publication of a vast Jewish encyclopedia
to embrace literature, science, history, etc., and in
1844 issued an appeal for assistance. Only one vol-
ume appeared, in 1856. He next devoted himself to
the regeneration of his Rumanian fellow-citizens.
Science did not exist in those sections of Europe;
the Rumanian language had no terms for scientific
expressions; Barasch created a terminology and
transplanted science thither. He published in 1850
his first work in this field of popular
As Pioneer science, on the miracles of nature,
of Science, which very soon made his name famil-
iar throughout the country. He re-
signed his official post in 1851, traveled through Ger-
many, France, and England, and on his return, in
1852, was appointed professor of natural science at
the college at St. Sava in Bucharest. Appointments
as professor at the school of medicine, at the military
school, and at the college of forestry followed
quickly; and he was also elected city physician.

Passionately devoted to science, Barasch made
himself its favorite interpreter to his fellow-citizens,
teaching both with the pen and with the living word.
One after the other he put forth works upon hy-
giene, botany, zoology, and forestry, “Isis,” a scien-
tific journal (the first in Rumania, and on which he
remained for five years the chief collaborator), and
inaugurated a series of popular “free talks” upon
hygiene, every Sunday, which were numerously at-
tended. In 1858 Barasch founded at his own expense
the first hospital for children in Bucharest, and
served gratuitously as its chief physician.

In order to remedy some of the evils existing in
the Jewish community of Bucharest — divided and
subdivided as it was into small cliques of Austrian,
Prussian, Russian, and Hungarian Jews — he suc-
ceeded, in 1852, in opening a school upon modern
lines specially for the children of Jews of Austrian
and Prussian descent, an event which stimulated
the native Jews to open one also. In
As 1854 he published in Isidor Busch’s
Communal “Jahrbuch”an essay upon the Jews

Worker, of Rumania, and also a pamphlet
against Israel Pick, a rabbi of Bucha-
rest, who had been dismissed from his post and had
embraced Christianity. In his reply to Pick, Ba-
rasch evidences the warmest attachment to his an-
cestral faith. When, in 1857, the question of the
union of the Rumanian principalities was agitated,
Barasch, with two friends, founded “Israelitul-Ro-
man,” the first Jewish newspaper in Wallachia, pub-
lished in French and Rumanian, and in which he
pleaded with earnestness for the Jews. Lie took an
active part in the foundation of the Jewish temple at
Bucharest and in the remodeling of its worship, and
founded the first Jewish literary society, Societatea
de Cultura Israelita, of which he was president
(1862). In 1861 he issued a work upon the emanci-
pation of the Jews in Rumania, which was the first
work devoted to the interests of the Rumanian Jews.
Barasch’s death, two years later, was considered a
national calamity.

523

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Barasch, Julius
Barbados

In addition to those works already enumerated,
Barasch published many books on popular science.

In 1886 (July 4) a society was founded in Bucha-
rest for the investigation of the history of the Jews
in Rumania, which received, in honor of Julius Ba-
rasch, the name “Societatea Istorica Juliu Barasch.”

Bibliography : M. Schwarzfeld, Dr. Juliu Barasch , Schitza
Bioyraflca, Bucharest, 1888; Spre Memoria Doctorului
Juliu Barasch, Bucharest, 1861; Ben Chananja, 1863, pp.
337, 338, 748, 749.

s. E. Sd.

BARASSA, DIEGO : Spanish physician and
Marano, who openly avowed himself a Jew at Am-
sterdam about 1640. He was conversant with as-
tronomy, medicine, and botany, and was acquainted
with Arabic and Syriac. Manasseh b. Israel dedi-
cated to him the essay entitled “ De la Fragilidad
Humana.” He wrote; “ Prognostico e Lunario de
Anno de 1635, Conforme as Noticias . . . Tirado de
Arabigo que Traduzzio do Syriaco de Jonathan
Abenizel [b. Uziel] R. Ismael de Ulmazia,” Seville,
1630.

Bibliography : Kayserliug, Bibl. Esp.-Port.-Jud. p. 16.
g. M. K.

BARATIER, JEAN PHILIPPE; Christian
translator of Benjamin of Tudela’s travels; born at
Schwabacli, Bavaria, in 1721; died in 1740. He was
only thirteen years old when he published his first
work, “ Voyages de Rabbi Benjamin Fils de Jona de
Tudele. Traduits de l’Hebreu et Enrichi de Notes
et de Dissertations Historiques et Critiques sur ces
Voyages, par J. P. Baratier, Etudiant en Theologie.
A Amsterdam, aux Depens de la Compagnie,” 1734.

It is difficult to believe that the translation in two
large volumes is the work of a child of eleven; but
the preface, dated Schwabacli near Nuremberg, 1733,
contains an affirmation of the fact by a modest pas-
tor of the Reformed Church, who knew Hebrew and
called himself the sole preceptor that Jean had yet
had.

Besides the running commentary on the translation
in the form of explanatory notes at the bottom of
each page, the volumes contain a number of essays
on the Jews and their rabbis whom Benjamin met
on his travels; on the Hebrew terms used; on Ben-
jamin himself, and on the exilarchs, the Chazars, and
the Ten Tribes. Unfortunately, the author repeats
many of the errors of his predecessors and makes
many statements that show how biased he was
against those about whom he was writing. These
essays show, however, the learning of this short-
lived prodigy.

Bibliography : Fr. Baratier, Nachricht von Seinem Frllh-
zeitiy Gelehrtem Sohne, published by Paul Mauclerc, Stettin,
1728 ; idem, MerkwUrdige Nachricht von Einem se.hr
Frilhzeitig Gelehrtem Kinde und Jctzt Vierundzwanzig-
jUhrigem Mayistro, Stettin and Leipsic, 1735 ; Zunz, Z. G.
p. 15; Carmoly, Not ice Histor. sur Benj. de Tudele, p. 24,
Brussels, 1852; I. d’Israeli, Curiosities of Literature, i. ;
Steinschneider, in Zeit. Hebr. Bibl. ii. 51.

g. M. S.

BARATZ, HERMAN (HIRSCH) ; Russian
lawyer and censor of Hebrew books ; born at Dubno
1835; graduated from the Rabbinical School of
Jitomir in 1859, and from the University of Kiev in
1869. In 1871 he was appointed by the governor-
general of Kiev censor of Hebrew books and con-
sulting official on Jewish affairs. Baratz wrote

some articles on the Jewish question in the peri-
odicals “Razsvyet,” “ Ha-Karmel,” and “ Syvernaya
Pchela.” See Censorship of Hebreiv Books in
Russia.

h. k. M. R.

BARBADOS : Island of the British West Indies
in the Windward Group; colonized in 1625. It is
probable that Jews were among the earliest settlers
on this island. The statement is made by Sir Robert
H. Schomburgk that their arrival dates
First from 1628. Some confirmation is given
Settlement to this assertion by a letter from one
of Jews. Abraham Jacob to the earl of Carlisle,
the proprietor of the island, dated Lon-
don, Sept. 22, 1628, complaining that the island
business was exceedingly unprofitable (“ Publications
Am. Jewish Hist. Soc.” v. 46). As late as 1844 a
tombstone was standing in the congregational ceme-
tery bearing the date 1658, though the name was
obliterated (“Occident,” ii. 294). Upon petition the
Jews were granted, on Aug. 12, 1656, the enjoyment
of the “ privileges of Laws and Statutes of ye Com-
monwealth of England and of this Island, relating
to foreigners and strangers” (E. S. Daniels; see Bibli-
ography).

From 1661 more definite data are available. On
April 8 of that year Benjamin de Caseres, Henry de
Caseres, and Jacob Fraso petition the king to permit
them to live and trade in Barbados and Surinam.
As their petition is supported by the king of Den-
mark, they were probably not residents of England,
and were therefore prohibited by the terms of the
Navigation Act from trading in the English planta-
tions (“ Publications Am. Jewish Hist. Soc.” v. 47).
It is more than likely that these Caseres were rela-
tives of Simon de Caceres, one of the leading mem-
bers of the Crypto-Jewisli community in London,
who, according to Lucien Wolf, had established a
branch of his business in Barbados (“Transactions
Jewish Hist. Soc. of England,” i. 73).

Though remonstrances were made by English
merchants against granting the petition, the Coun-
cil for Foreign Plantations advised that, inasmuch
as the petitioners had “behaved themselves well,
and with general satisfaction, many years upon
Barbados,” the desired privileges be accorded them
(“Publications Am. Jewish Hist. Soc.” v. 47). On
July 24, 1661, Daniel Bueno Henriques is granted
letters of denization (ib. p. 65); but in
Letters of 1677 he and Manuel Martinez Dormido
Deni- complain that their letters have never
zation. been issued to them. The residence
of the former is given as in Barbados,
and that of the latter as in London (“ Calendar of
State Papers, Colonial America and West Indies,”
1677-80, p. 201, No. 556).

Upon the dissolution of the Jewish community of
Cayenne in 1664, some of its members emigrated to
Barbados (“Publications Am. Jewish Hist. Soc.” ii.
95). About this time (March, 1664) Isaac Israel de
Piso, and Aaron Israel de Piso, with his sisters and
two brothers, “ also Moses and his mother, sent thither
by Abraham Cohen,” are deprived of their letters of
denization and ordered to be banished from the
island, by reason of their failure to discover gold-

Barbados
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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

524

mines as had been promised. Isaac Israel de Piso is
further punished by having taken from him a gold
chain previously given him as a mark of royal favor
(ib. v. 57, 90-92). In 1667 the Jews of the island are
accused of carrying on illicit trade with the Dutch,
then at war with England, and in January, 1669, the
king issues orders to the governor that vessels which
are reported to have sailed from Amsterdam on the
account of certain Jews, shall be seized immediately
upon their arrival (ib. v. 94, 95).

In 1668 the Jews are spoken of as extensive own-
ers of sugar-works. On Oct. 23 of that year the
grand jury includes among its presentments that no
Jews be suffered to sell goods at retail (ib. v. 58).
This would make it appear that the colony had in-
creased considerably, and that the inhabitants other
than Jews feared that the latter might be getting
too great a control of the trade of the island.

In January, 1671, Moses Pereyra is made a free
denizen, and shortly thereafter Lord Willoughby,
the governor, is instructed to dispense with the ad-
ministration of the oaths of allegiance and suprem-
acy in the cases of Jews admitted to denization, and
to molest no man in the peaceable ex-
Free ercise of his religion (ib. v. 58, 59).
Exercise of Having become a community of con-
Religion, siderable importance, the Jews now be-
1671. gan a period of agitation for the admis-
sion of their testimony in courts of law.
This privilege had been denied them hitherto, be-
cause of their refusal to take oath except upon the
Five Books of Moses. Accordingly, on Oct. 29, 1669,
they presented to the king a petition in which they
stated that measures were taking to deprive them of
the benefits of trade (referring to the above-men-
tioned presentment of the grand jury), and that their
testimony was not admitted in the courts when the
parties were others than those of their own race.
This petition was signed by Antonio Rodrigues
Rezio, Abraham Levi Rezio, Lewis Dias, Isaac Jeraio
Coutenho, Abraham Perriera, David Baruch Lou-
zada, and others (see Daniels, ib.). LTpon its reference
to the governor, he gave it a favorable recommenda-
tion, but for several years no action was taken.

However, on Feb. 14, 1674, a law was
Permitted passed granting to them the privilege
to Take of taking oath on the Five Books of
Oath, 1674. Moses, and of giving testimony in cases
relating to “trade and dealings, and
not otherwise. ” In 1675 the attempt was made with-
out avail to have this law amended so as to admit
their testimony in all courts and causes. Such an
act passed the Assembly, but appears to have re-
ceived no further sanction (“Publications Am. Jew-
ish Hist. Soc.” v. 59, 96).

In February, 1679, a levy of taxes “in pounds of
Muscovado Sugar on the Hebrew Nation Inhabitants
in and about Bridgetown toward defraying the
charges of the Parish,” produced from 59 persons
13,299 lbs. Some names already mentioned appear
in this list. Those paying the highest amounts were :
David Raphael de Mercado, 1,260 lbs. ; Abraham
Obediente, 1,044; Laodrel Obediente, 938; Anthony
Rodrigues, 580; Lewis Dias, 580; Daniel Bueno, 383.
The remainder was paid in quantities varying from
350 to 25 lbs. The names of fourteen women are to

be found in the list, paying quantities of from 125
to 25 lbs. (Daniels).

In November of the same year complaint was
made to the Assembly by sundry merchants that
the Jews were procuring control of more than their
fair share of trade ; and in the same month the As-
sembly passed an act restraining them from keeping
or trading with negroes (“Calendar of State Papers,
Colonial America and West Indies,” 1677-80, p. 446,
No. 1190). In 1680 there were living at St. Mi-
chaels a Jewish population numbering 184, of whom
54 were adults, owning 163 negroes and
Numbers indentured servants (“Publications
in 1681. Am. Jew. Hist. Soc.” i. 105 et seq.),
and in June, 1681, the total Jewish
population of the island was 260 (“Calendar of
State Papers, Colonial America and West Indies,”
1681-85, p. 72, No. 136). The latter year witnessed
several petitions presented to the Assembly against
the Jews, and a presentment of the grand jury in
August “against the evil done to the island by
vagrant and poor Jews ” (ib. p. 102, No. 206). The
falsity of this charge is proved by the large propor-
tion of persons out of the total population who were
able to and did pay taxes. On Aug. 9 Aaron Baruch
Louzado, Daniel Bucino, and Jacob Founzeke (Fon-
seca) prayed for, and were granted on behalf of the
Jews of the island, the use of the courts for their
protection as traders, and the right to trade (ib.
p. 99, No. 198). This indicates that though the act
allowing their testimony to be taken in certain causes
had been passed six years before, it was not until
now enforced. In 1688 the Jews who were not den-
izens, residing in the seaport towns or islands, were
restricted to the holding of one slave apiece, under
penalty of the forfeiture of the slaves. This act
continued in force until Sept. 30, 1706, when, by rea-
son of the increased importance and influence of the
Jewish community, it was unconditionally repealed
(“Publications Am. Jewish Hist. Soc.” v. 60).

In 1756 a special tax of £210 per annum was le.vied
on them, apportioned so that those in Bridgetown
should pay £190 of that sum, and those of Speights-
town the remainder. This indicates the localities
then inhabited by Jews. On Oct. 8, 1761, this addi-
tional burden was lifted, and after that date the Jews
were rated and paid taxes on the same scale as the
other inhabitants (ib. pp. 60, 61).

From this time for a period of seventy years the
Jewish community grew in numbers and became in-
creasingly prosperous. By act of the
Period local government in 1802, and of Par-
of Greatest liament in 1820, all political disabilities
Prosperity, were removed, and Jews were granted
1761- even greater privileges than were ac-
1831. corded to other inhabitants of the is-
land ; for by the terms of the latter act
they were entitled to have five representatives from
among themselves who were to determine what share
of the taxation of the island should be levied upon
them (Daniels, l.c. ; and “Jewish Year-Book,” ed.
Jacobs, 5657, p. 129).

Communal Interests : In common with all early
Jewish communities, it is altogether probable that
the first place of meeting for worship of the Barba-
dos Jews was at the house of some member of the

525

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Barbados
Barbary States

community. Though the exact date of the erection
of the synagogue in Bridgetown lias not been ascer-
tained, it is likely that one was erected before 1679.
This continued in existence until destroyed by the
hurricane which devastated the island in 1831. The
ministers of the congregation were all
Ministers selected by the vestry of the Spanish
of the and Portuguese synagogue in Lon-
Congrega- don, and until 1844 all offerings and
tion,Y752- prayers for government were said in
1834. Spanish. For a time previous to 1752
Rev. Mei'r A. Cohen Belinfante was the
minister of the congregation (called “ Kahal Kadosh
Nidhe Israel”). He died Sept. 25, 1752, and was
succeeded by Rev. Raphael Haim Isaac Carrigal,
who retired in 1772 and died May 5, 1777. His suc-
cessors and their times of service were: Daniel
Baruch Louzado, 1772; Israel Abbady, 1772 to 1794;
David Sarfaty de Pine, till April 14, 1797, when he
died; Emanuel Nunes Carvalho, March, 1799 to
1808, when he left for the States; Abendana, Janu-
ary, 1809 to 1813; Moses H. Julian, October, 1819, to
December, 1820, when he died ; Moses Belasco, No-
vember, 1824, to November, 1834. In the intervals
between the elections of ministers members of the
congregation read the services (Daniels).

Toward the end of the eighteenth century and at
the beginning of the nineteenth, various grants were
made by the Jews of Barbados iu aid of suffering
congregations and brethren in different parts of the
world. The first of these was in November, 1772, to
St. Eustatius, in the Dutch West Indies, for the re-
building of the synagogue at that place. In June,
1792, they sent £25 for the building of a synagogue
in Charleston, and in March, 1819, $500 for a similar
purpose to the Congregation Mickve Israel in Phila-
delphia. In 1791 they contributed £15 in aid of the
Jews of Tetuan, and in 1798 the members of the
congregation subscribed £1,152 to assist the home
government in carrying on the war against Napo-
leon. Iu 1801 £25 was appropriated for the relief of
suffering Jews in Tiberias, and in 1840 £50 to those
in Damascus and Rhodes (see Daniels, l.c.).

The period of greatest prosperity extended from
1792 until the hurricane of 1831. In the former year
the congregation at Bridgetown had a
Prosperity contributing membership of 147 per-
and De- sons, with an income from dues of £116
cline of the perannum. Seventeen pensioners were
Com- then supported at an outlay of £18 per
munity. month. In 1831, previous to the dev-
astation wrought by the hurricane, the
total income of the congregation was £387. From
that time dates the decline of the community ; though
a new synagogue was built and consecrated in March,
1833, in the presence of the chief dignitaries of the
island, and in January, 1844, the first Jewish relig-
ious school was established, with Mrs. Judith Finzi
as superintendent (“Occident,” ii. 102). Many emi-
grated to the United States, principally to Philadel-
phia. In 1848 there were but 71 Jews in Barbados,
38 of whom belonged to the congregation. Iu 1873
they petitioned for the relief from taxation of prop-
erty held by the congregation, the income of which
was devoted to the support of the needy poor and
the synagogue ; and iu the following year the peti-

tion was granted. Iu June, 1899, the number had
dwindled to 17 or 18, including women and children.
Through the activity of E. S. Daniels, the synagogue
is kept open on Saturdays and holidays, though he
is often the only person in attendance (Daniels, l.c.).

Bibliography : Robert H. Sehomburgk, History of the Bar-
batloes, London, 1847 ; E. S. Daniels, E.rtracts from Various
Records of the Early Settlement of the Jews in the Island
of Barbadoes , W. /., privately printed, Bridgetown. 1899.

A. H. F.

BARBARY STATES : A region comprising
the northwest of Africa from the Mediterranean to
the Sahara, including Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and
Tripoli. The words “ Barbaria ” (N’1313) and “ Bar-
barians ” (D’-Q'D) are found in the Midrash ; in Gen.
R. lx. the Barbarian is the neighbor of the Ethiopian
('E313); and in Sifre, Dent. 320 (ed. Friedmann,
p. 137«) Barbaria and Mauretania are mentioned side
by side. The Arabs also (Yakut i. 543, 9) called this
region “Barbara”; and this name has become com-
mon in Europe. In later Jewish writings, however,
the region is commonly called “Africa” (Abraham
ibn Daud, in “Sefer ha -Kabbalah,” ed. Neubauer,
pp. 68, 73), but occasionally also “ the land of the
Philistines ” (l.c. p. 60; Ibn Ezra on Dan. vii. 4), be-
cause, according to the legend found in the Byzantine
writer Procopius, the Canaanitish (Palestinian) races
who fled before Joshua afterward settled in North
Africa. Sometimes “ Africa ” means only the former
Roman province of Africa; while the rest of Barbary
is distinguished from it under the name “Ma'arab”
(Maghreb; Abraham Zacuto, in “ Yuhasin, ” ed. Lon
don, p. 209a, 2115). Occasionally the name “ Libya ”
occurs (Benjamin of Tudela).

The inhabitants are called “ Maglirebim ” (D'DiytD)
or “ Mustharbim ” (D'mynDO), and by a Spanish des-
ignation, “Moriscos” (DlpD'HtD; Sambari, ed. Neu-
bauer, p. 116 ; an anonymous writer of the year 1495,
in “Jahrbuch fur Geschiclite der Juden,” iii. 218).
Maglirebin Jews are now living in Egypt, Palestine,
and Syria, but always retaining this name. The
Moors call them “Yahoodi,” and their language
“ Hebrani.”

No historical records remain of the first immigra-
tion of Jews into Barbary. The legends of the coun-
try say that they came direct from Jerusalem; and,
in fact, they were found all overnorth-
Settlement. ern Africa at the time of the Roman
dominion (Sclnirer, “Gesch.” 3d ed.,
iii. 19-26). In gaonic times Barbary was one of the
centers of Jewish life. The Jews sided with the
conquering Arabs against the Christians, though it
occasionally happened that the Berbers and Jews
combined against the Arabs, as in 688. Legends
mention in this connection a Jewish tribe called
“Jerooa,” under a Jewish queen. Many Arabian
tribes bear unmistakable traces of their Jewish
origin, and these are still treated with a certain
contempt.

In addition to the Jews from Palestine, the Jew-
ish population of Barbary is largely composed of
immigrants from Spain and Portugal. The “ Spa-
gniols, ” indeed, constitute the better class, and live
mostly in cities; while the others lead a nomadic life
in. the Atlas mountains and beyond, being found far
within the Sahara and even among the Kabyles. In

Barbary States
Barcelona

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

526

Tunis there are also many Italian Jews. The major-
ity of the 400,000 Jews now (1902) resident in Africa
are living in the Barbary States (II. Scliurtz, “Ivate-
chismus der Volkerkunde,” p. 326, Leipsic, 1893).

All reports agree that the Jews of Barbary repre-
sent the unmixed Oriental Jewish type. They are
strong and well built; their women are beautiful;
and, since they have always been hated and op-
pressed, it is impossible to assume in explanation an
admixture of other races. In dress, mode of life, and
general customs they follow the Arabs. They are
strictly religious, observing to the letter the com-
mands of the Bible and the Talmud; but, like all
their neighbors, they are very superstitious. As an
example of their severity, the place where adulter-
ous women were stoned to death is still shown.

The language of the descendants of the original
inhabitants is Berber; that of the immigrants, Spa-
gniol ; but both speak also Arabic. Because of their
linguistic attainments they monopo-
Commercial lize almost the entire commerce of the
Pre- country ; and for this reason they are
eminence, so much hated by the Moors that some
of the tribes will not suffer a Jew
among them. It is said that they have their own
alphabet; since, because of religious prejudice, they
object to the use of the Arabic script. A speci-
men of their writing may be seen in “L’Univers
Israelite,” 1885, p. 98. In Oran, Fez, and Morocco
a peculiar pronunciation of Hebrew prevails (Barges,
“TleniQen,”p. 10, Paris, 1859). They are butchers,
silversmiths, engravers, tailors, shoemakers, and
leather-workers, but never masons, blacksmiths, pot-
ters, saddlers, or curriers. They prefer to engage in
peddling and small traffic. A French officer ex-
presses himself as follows : “ The Jews, who were our
first middlemen and interpreters in Algeria, obtained
a long time ago the rights of citizenship, in spite of
the pronounced aversion which the Mohammedans,
and especially the people of Barbary, have always
shown toward them. They have been the agents,
and often the martyrs, of a providential rapproche-
ment between rival peoples and religions.” See
Algeiiia, Morocco, Tunis.

Bibliography: L'Univers ( Alc/eric , Etats Tripnlitams ,
Tunis), pp. 95-97, 98, 108, Paris, 1885; A. Leared, Morocco
and the Moors , p. 269, London. 1891; E. Rae, The Countrn
of the Moors, p. 98, London, 1877 ; Andree, Zur Volkskunde
der Juden, 1881, pp. 194-205; Budgett Meakin, The Jews of
Morocco, in Jewish Quarterln Review, iv. 369-3% ; Benja-
min Gordon, Ma'ase Y Israel (Hebrew), p. 102, Lyck, 1859.

D. S. Kr.

BARBASTRO, BARBASTE : A city of Ara-
gon, containing a Jewish community with special
privileges that were confirmed by successive kings
from time to time (as late as 1336). In 1257, this
community was so poor that the king found it nec-
essary to reduce its taxes by the amount of 500 mara-
vedis jaceses. In 1271 it paid 2,200 sueldos. In 1331,
owing to internal dissensions, the community was
managed by two Christians. Ten years prior to
this, at the time of the “Shepherd-Persecution,” the
community of Barbastro was in danger of sharing
the fate of Jaca, where 400 Jews had been massacred
by the Shepherds ; but it found favor in the eyes of
the nobility, and remained unmolested. In Barbas-
tro dwelt Samuel the Pious, who was personally

acquainted with Samuel ben Mei'r, the grandson of
Rashi.

Bibliography: Usque, Consolaqam, p. 182b; Joseph ha-

Kohen, 'Emek ha-Baka, p. 60 ; Jacobs, Sources, Nos. 116,

1007, li24, p. 132 ; Gross, Gallia Judaica, p. 125.

g. M. Iv.

BARBER, IDA: German authoress; born at
Berlin July 9, 1842. She began her literary career
when quite young, and published the following
novels either in book form or as serials in magazines:
(1) “Gebrochene Herzen”; (2) “Russisclie Myste-
rien” ; (3) “ Gerttcht, doch Nicht Gerichtet” ; (4) “ Ver-
kaufte Frauen ”; (5) “Der Mann Zweier Frauen”;
(6) “ Aus der Russisclien Gesellscliaft ” ; (7) “ Clara ” ;
(8) “ Wandlungen.” Since 1880 Ida Barber has con-
tributed to many German and Austrian papers.
Bibliography: Eisenberg, Das Geistige Wien, p. 18.

s. I. Br.

BARBERS, gee Beard.

BARBY, MEIR B. SAUL ; Talmudist and
rabbi; born about 1725 at Barby, a small city near
Halberstadt, Prussia; died July 28, 1789, at Pres-
burg. His father, a tradesman, was so poor that
when he took Mei'r, a weak, thirteen-year-old boy, to
the yeshibah at Halberstadt, he carried him on his
back part of the way to save traveling expenses.
This very poverty, however, and the desire to aid
his family, acted as a spur upon the lad; and he
developed into one of the keenest and most learned
pupils of the yeshibah, of which Hirsh Bialeli was
the head. Indeed, a prominent member of the Hal-
berstadt community was proud to have him as a
brother-in-law.

Being thus freed from care, Barby went to Frank-
fort-on-the-Main, where he studied for two years
under Jacob Joshua. Soon after his return to Hal-
berstadt he was made dayyan, and in 1756 became
acting rabbi. This position he held until 1763, when
he accepted a call to Halle-on-the-Saale. After stay-
ing there one year, he assumed the rabbinate at Pres-
burg, holding this position together with leadership
of the yeshibah for twenty-five years.

Barby was considered one of the greatest dialecti-
cians of his time; and his novelise on the Talmud,
“ Sefer Hidduslie Halakot ” (Book of Novelise of
the Laws), Dykrcnfurth-Prague, 1786-92, brilliantly
confirm his reputation for acumen which gave him
the surname “ Harif.” His method contrasts favora-
bly with that of his colleagues, who recorded the
results of their scholasticism in the form of responsa,
and desired them to be accepted as rules for the reg-
ulation of practical matters. Barby, on the con-
trary, remarked that he wrote only explanations
of the Talmud, because their theoretical character
would relieve the author from presenting his subjec-
tive views as rules for practical guidance.

Barby 's personality was remarkable for the times
in which he lived. He devoted himself to secular
studies, more especially to medicine ; and he endeav-
ored to impress upon those with whom he came in
contact the necessity for a rational diet. He went so
far as to forbid one of his pupils to study for half a
year, advising him to employ that time in a tour on
foot to some interesting localities with beautiful
scenery, and thus to refresh both soul and body.

527

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Barbary States
Barcelona

To another pupil he recommended the study of mu-
sic as a remedy against moodiness. This apprecia-
tion of nature and music by a profound Talmudist of
the eighteenth century is indeed rare, perhaps unique.

Bibliography: Auerbach, Gesch. der Israelitischen Gemeinde
Halberstadt , 1806, pp. 71-74 : Zedner, Cat. Hehr. Brinks
Brit ish Museum, p. 76 : I. Weiss, Sefer Abnei Bet ha-Yozer,
p. 40 ; Eleazar ha-Kohen, Kinat Soferim, p. 73b, note 1229.

L. G.

BARCELONA (njlW“D, : Capital of

Catalonia, Spain; much praised by Jewish travelers
and poets for its beauty and its picturesque situa-
tion; was inhabited by Jews as early as the ninth
century. According to tradition, the Jews dwelling
there assisted the Arabs in the conquest of the city.
The favorite of Charles the Bald (815-817), Judah
(“Judas Hebricus, lidelis noster”), settled in Barce-
lona, his arrival being announced to the inhabitants
by a letter from the king's own hand. At the time
of the count Ramon Berenguer I. (1035-65), the Jews

Monzon (“ Boletin, ” xx v. 489). The physician Sheshct
Benveniste was employed in diplomatic affairs in
1170. The aljama (community) of Barcelona was of
considerable importance at this time. It paid in
direct taxes 24,000 sueldos annually,
Communal which was more than half that paid
Customs, by the Jewish communities of Ara-
gon ; and in “cenas reales ” (allowance
for the king’s table-expenses) it paid 500 sueldos in
1282. Besides this, the Jews were compelled, when-
ever the king and queen came on a visit to the city,,
to have at the disposal of the attendants, the valets,
cooks, etc. , a certain number of beds. Such customs-
were easily made sources of hardship and imposi-
tion, and the delegates of the communities of Ara-
gon, assembled at Barcelona in 1354, presented a
petition for the adjustment of this tax (“Documen
tos Ineditos del Archive de Aragon,” vi. 292; “He-
Haluz,” i. 25). The Jews were also required to find

Monjuich, or "Jew Mount.” Supposed Site of the Jewish Cemetery at Barcelona.

(From a Photograph.)

of Barcelona were already landowners; among them
are mentioned R. Makir and a certain Reuben, who
had his estate at the foot of Monjuich. This moun-
tain, which is near the sea, and which is also called
“ Mons Judaicus” (= Monjuich), was used as early
as the middle of the tenth century (perhaps earlier)
as a cemetery for the Jews (“Boletin de la Real
Academia de la Historia de Madrid,” xii. 6 et seq.).
Barcelona grew to be one of the most important
mercantile centers of Europe, and its commercial
code became the foundation of modern maritime
law. The part taken by the Jews in this expansion
has not been fully worked out, but is shown by the
succession of important Jewish financiers like Jahu-
dano de Cavalleria and Benveniste de Porta.

The Jewish community of Barcelona, “a commu-
nity of princes and aristocrats,” as Al-Harizi calls it,
prospered further under Don Ramon Berenguer IY.
and those following him. When Don Ramon Beren-
guer undertook a military expedition against Pro-
vence, there were in his company his Jewish physi-
cian, Abraham, and a certain Shealtiel, perliapsa son
of Samuel b. Shealtiel lia-Nasi, who died in August,
1097, and whose gravestone was lately found at

lodging for such of the king’s retinue as needed it;,
but in 1260 they were freed from this duty (Jacobs,
“Sources,” No. 184).

As in other cities, the Jews here dwelt in a “ ju-
deria ” (ghetto). This was situated near the Cathe-
dral and the Plaga del Rey, in several long and nar-
row streets, now in ruins, surrounded by the Plazas
Santa Anna and San Domingo. By permission of
the king, certain Jewish families, expelled from
France, settled here in 1311; while others settled in
the suburbs. Those Jews who acquired wealth
through enterprise and industry in trade, or who
commanded respect by their learning, continued on
good terms with the inhabitants of the city for a long
time. In 1237 the Jew Benveniste
Restrictive de Porta was bayle (mayor). This
Leg- friendly relationship ceased with the
islation. growing influence of the priesthood.

In July, 1263, a religious disputation
was held between Moses ben Nahmau (Nahmanides)
and the convert Pablo Christiani in the king’s
palace, and in the presence of the court and many
prominent priests. The Jews were compelled to
listen to the sermons of Dominican friars; immunity

Barcelona
Bardach, Julius

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

528

from attendance upon such occasions could be pur-
chased only at large figures. Inspired by the priest-
hood, exceptional laws were passed against them,
and statutes already existing were rendered more
stringent. Jews were forbidden to live outside of
the juderia, or even to seek temporary shelter in the
house of a Christian. No convert to Christianity, no
Christian woman, could enter the juderia, which
was kept closed during every Good Friday. Chris-
tian women were not permitted to visit the house of
a Jewess by night or by day. A decree, issued April
11, 1302, compelled a Jew or a Jewess, meeting a
priest with the sacrament, to kneel down in the
street. Trading in Christian prayer-books and holy
pictures was strictly forbidden them. They were
not permitted to sell the ritually slaughtered (ko-
sher) meat anywhere outside of the juderia or at
the entrance to it. In 1338 a nobleman named Jor-
dan de Ilia wished to celebrate a “ divinum myste-
rium ” at the house of the wealthy Samuel Benve-
niste. As soon as the king, Pedro the Elder, heard
of this, he had Benveniste imprisoned and his estates
confiscated, “to serve as a warning to other Jews.”

At the head of the aljama were thirty men, elected
by the members of the community and confirmed by
the king. They were the administrators and secre-
taries, to whom were added official auditors and a
manager of the poorhouse. According to the stat-
utes, the election of three members took place every
three years under the management of the three de-
parting members and by the vote of the majority.
These three election-managers were required to take
oath in the presence of ten members of the commu-
nity, and holding the Torah in their
Communal arms, to promise that they would

Organ- faithfully carry out the election to

ization. the best interests of the community;

and that they would consult nobody.
The election often led to dissensions and to rupture
in the aljama (see Responsa of Isaac b. Sheshet,
Nos. 214 and 228). The religious affairs of the com-
munity were under the guidance of several famous
rabbis, as Abraham b. Hasdai, son of Samuel b.
Abraham b. Hasdai ; and Solomon ben Adret, whose
contemporary, Aaron ha-Levi, also lived in Barce-
lona. The following personages among many others
that could be mentioned were born in Barcelona:
Isaac b. Reuben, called “al-Bargeloni” (the Barcelo-
nian); Judah b. Barzilai, author of the valuable
“Sefer ha-Tttim ” ; Abraham b. Hiyya lia-Nasi ; the
poet Joseph ibn Sahara; Hasdai Crescas. Astruc
Bonsenyor and Judah Bonsenyor, his son, scholars
and physicians, enjoyed the respect of the court of
Aragon.

The Jewish community of Barcelona came to a
disastrous end, earlier than any other in Spain.
The disastrous year 1348 did not pass without leav-
ing its traces. Toward the end of June, on a Sab-
bath eve, the mob banded together against the Jews,
killed twenty, and plundered the Jewish houses.
Meanwhile the nobility and some prominent citizens
espoused the cause of the Jews, and dispersed the
deluded crowd the more easily because a fearful
storm accompanied by terrible lightning set in, and
the rain poured down in streams (Joseph ha-Kohen,
“‘Emek ha-Baka,” p. 66).

In 1391, during the great persecutions which began
at Seville and spread over all Jewish communities of
Spain, the community of Barcelona was destroyed.
Three days after the massacre at Palma in Majorca,
on Saturday, August 5, 1391, on the feast of San
Dominic, two vessels containing fifty Castilians land-
ed at Barcelona. As if by appointment, those who
landed rushed, with the native sailors,
The Great laborers, peasants, and women, into
Massacre the Calle Mayor, the principal street of
of 1391. the juderia, and murdered and plun-
dered indiscriminately the entire night
long and all of the following day. In the first as-
sault, a hundred Jews lost their lives; the rest fled
to the Castello Nuevo, which, with the juderia,
was manned by troops by order of the governor.
Several of the Castilians were imprisoned ; and the
city council acquiesced in the suggestion of the
governor and the most prominent citizens to have
them forthwith executed as ringleaders. The en-
raged citizens angrily protested against this decision,
and attacked the governor and the members of the
council. One of the latter was killed, and several
others seriously inj ured. The infuriated mob forced
an entrance into the prison and freed the condemned.
The castle was taken by storm; all Jews that had
not left it — about three hundred in number — were
killed. Many committed suicide, many threw them-
selves from the wall or lost their lives in frenzied
combat with their assailants. A great number —
though not eleven thousand as Gratz has it(“Gesch-
der Juden,” viii. 68)— accepted baptism as salvation
(“Revue Etudes Juives,” iv. 57 et seq.).

At first the king of Aragon decided, by a decree
dated Sept. 10, 1392, to abolish the Jewish commu-
nity of Barcelona forever. Considering, however,
what advantages had accrued to trade through the
Jews, and what great services they had rendered the
state, he publicly announced, on Oct. 2 (only two
weeks later), that it was his wish to establish a new
aljama there, and to grant it the same privileges
that the former one had possessed. He promised to
the new settlers possession of the Calle de Sana-
huja, in the neighborhood of the Castello Nuevo,
with all the houses as residences. He also promised
them, for the holding of services, the synagogue
already existing there (perhaps the one built by Bo-
nafos Solomon), and likewise the use of Monjuichas
a cemetery for the burial of their dead. They were
to be freed, for three years, from all direct and indi-
rect taxes; and to be protected from molestation by
the government and the authorities for five years.

No amount of promises, however, could induce
the Jews to settle again at Barcelona. At the re-
quest of some converts, and by per-
Church. mission of the king, a church to the
Supersedes Holy Trinity was erected on the site
Syna- of the above-mentioned synagogue,
gogue. In 1392, there were no longer any
Jews or synagogues at Barcelona. On
Dec. 26, 1424, Don Alfonso Y. granted to the city of
Barcelona the privilege that a Jewish community
should never again be established there, and that no
Jews were ever to settle there again. All Jews that
were still in the city were either to leave it within
sixty days or to become converts. But a Jew might

529

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Barcelona
Bardach, Julius

stop at Barcelona provided he lived in a public hotel
and wore the Jew-badge. The time of his stay was
limited to fourteen days, after which term he had
to leave the city, and, according to the decrees of
Feb. 12, 1479, and of Aug. 10, 1480, he was not per-
mitted to return to the city for two months, and
then only for fourteen days.

At present there are in Barcelona a number of Jews
from France, Germany, and America, who, however,
have not formed a community, and who do not pos-
sess a house of prayer.

Bibliography: Kayserling, Les Juifs d Barcelona, in Revue
Etudes Juives, xxviii. 109 et seq.; idem, in Monatsschrift,
xv. 81 etseq.; Jose Fiter e Ingles, Expulsion de losJudws
de Barcelona, Barcelona, 1876; Jacobs, Sources, pp. xv.
et seq.

G. M. K.

BARCELONI, ISAAC BEN REUBEN. See

Isaac b. Reuben of Barcelona.

BARCHES (more correctly BERCHES): Judseo-
German for an oblong loaf of twisted bread, called
in some countries also “ Taatscher ” or “ Datscher. ”
Both names are by popular etymology wittily applied
to the words “ birkat ” (blessing) and “ ta'ashir ”
(maketli rich) in the Hebrew verse “ Birkat Adonai
hi ta'asliir ” (The blessing of the Lord maketh rich,”
Prov. x. 22), which is expounded by the Rabbis
as referring to the Sabbath (Gen. R. xi. ; Yer. Ber.
ii. 7). Both words, however, seem to be derived from
the twisted form of the bread. -“ Taatscher ” is a cor-
rupt form of “tartche,” the diminutive of tart (Eng-
lish), tarte (French), and torta (Latin), meaning, in
the last, twisted; while the name “Berclies,” like
“ Berges ” in North Germany among non-Jews, seems
to be connected with the bread offered to Berchta,
the Teutonic goddess of vegetation — “Zopfl” (the
twisted hair) being the common German name for
twisted loaves (see Jahn, “Die Deutschen Opferge-
brauche,” 1884, pp. 204 et seq., 282 et seq., 287 et seq. ;
and Bread.

As may be learned from the story of the wife of
the saint Hanina ben Dosa (Ta'an. 246), the Jewish
housewives used to bake bread for the whole week
on the eve of the Sabbath, in order to have fresh
bread on that day. Consequently, the offering of
a portion of the dough to the priest, in the time of
the Temple, as prescribed in Num. xv. 20— and after
the destruction of the Temple to be cast into the fire
instead (Sliulhan ‘Aruk, Yoreh De‘ah, 322, 3; Mai-
monides, “Yad,” Bikkurim, iv. 9) — was especially
incumbent upon the housewife on the eve of the
Sabbath, and it was conscientiously practised by her
(Shah. ii. 6). Therefore the name “hallah” (Num.
xv. 20) was also given to the Sabbath loaf of bread.

Bibliography : Tendlau, Sprichwtirter und Redensartcn
iJcutsch-JUdischer Vorzeit, 1860, p. 347.

A. K.

BARDA, BARDAA, or BERDA : Formerly
an important city (often mentioned by the Arabic
geographers of the ninth and tenth centuries in con-
nection with the invasions of the Russians in 880,
910, 914, and 943), now a Tatar village on the Terter
river, in the district of Dzlievansliire, government of
Elizabetlipol, Transcaucasia. That it was formerly
a large Jewish community is evident from Hasdai
ibn Shaprut’s letter to King Joseph of the Chazars
(about 960), iu which he tells the king that he first
II.— 34

intended to send his letter by way of Jerusalem,
Nisibis, Armenia, and Bardaa, but that the ambas-
sadors of the czar of the Slavonians (“Gebalim”)
advised him to take the route via Hungary and South
Russia. The city was demolished by Tamerlane in
the fourteenth century. See Chazars.

Bibliography: A. Harkavy, Sonhshcheniya o Klwzarakh,
in Yevreiskaya Biblioteka, vii. 143-153; Weidenbaum, Pute-
voditel vo Kavkazu, pp. 139, 393, 394, Tiflis, 1888.

H. R. M. R.

BARDACH, ELIJAH : Merchant and Hebrew
scholar; born at Lemberg 1794; died at Vienna
April 11, 1864. He devoted his leisure time to the
study of Hebrew literature, and is the author of
“ ‘Akedat Yizliak ” (The Sacrifice of Isaac), Vienna,
1833 — a drama adapted from the Italian of Metasta-
sio’s “ Isacco ” ; and of a Hebrew -German dictionary,
“ Ma'arik ha-Ma‘arakot ” (The Arranger of the Battle-
Rows). The latter contains many philological notes
on difficult expressions in the Bible. It was pub-
lished by Max Letteris of Vienna in 1868, after the
death of the author. Bardach also contributed many
articles to Jewish periodicals.

Bibliography: Zeitlin, Bibliotheca Hebraica, p. 14; Ben-
jacob, U zar ha-Sefarim, p. 448.

s. I. Br.

BARDACH, ISRAEL ISAAC BEN HAY-
YIM MOSES: Grammarian; lived in Lithuania at
the end of the eighteenth century. He was the
author of “Ta'ame Torah” (The Accents of the
Law), which forms the second part of a treatise of
his on grammar. This work was published at
Wilna in 1822 by his brother Mei'r, who added to
it an essay of his own, entitled “Ta'ame ‘Elyon,”
containing a defense of the Law. In the introduc-
tion to his work, Israel Bardach claims to have
written commentaries upon the Idra Rabba, upon
the Talmuds of Jerusalem and Babylon, upon the
Sliulhan ‘Aruk, Oral.i Hayyim, etc., and an ethical
work, “ Darke lia-Shem. ”

Bibliography: Zedner, Cat. Hebr. Books Brit. Mus. p. 391 ;
Benjacob, O zar ha-Sefarim, p. 311.

t. ' I. Br.

BARDACH, JULIUS : Russian writer and
teacher; born at Turijsk, province of Volhynia, 1828;
died in Odessa in 1897 (?). He is said to have de-
scended from Samuel b. David, author of tlie“TaZ”
(commentary on the Shulhau ‘Aruk; the initials of
Ture Za-hab), who in his younger days was called
BaRDaCII (the initials of Fpin TH T p). His father
was the author of “ Ta'ame Torah,” Wilna, 1822, and
of many other works left in manuscript. From him
he received his first instruction in Hebrew grammar,
Bible, and Talmud. Bardach also acquired sufficient
secular knowledge to pass his examinations as a
teacher in Hebrew and Russian. In 1851 he received
the position of instructor at the Russo-Hebrew school
in Khotin, Bessarabia; and in 1857 was appointed in-
structor at the Talmud Torah iu Odessa, which posi-
tion he held until 1882. The government entrusted
him in 1871 with the position of censor of Hebrew
books, which he held until his death. He held also
the position of instructor of Jewish religion iu some
of the high schools of Odessa. The Russian gov-
ernment awarded him the title of hereditary hon-
orary citizen. Bardach is the author of: “Hikre

Barefoot

Bareheadedness

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

530

Leslion Arami,” studies in the Aramaic language,
Odessa, 1865; “O Yevreiskom Sklonenii Pinskera,”
on the declension of Hebrew nouns according to
Pinsker, Odessa, 1886; “Mazkir li-Bue ReSHeF,”
catalogue of the Hebrew and Arabic manuscripts left
by Simhali Pinsker, Vienna, 1869; a Russian trans-
lation of Geiger’s “Lehrbuch zur Sprache der Miscli-
nah,” Odessa, 1871; “Polny Ivurs Yevreiskavo Zako-
noyclieniya,” a complete course in Jewish religion ; a
Russian translation of the Prayerbook and Hag-
gadali; “O Yevreiskoi Stilistikye,” on Hebrew style.
These last three works were left in manuscript.
Many of his articles in Hebrew and in Russian were
published in “Ha-Maggid,” “Ha-Shahar,” and the
two publications known as “ Razsvyet. ”

Bibliography : N. Sokolow, Sefer Zihltaron, Warsaw, 1889.

H. R.

BAREFOOT. — Biblical Data: lull Sam. xv.
30 it is mentioned that David, on his flight be-
fore Absalom, went Barefoot to show his grief. Mi-
cah i. 8, “ to be barefooted ” (according to LXX. ;
“stripped,” A. V.) is, likewise, a sign of mourning.
In Isa. xx. 2 the nakedness and the bare feet of
the prophet may be intended to symbolize the neg-
lected condition of captives (compare Job xii. 17, 19,
where probably the true translation is “ barefoot ” ;
“spoiled,” A. V. and R. V.). All these passages
seem to refer to the discomfort of going without
sandals on long journeys over stony roads. On the
other hand, in and around the house the wearing of
sandals seems to have been very uncommon. For a
different explanation of the custom of going Bare-
foot as a sign of mourning and then of grief in gen-
eral, see Jastrow on “ Tearing of Garments ” (“Jour-
nal of the Amer. Oriental Society,” xxi 23-39). See
Shoe.

j. jr. W. M. M.

In Rabbinical Literature : To go Barefoot

is the common custom in the Orient when walking
about one’s house or on holy ground, or even in the
street in cases of mourning. The shoes
Historical worn in antiquity were only sandals —

Survey. that is, soles tied upon the feet to pro-
tect them against the pricking of the
hard stones or thorns of the road — whereas stockings
were altogether unknown. It therefore appeared as
desecration of a holy place to walk thereon with dust-
covered shoes, instead of having the feet perfectly
cleansed by ablutions, as was the custom before sit-
ting down to a meal.

The priests in the sanctuaries wore no shoes (see
“Silius Italicus,” iii. 28; Theodoret on Ex. iii.,
quaestio 7 ; Yer. Sliek. v. AM). Moses and Joshua
were told to take off their shoes on holy ground (Ex.
iii. 5; Josh. v. 15). “No one was allowed to walk
on the Temple ground with shoes on or with dust on
his feet ” (Bcr. ix. 5 ; compare Iamblichus, “ Pythago-
ras,” § 105). Similarly, in Islam no one is allowed
to enter the mosque except when barefooted. For
the same reason the priests, when going upon the
platform before the sacred Ark in the synagogue to
bless the congregation, must take off their shoes;
though to-day they wear stockings and are not sup-
posed to be Barefoot (Sotali AOa ; R. H. 315; see
Shulhan ‘Anik. Grab Hayyim, 128, 5).

Modern opinions differ as to the reason for the
removal of the shoes as a sign of mourning; some
scholars see in the custom a trace of ancestor wor-
ship, others a return to primitive modes of life,
while others again, in agreement with the Jewish
view, suggest that it is a S3rmbol of humility appro-
priate to occasions of grief or solemnity. For this
latter reason shoes are not worn on the Day of Atone-
ment or on the Ninth of Ab.

Occidental life, however, did away with the cus-
tom of going Barefoot; stockings and the like being
worn on all occasions for which removal of shoes is
prescribed (see Shulhan ‘Aruk, Orah Hayyim, 614,
2; 554, 16).

Bibliography: Winer, B. B. s.v. Priest er and Schulte ;

Riehm, HandwOrterbucli des Biblisclien Altertliums , s.v.

Sclmhe.

J. SR. K.

BAREHEADEDNESS : Jewish custom has for
ages required women to cover the hair as an evi-
dence of their modesty before men, and required
men to cover the head in order to show their humil-
ity and reverence before God.

In ancient Biblical times there is no indication that
women covered their hair except with head-gears
for ornament. The Shulammite’s long flowing locks
are an object of admiration in the Song of Songs
(iv. 1 ; vi. 5 ; vii. 5 ; compare Ezek. xvi.7) ; and much
art is bestowed in coquetry upon the braiding (see
Isa. iii. 24; II Sam. xiv. 26; Judges xiii.). The
woman suspected of adultery was
Barehead- therefore signally disgraced, or humil-

edness iated like a mourner, when for punish-
of Women, ment her head was disheveled by the
priest (Num. v. 18 ; compare Lev. xxi.
10; A. V. “uncover”); and shaving off the hair was
an insult inflicted only on captive women (Jer. vii.
29; I Cor. xi. 15). In Mishnaic times, however, it
was regarded as an inviolable Jewish custom (“dat
Yeliudit”) that women should not be seen in the
streets with uncovered hair (Ket. vii. 6); and the
infringement of that rule by a married woman was
deemed sufficient ground for divorce, a view stated
also in Roman law (Marquardt and Mommsen,
“Ilandbuch der Romischen Alterthiimer,” vii., part
2, pp. 554 el seq.). Accordingly, the

Biblical Mosaic law (Num. v. 18) mentioned
and above is taken by the Septuagint and

Mishnaic the Rabbis to mean “ the priest shall

Times. uncover the woman’s head”; and, con-
sequently, R. Ishmael derives from it
the law forbidding the daughters of Israel to walk
abroad with uncovered hair (Ket. 72a; Sifre, Num.
11). The great importance of the traditional custom
may be inferred from the following story, related
in Num. R. xviii. 20:

“ On, the son of Peleth, companion of Korah, was saved
through the device of his wife, who, having made him so drunk
that he fell asleep, sat with her daughter in front of the tent,
both having their hair uncovered. When On's companions
came to call for him, and saw the women in such an attitude,
they turned away ; for no one would enter a house where this
Jewish custom was so opeuly disregarded.”

The distinction of Kamhit, who saw seven of her
sons made high priests, and two officiate on one and
the same day, one of them being Simon ben Kam-
hit, mentioned by Josephus (“Ant.” xviii. 2, § 2) as

531

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Barefoot

Bareheadedness

“Simon, tlic son of Camithus,” is ascribed by the
Rabbis to the fact that even the ceiling of her house
had not seen the hair of her head (Yer. Meg. i. 72a).

Bareheadedness in a woman was, therefore, con-
sidered to be an indecorous form of “ ‘ervah ” (naked-
ness, Deut. xxiv. 1), an incentive to improper glances,
and it was declared unlawful to recite the Shema1 in
the presence of a woman whose hair was uncovered
(Ber. 24a; Shulhan ‘Aruk, Oral.i Hayyim, 75, 2;
Eben lia-‘Ezer, 21, 2). Originally, this custom in-
cluded both married and unmarried women, as may
be learned from Ned. 30 b. Nor does the law (B. K.
90«). which sets a fine of 400 drachmas upon a man
who tears off a woman’s head-gear in the street, make
any distinction between a married and an unmarried
woman. Also Paul (I Cor. xi. 3-12),
Married when declaring that the woman
and should have her head covered in recog-
TJnmarried nition of the man being her lord, refers
Women, to women in general, not to married
women exclusively (see also “ Apos-
tolic Constitutions,” i. 8). According to Pirke R.
El. xiv., it is a result of Eve’s curse that women
must go about with the hair covered like mourners.
Still, instances are given in the Talmud of unmar-
ried women going about bareheaded, as when the
Mishnah speaks of the bride being carried in the pro-
cession in her litter, with her hair hanging down
(Ket. ii. 1); or when the daughter of Nakdemon ben
Gorion covers her face with her hair when seen by
Johanan ben Zakkai in her humble condition (Ket.
666). Later, particularly in Occidental countries, it
was not considered indecorous for unmarried women
to go about bareheaded (Shulhan ‘Aruk, Oral.i Hay-
yim, 75, 2, against “ Yad,” Issure Biali, xxi. 15).

The married woman was henceforth all the more
scrupulous in covering every part of her hair, prob-
ably because its concealment was the mark of distinc-
tion of married women among the
Clipping people surrounding the Jews, as indi-
the Bride’s cated in such expressions as “ nubere ”
Hair. and “unter die Haube bringen.” It
seems that the Slavonian marriage-cus-
tom— according to which, with many lamentations
over the destroyed beauty of her hair, the “ kosah ”
(the girl’s long plait) is taken off and at times sold
(Ralston, “ Songsof the Russian People,” pp. 272-277,
288-292), and the strange practise of clipping the hair
of the bride before the cap (the sign of marriage) is put
upon her, were adopted by the Jews of Poland in the
sixteenth century. Thence it spread to Germany.
The Haggadist, however, does not hesitate to repre-
sent God Himself as plaiting the hair of Eve before
ushering her as a beautiful wife into the presence of
Adam (Ber. 61« ; Gen. R. xviii.). Emperor Nicholas
I. of Russia issued an edict in 1845 prohibiting this
usage, against which a pseudonymous article, enti-
tled “Shelomoh ben Yo'ez,” was written in Geiger’s
“ Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift,” 1837, pp. 354-375.
When, in order to conceal the women’s own hair,
wigs were introduced in modern times, prominent
rabbis of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as
Moses Isserles and Abraham Gumbiner, found this
objectionable, notwithstanding the Mishnah Sliab.
vi. 5 (see Shulhan ‘Aruk, Orah Hayyim, l.c. ; Elea-
zar Flekeles, “Teshubah me-Ahabah,” i. 48). On

the other hand, Moses Alasukar, in his Responsa
(No. 35), boldly decided that the covering of the hair
was only a matter of custom, and that where women
were accustomed to go about bareheaded they might
properly do so. This is now the almost general cus-
tom among Jewish women of the Occident.

Bareheadedness was customary among men in
Biblical times, as shown in the story of Samson
(Judges xiii.-xvi.) and in that of Absalom (II Sam.
xiv. 26), and by the use of the name “crown” for
the long hair of the Nazarite (Num. vi. 5). Still,
the covering of the head was a sign of
Bare- dignity, wherefore the head-tires of
headedness the priests are prescribed to be “ for
of Men. glory and beauty ” (Ex. xxviii. 40, R.

V.); the high priest’s golden diadem
upon the miter bearing the sign, “Holy to the
Lord ” (l.c. 36, R. V.). In fact, the head-gear itself
bore the name “ peer ” (beauty) ; and when taken off
by the mourner, ashes were put in its place (Isa. lxi.
3; II Sam. i. 2; Job ii. 12). But, exceptionally, Eze-
kiel is told to bind the head-tire upon him while
mourning for his wife. In this sense the Septuagint
interprets the words addressed to the priests (Lev.
x. 6), “Uncover not your heads” (so also A. V.,
while the real meaning is, as in R. V., “Let not the
hair of your heads go loose ”). The morning bene-
diction, “Blessed be thou, O Lord, who crownest
Israel with beauty,” was originally prescribed for
the putting on of the turban (Ber. 604). The hair
was regarded so sacred by the Jews that they often
swore by it or by the head (Matt. v. 36 ; Sanh. iii. 2).

While it was customary among the Greeks to offer
sacrifices with uncovered head — “c-apite aperto” — a
form adopted by Paul for the Christians in his first
Epistle to the Corinthians (xi. 2 etxeq.),
Greeks, the Roman priests sacrificed with cov-
Romans, ered head — “capite velato” (Mar-
and quardt and Mommsen, l.c. vi. 183).
Moham- Among Mohammedans it is indispensa-
medans. ble that the head be covered during
prayer; the turban itself is a sacred
thing by which they swear; and it is disrespectful to
receive visitors with uncovered head (Lang, “ Cus-
tomsof the Egyptians,” transl. by Zenker, i. 30, 173;
Hughes, “ Dictionary of Islam,” pp. 170, 647).

The Midrash contrasts the attitude of Moses in
hiding his face before the Shekinali at the burning
bush (Ex. iii. 6) with that of Nadab and Abilin, who
looked on with uncovered heads (Ex.
Covering xxiv. 9, 10) : the one showing reverence
the Head and awe; the other, insolence (Ex. R.
During 3). The proper attitude, therefore, of
Prayer. one called upon to pronounce the name
of God in prayer, the “Sheliah Zib-
bur,” is to be wrapped in the mantle or tallit (R. II.
174; Ber. 51ffl; Yer. Ber. vii. lie/; compare the dic-
tionaries, s.r. f)Oy). Accordingly, a man with uncov-
ered head is, like one in rags and half-covered, for-
bidden to recite the Shema‘ — or, at least, to officiate
as Reader or to read aloud from the Torah or to
recite the priestly benediction — he not being in a
position to pronounce the name of God with proper
dignity (Mas. Soferim xiv. 15; compare ed. Joel
Muller, p. 199; Azulai, Responsa “Hayyim Sha’al,”
ii. 35). Still, the Palestinian custom did not insist

Bareheadedness
Bargfes, Jean

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

532

on the covering or veiling of the head at the priestly
benediction (see Muller, “Hilluf Minliagim,” p. 839).
Isaac of Vienna (thirteenth century), in “ Or Zarua‘,”
ii. 43, states that the rabbis of France say the prayer
with uncovered heads, and that on Simliat Torah the
boys are called up to the Torah bareheaded.

It was deemed necessary that the fear of God
should manifest itself also in man’s general bearing ;
and after R. Joshua ben Levi had taught that “a
man ought not to walk four cubits in an erect po-
sition, which suggests overbearing
Walking pride, ignoring God’s omnipresence,”
Bare- Rab Huna, the son of Joshua, would
headed. not walk four cubits without having
his head covered, for he said: “The
Shekinah is above my head ” (Kid. 31a). He declared
this custom to be especially meritorious (Shab.1186),
and in the course of time it was adopted as a general
rule of Jewish conduct (Shulhan ‘Aruk, Orah Hay-
yim, 2, 6). Children were not included in the rule
requiring the head to be covered (Ned. 306). The
mother of Rab Nahman bar Isaac, having been told
by an astrologer that her son would become a thief,
kept his head always covered in order that the fear
of God might be always with him; but on one occa-
sion, as he was studying under a palm-tree, his
head-covering fell off, and when he looked about,
the desire to steal dates came upon him (Shab. 1566).

Unmarried men did not wear a turban. When
Rab Hamnuna was introduced to Rab Huna as a
great scholar, he was astonished to see that the lat-
ter wore no turban (Kid. 296). In Maseket Kallah,
ch. i., and in Kallah Rabbati, ib., it is related that R.
Akiba, seeing a child with uncovered head, said he
was sure that the child was the offspring of an in-
cestuous marriage, which passage is in contradiction
with the above-quoted Talmudic passage (Ned. 306),
which speaks of the uncovered heads of children as
common. Of rather late origin, and evidently point-
ing to Christian surroundings, is the following Mid-
rasliic passage: “ ‘My people, wherein have I wearied
thee ? ’ (Yalk. , Micah vi. 3). R. Berekiali says, ‘When
a king sends an order to a city, the people rise to
their feet, uncover their heads, and read it with fear
and awe, trembling and obedient. But God says:
“This Sliema' is My order; I have not wearied you.
and have not said unto you, ‘Read it standing and
with uncovered heads,’ but ‘ when thou sittest in
thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and
when thou best down, and when thou risest up
(Lev. R. xxvii. 6; Tan., Emor., ed. Buber, p. 92;
Pesik. xii. 102a; Yalk., Micah, 554).

The medieval codes, almost without exception,
embodied the prohibition against uncovering the
head (Alfasi, Kid., ed. Vienna, 2176; Maimonides,
“Yad,” De‘ot,v.6; Tefillah,v.5; Yoreh
Medieval De‘ah, 91, especially Bet Joseph on
Codes. the passage; further references in
Low, “Gesammelte Schriften,” ii.
321). Of special interest is the report of Abraham
ben Nathan of Liinel (“Ha-Manhig,” ed. Berlin, p.
15), that he found in Spain that the people covered
their heads during prayer, a comment which indi-
cates that the practise was not customary in France
in the thirteenth century. The Cabalists have, in
their usual way, attempted to find in the custom a

certain mysterious meaning. Thus, the Zohar (Par.
Naso, p. 1226, in Ra'ya Mehemna) : “ Because the
Shekinah is above him, it is forbidden to the son of
man to walk four cubits with uncovered head. ” This
passage is quoted by Josef Solomon del Medigo with
the addition: “ It is, however, customary in all parts
of Italy, in Crete, and in many countries under the
dominion of the emperor [of Germany] and other
Christian rulers.” Evidently they accept the view
of Maimonides, quoted by Joseph Caro, in “ Bet Jo-
seph,” 91 (“Mazref Lahokmah,” ed. Odessa, 1865, p.
74). Another interesting contribution is found in the
responsa of Israel Isserlein with reference to a law
promulgated in Breslau about 1450, requiring the
Jews when taking an oath to pronounce the holy
name of God (Yhwh) with uncovered head. Isser-
lein declares that while the pronunciation of the
name Yhwh is prohibited, yet if the law were made
with the intention of forcing the Jews to transgress
a religious law, he would not object to swearing
with uncovered head (“Terumat lia-Deshen,” 203).
The same view is taken by Solomon Luria (16th cen-
tury), who rebukes his contemporaries for paying
no attention to the Talmudic prohibition against
walking (HSIpT HD1p3) four cubits in an erect posi-
tion as an attitude of insolence, while they are very
punctilious in regard to the injunction to keep the
head covered, which after all is not a law, but a
mere custom (Responsa, No. 72).

David Halevi of Ostrog (17th century) was the
first to declare that the prohibition against uncover-
ing the head was based on religious law, in opposi-
tion to the Christian mode of worship. He founded
his decision on the Talmudic interpretation of Lev.
xviii. 3: “Ye shall not walk in their ordinances”
(“hukkat lia-goy,” Ture Zakab, Orah Hayyim, viii.
3). The same view is taken by the physician Solo-
mon Levi of Verona, Amsterdam, 1731 (see Lam-
pronti, “Pahad Yizhak,” s.v. ti’JO On the

other hand, Elijah of Wilna, like Solomon Luria,
holds that the prohibition is based merely on cus-
tom or propriety.

The principle of reform in modern Judaism hinges
upon this question, whether any religious form
should be excluded from the synagogue because it
is taken from another religious sect,

Reform and is, therefore, “ hukkat lia-goy ”

View. (heathen rite). The leaders of radical

Reform claim that, as it is more in
keeping with the Occidental view to stand bare-
headed before persons who claim our respect, so
should men stand before God in prayer or in the
house of worship, this being the attitude which
suggests respect and awe. The Conservatives
maintain that to pray with the head uncovered is
to imitate a non- Jewish custom (“hukkat lia-goy ”).
The first attempt to combat the Oriental view in
theory was made by Aaron Chorin (1766-1844), who,
in a pamphlet entitled “Iggeret Elasaf ” (Prague,
1826), advocated the uncovering of the head during
worship; the first in practise, by the Reformge-
meinde in Berlin, in 1845, when the removal of
the head-gear was made obligatory during services,
while the worshipers were permitted to wear a skull-
cap (Levin, “Die Reform des Judenthums, Fest-
schrift,” p. 43, Berlin, 1895). This congregation

533

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bareheadedne-s
Barges, Jean

has, however, been the only one in Europe to adopt
such a practise, and Gratz sees in it the chief reason
for its failure to make propaganda (“ Volksthiimliche
Gescli.” iii. 737). Occasionally the parnas Hell-
witz in Soest preached with uncovered head (“ Allg.
Zeit. des Jud.” 1847, p. 448), while both Ludwig
Pliilippson and Abraham Geiger preached in the
Berlin Reformgemeinde with their heads covered
(ib. 1845, p. 622). In America, praying with the
head uncovered was first introduced in the Har Sinai
Gemeinde in Baltimore and Temple Emanu-El and
Adath Jeshurun of New York, and is now the prev-
alent custom in the Reform congregations of the
United States, though in some it is optional with the
members whether they worship with the head cov-
ered or uncovered.

As part of the requirements of the Oath (“ More
Judaico ”), most of the nations of Europe demanded
(and some still demand) that the Jews swear with
their heads covered (see Oath, Jew-
Political ish). A law of Hungary, issued in
Laws. 1517, demands that a Jew should
swear “Pileum Judaicum in capite
liabens” (Busch, “ Jahrbuch,” vol. 82). Similar are
the laws of Saxony, Nov. 22, 1838; May 13, 1839;
and May 30, 1840; of Scliaumburg-Lippe, March
19, 1842; of Denmark, 1843 (“Allg. Zeit. des Jud.”
1843, p. 395); of Brunswick, Jan. 14, 1845; of Aus-
tria, 1846 (“Wiener Zeitung,” 1846, No. 338); of
Meiningen, July 25, 1844; of Mecklenburg, April 8,
1848; of Birkenfeld, 1852; of Oldenburg, Nov. 2,
1854; and of Sardinia, 1855. In a trial at a police-
court in London, a Jew swore with uncovered head,
and the attorney for his opponent objected to the
oath, because, as he said, the Jews did not consider
such an oath valid; and the judge sustained the
objection (“Jewish Chronicle,” Aug. 9, 1901, p. 17).

The conservative Jews in civilized countries insist
on the covering of the head merely during the per-
formance of religious acts, while the rigid adherents
to the ancient custom keep their heads
Con- constantly covered, and therefore wear
cessions of a skull-cap (A. Fiirst, “ Christen und
Modern Juden,” p. 296, Strasburg, 1892). In
Orthodoxy, recent times the government of Ru-
mania issued a decree prohibiting He-
brew instruction in the Jewish schools to children
with covered heads with the ostensible purpose of
keeping the children of Orthodox parents from these
schools (“Jewish Chronicle,” Feb. 22, 1901). A great
many difficulties were encountered (“Orient,” 1843,
p. 6) when the reform was introduced in modern
days of teaching school-children without hats (Wolf,
“Gescli. der Juden in Wien,” p. 180, Vienna, 1876).

Bibliography : ShuUmn ‘ Aruk , Oral} Hayyim, and its glos-
sarists, §§ 2, 6, viii. 2', lxxv. 1, exi. 3, cli. 6 ; Azulai, Hayyim
Sha'al, part ii., p. 35, where the subject is exhaustively
treated. The Liberal standpoint is taken by Aaron Chorin in
Iggerct Elasaf Oder Semlschreiben Eines Afrikanischen
Rabbi an Seinen (sic) Kollegen in Europa, mit Einem
Vorworte, Hcrausgcgeben von Aaron Choriner (sic), Ober-
rabbi zu Arad, Prague, 1826; Hellwitz, Das Unbedeckte
Haupt, Predigt am Ptingstfeste 181,7, Soest, 1847 ; Zuldsxig-
keit und Dringlichkcit der Synagogcnreformcn, Begut-
achtet von Vorzilglichen In- und AusUlndischcn Rab-
binern, Vienna, 1845; Shelomo ben Yo’ez and Abraham Cohn,
in Geiger’s Wissenschaftliclie Zeit. f Hr JUdische Theologie,
1837, pp. 354-375 ; idem, for 1838, pp. 333-345 ; S. Adler, Das
Enthlbsstc Haupt, ein Gutacbten, in .Did. Zeit. flir T Vis-
senschaft und Leben, iii. 189 (see Geiger, ib. 141); L. Low,
Eine Vorlcsung ilber Barhttu ptigkeit, in Gesammelte

Sebriften, ii. 311 ct seq. For the Orthodox point of view,
aside from the codes quoted; Abraham ben Aryeh Lob (A.
Lowenstamm), 0"nn ms, Amsterdam, 1820: Jonas Altar,
iruvv p nttO'BO, against Chorin, Prague, 1826; Sinai, 1859.
p. 14 ; Zunz, Gesammelte Schriften, ii. 259.

K. D— K.

BARFAT : Name used by Jews in Provence and
northern Spain ; e.ff. , “iy miD JVD-Q = “ Barfat certi-
fies as witness,” found in an agreement between Pe-
dro II. of Aragon and the Knights of St. Jean (MS.
Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale) ; “ Nic;ak Barfat ”
(“ Literaturblatt des Orients,” 1841, cols. 235, 312),
in Spain in 1346. Isaac ben Sheshet (“ Ribasli ”) and
his brother Don Crescas bore also the surname Barfat
(Responsa, Nos. 370, 387, 390). As to its etymology
and significance, many hypotheses have been pro-
pounded. The most probable of these is the one
given by Bloch (“Revue Etudes Juives,” x. 255);
namely, that the name ought to read “Berfet,” and
is abbreviated from “ Perfetto,” which latter occurs in
the Barcelona list of Jews, and is the equivalent of
“Shallum.” Indeed, in Hebrew, “Barfat” is some-
times written “Parfat” (compare “Yuhasin,” cd.
Philipowski, p. 22, col. a ; “ Shalshelet lia-Kabbalah,”
ed. Venice, p. 61). Gross adopts this interpretation
and connects the name “ Barfat ” with that of “ Pro-
fiat,” although the latter is nowhere to be found as
a family name.

Bibliography: Gross, Gallia Judaica, pp. 371-372; Renan-
Neubauer, Les Rabbins Franqais, p. 706; idem, Les Ecrv-
vains Juifs Franqais, p. 600.

G. M. S.— G.

BARGAINS AND SALES. See Reqcisition.

BARGAS, ABRAHAM DE : Translator into
Ladino of the prayers composed by Malachi ben
Jacob on the occasion of the earthquake at Leghorn,
in January, 1742, under the title “Traducciou de la
Oracion del Ajuno de los Temblores de Tierra que
en Ladino Espanol lllustro,” Pisa, 1746. He lived
in Italy during the middle of the eighteenth century.
An Alonzo de Bargas of Palma (in Majorca of the
Balearic islands) was burned in the auto da fe held
in Seville Feb. 24, 1722. The name “ Bargas ” may
possibly be connected with the city Barga in the
Italian province of Lucca.

Bibliography : Kayserling, Bibl . Esp.-Port.-Jud. p. 16 ; idem,
Gesch. der Juden in Spanien, i. 186; Attgem. Zeitung des
Judenthums, 1888, p. 263.

k. G.

BARGES, JEAN JOSEPH LEANDRE :

Honorary canon of Notre Dame of Paris, abbe and
Orientalist; born in 1810 at Auriol (Bouches-du-
Rlione); died in 1896 near Marseilles. From 1835
he was a member of the Asiatic Society of Paris.
After delivering lectures on Arabic as assistant in
the chair of Arabic at Marseilles, he made an exten-
sive trip through Algeria, the literary results of
which were numerous. They first appeared only as
notes in the “Revue de l’Orient” and in the “Jour-
nal Asiatique,” as, for example, his article on the
pronunciation of the Hebrew, entitled “Souvenir
d’Oran” (“ Journal Asiatique,” 1848, ii. 172; trans-
lated into German, “Z. D. M. G.” iii. 374). Later
he published a complete itinerary in book form. In
1842 he became professor of Hebrew in the faculty
of theology at the Sorbonne in Paris, retaining the
position until the faculty was abolished in 1885.

Bari

Barit

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

534

Special interest attaches to the fact that his Arabic
knowledge was placed at the service of Hebrew lit-
erature. In collaboration with Beer Goldberg, who
had transcribed Arabic texts in Hebrew characters,
in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, he published the
following work: “R. Judah b. Koreisli, ad Syna-
gogam Judseorum Civitatis Fez Epistola de Studii
Targum Utilitate et de Linguae Chaldaicae . . . Vo-
cabulorum item Nonnullorum Barbaricorum Con-
venientia cum Hebraea, ” 1857. His other works in
chronological order are: “Le Livrc de Ruth, Ex-
plique par Deux Traductions Fran^aises,” 1854;
“Les Samaritains de Naplouse,” 1855; “Libri
Psalmorum David, Yersio a R. Japheth b. Heli Bas-
sorensi Karaita,” 1861 (he had given a specimen of
this work as early as 1846; and Munk, on presenting
the work to the Academy, pointed out its interesting
character [“Revue Orientale et Americaine,” 1861,
vii, 1-12; seeM. Schwab, “ Vie et GSuvresde Munk,”
p. 190] ; “ Hebron et le Tombeau du Patriarclie Abra-
ham, Traditions et Legendes Musulmanes Rappor-
tees par les Auteurs Arabes,” 1863; “Notice sur
Deux Fragments d’un Pentateuque Hebreu-Samari-
tain Rapportes de la Palestine par F. de Saulcy,”
1865; “Sefer Taghin, Liber Coronularum,” Latin
introduction, Hebrew text, with a Hebrew preface
by Senior Sachs, 1866 (this publication is omitted by
bibliographers, even by Isidore Loeb in his article on
Barges in the “Grande Encyclopedic”); “Inscrip-
tion Hebraique de la Chaire de St. -Marc a Venise”
(“ Annales de Philosophic Cliretienne,” 1880, ii. 222);
the Song of Songs by Japheth b. Ali (1884); six
monographs on Plienician inscriptions, published at
different times (1847-88); a study of the Arabic in-
scriptions which once existed at Marseilles (1889) ;
and various other works.

Bibliography: A. de Gubernatis, Dictionnaire Interna-
tional des Ecrivains du Jour, i. 166-167 ; Archives Isra-
elites, lvii. 143; I. Loeb, in Grande Encyclopedic, s.v.

T. . M. S.

BARI or BARI DELLA PUGLIE : Seaport
town in Apulia, Italy, on the Adriatic ; capital of the
district of the same name. As the center of an ex-
tended trade with Triest, Corfu, Messina, and the
Orient, Bari was at all times a place of importance;
information, however, concerning the history of the
Jews there is very scant. According to tradition,
the settlement of the Jews in southern Italy is con-
nected with the captives brought there by Titus
after the sack of Jerusalem (Jeralimeel, in Neubauer,
“ Medieval Jewish Chron.” i. 190 ; Ahimaaz, “ Chron-
icle,” ib. ii. 112, line 4; “Jewish Quart. Rev.” iv.
623). If there is any truth in this tradition, then
together with Naples, Venosa, Otranto, Taranto, and
Oria, Bari must at an early date have become a seat
of Jewish influence.

A similar tradition seems, also, to have found its
way into Yalkut on Psalm cxxxvii. After speaking
of the Jews deported to Babylon by Nebuchad-
nezzar, it adds:

“ The inhabitants of Bari 0^40) came out to meet them, to-
gether with the people of the other cities [perhaps Taranto and
Otranto, “Revue Etudes Jnives,” xxxiii. 40], They saw that
the Jews were naked. What did the people of

Leg-ends. Bari do? They unclothed their male and
female slaves, and brought them as a pres-
ent to Nebuchadnezzar, saying, ‘ Perhaps thou art a king that
taketh delight in the naked?’ He answered, ’Go, and put

thou garments upon the Israelites.’ And what was the reward
of the people of Bari ? God Almighty endowed them with more
grace than that possessed by all the land of Israel ; and [there-
fore] they are more beautiful. The saying was current, ‘ No
one who enters the city [Bari] leaves it without having com-
mitted a sin ’ [referring to the beauty of its women].”

The same account is found in Midrash Teliillim;
and with a few additions in the Pesikta Rabbati (28;
ed. Friedmann, p. 1356), a work composed about the
year 845. The historical background of the legend
is not quite apparent. Israel Levi supposes that the
reference is to some intervention on the part of the
Jews of Bari in favor of their brethren captured
either by the Byzantines or the Arabs ; but Baclier,
with perhaps more reason, sees in Nebuchadnezzar
a typical reference to Titus, in agreement with the
tradition referred to above, even if the expression in
the Ahimaaz “ Chronicle ” (p. 112, line 4), 'SVO
(“ crowned with beauty ”), has no connection with
the traditional beauty of the women of Bari. The
reference, however, of the Yalkut and Pesikta to
Bari can hardly be questioned ; though Friedmann
(ib. commentary) connects the name with Beri (I
Chron. vii. 36) of the tribe of Asher; Harkavy with
the Iberians or Caucasians; Jastrow (“A Dictionary
of the Talmudim,” p. 136) with ’TD in Galilee; while
Krauss elaborately argues in favor of an identifica-
tion with Berytus (Beirut).

According to the Ahimaaz “ Chronicle,” Aaron ben
Samuel, the wonder-worker (870), came from Oria to
Bari on his way back to Babylonia.
Under The Arabic invasion of southern Italy
Various had by this time spread over Apulia
Govern- and Calabria. Bari fell into Moham-
ments. medan hands, and became the seat
of the governor Sandan; though the
Arabic chroniclers (as, for example, Ibn al-Athir,
viii. 117) know nothing either of him or of Sandan.
For six months Aaron remained here, so highly hon-
ored by the governor that he had to have recourse
to a miracle in order to be able to leave the city
(Ahimaaz, “Chronicle,” 118, 8; 119, 4). Bari fell
again into the hands of the Byzantines, when Basil
and the German emperor Ludwig II. broke the
Arab power. It was still a place of importance ; for
Ahimaaz tells us that the news of the death of Basil
was sent to Italy by way of Bari (ib. 124, 10).
When Oria was taken in 962 by Al-Muizz Ma’add,
many of its inhabitants- — Jews being no doubt among
them — fled to Bari. A little later an uncle of Paltiel,
the vizier of Al-Muizz and ‘ Abd al-Mansur — by name
Hananeel ben Paltiel — made use of his nephew’s in-
fluence to regain some of the family property, and
came hither with a bull from the Byzantine court.
The rabbis were at first unwilling to accede to his
request; but finally gave way to the power of the
state (ib. 127, 11-21).

That a rabbinical school or, at least, famous teach-
ers of the Law existed here at this time is attested
by the old saying cited by Rabbeuu
Jewish Tam (“Sefer ha-Yashar,” p. 74a, No.
Scholars at 620, ed. Vienna) in the twelfth cen-
Bari. tury: “From Bari shall the Law go
forth, and the word of the Lord from
Otranto” — a paraphrase of Isa. ii. 3 (Gratz, “Gescli.
derJuden,” vi. 280, Giidemann, “ Erzieliungswesen
der Juden in Italien,” p. 17). Another tradition, re-

535

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bari

Barit

lated b,v Ibn Daud in his “Sefer ha-Kabbalali”
(“Med. Jewish Chronicles,” i. 67, line 24), connects
Bari with the four teachers who in 960 set out from
that port for the purpose either of providing dow-
ries for brides, or, as Graetz thinks, of seeking aid
for the languishing schools in Babylonia. On their
way to Sebaste, their ship is said to have been cap-
tured by the Moorish admiral Ibn Rumahis, and the
teachers were sold into slavery (see the references in
“Migdal Hananel,” p. 28, and Graetz, “Hist, of the
Jews,” Hebr. tr., iii. 478). It is quite uncertain if
these teachers came from Babylon, as is usually held
(see, even.Halberstamm, in “Jewish Quart. Rev.” vi.
596). They may have been Italians from Bari itself
(Weiss, “ Dor,” iv. 265; Scliechter, in “Jewish Quar-
terly Review,” xi. 645), as the extant manuscripts of
the “ Sefer ha-Kabbalali ” say simply, “ four renowned
scholars from the city of Bari.”

Nothing further is known of the fortunes of the
Jews in this place ; Benjamin of Tudela does not
even speak of it in his travels. Mention is made of
a Moses Khalfo of Bari in 1025 (Carmoly, in “ Revue
Orientale,” ii. 116) and of a physician and copyist,
Isaac ben Solomon, whose family name was “del
Bari,” in the middle of the fifteenth century (Car-
moly, ib. i. 435, ii. 108; idem, “Notice Ilistor. sur
Benj. de TudMe,” p. 14). According to Porges, the
manual for the reader of the Law, called rp'Tin
K-npn. was brought from Jerusalem to Bari (“Revue
Etudes Juives,” xxiii. 310; “Jewish Quart. Rev.”
iv. 613).

Bibliography : For the Chronicle of Aliimaaz, see the ed. of
Neubauer cited above ; on the Yalkut and Pesikta passages,
Israel Levi, in Revue Etudes Juives, xxxii. 278 eiseq.; Bacher.
ib. xxxiii. 40; Krauss, in Monatsschrift, xli. 554 et seq.;
Bacher, ib. pp. 604 et seq.; and Israel Levi, in Revue Etudes
Juives, xxxv. 228. Compare, also, Neubauer, The Early
Settlement of the Jevjs in Southern Italy, in Jewish Quart.
Rev. iv. 606 et seq.\ see Ahimaaz bkn Paltiel.

j. G.

BARIS. See Antonia.

BARIT, JACOB (sometimes called Jankele
Kovner); Russian Talmudist and communal worker ;
born at Simno, government of Suwalki, Sept. 12,

1797 ; died at Wilna
March 6, 1883. He
lost his parents early
in life, and at the age
of fourteen came to the
city of Kovno, where he
studied Talmud in the
“ bet ha-midrasli ” of
the suburb Slobodka.
At the age of eighteen
he married the daugh-
ter of a wealthy rela-
tive, and with the finan-
cial assistance of that
relative continued his
Talmudic studies for
another six years, when
his wife died and he
removed to Wilna. There he entered the bet lia-
midrash of Rabbi Hayyim Nahman Parnes, at the
same time studying modern languages and sciences;
and he soon acquired a fair knowledge of Russian,
German, French, algebra, and astronomy. Like
many of the Russo-Jewish scholars of that time, he

started a business, a whisky distillery, and with his
versatility and energy made quite a success of it.
But unfortunately, private distilleries in cities were
prohibited by the Russian government by the law
of 1845, and as a consequence Barit was financially
ruined.

When Sir Moses Montefiore visited Wilna in 1846,
he spent considerable time in Barit’s house, and was
guided by his advice as to the form of the petition to
Emperor Nicholas I. in behalf of the oppressed Rus-
sian Jews.

In 1850, when Ilayyim Parnes established a “ye-
sliibah ” (college) for the education of rabbis, Barit
was appointed principal (“rosh-yeshibah ”), which
position he held for twenty-five years, until sickness
forced him to resign. About twenty-five learned
Talmudic students attended his lectures daily, and
many of the eminent Russian rabbis and scholars
were graduates of his yeshibah. He was much
admired for the logical and shrewd style of his lec-
tures, which differed much from the scholastic and
sophistic style of the Polish Talmudists of his time.
'While he refused to hold the office of a rabbi, he was
for many years one of the “dayyanim” (judges) of
the Wilna community.

But his chief merit, in addition to his work in these
two posts, was his valuable services rendered to the
Jews of Wilna and to those of all
His Russia in representing their interests
Authority before the Russian government. From
as 1849, when he was chosen as a delegate

Delegate, by the Jewish community of Wilna, he
was always the representative speaker
in behalf of that important community. In 1852
he was one of the delegates from Wilna to petition
the czar Nicholas I. in regard to the oppressive con-
scription duties of the Jews by the ukases of Jan. 8,
1852 (“Second Complete Russian Code,” xxv., No.
24, 768) and of Aug. 16, 1852 (ib. xxvii., No. 26, 502).
Barit was a man of great tact and political wisdom,
a pleasant and impressive speaker and conversation-
alist. In 1855, when a project was laid before the
government to appoint chief rabbis in the capitals
of the various governments of Russia, Vladimir
Ivanovich Nazimov, then governor-general of Wilna,
recommended Barit to be chief rabbi of the govern-
ment of Wilna. In 1857, when the Rabbinical Com-
mittee— which was established by the law of May 26,
1848, to be attached to the Ministry of the Interior, to
sit upon questions involving the .Jewish religion, but
had rarely been called together — was again sum-
moned to St. Petersburg, by the edict of May 25,
Barit was appointed as one of the members, and dur-
ing the whole session of six months acted as its
chairman. He acted in the same capacity at the
Rabbinical Conference of 1861, which lasted about
five months. In both of these assemblies Barit
bravely defended the honor of his coreligionists
against the calumnies of their enemies, and his argu-
ments, coming from the heart, found their way into
the hearts of the authorities — the judges of the
Jewish question. In 1862 he was one of the dele-
gates that were elected by the Jewish communities
to congratulate Emperor Alexander II. at the one
thousandth anniversary of the foundation of the
Russian empire. In 1871, when Governor- General

Barkany

Barnabas

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

536

Kaufman called an assembly of specialists to inves-
tigate the accusations against the Jews made by the
baptized Jew Jacob Brafman, in his work, “Ivniga
Kahala” (The Book on the Kahal), published at
Wilna, 1809, Barit was appointed member of the
assembly, and fully convinced the Christian mem-
bers of the evil design and the unfounded and false
character of Brafman’s statements. The president
of the assembly, Spasski, was so pleased with Barit’s
able and truthful defense of the Jews, that he paid
him a visit and presented him with his photograph.
Barit was appointed by the government as one of
the inspectors of the Wilna City Hospital, and was
of great help there to A. Lebensolm in rebuilding it,
when it was in a dilapidated condition. He was also
a useful member of the Wilna Talmud Torah, which
made good progress by his aid to the president,
Jonah Gerstein.

In 1873 Barit had an attack of apoplexy, from
which he never recovered fully. Still he continued
his work in the yeshibah until 1877, when his mal-
ady prevented him from continuing the work. Barit
was strictly orthodox, yet he was highly esteemed
by the progressists, Jewish and Christian. Gov-
ernor-General Nazimov was his real friend, and' when
he left Wilna in 1863, and Barit came to take leave
of him, Nazimov, in the presence of many members
of the aristocracy, kissed Barit on the forehead, and
afterward sent him his portrait as a memento of his
friendship.

Bibliography : Fuenn, Kcneset Y Israel, pp. 537, 538, Warsaw,

1886; S. Babinowitsch, in Keneset Yisrael, pp. 157-162, 1887 ;

Mysh, Rukovodstvo It Russkim Zalconam o Yevreyalsh,

p. 85, St. Petersburg, 1898 : Levanda. Polny Klironologiclieski

Sbornik Zakonov, etc., p. 88U, St. Petersburg, 1874.

L. G. H. R.

BARKANY, MARIE : Austrian actress ; born
at Kaschau, Hungary, March 2, 1862. She was one
of the six daughters of a merchant at Kaschau, and
was sent to Vienna to learn bookkeeping. Instead,
she occupied her time studying for the stage, taking
Charlotte Walter as her ideal. Laroche and Sonnen-
thal became interested in her and obtained an en-
gagement for her at Frankfort, where, at the age of
fifteen, she made her debut as Adrienne Leconweur.
The next two years were profitably employed in
study under Barnay. In 1880 Miss Barkany went
to the Thalia Theater, Hamburg, and then to the
Iloftheater, Berlin. Soon after she visited Moscow,
Riga, Hanover, Dresden, Leipsic, Budapest, New
York (1892), and St. Petersburg, where she met with
enthusiastic receptions. At the last place Miss
Barkany appeared simultaneously with Sarah Bern-
hardt, playing the same roles as the French actress,
deliberately challenging comparison. That she sur-
vived the ordeal without loss of artistic prestige is a
good indication of her standing in the profession.

She is at her best in Fedora, Juliet , Gretclien, and
the title-roles in “ Die Jungfrau von Orleans, ” “ Maria
Stuart,” and “Jane Eyre.”

Bibliography : New York Times, Jan. 5, 1892, p. 4. col. 6 ;

Fliiggen, BiLhnen Lexikon, p. 12; Das Geistige Berlin, pp.

10, li (autobiographical sketch).

S. E. Ms.

BARKI (>p“iN2, or 'p-Q, called T""in), ISAAC
BEN ELIJAH: Writer; flourished in the seven-

teenth century at Salonica. He was, according to
Azulai, a pupil of Hayyim Sliabbethai (died 1647),
otherwise called Of his literary activity

little is known. There is a decision of his pub-
lished in Hayyim Shabbethai’s responsa, “Torat
Hayyim,” part iii. § 29, Salonica, 1722; and an-
other opinion on ritual questions, printed as an ap-
pendix to Samuel ben Isaac Sardi’s “Sefer ha-Teru-
mot,” ed. Salonica, 5388 (= 1628 (7), not 1596, as in
Flirst). He also annotated the Arba’ah Turim,
which comments are given in Michael Cohen’s
“Moreh Zedek,” Salonica, 1655.

Bibliography: IVolf, Bihl. Hebr. i. 652,759; Azulai, Sliem

ha-Gedolim, i. 100, No. 292, 1852 ; Fiirst, Bihl. Judaica, i. 88 ;

Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. p. 1095, No. 5316; compare, also,

p. 1754, No. 6393.

G. G. A. K.

BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT : A romantic

tale under this title, giving extracts from the life of
Buddha and some of his parables in Christian form,
which has led to the adoption of the two titular
heroes, as unofficial saints, into the calendar of the
Catholic Church, thus making Buddha a saint of the
Christian Church. The story is of a heathen king
who was warned that a son would come to him and
would change his faith in later years. In order to
prevent this, the king keeps his son shut up from
all knowledge of sin, disease, and death, until, going
out one day from his palace, he sees a leper and a
funeral, and so learns of the existence of evil. A
sage comes to him and teaches him a new faith ; he
exchanges clothes with the sage and goes away.
On his return there is a public disputation between
the old and new faiths, in which the latter is victori-
ous ; thereupon the prince becomes an ascetic.

The Hebrew version of the tale was identified by
Steinschneider (“Z. D. M. G.” v. 91) under the title
TD/YI p (“Prince and Dervish”), translated or
adapted by Abraham ibn Hasdai, the first edition of
which appeared in Constantinople, 1518, and others
at Mantua 1557, Wandsbeck 1727, Frankfort-on-the-
Oder 1766 (with German translation), Frankfort-on-
the-Main 1769, Zolkiev 1771, Fiirth 1783, Leghorn
1831, Lemberg 1870, Jitomir 1873, and Warsaw 1884.
A German paraphrase by W. A. Meisel appeared at
Stettin in 1847, and a second edition at Budapest in
1860. An earlier translation into German is con-
tained in a Munich manuscript, written in Hebrew
characters, No. 345. A Yiddish version appeared at
Lublin in 1874. The exact origin of Ibn Hasdai’s
version is difficult to trace, though several Arabic
translations and one Georgian have been recently
discovered.

The relation of these various editions to one another
and to the Greek, which is the original of the west-
ern European versions, may be indicated by a com-
parative table of the chief parables contained in
most of them.

The Hebrew contains, besides those mentioned in
the following table, ten which are not found in most
of the other versions ; Bird and Angel (ix.), Cannibal
King (xii.), Good Physician (xiv.), King and Pious
Shepherd (xvi.), Oasis and Garden (xvi.), Hungry
Bitch (xvii.). Power of Love (xviii.), Eel and Dog
(xxiii.). Language of Animals (xxiv.), and Rob-
bers’ Nemesis, only in Hebrew ( = Jataka, No. 48).

537

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Barkany

Barnabas

The numbers in the subjoined table are those in
the respective editions.

Georgian.

Hebrew.

Arabic.

Greek.

viii.

Man in Well

Three Friends

King of Year

Rich Man and Beg- 1

gar’s Daughter f

Men and Nightingale. .

xviii.

xxi.

Demon Women

The last two are certainly from Indian sources,
and yet are found only in the Hebrew version of the
“ Barlaam,” which would seem to imply that it is
closer to the original Buddhist source than any of
the others. This is, however, not definitely proved,
as the latter part of the Hebrew version diverges
after chapter xxvi. from the legend of the life of
Buddha, and does not resume the ordinary course of
the legend until chapter xxxv. According to F.
Hommel, Ibn Hasdai took his tales from an original
Arabic source, an abstract of which exists in a Halle
manuscript. The exact position of the Arabic ver-
sions must be settled before Ibn Hasdai’s source can
be determined. There are a few traces of the use of
“Barlaam and Josapliat, ” or at least of the tale of
“The Three Friends,” iu Jewish literature, by Bal.i-
yah, “Kad Hakemali,” p. 12, and in Pirke R. El.
cxxxiv. ; but there is no evidence in either case that
the story was taken direct from the “ Barlaam. ”

Bibliography : Weisslovits, Prince unci Derivisch , ein In-
discher Roman Enthaltend die Jugendgeschiclite Buddha's
in Hebrdischer Darstellung, etc., 1890; I. Levi, Revue
Etudes Juices , xviii. 83 et seq.; Steinschneider, Hebr. Uehers.
pp. 863-867 ; E. Kuhn, Barlaam und Josapliat, Munich, 1893;
Wiener, Bibliotheca Friedlandiana , pp. 186, 187 ; Jacobs,
Barlaam and Josapliat , 1896.

G. J.

BARLEY: A cereal often mentioned in the Old
Testament as one of the common food-products of
Palestine. It was and still is used as second only to
wheat as an ingredient for bread, and as such was
indicative of poverty, as seen in several notable in-
stances (Judges vii. 13 ; Ruth ii. 17 ; II Kings iv. 42 ;
John vi. 9, 13) ; indeed, it seems to have been [the
chief food of the poorer people. It is cultivated
everywhere in Palestine, principally as provender
for horses (I Kings v. 8 [A. Y. iv. 28]) and asses. In
Europe and often in America its place is taken by
oats, and the cut straw of barley and wheat is some-
times used for fodder. In the lowest depressions of
the Jordan valley the seed is always sown in the
autumn, and the harvest begins in April, and ad-
vances with the season, until on the heights it reaches
into July and August. The most frequently culti-
vated barley in antiquity seems to have been the
six-rowed ( Hordeum hexastichon), noted on the most
ancient Egyptian monuments and on the coins of
Metapontum, 600 b.c. “The meal offering of jeal-
ousy ” (Num. v. 15) seems to have been the only
use made of barley in the Hebrew ritual.
j. jr. I. M. P.

BARLOW, THOMAS: Bishop of Lincoln; born
in Westmoreland in 1607; died Oct. 8, 1691. He

was educated at Appleby, and removed thence to
Queen’s College, Oxford. In 1654 he was appointed
keeper of the Bodleian Library. Afterward he was
made provost of his college ; Lady-Margaret profes-
sor; and in 1675 bishop of Lincoln. Among his nu-
merous theological writings there is an essay entitled
“ The Case of Lawfulness of the Toleration of the
Jews,” published much later, but seemingly com-
posed about 1654, when the question of the readmis-
sion of the Jews to England had been raised by
Manasseli ben Israel. In this essay Barlow gives
his opinion on the question, having been asked for
it by a “person of quality.” Barlow advocates the
readmission, not because of his tolerance, but rather
because the current of public opinion, and especially
that of Cromwell, was at the time of writing well
disposed toward the Jews. “The Trimmer,” as
Barlow was called on account of his coquetry with
all regimes, displays his usual tendency on this oc-
casion. According to Barlow, the Jews ought to be'
admitted on the ground that the state can derive-
pecuniary advantage from them, and because of the
spiritual gain to the Church in their possible conver-
sion, which latter is “ a sacred and heavy obligation-
upon Christians.” For the government of the Jews,
Barlow propounds a special system of legislation not
far removed from the restrictions of the medieval
canon law : Let them profess, but not propagate,
their religion. They might repair their old syna-
gogues, but were not tolerated to build new. By
the canon law they might not come abroad on Good
Friday. They were not permitted to wear garments
exactly of the Christian fashion, but were to have
distinct habits that all might know them to be
Jews.

Bibliography : S. Levy, in Transactions of the Jewish His-
torical Society of England , iii. 151 et seq.

J. I. Br.

BARNABAS, JOSES : One of the Apostles, of
the tribe of Levi and of the country of Cyprus. In
Acts iv. 36 his name is gi ven as “ Bar Nahamali ”
(son of consolation), of which “Barnabas” is the
Grecized form. Some explain the name as equiva-
lent to “ Bar Nebuali ” (son of exhortation), while
Deissman, and recently Dalman, refer to “Barnebo”
(son of Nebo). Barnabas was the elder companion
of Paul in his journeys as apostle — that is, delegate
commissioned to bring the charity collection to the
mother-church at Jerusalem ; wherefore the two to-
gether are called “apostles” (Actsxiv.

The 4, 14; see Apostle). He joined the
“Apostle.” early Christian community by selling
his property and laying the proceeds
“at the apostles’ feet” (ib. iv. 37). According to
Acts ix. 27, the admission of Paul as a convert to
the Church was recommended by Barnabas; and
when the latter was sent to Antioch as preacher of
the new faith, he went to Tarsus to secure Paul as
coworker. For a whole year they remained together
in Antioch, establishing there the first important
church of Gentiles and called by the name of “ Chris-
tians ” (Acts xi. 22-26).

After this, Barnabas (who, as the elder of the two,
is mentioned first) and Paul were sent with the col-
lected gifts to their brethren in Jerusalem (ib. xi.
30, xii. 25), and on their return were sent forth

Barnabas, Joses
Barnacle-Goose

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

538

together, by direction of the Holy Spirit and with
laying on of hands, to do missionary work for the
Church (ib. xiii. 2 et seq.), Barnabas, as the elder and
probably more dignified, being taken by the pagans
as Zeus, and Paul, the eloquent speaker, as Hermes
(ib. xiv. 12). It seems, however, that the radical
views of Paul in regard to the Mosaic law caused
dissension between the two, and, finally, their sepa-
ration (see Gal. ii. 1, 9, 13), though the narrative in
Acts xv. 39 refers “the contention ” to the fact that
they could not agree on taking Mark with them as
companion. Barnabas takes Mark and sails for
Cyprus; and nothing further is recorded of him.
He is referred to once more, in Cor. ix. 6, as an apos-
tle who, like Paul, supported himself by his own
labor.

The identification of Barnabas with Joseph Barsa-
bas (Acts i. 23) is probably the cause of his having
been counted among the seventy apostles (see Clem-
ent of Alexandria, “ Stromata,” ii. 20, 116; Eusebius,
“Hist. Eccl.” i. 12). The Judaeo-Christians claimed
him as one of their own, and spoke of him as having
preached in Rome and Alexandria (see “Clementine
Recognitions,” i. 7-11 ; “Clementine Homilies,” i. 9-
14). A fifth-century legend speaks of him as having
been martyred at Cyprus. To Barnabas was ascribed
by Tertullian and others the authorship of the Epis-
tle to the Hebrews; and a “ gospel according to Bar-
nabas ” is mentioned among the canonical writings
in the decree of Gelasius (Zalin, “Geschichtc des
Kanons,” ii. 292).

Barnabas is also the supposed author of the “ Epis-
tle of Barnabas,” a work in twenty-one chapters, a
complete Greek copy of which was published in
1862 by Tischendorf (in the “ Codex Sinaiticus”), only
the Latin translation and a fragmentary copy of the
Greek having been known previously ; and another
copy was discovered in Constantinople in 1875 by
Bryennios. The “Epistle,” regarded as canonical
by Clement of Alexandria (“Stromata,” ii. 6, 7) and
Origen (“Contra Celsum,” i. 63), exhibits, on the one
hand, an astonishing familiarity with the Jewish
rites, and, on the other, shows an anti- Judaic spirit
of great bitterness ; so that only the internal strife
between the Paulinians and the Judseo-Christians,
who still clung to the Jewish nation in its last strug-
gle against Rome under Bar Kokba, can sufficiently
account for its characteristic features.
“ Epistle of Addressing the Christian readers as
Barnabas.” sons and daughters, the author declares
the Jewish sacrifices to be abolished
(“Epistle of Barnabas, ”ii.); the Jewish feasts of no
value (ib. iii. ) ; the Temple of the Jews, then recently
destroyed by the heathen, to be rebuilt only in a
spiritual sense by the Christians (xvi.) ; the Chris-
tians to be the true heirs of the covenant (xiii.); the
whole atonement rite — especially the scapegoat,
driven away amid curses and pulling off of hair,
and with the scarlet rope about its neck — to be a
type of suffering Jesus ( vii. ) ; likewise the Red
Heifer, the ashes of which were taken up by boys,
who sprinkled the people with them for purifica-
tion (viii. ; compare Parah iii. 3). Circumcision was
not to be of the flesh, which was but a delusion of
the devil, but of the heart: even Abraham’s circum-
cision of the 318 men of his household (Gen. xvii. 27;

compare with xiv. 14) referring, by a Gematria of
the Greek alphabet, to Jesus and the cross (“Epist.
of Barnabas,” ix.). The “clean” and “unclean meat”
was likewise to be taken allegorically only.

On the other hand, the writer finds the baptismal
water and the Christian cross prefigured in the Old
Testament (ib. xi. and xii.) — the latter particularly
in the bronze serpent, and Jesus in Joshua the sou
of Nun (xii.). The Tables of the Law given by
Moses having been broken by him, the testament
was to be received anew from the hands of Jesus
(xiv.); and the Sabbath of Creation points to the
millennium after six thousand years, when all life
shall have been sanctified by the Messianic advent,
whereas the Jewish Sabbath and holidays have been
declared to be unacceptable.

The second part of the “Epistle,” corresponding
(except in some Christian details) with the Didache,
a Jewish manual of instruction for proselytes (or a
Jewisli-Ckristian manual of conduct), betrays an al-
together different spirit, and was probably attached
to it by some copyist at a much later time. As
pointed out by Gudemann (“Zur Erklarungdes Bar-
nabasbriefes ” in bis “ Religionsgeschiclitlicke Stu-
dien,” 1876, pp. 109-131), the writer seems to have
been a converted Jew whose fanatic zeal rendered
him a bitter opponent of Judaism within the Christian
Church.

Bibliography: J. G. Mueller, Zur Erkltlrunq des Barnabas-
brief es, 1869 ; Harnack, in Hauck's RealencyklopUdie, s.v.;
Hastings, Diet. Bible, s.v.; Cheyne, Encyc. Bibl. s.v.; Geb-
hardt and Harnack, Patrum Apostolurum Opera : Barnahct
Ejiistola, 1878 ; W. Cunningham, Dissertation on the Ej un-
tie o/ Barnabas. London, 1877; Giidemann, ReUyionsye-
schichtliche Studien, I.eipsic, 1876; Briill, Jahrbllcher. iii.
179, 211.

T. K.

BARNACLE-GOOSE: A curious notion pre-
vailed in the Middle Ages, that this bird (Branta leu-
copsis) was generated from the barnacle, a shell-fish
growing on a flexible stem, and adhering to loose
timber, bottoms of ships, etc., a metamorphosis to
which Shakespeare alludes and to which reference is
made in the verses of Bishop Hall, Butler, and others,
as well as in the more serious scientific works of a
great number of writers in the thirteenth, fourteenth,
fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. Against F. Max
Muller’s hypothesis, that the myth is
Early to be derived from Hibernian geese,
Belief in are tlie statements of Gerald of Wales
the Myth, (twelfth century) and of Gervase of
Tilbury (1211), the latter of whom
locates these birds on the Kentish shore. It is
curious to note that Gerald turns the myth to good
account against “obstinate” Jews, for whose con-
version he appears zealous;

“ Be wise at length, wretched Jew, be wise even though late !
The first generation ot man from dust without male or female
[Adam] and the second from the male without the female [Eve]
thou darest not deny in veneration of thy law. The third alone
from male and female, because it is usual, thou approvest and
afflrmest with thy hard heart [brazen face ?]. But the fourth,
in which alone is salvation, from female without male— that,
with obstinate malice, thou detested to thy own destruction.
Blush, wretch, blush, and at least turn to nature ! She is an
argument for the faith, and for our conviction procreates and
produces every day animals without either male or female.”

Such argument failed to convince Jews of the
truth of the Immaculate Conception, though they too

539

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Barnabas, Joses
Barnacle-Goose

believed the myth. How long before Giraldus the
fable existed, Max Muller is not able to determine.
It is therefore significant that it was already known
to the Venerable Bede, the father of English his-
tory (673-735). He says, in all earnestness, in his
work on natural history, “De Natura Rerum,” that
the goose “Barliata” grows on rotten wood by the
sea. It hangs by its beak until it falls.

The earliest trace of this fable in Jewish literature
seems to be in the “ ‘Ittur ” of Isaac ben Abba Mari
of Marseilles (about 1170). The reference is found
in a volume of manuscript responsa (Halberstamm,
r6np, p. 66) in the following
Earliest words: mDlJin YID’yn 3713
Trace in '135 )^'Nn |D D'XSVri- Rabbenu Tam’s
Jewish (about 1100-71) opinion is given in
^Literature, the responsa of R. Mei’rof Rothenburg
(about 1225-93). In discussing the
question whether such birds must be slaughtered
according to the ritual method (Responsa, ed. Lem-
berg, 1860, p. 125, § 160), he says: “My teacher,
the Lion [Sir Leon of Paris = Leo Blundus? 1 1 66—
1224], told me that he had heard from his father, R.
Isaac, that R. Tam directed that they should be
■slaughtered after Jewish fashion, and sent this de-
cision to the sons of Angleterre [England].” Ac-
cording to Jacobs, this is the earliest notice of the
legend; and it militates against its alleged Irish
origin, since R. Tam, who was a grandson of Rashi,
lived before the conquest of Ireland. R. Tam al-
lowed them to be eaten. Jewish scholars in France
and Germany discussed whether they were fish or
fowl, and whether, according to the dietary laws,
they were permissible as food. Some authorities an-
swered in the affirmative; others declared them un-
lawful. R. Samuel Hahasid of Speier (about 1150),
and his son, R. Judah Hehasid of Regensburg (died
1216), allowed them to be eaten, if, in common with
■other species of fowl, they were slaughtered after
Jewish fashion.

An anonymous Hebrew translator of the French
cosmography called “Image du Monde,” who com-
piled his work in 1245, speaks of geese growing on
trees in Ireland and of people with tails in Brittany.
He is the first Jewish author to locate the birds on
Irish shores. R. Isaac b. Joseph of Corbeil, in his
“ Sefer Mizwot Katan” (p£>D), written in 1277, was the
first to forbid them as food on the plea that, accord-
ing to their origin, they were neither
Neither fowl nor fish, but belonged to the shell-
Fowl nor fish species. He seems to have cred-
Fish. ited the popular belief, then current,
that these shells grew on trees, and
opened in time of maturity, and that “out of them
grow those little living things which, falling into the
water, do become fowls, whom we call barnacles.”
Moses Taku (Taclmu) of Regensburg (about 1250)
wrote a curious treatise against mystic-theosophic
speculations, entitled “Ketab Tamim” (published in
“ Ozar Nelimad,” iii. 58-99, Vienna, 1860), wherein
he says that birds growing on trees, if it be true that
they grow on trees , are not forbidden food. Gerson b.
Salomo of Arles (about 1270) speaks of barnacle-
geese, which he calls cyiN’’DJ"l3 (so in Steinsclmei-
der’s “Hebr. Bibl.” xxi. 54; ib. vi. 94, n. 6, reads:
CN'ID'O). He refers, in this connection, to Aris-

totle’s “Zoology,” which was one of the sources of
this early encyclopedist.

The next reference to the legend is found in the
Zohar, now generally assumed to have been written
in the middle of the thirteenth century by Moses b.
Shem-Tob de Leon (1250-1305). He says that R. Aba
saw a tree from whose branches geese grew (Zohar
iii. 156). Mordecai b. Hillel of Regens-
In burg (about 1300), possibly influenced
the Zohar by the views of various divines who
and in declared against their suitability for
“KolBo.” food during Lent, hesitates to say
whether these birds are to be slaugh-
tered as fowl, or, in view of their peculiar origin, if
they may be eaten unslaughtered as fish (Hul. 735).
Jacob b. Asher (died 1340) follows the view of R.
Isaac of Corbeil in his decision. The anonymous
compiler of the legal compendium “ Kol Bo ” (four-
teenth century) refers twice to the subject, mention-
ing the views of It. Isaac and of R. Jehiel b. Jose (of
France, 1240?), and concludes that they are forbidden
(ed. Venice, 1572, p. 113«-5). Among later authori-
ties who mention the legend are : Jacob b. Moses
Molin or Maharil (died 1427), in his responsa, No.
144; Simon b. Zemah Duran (died 1444), who, ac-
cording to a manuscript citation, speaks somewhere
of |^>'IN3 niDiy (Halberstamm’s “Catalogue,"

p. 66, n. 345, § 479); Joseph Caro (1488-1575), Shul-
han ‘Aruk, Yoreli De'ah, 84, 15; Solomon Luria
(died 1573) (“Yam Sliel Shelomoli,” ed. Stettin, p.
1005) ; Yair Hayyirn Bacharaeh (died 1702), in the un-
published index to his writings, MS., p. 92a: pjy3
Drp“iDD3 3in3ty no DiTmoirQ D,v6nty maiy, taken
from non-Jewish sources; Hezekiah de Silva (about
1692), in “Sefer Peri Hadash ” to Yoreh De'ah, l.c.
p. 705, Amsterdam, 1682. Pliineas Elijah b. Mei’rof
Wilna (about 1790) says in his “Sefer lia-Berit” (i.
11, § 4) that “in Ireland, near England, in a place
called Scotland, there are geese which grow on trees
planted by the water; and in spring they fall from
the trees into the water and live and grow larger in
the water.” His friend, R. Eliakim Gottschalk b.
Abraham of London, refers him to the above-quoted
passage in the Zohar. He seems to have believed
the fable (compare the Warsaw ed., 1869, p. 605).
As recently as 1863, to judge from a note in “Ha-
Maggid,” 1863, vii.. No. 42, p. 3355, the story was
accredited in Russia.

According to a statement made by Alberuni (about
1000), it seems possible that the story may have orig-
inated in the East. He writes: “Aljaihani [aeon-
temporary of Alberuni] relates that in the Indian
Ocean there are the roots of a tree which spread
along the seacoast in the sand ; that
Possible t lie leaf is rolled up and gets separated
Oriental from the tree ; and that it then changes
Origin of into a king-bee, and flies away ” (see
Myth. his “Chronology of Ancient Nations,”
Eng. transl. by Sacliau, p. 214, Lon-
don, 1879). According to Steinschneiderthe idea of
generatio cequivoca and the Oriental fable of the trees
bearing maidens on a mythical island called Wak-
wak are closely related to the barnacle-geese story.
Mas'udi, Ibn Tufail, Pseudo-Callisthenes, and others
mention this wonder, and reference thereto is made
in the “Thousand and One Nights.” The maidens

Barnato

Barnett

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

540

of Wak-wak ( Madchenblumen ) are known to Jewish
writers. Judah Hadassi, the Karaite (about 1148),
the anonymous translator of Ibn Tufail’s work, YI
PP P (about 1349), and Simon Duran of Algiers
(1423-25) mention the fable (see “Z. D. M. G.” xxxi.
493; Steinschneider, “ Pseudepigraphische Litera-
tur,” p. 25; idem , “Hebr. Bibl.”iv. 15; idem, 1,1 Hebr.
Uebers.” pp. 12, 366).

Bibliography : In addition to the authorities mentioned in the
text, see Schonhack, nnSin, i. 181 ; Polak, mp rvo'Sn,
p. 68, Amsterdam, 1846 ; Schorr, in He-Hnluz , vii. 73 ; Jellinek,
Beitriige zur Gesch. der Kabbala, i. 48, 49, n. 3, Leipsir,
1853 ; Lewysohn, Zoologie des Talmud s, pp. 363, 363, § 5l5,
1858; Steinschneider, Hebr. Bibl. v. 116, 117; vi. 94, n. 6;
xxi. 54; Otppenheim], Die BernickehGam ; Ein Mittel-
alterlicher Mgthus , in Monatsschrift , 1868, xviii. 88-93 ;
Steinschneider, in Gosche’s Archiv fttr Literaturgesch. 1871,
ii. 8; Gross, in Berliner’s Magazin , iv. 173, 187; idem, in
Monatsschrift, 1879, xxviii. 336, n. 3; Gaster, in Germania,
xxvi. (new series), 308, Vienna, 1880; Gudemann, Gesch. des
Erzieliungswesens, ii. 117,313, Vienna, 1880; iii. 139, Vienna,
1888; idem, Quellenschriften, p. 157, Berlin, 1891; Naphtali
Levy, 'Snsj nSm, pp. 39, 73, Presburg, 1893; Goldschmidt, in
Berliner’s Magazin, xiii. 33, u.: Joseph Jacobs, The Jews
of Angevin England, 1893, pp. 54, 55, 93, 93, 337 (n. 101), 398,
399; Steinschneider, Hebr. Uebers. pp. xxviii., line 8, 13, n.
83, 366, 807 ; Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages,
1896, p. 367.

g. G. A. K.

BARNATO, BARNETT ISAACS (commonly
called “Barney Barnato”): English “diamond
king,” promoter, and speculator; born in London
July 5, 1852; committed suicide by jumping from
the deck of the steamship “Scot,” June 14, 1897.
His father, Isaac Isaacs, was a small general dealer
with a prosperous business. Both Barnett and his
elder and only brother, Henry, were educated at the
Jews’ Free School, Spitalflelds, the head master
of which was Moses Angel.

In 1871 Henry went to try his fortune at the Kim-
berley diamond-fields, South Africa; and, his means
being at first slender, he endeavored to raise money
by appearing as a conjurer and entertainer under the
professional name of “ H. I. Barnato. ” A little later
lie became a diamond-dealer, and wrote home ad-
vising his brother to join him. Barnett sailed for
Cape Town in 1873 and reached Kimberley with about
£50. Finding his brother to be generally known as
“ Harry Barnato,” he decided to adopt the same sur-
name. Thenceforward he signed himself “B. I.
Barnato,” and was popularly referred to as “Barney
Barnato.”

In 1874 Barney and his brother commenced busi-
ness as diamond-dealers under the firm-name of
“Barnato Brothers”; and in 1876 Barney, who was
then worth about §15,000, purchased four claims in
the Kimberley mine, which soon brought in an in-
come of §9,000 a week. In 1880 he visited London
and established the firm of “ Barnato Brothers, ” finan-
ciers and diamond -dealers. On his return to Kim-
berley he floated his first company, “ The Barnato
Diamond Mining Company,” for §575,000, which
paid a dividend of 36 per cent per annum. The
same year the late Cecil John Rhodes floated the
first De Beers Diamond Mining Company; he and
Barnato continued rivals until the amalgamation
of that company with the Kimberley Central Com-
pany. Barnato next turned promoter. In the Rand
he organized the Glencairn, New Crcesus, Primrose,
and Roodeport companies. He invested in the
Johannesburg Water Company, and became a mem-

ber of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and of
other concerns. At the height of his financial career
he enjoyed the confidence of the public to such an
extent that in a single day §5,500,000 was subscribed
for shares in one of his enterprises.

Barnato was returned for the Legislative Assem-
bly of Cape Colony as member for Kimberley, after
a fierce contest, in 1888, and was reelected in 1894,
although he had been burned in effigy a short time
before.

Barnato ’s success as a speculator caused him to
revisit London, where he became known as a daring
operator; and for a short time his companies received
some public support. In July, 1895, he attained the
height of his popularity in England and was lion-
ized; but his career was meteor-like. His experi-
ence in the London stock-market, with which he was
unfamiliar, was disastrous. He formed a trust com-
pany which he named “ The Barnato Building Com-
pany ” ; and the demand for participation in this en-
terprise was so great that the £1 shares rose to £4
at the opening of the subscription lists, though they
fell below par soon afterward, owing largely to the
fact that the securities held by the company were
of uncertain value. In November, 1895, the lord
mayor of London gave a banquet in honor of Bar-
nato, who, wishing to be under no obligation, handed
a check for §50,000 to him as a donation to the fund
for the benefit of the poor in Spitalflelds, in whose
welfare the lord mayor was then actively interested.

Events resulting from the Jameson raid into the
Transvaal, which jeopardized Barnato’s interests,
compelled him to return to South Africa, where he
remained to adjust his affairs; but the strain was
more than he could stand. Hoping to benefit his
health by a sea voyage, he sailed for England in
the care of his wife and two nurses ; but he grew no
better. While in a state of frenzy, he succeeded in
eluding his attendants, and, jumping overboard, was
drowned. His body was recovered, and now lies in
Willesden cemetery, near London. Although Bar-
nato was at one time reputed to be worth §85,000,000,
it is doubtful if he ever had more than §35,000,000.
At the time of his death his estate was valued at
§3,000,000. As an amateur actor, Barnato was a
never-failing attraction, especially as Matthias in
“ The Bells ” — a part he often played in the early
Kimberley days.

Bibliography : The Times, June 16, 1897, London ; The Jew-
ish Chronicle, June 18, 1897, London ; H. Raymond, B. /.

Barnato; a Memoir, New York, 1897.

j. F. H. Y.

BARNAVE, ANTOINE PIERRE JOSEPH
MARIE : French politician ; member of the Assem-
blie Nationale; born at Grenoble in Dauphiny Oct.
22, 1761; guillotined in Paris Nov. 29, 1793. He
was of a Protestant family. Barnave received his
education in the law at home; and at the age of
twenty-two he made himself known as a political
orator.

In 1789 Barnave was elected by the Tiers etat dep-
uty to the States General. Owing to his oratorical
ability he soon became one of the leaders of the pop-
ular party. Imbued from his childhood with liberal
ideas, and having himself suffered, as a Protestant,
from restrictive laws, Barnave ardently pleaded at

541

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Barnato

Barnett

tlie Assembly the cause of the Jews, and joined his
efforts to those of Mirabeau to carry his followers in
their favor. On Dec. 23, 1789, be delivered a great
discourse, defending the Jews against the attacks
made at the tribune by the abbe Muray and the
bishop of Nancy, both of whom endeavored by all
means to check the complete emancipation of the
Jews. Barnave contributed on this occasion in great
measure to the final triumph of justice.

Bibliography: Leon Kahn, Les Juifs de Paris Pendant la

Revolution , p. 23; Gratz, Gesch. derJuden, 3d ed., x. 190.

D. I. Br.

BABNAY, LUDWIG: German actor; born at
Budapest, Hungary, Feb. 12, 1842. He was the sou
of the secretary of the Jewish congregation at that

place. Barnay was des-
tined for the building
trade, but induced his
father to send him to
Vienna to study for the
stage under Adolf Son-
nentlial. Though but
fifteen years of age, he
made so good an im-
pression on Sonnenthal
that the latter took him
in charge. For some
time Barnay devoted
himself to study in the
polytechnic school ; but
its curriculum proved
irksome, and he finally
gave all his attention
to histrionic studies.

Ludwig Barnay.

His father, angered by bis son’s course, disowned
him. In 1860 Barnay, then eighteen years old, went
to Trautenau, Bohemia, and made his debut with the
local company under tlie name of “ Lacroix ” as Baron
xonHeeren in Topfer’s “ Zuriicksetzung.” Although
he made a fiasco, the management allowed him to
play in “ Tisclie und Sesseln,” in which he acquitted
himself with more credit. When the company went
to Braunau, Bohemia, Barnay accompanied it, re-
ceiving five gulden and fifty-one kreutzers (82.67)
for his work during June and July.

Next he headed a company of “barnstormers”
which plajmd in small towns in Moravia and Aus-
trian Silesia. When the tour proved a financial fail-
ure, Barnay returned to his home and became recon-
ciled to his father. This proved the beginning of
his real career, for he was asked to appear at a bene-
fit, at which he did so well (under his own name) as
Prince Leopold in Herscli’s" Anna-Liese,” that Hein-
rich Laube invited him in 1863 to become a member
of the Vienna Burgtheater ensemble. Barnay re-
fused this, however, declaring himself as yet unfit
for the work. Instead, he went to Mayence, where
he played minor roles for a time, returning to Vienna
to appear at the Burgtheater as Ludovici in Mosen-
thal’s “Deutsche Komodianten.” Later he played
Karl Moor in Schiller’s “Rauber,” and Lord Roches-
ter. In 1864 he played at Prague, and in 1865 at
Riga, where he made his debut as Faust and Tell
and as Orestes in Goethe’s “ Iphigenie auf Tauris.”
His next appearance was at Mayence in 1866, then
at Erfurt, and in 1867 at the Stadttheater of Leipsic.

A year later he appeared at Weimar with the Meiu-
inger company, playing Schiller in “Karlsschiiler,”
Graf Essex, and leading parts in other plays.

In 1870 Barnay joined the Stadttheater in Frank-
fort-on-the-Maiu, where he remained for five years.
It was during this time that he accomplished his
greatest service to the German stage — the convening
of the stage-congress at Weimar July 17,1871, which,
on the day following, organized the alliance of Ger-
man stage associates under the name of “ Genos-
senscliaft Deutscher Buhnenangehoriger,” which
welded into one body the hitherto semi-antagonistic
players, authors, and managers. So greatly was
Barnay’s share in this undertaking appreciated, that
in 1872 an addressof thanks, signed by four thousand
actors, was presented to him.

From 1875 to 1880 Barnay held the position of
stage-director of the Stadttheater in Hamburg, al-
though in the interim he starred at the Hoftheater in
Stuttgart (1873), at Munich, Frankfort, and Berlin,
appearing also with the Meiniugers. In 1883 he
became one of the founders of the Deutsche Theater
in Berlin, but two years later resigned to convert the
old Operetten-Walhalla-Theater into a playhouse of
his own, which he named the “Berliner Theater.”
Here he remained until 1894, when he retired from
active participation in affairs of the stage.

Barnay played also in London and New York, at
both places duplicating his German successes.

Opinions as to Barnay’s artistic standing in his
profession are unanimous so far as German critics
are concerned. By them he has been acclaimed a
histrionic genius, possessed of versatility, intensity,
and emotional power of the first order. Judged by
the standards of the English-speaking stage, how-
ever, Barnay belongs to the declamatory school of
two generations ago. But in roles such as Uriel
Acosta and Moor, Barnay is undoubtedly good. His
Tell is a noble impersonation; but his Marc Antony
savors too much of the elocutionary school. Other
parts in which he acquitted himself with credit are
Graf Waldemar, Essex, Othello , Hamlet, Kean, and
Wallenstein.

Bibliography: Leipsic, III. Zeitung , Jan. 3, 1880, p. 15; The
Theatre (new series), iii. 344-346; Kohut, Berdhmte Isracli-
tise.he Mdnner und Frauen, pp. 191-198; Meyer, Konver-
sations-Lexikon.

s. E. Ms.

BARNETT, ARYEH LOEB : Dayyan in Lon-
don ; locally known as “ Rabbi Aryeh Loeb ” ; born at
Krotoschin, in the grand duchy of Posen, in 1797;
died in London Feb. 10, 1878. For many years his
father had been head of the “bet din” of his native
place; and he himself was a pupil of the eminent
rabbi Akiba Eger of Posen. Jointly with Rabbi
Aaron, Barnett discharged the duties of dayyan in
London for nearly half a century, causing him to
become one of the best-known figures in the London
community. He was a rabbi of the Orthodox stamp,
and an earnest student of the Talmud. About five
years before his death he was stricken with blindness.

Bibliography: Jewish Chronicle, Feb. 15, 1878; Jewish
World, same date.

J. G. L.

BARNETT, JACOB : Hebrew teacher at Ox-
ford about 1613. He gave instruction to the stu-
dents, under the direction of Richard Ivillye, regius

Barnett

Barren

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

542

professor of Hebrew. When Isaac Casaubon visited
the university in 1613, lie was much struck by Bar-
nett’s abilities, and, in order to perfect bis own
knowledge of Hebrew, carried him off to London.
There Barnett showed signs of attraction toward
Christianity ; and elaborate preparations were made
for bis reception into the Church at Oxford, under
the auspices of the vice-chancellor. On the ap-
pointed day, however, Barnett was not to be found;
and the preacher of the special sermon delivered
one instead on Jewish perfidy. Barnett was discov-
ered and put in prison, but on Casaubon’s entreaty
was released, and banished from the kingdom Nov.
16, 1613. His subsequent fate is unknown.

Bibliography; M. Pattison, Isaac Casaubon , 1st ed., pp.

413-416 ; I.ueien Wolf, in Papers of Anglo-Jewish Exhibi-

BARNETT, JOHN (family name Beer) : Eng-
lish composer; born at Bedford, England, July 1,

1802; died at Chelten-

ham April 17, 1890.
He made his debut as
a singer at the Lyceum
in 1813, when only
eleven years of age ;
but two years later the
breaking of his voice
led him to devote him-
self to musical com-
position, for which he
studied under Ferdi-
nand Ries and under
John Barnett. PereZ) organist of the

Spanish embassy to London.

Barnett, while still a child, wrote masses and
lighter pieces, several of which were published. His
first great success, however, was an operetta entitled
“Before Breakfast,” produced at the Lvceum in
1825. This was followed in 1831 by “ The Pet of
the Petticoats,” regarded as his most important dra-
matic production up to that time. In 1832 he was
made music-director of the Olympic Theater, and
two years later his first opera, “The Mountain
Sylph,” was produced at the Lyceum. This work,
which met with immediate success, was followed by
the operas “Fair Rosamond,” produced at Drury
Lane in 1837, and “Farinelli,” brought out in 1838.

The following year Barnett spent in study at
Frankfurt, and on his return to London in 1839 was
associated with Morris Barnett, the dramatist, in
opening St. James’s Theater. Unfortunately the
theater was closed at the end of the first week. In
1841 he settled at Cheltenham, where he was en-
gaged as a singing teacher until his death. In addi-
tion to the works mentioned, Barnett’s productions
include three operas which have never been per-
formed, two unfinished oratorios, many part-songs
and duets, two string quartets, and about 4,000 de-
tached songs.

Bibliography : Grove, Diet, of Music and Musicians : Kohut,
Beriihmte Israelitische Milnner und Frauen , pp. 1, 2;
Baker, Biographical Diet, of Musicians.

M. W. L.

BARNETT, JOHN FRANCIS : English musi-
cian ; born at London Oct. 16, 1837 ; nephew of John

Barnett. He was a pianoforte pupil of Dr. Wylde,
and in 1850, and again in 1852, received the queen’s
scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. In
1853 he made his debut asa pianist at the New Phil-
harmonic concerts, and in 1856 went to the Leipsic
Conservatory, where he studied for three years
with Mosclieles, Plaidy, and Hauptmann. In 1860
he played at the .Gewandhaus, and then returned
to England, where he has since been established as
teacher, concert-pianist, and composer. In 1883 he
received a professorship at the Royal College of
Music.

His principal compositions are; "The Raising of
Lazarus,” an oratorio, 1876; a number of cantatas,
“The Ancient Mariner,” Birmitfgham Festival, 1867;
“Paradise and the Peri,” ib. 1870; “The Good Shep-
herd,” Brighton, 1876; “The Building of the Ship,”
Leeds. 1880 ; “ The Harvest Festival, ” Norwich, 1881 ;
an orchestral composition, “The Lay of the Last
Minstrel,” Liverpool, 1874; a symphony in A minor;
“Ouverture Symphonique,” 1868; “ Overture to the
‘ Winter’s Tale, ’ ” 1873 ; a concerto for the pianoforte
in D minor; and a great number of pianoforte pieces,
songs, part-songs, quintets, quartets, and trios.
Bibliography : Baker, Bing. Diet, of Musicians.

.J. J. So.

BARNETT, LIONEL D. : English author;
born at Liverpool 1871, educated at the High School,
Liverpool, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where
he had a phenomenally successful career in the clas-
sical tripos, showing particular eminence in Greek,
taking four medals for Greek epigrams and odes.
He also obtained the Craven scholarship, 1894.

He has written a short history of the Greek drama,
1900, and translated Koch’s “Roman History.” He
is now (1902) in the Oriental Department of the Brit-
ish Museum.

Bibliography: Harris, Jewish Year Book , 1901, p. 244.

BARNETT, MORRIS; Dramatist and actor;
born in 1800; died at Montreal March 18, 1856. He
was originally trained for the musical profession,
but decided to become an actor. After a provincial
tour he appeared in 1833 at Drury Lane Theater,
Loudon, where he scored a success in Douglas Jer-
rold’s play, “ The Schoolfellows. ” He afterward per-
formed in “ Capers and Coronets.” His first compo-
sition was “ Monsieur Jacques, ” a musical play which
met with great success in 1837 at the St. James’s
Theater. In this he played the title-role and, as a re-
sult, obtained considerable vogue as a delineator of
French characters. His next appearance was at the
Princess’ Theater, where his portrayal of the “ Old
Guard ” attracted great attention. He then joined
the editorial staff of the “ Morning Post ” and the
“Era,” and was the musical critic of the latter paper
for about seven years. In September, 1854, he de-
termined to go to America and gave a series of fare-
well performances at the Adelphi Theater. His tour
was not successful, its failure being due to Barnett’s
illness wliicb ended in his death.

After the success of “Monsieur Jacques,” Barnett
composed several dramatic productions. These were
chiefly comedies, and included; “The Serious Fam-
ily,” an adaptation from “Le Maria la Campagne”;

543

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Barnett

Barren

“Lilian Gervais,” a drama in three acts, adapted
from the French play, “ Marie Simon ” ; “ Married
and Unmarried,” a drama; “The Bold Dragoons,” a
comic opera; “Mrs. G. of the Golden Pippin,” an
operetta ; and “ Circumstantial Evidence, ” a comedy.

Bibliography: The Era , April 13, 1856; Modern En< /. Biog.

i. 174; lllust. London News, xxv. 305(1854); Gent. Mag.

(n. s.) xlv. 541.

J. G. L.

BARON, HENRY : French painter; born at
Besanyon in 1816; died at Geneva in 1885. He was
one of the foremost representatives of the historic
genre in France, and depicted chiefly the lighter side
of the social life of the Renaissance and of the
rococo period. Ilis paintings are distinguished by
the facile and skilful touch suggestive of the French
school of the eighteenth century and also by bril-
liancy of color, and great variety of detail. Among
the best known of his works may be mentioned:
“Andrea del Sarto Painting His Wife as Madonna
del Sacco”; “Palestrina in the Midst of an Assem-
blage of Musical Ladies”; “Venetian Painters with
Their Inamoratas Assembling in a Tavern upon the
Great Canal to Celebrate the Feast of Their Patron,
Saint Luke”; “ An Assemblage upon the Green,”
and “A Harvest-Festival in the Campagua.” Both
of the last-mentioned works, as well as the well-
known water-color, “Feast in the Tuileries During
the Paris Exposition of 1867,” are in the Luxem-
bourg Gallery. Baron’s water-colors were deserv-
edly popular; and he is equally well known for his
numerous illustrations to the works of J. J. Rous-
seau, the “Tales of Boccaccio,” the “Adventures of
Telemaque,” and the “Fairy-Tales of Perrault.”

Baron received second-class medals in 1847-48 and
in 1855 ; a decoration in 1859, and a third-class medal
at the Universal Exposition of 1867. He also re-
ceived several commissions from Napoleon III.,
among which were the water-colors, “The Official
Fete,” and two paintings, “The Bouquet,” and
“ The Sense of Touch” — placed over the entrance to
the Ministry of the Interior.

Bibliography: J. Meyer, Allgemeines KUnstler, Lexikon-,

La Grande Encyclopedic.

S. J. So.

BARON DE HIRSCH FUND. See Hmscn
Fund, Baron de.

BARON, JONAS : Hungarian physician, sur-
geon, and lecturer on surgery at the University of
Budapest, Hungary; born at Gyongyos Nov. 23,
1845; educated at Budapest. His father was secre-
tary of the Jewish community in Gyongyos. In
1870 Baron acted as medical assistant to the vari-
ous hospitals of Budapest ; from 1871 to 1873 to the
Jewish hospital there, of which institution he has
since 1874 been senior surgeon. He is the author of a
work on surgical pathology and therapeutics (Buda-
pest, 1871), and of articles in the periodicals, “Or-
vosi Hetilap,” “ Gyogyaszat,” and “Pester Medic.
Chirurg. Presse” — all of Budapest; and in “Wiener
Med. Presse” and “Wiener Med. Wochenschrift.”

Bibliography : Biographisclies Lexicon Hervnrragender

Aerzte, vi.

s. A. L. L.

BARREN, BARRENNESS: The Hebrew
word for “barren” — ~\D]3 (‘akar); feminine, mpy

(‘akarali) — denotes probably “ uprooted,” in the sense
of being torn away from the family stock, and left
to wither without progeny or successors. A similar
import attaches to the word “ ‘ariri ” (from ny),
“bared,” “stripped,” translated “childless” in the
A. V. and applied generally only to the male (Gen.
xv. 2; Jer. xxii. 30; but see Lev. xx. 20, 21).

A race that piously looked upon children as “an
heritage from the Lord ” (Ps. cxxvii. 3), seeing in
them sources of strength as well as of blessing —
“Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of
them ” (ib. verse 5) ; “ thy children, like olive-plants,
round about thy table . . . thus shall the man be
blessed that feareth the Lord” (Ps. cxxviii. 3, 4) —
very naturally looked upon the opposite state of
childlessness as a grave misfortune. The wife who
presented her husband with no such
Biblical tangible blessings or supporters felt
Examples, that her aim in life had been missed.

“Give me children or else I die! ” was
the plea of Rachel (Gen. xxx. 1) when she saw Leah
adding child after child to Jacob’s household; and
the desperate remedy for her own childlessness, sug-
gested (ib. verse 3) and carried out (ib. verse 4), showed
how keenly she felt her position. In a later age
Peninnah taunted Hannah with her unfruitfulness,
“ provoked her sore, for to make her fret ” (I Sam. i.
6). Later yet, the best return that Elisha could make
— at the suggestion of Geliazi — to the Shunammite
was to pray to the Lord for the termination of her
childlessness (II Kings iv. 16).

But the good sense of the people in the age of the
Apocrypha, when intercourse with the world had
brought broader views, drew a finer
Change discrimination between mere prolific-
of Attitude ness and Barrenness. It took into ac-
After Bible count the possibility that so many
Times. children might not always be so many
blessings; that sons and daughters
might be bad as well as good. “Desire not a multi-
tude of unprofitable children,” wrote Siracli ; “ though
they multiply, rejoice not in them, except the fear
of the Lord be with them . . . better it is to die
without children than to have them that are un-
godly ” (Ecclus. [Siracli] xvi. 1-3). The Book of
Wisdom even asserts that there are better and more
lasting monuments than children; intimating that
it is better to have virtue than offspring, for the
memorial of the former is immortal, known to both
God and men (iv. 1 ; compare Isa. lvi. 3-5).

The Talmud marks another stage in the attitude
of the popular mind toward Barrenness or childless-
ness. The development of the Law, and the duty
of teaching it diligently to one’s children, brought
additional pain to the heart of the pious but child-
less Jew, who gloried in the performance of all the
commandments, but found he could not impart them
to “those who should come after him.” Such a one
is reckoned as if “menuddeh,” cut off from all com-
munion with God, like unto him who voluntarily
disregards all t he precepts of the Law (Pes. 1135);
he is accounted as already dead, together with the
pauper, the leper, and the blind (Ned. 645), for all
the enjoyment that is left to him in life. “Weep
sore for him that goetli away, that shall return no
more nor see his native country ” (Jer. xxii. 10), was

Barrientos

BarsimSon

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

544

interpreted by R. Judali as being applicable chiefly
to him who dies without children (M. K. 27 b)\ his
quiver is not full with those that shall

Estimate represent him in the study-house or

of Bar- the Temple. But at times the ethical

renness. side rose superior to the religious
view also among the doctors of the
Law of the Talmudic age : “ A man’s good deeds are
his best posterity ” (Tan. vii.).

A remarkable light is likewise thrown upon the
usual conception of the supreme importance of a
numerous progeny by the provision — probably in-
tended for certain obstetrical cases well known to
modern surgery — that while it is always forbidden
for a man to partake of a defertilizing draught, such
may sometimes be permitted to a woman (Tos.Yeb.
viii. 4; see Levy,“Neuliebr.W5rterb.” s.v. J'TpJl). A
passage in Shab. 110 aetseq. gives thealleged ingredi-
ents of such a drink (J'lpjl DID, “the cup of barren-
ness ”).

Medieval Judaism, taking its coloring from the
superstitions of its surroundings, saw an additional
source of sorrow in Barrenness, in the consequent
impossibility of having the Kaddish recited by chil-
dren for the repose of the souls of the parents upon
their demise. See article Kaddish.

For the legal aspects of Barrenness, see Marriage
Laws.

j. sr. F. de S. M.

BARRIENTOS, ISAAC: Author; otherwise
unknown, but certainly not the same as Daniel Levi
de Barrios; is the author of “Theologia Natural
Contra los Atheos, Epieureos, y Sectarios del
Tiempo,” The Hague, 1725.

Bibliography: Kayserling, Bihlioteca Espan.-Portug.-Jud.

p. 16.

k. M. K.

BARRIOS, DANIEL LEVI (MIGUEL)

DE : Spanish poet and historian ; born 1625 at
Montilla, Spain; died Feb., 1701, at Amsterdam.
He was the son of a Marano, Simon de Barrios —
who also called himself Jacob Levi Caniso — and
Sarah Yalle. His grandfather was Abraham Levi
Caniso. To escape the persecutions of the Inquisi-
tion. Simon fled to Portugal, and remained for a
time at Marialva, and also in the vicinity of Villa-
Flor. Not feeling safe in Portugal, he went to Al-
geria. Miguel, his son, went to Italy and dwelt for
a time at Nice, where his paternal aunt was married
to the otherwise unknown Abraham de Torres. He
then stayed for a longer time at Leghorn, where an-
other sister of his father, wife of Isaac Cohen de
Sosa, prevailed upon him to declare himself publicly
a Jew. Soon after this he married Deborah Vaez,
a relative of his brother-in-law, Eliahu Vaez, from
Algeria, and afterward determined to leave Europe.

On July 20, 1660, he with 152 corelig-
Emigrates iouists and fellow-sufferers set sail for
to the West the West Indies. Soon after his arrival

Indies. at Tobago his young wife died, and
he returned to Europe. He went to
Brussels and there entered the military service of
Spain.

De Barrios, who in the course of his long life had
to undergo a hard struggle against fate, spent his

happiest years at Brussels, where he came much in
contact with Spanish and Portuguese knights, and
where he was soon advanced to the rank of captain.
Here he wrote his best poetical work — his “Flor de
Apolo ” (see below) — his dramas, and “ Coro de las
Musas,” in which he sang the praises of the reigning
princes of Europe and of the then most flourishing
cities, Madrid, Lisbon, Paris, London, Rome, Am-
sterdam, and others. Here also he planned his great-
est poetical work, which was to deal with the Pen-
tateuch, and which was to be divided into twelve
parts, each part to be dedicated to a European ruler.
He intended to call it the “Imperio de Dios” or
“Harmonia del Mundo.” Several potentates had
already sent the poet their likenesses, their genealo-
gies, and their coats of arms, and had promised the
means for the production of the work, when the
board of wardens (“ ma’amad ”) and the rabbis of the
Amsterdam community refused to give the necessary
“ approbation ” for the publication of the work,
through which, they held, the law of God might be
profaned.

In 1674 De Barrios left the Spanish service and
removed to Amsterdam, where he joined the numer-
ous followers of Sliabbethai Zebi. He firmly believed
that the Messiah would appear on the Jewish New
Year of 5435. On the Passover preceding that holy
day he suddenly became insane, fasted for four days,
refused to take any nourishment, and

Becomes in consequence was so weakened that

Insane. his life was despaired of. Only the
earnest remonstrances of the eminent
Rabbi Jacob Sasportas, who had given him advice
in regard to the compilation of his “ Harmonia del
Mundo,” and who possessed his full confidence, pre-
vailed with him and induced him to take food and
thus by degrees to regain his strength. De Barrios
remained in poor circumstances all his life. In order
to earn bread for those nearest to him, he sang the
praises of the rich Spanisli-Portuguese Jews on sad
and joyous occasions, or dedicated his minor works
to them. His writings are frequently the only
sources of information concerning the scholars, phil-
anthropic institutions, and Jewish academies of his
time, though the information given is not always
reliable. He was buried in the cemetery of Amster-
dam, next to his second wife, Abigail, daughter of
Isaac de Pina, whom he had married in 1662, and
who died in 1686.

He composed for himself the following epitaph:

“ Ya Daniel y Abigail
Levi ajuntarse bolvieron.

Por un Amor en las Almas,

Por una losa en los cuerpos.

Porque tanto en la vida se quisieron
Que auu despues de la muerte un vivir fueron.”

(Daniel and Abigail

Levi have here become united again.

Love joined their souls ;

A stone now joins their remains.

So deeply they loved each other in life
That even after death they shall be one.)

De Barrios was the most fruitful poet and author
among all the Spanish-Portuguese Jews of his time.
Hardly a year passed that did not see the publication
of one or more of his writings. His principal works
are: “Flor de Apolo,” containing romances, “dezi-

545

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Barrientos

Barsimson

mas,” 62 sonnets, and the three comedies, “Pedir
Favor al Contrario,” “El Canto Junto al Encanto,”
and “El Espanjol de Oran,” Brussels, 1663; “Contra
la Yerdad no ay Fuerca, ” Amsterdam, 1665-67, a pan-
egyric on Abraham Athias, Jacob Rodrigues Caseres,
and Rachel Nunez Fernandez, who
His Works, were burned as martyrs at Cordova;

“Coro de las Musas,” in nine parts,
Brussels, 1672; “Imperio de Dios eu la Harmonia
del Mundo, ” Brussels, 1670-74 (the second edition
contains 127 verses; the first, but 125); “Sol de la
Vida,” Brussels, 1673; “Mediar Estremos, Decada
PrimeraenRosHasana,” Amsterdam, 1677; “Metros
Nobles,” Amsterdam, n. d. ; “Triumpho Cesareo en
la Descripcion Universal de Panonia, y de la Con-
quista de la Ciudad de Buda,” Amsterdam, 1687;
“Dios con Nos Otros,” ib. n. d. (1688); “Historia
Real de la Gran Bretana,” ib. 1688; “Arbol de la
Vida con Raizes de la Ley,” ib. 1689.

The opuscula, or minor literary and biographical
works, of De Barrios appeared under various titles
at different periods, in two different editions. They
treated of the various “liermandades academicas”
and “academias caritativas.” The often-quoted
“Relacion de los Poetas, y Escriptores Espanoles de
la Nacion Judayca” and “ Hez Jaim (Hayyim), Arbol
de las Vidas,” which treat of the Amsterdam schol-
ars, are of most value. Both have been reprinted,
with explanatory notes, in “Revue Etudes Juives,”
xviii. 281-289, xxxii. 92-101. His last work bears
the title “ Piedra Derribadora de la Son jada Estatua
Desde el Ano de 1689 al de 1700 ” (no date).

A certain Daniel Lopes Barrios lived in America
in 1748.

Bibliography: M. Kayserling, Sephardim, Roman. Pnesien
der Juden in Spanien , passim ; idem. Revue Etudes Juives,
xviii. 276 et sea .; idem, Biblioteca Espah.-Portug.-Judaica,

pp. 16-26.

G. M. K.

BARRIOS, SIMON LEVI DE : Son of Daniel
Levi de Barrios; born March 17, 1665, at Amster-
dam; died May 16, 1688, at Barbados. Member of
Ez Hayyim and of several poetical academies of
Amsterdam.

Bibliography : Kayserling, Biblioteca Espail.-Portug.-Jud.
p. 26 ; Publications of Am. Jewish Hist. Soc. v. 115.

G. M. K.

BARROCAS, MORDECAI : A Marano, physi-
cian, and poet. In Holland, at an advanced age, he
openly returned to Judaism about the year 1605;
and in celebration of his initiation he composed some
tercets in Spanish. Tamar Barrocas, a Marano-
Jewess, probably one of his relatives, suffered a mar-
tyr's death at the stake in Lisbon, Aug. 3, 1603, in
company with Diego de la Ascension.

Bibliography: Barrios. Relacion de los Poetas, p. 58; idem,
Govierno Popular Judayco, p. 43; Cardoso. Excel enc.ias, p.
363: Kayserling, Sephardim, pp. 211, 177 : idem, Bibl. Esp.-
Port.-Jud. p. 26.

G. M. K.

BARRUCHIUS ( BARUCH ? ), VALEN-
TINUS : Spanish poet ; lived probably in the
twelfth century. He is said to have been a native
of Toledo. He wrote in clear and ornate Latin the
history of the Count Lyonnais (Palanus) — an old ro-
mantic legend recounted by early Catalonian chron-
iclers, and found in various versions in the folk-tales
II. — 35

of many countries. Its most popular form in Eng-
land is to be found in a Norman ballad of William of
Malmesbury. Voltaire has utilized the story in his
tragedies “Artemire” and “Tancred.” Boaistuan
(sixteenth century), in the preface to his version of the
legend (“ Histoires Tragiques par Boaistuan et Belle-
forest,” Lyons, 1596), refers to the work of Bar-
rucliius in eulogistic terms.

Bibliography: Ferd. Wolf, in the Jahrbilcher filr Wissen-

schaftliche Kritik, Dec. 1835; Franz Delitzseh, Zur Gesch.

der Jttdischen Poesie, pp.65, 66, Leipsic, 1836; Steinschneider,

Jewish Literature, p. 178, 1857 (German ed.; p. 434b); Kar-

peles, Gesch. der Jild. Lit. 1886, p. 740.

g. G. A. K.

BARSIMSON, JACOB (also known as Bar-
simsom, Bersimson, and Barstinsen) : One of

the earliest Jewish settlers at New Amsterdam (New
York). He arrived at that port on the ship “Pear
Tree” July 8, 1654, it is believed from Holland,
which country he seems to have left in company
with a coreligionist named Jacob Aboab (Aboast
or Aboaf ?), also bound for New Amsterdam. It
is doubtful whether Aboab ever reached the Newr
World. Early records refer to some transactions
between these emigrants when their vessel was off
the Isle of Wight; hence, in view of the date and
the circumstances, the Dutch origin attributed to
these early emigrants. Barsimson was succeeded
by a party of twenty-three Jews, who arrived at
New Amsterdam the following October and who
came, it is believed, from Brazil. This fact makes
Barsimson the earliest identified Jewish settler
within the present limits of the state of New York;
though there is reason to believe that there were still
earlier Jewish residents whose identity is to-day lost.

References to Barsimson in the early tax-lists in-
dicate that he was a man of small means, as about
a year after his arrival he was taxed voluntarily at
a sum very much lower than the majority of Jewish
and non-Jewish residents. This did not prevent
him, however, from vigorously insisting upon his
rights, and from freely appealing to the courts for
redress, no matter how influential his opponent. In
1658 he succeeded in securing from the Dutch munic-
ipal court in New Amsterdam a ruling which is sur-
prising even in the light of latter-day principles of
religious liberty. He was summoned to court as
defendant on a Saturday ; but the court decided, in
the terse language of the record, that, “ though de-
fendant is absent, yet no default is entered against
him, as he was summoned on his Sabbath.” Three
years earlier Barsimson and another early Jewish
settler, Asser Levy, joined in a petition to the gov-
ernor and council of New Netlierland to be permitted
to stand guard like the other burghers, or to be re-
lieved from the special tax imposed upon their
nation in lieu thereof by resolution of governor and
council ; but their request was curtly refused, with
the remark that they might go elsewhere if they
liked. Instead of following this latter advice, Bar-
simson and his coreligionists succeeded before long
in obtaining instructions to Governor Stuyvesant
from his superiors — the Dutch West India Company
of Holland — condemning such unjustified and illib-
eral discriminations. There is reason to believe that
the heavy Jewish holding of stock of the company

Bartenora

Bartolocci

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

546

in Holland was a potent factor in securing the
removal of these disabilities.

Bibliography: Daly, Settlement of the Jews in Ninth

America , pp. 16 (note), 17, 18, 19, 23, New York, 1893 ; Fer-

now, Recordsnf New Amsterdam ; Publications American

Jewish Historical Society , ii. 77 ; yi. 83, 87 ; viii. 14 et seq.

A. M. J. K.

BARTENORA. See Bertinoro, Obadiah ben
Abraham.

BARTER: The exchange of things of value,
neither of them being money. It is distinguished
from a sale, where one of the things is money. As
trading must have existed long before even the
rudest kind of money was invented, Barter must
have preceded sales properly so called. In the
“ Iliad ” the Greeks before Troy buy wine of the
ships coming from Lemnos, some of them with
bronze or iron, some with skins, others with oxen or
with slaves: this was many centuries after Abra-
ham had bought a field with ready money. But
little or nothing is found in the ancient laws of
Greeks, Romans, or Hebrews to regulate Barter as
distinguished from sale. It has been shown in the
article Alienation that the form of Barter was
often given to a purchase and sale ; a handkerchief
or some implement (“keli ”) being received as the
equivalent for a house or field, or for a draft-animal.
This was done, of course, as a mere formality, the
real price being paid thereafter, or perhaps before,
in money, or in a written or oral promise of money,
this mode of passing the title being known as ex-
change (“halippin ”).

From the treatment of this matter in Mishnah and
Gemara it is pretty evident that a real Barter was
seldom in contemplation when the parties went
through its forms. Where the Babylonian Talmud
speaks of overreaching (B. M. iv. 3, 4) — that is, buy-
ing goods at one-sixth below, or selling them at one-
sixth above, the market price— it does not specially
apply the rule to Barter, where the goods on both
sides would have to be valued. Exchanges between
goods of different kind are, however, alluded to in
the treatment of the laws of usury (B. M. v. 1), as
such an exchange may be resorted to where one of
the commodities is about to rise in value, to cover up
usury.

The Palestinian Talmud, however, where it dis-
cusses “onaiih” (overreaching, B. M. v. 105), inti-
mates that it may apply in cases of actual Bar-
ter. Maimonides (“Yad, ” Mekirah, xiii. 1) draws
the conclusion that where an animal is exchanged
for an animal, or an implement for an implement,
mere inadequacy of values is no ground for com-
plaint by either party, because each may have a
predilection for the article he gets, but that it is
otherwise in exchange of produce (“perot ”), as here
the value given on either side is strictly commer-
cial. The commentators on Maimonides, ad loc., are
strangely divided on this passage; and the subject
is evidently one which came but seldom, if ever,
into practical discussion before the judges.

In cases, however, in which a purchase or sale
might be set aside for fraud, accident, or mistake
(“ mikkah ta'ut ”), a trade by Barter would fall under
like rules; thus the case is put (Hoshen Mislipat,
224, 1) where A trades his cow with B for an ass;

the latter takes possession of the cow, but before A
can take possession of the ass, the ass dies; B would
have to bring forward proof that his ass was alive
when the trade was clinched by the taking posses-
sion (“ mesliikali ”) of the cow (see Alienation and
Purchase Under Mistake).

J. sr. L. N. D.

BARTH, JACOB: German professor of exegesis,
religious philosophy, and Semitic languages; born at
Flehingen, Baden, 1851. He studied Orientalia at
Leipsic under Fleischer, and at Strasburg under
Noldeke, and later at Berlin University, where he
subsequently (1880) became professor of Semitic
languages. In 1874 he was appointed professor of
Hebrew, exegesis, and religious philosophy in the
Rabbiner Seminar of the same city. For the last
ten years he has lectured on Semitic and Jewish
literature at the Yeitel Heine Ephraim Institute.

In the field of Jewish literature Barth has pub-
lished the following works as programs of the Sem-
inary: “Beitriige zur Erkliirung des Buches Hiob,”
1876; “Maimonides’ Commentar zum Tractat Mak-
koth,” 1880; “Beitrage zur Erklarung des Jesaja,”
1885; “ Etymologische Studien zum Hebraischen
Lexicon,” 1893. He has also contributed numerous
valuable papers to the leading periodicals devoted
to Oriental philology, among which those in the
“Z. D. M. G.” vols. xli.-xlv., xlviii., liii. , on com-
parative studies in Semitic grammar, are deserving
of especial mention, as adding much to this field,
particularly to the Hebrew portion of it.

But Barth’s greatest work, and one which stamps
him as one of the foremost Semitic scholars and in-
vestigators of the day, is his “Die Nominalbildung
in den Semitischen Sprachen,” 1889-91; 2d ed., 1894.
This work endeavors to trace for the first time the
genetic development of Semitic noun-forms, and
may be considered epoch-making in this department
of knowledge. Many literary opponents, adopting
the theories of Lagarde, who published a work at
the same time, uttered protests; but their opposition
is becoming weaker, and most of Barth’s results are
now rapidly being recognized as the standard teach-
ings of philological science.

Barth is also the editor of “Tha’lab’s Kitab al-
Fasih,” edited and commented, Leipsic, 1876 : of two
volumes in the series “Tabari's Annalen,” parts i.,
ii. (1879-81) in De Goeje’s edition of Tabari and of the
“Diwan des Qutami,” Leyden, 1902.

Bibliography: Rabbiner Seminar zu Berlin, Bericht Uber

die 25 Jahre Seines Bestehens , 1898, pp. 9, 57.

s. F. II. Y.

BARTHOLDY, JACOB SALOMON: Prus-
sian diplomat and art patron; uncle of the coin
poser Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy ; born May 13,
1779, in Berlin; died in the Protestant faith July 27,
1825, in Rome. He was of a prosperous Jewish
family, and received a careful education. After at-
tending the University of Halle for some time, he
made a tour through Greece with the artist Gropius.
From Greece he brought home the manuscript of an
unfinished book, the first part of which was pub-
lished in 1805 under the title “Bruchstiicke zur
Naheren Kenntniss des Heutigen Griechenlands,”
Berlin; a French translation appeared in Paris in

547

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Bartenora

Bartolocci

1807. He traveled extensively in Italy and in Asia
Minor; but Holland and France likewise attracted
him, and he spent much of his time in Paris. In
Dresden he became an intimate friend and admirer
of the noted pastor Reinliard, by whom he was con-
verted to Protestantism in 1805.

As first lieutenant of the Vienna militia, Bartholdy
took an active part in the campaign of 1809 against
Napoleon, distinguishing himself especially in the
battle of Ebersberg, where he was severely wounded.
In 1813, while attached to the bureau of Prince von
Hardenberg, he accompanied the allied armies to
Paris, and went thence to London. On the latter
journey he met Cardinal Consalvi, with whom he
formed a lasting friendship, and whose life he after-
ward described in his book, “Zi'ige aus dem Leben
des Cardinals Hercules Consalvi,” Stuttgart, 1824.

In 1815 Bartholdy received the appointment of
Prussian consul-general to Italy and established him-
self in Rome. While he strongly opposed the policy
of the eminent historian Niebuhr, then Prussian am-
bassador at the papal court — a policy which to him
seemed weak and unnecessarily lenient toward the
Holy See — he gave his firm support to Cardinal
Consalvi and the Romanists at the Vienna Congress.
After the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1818, he was
appointed Prussian business representative, with the
title of privy councilor of legation, at the court of
Tuscany. In 1825 he was pensioned by the Prus-
sian government.

Bartholdy is the author of the following works, in
addition to those mentioned above : “ Der Krieg der
Tyroler Landleute im Jalire 1809” (1814), and an
unfinished work (in manuscript) on ancient glass and
glass materials.

An enthusiastic patron of art, great credit is due
to Bartholdy for giving a fresh impulse to the re-
vival of fresco-painting. He engaged four German
artists — Cornelius, Overbeck, Scliadow, and Veit—
to adorn his house with frescos, the well-known
Casa Bartholdy, or Casa Zuccari, in the Via Sistina
in Rome. In 1887 the house was torn down, and
the famous frescos representing the story of Joseph
were bought by the Prussian government and
transferred to the National Gallery in Berlin (Donop,
“Die Wandgemalde der Casa Bartholdy,” Berlin,
1889). The Museum of Berlin bought Bartholdy’s
important collection of antiques, comprising Etrus-
can vases, bronzes, ivories, majolicas, etc., which
are now displayed in the National Gallery.

Bibliography: Brorkhaus, Konversations-Lexikon , 14th ed.,
s.v.; Meyer, Konversations-Lexikon , 5th ed.; AUgemeine
Deutsche Biographic ; Hoefer, Nouvelle Biographie Uni-
verselle.

s. A. S. C.

BARTHOLOMAION. Sec Ben Temalion.
BARTHOLOMEW 13) '• One of the apos-
tles; mentioned only in Matt. x. 3; Mark iii. 18;
Luke vi. 14; Acts i. 13. Some writers identify
him with the Nathanael of John i. 45 et seq., xxi. 2,
but on insufficient grounds. He is mentioned by
Eusebius (“Church History,” v. 3, 10) as having
preached the Gospel in India (which name included
Arabia Felix). According to other legends he suf-
fered martyrdom (Assemani, “Bibl. Orientalis,” iii.
2, 20; see also Lipsius, “Apocryplie Apostelge-

schichten,” ii. 2, 54-108). In Coptic Gnostic litera-
ture he is often mentioned (see Carl Schmidt, “Gnos-
tische Scliriften in Koptisclier Sprache,” 1892, p.
451).

Bibliography : Hastings, Diet, of the Bible , s.v.; Cheyne,
Encycl. Biblica.

T. K.

BARTHOLOMEW RAYMUNDO. See Rimos,
Moses.

BARTOLOCCI, GIULIO : Italian student of
Jewish literature; born at Celleno April 1, 1613;
died Oct. 19, 1687. He was a pupil of a baptized
Jew, Giovanni Battista, who instructed him in He-
brew ; and on completing his studies he became a
priest of the Cistercian order. It was from Battista

Giulio Bartolocci.

(From Bartolocci, “ Bibliotheca Rabbi nica.”)

that Bartolocci obtained his great knowledge of He-
brew and rabbinical literature, on account of which
he was appointed, in 1651, professor of Hebrew and
Rabbinics at the Collegium Neopliytorum at Rome,
and likewise “Scriptor Ilebraicus ” at the Vatican
Library. It was in the Vatican, and with the assist-
ance of his teacher and guide, Battista, who was his
coworker at the library, that Bartolocci received his
preparation for the work that was to give him last-
ing fame in the world of Jewish bibliography ; and
it was at the Vatican and its subsidiary libraries
that he obtained his chief materials. In 1675 he
began in Rome the publication of his “Bibliotheca
Magna Rabbinica” — a bibliography, in Latin and
Hebrew, of Hebrew literature, arranged according
to the names of the authors. This work appeared
in four folio volumes, 1675-93 (with the Hebrew title
13D nnp), three of which were published by the
author and the fourth by Carlo Giuseppi Imbonati,
his disciple. Imbonati’s supplement contained a list
of authors arranged according to the subjects on

'Bartolocci, Giulio
Baruch, Apocalypse of

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548

which they wrote. The latter added to this work
a fifth volume, the “Bibliotheca Latina Hebraica,”
Rome, 1694, which contained the works and the
names of Christian authors who had written in Latin
on Jews and Judaism.

It was from Battista that Bartolocci obtained the
idea and plan of the “ Bibliotheca Magna Rabbinica, ”
as well as part of the material. Battista began the
composition of the book in a chronological order,
which order was abandoned by Bartolocci. Richard
Simon, in writing in his “ BibliothSque Critique”
about Bartolocci’s work, says: “It contains much of
Jewish learning, but little of judgment, and is con-
spicuous for a profound ignorance in the most com-
mon matters that concern criticism.” Complaints
were also made that he devoted too much space to
refutations of Jewish arguments and that his transla-
tions from the Talmud were faulty. On the other
hand. Wolf attributes to Bartolocci the motive and
stimulus for his own work, which has more than
superseded Bartolocci’s.

Even with its faults, the “ Bibliotheca Rabbinica ”
was a great undertaking. It was the first attempt
on a large scale to give to the world an account of
the literature of the Jews. It is not a mere biblio-
graphic and biographic compilation, but contains
also a number of dissertations on Jewish customs,
observances, religious ideas; on the River Sambation,
on the beginnings of Hebrew typography, and the
like. Some Hebrew treatises are reprinted in full ;
for example, “Alphabet of Ben Sira,” “Megillat
Antiochus,” “Otiot de-R. Akiba,” and a part of El-
dad ha-Dani’s mythical journey.

Several attempts were made to render Bartolocci’s
work more accessible. The first who thought of
publishing Bartolocci’s work, with the omission of
its Hebrew texts, etc. , was the Oxford scholar Ed-
ward Bernard. Adrian Reland of Holland even
attempted to publish in Amsterdam such an extract
of the “Bibliotheca.” But he failed to execute the
plan, there appearing in print the biographies alone
of such famous exegetes as Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Kimhi,
Levi ben Gershom, and Abravanel, which were
embodied in his “Analecta Rabbinica” (Utrecht,
1702). Bartolocci left in manuscript a work on the
difficult expressions in the Mishnah.

Bibliography: Wolf, Bibl. Hehr. i. 6-9; Zunz, Z. G. p. 13;

Nouvelle Biographic Universelle, s.v.; Fiirst, Bibl. JurJ. i.

89, iii., lxxiv.; Stelnschneider, Cat. Bodl. No. 4496; idem, in

Zeit. f. Hebr. Bibl. ii. 51.

g. M. Ra.— G.

BARUCH : 1. Son of Zabbai or Zaccai, who took
part in strengthening the wall of Jerusalem in the
time of Nehemiah (Neh. iii. 20).

2. A priest who signed the covenant with Nehe-
miah (Neh. x. 7).

3. A Judahite whose son Maaseiah was a resident
of Jerusalem (Neh. xi 5).

j. jr. G. B. L.

4. Biblical Data : The disciple, secretary,

and devoted friend of the prophet Jeremiah. He
was a son of Neriah, and brother of Seraiah, King
Zedekiah’s chamberlain (Jer. li. 59), and, according
to Josephus (“Ant.” x. 9, § 1), a member of a very
distinguished family. That he had ambitions which
he had reason for believing he was capable of reali-

zing is suggested by Jeremiah’s solemn warning,
uttered during the fourth year of Jehoiakim, when
Baruch was deciding upon his life-work : “Seekest
thou great things for thyself? seek them not” (Jer.
xlv. 5). To the teachings and ideals of the great
prophet he remained true, although like his master
lie was at times almost overwhelmed with despond-
ency. He it was who wrote down the first and sec-
ond editions of Jeremiah's prophecies as they were
dictated to him by the prophet (Jer. xxxvi.). The
supreme test came when he was commanded by his
master to read to the people gathered in the temple
on a fast day certain of the prophecies of warning
(Jer. xxxvi. 1-8). Jeremiah himself was in conceal-
ment to avoid the wrath of the unprincipled Jelioa-
kim, and the task was both difficult and dangerous;
but Baruch performed it without flinching. It was
probably on this occasion that the prophet gave him
the personal message preserved in Jer. xlv. In the
final siege of Jerusalem (586 b.c.), Baruch was pres-
ent with Jeremiah in person and witnessed the pur-
chase by the prophet of his ancestral estate in Ana-
thotli (Jer. xxxii.). Josephus states that he continued
after the fall of Jerusalem to reside with Jeremiah
at Mizpah (“Ant.” x. 9, § 1). That his influence
with the latter was great is shown by the fact that
the people suspected that it was on account of his
advice that Jeremiah urged them to remain in Judah
after the murder of Gedaliali (Jer. xliii. 3). He was
carried with Jeremiah to Egypt, where, according
to a tradition preserved by Jerome (on Isa. xxx. 6, 7),
he soon died. Two other traditions state that he
later went, or was carried, to Babylon by Nebuchad-
nezzar after the latter’s conquest of Egypt.

Baruch's prominence, by reason of his intimate
association with Jeremiah, led later generations to
exalt his reputation still further. To him were at-
tributed two later Jewish books (see Baruch, Apoc-
alypse of).

j. jr. C. F. K.

In Rabbinical Literature : Faithful helper

and blood-relation of Jeremiah. Both Baruch and
Jeremiah being priests and descendants of the prose-
lyte Rahab, they served as a humiliating example
to their contemporaries, inasmuch as they belong to
the few who harkened to the word of God (Sifre,
Num. 78 [ed. Friedmann, p. 205], and elsewhere;
compare also Pesikta xiii. 35). Baruch is identical
with the Ethiopian Ebed-melech, who rescued Jere-
miah from the dungeon (Jer. xxxviii. 7 et seq.)\ and
he received his appellation because of his piety,
which contrasted with the loose life of the court, as
the skin of an Ethiopian contrasts with that of a
white person (Sifre, Num. 99). As his piety might
have prevented the destruction of the Temple, God
commanded him to leave Jerusalem before the cat-
astrophe, so as to remove his protective presence
(Syriac Apoc. Baruch, ii. 1, v. 5). Baruch then saw,
from Abraham’s oak at Hebron, the Temple set on
fire by angels, who previously had hidden the sacred
vessels (ib. vi. vii.).

The Tannaim are much divided on the question
whether Baruch is to be classed among the Proph-
ets. According to Mekilta (Bo, end of the introduc-
tion), Baruch complained (Jer. xlv. 3 et seq.) because

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the gift of prophecy had not been given to him.
“Why,” lie said, “is my fate different from that of
all the other disciples of the Prophets? Joshua
served Moses, and the Holy Spirit rested upon him ;

Elisha served Elijah, and the Holy
Counted Spirit rested upon him. Why is it
Among the otherwise with me?” God answered
Prophets, him: “Baruch, of what avail is a
hedge where there is no vineyard, or
a shepherd where there are no sheep?” Baruch,
therefore, found consolation in the fact that when
Israel was exiled to Babylonia there was no longer
occasion for prophecy. The “Seder ‘Olam” (xx.),
however, and the Talmud (Meg. 145), include Baruch
among the Prophets, and state that he prophesied
in the period following the destruction. It was in
Babylonia also that Ezra studied the Torah with
Baruch. Nor did he think of returning to Palestine
during his teacher’s lifetime, since he considered the
study of the Torah more important than the rebuild-
ing of the Temple (Meg. 165) ; and Baruch could not
join the returning exiles by reason of his age (Cant.
R. v. 5; see also Seder ‘Olam, ed. Ratner, xxvi.).

Baruch’s grave became the subject of later
legends. An Arabian king once ordered it to be
opened ; but all who touched it fell dead. The king
thereupon commanded the Jews to
Baruch’s open it; and they, after preparing
Grave. themselves by a three days’ fast, suc-
ceeded without a mishap. Baruch’s
body was found intact in a marble coffin, and ap-
peared as if he had just died. The king ordered
that it should be transported to another place ; but,
after having dragged the coffin a little distance, the
horses and camels were unable to move it another
inch. The king, greatly excited by these wonders,
went with his retinue to Mohammed to ask his ad-
vice. Arrived at Mecca, his doubts of the truth of
the teachings of Islam greatly increased, and he and
his courtiers finally accepted Judaism. The king
then built a “ bet lia-midrash ” on the spot from
which he had been unable to move Baruch’s body;
and this academy served for a long time as a place
of pilgrimage.

Baruch’s tomb is a mile distant from that of Eze-
kiel, near Mashhad ‘ Ali ; and a strange plant, the
leaves of which are sprinkled with gold dust, grows
on it (“Gelilot Erez Yisrael,” as quoted in Heilprin’s
“Seder ha-Dorot,” ed. Wilna, i. 127, 128; variant
in “Itinerary” of Pethahiah of Regensburg, ed.
Jerusalem, 45). According to the Syriac Apocalypse
of Baruch, he was translated to paradise in his mortal
body (xiii., xxv.). The same is stated in “Derek
Erez Zutta” (i.) of Ebed-melech, and since, as
shown above, Baruch and Ebed-melech were held
to be identical, the deduction is evident.

J. SR. L. Or.

In Arabic-Christian Legend : The Arabic-

Christian legends identify Baruch with Zoroaster,
and give much information concerning him. Baruch,
angry because the gift of prophecy had been denied
him, and on account of the destruction of Jerusalem
and the Temple, left Palestine to found the religion
of Zoroaster. The prophecy of the birth of Jesus
from a virgin, and of his adoration by the Magi,

is also ascribed to Barucli-Zoroaster (compare the
complete collection of these legends in Gottheil. in
“Classical Studies in Honor of H. Drisler,” pp. 24—
51, New York, 1894; Jackson, “Zoroaster,” pp. 17,
165 et seq.). It is difficult to explain the origin of
this curious identification of a prophet with a magi-
cian, such as Zoroaster was held to be, among the
.Tews, Christians, and Arabs. De Sacy (“ Notices et
Extraits des MSS. de la BibliotliSque du Roi,” ii.
319) explains it on the ground that in Arabic the
name of the prophet Jeremiah is almost identical
with that of the city of Urmiah, where, it is said,
Zoroaster lived. However this may be, the Jewish
legend mentioned above (under Bakucii in Rabbin-
ical Literature), according to which the Ethiopian
in Jer. xxxviii. 7 is undoubtedly identical with Ba-
ruch, is connected with this Arabic-Christian legend.
As early as the Clementine “ Recognitiones ” (iv.
27), Zoroaster was believed to be a descendant of
Ham; and, according to Gen. x. 6, Cush, the Ethi-
opian, is a son of Ham. It should furthermore be
remembered that, according to the “ Recognitiones ”
iv. 28), the Persians believed that Zoroaster had been
taken into heaven in a chariot (“ad ccelum vehicule
sublevatum ”) ; and according to the Jewish leg-
end, the above-mentioned Ethiopian was transported
alive into paradise (“Derek Erez Zutta,” i. end), an
occurrence that, like the translation of Elijah (II
Kings ii. 11), must have taken place by means of a
“vehiculum. ” Another reminiscence of the Jewish
legend is found in Baruch-Zoroaster’s words con-
cerning Jesus: “He shall descend from my family ”
(“ Book of the Bee,” ed. Budge, p. 90, line 5, London,
1886), since, according to the Haggadah, Baruch was.
a priest; and Maria, the mother of Jesus, was of
priestly family. Compare Ebed-melech in Rab-
binical Literature.

g. L. G.

BARUCH, APOCALYPSE OF (Greek) : An

apocryphal work, in which Baruch, the disciple of
Jeremiah, gives an account of the revelation which
he received in heaven. The existence of this work
(which is wholly different from the Syriac Apoca-
lypse of Baruch published by Ceriani in 1866, 1871,
1883, and translated by Charles in 1896 ; see Baruch,
Apocalypse of [Syriac]) was unknown until 1886,
when a Slavonic Baruch Apocalypse was published
by Stojan Novakovic in the magazine “ Starine ”(vol.
xviii.). But the attention of scholars was first
drawn to this work through the German translation
of the Slavonic text by N. Bonwetsch (“ Naclirichten
von der Koniglichen Gesellscliaft der Wissenscliaf-
ten zu Gottingen, Philologiseh-Historische Klasse,”
1896, pp. 94-101); and a year later the world of
learning was astonished by M. R. James’s publica-
tion of the Greek text, until then entirely unknown,
in “Texts and Studies: Contributions to Biblical
and Patristic Literature,” edited by J. Armitage
Robinson, v., No. i., pp. 84-94, Cambridge, 1897. The
Slavonic text is an abbreviated form of the Greek,
sometimes merely an abstract of it. Consequently,
the Greek text must be considered as the basis of
the other, though the Slavonic text seems in some
places to have preserved the correct reading.

The contents of the Apocalypse are as follows;

Baruch, Apocalypse of

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

550

Baruch, bewailing and lamenting the fall of Jeru-
salem, is addressed by an angel of God sent to reveal
great mysteries to him (ch. i.)- He goes with the
angel, and after crossing a stream at the place where
heaven is fastened (not the ocean, but the “ mayirn lia-
‘elyonim ” [upper waters]; Gen. R. iv.
Baruch 3; Hag. 15a; compare Abraham, Tes-
Ascends to tament of), they reach the first lieav-
First en. The angel tells Baruch that the
Heaven. heaven’s thickness equals the distance
from heaven to earth, or the distance
from east to west (thus the Slavonic text; the Greek
reads “from north to south”; Tamid32a; Hag. 13a).
Baruch secs men in animal form, who, as the angel
explains, “are they who built the tower, and God
has transformed them”(ii.). This means that the
builders of the tower (“dor liaflagah ”) were trans-
formed into demons (Sanh. 109«, D’lC?). For

this reason they are not in the place of torment,
which is in the third heaven, but at the entrance to
heaven (Hag. 16a; compare Demonology).

The third chapter gives the reason for the punish-
ment inflicted on the tower-builders. They were
so inhuman that they would not let a woman who
helped with the building leave her work during
travail. A similar rabbinical legend about a Jewish
woman in Egypt (Pirke R. El. xlviii. ; compare
“Sefer ha-Yashar, Shemot,” ed. Leghorn, p. 1135) is
probably the original of this. The fourth chapter,
describing the third heaven, seems to have been
badly mutilated in the Greek text; the Slavonic ver-
sion must therefore be followed. Baruch sees a
dragon as long as the distance from
The Third east to west. It drinks an ell from the
Heaven, sea daily; because three hundred and
sixty rivers constantly empty into the
sea, and would cause it to overflow, so that there
would be nothing left dry on earth. The inside of
the dragon is as large as the belly of Hades. The
Greek text adds that it is this dragon which eats the
bodies of those that have spent their lives in evil.
The dragon seems to be identified with Hades in
other respects also; and the representations of the
dragon (the Leviathan) and Hades are confused.

There is no connection between this part of the
chapter and the section immediately following, in
which Baruch asks which tree seduced Adam, and
the angel answers that it was the vine planted by
Samael (this view is widely spread in the apocalyptic
and rabbinical literature; compare Giuzberg, “Die
Haggada bei den Kirchenvatern, ” pp. 38-41). In this
connection, too, it is stated that the Deluge washed
the vine bodily out of the Garden of Eden ; whereupon
Noah took possession of it and planted it (Ginzberg,
l.c. p. 40). In its present form the section on the vine
is a Christian interpolation intended to reconcile the
harmfulness of wine with its use in the communion
service. In this way the original legend on the
planting of the vine by Noah and the arch-fiend be-
comes radically changed. See Asmodeus.

Chapters vi. to ix., treating of the sun, moon,
and stars, are the most interesting part of the work.
The sun is represented as a man with a crown of
fire, sitting on a chariot. This is probably derived
from the Greek conception, but found also elsewhere
in rabbinical literature, as in Slavonic B. of Enoch ;

Pirke R. El. vi. ; Num. R. xii. 4. The plienix attends
the sun in its course as guard ; catching on its wings
the rays, in order to keep them from scorching every-
thing. At daybreak the rustling of the phenix
awakens the cocks on earth, who then give the signal
of dawn in their peculiar utterance (compare Targ.
on Job xxxviii. 36). The Zoliar (iii. 225, 23a, 495)
also tells of a heavenly wind, or some other celes-
tial manifestation, which causes the crowing of the
cocks; even the Talmud knows the blessing

■’ISK'i? jm "ItPK (“blessed be He who has given
the cock intelligence [to distinguish between day
and night],” Ber. 605). As in the rabbinical sources
(Pirke R. El. vi. ; Yalk., Eccl. 967), the angels draw
the sun’s chariot (ch. vii., viii.), and at night four
angels remove the sun’s crown (according to Pirke
R. El. l.c., the sun is attended by different angels by
night and by day ; and since, accord-
Celestial ing to Yalk. l.c., there are eight in all,
Phe- the number in the Baruch Apocalypse
nomena. tallies with that in rabbinical litera-
ture). They remove the crown in
order to cleanse it of the impurities with which it
becomes spotted through the sins of man on earth
(Test. Patr., Levi, 3; Eliyahu R. ii.); and for this
reason it is renewed every day (compare the words
in the morning service ncyo, T»n DV ^>33 KHTO
n'K'XIS. “ who reneweth every day the work of crea-
tion”). The conception of the moon is also Greek.
It is represented as a woman sitting on a chariot
drawn by oxen and lambs. It was once as large as
the sun and even more beautiful; but at Adam’s
fall it did not display the proper compassion, and it
was therefore made to wax and wane. This agrees
only in part with the Haggadah variously given in
the Talmud and Midrasli, that the moon suffered
this decrease in its size through its pride and guilt
(Shebuot 9a; Hul. 605; Gen. R. vi. 3).

In the fourth heaven Baruch first sees in a wide
plain a pond about which are large numbers of birds.
The angel explains that this is the place to which
the souls of the righteous go in order that they may
live together in choirs. The idea that the souls of
the righteous are transformed into birds frequently
occurs in the Cabala (compare “Tikkune Zoliar,” ed.
Lemberg, vi. 225 ; see also Sanh. 925) ; this idea is prob-
ably of Egyptian origin. The fourth heaven also
contains the water which descends to earth in the
form of rain. For although the original source of
rain is the sea, it must first ascend to heaven to
mingle with the water there in order
The Fourth that it may bring forth fruit, since sea-
and Fifth water is salt. In this way, according
Heavens, to Gen. R. xiii. 10 and Eccl. R. i. 7,
the passage at the end of ch. x. is to
be explained. In the fifth heaven Baruch meets
Michael, prince of the angels and keeper of the ce-
lestial keys, who is descending to receive the prayers
of men and to carry a report of their virtues to God.
The expression “ gates of prayer ” (“ sha'are tefillah ”)
already occurs frequently in the Talmud (Ber. 325)
and in the liturgy. Concerning the office here as-
cribed to Michael, compare Ginzberg, in l.c. p. 13.

The conclusion of the Apocalypse (ch. xii.-xvii.)
describes the acts of the angels who accompany men
on earth (Hag. 16a) and report in heaven concerning

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them. The angels that accompany the righteous hand
baskets of flowers to Michael, who gives them to God ;
but other angels stand downcast and with empty
baskets, not daring to draw nigh. These latter are
the angels that accompany the evil-doers. They beg
Michael to free them from their duties; for they do
not wish to gaze any longer upon the sins of man.
After Michael has brought the virtues of men to
God, he returns and tells the angels what God has
communicated to him. He gives the angels of the
righteous a reward for the righteous, and bids the
other angels inflict punishment of all kinds on the
evil-doers. Then the angel that has guided Baruch
takes him back to the place whence he started.

The latest date at which the Apocalypse of Baruch
could have been written is determined by the fact
that Origen (185-254) made a citation
Relation from it (“De Principiis,” ii. 3, 6). The
to Other question as to the earliest date depends
Works. upon the relation of this Baruch Apoc-
alypse to the other works ascribed to
the same author, and to the apocryphal and pseud-
epigraphic literature in general. It is certain that
the Apocalypse was influenced by the (Slavonic)
Book of Enoch, a work of about the middle of the flrst
Christian century. It is, however, a question whether
the Greek version employed the Syriac Apocal}rpse
of Baruch, since ch. lxxvi. of the latter, in which
Baruch receives a promise of cosmic revelations,
affords arguments rather against than for such a
supposition. The assumption is untenable that the
Greek Apocalypse was written to show the actual
fulfilment of the promise. The critical point in the
Syriac Apocalypse lies in this chapter when Baruch,
before leaving earth, obtains a full survey of it in
order that he may see what he is leaving and whither
he is going. This idea is based upon an opinion held
by Akiba b. Joseph (Sifre, Num. 136) and others,
that God allowed not only Moses, but other favored
pious men to behold before their death the whole
world and all the mysteries of nature. Now, if the
Greek Apocalypse was complementary to the Syriac,
the author of the former would not have failed to
join his story of Baruch’s passage through heaven
to this account of his last act on earth.

The alleged connection of the Apocalypse with
other pseudepigrapliic works is only vaguely indi-
cated, and proves nothing. The same is true of the
linguistic relation which, it is asserted, exists be-
tween the Apocalypse and the New Testament. For
instance, r/pepa rijc apioeu e is not taken from the New
Testament, since “ Yom ha-Din ” (the Day of Judg-
ment) is an expression used before Christian times,
and occurs more frequently in rabbinical literature
than in the New Testament. Only one passage can
with certainty be considered a Christian interpola-
tion; and that is the one concerning the vine already
referred to as occurring in ch. iv. The interpola-
tion here is very unskilfully made. It interrupts
the sequence, and adds entirely foreign elements.
There are also other evidences that the Apocalypse
has not been preserved in its original form. For
example, it is natural to expect descriptions of the
sixth and seventh heavens; but these are lacking.

The following two points show the position of the
Apocalypse in relation to other literature of a simi-

lar nature; (1) It is perhaps the one Jewish work
which undoubtedly betrays Indian influence. The
phenix, referred to in this Apocalypse
It Betrays as the companion of the sun, and the
Indian wonderful description of it, are prob-
Influence. ably of Indian origin; for Indian
mythology relates much that is sim-
ilar concerning the bird Garuda, the companion
of the sun-god Vishnu (“ Mahabharata Adi Parva,”
xvi.-xxxiv. ; compare James, “The Apocalypse of
Baruch,” Introduction, pp. lxiii.-lxvi., in “ Texts and
Studies,” l.c.).

(2) Michael’s office, as described in ch. xi.-xvj.,
is significant. The resemblance between his func-
tions and those ascribed to Jesus by the early
church is striking; and the relation between the
two is obvious. It is probably not correct, how-
ever, to consider Michael in the Apocalypse as the
Logos or Jesus in a Jewish garb. The explanation
of the similarity between the two must be sought in
the fact that, at the time when Christianity arose, the
carrying out of a too transcendental conception of
monotheism required, in order that the relation of
God to man might be explained, the supposition
of some mediator; and no one was better suited for
this part than Michael, the prince of t he angels.
With the advent of Christianity the duties of Michael
were ascribed to Jesus or Logos (compare W.
Lueken, “ Michael,” 1898). In view of these facts,
it may be assumed as certain that the author of the
Apocalypse was not a Pharisee, since the Pharisees
opposed decidedly such doubtful angel-lore. He
must have been one of the Gnostics, who revered
equally the Haggadah, Greek mythology, and Ori-
ental wisdom. To consider the Apocalypse a Jewish
Gnostic work would also be in accordance with the
date arrived at for its origin ; namely, the beginning
of the second century, when gnosis was at its height
among both Jews and Christians.

Bibliography: Bonwetseh anti James, as above; R. 11.
Charles, The Apocalypse of Baruch, introduction, pp. 20-
22; Morflll, in Texts and Studies, v.. No. 1, giving English
translation of the Slavonic text: Kautzsch, Die Apokryphen
und Pseudepigraphen des Alteu Testaments, ii. 402-404,
446-457, containing German translation of the Greek version
with critical notes and introduction.
t. L. G.

BARUCH, APOCALYPSE OF (Syriac) : A

pseudepigrapliic work in which Baruch narrates his
experiences during the periods just before and after
the destruction of the Temple, and gives an account
of the revelations received by him concerning the
future. With the exception of a small fragment,
chapters Ixxviii.-lxxxvi., the work has become
known only recently. It has been preserved in
Syriac. In 1866 Ceriani published a Latin transla-
tion of the Syriac text (“Monumenta Sacra,” I. ii.
73-98), the Syriac text itself in ordinary type in 1871,
and in facsimile in 1883. Following is an outline of
the contents of the work:

Chapters i.-v. : God reveals to Baruch the im-
pending destruction of Jerusalem, andbidshim leave
the city along with all other pious persons, since
their presence there would preserve it from destruc-
tion. Baruch, at first hopeless over the sad tidings,
is comforted by God, who assures him that Israel’s
woes will not be permanent, but that after the
nation’s chastisement a glorious heavenly Temple

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will arise for it. Then Baruch, Jeremiah, and all
other pious ones go to the brook Kidron, where they
await the sad event.

Chapters vi.-viii. : On the following day the
Chaldeans surround the city; and while Baruch
stands sorrowing at the fate of the people, a wind
carries him up to the walls of Jerusalem. He sees four
angels with torches firing the walls, but not before
another angel has consigned the sacred vessels of the
Temple to the earth, which swallows them up till
the latter days.

Chapters ix.-xii. : Seven days after the capture
of Jerusalem, Baruch again receives a revelation.
He is told that Jeremiah should accompany the cap-
tives to Babylon, but that he himself must remain at
the ruins of Jerusalem, where God will reveal to
him what shall happen at the end of days. Then
Baruch sings a dirge on the destruction of Jerusalem
and the sorrows of Israel, beginning “ Happy he that
was not born, and he that, being born, hath died”
(compare Job iii. 11).

Chapters xiii.-xv. : After fasting seven days,
Baruch receives a revelation concerning the future
punishment of the heathen and of all godless per-
sons; and he is told that he will live until the con-
summation of the time, that he may bear witness in
the hour of their punishment against those nations
who now prosper.

Chapters xvi.-xx. : God cuts short Baruch’s re-
flections on the just course of history by referring to
the end of days soon to come, and promising to re-
veal it.

Chapters xxi.-xxx. : After another seven-day
fast and long prayers the heavens open and Baruch
hears a heavenly voice. First he is blamed for the
doubt and timidity expressed in his complaints and
prayers, and then he learns that the “ future time ”
will come only when the earth shall have brought
forth all her fruit ; that is, when all the souls destined
to be born shall have seen the light of day. He is
told of the twelve divisions of the time of oppression,
and of the following Messianic era of joy and glory.

Chapters xxxi.-xxxiv. : Baruch assembles the
elders of the people and tells them that Zion will
soon be restored, but destroyed once again, then to
be rebuilt for all eternity.

Chapters xxxv.-xli. : Baruch, while sitting in
the ruins of the Temple lamenting, receives a new
revelation in the form of the following vision : In his
sleep he sees a wood surrounded by rocks and crags,
and, opposite the wood, a growing vine, beneath
which flows a spring. The spring runs quietly as
far as the wood, where it waxes to a mighty stream,
overwhelming the wood and leaving only one cedar
standing. This cedar, too, is finally swept away
and carried to the vine. God explains the meaning
of the vision to Baruch. The wood is the mighty
fourth power (Rome) ; the spring is the dominion of
the Messiah; and the vine is the Messiah Himself,
who will destroy the last hostile ruler (of Rome) on
Mt. Zion.

Chapters xlii.-xlviii. 24 : Baruch is directed
to warn the people and to prepare himself for an-
other revelation, which he does.

Chapters xlviii. 25-lii. : In this revelation
Baruch is told of the oppressions in the latter days,

of the resurrection and final destiny of the righteous,
and of the fate of the godless.

Chapters liii.-lxxiv. : A second prophetic vision
follows, whose meaning is explained by the angel
Ramiel. A cloud which arises from the sea rains
down twelve times alternately dark and bright
waters. This indicates the course of events from
Adam to the Messiah. The six dark waters are the
dominion of the godless — Adam, Egypt, Canaanitic
influence, Jeroboam, Manasseli, and the Chaldeans.
The six bright waters are Abraham, Moses, David,
Hezekiah, Josiah, and the time of the Second Temple.
After these twelve waters comes another water still
darker than the others and shot with fire, carrying
annihilation in its train. A clear flash puts an end to
the fearful tempest. The dark cloud is the period
between the time of the Second Temple and the ad-
vent of the Messiah, which latter event determines
the dominion of the wicked, and inaugurates the
era of eternal bliss.

Chapters lxxv.-lxxxvii. : After Baruch has
thanked God for the secrets revealed to him, God
bids him warn the people, and keep himself in read-
iness for his translation to heaven, since God intends
to keep him there until the consummation of the
times. Baruch admonishes the people and, besides,
writes two letters: one to the nine and one-half
tribes; the other to the two and one-half tribes exiled
in Babylon. The contents of the first letter only are
given. In it Baruch justifies the deeds of God con-
cerning the kingdoms of Samaria and Judah, and
reveals God's judgment on Israel’s oppressors. Ilis
call to the people to repent before God and His Law
ends the letter and the book.

Many parallels exist between the Apocalypse and
rabbinical literature, a consideration
Haggadah of some of which will throw light upon
of the Apoc- certain misunderstood passages in the

alypse. former, and, at the same time, be of
material assistance in forming a judg-
ment upon the whole work.

‘Arakin 17a, in which the last king of Judah is
said to be pious, while his people are godless, cor-
responds to i. 3 of the Apocalypse. Pesik. R. 26 (ed.
Friedmann, 131a), in which God causes Jeremiah to
leave Jerusalem, since his presence would preserve
it from destruction, corresponds to ii. 1, 2; and the
rabbinical passages in which the heavenly Temple
(Sifre, Deut. 37 ; for details, compare Ginzberg, “ Die
Haggada bei den Kirchen vatern, ” p. 13) is revealed to
Adam and Abraham in the night during the “cove-
nant between the pieces” (Gen. R. xvi. 8; xliv. 20,
22) correspond to iv. 3, 4, 5. Of the persons mentioned
in v. 5 of the Apocalypse, Seraiah is a prophet, ac-
cording to Sifre, Num. 78; Seder ‘Olam R.xx. ; Geda-
liah, a righteous man (“ zaddik ”), according to R. II.
185 ; and Jabez (probably f‘3JT),oneof those who reach
paradise alive (Derek Erez Zutta i. ; Kohler, in “ Jew.
Quart. Rev.” v. 418; for the correct reading here
see Tawrogi’s ed., Konigsberg, 1885, and Epstein,
“ Mi-Kadmoniyot ha-Yehudim,” p. Ill, note). The
account of the destruction of Jerusalem by angels
in vi.-viii. of the Apocalypse is in parts almost word
for word the same as in Pesik. R. ( l.c .). Here, also,
the destruction is wrought by four angels with
torches in their hands, while another angel invites

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the “ haters ” (“ soneim”) to enter the house deserted
by its inmate. The difference between this Midrash
and the Apocalypse in regard to the utterance of the
angel is to be explained by the variant of a single
word. The Midrash has n'3$>, while the Apocalypse
reads D’S'lKiT The sacred objects which the earth
swallowed, mentioned in vi. 7, are correctly given in
rabbinical literature. “ Holy Ark ” should be sub-
stituted for “holy epliod” — fPN is the later
Hebraic term (compare, for instance, II Chron. xxxv.
3; Ket. 104a) — because piN also signifies “coffin.” In
fact, it is probable that originally only those articles
were mentioned in this passage of the Apocalypse
which were missing in the Second Temple (Yoma
21b). and for whose disappearance (Shek. vi. 1) an ex-
planation had to be given, but compare also the later
Midrash “ Masseket Ivelim,” in Jellinek’s “ B. H. ii.,”
which treats of the numerous sacred objects hidden
in the earth. Zeb. 886 affords an explanation of the
forty-eight gems. These are to be taken as the thirty-
six bells bordering the hem of the priestly robe
(“me'il”) and the twelve stones in the breastplate
of the high priest; and an explanation of x. 2 is
provided by the Haggadali in which Jeremiah ac-
companies the exiles a part of the way to Babylon,
but then returns (Pesik R. 26 [ed. Friedmann, 1316] ;
Introduction to Lam. R. xxxiv.).

A comparison of x. 9-16 with the last Mishnali of
Sotah; B. B. 606; Tosef., Sotah, xiv. 11, shows that
the Apocalypse alludes to facts. What is given as
a poetic fancy in x. 18 is treated in rabbinical liter-
ature as an actual occurrence; e.g., in Ta'anit 29a ;
Lev. R. xix. 6; Pesik. R. l.c. ; Ab. R. N. [i.] iv. [ii.J,
vii. In the last passage an eye-witness of the catas-
trophe of the year 70 testifies that certain noble
young priests threw the keys of the Temple toward
heaven and exclaimed: “ Here are Thy keys ! We
have been found untrustworthy guardians of Thy
house.” Likewise, a clear understanding of the fol-
lowing verse (x. 19) can be obtained only by a com-
parison of it with Pesik. R. l.c. The virgins who
“ weave linen and silk threads with gold from Oplrir,
and who are bidden now to cast their work into the
flames,” are the women who made the hangings
(“ paroket ”) for the Temple (Ket. 106a), and who are
mentioned, for this reason, along with the priests.
The promise that Baruch should not die (xiii. 3) and
his translation to paradise in his mortal body (in
chap, xxv.) are suggested by the combination of
Sifre, Num. 99 and Derek Erez Zutta i. The vast
size of Sennacherib’s host, given in lxiii. 6, 7, ac-
cords with the description in Sanli. 956; and the
miracle of the burning of their bodies while their
garments remained unconsumed (lxiii. 8) is given in
Sanli. 94a. The list of the wicked deeds of Manas-
seh, set forth in lxiv. 2-4, agrees with the catalogue
of his sins in Sanli. 1036. Likewise, the legend of
the brazen horse, given in lxiv. 8, occurs in as early
a work as the Pesikta de-Rab Kahana (xxv. 162),
from which it was borrowed by various Midrashim.
The sorrow of the angels over Zion and Israel (ixvii.
2) is a favorite theme of the Midrasli; for instance,
in Pesik. R. 28 [ed. Friedmann, 134a], The pas-
sage in the Apocalypse (lxxvii. 25) in which the
messenger-bird of Solomon is mentioned should be
compared with Eccl. R. to ii. 25.

The Apocalypse, it is important to note, has also
many points of agreement with the Pharisaic doc-
trines, especially in regard to sin and the Law. It
assumes that the world was created for Israel's sake;

that is, for those Israelites who fulfil

Theolog- the Law ; and Baruch even thought
ical Stand- that with the extinction of the Jewish
point. state the world would end (iii. 7, xiv.

18, xv. 7, xxi. 24; Tan., ed. Buber,
Bereshit v. ; Pesik. R. 28 [ed. Friedmann, 1356] ; a
full discussion by Ginzberg, “Haggada bei den
Kirchenvateru,” pp. 8-10). The views of the Apoc-
alypse on the relations of sin and death, of the first
man and his descendants, seem to be contradictory :
and for this reason some scholars consider the Apoc-
alypse to be the work of more than one author.
But a consideration of the rabbinical theories will
throw light upon these apparent inconsistencies.
The fall of the first human pair brought death upon
them, though it had not been intended that they,
being the creatures of God’s own hands, should be
mortal (Eccl. R. iii. 14). Their descendants, though
they may have no direct claim upon immortality,
may nevertheless gain it if they are wholly free from
sin (Tan., ed. Buber, Emor, and the passages given
there by Buber). But the primal sin produced such
conditions that it is almost impossible for the very
noblest of men to win immortality.

Adam, then, is responsible for the death of the
pious on account of the trivial offenses (‘“aberot
kallot”) which are caused by the present state of
things. The pious would not have had to suffer
death if Adam had not brought it into the world;
and the only way to avoid death, when its dominion
is once established, is to lead an absolutely blameless
life (Tan., ed. Buber, Hukkat, xxxix. ; compare Ab-
kaham, Testament of, in which the same views are
expressed). The same idea occurs in the Apoca-
lypse in xviii. 2, xix. 8, xxiii. 4, liv. 15, lvi. 6. The
following ideas are common to the Apocalypse and
the Rabbis: In consequence of the corruptibility of
the world since the fall of Adam, the soul of man
hesitates to enter it. “ We come not voluntarily into
the world, and we depart not of our own will ” (xiv.
11, xlviii. 15; Ab. iv., end; Tan., Pekude, ii. [ed.
Vienna, 1276]). A certain number of souls must be
born before the advent of the Messiah can occur
(xxiii. 4, 5; Yeb. 62a). The souls of the pious are
kept in a storehouse (“ozar,” xxx. 2; Sifre, Num.
139; Ab. R. N. xii. [ed. Sehechter, p. 50]; Shab.
1526). The departed, though they are susceptible
of pain and pleasure, live in a world of their own,
and know nothing of the events on earth (xi. 5, 6;
Ber. 186). It is, therefore, erroneous to stigmatize
this passage (xi. 5, 6) as Sadducean, as some critics
have done.

The same inconsistency has been ascribed to the
eschatological views of the Apocalypse as to its the-
ological. In reality they combine standpoints which
contradict one another because derived from diver-
gent sources, but such contradiction is found in
many works. In the very beginning of the Apoca-
lypse (iv. 2-7) mention is made of the heavenly
Temple which will appear in the future time, and
shortly after (vi. 7-9) it is said that the sacred ob-
jects of the Temple, swallowed by the earth, will

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554

reappear at the reconstruction of Jerusalem. Now,
a tanna about the middle of the second century
speaks in one and the same sentence of

Escha- the heavenly Temple and of the fact

tology. that it will be sent down to Jerusalem
in order that sacrifices may be offered
in it (Suk. 4Le; see especially Kashi’s explanation of
the passage. Concerning other relations between
the earthly Temple [ntDO EHpDn JVD] and the
heavenly one [n^JfD porQ], which in the future
time will in certain respects be one, compare Talk.,
Isaiah, 472; Ta’anit 5a).

There are no grounds for the belief that the Apoc-
alypse unites contradictory views on the Messianic
era and the future w’orld, and that, therefore, it must
have been written by more than one person. It is
true that it contains various revelations, independ-
ent of each other, on the Messianic era, the Messiah,
and the future world; but a Pharisaic work, escha-
tological in character, and written at the time of
Jesus or even some decades before, must have treated
of these three subjects. In some passages one point
is more strongly dwelt upon; in other passages an-
other point. The reconstruction of Jerusalem (xiiv.
7, Ixxi. 1), the gathering together of the Ten Tribes
{“Kibbuz Galuyot,” lxxviii. 7, lxxxiv. 10), and the
doom of the heathen (lxxxii. 2-9, lxxxv. 9) form only
one side, the national side, of Jewish eschatology.
The hope of national redemption was connected
with the hope of individual redemption. The Mes-
sianic era will not only bring Israel to its rights, but
in the future world (“ ‘olam lia-ba ”) reward or pun-
ishment will be meted out to the individual accord-
ing to his deeds. The description of the Resurrection
in the Apocalypse is significant for the agreement
of its eschatological doctrines with those of the rab-
binical authorities. “The earth will give up her
dead as she received them, . . . for it is necessary to
show those who live that the dead have arisen, and
that they have ret urned who had departed ” (1. 2-4).
This same idea and the same reasons for it are given
in “Milhamot Melek ha-Mashiah ” (Jellinek, “B. II.”
vi. 119).

Thewordsof the Apocalypse concerning the pious
in the future world are also noteworthy. “ They
will shine with a varying glory, their countenances
will glow with a new beauty, so that they may
partake of the immortal world ” (li. 3). This glory
(“ziw”) is frequently referred to in rabbinical escha-
tology; for example, in Ber. 17a, and Gen. R. xi. 2;
and, as can be seen from these passages, the “ varying
glory ” of the Apocalypse shows the degree of piety
of the righteous (Sifre, Deut. 10, 47).

Modern critics who doubt the unity of the Apoca-
lypse do not agree as to the authorship of its parts.
Two theories have been advanced concerning the
various sources of this Apocalypse. Kabisch (in
“Jalirbucker fur Protest antische Theologie,” xviii.
66, 107) considers the groundwork to be i.-xxiii.,
xxxi.-xxxiv., xli.-xlvi. 7, lxxv.-lxxxvii. In addi-
tion to this there are three old documents: (1) the
fragmentary Apocalypse, xxiv. 3.-xxix. 8; (2) the
vision of the wood, cedar, and vine, xxxvi. 1-xl. 4;
and (3) the vision of the clouds, lii. 8.-lxxiv. 4. Be-
sides these elements there are certain shorter sections,
the work of a final redactor. Kabiscli’s theory is in

part supported by De Faye (“ Les Apocalypse
Juives,” 1892, p. 195). ButDe Faye goes further and
divides the groundwork into two parts, the “-As-
sumption of Baruch ” and the “ Baruch
Com- Apocalypse.” Charles, however (“ The
position of Apocalypse of Baruch, ” London, 1896),
the Apoc- though basing his theories on similar
alypse. analyses, considers the Apocalypse to
be the work of six or seven autliors.
He ascribes those parts which do not speak of a per-
sonal Messiah to three or four authors whom he calls
(Baruch) B 1, 2, 3, and S. B 1 is a Pharisee who ex-
pects the reconstruction of Jerusalem and the return
of the Diaspora, and who hopes for a Messianic era,
but no Messiah. He is the author of i.-ix. 1, xliii.-
xliv. 7, xlv.-xlvi. 6, lxxvii. -lxxxii., lxxxiv., and
lxxx vi. B 2 also is a Pharisee ; but he expects noth-
ing more of this wicked world, and bases his hopes
entirely upon the future world, where the pious,
risen from the dead, will be rewarded, and the god-
less will be punished. He is the author of ix.-xii.,
xiii.-xxv., xxx. 2-xxxv., xli.-xlii., xliv. 8-15,
xlvii.-lii., lxxv., and lxxxiii. B3 is the author of
lxxxv. The chief difference between him and the
other authors lies in the fact that he •wrote in exile,
while they wrote in Palestine. S is the author of x.
6-xii. 4. He is possibly a Sadducee, but perhaps
identical with B 2. All these sections, according to
Charles, date from the period after the destruction of
the Temple; but the Apocalyptic parts, xxxvi.-xl.
and liii.-lxxiv. — as to which Charles agrees with
Kabisch in assigning them to two authors (xxxvi.-
xl. to A 2; liii.-lxxiv. 1 to A 3) — date from the time
of the existence of the Temple. To this period, hut
to another author called A 1, Charles ascribes also
xxvii.-xxx. 1. These three apocalypses, the work of
A 1, A 2, and A 3, have one point in common ; namely,
they express Messianic beliefs, though they disagree
as to the characteristics of the Messiah. It is this
Messianic tendency which distinguishes these parts
from the other constituents of the work. The various
elements of the Apocalypse, according to Charles,
were united by a redactor who was himself the
author of the shorter sections.

Though it is true that the Apocalypse consists of
some dissimilar elements, the divisions of the work
made by Charles are hardly justifiable. It is Clement
(“ Theologisclie Studien und Kritiken,” 1898, pp. 227
et seq.) who has most fully shown that many sup-
posed contradictions are not wholly such. The sec-
tion x. 6-xii. 4, which Charles ascribes to a Sadducee,
not only has its parallels in rabbinical literature, as
shown above, but is based on Pharisaic institutions.
Nor is it in conflict with this view that the author
should have used some old material, such as the
vision of the cedar, which dates from before the des-
truction of the Second Temple, while the greater
part of the work originated in the time following
this catastrophe.

The integrity of the Apocalypse is also disputed
by some scholars w'ho believe that
Its originallyitwas longer than at present.
Integrity. The missing parts are the cosmic rev-
elations promised to Baruch in lxxvi.
and the letter to the two and one-half tribes spoken
of in lxxvii. 9. Now, it is probable that the author

555

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baruch, Apocalypse of

did not mean to give a full account of the cosmic
revelations, but merely mentioned them because, ac-
cording to a wide-spread opinion (Sifre, Num. 136;
compare Ascension), every pious man before bis
death obtained a view of the world and its doings,
and the experience could not fail to be ascribed to
Baruch. In regard to the letter to the two and one-
lialf tribes, Charles (ib. , Introduction, p. 65) has pro-
pounded a very likely theory. He suggests that a
part of the Book of Baruch — namely, iii. 9-iv. 29 — is
a recast of the letter to the two and one-half tribes
mentioned in the Apocalypse of Baruch, and that i.
1-3 of the Book of Baruch was originally the intro-
duction to the letter. But it is not impossible that
both letters — the one to the two and one-lialf tribes
and that to the nine and one-lialf tribes — originally
formed one work, from which both the Book of
Baruch and the Apocalypse of Baruch were derived.
Details concerning the destruction of the Temple,
which were merely touched upon in the letters, were
added; and, with the addition of other kindred ma-
terial, each letter gave rise to a new book.

If it be granted that with the exception of a few
additions the Apocalypse is the work of one writer,
the question arises as to the time of its authorship.
The earliest possible date is 70; for though the au-
thor is silent concerning the overthrow of the Tem-
ple, and seeks to convey the idea that Baruch is the
real author, he betrays the fact that the destruction
has taken place (xxxii. 2-4). There is only one
datum for a decision of the latest possible date, and
that is derived from an investigation of the relation-
ship of IV Esdras and the Apocalypse. That some
relationship does exist between them is indubitable.
The mode of expression, the line of thought, and the
arrangement agree in a number of instances (these
are enumerated by Charles, ib. pp. 170

The Apoc- et seq.). It is difficult to determine
alypse which is the earlier work, since there
and are no internal evidences to judge by.

IV Esdras. The fact that the author of IV Esdras
was a far better stylist than the author
of the Apocalypse is not to be disputed ; but the
deduction made by Gunkel (Kautscli, “ Apokryphen
und Pseudepigraplien,” ii. 351), that IV Esdras is the
earlier work, is not necessarily to be drawn from it :
a better style does not bespeak originality. Well-
hausen (“Skizzen und Vorarbeiten,” vi. 249) argues
no better for the opposite view, that the Apocalypse
is the earlier work. He bases his opinion on the
choice of the name “ Baruch” : since Baruch preceded
Ezra in time, having actually witnessed the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem, therefore the work bearing his
name should be the earlier. But that Ezra lived
after the destruction of the city is no argument for
the later date of the Ezra Apocalypse. In rabbinical
literature Ezra holds a position similar to that of
Moses (Sifre, Deut. 48 [ed. Friedmann, 84*)] ; while
Baruch is not generally recognized as a prophet (com-
pare Baruch ben Neriah in Rabbinical Liter-
ature). Ezra, as the more important person, might
naturally have been first thought of as the author
of an apocalypse. The name once adopted, the sit-
uation had to be in accordance with it; and, there-
fore, in the Baruch Apocalypse the period of the
destruction of Jerusalem is described, and, imme-

diately after, Baruch sees his visions; while Ezra
gives his revelations thirty years after the destruc-
tion. Consequently, the exact date can not be deter-
mined ; but it is probable that it was written between
the years 70 and 130. Though there is no evidence
that Papias, the disciple of the apostles, used the
Baruch Apocalypse, yet, since there are no allusions
to the persecutions of Hadrian, the Apocalypse was
in all likelihood written before Bar Kokba’s revolt.

There is no doubt that the present Syriac form of
the Apocalypse was derived from the Greek; but
that language is scarcely to be regarded as the one
in which it was originally written. Though the many
Hebraisms do not necessarily indicate a Hebrew orig-
inal, certain passages distinctly point to a Hebrew
source. For instance, verse 13 of chapter x. can not
be fully understood unless it is assumed that the Neo-
IIebrew DJD stood originally in the passage. The
betrothed men are told not to marry (D'jnn DDN1
1DJ3H b); and the Syriac “enter” could have come
only from D13 with its double meaning of “marry ”
and “enter a house.” A translation into Hebrew of
xxi. 14 would read njntlt {j'H blV OH

’Bib ’BV pr6 ptQ ; and this affords a pretty exam-
ple of the favorite Neo-Hebraie paronomasia. In the
same chapter the “holy beings,” who elsewhere can
not be identified with angels, are properly the “liay-
yot ha-kodesh ” of Jewish angelology. Thisexpres-
sion was rendered by the Syrians and before them
by the Greeks as “holy beings” instead of “holy
animals.” In lvi. 6 it is said that the fall of man
brought mourning, sorrow, misery, and boastfulness
into the world. The term “boastfulness” is evi-
dently inappropriate: the translator may have mis-
taken the Hebrew D’ bn (“ pangs ”) for D’ bn (“ noth-
ings,” “vanity”), which would then easily suggest
“ boastfulness.”

It is noteworthy that the Apocalypse contains
many idiomatic expressions peculiar not to the He-
brew of the Bible, but to Neo-Hebrew,
Language especially to the old liturgy. “The
and righteous who sleep in the earth,” in

Locality, xi. 4, is a phrase occurring in the
“ Shemoneh ‘Esreli” ; and the exagger-
ated figure in liv. 8 is remarkably like similar phrases
in the Nish.mat prayer. The expression in xli. 4,
“have taken refuge under Thy pinions,” is mod-
eled after the Neo-Hebraie “to run away from the
pinions of the Shekinali” (Sifre, Deut. 306 [ed.
Friedmann, 1304], but comp. Ruth ii. 12).

Another proof that Hebrew was the original lan-
guage of the Apocalypse is its almost literal agree-
ment with the Pesikta Rabbati in several passages.
There is no reason to suppose that the author — or,
to be more exact, the redactor — of the Pesikta used
the Apocalypse in its present form ; and the agree-
ment is to be explained on the ground that the old
Midrash upon which the Pesikta drew in describing
the destruction of the Temple was derived from a
time when the Apocalypse was still read by the Jews.
The poetical parts of the Apocalypse are especially
Hebraic in character. Following is a specimen taken
from Baruch’s lament over the destruction of Jeru-
salem and the Temple; it is one of the few existing
specimens of Hebrew poetry from the period immedi-
ately following Scriptural times:

Baruch, Book of
Baruch, Baruch

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

556

“ Happy he who is not born, or he who was horn and has died !
But wo unto us who live and have seen thy distress, O Zion,
thy fate, O Jerusalem !

I will call the sirens from the sea ; and you, ye Liliths, come
from the desert.

And ye demons and jackals, come forth from your forests ;
Arise, gird your loins to lament ; let us sing our sad lay and
make moan” (x. 6-8).

The Apocalypse is full of truly poetic passages,
occurring in the visions and prophecies as well as in
the laments. It, shows that the Pharisees were not
so narrow-minded as the New Testament books,
written at the same time, represent them. There
were still among them those who coukl bewail their
sorrows with poetic fire, and portray the future in a
strain of holy inspiration.

Bibliography : R. H. Charles, Apocalyptic Literature (the
Apocalypse of Baruch ), in Encyclopaedia Bihlica, i. 215-
220, ii. 1868-1370; Dillmann, in Protestantische Realency-
klopddic , 2d ed„ xii. 857 et seq.-, Drummond, The Jewish
Messiah, 1877, pp. 117-132 ; Ewald, History of Israel, viii. 57-
61; Hilgenfeld, Messias Judceorum, 1809, pp. 63 et seq.-,
Kneucker, Das Buck Baruch, 1879, pp. 190-198; Langen, De
Apocalypsi Baruch, 1867 ; Rosenthal, Vier Apokryphische
Blicher aus der Zeit und Schulc Akihas, 1885, pp. 72-103;
Sehiirer, Geschichte, iii. 223-232, in pp. 231-232, where a full
bibliography is given : Thomson, Books Which Influenced
Our Lord and His Apostles, 1891, pp. 253-267, 414-422.

T. L. G.

BARUCH, BOOK OF ; One of the Apocryphal
or so-called deuterocanonic books of the Old Testa-
ment. It consists of two parts. The first (i. 1— iii.
8) is in the form of a prose letter with a historical
introduction. Baruch, the secretary of Jeremiah,
having written a book, reads it before King Jehoia-
cliin and the exiles in Babylon. The people weep,
fast, and pray. Then they make a
Contents, collection of money, which they send
to Jerusalem to be used for the Tem-
ple service, with an injunction to pray for the
life of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and
that of Belshazzar, his son, so that the people may
dwell in peace under the shadow of these princes
(i. 1-14). A letter follows, which is presumably
the one written by Baruch, although not expressly
mentioned as such. This letter (i. 1 5— iii. 8) is a
confession of national sin, a recognition of the
justness of the nation’s punishment, and a prayer
for merej'.

The second part of the book (iii. 9-v. 9), which
differs greatly in form and tone from the first, con-
sists of two poems, the first of which (iii. 9-iv. 4) is
an exhortation to Israel to learn wisdom, which is
described as the source of all happiness, and as “the
book of the commandments of God.” The second
poem (iv. 5-v. 9) is a picture of the suffering of
Israel, and an exhortation to Jerusalem to take heart
and await hopefully the salvation of God, Jerusalem
being here represented as a desolate widow mourn-
ing over the distress of her children.

That the first part of the book was originally
written in Hebrew is probable, both from the He-
braic character of the diction and from the fact that
certain errors in the Greek are explica-
Origin. ble as misunderstandings of Hebrew
words; thus “manna” (i. 10) is a
misreading of “cereal offering” (nniO); “dead”
(iii. 4) is error for “men” (DT1D); “to pay the
penalty ” (iii. 8), for “ dismay ” (perhaps notJh or
HNIt’O — read ; and the enigmatical river “ Sud ”

(i. 4) is possibly an erroneous writing of “Kebar”
(YID for 133).

The book properly begins (after the superscrip-
tion, i. 1, 2) with i. 15. The confession and prayer
seem to consist of two parts ; namely, i. 15— ii. 5 and
ii. 6-35; and these are possibly (as Marshall holds)
two separate productions, the first being the confes-
sion of the Palestinian remnant, the second that of
the exiles. Still, “ them ” (ii. 4, 5), which appears
to refer to the exiles, may be a scribal slip ; and it
seems more probable that the letter is a juxtaposi-
tion of two forms of confession. Very few scholars
now hold that the book was composed by Jeremiah’s
secretary, as its relation to the books of Jeremiah and
Daniel precludes such an origin. The remarkable
verbal agreement between the confes-
Date and sion (i. 15— iii. 8) and Dan. ix is most
Au- naturally explained by the supposition
thorship. that Baruch borrows from Daniel ; the
hypothesis that Daniel borrows from
Baruch or that both draw from earlier material being
less satisfactory. Here, however, a difficulty is en-
countered. In ii. 26 the Temple is said to be in
ruins — -a statement which accords with two periods
only, those of the Chaldean and the Roman con-
quests. As the former period is out of the question,
certain scholars, such as Kneucker, for example,
assign this part of the book to a time later than the
destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. It is difficult,
however, to reconcile with such a date the view
of the dead given in ii. 17, where it is said that
those whose spirits have been taken from their
bodies will not ascribe honor and righteousness
to the Lord. This statement is in accordance
with the Old-Hebrew conception of the life in
Slieol, which can scarcely have been current after
the year 70 of the common era. Hence, in the
text as it stands, there are discordant data; but
if (as Kneucker holds) ii. 26a is to be rejected
as an interpolation, there is no reason why the
confession and prayer should not be assigned to the
Maccabean time.

The historical introduction is confused, and does
not readily attach itself to the body of the confession ;
indeed, it appears to have been an afterthought.

The singular historical statements

Date of (such as that King Zedekiah made
First Part, silver vessels), as well as the injunc-
tion to pray for Nebuchadnezzar and
Belshazzar, all indicate a late period, and strongly
suggest dependence on the Book of Daniel. It is
impossible, however, to say how early the view arose
that Belshazzar was a son of Nebuchadnezzar. Some
recent writers see in the names of the two Babylo-
nian princes an allusion to Vespasian and Titus,
which is a plausible assumption if ii. 26a be re-
tained. The date given in i. 2, the “fifth year,” is
obscure ; it may mean the fifth year after the fall of
Jerusalem (b.c. 581), or, more probably, may be
taken from Ezekiel, whose epoch is the fifth year
of Jehoiachin’s captivity (b.c. 592). But there is no
reason for supposing (as, for example, from Jer.
xxix. and li.) that Baruch was ever in Babylon.
Though there are difficulties in any hypothesis, it
seems probable, upon the whole, that the first part
of Baruch is composed of two confessions, which au

557

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baruch, Book of
Baruch, Baruch

editor in the Maccabean time combined, prefixing
the statement about Baruch.

The obvious imitation of Job and Ecclus. (Sirach)
in the second part of the book (see Job xxviii. ; Ec-
clus. (Sirach) xxiv.) makes it impossible to assign
this piece to a time earlier than the second century
b.c. ; and the conditions seem to accord with the
early Maccabean period. Ivneucker,
Date of Marshall, and several other recent
Second critics, however, place its composition
Part. after the capture of Jerusalem by Ti-
tus, holding that the “strange nation ”
of iv. 3 (“ give not thiue honor ... to a strange
nation ”) refers to the Christians, and relates to a
time when the antagonism between Judaism and
Christianity had become pronounced. While this
is possible, the expression may also be understood
to allude to the antagonism between Judaism and
Hellenism in the second century b.c. The verse iii.
37 (“afterward did he [or it] show himself [or itself]
upon earth and converse with men”), which was
much quoted by early Christian writers, interrupts
the connection and is undoubtedly a Christian
interpolation.

The second poem (iv. 5-v. 9) belongs to the same
general period as the first. It is divided into a num-
ber of strophes, each beginning with the words “ Be
of good cheer.” The people, scattered and afflicted,
are exhorted to trust in God; and Jerusalem, mourn-
ing over her children, is urged to take courage.
The picture accords either with the late Macca-
bean period or with the time soon after the Ro-
man capture of Jerusalem. The resemblance be-
tween iv. 36-v. 9 and Psalms of Solomon, xi.
is striking. Whichever may have been the bor-
rower, the two probably belong to the same period ;
and the Tsalms of Solomon were composed not
far from 48 B.C.

The Book of Baruch was never accepted as ca-
nonical by the Palestinian Jews (Baba Batra 14 b).
According to the “ Apostolical Constitutions,” it was
read in public worship on the tenth
Canonic- day of the month Gorpiaios (probably
ity. Ab). This statement, however, can
hardly be considered authoritative;
and even if it be correct, it can refer only to the
usage of some group of Hellenistic Jews. If, as is
probable, the first part of the book was written in
Hebrew, its exclusion from the Palestinian canon
must have been owing to its supposed lack of
prophetic authority. It was, however, accepted by
the Alexandrian Jews as a work of edification ; and
through the medium of the Septuagint it passed into
the hands of the Christians, among whom it speedily
became popular, being often quoted by Athenago-
ras, Clement of Alexandria, and many others as a
work of Jeremiah and as sacred Scripture. In a
number of early Christian canonical lists the work
was included in Jeremiah, and together with the
other Apocryphal books was pronounced canonical
(deuterocanonical) by the Council of Trent (1545-
63). Its canonicity, however, is not accepted by
the Protestant churches. Besides its value as a mir-
ror of the time, the book, though devoid of new
ideas, contains many liturgical and poetical passages
of great beauty and power.

The Epistle of Jeremiah is usually printed as an
appendix to the Book of Baruch and marked as ch.
vi. of that book. It is, however, an independent
work (see Jeremiah, Epistle of).

Bibliography : The Greek text is given in Swete’s Septua-
ffirit. Foran account of the Greek MSS., see Swete and Gifford ;
for the other ancient versions (Latin, Syriac, Coptic, etc.) see
Kneucker and Schiirer. There are modern Hebrew transla-
tions by Frankel, 1830 ; Plessner, 1833 ; Kneucker, 1879. The
best general discussion of the book is that of Kneucker, Das
Buch Baruch , 1879; the largest list of citations bv early
Christian writers is in Reusch, Erklilrung dec finches Ba-
ruch, 1853. Other authorities are : Fritzsche, in Exegetisches
Handhuch zu den Apokrjffjhen, 1851 ; Hitzig, in Hilgenfeld’s
Zeitschrift, 1800; Hilgenfeld, ib. 1879-1880; Ewald, Gesch.
des Volkes Israel, 1801 ; idem. Prophet en, 1868 ; Bissell, Apnc-
rypha, in the Lange series, 1880; Gifford, in Speaker's Com-
mentary, 1888 : Reuss, Gesch. der Heiligen Schriften des
Alien Testament es, 1890 ; Schiirer, Hist. Jewish People,
1891 ; Ryle, in Smith’s Diet, of the Bible, 1893 ; Marshall, in
Hasting's Diet, of the Bible. 1898; Bevan, in Cheyne’s En-
cycl. Bibl. 1899 ; Introductions of Eichhom, VVelte, and
others. For other works attributed to Baruch see Charles,
Apocal. of Baruch, 1896, and article Apocrypha, in Encucl.
Bibl.

BARUCH : Polish mechanic of the beginning of
the eighteenth century ; lived in Pogrebishche. He
produced two magnificent brass candelabra for the
synagogue there, which are still extant. One of
them was intended for the Hanukkah festival, and
has the traditional form of the “ menorali ” ; the other
represents an upright, four-cornered tablet, from
both sides of which project arms.

Baruch was poor and earned a livelihood by re-
pairing metal work. For eight years he collected
scraps of metal, which he used in the construc-
tion of the candelabra, on the work of which he was
engaged for six years more.

A prayer-book, written on parchment and dec-
orated with fine arabesques and initials, preserved
in the same synagogue, seems to have been the
work of a son of Baruch and to have been dedicated
to the synagogue.

Bibliography : Mathias Bersohn, Kilka Slow, part ii., pp. 13,
14 ; Ost und West, 1901, No. 4, p. 287.
n. R. S.

BARUCH : A Jewish pioneer settler in Spain,
whom the tradition of the Ibn Albaliahs regarded as
the ancestor of their family. See Ibn Daud, “Sefer
ha-Kabbalali,” in Neubauer’s “Medieval Jewish
Chronicles,” i. 74, and Albalia.
g. H. G. E.

BARUCH, BARUCH B. MOSES IBN: Ital-
ian philosopher, Talmudist, and Bible commentator;
lived at the end of the sixteenth century. He be-
longed to the old noble Spanish family of Baruch,
also called “Bet Ya’akob ” (introduction to his work
mentioned below, 8 d). His father was apparently
a scholar and a rich man, and Baruch himself was
(1598-99) a member of the Venetian rabbinate (l.c. %),
where he speaks of the many legal questions which
he had to answer in that cityr. He is also said to have
been a proof-reader of Hebrew books. In 1602 he
was at Constantinople (Joseph b. Moses Trani, Re-
sponsa, i., No. 89) in scientific intercourse with the
scholars of that city. Baruch was a prolific author
iu the field of the Halakali, writing explanations and
comments on the Tosafists, on Maimonides’ “ Yad ha-
Hazakah,” etc. Very little has been preserved of
these literary productions, except some extracts
in the responsa of Joseph b. Moses Trani (Nos. 68,

Baruch, Baruch
Baruch b. Jacob

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

558

69, 89). Characteristic of his legal attitude is his
decision ( l.c . 68) that in communal questions the
vote of the whole community must decide, even if
the matter in question refer only to the rich class.
Baruch’s colleagues at Venice and elsewhere Held
that in those questions which affect only the well-
to-do classes, these only should decide.

The work which gives Baruch an honorable place
among Jewish philosophic writers is his double
commentary on Ecclesiastes. It consists of two par-
allel sections, a rabbinic-exegetic and a philosopliic-
discussive commentary. The philosophic exposition
of the book would hardly rank as a commentary,
were it not that Baruch’s method shows his keen
critical insight. In order to have ground for his
philosophical speculations, Baruch assumes the fol-
lowing genesis of the book: Ecclesiastes is a dia-
logue of Solomon, in which the wise king has
grouped Epicurean sentences and opinions side by
side with the views of the pious, Ecclesiastes being
the representative of the former, and Ben David of
the latter. As Ibn Baruch has no knowledge of the
modern historico-critical method, it is extremely in-
teresting to note how nearly he approaches the
newer so-called “ gloss-hypothesis ” in criticizing
Ecclesiastes. Although he offers lit -
His View tie in explanation or exposition of the
of Ec- book, his many comments on haggadic
clesiastes. passages of the Talmud and Midrash
are not only ingenious, but also very
apt. Baruch’s work may be regarded as the last
produced by Jewish medieval religious philosophy,
having as such a considerable historic importance in
addition to its intrinsic value. The following phil-
osophical themes are, according to Baruch, treated
in Ecclesiastes, he dilating upon them : the Creation,
the reasons for creating man, the life of the senses
and salvation, immortality of the soul, freedom of
the will, Providence, spirit and matter, perfection
of the human soul, Revelation as a means to perfec-
tion, the responsibility of man, predestination, retri-
bution, instinct and will, bliss, the good. Such are
the chief points discussed at length by Baruch, his
work containing 229 folio pages.

Although he can not claim to be a philosopher of
any originality, Baruch has a wide and comprehen-
sive knowledge of philosophy. He is acquainted
not only with the Jewish- Arabian school, but also
with Christian scholasticism, especially with Thomas
Aquinas, whose works he studied assiduously.
Baruch’s method deserves especial mention. Com-
paring him with Isaac Arama and Isaac Abravanel,
who wrote similar works, he shows neither the dul-
ness of the one nor the prolixity of the other. The
many homiletic passages which he introduces serve
to interpret and explain the train of thought, which
he traces at first in general outlines and then in par-
ticular. The logical method of carrying out his as-
sumption that Ecclesiastes is a dialogue is remarka-
ble, each verse seeming to fit into the general system.
The fourth section or root, as Baruch calls it, deserves
especial notice for its ethical import, being a very
clear exposition of his doctrine of true felicity.
With him, felicity is not a superficial and transient
joy, but is eternal; not a passive and passing sense
of happiness, but a continuous activity of the soul,

which victoriously rises above all material tribula-
tions.

Baruch is also known as a ritual poet, three of his
selihot having been printed; they are, however, of
little poetic value.

Bibliography : Baruch’s Introduction to his Commentary ;
Leimdorfer, Lbsuny des Koheletriithsets durcti den Philosu-
phen Baruch ibn Baruch, 1900 ; Jellinek, Thomas d'Ayvimi,
pp. 11, 12 ; Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. p. 772 ; Zunz, Litera-
turyesch. p. 422; Nepi-Ghirondi, Toledot Gcdule Y Israel,
p. 52.

K. L. G.

BARUCH OF BENEVENTO: Cabalist in
Naples during the first half of the sixteenth century.
He was the teacher of Cardinal riHgidius of Viterbo
and of Johann Albrecht Widmanstadt in the Zohar
and other cabalistic works, and lectured upon these
subjects in the house of Samuel Abravanel. In a
noteat the end of one of his manuscripts, Widman-
stadt says: “Eodem tempore (MDXLI.) audivi
Baruch Beneventanum optimum cabalistam, qui pri-
mus libros Zoharis per /Kgidium Viterbiensem Car-
diualem in Christianos vulgavit. ” Graetz, Perles, and
others (see also HSgidius of Viterbo) have taken
this to mean that Baruch translated the Zohar, or
parts of it, into Latin; but Steinschneider has cor-
rectly remarked that it means nothing more than
that he made the Zohar known to Christian scholars.

Bibliography: Gratz, Gesctt. der Juden, ix. 48, 95. 101;
Perles, in Revue Etudes Juives, i. 299; idem, Beitrilye zur
Gesch. der Hebr. und Aramtiischen Stud,ie7i, Munich, 1K84,
pp. 154, 180: Steinschneider, in Hebriiische Biblioyraphie,
xxi. 81.

BARUCH B. DAVID: A Talmudic author;
lived at Guesen (near Posen) in the beginning of the
seventeenth century. He wrote: “Gedullat Mor-
decai ” (The Greatness of Mordecai), containing an-
notations and painstaking corrections to the work of
Mordecai ben Hillel. Appended to it is his “ Aggu-
dat Ezob ” (A Bundle of Hyssop), an epitome of the
laws and regulations of the Talmudic treatises Balia
Mezi'a and BabaBatra, showing their bearing on the
civil code, “Hoshen Mishpat,” of Joseph Caro
(Hanau, 1615 or 1616). The “ Aggudat Ezob ” was
only a part of a greater, but unpublished, work of
the author.

Bibliography: Michael, Or ha-Hayyim, No. 623.

L. G. M. B.

BARUCH DE DIGNE : Rabbi of central

France toward the end of the thirteenth and the be-
ginning of the fourteenth century; surnamed “Ha-
Gadol ” (the Great) in the responsa of Isaac b. Im-
manuel de Lattes. His first studies were made in
Provence. An animated and bitter discussion took
place (1305) between him and his master, Isaac
Cohen of Manosque, in which the latter offended
Baruch’s dignity, and Baruch replied with violence.
Isaac in revenge pronounced the sentence of excom-
munication against Baruch, who refused, however,
to submit. The anathema was condemned on many
sides, and was considered unjustifiable because the
sentence was founded on personal motives. A lively
controversy then arose between the various scholars
of Provence. Solomon b. Adret declared against
Baruch and for the excommunication. The scholars
who favored Baruch were: Jekutiel b. Salomon of
Montpellier, Mei'r b. Isaiah of Lunel, Neliemiah b.

559

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Baruch, Baruch
Baruch b. Jacob

Shealtiel of Avignon, Joseph Samuel b. Abraham of
Aix, David b. Samuel of Estella, Abraham b. Isaac
of Carpentras, Solomon b. Judah, as well as the
whole rabbinical college at Arles. In consequence
of the quarrel, Baruch left Digne and settled in cen-
tral France, as Isaac de Lattes states in his responsa.
He was doubtless the same as the Baruch of fO'JTlD.
or (possibly Buseins in the department of

Aveyron), who corresponded with Eliezer b. Josef
of Chinon and Simon b. Isaac of Rodez.

Bibliography : Rev. Etudes Juives , xii. 91 ; Gross, in Mnnats-
schrift , 1879, p. 423 ; Idem, Gallia Judaica , pp. 100, 155.

G. M. S.

BARUCH BEN GERSHON OF AREZZO:

Italian writer ; lived in the seventeenth century. He
was the author of “Zikkaron li-Bene Yisrael” (Me-
morial for the Children of Israel), containing a short
account (in the Almanzi manuscript, four small
folios) of the agitation caused by Shabbethai Zebi
and his prophet Nathan of Gaza, from the years
5425 to 5436 (1665 to 1676). The account has never
been published ; it exists in MS. 2226 of the Bod-
leian collection; MS. 204 of the Almanzi collection
(now in the British Museum), and in part in the col-
lection of Baron de Gunzburg at St. Petersburg.
Baruch was a follower of Shabbethai, and wrote the
account with the view of persuading others to join
the ranks of the Shabbetliaians. According to
Griitz, the account is not of much historical value.
It must not be confounded with an anti-Shabbe-
thaian account published anonymously in Venice,
1668, and reprinted in Tobiah Cohen’s “Ma'aseh
Tobiah,” fols. 27a et seq., Venice, 1707, and bearing
the same title.

Bibliography : Gratz, Gesch. der Judeu. 3d ed., x. 422 ; Neu-
bauer. Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS. col. 76H; s. D. Lnzzatto, In
Hebr. Bibl. v. 100; idem, Cat. de la Bibl. de J. Almanzi. p.
25 (Hebrew parti; Steinschneider. Cat. Bodl. cols. 2677,2798;
Benjacob, Ozar ha-Sefarim , p. 157, No. 155 ; Mortara, Indice
Alfabetico , s.v.

BARUCH, ISAAC. See Albalia.

BARUCH B. ISAAC (ha-Kohen P) : Tosafist
and codifier; flourished about 1200. He was born at
Worms, but lived at Regensburg; hence he is some-
times called after the one and sometimes after the
other city. A pupil of the great Tosafist Isaac b.
Samuel of Dampierre, Baruch wrote Tosafot to sev-
eral treatises {e.g., Kiddushin, Nazir, Shabbat, Hul-
lin) ; nearly all those extant on the order Zebahim
are his. A. Epstein believes that the commentary
on the Sifra contained in the Munich MS. No. 59 is
the work of this Baruch. He is the author also of
the legal compendium, “ Sefer ha-Terumah ” (Book
of the Heave-Offering, Venice, 1523; Zolkiev, 1811),
containing the ordinances concerning slaughtering,
permitted and forbidden food, the Sabbath, tefil-
lin, etc. The book is one of the most important
German codes, and was highly valued by contem-
poraries and successors. It is noteworthy by reason
of the author’s attempt to facilitate its use by pre-
senting a synopsis of its contents, the first attempt
at making a practical ritual codex in Germany.

Bibliography: Azulai, Shem ha-Ge&olim, i. 38, ed. Wilna;
Kohn, Mardochai ben Hillel , p. 102; Michael, Or ha-Han-
tlim. No. 627 ; Epstein, in Mnnatsschrift , xxxix. 454 ; Zunz,
Z. G. p. 36 (see Index for further references) .

L. G.

BARUCH BEN ISAAC YAISH. See Ibn

Yaish.

BARUCH, JACOB : President (“ Baumeister ”)
of the Jewish congregation of Frankfort-on-the-
Main at the beginning of the nineteenth century;
father of Ludwig Borne. Jacob’s father was finan-
cial agent of the elector of Cologne. Baruch is de-
scribed by his contemporaries as a “man of sense, a
courtier, sometimes orthodox, sometimes modern.”
Because of the confidence of his coreligionists and
also because he had patrons at that court, he was
elected to be the representative of the Frankfort
community at the Congress of Vienna (Oct., 1814),
and the bearer of a memorial concerning the rights
of the Jews of Frankfort. A gift of 8,000 gulden,
offered to Baruch by the community, in recognition
of his services, was refused by him.

Bibliography : Gutzkow, BOrne's Leben.gp. 27 et seq., Ham-
burg, 1840; Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, xi. 296 et seq. ; Srbnap-
per-Arndt, in Zeit.filr die Gesch. der Juden in Deutsch-
land, iv. 214; G. Brandes, Die Litteratur des 19. Jahrhun-
derts in Iliren HcvwptstrDmungen , 1891, vi. 51,52; Schuman,
Mimakor Israel, 1894, ii. 10 et seq.
s. A. F.

BARUCH B. JACOB (Shklover) : Talmudist,
physician, and scientist; born at Shklov, White
Russia, about 1740; died about 1812. He was one
of the old-style Jewish scholars, more common in
the Middle Ages than in the eighteenth century, in
whom piety and rabbinical learning were combined
with thorough scientific training. Baruch, descend-
ing from a family of scholars, was educated for rabbi
and received the “semilia” (ordination) from Rabbi
Abraham Katzenellenbogen of Brest in 1764. He
afterward became a dayyan in Minsk, but a craving
for knowledge impelled him to leave his native
country and visit the great seats of learning in
western Europe. He studied medicine in England ;
and his “Keneli ha-Middah,” on trigonometry
(Prague, 1784, and Shklov, 1793), is a translation
from the English. He was in Berlin in 1777, where
he published his “ ‘Ammude Shamayim,” on astron-
omy, with an appendix, “Tiferet Adam,” on anat-
omy. He found at the house of Rabbi Hirschcl
Levin of Berlin a defective manuscript copy of the
“Yesod ‘Olam,” by Isaac Israeli, of the fourteenth
century, and published it there with his annotations
in the same year. His booklet, “Derek Yesharah,”
on hygiene, appeared in The Hague in 1779, and his
Hebrew translation of six books of Euclid was pub-
lished there in the following year.

In his later days Baruch found, for a few years,
a refuge in the mansion of Court Councilor Rabbi
Joshua Zeitlin, the great government contractor.
Zeitlin, who was himself a distinguished Talmud-
ical scholar, assembled about himself in his palace in
Ustye, near Cherikov, in the government of Mohilcv,
White Russia, a group of rabbinical and secular
scholars; and Baruch, who was his townsman, had
there a separate room in which he established a
chemical laboratory and made various scientific ex-
periments. Baruch left Ustye some time before 1812
(see Fuenn, “Kiryali Ne’emanali,” pp. 277, 278), and
from a manuscript note by his grandson Censor
Margolin on a copy of the “ ‘Ammude Shammayim ”
(see Maggid, “ Geschichte und Genealogie der Gilnz-
burge,” St. Petersburg, 1899), in the Jewish depart-

Baruch, Jacob
Baruch, Simon

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560

ment of the New York Public Library, it seems
that he went to Sluzk, where he became physician
to Prince Radziwil and also served as dayyan of
that town, where he died at an advanced age.

Although Baruch surpassed in secular learning
most of the early “ maskilim,” or pioneers of enlight-
enment in Russia, he must be classed with the
strictly conservative, and his bitter personal attack
in the preface of the “ Keneh ha-Middali ” on Azariah
dei Rossi for radical views on the Jewish calendar
is a good instance of the intolerance prevalent in
those days, even among the educated. Baruch was
a great admirer of the famous Elijah, gaon of Wilna,
who declared that most works on science ought
to be translated from other languages into Hebrew,
so that — in the words of Daniel — “ many shall run
to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased ”
{preface to translation of Euclid).

Baruch’s descendants adopted the family name,
Baruchin, probably to denote their descent from
Baruch, who himself sometimes added “ Schick ” or
to his name, -which in many cases denotes
descent from Samuel Judah Katzenellenbogen
(1521-97). Compare Guenzburg, Family of.

Bibliography: Frankel, in Literaturblatt des Orients , ix.
124; Fuenn, Keneset Y Israel, p. 197 ; idem, Safali le'Neema-
nim, p. 139; Hirst, Bib!. Jud. iii. 344; Landshuth, Tolednt
Anshe ha-Sliem, pp. 83, 119 ; Zeitlin, Bibliotheca Hebraica,
pp. 342-344 ; M. Mendelsohn, Pene Tebel, pp. 245-246.

L. G. P. Wl.

BARUCH, JACOB [KOHEN-ZEDEK] BEN
MOSES HAYYIM : Editor at Leghorn during the
latter part of the eighteenth century. He is known
especially as the compiler and editor of a little vol-
ume, “Shibhe Yerushalayim” (Praises of Jerusalem)
or “Shabbehi Yerushalayim” (Praise Ye, O Jerusa-
lem, Ps. cxlvii. 12), on Jerusalem and the various
Jewish centers in Palestine, especially on the graves
and monuments of old Jewish worthies to be found
there. The anonymous author has largely used the
“Zikkaron Birushalayim ” of Constantinople, 1743
(Benjacob, “ Ozar ha-Sefarim,” p. 158, n. 152). At-
tached to this is an account of the journey from
Venice to Palestine of some great teacher, who, start-
ing on 17tli Elul(1521), passed through Polia, Corfu,
Zante, Tripoli, Beirut, Zidon, Safed, Tyre, and vis-
ited all the places of Jewish interest in Palestine;
noting the condition of the Jews there, and the vari-
ous places held sacred ; an account of the Lost Ten
Tribes and of Palestine, taken from the travels of
Benjamin of Tudela. The work was first published
in Leghorn, in 1785; then in Lemberg, 1799 ; Wilna,
1817;s.Z. 1826: Warsaw, 1840; Jitomir, 1860; s.l. 1862
{“Hebr. Bibl.” vi. 4). From the prayers which he
added to this collection, it is seen that Baruch was a
cabalist of the school of Luria. In 1790 he edited
at Leghorn excerpts from the “ Heshek Shelomoli”
of Johanan Allemanno, with additions from his own
pen.

Bibliography: Steinschneider, Cat. Bod!. Nos. 4059, 5503;
idem, in Luncz, Jerusalem, 1889, iii. (German part) 5,
iv. 9 ; Benjacob, Ozar ha-Sefarim, p. 563, No. 218 ; Filrst,
Bibl. Judaica, i. 91 ;’ Zunz, Gesammelte Schriften, i. 179, 194.

BARUCH, JOSHUA BOAZ BEN SIMON
BEN ABRAHAM: A prominent Talmudist; lived
at Sabionetta, later at Savigliano, died in 1557. He

was a descendant of an old Judaeo-Spanish family,
and probably settled in Italy after the banishment
of the Jews from Spain. When he was twenty -three
years old, he began to publish useful works on
the Talmud, in which he displayed vast erudition.
These works are: (1) “Massoret ha-Shas” or “Mas-
soret lia-Talmud” (The Masorah of the Talmud), an
index of the parallel passages of the Talmud and the
halakic Midrashim ; (2) “ ‘EnMislipat, NerMizwah”
(The Eye of the Law, the Light of the Precept), an
index of the Talmudical Halakot quoted in Maimon-
ides’ “ Yad lia-Hazakah” and in the Turim of Jacob
ben Asher ; (3) “ Torah Or ” (The Torah Is Light), an
index of the Biblical passages mentioned in the
Talmud. These three works were first published,
together with the Talmud, at Venice, 1546-51; (4)
“Kizzur Mordekai we-Simauaw,” a compendium of
Mordec-ai ben Hillel’s halakic work arranged accord-
ing to the order of the “ Yad ha-Hazakali.” The
same work was also published (Sabionetta, 1554)
under the title “Hikkur Dine Mordekai”; (5) “Shiite
ha-Gibborim ” (Shields of Heroes), a selection of
critical notes on Alfasi’s compendium of the Tal-
mud, and on the “ Mordekai.” This work bears also
the title “Sefer ha-Mahloket.”

Bibliography: Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. iii. 571-573; Azulai, Shem
ha-Gednlim,i\. 141, 142 ; Steinschneider, Cat. Bod!, col. 1554;
Hirst, Bibl. Jud. i. 92; Mortara, Indice Alfabetico, p. 6;
Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 672; Rabbinovicz, Ma'amar
'al Hadfasat lia-Talmud, pp. 43-45.

L. G. I. Br.

BARUCH LEIBOV : A merchant who was
burned at the stake in St. Petersburg July 15, 1738.
He was one of the numerous Judaeo-Polish mer-
chants of those times who, through their ability
and the protection of the nobles, managed to carry
on a lucrative business, and became influential even
in centers where Jews in general were not allowed
to dwell.

In 1722 a charge was brought by the merchants
of Smolensk before the Holy Synod to the effect that
the vice-governor of Smolensk, Prince Vasili Ga-
garin, had allowed Jews to lease taverns, to farm
customs, and to engage in other pursuits ; and, fur-
thermore, that the leaseholder Borocli (Baruch) Lei-
bov had dared to insult the Christian religion by
erecting a synagogue in the village of Zvyeroviclii,
in which he practises his infidel religion. The vil-
lage priest, it was charged, had been thrashed by
Baruch, and even put into irons, for
Complaint having delivered himself of public ut-
Against terances against the Jewish faith, and
Him. that as a consequence of the outrage
he had fallen ill and died. It has been
conclusively shown that this accusation, which was
brought by the merchants of Smolensk, was aimed
against the Jews as a body; and that it was inspired
by hatred of them as competitors in business. The
Holy Synod gave orders to demolish the synagogue
and to burn up the books and all the appurtenances
connected with the “ magical ” teachings and prac-
tises of the Jews. These instructions were carried
out to the letter; but the authorities, probably on
technical grounds, declined to give effect to the
order of the Holy Synod for the annulment of the
leases held by the Jews, and for the expulsion of
the Jews from the province. Baruch Leibov wras per-

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Baruch, Jacob
Baruch, Simon

mitted to remain and to continue unmolested in his
occupation, in spite of the fact that his case had
been turned over to the court of “ secret investigation
cases.” In the reign of Catherine I. the order was
issued to expel him from Russia.

Long after the above-described incident had been
forgotten, he had to pay the penalty in a tragic
manner for his zeal as a Jew. In 1783 an officer
in the navy, named Voznitzvn, was accused of
“ having been converted to Judaism and circumcised
by the Jew Baruch Leibov in the town of Dubrovna,
government of Moliilev, in the house of the Jew
Maier, the son of Baruch. ”

The accusation was brought conjointly against
Voznitzyn and Baruch, and both perished at the
stake. It would appear that those who conducted
the prosecution had doubts as to the legality of the
sentence, which was executed at the mandate of the
Empress Anna. The case is unique in Russian his-
tory, and it was the cause of repressive measures
against the Jews under Anna Ivanovna in 1739,
and under Elizabeth Petrovna in 1740.

Bibliography : V. 0. Levanda, Polny Chrnnologicheshi Shnr-
nik Zakonov (1649-1873), etc., pp. 1 0—14, St. Petersburg, 1874 ; ,
Polnoe, Sobranie Zakonov, No. 7612; N. Gradovski, Otnos-
heniya k Yevreyam v Drevnei i Sovremennoi Rvsi, vol. i.,
St. Petersburg. 1891 ; N. Golitzyn, Istoriya Rvsxkavo Zako-
vodatelstva o Yevreyakh, St. Petersburg, 1886; Solovyev,
Istoria Rossii, xii., iii„ edition of Obsbchestvennaya Polza, p.
1519.

H. R.

BARUCH, LOEB. See Borne, Ludwig.

BARUCH B. MOSES OF PROSSNITZ. See

Christiani, F. A.

BARUCH B. SAMUEL : Rabbi of the Ashke-
nazim at Constantinople or in its neighborhood, in the
last half of the sixteenth century. He is mentioned
in the responsa “OlioleTam” of Tam ben Yahya,
with whom he carried on a learned correspondence
(ib. Nos. 44, 45).

Bibliography : Michael, Or lia-Hayyim, No. 638.
g. M. B.

BARUCH B. SAMUEL (also called Baruch of
Mayence, to distinguish him from Baruch b. Isaac) :
Talmudist and prolific “ payyetan ” ; flourished
at the beginning of the thirteenth century; died at
Mayence April 25, 1221. He was a pupil of Moses
b. Solomon ha-Koheu of Mayence and of Eliezer b.
Samuel of Metz; the judicial sentences of both of
whom he frequently cites. Baruch was one of the
most eminent German rabbis of his time, and one of
the leaders of the rabbinical synod of Mayence in
1220. Several of his responsa have been preserved
in the German collections; most of them refer to
the rabbinic civil law. His “Sefer ha-Hokmah”
(Book of Wisdom), still extant in the time of Bezalel
b. Abraham Ashkenazi, but now lost, appears also
to have been largely legal in character. Early
writers cite also a commentary by Baruch on the
treatise Nedarim, which was lost at an early date.

Of Baruch’s poetical activity more is known. His
penitential poems and dirges, as well as his hymns
for the Sabbath and for weddings, which made him
one of the most popular of the payyetanim, were
incorporated into the German and the Polish rituals.
Baruch displays a great command of language; the
selihot, in particular, being frequently character-
II.— 36

ized by genuine poetic fervor. The following is a
specimen of these poems, translated into English
from a German version by Zunz :

“ Jeshurun’s God, beyond compare.

Enthroned above the clouds.

Who dwelleth in the heavens high.

Yet still on earth is ever nigh ;

Mid tears and sadness, songs and gladness.

To Him my gaze I turn.

Who all my feeling, thought, and action.

Is ever sure to learn.”

Baruch, the subject of this article, should not
be confounded with Baruch of Greece, a Tosafist
quoted several times in the Tosafot and in Mordecai
(compare Tosafists).

Bibliography: Azulai, Shem ha-Geriolim, ed Wilna, i. 38;
Kohn, Mordecai ben Wild, p. 102; Michael, Orha-Hayyim,
No. 637 ; Gratz (who, without good reason, considered the
payyetan Baruch, who died in 1221, as not identical with
Baruch, author of Sefer ha-Hokmah, who, according to
Gratz, was still living in 1223)', Gench. der Juden, vii. 21;
Zunz, S. P. pp. 268-279 (contains a translation of two pieces);
idem. Lit eralury each. pp. 306-309; idem, Z. G. pp. 54, 55,59,
193; idem, Monatstaye, xxii. ; Landshuth, Atnmude ha-
‘ Abodah , p. 55.

L. G.

BARUCH B. SAMUEL ZANWILL HA-
LEVI: An Austrian rabbi of the eighteenth cen-
tury; born at Leipnik, Moravia: officiated at Semlin,
Croatia. He was the author of “Zera‘ Shemuel”
(Samuel’s Seed), containing novelise on the treatise
Ketubot, Vienna, 1796. He also left, under the title
“Le-David Baruk,” a work containing comments on
the Psalms as well as some homilies. This latter
work has not been published.

Bibliography : Steinselineider, Cat. Bodl. col. 775; Benjaeob,
Ozar ha-Sefarim, p. 163.

g. M. B.

BARUCH, SIMON: American physician ; bom
at Schwersenz, Prussia, July 29, 1840; educated at
the Royal Gymnasium, Posen. Emigrating at an
early age to America, he studied at the medical col-
leges of South Carolina and Virginia, obtaining his
diploma in 1862. He immediately entered the Con-
federate army, serving for three years at the front
and participating in all the battles of the army of
northern Virginia. He was twice capt ured, at South
Mountain and at Gettysburg. Among
Serves in his contributions to the literature of
the military surgery, an essay on “Bayo-
Civil War. net Wounds” attracted much atten-
tion. At the close of the war he organ-
ized and was in charge of the General Hospital at
Thomasville, N. C.

In 1874 Baruch was elected president of the State
Medical Association of South Carolina, and in 1880
was appointed on the state board of health, as chair-
man of which he made a report on vaccination,
which resulted in the first legislative action on the
subject in the state.

In 1881 Baruch removed to New York, and later
became consulting physician and surgeon to the
New York Juvenile Asylum, a position he held for
many years.

Baruch’s contributions to medicine have been
chiefly in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
His principal writings are on malarial diseases, ap-
pendicitis, diseases of childhood, and the uses of
water in medicine.

Baruch in 1881 investigated the subject of malaria,

Baruch, Simon
Baruch b. Zebi Hirsch

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562

and in a series of articles (“Medical Record,” 1883)
showed that malarial diseases are very rarely fatal in
temperate climates, basing his study upon observa-
tions in the South extending over fifteen years. Al-
though his views were not accepted at the time, they
were confirmed ten years later by Professor Osier
of Johns Hopkins University and Dr. James, chief
of the New York Vanderbilt Clinic.

Another subject that attracted Baruch’s attention
was the fatality of appendicitis when treated med-
ically only, as was then the custom. Baruch’s insist-
ence on the need of operation in a
Pioneer in certain case, and his subsequent con-
the Sur- tributions to the diagnosis of appendi-
gery of Ap- citis, make him the pioneer of this
pendicitis. beneficent revolution in surgery. Dr.

J. A. Wyeth, an eminent surgeon,
stated before the New York Academy of Medicine
that “ the profession and humanity owe more to Dr.
Baruch than to any other one man for the develop-
ment of the surgery of appendicitis” (report in
“American Medical and Surgical Bulletin,” March,
1884).

A larger field in the treatment of diseases awaited
Baruch’s cultivation. He contended that the physi-
cian’s chief reliance should be on the agents which
maintain health — food, cleanliness, exercise, rest,
water taken internally and externally. By various
addresses, essays, and as editor of the “ Dietetic and
Hygienic Gazette,” of the “Journal of Balneology,”
and of “Gaillard’s Medical Journal,” Dr. Baruch
made propaganda upon the natural remedies and es-
pecially the uses of water; and in 1892 his book on
“The Uses of Water in Modern Medicine ” was pub-
lished in Detroit. Being the first work on this sub-
ject in the English language, it created much inter-
est, and served to call the attention of
His Work medical men to the valuable results
on Hydro- of hydrotherapy, and to the scientific
therapy, basis upon which water should be es-
tablished as a remedy. The book was
translated into German and published in Stuttgart,
receiving in Germany similar high encomiums to
those it had gained in America.

Baruch succeeded in establishing water treatment
in acute diseases. In February, 1888, he made the
plea for the treatment of typhoid fever by the Brand
system — a cold bath of definite temperature, duration,
and method (“ Successful Treatment of Typhoid
Fever,” St. Louis, 1893) — which in Munich had re-
duced the mortality of typhoid fever to the lowest
possible rate (3 per cent).

In pneumonia and other ailments also Baruch’s
advocacy of water has successfully replaced spolia-
tive remedies, by substituting this vivifying and
invigorating agent for depreciating ones.

Another movement which Baruch has espoused as
a pioneer, not alone in America, but in the whole
world, is that for “free public cleansing baths,” in
New York, Chicago, and other large
Pioneer of cities, replacing the river (pool or
Free Public tank) baths by cleansing (rain) baths,
Baths. which carry off foul matter. In order
to encourage the establishment of free
cleansing baths in other parts of the world, Baruch
sent an exhibit of plans, furnished by Dr. Welling-

ton and Mayor Harrison of Chicago, and by Dr.
Wende, health officer of Buffalo, together with sta-
tistics, to the section on Social Science of the Paris
Exposition, 1900. This exhibit was awarded a silver
medal and a diploma.

Hibliography : Markens, The Hebrews in America, p. 197;

private sources.

A. F. DE S. M.

BARUCH B. SOLOMON KALAI. See Kalai.

BARUCH OF TULCHIN : Russian rabbi and
leader of the Hasidim of the Ukraine; born at Med-
zhibozh, government of Podolia, about 1750; died
there in 1810. He was the son of Adele, who was
the only daughter of Israel Ba‘al Shem-Tob, founder
of Hasidism, and who, on account of “the supreme
qualities of her soul,” had conferred upon her the
epithet of “the most righteous.” According to
Walden (“Sliem lni-Gedolim lie-Hadash,” B. 55),
Adele gave birth to twins, Moses Hayyim Ephraim
of Sudilkov, author of “ Degel Malianeli Ephraim ”
(The Flag of the Camp of Ephraim), being Baruch’s
twin brother. While Ephraim was a man of letters
and a theorist, Baruch was practical, and for more
than thirty years held the leadership of the Hasidim
of Podolia at Tulchin, and later at Medzhibozh, the
former seat of his grandfather. He ruled with great
adroitness; traveling around his diocese in luxurious
carriages, and collecting large sums of money and
presents from his numerous disciples. Baruch was
everywhere received with great enthusiasm. The
rich and ‘influential looked for his protection; the
masses, for his help. His income was immense. In
Medzhibozh he held a court, famous for its splendor,
and rivaling those of reigning princes and Polish
magnates. He even kept a court-jester, Hirschele
of Astropol. There were continuous noisy festivals,
carousals, and dances, attended hy an excited crowd
of enraptured Hasidim.

Baruch did not possess great intellect, but was
fond of power. Unlike his grandfather and brother,
he never wrote on Hasidic doctrines. A few of his
sermons were published long after his death (in 1851,
as a supplement to Abraham Malak’s “Ilesed le
Abraham,” Czernowitz, 1851, pp. 99-116). Another
work ascribed to him, a book of aphorisms, entitled
“ Buzina de-Nehorali ” (The Luminous Torch), Lem-
berg, 1880; 2d enlarged edition, Petrokov, 1889, is,
in all probability, apocryphal. It is said that Baruch
iu his early youth had gained the love and admi-
ration of his grandfather’s followers; that Baer of
Meseritz had called him a phenomenon, and that the
elderly Rabbi Phinehas of Iioretz used to rise before
the youth, predicting that he would become famous.
Though Baruch did not realize these expectations,
his conceit was unlimited. He claimed that nothing
was hidden from him, and that to him were revealed
all the mysteries of theology. He boastfully said,

“ If I were to know that I had neglected even one of
the commandments of the Talmud, I should not care
to live.” On one occasion Rabbi Simon ben Yohai,
the alleged author of the Zohar, appeared to him in
a dream, and said: “Baruch, my beloved, you are a
perfect man.”

Notwithstanding all this, Baruch, at the height of
his career, had won tin; name of “the quarrelsome
zaddik,” on account of his contentious disposition

563

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Baruch, Simon
Baruch b. Zebi Hirsch

and imperious attitude toward other zaddikim in
southwestern Russia, notably in his great conflict
with Shneor Zalman of Lyady.

Baruch was the typical latter-day zaddik of the
Ukraine, with all his unattractive and unsympa-
thetic features, a proud ecclesiastic, who traded upon
his supposed holiness, and aimed only at power,
honors, and wealth. He was probably to a great
extent responsible for the rapid degeneration of the
Hasidim.

Bibliography: S. Dubnow, in Voskhnd, 1890, xii. 125 ct seq. ;
Sltem ha-Gedolim he-Hadash, 12 a : Deuel Mahanch
Ephraim, pp. 62, 94; Seder ha-Dorot he-Hadash, pp. 23,25;
Ma"aseh Zaddikim, pp. 13 ct seq., 24 ct seq.; Gottlober, in
Haboker Or, 1880, p. 312; A. Kahanab, Rabbi Israel Ba'al
Shem-Tob, Jitomir, 1900, p. 4, note 2 ; M. Naelieles, Ein Ganz
vaic Maase fun Rabbi Baruch it, Lemberg, 1893; Zeder-
baum, Keter Kchunah, p. 101 ; Rodkinson, Toledot Ba'al
Shem-Tob, p. 78.

K. ' II. R.

BARUCH UZIEL B. BARUCH. See Forti,
Baruch Uziel.

BARUCH YAVAN (called also Baruch Me-
erez Yavan-Baruch of the Land of Russia) :

Polish financier; agent of the Polish prime minister
Count Briihl ; born at Starokonstantinov, government
of Volhynia, in the beginning of the eighteenth cen-
tury; died probably between 1770 and 1780. His
father’s name was David ben Shachneh, his brother’s
name Shachneh, and according to his own statement
(letter to Jacob Emden, September, 1758) he was a
descendant of the celebrated rabbi Shalom Shachneh
of Cracow, the founder of the yeshibah of Lublin,
who died in 1558. Pie received an education far
superior to that of the Polish Jews of his time.
He was well versed in Talmudic literature; spoke
and wrote Hebrew, Polish, German, and probably
French. By his accomplishments and address he
won the favor of the extravagant Count Briihl, who
virtually ruled Poland in the reign of August IIP,
1733 to 1763. This enabled him to exert his influence
at the Polish court and with the nobles (see Jacob
Emden, “Torat ha-Kenaot”) in behalf of his corelig-
ionists, who at this time had to endure much at
the hands of the Catholic clergy and the merchants.
When the teachings of the pseudo-Messiah Sliab-
betliai Zebi began to spread through South Russia,
Baruch tookan active part in the flghtagaiust them.
In 1751, as may be seen from his letter to Aryeh
Loeb of Amsterdam, he prosecuted the prominent
members of the Sliabbethaian sect, Abraham Hay-
yim (ben Hayyim) of Lublin, and his son Hayyim,
the former being one of the directors (“ parnas ’’) of
the Council of the Four Lands, which was then
being held at Starokonstantinov. The wealthy and
influential Abraham having the support of many
rabbis and of the members of the council, Baruch
had to use the influence of the secretary of the Polish
treasury, Shidlinsky, who ordered Abraham’s arrest,
and censured the rabbis, pointing out the great dan-
ger which sectarianism might bring to the Jewish
religion. Pie ordered them to obey Baruch Yavan,
and to present to the next council his son Hayyim,
who had taken to flight. Abraham sought to bribe
Baruch Yavan to drop the case, but Baruch rejected
his offer with contempt, and spent considerable
money in the prosecution of the sectarians (sec
“ Torat ha-Kenaot, ” pp. 123-127).

When the zealous Bishop Dembowsky of Kame-
netz- Podolsk, after a religious disputation which he
had ordered to be held between the rabbis and the
Frankists, or followers of Jacob Frank, the reckless
apostle of Shabbetliai Zebi, instructed his agents to
seize copies of the Talmud and to bring them to
Kamenetz-Podolsk, Baruch implored the aid of Count
Briihl, who advised him to apply to the papal nuncio
Nicholas Serra. Before instructions were received
. from Rome, thousands of copies of the Talmud were
burned, and it is hard to say how far this persecu-
tion of the Jews would have been carried had not the
zealous bishop suddenly died, November, 1757. On
another occasion, when, owing to the machinations
of the Frankists, the blood accusation was brought
against the Jews, Baruch exerted all his energy to
ward off danger from his hunted people, being one
of the most prominent counsel before the nuncio,
who reported the case to the pope (A. Kraushaar,
“Frank i Frankisci Polscy,” Cracow, 1895; Emden,
“ ‘Edut be-Ya’akob ”).

When Russia began to interfere more actively in
Polish affairs, and Frank — who had been kept in
prison — seeking, in January, 1768, to obtain his re-
lease by securing Russian influence in his favor, des-
patched his agents to Moscow armed with recom-
mendations from influential persons in Warsaw,
Baruch, who was informed as to Frank’s move-
ments, forestalled his emissaries. Baruch was then
in St. Petersburg, where lie enlightened the Polish
representatives as well as those of the Russian au-
thorities. From a letter written by Judah Loeb of
Pinchov to Jacob Emden, it is evident that Baruch
exercised considerable influence among the officials of
St. Petersburg. The Jew Bima Speier of Mohilev,
who had thorough command of the Russian language
and was posted in all Russian affairs and in Russian
history and literature, labored actively with him in ex-
posing the Frankists (see J udali of Pinchov ’s letter in
Emden’s “ Hitabkut ” and in Griitz’s “ Frank und die
Frankisten,” Supplement 7, pp. 33 et seq.). Baruch
succeeded in convincing the Russian synodial au-
thorities that Frank, who had four times changed
his religion and was trying to change it for the fifth
time, was pursuing merely selfish aims, and, being a
follower of the pseudo-Messiah Shabbetliai Zebi,
could never make a faithful Christian. The agents
of the Frankists returned home without having ac-
complished anything, and had even great difficulty in
getting away from Russia, being without the hoped-
for protection and without the necessary passports.
“Covered with shame,” they returned to Poland in
March, 1768. Of the further career of Baruch noth-
ing is known, nor are any data extant of the life of
his son Lazar, who in 1758 married the daughter of
Jacob Emden, as is evident from his letter to Emden,
published in “ Shot-la-Sus,” p. 5.

Bibliography : A. Kraushaar, Frank i Frankisci Polscy,
Cracow, 1895: Jacob Emden, Torat ha-Kenaot. pp. 123-127
and passim ; idem, 'Ednt be-Ya'akob, Shot-la-Sus, p. 5 and
passim ; Grate, Frank und die Frankisten, Supplement 7. pp.
33 et seq. ; S. Dubnow, .Iakov Frank i Yevo Sekta Christian-
stvyushchikh, in Ros. 1883, viii. and ix.

H. R.

BARUCH B. ZEBI HIRSCH: A casuist; lived
in Poland at the end of the eighteenth century and
the beginning of the nineteenth. He wrote “ She-

Baruk

Basch

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

564

ma'tata de-Rab ” (Teachings of the Master), contain-
ing elucidative discussions of halakic questions that
had been propounded but left unsolved by Samuel
Edels (K "C?iriD)- It consisted of four parts, of
which but one part was published, and this under
the title “Slietara Berurin,” Wilna, 1819.

Bibliography : Benjacob, Ozar Ha-Sefarim , p. 571.

L. G. M. B.

BARUK SHE-AMAR, lONC’ 'p'D (“Blessed
be He who spoke ”) : Tlie initial words of the
introductory benediction recited before the read-
ing of the Psalms (“Zemirot”) or selections of
the Psalms (“Pesuke de-Zimrah”) in the daily morn-
ing service; the corresponding closing benedic-
tion being “ Yishtabbah,” the whole to precede the
“Sliema‘,” with its introductory benedictions. The
“Baruk She-Amar” consists of two parts: a solemn
invocation, probably originally recited with responses
and intoned as a recitative, and the main benediction
preceding the Psalm-reading. It is composed in the
style of the ancient Hasidean haggadists, and rem-
iniscences of it occur in the Midrash (Tanna debe
Eliyahu, Zutta, iv. ; Sifre, Deut. 49; Mek., Yitro, 8;
Sliab. 189a ; Ber. 57 b ; Ta'an. ii. 1 ; Gen. R. vii.). It
was in common use in the oldest gaonic period (see
Kohut, ‘“Aruk,” s.v. ^sn. and Alfasi on Ber. 32a;
“Seder Rab Amram,” ed. 1865, p. 2), and, to judge
from Mahzor Vitry (ed. 1889, p. 5), known already
in Talmudic times. It was invested with mystic
awe and significance (see TureZaliab Shullian ‘Aruk,
Orah Hayyim, 51, 1); the number of “ Baruk ” (bene-
dictions), which is fifteen, and of all the words,
which is eighty-seven (= f"a), having received a
peculiar meaning at the hand of the cabalists (see
Isaac Aboab, “ Menorat ha-Maor,” xciii.). Still the
additions, made in the Sephardic liturgy on Sabbath
and the festival days, and other alterations, caused
slight divergences (compare also the version given
in Mahzor Vitry, ed. 1889, p. 61), whereas the Ger-
man liturgy appears to have adhered more closely to
the original form. The position of “Baruk She-
Amar ” varies also in the Sephardic liturgy. While
the German has it at the beginning of the Psalms,
the former has it placed — probably on account of
late comers — after the recitation of a number of
psalms.

Rapoport, in “ Bikkure ha-Tttim,” x. 117, has made
it probable that originally each of the invocations
recited by the reader was followed by the response,
“ Blessed be He and blessed be His name ” ; but Baer,
in his prayer-book notes, contradicts this. The fol-
lowing is a translation of the “Baruk She-Amar,”
with additions in parentheses, according to the Mah-
zor Vitry, the Seder Rab Amram, and the Abudar-
liarn, the latter two corresponding with the Sephar-
dic liturgy;

Blessed be He who spoke and the world sprang into exist-
ence; blessed be He ! (and blessed be His name).

Blessed be the Maker of Creation ! (blessed be He and blessed
be His name).

Blessed be He who speaketh and doeth ; blessed be He who de-
creeth and performeth !

Blessed be He who hath mercy upon the earth ; blessed be He
who hath mercy upon His creatures !

Blessed be He who payeth a good reward to those that fear Him !
(blessed be He and blessed be His name).

Blessed be He who liveth forever and endureth for eternity ;

blessed be He who redeemeth and delivereth !

(Blessed be He who removeth darkness and bringeth light;
blessed be He before whom there is no injustice nor for-
getfulness, no regard of countenance nor taking of bribes.
Blessed be He who gave to His people Israel the inheritance of
Sabbath rest ! [On Sabbath.]

Blessed be He who gave festivals of gladness to His people of
Israel ! [On festivals.]

Blessed be He who gave to His people Israel this day of me-
morial! [On New-Year’s Day.]

Blessed be He who gave to His people Israel the inheritance of
rest and of forgiveness and of atonement for the erring ;
blessed be He ! (and blessed be His name !) [On the Day
of Atonement.]).

Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the world, O God and
merciful Father ; praised by the mouth of Thy people, lauded
and glorified by the tongue of Thy pious ones [Hasidim], and
Thy worshipers ! As we praise Thee, 0 Lord our God, with
the songs of David Thy servant, with praises and psalms we will
magnify, laud, and glorify Thee, and make mention of Thy
name, and proclaim Thee our King, O our God, the Only One,
the One who liveth throughout all eternity ; O King, praised
and glorified be Thy great name for ever and ever. Blessed art
Thou, O Lord, the King who is extolled with praises.

Bibliography : Landshuth. in Edelmann’s Hcggon Le h ; Baer,
‘ Ahodat Yisrael (prayer-book ), 1868, p. 58 ; Zunz, G. V ., 2d ed.,
p. 389 ; Kohler, The Psalms in the Liturgy , in Publications
of the Gratz College , 1897, p 196.

k. M. F.— K.

BARUK SHE-AMAR SAMSON B. ELIE-
ZER. See Samson b. Eliezer.

BARUN IBN ISAAC. See Ibn Barun.
BARZHANSKY, ADOLPH SOLOMONO-
WICH : Russian composer and pianist; born at
Odessa 1851 ; died there 1900. His father, a member
of a prosperous firm well known both in Russia and
abroad, gave him a commercial training; but the
young Adolph, who from childhood was drawn to
music, soon abandoned business pursuits and went
to Vienna, Paris, and Leipsic, where he attended the
musical high schools, surprising his masters by his
remarkable talent.

Among Barzhansky’s numerous compositions may
be mentioned: (1) “On the Sea”; (2) “Recollec-
tions ” ; (3) “ Cradle-Song ” ; (4) “ Gliickliches Heim” ;
(5) “Scherzo”; and (6) “Andacht.” They were all
published by Breitkopf & Hartel of Leipsic.

Bibliography : Der Klavierlchrer , 1896-97 ; Ncue Zcitsehrift
ftir Musih , 1896-97 ; Neue Musikalische Presse, 1896-97.

H. R. N. R.

BARZILAI. See JuDAn ben Barzilai.
BARZILAI, GIUSEPPE : Italian lawyer and
Biblical commentator; born at Gradisca, near Triest,
Austria, in 1828; studied at Casalmaggiore, prov-
ince of Cremona. After having completed his
law studies at the University of Padua, Barzilai
established himself as attorney at law at Triest,
where he distinguished himself by successfully car-
rying through several criminal lawsuits. An excel-
lent Hebraist and archeologist, he published the fol-
lowing works: (1) “I Treni di Geremia” (transl. of
Lamentations, with notes), Triest, 1867 ; (2) “ II Can-
ticodi Salomone,” a metrical translation of The Song
of Songs, with notes; (3) “Il Beemotli” (Mammut),
a contribution to Biblical paleontology; (4) “II
Leviatan”; (5) “ Un Errore di Trenta Secoli,” Triest,
1868; (6) “Gli Abraxas” (an archeological study);
(7) “ Nuove Ipotesi Intorno a due Celebri Versi della
Divina Commedia ” ; (8) “ Ideografia Semitica e
Trasformazione della Radice Ebraica Nelle Lingue

565

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baruk

Basch

Indo-Europee, ” a contribution to Semitic ideography ;
(9) “SulNuovoIndirizzoda Darsi all’ Aeronautica.”

Barzilai was secretary of the Jewish congregation
in Triest.

Bibliography : Boccardo, Nuuva Enciclopedia Italiana,

Supplement ii., 1891.

BARZILAI, SALVATORE: Italian deputy;
born in Triest, Austria, July 5, 1860. Son of the
Orientalist and archeologist Giuseppe Barzilai; stud-
ied law at the University of Bologna.

In 1878 Barzilai was tried and condemned for trea-
son against Austria, but, after a year in prison, was
acquitted by the court of appeal of Gratz. After his
release he, in 1882, began his practise as advocate, es-
pecially in criminal cases, and became one of the most
eminent legal authorities in Italy. He became dep-
uty for Rome in 1890, belonging to the extreme Re-
publican Left. He takes part principally in the
debates on the foreign policy of the government.
After the battle of Adna, in Abyssinia, he fought
a duel with the minister of war, General Mocenni.

Barzilai has contributed articles to some of the
most important Italian political papers.

He is author of “La Criminalita in Italia,” “La
Recidiva,” “II Nuovo Codice Penale,” “LTmmunita
degli Deputat,” “Le Case di Correzione.” S.

BARZILLAI : A wealthy Gileadite noble of
Rogelim, who, together with two other prominent
chieftains of the east-Jordanic territory, met David at
Mahanaim, when he was fleeing with only a few fol-
lowers from Absalom, and provided the king and his
weary men with food (II Sam. xvii. 27-29). After
the death of Absalom, Barzillai again appeared to
escort David across the Jordan on his triumphant
return to his capital. In gratitude for his loyalty the
king invited Barzillai to become his permanent guest ;
but the aged Gileadite declined the honor, preferring
to spend his few remaining years in his native town.
In his stead he sent his son Chimliam (II Sam. xix.
32-41 [R. V. 31-40]). On his death-bed David re-
membered the service of Barzillai, commending
his sons to the special care and favor of Solomon
(I Kings ii. 7).

Even after the Captivity the name of the loyal
Gileadite was preserved in tradition; for in the
census of Ezra (ii. 61) and Nehemiah (vii. 63) a
priestly clan bears the name “ Children of Bar-
zillai,” its members tracing their descent to a mar-
riage with one of Barzillai’s daughters.

J. JR. C. F. K.

BASAN, ABRAHAM HEZEKIAH B.
JACOB: Corrector of the press and author; lived
in the second half of the eighteenth century at Am-
sterdam and Hamburg. He was at first corrector
at Amsterdam, where he also wrote eulogiums and
poems on some works printed there. Especially
noteworthy are his poems in Raphael ben Gabriel
Norzi’s “Se’ah Solet” (Amsterdam, 1757), and in
Mordecai b. Isaac Tama’s “Maskiyot Kesef” (ib.
1765), which show the author’s command of lan-
guage. Basan left Amsterdam and went to Ham-
burg, where he became hakam of the Portuguese-
Spanisli community, probably succeeding his father,
Jacob b. Abraham Hezekiah. He is the author of

“Sermones Funebres ” (Amsterdam, 1753), funeral
sermons in Spanish on David Israel Athias and Solo-
mon Curiel. According to Ghirondi, he wrrote also
“Yashresh Ya'akob” (Jacob Takes Root), Nurem-
berg, 1778, on the text of the prayer-books. Ghi-
rondi assumes that the name “Jacob Babagi,” on
the title-page of the book, is a pseudonym, adopted
to protect the author from opposition aroused by
his textual corrections. The fact that Nuremberg
is given as the place of printing, while the book
really wras printed in Altona, may be taken to sup-
port Ghirondi’s assertion.

Bibliography: Nepi-Ghirondi, Toledot Gedole Yisrael , p. 10;

Kayserling, Bibl. EspaH.-Port.-Jud. p. 36.

G. L. G.

BASAN, JACOB BEN ABRAHAM : Hakam
of the Portuguese community of Hamburg. In 1755
he published a prayer for a fast-day by the Portu-
guese congregation, proclaimed on the occasion of
the great earthquake in Lisbon.

D. A. Fe.

BASCH, ABRAHAM: German poet and
teacher; born at Posen July 17, 1800; died at Berlin
Sept. 24, 1841. Basch was a somewhat precocious
child, being able to expound the Talmud when twelve
years old. A year later he became secretary to the
mayor of Landsberg, but resigned the position to
attend the yeshibah at Prenzlau, where he studied
German, French, and Latin under Rabbi Josef Albu.

In 1817 Basch went to Berlin, and eked out a
precarious existence — living in a garret in the Rosen-
strasse — by copying Hebrew manuscripts and con-
tributing articles and verse to “ Wadzeeks-Wochen-
blatt.” In 1825 he traveled through South Germany,
making the acquaintance of Goethe. On his return
to Berlin the same year, he became teacher of He-
brew at Weyl’s seminary.

Owing to the failure of the seminary, Basch was
again thrown on his own resources, but on account
of his unpractical nature was reduced to penury.
Bibliography: Allyemeine Zcituny des Judentliums , 1841,

p. 677.

s. E. Ms.

BASCH, i.RPi.D: Hungarian painter ; born at
Budapest 1873. He purposed at first to follow an
industrial career, and attended the department of
metallurgy at the Staatliche Mittelschule (govern-
ment school) for one year. He then went to Munich,
where he became a pupil of Simon Hollosy. Upon
his return to Budapest he worked in the academies
of Bihari and Karlovsky and then went to Paris,
where, for three years, lie was a pupil of Bonnat,
Dousset, and Jean Paul Laurens. On his return to
Budapest he undertook the redaction of the art divi-
sion of the “Magyar Genius.” Several commissions
for the Millennia Exposition were executed by him.
To the painting of posters he devoted considerable
attention. Basch is a collaborator on “ Tbe Poster ”
and on “Les Maitres de l’Afficlie.” At present his
principal occupation, how'ever, is in w7ater-color
decorative painting.

Bibliography: Pallas Lexikon ; Magyar Genius.

s. M. W.

BASCH, GYULA: Hungarian painter: born at
Budapest April 9, 1859. After completing his stud-
ies at the gymnasium, he attended the polytechnic

Basch

Basel

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

566

institute at Zurich (1867-72), where he obtained his
diploma as engineer. He devoted himself, however,
exclusively to painting, and became first a day-
scholar at the Ecole des Beaux- Arts at Paris (1873-
74), and afterward a pupil of T. Paczka (1885) and
of the painter L. Horovitz in Budapest (1888), finally
occupying himself with genre and portrait painting.
His principal works are: “Habt Aclit!” “Die Erste
Uniform,” “ More Pat rio,” and “Nie!” Among his
portraits are those of the cellist David Popper, and
the Hungarian statesman Dr. Max Falk.
Bibliography : Pallas Lexikon.

s. M. W.

BASCH, RAPHAEL : Austrian writer and
politician; bom at Prague, Bohemia, in 1813. After
acquiring at that city a thorough familiarity with
Hebrew and the Talmud, and with classics and phi-
losophy, he went as teacher in the primary school
of Presburg, which had been founded by progres-
sive Jews, admirers of Moses Mendelssohn, in oppo-
sition to the Orthodox Jews there. At the first dis-
turbances preliminary to the Revolution of 1848, he
went to Vienna, and took an active part in the insur-
rection. Here he founded the “ Reichstagblatt,”
which he continued at Kremsier until the dissolu-
tion of the Constitutional Assembly, in March, 1849.
He then joined the staff of the “ Oesterreicliische
Post ” of Vienna, which he represented at Berlin ;
subsequently he was the Paris correspondent of sev-
eral papers. He returned to Vienna in 1855 and as-
sumed the editorship of the “Oesterreicliische Zei-
tung,” occupying a position of importance as the
official mouthpiece of the minister Bruck, the op-
ponent of the clerical minister Bach. After the
promulgation of the constitution of Feb. 26, 1861,
he acted in a similar capacity to the Schmerling
ministry, with which political party he remained
connected until its fall.

Until 1875 Basch was engaged only in economic
questions, but in that year he returned to political
journalism. He represented the “ Neue Freie Presse ”
at Paris; and in close fellowship with Thiers, Gam-
betta, and Bartlielemy St. -Hilaire he defended the
republican policy against the men of the 16th of
May. In 1883 he retired from journalism, but re-
mained at Paris. He has published a number of
political pamphlets ; two of these, entitled “ Deutsch-
land, Oesterreich, und Europa,”and “ Oesterreich und
das Nationalitatenrecht,” Stuttgart, 1870 — which ap-
peared under the pseudonym “ Ein Altoesterreiclier ”
— created, on their appearance, a great sensation in
Austria.

s. V. B.

BASCH, SAMUEL SIEGFRIED KARL
RITTER V ON : Austrian physician ; born at
Prague Sept. 9, 1837 ; best known as the body-phy-
sician of the emperor Maximilian of Mexico. Basch
was educated at the universities of Prague and
Vienna. In 1857 he studied chemistry at the labora-
tory of Brilcke, in Vienna, and five years later be-
gan the practise of medicine. From that time until
1865 he was assistant to Dittel, Jager, Turk, Ko-
lisko, and Haller in their lectures at the University
of Vienna. In the last named year Basch was ap-
pointed chief surgeon of the military hospital at

Pueblo, Mexico, and soon after he was called to
Maximilian’s side; remaining with the unfortunate
monarch for ten months, until his death, June 19,
1867.

When, at Queretaro, Maximilian realized that a
few days at the most would decide his fate, he com-
missioned Basch, Lieutenant Pitner, and Major
Becker to keep daily records of all that happened.
At the time when the emperor and his entourage
were betrayed to Juarez by Lopez, May 14, 1867,
Basch lost most of his memoranda, saving only cur-
sory notes. When the alarm was sounded, Basch
rushed to saddle his horse, but was at once over-
powered by the Mexicans.

After the execution of Maximilian he took charge
of the body and returned to Austria with it (Nov.
26, 1867) on the “Elizabeth.”

In 1870 Basch was appointed lecturer on experi-
mental pathology at the University of Vienna, and
in 1877 assistant professor. He was ennobled by
Emperor Franz Joseph for his share in Maximilian’s
enterprise.

Basch’s best-known work is “ Erinnerungen aus
Mexico ” (1868), written at the request of Maximil-
ian. In addition, he has written for technical jour-
nals a number of articles on the histology of the
duodenum, the anatomy of the bladder, and the phys-
iological effects of nicotin.

Bibliography: Basch, Erinnerungen aus Mexico , 1868;

Pagel, Bing. Lexikon Hervorragender Aerzte , 1901, p. 99 ;

Wernich and Hirseh, Bing. Lexikon Hervorragender Aerzte,

1884, i. 319.

s. E. Ms.

BASCH, VICTOR : Professor of philosophy at
the University of Rennes; born at Budapest, Hun-
gary, in 1863; son of Raphael Basch. Removing
in childhood to France, he studied at the Sorbonnc;
in 1885 he was appointed professor at the University
of Nancy, and in 1887 at the University of Rennes.
During the Dreyfus affair he was the leader of the
Dreyfusards at Rennes, who were placed in a serious
and difficult position when the case was tried in that
city. Basch as a Jew and a Dreyfusard was sub-
jected to downright persecution at the hands of the
fanatical anti-Semitic populace; but he championed
the cause of his race and fought and suffered for the
principles of legal and social justice. His published
works include an important study, “ L’Esthetique
de Kant,” Paris, 1896; the first volume of a work in
four volumes on the history of esthetics; “Poetique
de Schiller”; “La Vie Intellectuelle a l’Etranger ”;
“Les Origines de l’lndividualisrae Moderne.” He
also contributes frequently to the “ Sifecle ” and the
“ Grande Revue ” of Paris. S.

BASCHWITZ : A family of printers, of which
the following were the most prominent members:

1. Meir Baschwitz : Born at Dyhernfurtli ; son
of Zebi Hirscli ben Mei'r (No. 2). In 1731-32 he
worked in the establishment of Israel b. Abraham in
Wandsbeck, near Hamburg, and after 1733 in Ber-
lin. He published a prayer-book in 1742. Until 1782
he was engaged partly in Berlin and partly in Frank-
fort-on-the-Oder, so that his career as a printer ex-
tends over a period of nearly fifty years.

2. Zebi (Hirseh) b. Mei'r Baschwitz : Born

567

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Basch

Basel

at Brzecz, Lithuania; from 1701 to 1709 lie was en-
gaged in several printing-establishments at Berlin ;
in 1708 he worked at Frankfort-on-the-Oder ; and
from 1719 to 1720 with Joseph Bass at Dyhemfurth.

3. Zebi (Hirsch) Baschwitz : Printer in Frank-
fort-on-the-Oder from 1788 until 1813 or later. He
translated Jedaiah Bedersi's “ Beliinat ‘Olam ” into
German (Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 1802), and published
a new edition of Arama's “Hazut Kashah,” on the
harmony of tradition and philosophy. A sermon
delivered by him at Frankfort-on-the-Oder on the
conclusion of peace, Jan. 18, 1816, also appeared in
print. It is in dispute whether the epistolary guide
(“ Ready Letter- Writer ”), published at Frankfort-on-
the-Oder in 1789, is to be attributed to him. The
family name was later changed to “Baswitz.”

The family is still inexistence; one of its mem-
bers, who died April 7, 1870, was president of the
congregation of Berlin.

The genealogy of the family may be given as fol-
lows, with the period of their activity as printers
stated in parentheses;

(2) Zebi (Hirsch) ben Me'ir (1701-22)

(1) Me'ir (1731-36)

Hirsch

Me'ir 11754-82)

Kalonymus Baruch (3) Zebi (Hirsch)

(1765-88) (1784) (1788-1813)

Bibliography : Steinschneider, Cat. Bndl. Nos. 7&58, 7859;

idem, in Zcit.flir die Gesch. tier Juden in Deutschland, iii.

270 ; Zedner and Roest, s.v. Baschwitz ; Allg. Zcit. des Jud.

1870, pp. 3, 12.

o. A. F.

BASEL : Capital of the canton of Basel-Stadt,
Switzerland, bordering on the grand duchy of Baden
and on Alsace. Owing to its flourishing trade, it
was inhabited by Jews as early as the middle of the
thirteenth century, or perhaps even earlier. In 1223
Bishop Henry of Basel borrowed large sums from
Jews living there. They were not confined to a ghet-
to, as was the case in German and in Spanish cities;
most of them lived near the cattle-market. Many
of them dwelt in houses of their own,
In the built on plots of ground belonging to
Thirteenth the monaster}' of St. Leonard, to which

Century, they had to pay 30 solidi every Christ-
mas. Besides this they were compelled
to loan on demand 5 pounds to the council of the
city for half a year on security, but without in-
terest. In proportion to the number of houses
they acquired and inhabited, their taxes were in-
creased. They had their synagogue and their
slaughter-house in the cattle-market, near the
furriers’ stalls. If cattle killed in the “schale”
(butchers’ stalls) were not fit to be eaten according to
their dietary laws (see Terefah), the meat was to be
sold outside of the schale, in order that.it might not
come in contact with other meat. The Basel Jews
had to pay tribute not only to the city, but also to
the emperor, under whose protection they stood, and
whose “ Kammerknechte ” they were. In 1279 Ru-
dolph I. pledged to the bishop of Basel, “for his
faithful services,” the protection money paid by all

the Jews in the diocese of Basel and Strasburg, in
consideration of 3,000 marks (Lichnowsky, “Reges-
ten,” i., No. 90; Wiener, “Regesten,” p. 11).

The principal source of income of the Jews of
Basel, in addition to trade, was the lending of
money, of which Jews here, as everywhere else in
Europe, possessed a monopoly, because usury was
forbidden to the Christians by the canonical law.
This drew upon them the hatred of the populace ;
and the more the burghers and the clergy became
indebted to the Jews the greater became their hatred.
In 1345 this had become so intense in Basel and
Alsace that the bishop of Strasburg and many counts
and gentlemen of the Alsatian cities, together with
Basel and Freiburg, formed a league for five years
for the repression of riots, “ whether directed against
priests or Jews” (Wiener, “Regesten,” p. 50).

In 1348 the Black Death broke out; and the fable
that Jews had poisoned the wells and springs was
believed, since this was the best pretext for killing
the Hebrews, and thus getting rid of the debts due
to them. Like that of Strasburg, the town council
of Basel wished to protect the Jews; but the gilds,
accustomed to having their own way, attacked the
council. In a riotous procession they appeared with
their banners before the town hall, and compelled the
council to deliver the Jews to their
The Black fury (Albrecht of Strasburg’s “ Chron-

Death. icle,” p. 147). On Jan. 9, 1349, without
previous trial, the Jews were burned
on an island in the Rhine, in a wooden house erected
for the purpose. Many children were saved from
death by fire, and baptized against the wishes of
their parents. The Jewish cemetery, which was
located below St. Alban, was destroyed; and the
tombstones were used for the wall of the inner moat.
In 1658 more than 570 tombstones were found; and
in 1853, in the course of building some houses in the
so-called “ Petersgraben,” then long since filled up,
many of these stones bearing Hebrew inscriptions
were exhumed. The property of the expelled Jews
became the spoil of the citizens. King
Jews Wenzel presented the house of the
Expelled Jew Rubin (called “Zum Hermelin”)
from Basel, and the synagogue to the court clerk
J. Kircheim, and to the knight Wil-
helm von Erlybach. Long after these buildings had
come into possession of a citizen of Basel, King Ru-
precht presented them to the master of ceremonies of
the duke Leopold of Austria, and had later to recall
this gift, Feb. 15, 1404.

A decree, forced from the council in 1349, to the
effect that no Jews were to settle in Basel for the
next 200 years, did not remain in force very long.
As soon as the excitement caused by the Black Death
had subsided, the city again opened its gates to the
Jews, and in 1361 they were once more living there.
In 1365 the emperor Charles commanded the mayor,
the council, and the citizens “ to protect and to keep
the Jews now living within Basel and those that will
hereafter move there and settle, as the emperor’s
Kammerknechte, and to make the taxes as moderate
as seems best to them.” In 1366 Eberlin and his
son, and Jutin the Jewess, were received under the
protection of the city on payment of an annual sum.
Eight years later, by a letter dated Nov. 25, 1374.

Basel

Basel Congress

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

568

Emperor Charles presented to Duke Leopold of Aus-
tria the taxes of the Jews at Basel. Most of the
Jews who settled in Basel had come from Colmar
and other Alsatian cities, and were wealthy. In 1367
they presented to the council 200 gulden “for the
journey of the emperor.” The expenses for the for-
tification of the city were defrayed by voluntary —
probably also by involuntary — contributions and
loans from the Jews. In 1374 the Jews of Basel
loaned to the council 5,000 gulden, one Jew ad-
vancing 4,000. In 1375 the Jews Menlin and Helya
gave 20 pounds; others, as much as 50 and 100. In
1385 the Jew Moses donated “for the wall” 50 gul-
den, and a year later another Moses gave 70 gulden.
In general, the Jews were merely protected; but
some were received as citizens, though only for a
limited number of years. On being accepted as cit-
izens, they received a so-called letter of protection
(Schirmbnef), enumerating all the rights and privi-
leges which were to be theirs (see letters of protec-
tion of 1386 issued for Slemme, wife of Moses de
Colmar, the Jew, and for Joseph of Richenweiler,
the Jew, uncle of the above-mentioned Slemme, in
“Beitrage zur Vaterlilndischen Gescliichte,” vi. 279
et seq. Basel, 1857).

The franchise was in some cases revoked. For
instance, in 1382 an order was issued that Umelin,
the son of Menleriu the Jewess, should “never again
become a citizen, nor is he to be accepted as a citi-
zen; and he is forbidden to exchange or to buy
horses.” He was, however, agaiu accorded citizen-
ship on payment of 400 florins.

Religious tolerance was assured to the Jews. In
1370 they already had a synagogue in a house which
until recently was called the “ Judenschule.” They
were compelled to remove their dead from Basel and
to bury them elsewhere. In 1394,
Religious four years after King Wenzel had
In- again given the city the right to admit
tolerance. Jews, the council permitted them to
lay out a cemetery in a garden bought
by them in the neighborhood of the Spahlentliurm,
in the suburb of Spitalschuren. For every inter-
ment they had to pay to the council a tax of a half-
florin for a resident and of one florin for a stranger.

The legal and social position of the Jews differed
here, as elsewhere, from that of the Christians. In
a lawsuit of a Christian against a Jew there had to be
a Christian and a Jewish witness. Jews could not
be called before an ecclesiastical court, but only be-
fore the Schultheiss, or into the synagogue before
the rabbi, who also acted as judge. They took an
oath on the Pentateuch, according to a special for-
mula, which included the following:

“ True shalt thou swear,

Dathan and Abiram forget not.

Their fate shalt thou share
Whom the earth swallowed.”

Even in outward appearance they were distin-
guished from the Christians by the so-called “Jew’s
hat.” In 1374 a Jew was executed in Basel.

Mathys, the son of Eberlin the Jew, who spoke
disrespectfully of the Christian religion in 1377, was
exiled from the city. Another Jew who had spoken
ill of St. Catherine in 1392 was fined no less than 500
florins. A Jew who had kissed the daughter of a

Christian citizen of Basel was sentenced to remain
three days in the pillory and to imprisonment for
life. The girl was imprisoned for five years; and
the servant who had kept at a distance, so as not to
disturb the lovers, was imprisoned for two years.

In spite of their isolated social position, Jews were
appointed by the council as town physicians. As such
are named Master Josset in 1372 and Master Gutleben
in 1379. The first received 25 pounds, the other 18
(or, according to others, 50) pounds, besides his fees.

In 1543 the Jews were for the second time exiled
from Basel ; on this occasion, it is said, to please the
citizens of Bern. At first they were permitted to
enter the city accompanied by some official, but in
1549 this also was prohibited. In 1552 they were
again allowed to enter the city once a month on pay-
ment of a body-tax of 5 batzen (= 10
Second cents) and 1 batz to the gatekeeper.
Expulsion. In spite of this prohibition several
Jews were employed as correctors of
the press by the publishers Froben, Conrad Wald-
kirch, and Ludwig Konig, who printed a number of
Hebrew works, among them the Babylonian Talmud.
Abraham Braunschweig, the corrector of the large
Buxtorf Bible, had special permission to live at
Basel until the work was completed. Although no
Jews were permitted to live in Basel until the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century, the Jews who were
expelled from Alsace at the time of the French Rev-
olution were given temporary shelter and treated
compassionately. This noble deed of the inhabi-
tants of Basel was celebrated by Hartwig Wessely in
a Hebrew poem printed in the “Meassef,” 1789.

Basel for a long time resisted the readmission of
Jews. Gradually a small number of Alsatian and
French Jews settled there. In 1845 there were
thirty Jewish families in the city. The law of 1849
decreed that no Jews were to settle in Basel beyond
those already residing there and their children ; and
they might only remain at the pleasure of the gov-
ernment. Since 1862 residence has been freely ac-
corded to Jews, and in 1872 full civic rights were
granted to them. The Jewish community of Basel be-
gan the building of a synagogue in 1866, and held the
dedication service on Sept. 9, 1867. In 1901 the con-
gregation consisted of about 220 families, with a rabbi
(Arthur Cohn) and several charitable organizations.

Bibliography : Ulrich, Sammlung Jildischer Gesch. in der
Schweiz, pp. 186 et seq.; Ochs, Gcsch. der Stadt Basel, i. 2i)7 ;
ii. 67, 323, 466 et seq. ; Heusler, Verfassungsgesehiehte der
Stadt Basel im Mittelalter, pp. 26 et seq. ; idem, Basel im
14. Jahrhundett, Basel, 1856.
d. M. K.

BASEL CONGRESS: An international Zionist
convention held at Basel on Aug. 29, 30, and 31,
1897, in the Stadt Casino, and which was called at the
instance of Dr. Theodore Herzl. It was attended
by Jews from all parts of the world, its purpose being
to consider how best to relieve the misery of the Jews,
particularly those of eastern Europe, Russia, Ru-
mania, and Galicia, who had suffered so much, both
morally and materially, through the anti-Semitic
movement. The second Basel Congress met Aug.
28-31, 1898; the third, Aug. 15-18, 1899. The
fourth Congress was transferred to London, where
it took place on Aug. 13-16, 1900; the fifth was
again held at Basel, Dec. 29-30, 1901.

Meeting of the Second Zionist Congress at Basel.

(From a Photograph.)

Basel Congress
Basel Program

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

570

Dr. Karpel Lippe of Jassy, Rumania, well known
by his work in the Jewish colonization movement
in Rumania, acted as honorary president of the
first Congress; while Dr. Theodore Ilerzl was on
each occasion unanimously elected as chairman.
The resolutions as well as the reports of the meet-
ings of each Congress were noted in the steno-
graphic records and were soon afterward printed.

The first Basel Congress stated, in the Basel
Program, the aim and purpose of Political Zion-
ism. The Congress was attended by about one hun-
dred and fifty delegates; the second and the third
each by about two hundred and fifty. The fourth
was held in London, but the fifth, held at Basel, was
attended by 300 persons. These delegates were
elected according to a statute of organization, which

was accepted at the third Congress. This statute
provides that every hundred contributors of one
shekel are entitled to one representative. The
minimum shekel for the various countries is as
follows; one franc for every country using the franc
as current coin; Germany, one mark; Austria, one
crown; Russia, 40 copecks; America, 25 cents;
Great Britain, one shilling; Holland, 50 cents. As
most of the delegates were commissioned by more
than one group, it may be said that they repre-
sented Jews from all parts of the globe, a unique
occurrence in the history of the Jewish Diaspora.
The reception given them by the inhabitants of
Basel was in every respect excellent. This was
largely due to the authoritative articles on the aim
and purpose of the Congress and of the “Zionist
Movement,” which were published in the daily
press; and still more to the fact that the proceed-
ings were conducted publicly, under well-known
leadership, and according to parliamentary rules.

A Basel newspaper writes, at the close of the third
Congress: “Every parliament might take this Jew-
ish Congress as an example.”

Bibliography : T. Herzl, Her Baseler Congress, Vienna. 1897:
Stenoflraphisches Proto fa >11 of the 2d-5th Congresses, Vienna
(Verein Erez Israel), 1898-1902: and the reports published in
Die Welt (Vienna), The Jew. Chronicle (London), American
Hebrew (New York).

D. *

BASEL-LAND : A canton of Switzerland. It
did not admit the French Jews, who had bought
property in Liestal, the capital of the canton, not-
withstanding the treaties existing between Swit-
zerland and France. Jews have only recently resided
in Liestal. The few Jews who had nevertheless set-
tled there were expelled in 1839, in spite of the

protests of the French government. Even as late
as Nov. 17, 1857, -a law was passed decreeing that
“ the rights of settlement, of plying a handicraft,
and of trading are forbidden to every Jew without
exception.” Whoever received a Jew into business
or into his family was liable to a fine of 300 francs,
and on repetition of the act was to be imprisoned.
Whoever rented a store to a Jew incurred a penalty
of 50 francs. The Jews were, however, permitted to
visit the regular fairs, to pass through the canton,
and to stay there temporarily.

Bibliography : Denhschrift der Gesandtschaft cler Vereiniq-
ten Staaten von Nordameriha. Gericlitet an den Schwci-
zerischen Bundesrath vom 26. Mai , 1869 , Bienne, 18(1:1.

D. M. K.

BASEL PROGRAM : By this term is under-
stood the program of Political Zionism drawn up
at the first Basel Congress, as the aim of the polit-
ical Zionist movement. The Basel Program was
unanimously accepted at the morning session of the

Delegates’ Card at the Second Zionist Congress at Basel.

571

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Basel Congress
Basel Program

second day of the first Congress, after a report by
Max Nordau, chairman of the executive committee.
It is as follows: “ Zionism aims at establishing for
the Jewish people a publicly and legally assured
home in Palestine. For the attainment of this pur-
pose, the Congress considers the following means
serviceable: (1) the promotion of the settlement of
Jewish agriculturists, artisans, and tradesmen in
Palestine ; (2) the federation of all Jews into local or
general groups, according to the laws of the various
countries ; (3) the strengthening of the Jewish feeling
and consciousness; (4) preparatory steps for the at-
tainment of those governmental grants which are
necessary to the achievement of the Zionist purpose. ”
In the course of the proceedings it was found nec-
essary to explain, first, that the struggle for a pub-
licly and legally assured home was meant to be only
for those Jews who either could not or would not

way resembled a territorial menace to the Ottoman
empire. It hoped to achieve its goal by rendering
service to Turkey ; thus procuring a Turkish char-
ter, in order that it might secure for the Jewish
Agricultural Colonies in Palestine already ex-
isting, and to be established there, an autonomous
government under the suzerainty of Turkey.

The second statement was due to some fears ex-
pressed by the Basel rabbi Dr. Cohn. He voiced
the sentiments of the Orthodox, and said “ that the
party, of which it is known that it does not sub-
scribe to the opinions of Orthodoxy, might oppress
the Orthodox.” To this is due the declaration, made
by the chairman of the Congress and reenforced on
every occasion, that political Zionism aims exclu-
sively at the improvement of the political condition
of the Jews. It thinks that this improvement is
to be found if those Jews who only possess political

Bronze Medal Struck at the Second Zionist Congress at Basel, 1897. (Exact Size.)

assimilate in their respective dwelling-places; sec-
ondly, that (political) Zionism did not intend to take
any steps that would olfend the religious sentiment
of any Jew, whatever his opinions.

The first statement was made for the reason that
the opponents of the movement had used all con-
ceivable means to prevent and to discredit the Con-
gress and its aims. They had succeeded in frustra-
ting the original intention to hold the Congress in
Munich, and they made it a prominent argument
that the assertions of the anti-Semites were confirmed
by the holding of this Congress. They held that the
entire idea was Utopian; that a transfer of all Jews
to Palestine would be materially impossible if for no
other reason than that Palestine could not hold them
all. Furthermore, thatin some countries Jewsenjoy
all political rights and privileges; that the emigra-
tion of these Jews would be therefore not only un-
necessary, but highly ungrateful toward those coun-
tries in which they enjoy such rights, etc.

Others thought they found in the Basel Program
a menace directed against the independence of Tur-
key. It was, however, repeatedly emphasized in
precise terms by the leaders of the movement that
political Zionism had nothing in view which in any

privileges in a limited measure or not at all, or who
in any other way occupy an inferior position with
respect to their fellow-citizens of other religions, are
provided with better political, and thereby better
social, conditions. The satisfaction of religious needs
is left to the individual.

On account of a question addressed to the presi-
dent as to the meaning of the term “expedient set-
tlement of Palestine ” (Point 1 of the Basel Program),
it was found necessary to discuss the question of
colonization in t he second Basel Congress. This was
done through a resolution brought up by the Zionist
executive committee and accepted by a majority vote.
The resolution referred to a plan drawn up by the
colonization committee, which was as follows:

“This Congress, in approval of the colonization already in-
augurated in Palestine, and being desirous of fostering further
efforts in that direction, hereby declares, that

1. For the proper settlement of Palestine, this Congress con-
siders it necessary to obtain the requisite permission from the
Turkish government, and to carry out such settlement accord-
ing to the plan, and under the direction of a committee, selected
by this Congress.

2. This committee to be appointed to superintend and direct
all matters of colonization ; it shall consist of ten members, and
have its seat in London. England shall send three delegates
to this committee ; Russia, two ; Galicia, one ; Germany, one ;

Basel Program
Bashemath

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

572

Rumania, one ; and the executive committee shall appoint two.
At least three of the members must reside in London. The
executive committee will defray the necessary expenses of its
administration.

3. The first action of this committee shall be taken in connec-
tion with the Jews now residing in Turkey.

4. The Colonial Bank shall cooperate in obtaining the desired
permission for colonization from the Turkish government.

5. The Congress enjoins upon all Zionists the duty of influen-
cing all colonization societies to work in harmony with the above
plan.

6. The Congress requests the executive committee to under-
take accurate investigations to ascertain the legal position of the
Jews in Turkey, and particularly in Palestine.

Another important resolution of the second Zionist
Congress was the founding of the Jewish Colonial
Bank, which is to he the financial instrument of polit-
ical Zionism. The second Zionist Congress also gave

widely known as the founder of the “Beethoven
Matinees” (1859), which eventually culminated in
the well-known Societa del Quartette, which exerted
a great influence upon the musical life of Florence,
and of Italy in general; and in connection with
which Basevi offered an annual prize for the best
string-quartet. Basevi founded in 1868 the Concerti
Populari di Musica Classica. He was a frequent
contributor to musical periodicals, and is the author
of “Studio sulle Opere di G. Verdi” (1859), “Intro-
duzione ad un Nuovo Sistema d’Armonia ” (1862),
and “Compendio della Storia della Musica” (1866).

Bibliography : Riemann. Musik-Lexicon , Leipsic, 1887 ;
Grove, Diet, of Mime ami Musicians , London, 1890; Boc-
cardo, Nui/va Enciclopedia Italiana , Supplement i.

s. J. So.

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Eng., Designed by George Basevi.

(From a photograph.)

to the female delegates the right of voting and ren-
dered them eligible to office in all Zionist matters.

The third Zionist Congress made the Zionist organ-
ization complete, by accepting a statute which reg-
ulates the organizations and elections. Finally, it
drew up a definite order of business. The fifth Con-
gress established the Jewish National Fund.
d. *

BASEMATH. See Bashemath.

BASEVI, ABRAMO : Italian composer and
writer on music; born at Leghorn Dec. 29, 1818;
died at Florence November, 1885. At first a physi-
cian in Florence (1858), he later devoted himself ex-
clusively to the study of music, and achieved, after
hard struggles (his first attempts as composer and
as editor of the musical paper “L’Armonia” failed),
some distinction as composer of operas (“ Romilda
ed Ezzelino,” 1840; “Enrico Howard,” 1847). He is

BASEVI, EMMANUELE : Italian physician
and medical writer; born at Pisa in 1799; died in
Florence Sept. 18, 1869. Basevi studied at the high
school of his native city and later at the university
there, obtaining his degree in 1817. He devoted the
next six years to further study. In 1823 he pub-
lished his first work “Discorso,” following it in 1824
with “ L’Esposizione della Medicina Fisiologica di
Broussais. ”

His other works were “ Cenni sulla Medicina
Fisiologica Confrontata Colla Dottrina Medica Ital-
iana” (1825); “Sugli Uffici del Medico” (1826);
“Sul Magnetismo Animale” (1828), and “Sulla
Conducibilita Electrica del Vetro Ridatto in Fili o
Lamine” (1841).

In 1825 the grand duke of Tuscany appointed
Basevi secretary of the Jewish community of Leg-
horn .

573

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Basel Program
Bashemath

Bibliography: Ignacio Cantu, L’ Italia Scientifica Content-
pnranea , 1844, pp. 55, 56; PoggendorlT, Biographisch-Li-
tcrarisches HandwOrterbuch , iii. 76.

s. E. Ms.

BASEVI, GEORGE (JOSHUA); Architect;
born in London in 1794 ; died at Ely in 1845. He
was the son of George Basevi, whose sister, Maria,
had married Isaac Disraeli and was the mother of
the earl of Beaconsfield. Educated at first by Dr.
Burney at Greenwich in 1811, Basevi became a pupil
of Sir John Soane, the architect and antiquary ;
made a tour in 1816 through Italy and Greece, and
returned to England in 1819. In 1821 he was ap-
pointed surveyor to the Guardian Assurance Com-
pany, and for the next few years was engaged in the
construction and superintendence of two churches,
and of the houses in Belgrave square. He was al-
most the last and one of the best of the school that
sought for inspiration in the architecture of imperial
Rome, before the influence of Pugin turned the fash-
ion in favor of Gothic. His best work was the Fitz-
william Museum at Cambridge (see illustration on p.
572), and carried out in the best classical style (1837).
He erected a prison at Wisbeach, and enlarged one
at Ely. With Sydney Smith he was associated from
1843 to 1845 in the construction of the Conservative
Club-House, London. In the latter year the same
architects undertook the rebuilding of the Carlton
Club premises. Basevi died from an accident Oct. 16,
1845, before he had started on the work. He was
inspecting the bell-tower of Ely Cathedral when he
fell and was killed instantly. He was buried in
the chapel at the east end of the cathedral.

Bibliography: Diet, of National Biography, s.v.; Pieeiotto,
Sketches of Anglo-Jcw. History, Dictionary of Architec-
tural Publication Society, 1853.

J. G. L.

BASEVI, JOACHIM: Italian jurisconsult;
born at Mantua 1780 ; died at Milan 1867. His intel-
ligence and culture procured him so much celebrity
that he was chosen to defend Andreas Hofer, the
Swiss patriot, before the court martial. When the
Austrian government displaced the French govern-
ment, Basevi went to Milan, where he remained till
his death. His principal works are : “ Dello Sciogli-
mento dei Feiuli nel Territorio della Repubblica Cis-
alpina” (1844); “II Commento al Codice Civile Aus-
triaco ” (passed through seven editions from 1845 to
1857); “II Trattato delle Leggi Astinenti al Processo
Civile,” 1850; and “ II Commento alia Legge di Cam-
bio Austriaco.”

Bibliography : Private sources,
s. B.

BASHAN or HA-BASHAN (“ fertile, stoneless
ground ”) : The tract of country north of Gilead, the
Yarmuk being the dividing-line. It stretches east-
ward along this southern limit as far as Salchah or
Salecali (Deut. iii. 10), the modern Salkhat; thence
northward to Hermon (Deut. iii. 8, iv. 47), which
may be inferred from the passage in Deut. xxxiii.
22, which speaks of Dan leaping from Baslian, and
referring to the time when Dan had emigrated
to the extreme north. In the west, Baslian did not
extend quite to the Jordan; the territory of the
Maachathitesand the Gesliurites intervening between
it and the river (Deut. iii. 14; Josh. xii. 5, xiii. 11,

13). The land was probably rather well settled in
early times, since Deut. iii. 4 speaks of sixty cities;
there are many ruins remaining to this day. The
names of very few cities have, however, been pre-
served. Edrei (Deut. i. 4; iii. 1, 10; Josh. xii. 4;
Num. xxi. 33), apparently a royal city, was the scene
of the battle which ended in the defeat of Og, and
gave the Hebrews possession of the land. It is now
known as “Ed-deraah.” Generally mentioned in
connection with Edrei is another royal city, Aslita-
rotli, perhaps the modern Tell-Ashtera. Golan was
set aside by Joshua as a city of refuge (Josh. xx. 8),
and was held by the Gerslion branch of the Levites
(Josh. xxi. 27; I Cliron. vi. 56). Of Salecah nothing
is known but the fact that it was a boundary city
(Josh. xii. 5; Deut. iii. 10; Josh. xiii. 11).

The land of Baslian is characterized by its volcanic
formation : the hills have craters and are pictur-
esquely called “har gabnunnim” (mountain of sum-
mits; A. V. “high hills,” Ps. lxviii. 16). The soil
is very fertile and provides excellent pasture for
flocks, which in ancient times were noted for their
size and breed (Deut. xxxii. 14). The powerful cattle
of Bashan are referred to in the orations of the Proph-
ets as designations for the strong, overbearing inhab-
itants of Samaria (Amos iv. 1), and for wicked people
in general (Ps. xxii. 13). In the eastern portion oaks
grew quite plentifully (Isa. ii. 13), and were used in
making oars for the Tyrian trade (Ezek. xxvii. 6).
In figurative language, Bashan is often linked with
the Lebanon and Carmel as dcsignativeof mourning
(Zecli. xi. 2), languishing (Nahum i. 4), or casting
away its fruit (Isa. xxxiii. 9).

According to Biblical tradition, Bashan was con-
quered from the mythical Og by the Hebrews in the
days of Moses, and was handed over to the half-tribe
of Manasseh (Deut. iii. 13; Josh. xiii. 29; I Cliron.
v. 23). According to I Cliron. v. 11, Gad also had
some land in Bashan, but this late passage is hardly
sufficient evidence. In Solomon’s reign a commis-
sariat officer was stationed in Bashan (I Kings iv. 13,
19). In the days of Jehu, Hazael began to devastate
the land (II Kings x. 33), but in the invasion of
Tiglatli-pileser (II Kings xv. 29) it is not mentioned.
See G. A. Smith, “ Historical Geography of the Holy
Land,” ch. xxvii. The name gave rise to the Greek
“ Batantea ” and to the modem Arabic “ Butlianiya-
tun.”

j. jr. G. B. L.

BASHAR BEN PHINEAS. See Ibn Shuaihs.

BASHEMATH, BASMATH (R. V., BASE-
MATH): 1. One of the wives of Esau. In Gen.
xxvi. 34 she is described as “the daughter of Elon
the Hittite.” According to the same source, Esau
had another wife, Malialath, the daughter of Ish-
mael, the sister of Nebajoth ; but in Gen. xxxvi. 2
the first of Esau’s wives is stated to be Adah, “ the
daughter of Elon the Hittite,” and Bashemath is de-
scribed as the daughter of Islimael, the sister of
Nebajoth. The Samaritan text avoids the conflict
between the different narratives by substituting
Malialath for Bashemath in Gen. xxxvi.

2. A daughter of Solomon, and wife of Ahimaaz.
The latter was one of the twelve purveyors for the

.Bashuysen

Bashyazi

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

574

royal household, and was assigned to the district of
Naphtali (I Kings iv. 15).
j. jk. C. F. K.

BASHUYSEN, HEINRICH JACOB : Chris-
tian printer of Hebrew books and Orientalist; born
at Hanau, Prussia, Oct. 26, 1679; died about 1750.
He founded a printing-establishment in his native
city between 1709 and 1712; and over 100 publica-
tions were issued from his press. He was a zeal-
ous promoter of Hebrew and rabbinical literature;
and, among other works, he translated extracts from
the rabbinical commentaries to the Psalms (Hanau,
1712). In one of his dissertations he translated a
part of the “Mishneli Torah” of Moses Maimonides
(Hanover, 1705; Frankfort, 1708); and it was his in-
tention to translate the whole work, as well as the
Hebrew grammar “Shoresh Yeliudali,” by Juda
Neumark, director of Bashuysen’s printing-office in
Hanau. Baslmysen published Abravanel’s com
mentaries on the Pentateuch, and intended to edit
the entire work in four volumes. He also enter-
tained the idea of amplifying Otho’s “ Historia Doc-
torum Mishnicorum” by adding the Amoraim.

Among Bashuysen’s other works may be men-
tioned: Panegyricus Hebr. de Ling. Hebr.” (Han-
over, 1706; also in German, ib. 1706) ; “ Institut.iones
Gemarico -Rabbin.” (Hanover, 1718); “Exercit. Para-
doxa deNova Methodo Discendi perRabbinos Ling.
Hebr.” (Servestae, 1720).

In 1701 he was appointed ordinary professor of
Oriental languages and ecclesiastical history at the
Protestant gymnasium of Hanau, and in 1703 be-
came professor of theology in that institution (Ba-
sh uyseu’s father was preacher in the Dutch Reformed
Church of the city). In 1716 he accepted the posi-
tion of rector and “professor primarius” at the gym-
nasium of Zerbst. Bashuysen was a member of the
Academy of Berlin and of the London Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel.

Bibliography: Bernhardi, in Allgemeine Deutsche Bioyra-
l>hien , s.v. Bashuysen ; Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. Nos. 4521,
9338; idem, BiW. Handhuch, p. 18; idem , in Zcit.f.Hcbr.
Bibl. ii. 51.

G. A. F.

BASHYAZI, ELIJAH B. MOSES B. MEN-
AHEM OF ADRIANOPLE: Karaite hakam ;
born at Adrianople about 1420; died therein 1490.
After being instructed in the Karaite literature and
theology of his father and grandfather, both learned
hakams of the Karaite community of Adrianople,
Bashyazi went to Constantinople, where, under the
direction of Mordecai C’omtino, he studied rabbin-
ical literature as well as mathematics, astronomy, and
philosophy, in all of which he soon became most
proficient.

In 1460 Bashyazi succeeded his father as hakam
of the Karaite community at Adrianople. From the
many letters addressed by him as rep-
Becomes resentative of the Karaite community
Hakam at of Constantinople, from 1480 to 1484,
Adria- to Karaite communities in Luska and
nople. Trok, Poland, Neubauer concludes that
Bashyazi resided for the most of the
time in Constantinople. In these letters he appears
as a warm-hearted defender of the Karaite faith.
He urges his coreligionists to send young men to

Constantinople to study their religious authorities,
lest their faith die out, and to lead a pious life ; other-
wise he would pronounce an anathema on those dere-
lict in their duties. He devoted himself to the im-
provement of the intellectual condition of the Karaite
sect, which, in consequence of internal dissensions
on religious matters, was at that time very low. In
order to settle the religious laws he compiled a code
entitled “Aderet Eliyahu” (The Mantle of Elijah).
This code, which contained both the mandatory and
prohibitory precepts, is rightly regarded by the
Karaites as the greatest authority on those matters.

In it Bashyazi displays a remarkable
His knowledge, not only of the earliest Ka-
“ Aderet raite writings, but also of all the more
Eliyahu.” important rabbinical works, including
those of Saadia, Ibu Ezra, and Mai-
monides, whose opinions he discusses.

The “Aderet” is divided into subjects and these
again are subdivided into chapters. The subjects
treated are: (l)Yhe fixation of the months (42 chap-
ters); (2) the Sabbath (22 chaps.); (3) Passover (10
chaps.); (4) unleavened bread (7 chaps.); (5) the
Feastof Weeks (10 chaps.); (6) New-Year (2 chaps.):
(7) the Day of Atonement (5 chaps.); (8) the Feast
of Tabernacles (5 chaps.); (9) prayer. This last sub-
ject comprises three parts: theology; ethics; and
laws concerning prayers, synagogues, slaughtering,
clean and unclean, prohibited degrees in marriage,
women, the years of release and jubilee, the prohibi-
tion of mingled seed, and oaths. The last three sub-
jects were completed, after Bashyazi ’s death, by his
disciple, Caleb Afendopolo.

Bashyazi ’s theological system is a masterpiece of
clearness and logic. Following the example of Judah
Hadassi and probably of still older
His Theo- masters of Karaism, he set up ten arti-
logical cles of belief, the veracity of which he
System, demonstrates philosophically as fol-
lows:

(1) All 'physical existence— that is to say, the spheres
and all that they contain — has been created.

There are two kinds of creations: creation from
something else, and creation from nothing. The
things now existing are creations from something
else, such as the chicken created from the egg ; but
creation from nothing is by the will of God alone.
All compound beings have been produced from the
elements and the first matter by the movement of
the spheres. But the question is whether the spheres
and the first matter were created. The philosophers
assert that they are eternal, because, they say, “noth-
ing can be created from nothing.” In Bashyazi 's
opinion this is an error arising from judging the past
by the present. The philosophers, knowing of no
creation from nothing in their own experience, con-
clude that such a creation never could
His Views have been. Supposing then that they
on had never seen the chicken emerge
Creation, from the egg, they might as well main-
tain that the chicken was eternal, be-
cause they could not explain how it lived in the
egg. The fact is that inferior beings can not be
compared with superior ones which the reason is
unable to conceive. In these things reliance must
be placed upon revelation, which even philosophy

575

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bashuysen

Bashyazi

admits to be true ; and all prophets declare that the
spheres have been created from nothing.

However, not satisfied with religious proofs only,
Bashyazi tries to give philosophical arguments, and
being unable to furnish them in the strictly Peripa-
tetic way, he demonstrates his article of belief by
Avicenna’s theory of “ the necessary ”
Relies upon and “the possible,” which he wrongly
Phi- attributes to Aristotle. Since pliilos-

losophy. ophy proves that the existence of all
beings, except God, is only “ possible,”
the spheres, as well as the first matter, must have
been created; otherwise their existence would be a
“necessary ” one like that of God.

(2) That all beings have a creator who has not created
himself.

This is the corollary of the first article of belief.
As it was demonstrated that beings were created,
they must have had a creator. All movement pre-
supposes a motor either physical or spiritual. As
the heavens are moved by a physical motor, this
motor in its turn must have another motor; and so
forth until the Prime Mover, God, is reached.

(3) That God has no likeness and is absolutely one.

The fact that the existence of God only is neces-
sary proves that He has no likeness. He must also
be one; for if there were two beings whose existence
was necessary, one of them must have been the cause
of the other. In that case there would be only one
whose existence was necessary. On the other hand,
in supposing each of them to be his own cause,
one must have a distinguishing quality which the
other does not possess; for if both were identical in
all things they would form one; and a being to
whom qualities can be attributed is necessarily com-
posed, and must therefore have a creator. As for
the attributes of God found in the Bible they must
be taken negative^.

(4) That God sent Moses.

Bashyazi examines prophecy from the philosoph-
ical point of view; and, demonstrating it to be true,
he claims that there is no hindrance to a belief in
Moses’ mission.

(5) That Tie gave through Moses ITis Law, which is
perfect.

(6) That the believer should know the language and
the interpretation of the Law.

All the existing translations of the Law have in
many passages altered the sense ; therefore, the be-
liever must learn the Hebrew language in order to
be able to read the Law in the original.

(7) That God inspired the other prophets.

(8) That God will raise up the dead on the Day of
Judgment.

Bashyazi did not undertake to prove article 8 phil-
osophically, accepting the tradition as satisfactory.
Moreover, it is made plausible by the fact that God
made Adam of clay.

(9) That God rewards and punishes every one ac-
cording to his merits or demerits.

This article of belief being in close connection
with Providence and Omniscience, Bashyazi refutes
the opinion of certain philosophers who assert that
God’s knowledge bears only upon the universalities
and not upon individual things.

(10) That God did not reject the exiled [Jews] , and

that although they are suffering, they should hope every
day for their deliverance by the Messiah, the son of
David.

The other works of Bashyazi are; (1) “Iggeret
ha-Zom” (Letter on Easting on Saturday), divided
into three sections. This letter was directed against
Solomon Sharbit lia-Zahab, who opposed the opinion
of Aaron b. Elijah the Karaite. (2)
Bashyazi’s “ Iggeret Gid lia-Nashh ” (Letter on the
Other Sinew Which Shrank, Gen. xx.xii. 33),
Works. discussing the question whether the
prohibition extends to fowl. This,
too, was directed against Solomon Sharbit lia-Zahab.
(3) “Iggeret ha-Yerushah” (Letter on Inheritance).
These three works have been published by Firko-
witz (Koslov, Eupatoria, 1835) with the second edi-
tion of the “Aderet.” (4) “Halukat lia-Karaim”
(The Schism of the Karaite). (5) “ Keli Nehoshet ”
(Tool of Copper), on the use of the astrolabe and its
construction, together with a treatise on astronomy.
(6) “Melizat ha-Mizwot” (The Precepts in Verses),
imitated from the “Azharot” of Ibn Gabirol. This
was published in the Karaite prayer-book, ed.
Vienna, ii. 175. Bashyazi wrote also many prayers
which were embodied in the Karaite prayer-book
(ed. Vienna, iii. 226).

Bibliography : Burst, Gesch. des KartUrthums, pp. 301-310 ;
Gottlober, Bikknret la-Toledot ha-Karaim , p. 138; Yost,
Gesch. des Judenthums , ii. 331 et seq . ; P. F. Fninkl,
Karaiten, in Ersch and Gruber, Eneykloptidie , p. 18, note,
1883; Nenbauer, Aus dcr Petersburger BihUnthek, 1st id,
pp. 60, 140 et seq.

K. I. Bit.

BASHYAZI, HILLEL BEN MOSES: Ka-
raite scholar; lived at Constantinople in the first half
of the sixteenth century. He was the author of a
commentary upon the Karaite prayer-book entitled
“Teliillat Adonai” (The Praise of God). The work
is still extant in manuscript and is quoted by Sim-
hah Yizhak Luzki in “Orah Zaddikin.”

Bibliography : Jost.Geseh. des Judenthums uwl Seiner Sec-
ten, ii. 370; Nenbauer, Aus dcr Peters burger Bibliothek,
p. 64.

K. I. Bit.

BASHYAZI, MOSES BEN ELIJAH: Ka-
raite scholar; great-grandson of Elijah Bashyazi;
born at Constantinople in 1537 ; died in 1555. When
but sixteen years of age, he displayed a remarkable
degree of learning and a profound knowledge of for-
eign languages. He undertook for mere love of
knowledge a voyage to Palestine and Syria in order
to explore these countries and to collect old manu-
scripts. Though he died at such an early age,
he had composed many works, four of which are
extant in manuscript (Leyden, St. Petersburg, Paris):
(1) “Sefer Yehudali” or “Sefer ‘Arayot,” on pro-
hibited marriages. In this work he enumerates
former authors who had written on the same sub-
ject, such as Al-Basir, Jeshua (Furkan) ben Judah
Abu al-Faraj Harun, Aaron ben Elijah. (2) “Zebah
Pesah ” (The Passover Sacrifice), on the celebration of
the festival days, in which he quotes many passages
from the Arabic originals of Jeshuah ben Judah’s
commentary upon the Pentateuch, from the com-
mentary of Joseph Kirkisan, from Jeshua’s other
works, and from the “ Sefer ha-Mizwot ” of Kumisi.
(3) “ Matteh Elohim ” (The Rod of God), which con-
tains a history of the Karaite schism; the chain of

"Basilea

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

576

Karaite tradition, which the author claims to have
received from Japhetli ibn Saghir; interpretation of
the Law, and particularly of the precepts which are
arranged in numbers according to the Decalogue.
(4) “Sefer Reuben ” (The Book of Reuben), on dog-
mas and articles of belief.

■Bibliography: Jost, Gesch. des Judenthums und Seiner Sec-

ten, ii. 370; Fiirst, Gesch. d. Kariiert. iii. 316-322; Neubauer,

A un der Petersburger Biblinthek, pp. 63, 64 ; Gottlober, Bik-

koret le-Toledot ha-Karaim, p. 202.

G. I. Br.

BASILEA, BASILA, BASSOLA, BASOLA,
BASLA r6lD(X)71. C”N,

-n^TX^) : A family originally from Basel in Switz-
erland (whence the name), but resident in the north
of Italy and in Palestine from the fifteenth to the
eighteenth century.

In 1489 Mordecai Zarfati (the Frenchman) ben
Reuben Bassola corrected at Soncino the proofs of
an edition of the Talmudical treatises Hullin and
Niddali, with scrupulous exactness and knowledge
(see Iiabbinowitz, “Dikduke Soferim ”). His son
Moses ben Mordecai Bassola (1480-1560), cele-
brated for his cabalistic attainments, was born at
Pesaro, and was for a long time head of the Jewish
Academy of Ancona. He was rabbi in Ancona
when Paul IV. (1555-59) tried to take vengeance on
Spain by persecuting the Maranos living in that
city. A number of Maranos had tied to the East,
and there conceived the idea of boycotting Ancona,
and turning the Levantine commerce to Pesaro (Jew.
Encyc. i. 572). It was Moses who wrote the letter
to the Constantinople Jews, begging them not to
carry out their threat, for fear of the reprisals that
Paul might take (Griitz, “ Gesch. der Juden,” ix. 376,
378. 383, 444; x.142; Kaufmann, in “Revue Etudes
Juives,” xxxi. 231 ; Zunz, “ Gesammelte Schriften,”
i. 182). While at Pesaro he encouraged his pupil Em-
manuel Benevento to print the Zohar (Mantua ed.
1558-60), and he published at the head of the “Tik-
kuue Zohar” his official approbation, an eloquent
plea in behalf of the Cabala in general and of what
claimed to be R. Simeon b. Yobai’s work in partic-
ular. In his old age Moses journeyed to Palestine;
his diary of the voyage, which Azariah dei Rossi
examined with good results (see the Samaritan alpha-
bet in ch. Tvi. of “Imre Binah,” part 3 of the “Me’or
'‘Eiiayim ”), evidences his scientific inquisitivenessand
the clearness of his thought. In Safed, Moses was
welcomed with great honor by all the scholars there
resident ; and Moses Cordovero, it is said, on the
authority of Leon de Modena (“ Ari No'em,” xxvi.),
ostentatiously kissed his hands, much disconcerting
the modest old man. Rabbi Menahem Azariah de
Fauo eulogizes Moses in No. 67 of his responsa, in
connection with certain commercial printing-offices
in Italy (compare “Toledot Gcdole Yisrael,” p. 248).
He is also quoted by R. Moses de Trani in No. 304
of the first part of his collection, and by Katzenellen-
bogen of Padua, in No. 13 of his responsa (Conforte,
“Kore lia-Dorot,” ed. Cassel, 345, 37a); see also re-
sponsa in manuscripts 9 and 228 of the Halber-
stamm Library (“ Kehilat Shelomo,” Vienna, 1890).
His family established themselves at Safed.

His son Azriel ben Moses Bassola gave les-
sons to the infant prodigy Leon de Modena, who
enjoyed likewise, especially between 1582 and 1584,

the instruction of Moses, son of Benjamin della
Rocca. The last-named, who was a grandson on his
mother’s side of the venerable Moses Bassola, whose
family name he bore, came from Safed, where he had
had as colleague Gedaliali, son of Moses Cordovero.
A\ hen the latter also came to Italy, he associated
him with himself, in pious tribute to the memory of
Cordovero in the work “Or Ne’erab” (The Setting
Luminary) (1587). In 1588 Moses Bassola received
as a gift from the hands of R. Menahem Azariah de
Fano, the manuscript of the work “ Tomer Deborah ”
(The Palm-Tree of Deborah), which he also edited.
His facility in writing is shown by the brief prefaces
in prose and in verse, as well as by a homily preserved
in the Italian manuscript of the Michael collection
(Neubauer, “Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS.” No. 2192). He
died soon after at an early age in the island of Cy-
prus, sincerely lamented by his pupil Leon of Mo-
dena (then thirteen years old), in the following elegy,
which can be read both in Hebrew and in Italian:

. 13 HflX D33 nn . IN . -0D2> njip
“ Chi nasce muor ohme che pass’ acerbo.

: l8* 8n pi UN . 1013 Dl’np 31B 83
Colto vien l’uom cosi ordin’ il cielo.

. 13 131 . ipi na»o . 'iid nttm
Mose mori Mose gia car de verbo.

: 18 nr sin iid3 or . px nupin div
Santo sia ogn’ uora, con puro zelo.

. 13 lii’N . 'IX . 'D' 30'!D .183
Ch’alla meta, giammai senza riserbo.

. 18 131’ JN3 px . pi HID . 01X 3'ini
Arriv’ uom ma vedran in cangiar pelo.

. UD' 131J1 8-X . 8,1 0’3 IJ'SD
Se tin abbiam, ch’al cielo vero o’meno
une> i»i ’3ti’ X3i' 0181
Ah l’uom va, se viva assai se meno.”

This “kinah” was first published (the Italian in
Hebrew characters) in Leon’s “Midbar Yehudah,”
Venice, 1602; then in his “Pi Aryeh,” Venice, 1640.
It has since been often republished, notably by Bar-
tolocci in “Bibliotheca Rabbinica,” iii. 34; by Wag-
enseil in “ Sotah,” 50; in “ The Occident,” xiv., Phila-
delphia, 1856; and by N. S. Lebowitz, in “Leon Mo-
dena.” 2d ed., 1901, p. 7. Compare Stein schneider,

“ Cat. Bodl.” col. 1353; idem, in “ Monatsschrift,” xliii.
313, 315; Michael, “ Or ha-Hayyim,” No. 963; Gratz,
“Gesch. der Juden,” x. 142.

Another Moses Basilea or Bassola edited the
“Or Ne’erab,” Venice, 1587; and the “Tamar Debo-
rah ” of Moses Cordovero, Venice, 1589.

A century later Rabbi Ezekias de Basla ( N^TiOt)
was sent to Carpentras as representative of the city
of Safed, which was in distress at that time (see
Luncz, iii. 108).

Mordecai ben Reuben designates himself in all his
letters as belonging to the junior branch of the fam-
ily. Contemporary with him was Azriel, who was
related to Rabbi Joseph Colon (see Mortara, “ Indice
Alfabetico ”), and who died in 1480. Among his
posterity (the Trabotti) the name “ Azriel ” recurs
frequently; there is one of that name also in the
above-cited branch of the Bassola family. The cele-
brated Rabbi Jehiel, son of Azriel Trabot(to), men-
tions in the sixteenth century a certain Abraham
ben Abraham Basola living in Cremona. Possi-
bly the Azriel b. Abraham Zarfati in Solmona
(Abruzzi) in 1535 (Mortara, “Indice Alfabetico,” p.

577

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Basilea

70) is to be mentioned in this connection. In 1652
Moses Simon, son of Shabbethai Basilea, had
charge of an edition of “Tikkun ‘Oiani” (System
of the Universe), a commentary on Isaiah, edited by
Ortona and published at the press of Fr. Rossi at
Verona.

Quitea long lineof rabbis and writers is connected
with Samson Basola of the sixteenth century,
whose son Solomon, rabbi at Mantua in 1570, was
drawn into the controversy which raged in 1572 con-
cerning the levirate marriage. His opinion, which
is based essentially upon the Zoliar, is incorporated
in the “Pahad Yizhak ” (letter n, p. 34). One of his
descendants, Menahem Samson ben Solomon
Basila of Mantua, was rabbi at Alessandria in Italy,
and chief rabbi at Mantua in 1670, where he died in
1693. The center of a constellation of noted men,
he was an intimate friend of R. Moses Zacuto, and
was eulogized by his favorite pupil, Benjamin
Cohen de Reggio, in his book, “Gebul Binyamin.”
He turned his attention to the calendar; and one for
the years 5431-32 (1671-72), which he published at
Venice, has been preserved, as has also a manuscript
letter in Italian of great interest, in which astronomy
is still called astrology, and which reveals very
clearly the ingenious artifices to which recourse was
had in 1675 for the purpose of harmonizing the dif-
ferences of opinion concerning the true time of the
moon’s phases. His decisions are scattered through
the best collections of the period (Nepi, 225) ; one of
them, addressed to a grandson of R. Joshua Boaz of
the Baruch family, author of the “Shiite ha-Gib-
borim,” forbids the use of brandy distilled in retorts
as being forbidden (Nesek); it is printed at the end
of the large work written by his son, Solomon
Abi‘ad Sar Shalom, whom he instructed in relig-
ion and Cabala.

This son, who in his name bears testimony to the
Messianic hopes of his kinsman, was reared tinder
the eyes of Moses Zacuto, of Vital Norzi, of the
Segr&s; his chief teacher was Judah Breal; and his
fellow-student was Isaac Immpronti, the author of
“Pahad Yizhak.” At the age of ten he commenced
the study of the various sciences, and plunged with
avidity into the theosophy of Moses Cordovero.
He attempted poetry, and edited, with a commen-
tary, the mystic poem of Moses Zacuto, “ ‘Aruk
Tofteli” (alluding to Is. xxx. 33), (Venice, 1715, 1744;
Metz, 1777). That lie acquired a profound knowl-
edge of the Talmud and of the casuists is shown by
his correspondence with Judah Breal, Gabriel Pon-
tremoli, and Abraham Segrt) (“Bibliotheca Fried-
landiana, ” No. 727) ; and his decisions are incorporated
in No. 59 of the Halberstamm collection, in the “Pa-
had Yizhak ” by his fellow-student Lampronti, in the
responsa of Jabez (R. Jacob Emden), and elsewhere.

Solomon enjoyed a deserved reputation for geo-
metrical knowledge; he edited Euclid’s “Elements”
for the use of Abraham Segrt! (Gilnzburg Collection,
No. 215); and was also versed in astronomy. He ex-
changed letters in Italian with Samson Bachi the
younger, of Casale, an uncle of R. Isaac Raphael
Finzi (Nepi, 321), upon the principles of the calen-
dar, between 1694 and 1701, and wrote a preface for
his treatise entitled “Nayer ha-Yamim” (A Paper
on the Years) (Gilnzburg Collection, Nos. 312, 579);

II.— 37

in 1727 he commenced to publish “Luali ” or Pocket
Daily Calendar: it appeared at Mantua in 32mo, and
included the dates of the Christian festivals.

At the age of forty-four, in company with Samuel
Norzi, Solomon initiated himself into the intricacies
of the cabalistic system of Isaac Luria, which to-day
takes precedence of all others. He carefully pre-
pared a very remarkable work, in which he re-
proached all philosophers and exegetes who had not
taken part in the mystical movement, and adduced
specious arguments for the authenticity of the Zohar.
His work, even before it appeared in print, aroused
a most heated opposition. Gad dell’Aquila implored
the author most earnestly not to insult the memory
of Abraham ibn Ezra by the publication of his book
(Gilnzburg Collection, No. 179). He took some time
to revise it, rather to amplify, however, than to
moderate its expressions; and it appeared in 1730
under the title of “Emunat Hakamim” (The Faith
of the Wise). The work is a veritable mine of
knowledge; the whole of Hebrew literature is passed
in review ; and there are quotations from Pythago-
ras, Plato, Aristotle, Alexander of Aplirodisias,
Averroes, Avicenna, Copernicus, Fr. Piccolomini, I.
Cotogno(“De Triplici Statu Animi”), and others.
Jacob Emden attempted to refute the book in his
“Mitpahat Sefarim.”

Abi'ad naturally took the part of M. H. Luzzatto
when the latter was persecuted: it was probably
owing to this that a search-warrant was issued
against him on the ground that he possessed forbid-
den books in his library. Being convicted of own-
ing non-expurgated works, he was thrown into
prison in June, 1733; May 28, 1734, he was reported
sick at his house, and on June 23, 1738, was sen-
tenced to three years’ domiciliary arrest, which pen-
alty was commuted June 18, 1739, by the curia of
Rome into confinement within the ghetto-walls
(Mortara, in “ Hebriiische Bibliographic,” 1862, p.
100). In 1742 he affixed his approbation to Solomon
Norzi’s work “ Minhat Shay,” having examined an
incomplete manuscript of the same (Letter 36 of the
epistolary collection in the Friedland library); but
he died on the last day of Tabernacles, 1743, without
having witnessed its completion.

His brother Abraham Jedidiah is especially
known for having superintended, under the auspices
of David Finzi and Judal Breal, an edition of the
Shulhan ‘Aruk (Mantua, 1723), which contained a
short commentary by Gur Aryeh ha-Levi, one of his
father’s friends. He was assisted in the work by
Gur Aryeh Finzi. The edition was published at the
expense of the physician Raphael Vital of Italy.
Finally, a son of Abi‘ad, by name Raphael Vital,
deserves mention for having superintended and re-
vised, while still very young, an edition of the “Min-
hat Shay,” that monumental production of the Ital-
ian Masorah, printed at the press of the same Raphael
Vital, and at the latter’s expense. Jellinek accuses
him (Introduction to Norzi’s writings, Vienna,
1876) of having taken liberties with his author;
but before passing judgment it would be necessary
to know if the Mantua manuscript which was com-
municated to Jellinek was in reality that which be-
longed to Abi‘ad, and whether, moreover, the unex-
pected death of the latter did not necessitate an

Basilisk

Basnag-e

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

578

abridgment of the work. Respect for the author is
shown by the fact that he entitled his work “Minhat
Shay.”

Bibliography: Mortara, Indice Alfabetico, s.v.; Steinschnei-
der, Cat. Bodl. cols. 1353, 1725, 1795, 1992, 2285, 2826 ; Luncz,
Jerusalem , iii. 55; S. Wiener, Bibliotheca Friedlandiana ,
No. 496.

k. V. C.— D. G.— G.

BASILISK : The translation in the Revised Ver-
sion of the Hebrew “zefa‘ ” and “zif’oni ” (Isa. xi. 8,
xiv. 29, lix. 5; Jer. viii. 17; Prov. xxiii. 32), for
wliicli the Authorized Version has “cockatrice.”
The Septuagint uses the word fiaau Vtcuov in Isa. lix.
5 for “ef‘eli,” and in Ps. xci. 13 for “peten.” In
all these places some variety of serpent is evidently
meant, but the ancient versions do not indicate
which. The rendering “basilisk” — so also Jerome
and the Syriac Version— is correct in so far as that
the Hebrew word likewise appears to designate some
fabulous creature, though it is not known which
was the particular kind of serpent that suggested
the fanciful notions of the ancients. According to
some, the Hebrew “zefa‘” is the same species as
“shefifon” (Gen. xlix. 17), the horned adder or
cerastes, a very poisonous viper found in Arabia,
in the Sinaitic peninsula,
j. jr. I. Be.

BASIN, or BASON : The following Hebrew
words are rendered “bason” in English: “ag-
gan,” “kefor,” “mizrak,” and “saf.” Of these
“aggan” and “kefor” are rare, the former occurring
in Ex. xxiv. 6 as the name of the vessel in which
the blood of the sacrifice was put, before the people
were sprinkled with it; the latter, in I Cliron. xxviii.
17 ; Ezra i. 10, xxviii. 27 (A. V. “ bason ” ; R. V.
“ bowl ”).

The common Biblical word for Basin is “mizrak.”
Three metals are mentioned in the Bible in connec-
tion with the basins, copper or brass, silver, and
gold. Brass basins were used as sprinkling-bowls
in sacrificing (Ex. xxvii. 3, xxxviii. 3; I Kings vii.
40, 45). Basins of silver were offered with the meal-
offering to the tabernacle by the “ princes ” of the con-
gregation (Num. vii. 11, 13, 19, 25 et seq.). Solomon
made basins of gold for the Temple (I Kings vii. 50),
and those of gold and of silver were taken by Nebu-
zaradan when he plundered Jerusalem (II Kings
xxv. 15; Jer. Iii. 18, 19). In Zech. ix. 15 sacred
vessels of this kind are spoken of in a way that in-
dicates that they were used for wine ; and in Amos
vi. 6 the “mizrak ” is mentioned as a drinking bowl.
Fifty basins were among the gift of treasure to the
Second Temple (Nell. vii. 70). “Mizrak” is trans-
lated in both A. V. and R. V. sometimes as “bason”
and sometimes as “bowl.”

“Saf” (A. V. “bason”; R. V. generally “cup,”
but twice “bason ”) seems to have corresponded in a
great measure to “mizrak.” It is mentioned (Ex.
xii. 22) as being used for holding the blood of vic-
tims in connection with the Passover sacrifice before
the Exodus, and as a utensil for the Temple (II
Kings xii. 14 [A. V.]; I Kings vii. 50; Jer. Iii. 19).
“ Saf ” is also used as a general term for Basin or
bowl (II Sam. xvii. 28; Zech. xii. 2).

J. JR. C. J. M.

BASKET-TAX : The most burdensome and an-
noying of the special taxes imposed upon the Jews
of Russia by the government. The edict concern-
ing this medieval tax — one of the legacies inherited
by the Russian government from the Catholic mon-
asteries— was issued Dec. 31, 1844. The tax is di-
vided into a general tax and an auxiliary one. The
general tax is raised from the kosher meat used
by the Jews, which is, therefore, little accessible to
the Jewish masses; and the tax has consequently
been inimical to the physical development of the
Russian Jews. This tax is levied (1) on every head
of cattle killed for kosher meat; (2) on every fowl
killed for the same purpose; and (3) on every pound
of meat sold in the market.

The auxiliary tax is derived from various trade
licenses, and, as a kind of probate duty, from money
inherited by Jews. To the Basket-Tax also belongs
the tax on old-fashioned wearing apparel, such as
the old Polish caftan, the skull-cap, and women’s
head-gear and perukes.

The Basket-Tax, because of its being leased by
the government to the highest bidder, has always
been a source of annoyance and corruption ; and, not-
withstanding the appointment of special commis-
sions, and numerous protests published against it, it
still exists, and exerts a demoralizing effect upon the
Jews of the Russian empire. The income from this
tax has been in part devoted to the maintenance of
Jewish schools. It was formerly used also to pay
for the transportation of Jewish agriculturists
to the colonies, and for various other communal
needs.

No complete statistics of the amount paid for the
Basket-Tax by the tax-farmers are yet available;
but the following figures majr convey a general
idea: Poltava (1889), 13,000 rubles; Nikolaiev (1895),
32,000 rubles; Kiev (1875), 40,000 rubles.

Bibliography : U. Morgulis, Korobochny Shor. in Yevrei-

shaya Bihlioteka. vi. 61-113, St. Petersburg, 1878; Mysh,

Rukovodstvo k Russkim Zakonam o Yevreyakh, 2d ed.. p.

434, ib. 1898; Vtorai Polny Svod Zakonov, xix.. No. 18,533;

Voskhod, 1889, xi.-xii. 123 et seq.; ib. 1894, ii. 1 et s eq.;

Khronika Voskhoda , 1893, No. 42; Budushchnost, 1901,

No. 7.

H. R. J. G. L.

BASKETS : Four kinds of Baskets are mentioned
in the Old Testament — “dud,” “tene,” “sal,” and
“ kelub ” — but unfortunately without any intima-

Egyptian Baskets.

(From Wilkinson, “Ancient Egyptians.”)

tion whatever of the differences of shape or size be-
tween them ; and even as to their uses only uncer-
tain conclusions can be drawn. “ Dud ” (“ pot,” A.Y.)

579

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Basilisk

Basnage

is the carrying basket, borne in the hands (Ps.
lxxxi. 7 [A. V. 6] ; II Kings x. 7 ; Jer. xxiv. 2). It is
used in Ps. lxxxi. 6 as a symbol of Egyptian bond-
age,connoting the basket in which the Israelites car-
ried the clay for their bricks. This must therefore
have been a large shallow basket such as the
ancient Egyptians used for the purpose (Wilkinson,
“Ancient Egyptians,” i. 379). The term “dud”
is applied also to the pot in which meat was
boiled (I Sam. ii. 14), showing that not only the flat-
formed basket but also a pot-shaped one was known
by this name. “ Dud ” may possibly be a general
expression for vessels of various kinds. “ Sal ” is
the term for the basket in which the Egyptian court
baker had his confectionery, and which he carried on
his head (Gen. xl. 16). It is also the usual term for
the basket in which was placed the meat of the
offering (Judges vi. 19), and likewise the unleavened

bread (Ex. xxix. 3; Lev. viii. 2; Num. vi. 15). It
is expressly stated that these unleavened cakes must
be placed in such a basket and offered therein.
“ Sal ” refers without doubt, therefore, to a small
dish-shaped basket, perhaps of finer texture. Dif-
ferent from this was certainly the “ tene, ” the large
deep basket in which grain and other field-products
were kept (Deut. xxviii. 5, 17), and the tithes trans-
ported to the sanctuary (Deut. xxvi. 2). Possibly
this form of basket resembled that used by the Pal-
estinian peasantry to-day for keeping wheat or oats ;
it is made of clay and straw and called “habya.”
This has somewhat the shape of ajar; at the top
is the mouth into which grain is poured, and at the
bottom a small orifice through which small quanti-
ties are taken out as wanted and the opening closed
with a rag. The term Kaprallos, with which the
Septuagint translates “tene,” denotes a basket of the
shape of an inverted cone. The term “kelub,”
finally, found in Amos viii. 1 for a fruit-basket,
is used in Jer. v. 27 (“cage,” A. V. and R. Y.) for

a bird-cage. It was therefore no doubt a coarsely
woven basket with a cover, such as a fowler would
use to carry home his captives. The word koq'ivoc
used in the New Testament (Matt. xiv. 20 and else-
where) seems to have meant a specifically Jewish
utensil (compare Juvenal, iii. 14, “ Quorum c-ophinus
fopnumque suppellex,” and Talmudic nQ'ED and
HQIp; Jastrow, “Diet.” «.•».). In “ Corpus Inscrip-
tionum Graecarum,” 1625, 46, the word denotes a
Boeotian measure of about two gallons, from which
fact a conclusion may perhaps be drawn as to the
size of the basket.

J. jk. I. Be.

BASMATH, daughter of King Solomon. See
Bashemath.

BASNAGE, JACOB CHRISTIAN (called
also Basnage de Beauval) : Protestant pastor;

born at Rouen, France, Aug. 8, 1653; died in Hol-
land Dec. 22, 1725. At the age of twenty -three he
took charge of the Protestant Church of Rouen,
succeeding Etienne Le Moine, who had been called to
Leyden as professor of theology. After the revoca-
tion of the Edict of Nantes, and the consequent sup-
pression of the Reformed Church in his native city,
Basnage was called in 1686 to the pastorate of the
Walloon Church at Rotterdam; and in 1691, at the
instance of his friend Heinsius, grand pensionary of
Holland, he was chosen pastor of the Temple of The
Hague.

Though Basnage acquired a reputation as a skil-
ful diplomat (see analysis of his letters of 1713 by
M. Levesque, in “Les Memoires de
Is a l’Academie des Sciences et Lettres de
Skilful Rouen,” 1859, pp. 269 et seq.), his in-
Diplomat. terest for the present article consists
in the fact that, like his friend Fonte-
nelle, he employed his leisure hours in writing on
theology and on the history of religion. His works

Baskets Used in Modern Palestine.

(From the Merrill Collection, Semitic Museum, Harvard University.)

Basnage

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

580

on these subjects are enumerated as twenty -five in
“La Fiance Protestante” by Haag (Paris, 1 846—58 ;
2d ed., 1877, vol. i., s.v.). Chief among them is
“ L'Histoire et la Religion des Juifs Depuis Jesus
Christ Jusqu’a Present,” intended as a supplement
and continuation to Josephus (Rotterdam, 1706-11).

This work is in five books, forming seven volumes,
the sixth of which has the following title: “L'His-
toire des Juifs Reclamee et Retablie par Son Veri-
table Auteur, M.Basnage, Contre l’fidi-
His tion Anonyme et Tronquee Qui s’en
“ History of Est Faite ii Paris, chez Roulland, 1710 ;
the Jews.” avec Plusieurs Additions pour Servir
de Tome VI. a Cette Histoire.” The
mutilated edition mentioned in this remarkable title
was by Du Pin. A long preface to the sixth volume,

Jacob Christian Basnage.

(From Basnage’s French translation of Josephus.)

in twenty -eight paragraphs, contains remarks on the
criticisms passed upon Basnage’s “History of the
Jews” in the “Journal des Savants” of the time.
Very justly Basnage protests against the accusation
that he had “rejected the testimony of a contempo-
rary author who states facts,” whereas he had exam-
ined and discussed it (“Histoire des Juifs,” 1st ed.,
book vi., cli. xiv. 1265), as he had done, for in-
stance, in reference to the decree of Arcadius com-
pelling the Jews to abide by the Roman laws
(II Codex Theodosianus, i. 87).

This pirated edition testifies to the success of the
book, which on its appearance was translated into
English by Taylor, London, 1706, and later con-
densed into two volumes by Crull, London, 1708.
In the same year was published “Remarks upon Mr.
Basnage’s History of the Jews,” London, 1708.

A second and enlarged edition was brought out
some years later (The Hague, 1716-26; 7 books in 15
volumes), revised in accordance with the criticisms
made upon the first edition, and enriched by the
author’s new researches. The changes are apparent
even in the first book, to which was added the
genealogy of the Hasmoneans and of the Herodians
in three parallel columns, the first of which is accord-
ing to the first edition of the “ De Numeris Herodia-
dum” by P. Hardouin, disproved by Basnage; the
second is the same changed by P. Hardouin in his
reply to Basnage; the third is according to the sys-
tem of Josephus, followed by Basnage.

Voltaire, in his “SiScle de Louis XIV.,” 1830, xix.
55, in placing Basnage among the French writers
of that period, says: “ Among the most
Voltaire’s valued of his books is his ‘History of
Favorable the Jews.’ Books on current events
Estimate, are forgotten with the events; books
of general usefulness survive.” This
history is in fact the most important of Basnage’s
works, in quality as well as in bulk. At the be-
ginning of the work he calls it “a survey of all
that pertains to the religion and the history of the
Jews since Herod the Great.” And he goes on to
say : “ I have followed this nation into every cor-
ner of the world where it has sought refuge, and
have brought to Light the Ten Tribes that seemed
buried in the East. I have studied the schisms, the
sects, the dogmas, and the ceremonials found in that
religion.”

The contents of the seven books of the history are
as follows:

Book i. : The condition and the government of
Judea under the Herodians.

Book ii. : The history of the sects at the time of
Jesus and the destruction of Jerusa-
Contents of lem ; the origin, dogmas, progress, and
the Work, present condition of the Samaritans,
the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Es-
senes, and the Herodians.

Book iii. : The history of the patriarchs who ruled
in Judea, the princes of the Babylonian captivity,
and the successive generations of important rabbis
since the destruction of Jerusalem ; the character and
works of the Talmudists, Amoraim, Pyrrhonists or
Skeptics (perhaps he meant the Epicureans), “ Excel -
lents ” or Geonim, Masoretes, and Cabalists, together
with a description of the Cabala and of its famous
teachers.

Book iv. : The Jewish dogmas and confession of
faith, and the history of the Jewish religion from the
destruction of the Temple.

Book v. : Jewish rites and ceremonies.

Book vi. : The dispersion of all the tribes in the
Orient and the Occident, up to the eighth century.

Book vii. : The history of the dispersion from the
eighth century to the eighteenth century.

Of these chapters, Richard Simon (according to
Haag, “ La France Protestante ”) praises especially
those on the Karaites, the Masorites, and the Samar-
itans. It is a matter of regret that the portions re-
lating to modern times are not more complete. Bas-
nage apparently did not know that in his day there
were already many European Jews in America, oc-
casionally banded together in religious communities;

581

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Basnage

nor was he aware of the fact that Spanish Jews had
accompanied Columbus to the New World; while
he assumed, following Manasscli b. Israel (see the
account of Aaron Levi, or Antonio de Montazinos, at
the end of “L’Esperan^a d’lsrael”), that the rem-
nants of tiie Ten Tribes, after living in Tatary,
had in the dim past crossed the Pacific to America.
This defect is perhaps due to the motives which
governed Basnage in his choice of sources. At the
end of his preface Basnage says :

“ In writing this history, we have given preference to the
writers of the Jewish nation, so long as reason and the love of
truth have not constrained us to discard them. The dogmas
and the religion we have gathered from the writings of Mai-
monides, Abraham ibn Ezra, Abravanel, Manasseh b. Israel, and
the chief Cabalists. The Misbnah and its commentators have
furnished us with the rites and ceremonies. It has been more
difficult to deduce the history, since the authors of chronicles,
both short and long, Abraham b. Dior, Gedaliah ibn Yahya,
David Gans, and Solomon ibn Verga, dwell upon the names of
the elders of tradition rather than on general and particular
events. If Manasseh and Barrios (‘ Historia Universal Ju-
daica,’ Amsterdam, 1683) had fulfllled their promise to write
this history, we should have found it most helpful. As they
were not able to carry out their plans, we had to be satisfied
with what we could find.”

After this general resume, Basnage gives a list of
the authors he has cited, of which the following is a
summary arranged according to subject-matter:

On Bible exegesis (of which, if he read English, he
must have had first-hand knowledge): Henry Ains-
worth, “Annotations upon the Five
His Books of Moses,” London, 1639; John

Sources. Edwards, • “ A Discourse Concerning
the Authority, Style, and Perfection
of the Books of the Old and New Testament,” Lon-
don, 1693; P. Alix, “ The Judgment of the Ancieut
Jewish Church Against the Unitarians,” London,
1699 ; Humphrey Hody, “ Contra Ilistoriam Ariste*
de LXX” (Oxford, 1685); idem, “ De Bibliorum Tex-
tibus Originalibus Yersionibus,” etc., Oxford, 1705,
in addition to the works of Everard van der Hoogt,
Johann Heinrich Hottinger, and others. Here may
be added the works on Hebrew philology cited by
Basnage: Cappel, “Arcanum Punctationis Revela-
tum ” ; Drusius, “ Quaestiones Hebraic* ” ; Fagius,
“Targum Hierosolymitanum ”; Gousset, “Commen-
tarii Lingual Hebraic*.” The Hebrew writers,
however, Basnage had to read in Latin versions, so
far as they had been translated ; and here again he
made reservations in regard to dogmas contradict-
ory to Christianity. Thus, in citing the commen-
tary on Isaiah by “ R. Moses Al-shik ” he adduces for
a corrective, as it were, C. L’Empereur (Leyden,
1631); and in order to provide a refutation of Abra-
vanel, of whom he knew only his commentaries on
Isaiah and Obadiah.be adduces C. L’Empereur against
the former commentary (Leyden, 1613) and Sebaldi
Snell (Nuremberg, 1647) against the latter. More-
over, for historic purposes he did not make use of
the prefaces written by the exegete Snell to the com-
mentaries on other books. Of Abraham ibn Ezra he
knew only three short treatises, extracted by Bux-
torf from his large Bible commentary, and appended
to the version of the “Cuzari,” Basel, 1660.

Whatever knowledge of the Talmud he could
under these circumstances possess, he derived from
the Latin version of the Mishnali by Surenhuys, with
the commentaries of Maimonides and Obadiah de

Bertinoro, Amsterdam, 1700; from a translation of
the Pirke Abot ; and from the Latin version of the
two Talmudic treatises Sanhedrin and Makkot, by
John Cocli or Coccejus (Amsterdam, 1629). He had
some knowledge even of the two Midrasliim, one on
the Book of Esther, the other on Lamentations; and
he was well acquainted with all the works of Mai-
monides that had been translated into Latin, with the
exception of “ Yad ha-Hazakah.”

Basnage’s conception of Jewish theology and his
interpretation of the religious controversies bear
the marks of the same lack of direct knowledge.
In this connection he cites Carpzov, “ Introductio ad
Theologiam Judaicam” (Amsterdam); Carret, “ Ju-
daeus Convertus” (appended to the “ Synagoga Juda-
ica ” of Buxtorf); “Colloquium Jud*o-Cliristia-
num”; Fetehius, “Ecclesia Judaica,” Strasburg,
1670; St. Augustine, “Altercatio Synagogue et Ec-
clesise” (ed. Benedictine, viii. , Antwerp, 1700); and
Wagenseil, “ Tela Ignea Satan*. ” To these may be
added, as a doubtful source, P. Alix, “De Adventu
Messi*, Dissertationes Du* Adversus Jud*os,” Lon-
don, 1701. Through such reading the most impar-
tial mind must become biased.

For purely historical material, Basnage consulted,
in addition to the authors named in his preface, the
writings of the bishop of Lyons, Agobard, Arias
Montanus, Miguel de Barrios, Isaac Cardoso, “Las
Excellencias de los Hebreos” (Amsterdam, 1683);
Cun*us, “ De Republica Hebr*orum ” ; Frisclimuth,
“ De Gloria Templi Secundi ” ; the works of Manas-
seh b. Israel, collections of the reports of councils,
and the Roman codes, as well as others. For chro-
nology, he cites, among others, Henry
Historical Dodwell, “De Veteribus Gnecorum
and Geo- Romanorumque Cyelis, Obiterque de
graphical Jud*orum Cyclo Hit ate Christi,” Ox-
Sources. ford, 1701; P. Hardouin, “De Pas-
cliate,” Paris, 1691, and Selden. As a
historian he was therefore a popularizer.

For geography, Basnage carefully read: Adri-
chom, “Descriptio Terr* Sanct*,” Cologne, 1682;
“The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela,” translated
withnotesby Constantin L'Empereur(Leyden) ; Will-
iam Baldensel, “ Odceporicon ad Terrain Sanctam,” in
the “ Lectiones Antiqu* ” of Canisius, v. ; Bochart,
“Phaleg” (Caen), and “ Hierozoicon ” (London).
When he refers to the book of Eldad ha-Dani in only
its Hebrew form, he confesses thereby his ignorance
of its contents. In the same way he shows lack of
knowledge with regard to Pethahiah of Regens-
burg, and Abraham Farissol lie misnames “ Peritsul.”

Basnage profitably used the five volumes of the
“Bibliotheca Rabbinica” of Bartolocci, Rome, 1675,
together with all the works of the two Buxtorfs.
He also studied the Karaite sect in the extract from
the Bible commentary of the Karaitic Jew, Aaron
b. Joseph, translated and annotated by Louis Frey
of Basel, Amsterdam, 1705, and in Simonville’s
“ Supplement to Leon of Modena ” ; and information
concerning the Samaritans he obtained from Chris-
toph Cellarius, “ Collectanea Histori* Samaritan* ”
(Ciz* [Zeitz], 1688). He also could get a fair pic-
ture of Jewish rites and usages from the book of
Rabbi Isaac Arias, “Tesoro de Preceptos Adonde
se Encierran las Joy as de los 613 Preceptos que

Basnagre

Bass

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

582

Encomendos el Senor a su Pueblo con su Declaracion,
Razony Dinim Conforme alaVerdadera Tradition,”
Amsterdam, 5449 (1689).

Jewish philosophy Basnage knew only at second
hand, through Buddeus’ “Specimen,” Halle, 1702.
He was acquainted also with the works of Maimon-
ides and his followers ; but of Moses Nalimanides,
or of Hizzuk Emunah, he had at his command only
the extracts given by Wagenseil in his “Tela Ignea.”
To judge from his knowledge of the mysticism of
the Zoliar, he must have read the analysis and the
fragments found in Ivnorr von Rosenroth’s “ Cabbala
Denudata,” in four large volumes, com

His One taining a number of dissertations, in-
Deficiency eluding the “Sha‘ar ha-Shamayyim ”
in Reading, of Abraham Cohen Herrera (whom
Basnage calls Irira). The “ Sefer Yezi-
rah,” which he used in the translated and annotated
form by Rittangel, Amsterdam, 1642, like all his
forerunners, he ascribed unhesitatingly to the pa-
triarch Abraham; and, probably, had he known the
“Sefer Raziel,” he would have ascribed it to Adam.
This one deficiency in his wide reading and deep
study need not prevent due acknowledgment of the
depth of his researches.

Basnage ’s other books also cover the field of his
Jewish studies. Before publishing his large history,
he issued a “ Histoire du Yieux et du Nouveau Tes-
tament. Representee par des Figures Gravees en
Taille-Douce par Romain de Hooge, avec des Ex-
plications dans Lesquelles on Eclaircit Plusieurs
Passages Obscurs,” etc., Amsterdam, 1704. Under
each one of these figures are verses by La Brune.
The nine editions of this book prove its success. It
was even pirated under the title “ Grand Tableau de
l’Univers.” Basnage’s part in the work, however,
is confined to short explanatory notes on the pic-
tures. In later editions he added annals of the
Church and of the world, from the Creation to the
death of the apostles, and a “Geographic Sacree.”

Later he published the “Antiquit.es Judaiques,
ou Remarques Critiques sur la Republique des He-
breux,” Amsterdam, 1718. Although this is hardly
more than a sequel to G. Goerree’s translation and
continuation of Cumeus’ “De Republica Hebrseo-
rum ” (three volumes), it yet reveals Basnage’s per-
sonality and independence. He does not believe, for
instance, that Moses was the first of the world’s law-
givers, nor that men like Lycurgus, Solon, and Py-
thagoras borrowed from the Bible whatever was
excellent in their laws.

Not confining himself to political history, he
touches upon theology; he discusses the ideas of the
Jews on demonology and divine inspiration ; and
examining the opinions of the fathers of the Church
on the pagan oracles, the Sibylline Books, and other
fictitious works, he does not hesitate to accuse them
either of ignorance or of unfairness.

Voltaire, in “La Bible Enfiu Expliquee par Plu-
sieurs Aumoniers ” (“Melanges,” xlix., ed. Beu-
chot, p. 366), in speaking of a captive priest of
Samaria, who had returned and taught his country-
men how to worship God, adds in a note:

“ Basnage in his ‘ Jewish Antiquities ’ says that some scholars
take this to be the Hebrew priest, sent to the new inhabitants of
Samaria, who wrote the Pentateuch. They base their opinion

on the fact that the Pentateuch speaks of the origin of Babylon
and of other Mesopotamian cities which Moses could not have
known ; that neither the ancient nor the later Samaritans would
receive the Pentateuch from the Hebrews of the kingdom of
Judah, their bitterest enemies ; that the Samaritan Pentateuch
was written in Hebrew, the language of this priest, who would
not have had time to learn Chaldee ; and Anally they point out
the essential differences between the Samaritan and our Penta-
teuch. It is not known who these scholars are ; Basnage does
not name them.”

Le Vier, the editor of one of Basnage’s posthu-
mous works, pays the following tribute to his charac-
ter in the preface to the second volume of the “ An-
nales des Provinces-Unies ” ; “In his works his
candor, frankness, and sincerity are no less evident
than his great scholarship and sound reasoning.”

Bibliography : Mailhet, Jacques Basnage , Theologien , Con-
troversiste, Diplomate , et Historien , Geneva, 1880.

t. M. S.

BASON. See Basin.

BASQUE PROVINCES : A district of Spain,
including Guipuzcoa, Biscay, and Alava, extending
along both sides of the Pyrenees, where the Basques
or Vasconians lived. Under an old fuero, or ordi-
nance, Jews were never allowed in Guipuzcoa and
Biscay. A Jew visiting Guipuzcoa for business pur-
poses was not permitted to stop at one place longer
than three days, and in the whole province not
longer than fourteen days at the utmost. At Vitoria,
the capital of the province of Alava, Jews lived
from the twelfth century, but after 1203 in a spe-
cial street, the “Calle Nueva,” or
In the “New Street.” They grew to a con-
Thirteenth siderable community, which was under
Century. Castilian rule, and which in 1290 paid
a tax amounting altogether to 11,392
maravedis. The Jews of Vitoria were chiefly money-
brokers. In 1332 Alfonso XI. of Castile issued a
decree forbidding Jews to take promissory notes
from the Christians of Vitoria. During his stay in
the city it is said that Vincente Ferrer converted four
of the leading families to Christianity.

The enactments against the Jews of Vitoria dur-
ing the ten years immediately preceding the expul-
sion were devised to bring about their complete sep-
aration from the Christian inhabitants. According
to the decree of Aug. 21, 1482, no Jew or Jewess
was permitted, under heavy penalty, to enter the
Franciscan monastery until after mass. On May 28
and July 24 of the same year a decree had been is-
sued to the effect that no Christian woman, or
Christian girl under ten years of age, might enter the
ghetto by day or night unless accoin-
In the panied by a man, on pain of being fined
Fifteenth or imprisoned ; nor should a Christian
Century, woman, either alone or accompanied
by a man, light a fire — either on the
Sahbath, or on any other day — in the house of
a Jew, or cook for him. Against this decree,
which hindered the Jews in their religious observ-
ances, David Chacon appealed at once in the name
of the community. The assembly of representatives
forbade the Jews (June 16, 1486) “ to bake their bread
in the ovens of the Christians, to keep their shops
open on Christian holidays, and to work in public
on Sundays and festivals.” Christians were forbid-
den to sell vegetables or fruit or any food whatever
in the ghetto, to take service with Jews, or to live

583

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Basuage

Bass

with them. In 1484 Christians were also forbidden,
on penalty of being lined 2,000 maravedis, to allow
the Jews to read the decrees of the ecclesiastical
authorities, or to permit them to act as lawyers in
lawsuits.

Among the richest and most eminent Jews of
Vitoria were various members of the Chacon family
(Gacon, Gaon), Eleasar Tello, and Moses Balid.

The general edict of banishment from Spain nat-
urally affected the Jews of Vitoria. On June 27,
1492, the above-mentioned Moses Balid, Ismael
Moratan (the president of the community), Samuel
Benjamin Chacon, his relations Abiatar and Jacob
Tello, and Samuel de Mijaneas came before the coun-
cilors of Vitoria, and presented to the city, in the
name of the Jewish community and in recognition
of the friendly treatment received from
After the the city, their cemetery, “ J udemendi ”
Edict (Jews’ hill), adjoining the ghetto, to-
of 1492. getlier with all its belongings, on con-
dition that no plow should ever furrow
it. The town council accepted the gift, and the con-
dition has been faithfully observed ever since.

Before the end of July, 1492, the Jews left Vitoria;
many went into the neighboring province of Na-
varre ; others, such as members of the family Chacon,
took passage for the Orient; while a few only re-
nounced their faith. A very clever Jew of Vitoria,
Zentolla by name, was baptized by Bernaldez, the
priest of Los Palacios, and named by him Tristan
Bogado. By the end of 1492 there were no Jews in
Vitoria. The synagogue became the property of the
town and was converted into a classical school. The
Jews’ street was called “ Calle de la Puente del Rey ”
(Ivingsbridge street) ; but later on it again received
its old name, “ Calle Nueva.” On Aug. 20, 1493, the
Maranos were ordered to leave this street and to live
among the old Christians, in order that they might
not continue their Jewish practises. The inhabitants
of Guipuzcoa did not suffer any Jews to live among
them.

In some places in the Basque Provinces French
Jews have recently settled.

Bibliography: Joaquin Jos. de Landazuri y Romarate, His-
toric Civil , Eelesiastica, Pnlitica y Leyislativa de la Ciudad
de Vitoria, in Memorial de los Judins y Juderia de Vitoria
y de su Expulsion de Ella (Madrid, 1780) contains all docu-
ments which are cited by J. Amador de ios Rios, in Historia
de ios Judios de Espaiia, iii., as coining from the Archivo
Municipal de Vitoria ; see also De los Rios, 1. c., iii. 011 et seq.\
Kayserling, Gesch. der Juden in Spanien, i. 113-132.
g. M. K.

BASRA. See Bassora.

BASS (called Bassista by Christians; in
Hebrew, Meshorer), SHABBETHAI B. JO-
SEPH: Founder of Jewish bibliography; born
at Ivalisz 1641; died July 21, 1718, at Krotoscliin.
After the death of his parents, who were victims of
the persecutions at Kalisz in 1655, Bass went to
Prague. His teacher there in the Talmud was
Mei'r Warters (died 1693); and Loeb Shir ha-Sliirim
instructed him in singing. He was appointed bass
singer in the celebrated Altneuschule of Prague,
being called, from his position, “Bass,” or “Bas-
sista,” or “ Mesliorer. ” His leisure time he devoted to
literary pursuits, more especially to improving the
instruction of the young.

Between 1674 and 1679 Bass traveled through
Poland, Germany, and Holland, stopping in such
cities as Glogau, Kalisz, Krotoscliin, Lissa, Posen,
Worms, and Amsterdam, the centers of Jewish schol-
arship. He finally settled at Amsterdam in 1679,
where he entered into friendly and scholarly rela-
tions with the eminent men of the German and the
Portuguese-Spanisli communities. That city was
the center of Jewish printing and publishing, and
Bass, becoming thoroughly familiar with the busi-
ness, resolved to devote himself entirely to issuing
Jewish books. With a keen eye for the practical,
he perceived that the eastern part of Germany was
a suitable place for a Jewish printing-
As establishment. The literary produc-

Printer. tivity of the Lithuanian-Polisli Jews
was at this time obliged to seek an
outlet in Amsterdam or Prague almost exclusively;
Bass accordingly fixed upon Breslau as a suitable
place for his purposes, on account of its vicinity to
the Polish frontier, and of the large commerce car-
ried on between Breslau and Poland. Hence, after
a residence of five years, he left Amsterdam ; going
first, it seems, to Vienna, in order to obtain a license
from the imperial government. The negotiations
between Bass and the magistrates of Breslau occu-
pied nearly four years, and not until 1687 or 1688
did he receive permission to set up a Hebrew print-
ing-press. Thereupon he settled at
AtDyhern- Dyhernfurth, a small town near Bres-
furth. lau founded shortly before (1663),
whose owner, Herr von Glaubitz, glad
to have a large establishment on his estate, was very
well disposed toward Bass. In order the more easily
to obtain Jewish workmen, Bass united into a con-
gregation the small band of printers, typesetters, and
workmen who had followed him to Dyhernfurth,
for whose needs he cared, acquiring as early as 1689
a place for a cemetery.

The first book from Bass’s press appeared in the
middle of August, 1689, the first customer being,
as he had anticipated, a Polish scholar, Samuel b.
Uri of Waydyslav, whose commentary “Bet She-
muel ” on Caro’s Shulhan ‘Aruk, Eben ha-’Ezer, was
printed at Dyhernfurth. The books that followed
during the next year were either works of Polish
scholars or liturgical collections intended for the use
of Polish Jews. Being issued in a correct, neat, and
pleasing form, they easily found buyers, especially
at the fairs of Breslau, where Bass himself sold his
books. But the ill-will against Jews, apparent since
1697 in Silesia, and especially at Breslau, greatly in-
jured Bass’s establishment; he was himself forbid-
den to stay in Breslau (July 20, 1706). Another
stroke of misfortune was the partial destruction of
his establishment by fire in 1708. To this were added
domestic difficulties. When an old man he had mar-
ried a second time, to the great dissatisfaction of his
family and neighbors, his wife being a young girl.
He finally transferred his business to his only son,
Joseph, in 1711. His trials culminated in his sud-
den arrest, April 13, 1712, on the charge of hav-
ing spread abroad incendiary speeches against all
divine and civic government. The Jesuits, who
looked with an evil eye upon Bass’s undertaking,
had endeavored, in a letter to the magistrate of

Bass

Bassevi

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

584

Breslau, as early as July 15, 1694, to have the sale
of Hebrew books interdicted, on the ground that
such works contained “ blasphemous and irreligious
words ” ; and they had succeeded. As the magis-
trate saw, however, that the confiscated books con-
tained no objectionable matter, they were restored
to Bass. In 1712 the Jesuit father Franz Kolb,
teacher of Hebrew at the University of Prague, suc-
ceeded in having Bass and his son Joseph arrested,
and their books confiscated. The innocent little
book of devotions, Nathan Hannover's “ Sha'are
Zion ” (Gates of Zion), which Bass reprinted after it
had already gone through several editions, was
transformed in the hands of the learned father into
a blasphemous work directed against Christianity
and Christians. Bass would have fared ill had not
the censor Pohl, who had been commissioned to ex-
amine the contents of the books, been both faithful
and competent. In consequence of his decision, Bass
was released after ten weeks’ imprisonment, at first
on bail, and then absolutely. The last years of his
life were devoted to the second edition of his bibli-
ographic manual, which he intended to issue in en-
larged and revised form. He died without comple-
ting the work.

Bass’s works have the constant characteristic of
answering practical needs. In 1669 he reprinted
Moses Sartels’ Judseo-German glossary

Literary on the Bible; adding a grammatical

Activity, preface, a work intended to supply
the lack of grammatical knowledge
among teachers of the young, and to furnish the lat-
ter with the correct German rendering in translating
the Bible. Bass was greatly interested in improv-
ing the instruction of the young, and recommended
the German-Polish Jews to imitate the methods of
instruction obtaining in the Portuguese community
of Amsterdam (Introduction to “Sifte Yeshenim,”
p. 8, translated by Gildemann, in “ Quellenschriften
zur Gesch. des Unterriclitswesens,” pp. 112 et xeq.),
describing in detail their curriculum. His subcom-
mentary on Rashi’s commentary on the Pentateuch
and the five Megillot (Amsterdam, 1680, and many
times reprinted) is also intended for elementary in-
struction. In this little book he has summed up
with admirable brevity and clearness the best work
of his fifteen predecessors, who had commented on
Raslii ; the book being even to-day a most useful
and almost indispensable aid toward understanding
and appreciating Rashi. A most interesting and
somewhat amusing little work is Bass’s itinerary,
entitled “Masseket Derek Erez,” a treatise on the
roads of the country (Amsterdam, 1680); the book,
written in Judaeo-German, contains also tables of all
the current coins, measures, and weights in Euro-
pean countries, and a list of routes, post connections,
and distances. Bass’s chief work, however, is his
bibliographical manual “Sifte Yeshenim ” (Lips of
the Sleepers; compare Cant. R. to vii. 10) (Amster-
dam, 1680, frequently reprinted). This work con-
tains a list of 2,200 Hebrew books, in the alphabet-
ical order of the titles, conscientiously giving the
author, place of printing, year, and size of each
book, as well as a short summary of its contents.
The majority of the books described he knew at
first hand; the description of the others he bor-

rowed from the works of Buxtorf and Bartoiocci
(from the latter only in the first part).

Bass’s work is distinguished not only by its brev-
ity and accuracy, but by an entirely original feature,
in respect to which he had no predecessor, and al-
most no successor; namely, a classification of the
entire Jewish literature, as far as he knew it. He
divides the whole into two chief groups, Biblical and
post- Biblical, and each group again
As Bibli- into ten subdivisions. Thus, diction-
ographer. aries, grammars, and translations form
a subdivision of the Biblical group;
while Talmud commentaries and novelise are in-
cluded in the Talmudic group. Although this clas-
sification is still very superficial and primitive, it in-
dicates its author’s wide knowledge and astonishing
range of reading. In addition to the list and clas-
sification of the books, Bass gives an alphabetical
index of authors, including one of the Tannaim,
Amoraim, Saboraim, and Geonim.

Bass’s introduction to his work is most character-
istic of the spirit prevailing among German Jews at
that time : he cites ten “ religious reasons ” for the
usefulness of his work. Not only was Bass’s under-
taking new to the German Jews, but it also appeared
strange to them; and only the Portuguese Jews of
Amsterdam, who had a leaning toward methods and
systems, knew how to appreciate him. Christian
scholars, however, were at once impressed by the
scholarship, style, usefulness, and reliability of the
bibliography. Latin as well as German translations,
some of which are still extant in manuscript, were
undertaken by Christian Orientalists. The greatest
proof of Bass’s merit lies in the fact that Wolf’s
“ Bibliotheca Hebrsea ” is based chiefly on the “ Sifte
Yeshenim.”

Bibliography: Brann, Mnnatsschrift, xl. 477-480, 515-526,
560-574 ; idem , in Liebermann’s Jahrhuch f ttr Israeliten ,
1883, pp. 105 et s eq.\ Fiirst, Uihi. Judaica , Introduction to
Part iii. 76-83; Oelsner, Shabbethai Bassista , Leipsic, 1858;
Steinscbneiderand Cassel, in Ersch and Gruber, EnenklnpUdie.
xxviii. 87; Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 2229; Wolf, Bibl.
Hebrcea , i. 1023, ii. 957, iii. 1000, iv. 769.

L. G.

BASSAI. See Bezai.

BASSANI, HEZEKIAH MORDECAI B.
SAMUEL: Rabbi of Verona, Italy; lived at the
end of the sixteenth century and at the beginning
of the seventeenth. He was the author of “Miktab
le-Hizkiyaliu ” (Letter of Hezekiah), on divorce, and
“Ma’amar Mordekai” (Mordecai’s Words), on the
levirate marriage, both published under the title
“ Pene Yizhak ” (Face of Isaac), Mantua, 1744. Bas-
sani also wrote “Sefer Bikkurim ” (Book of Visits),
Verona, 1710, dealing with prayers to be recited
on visiting the sick. It is partially based on Aaron
Berecliiah’s “Ma’abar Yabbok” and on Isaiah Hor-
witz’s theme, “Luhot ha-Berit.”

Bibliography: Benjacob, Ozar lia-Sefarim, p. 82; Nepi-
Ghirondi, Toledot Gedole Yisrael , p. 112 ; Zedner, Cat. Hebr.
Bonks Brit. Mns. p. 78.

L. G. M. B.

BASSANI, HUGO: Italian poet and composer;
born in Padua June 5, 1851. He stu.died in Milan
and was one of the favorite scholars of Anthony
Bazzini, director of the Milan Conservatory. Bas-
sani’s romances — compositions for piano or orchestra
—are highly appreciated and have been published

585

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bass

Bassevi

by Lucca and Ricordi in Milan. Bassani is now liv-
ing in Venice.

Bibliography : Private sources.

s. B.

BASSANI, ISAIAH : Italian rabbi, of the first
half of the eighteenth century ; the son of Israel Heze-
kiali Bassani, who was a pupil of Moses Zacuto and
of Judah Briel of Mantua. From 1702 to 1707 he
was rabbi at Cento, as appears from the documents
of the fraternity Shomerim Laboker at Reggio. In
1712 he was at Padua, as is proved by the approba-
tion (“ haskamah ”) he wrote to the “ Hon ‘ Asliir ” of
Immanuel Ricclii, and he was still living therein 1716
(Lampronti, “ Pal.iad Yizhak,” N 34) ; from Padua he
went to Reggio, where he died, sometime after 1736.
Moses Hayyim Luzzatto was one of his pupils.

The writings that Isaiah Bassani left prove him to
have been a man of immense learning, with a won-
derful versatility of mind. Many of his rabbinical
decisions are contained in Lampronti’s “Pal.iad
Yizhak.” One of his poems, written when Zebulon
Conegliano passed his examination in medicine at
Padua, Aug. 14, 1716, has been published by Abra-
ham Baruch Piperno in his collection of Hebrew
poems by Italian-Jewisli authors Sip, 9a). Two
of his letters have been published in “ Kerem Hemed, ”
iii. 163. In the library of the Talmud Torah of
Ferrara is preserved the manuscript of an unpub-
lished work by Isaiah Bassani, “Mislipat la-‘Asliu-
kim” (Judgment for the Oppressed; see Psalm
cxlvi. 7).

Bibliography : CapitoU della Fraternita di Reggio , Sho-
merim la-Bi liter ; Lampronti, Pal.iad Yizhak , as above;

Kaufmann, in Revue Etudes Juives , xx’x’ix.' 133; Stein-

schneider, in Monatsschrift , xliii. 566.

L. G. V. C.

BASSANI, ISRAEL BENJAMIN : Rabbi at
Reggio, Italy ; born in 1703 ; died at Reggio Jan. 20,
1790 (5 Shebat, 5550) ; son of Isaiah Bassani. He
was a skilful poet, both in Hebrew and in Italian.
In honor of Francisco III. of Este, duke of Modena,
Bassani composed eighty elegant Hebrew poems, to
which he affixed Italian versions, in ottava lima
(Venice, 1750). Many other poems of his are con-
tained in the “Kol ‘Ugab” of A. B. Piperno; among
them may be mentioned especialty the thirty sestinas
on electricity (ib. 36 b, below; 375), Bassani is also
the author of “La Corona Estense,” Venice, 1753, a
collection of sonnets in Hebrew, with a translation
into Italian verse, dedicated to Francisco III., duke
of Este; and “Moda'ali” (Announcement), Leghorn,
1771, a letter concerning the case of I. Natof. He
also published “ Todat Shelamim”(Thank-Offerings,)
Venice, 1741, a collection of various halakic writings.
In the archives of the Jewish community of Reggio,
there are hundreds of Bassani ’s Hebrew letters and
several volumes of responsa and Hebrew sermons,
besides a work on the principles regulating the Jew-
ish calendar. A eulogistic biographical sketch of
Bassani was written by Benedetto Frizzi (Ferrara,
1791).

Bibliography: A. B. Piperno, Kol 'Ugab, p. 845: Zedner,

Cat. Hcbr. Books Brit. Mus.

L. G. V. C.

BASSANI, JEHIEL B. HAYYIM: Casuist
and rabbi of Constantinople in the seventeenth cen-

tury. His responsa (Constantinople, 1737) are val-
ued for their keen analysis and terse style. Bassani
maintained a learned correspondence with the great
Oriental teachers of his time; and he is several times
mentioned in the responsa of Joseph di Trani and
Mei'r de Boton. Judah Lerrna, rabbi of Belgrade,
was one of his pupils.

Bibliography : Conforte, Kore ha-Dnrot, ed. Cassel, pp. 44,

48, 51.

L. G. M. B.

BASSANO: City in the province of Venice,
Italy. Here, as in all the surrounding places, Jews
were living at a very early period, engaged in com-
merce and industry, and especially in money-lend-
ing, as is shown by contemporary documents dating
back to 1264. In the first half of the fifteenth cen-
tury, they formed a large and prosperous commu-
nity. Subsequently they were persecuted ; and, in
1468, a decree of perpetual banishment was issued
against them. Nevertheless they returned, only to
be again banished by the city council in 1481.

No documents are extant to show the existence of
a Jewish congregation, recognized and regulated by
law. The Jews were obliged to live huddled to-
gether in one little street, still called “Callesella dei
Zudii ” ; but, as their numbers increased, more spa-
cious quarters were assigned to them, which popular
tradition still calls “II Ghetto.”

While some of the Jewish families, Bassan, Bas-
sano, Bassani, may have been called from this
city, the name is more probably of Hebrew origin.
Some slight notices of the Jews of Bassano may be
found in the rare pamphlet of Brenteri, “ Fondazione
del Monte di Pieta,” 1882. There are no longer any
Jews at Bassano, nor are there any traces of a syn-
agogue or a cemetery.

g. ‘ V. C.

BASSEVI, HENDEL: Daughter of Ebert
Geronim, and second wife of Jacob Bassevi, son of
Abraham Bassevi and president of the congregation
of Prague. She died in the summer of 1628. Her
tomb is embellished with the family coat of arms —
a blue lion with eight red stars upon a black field —
which was bestowed upon her husband in recogni-
tion of his services by the emperor Ferdinand in
1622. Bassevi was also accorded free choice of res-
idence, was allowed to engage in any form of trade,
was exempt from taxes, and was permitted to enter
the imperial dwelling. His family was ennobled
and received the title “ von Treuenberg.”

Hendel was very charitable. She adopted or-
phans, endowed brides, supported needy scholars,
paid for the illumination of synagogues, and equipped
schools with books. Indeed, at the beginning of the
Thirty Years’ war, when Hebrew books were ruth-
lessly confiscated, Hendel did much to provide for
the endowment of synagogues and the distribution
of prayer- books in Austria, Moravia, and other
countries.

Bibliography: Hock, Gal 'Ed, p. 23, Prague, 1856 ; idem.

Die Familien Prags, s.v. Bassevi-, Porges, Altertlilimer

der Prager Josef stadt, p. 63.

G. A. F.

BASSEVI VON TREUENBERG, JACOB

(called also Jacob Schmieles [“son of Samuel”]):
Court Jew and financier ; born in 1580; died at Jung-

Bassevi

Basurto

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

586

Buntzlau May 2, 1634. He entered business early in
life, ultimately became very wealthy, and stood in
high favor with the emperors Rudolph II., Matthias,
and Ferdinand II., to whom he, with other Jewish
capitalists, frequently rendered financial assistance,
particularly to Ferdinand, who needed large sums
of money for the prosecution of the Thirty Years’
war (1618-48).

Bassevi, in recognition of his services, was raised
to the nobility by Ferdinand, receiving the title
“ von Treuenberg,” and a coat of arms consisting of a
blue lion with eight red stars on a field of blue (ac-
cording to Graetz ; or of black, according to Lieben).
Ferdinand also bestowed upon him the right “to
engage in any business whatever, in any part of the
empire, whether cities, towns, or market-places, in
Prague and Vienna, and other places where Jews
are allowed to reside or are not; to acquire property
and to reside anywhere he pleases. His property
in any form to be free from taxes, imposts, and
duties ; he is allowed to reside in the imperial quar-
ters ; and he is responsible to no tribunal, except that
of the marshal of the court.” Privileges were also
granted to him by Rudolph and Matthias, all of
them being hereditary. The supposition that he
was minister of finance to Ferdinand is unfounded.

As a representative of the Jewish community,
reference to Bassevi is first found in 1616. He al-
ways exerted his influence in behalf of the Jews of
the empire and of Italy ; and it was due to his
efforts, combined with those of other Jewish capi-
talists, that the Hebrew quarter in Prague was pro-
tected by a military guard against the attacks of
the soldiery after the decisive battle of White Moun-
tain, Bohemia, in 1621.

Bassevi was a warm friend of Rabbi Lippmau
Heller, and befriended him during the latter’s arrest
(July 5, 1629) and dismissal from office (Aug. 14,
1629); contributing from his own funds one-fifth of
the fine of 812,000 imposed upon Heller. Bassevi
was very charitable, and gave large sums for the
support of the poor of Palestine.

On account of some trouble, the nature of which
is not known, Bassevi in 1631 removed from Prague
to Gitschin, where he lived for a year.

Bibliography : Gratz, Gescli. der Juden, x. 40 et seq., 47 et
seq .; I.ippinan Heller, Kos Yeshuot , pp. 4, 5, 9; Lieben, Gal.
‘ Ed. pp. 23-27 ; G. Wolf, Die. Juden Unter Ferdinand II.,
in Janrbuch fur die Geseli. der Juden und des Judenthunis;
i. 338-239; Rietstap, Armorial General, 2d ed. i. 128 (where
Bassevi’s title is given as “ von Treuenfeld ”).

D. A. R.

BASSIN, ELIEZER : Missionary at Jassy, Ru-
mania; born about 1840 in the government of Mo-
hilev, Russia. In 1869 he went to Constantinople,
where he made the acquaintance of English mission-
aries who persuaded him to embrace Christianity.
He was the author of a work entitled “ The Modern
Hebrew, and the Hebrew Christian,” London, 1882.
The work opens with an interesting autobiography
relating the difficulties the author had had to over-
come, after having been transferred from Constanti-
nople to Russia as a deserter. One part of the book
deals with the Jewish religion and Jewish ritual cere-
monies. In many passages the author gives infor-
mation concerning the religious opinions of the Jews
of Russia, and especially of those of the sect Habad,

founded at the end of the eighteenth century by
Solomon Sneerson.

In September, 1881, Bassin published a German,
paper entitled “Eintracht,” pleading the cause of the
Jews against the anti-Semitic agitation in Germany.
Bibliography: The Modern Hebrew and the Hebrew Chris-
tian, as above.

S. I. Br.

BASSORA : City in a vilayet of the same name
in Asiatic Turkey, about 54 miles from the Persian
gulf and li miles west of the Sliatt al-‘Arab;
founded by the Arabs in 636. Nothing is known of
the early history of the Jews in this city, but the
eminence to which it rose, especially as a center of
learning, must have early attracted them thither.
Together with Wasit it was under the spiritual juris-
diction of the school at Sura. Of the names of the
learned Jews who lived there very few are known.
Masarjaweih, one of the leading physicians and the
oldest translator (883), was a Basrian ; also probably
Masliallali, one of the first Arabic astrologers (770-
820), if his pupil Al-Khayyat is to be trusted, who
calls him “ Al-Basri” (“Z. D. M. G.” liii. 428, 434).
R. Joseph bar Satyah (942) settled in Bassora when
the school at Sura was finally closed (Slierira, “ Let-
ter,” ed. Neubauer, i. 40).

Benjamin of Tudela (twelfth century) gives the
number of Jews there as about 2,000; and he found
these to be learned men and rich merchants. They
seem to have suffered with the other inhabitants
during the Tatar invasion. It is said that 10,000 of
them in Bassora, Mosul, and Hisn-Kef fell before the
sword of Tamerlane (fourteenth century ; see Jost’s
“ Annalen,” 1839, p. 197). Texeira, at the beginning
of the seventeenth century, does not mention Jews
there at all.

The modern community seems to date from the
middle of the eighteenth century. According to
local tradition, the new settlement was made by
Jews from Bagdad. In 1854 Petermann found only
thirty Jewish families, in a population of 5,000. On
Shabuoth, he relates, all the inhabitants make pil-
grimages to the grave of Ezra (“Reisen,” i. 152;
compare Pethahiah of Regensburg, “ Travels,” p. 51).
Benjamin II. (“Eight Years in Asia and Africa,” p.
137) relates that “a devastating epidemic decimated
the population, so that a whole portion of the city
is empty and the houses fallen into ruins. In the
middle of these ruins stand four synagogues, of
which, however, three are unused and empty.” Ac-
cording to the latest official statistics, there are 1,900
Jews in the city of Bassora and its surrounding vil-
lages, and 4.500 in the vilayet, which has a general
population of 950,000. There are Jewish rabbis in
the cities of Bassora, Amara, and Muntefik of the
vilayet ; there are two schools at Bassora, two at
Amara, and one at Nasiriyyali (Cuinet, “La Tur-
quie d’Asie,” iii. 209, 220). The chief trade of the
Jews is in dates. The Alliance Israelite Universelle
gives to the Talmud Torah school at Bassora (at-
tended by about 150 pupils) an annual subvention
of five hundred francs (“Bulletin All. Isr.” No. 24,
p. 137). The rabbis in 1900 were Hakam Judah and
Hakam Ezra.

Bibliography : Graetz, History of the Jews, iii. 98, 147, 202,

437. G.

587

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bassevi

Basurto

BASSUS, LUCILIUS: Governor of Judea after
the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus (70). He had
formerly been prefect of the fleet at Ravenna, and
took the oath of allegiance to Vitellius; but, dissat-
isfied with not having been promoted to the dignity
of prefect of the pretorium, he betrayed his master
and delivered the fleet into the hands of Vespasian
(compare Tacitus, iii. 12, 36, 40). Such a service
could not remain unrewarded, and Vespasian ap-
pointed him governor of Judea and gave him the
task of subjugating the fortresses that were still in
arms, Herodium, Macherus, and Masada. Bassus
displayed in this exploit more courage than strateg-
ical skill. Herodium surrendered at once without
fighting. Macherus, however, offered a stubborn
resistance, and Bassus would have been unable to
conquer this place, but for the fact that the young
commandant, Eleazar, was captured by the Romans.
Bassus ordered him to be scourged before their eyes ;
and the besieged, desiring to save their chief, offered
to give up the citadel if his life should be spared.
Bassus agreed to this proposal and spared the garri-
son; but he inhumanly butchered the inhabitants,
to the number of 1,700, and sold the women and chil-
dren into slavery.

Bassus died at the siege of Masada; and the diffi-
cult task of subduing that fortress devolved upon
his successor, Silva.

Bibliography: Josephus, B. J. vii. 6; Gratz, Gesch. der Ju-

den, 3d ed., Iv. 548.

G. 1. Bit.

BASTARD : In the English use of the word, a
child neither born nor begotten in lawful wedlock;
an illegitimate child. There is no Hebrew word of
like meaning. The mamzer, rendered “ bastard ” in
the A. V., is something worse than an illegitimate
child. He is the offspring of a father and mother
between whom there could be in law no binding be-
trothal : issuing either from adultery between a mar-
ried woman and a man other than her husband, or
from incest within the forbidden degrees of kinship
or affinity defined in Lev. xviii. and xx. The child
of a marriage simply forbidden, as that between
a colien and a divorced woman, is legitimate but
“ profane ” ; that is, a son can not officiate as a priest ,
a daughter is not eligible to marry a priest. But a
mamzer, according to Deut. xxiii. 3, must not “enter
the congregation of the Lord,” that is, marry an
Israelite woman, “nor shall his tenth generation en-
ter,” etc., which includes also the female mamzer
(Kid. iii. 12; Malt. iii. 1). The older Halakah, how-
ever, was more rigorous, Akiba declaring any child
of a forbidden connection a mamzer (Yeb. iv. 12,
13; Yer. ib. C b \ Bab. ib. 44cf, 49rt).

Whether the child of a daughter of Israel and of
a Gentile or bondman is a mamzer or not, was hotly
disputed both among the early sages, down to Rabbi
Judah the Patriarch, and among the later teachers
in' Palestine and in Babylonia (Yeb. 23«, 4 tin). But
the rule finally adopted is that such a child is not a
mamzer, even when the mother is a married woman.
This is the decision in the modern code (Shulhan
‘Aruk, Eben ha-'Ezer, 4. 19), though it is admitted
that the child is unfit for the priesthood. Maimon-
ides decides to the same effect (Issure Biah. xv. 3).

The law laid down in Deuteronomy against the
mamzer and against his distant offspring seemed
so harsh that every opportunity was taken to con-
fine it to the narrowest limits.

Where incest or adultery takes place among Gen-
tiles, and the offspring embraces Judaism, the flaw
in his descent is ignored. He is not deemed a mam-
zer (Shulhan ‘Aruk, Eben ha-‘Ezer, 4, 21). The child
of an Israelite by an unconverted Gentile mother is
a Gentile, and when converted becomes an Israelite
to all purposes, without regard to his father.

As shown under Agnates, the illegitimate child
of a Jew (unless born of a Gentile woman or a bond-
woman), even a mamzer, inherits from his natural
father and other kindred (for example, his father’s
legitimate sons), just as if he were legitimate; the
words of Scripture, “if he have no son” (Num.
xxvii. 8), being taken literally “a son from any
■source,” except the son of a Gentile or bondwoman,
who follows the status of his mother (Yeb. ii. 5);
and the child being bound by all duties flowing from
his or her natural kinship.

This construction of the law runs counter to an-
cient popular sentiment, which crops out in the his-
toric books. The legitimate sons of Gilead drove
Jephthah from his home because he was the “ son
of another woman ” (Judges xi. 2). Where a child
is born in wedlock, the presumption in favor of its
being the offspring of the husband is very strong,
as in other systems of law. The Roman law says:
“ pater est quern justae nuptiae dcmonstrant.” But
the Jewish law, unlike the English common law,
does not uphold this presumption when the child is
born so soon after the nuptials (“nissu’im”) that
it must have been begotten before them. Even
when the date of birth points to conception after
the betrothal (“ erusin ”) — which in olden times pre-
ceded the wedding by several months — the presump-
tion of the betrothed man being the father is com-
paratively weak, as a connection between him and
the bride while she is “ at her father’s house,” though
not a deadly sin on the part of either, is an act of
lewdness (Shulhan ‘Aruk, Eben ka-‘Ezer, 4, 27 ; see
Ket. 36 a).

On the general principle that a person’s confes-
sion of his or her own turpitude is not admissible
as legal testimony, the wife and mother can not, by
her assertion, stamp her offspring as an adulterine
Bastard. For the rules of presumption and evi-
dence in cases of doubt, see Shulhan ‘Aruk, Eben
ha-‘Ezer, 4, 14-16.

j. sr. L. N. I).

BASURTO, DIEGO ENRIQUEZ: Marano
poet of the seventeenth century ; born in Spain.
Like his father — the poet Antonio Enriquez Gomez
— he resided several years at Rouen, and finally set-
tled in Holland. The following curious description
of him is given by the Marano poet Miguel de
Barrios :

Basurto had a broad nose, which was never clean ; small
sunken eyes, hidden behind a large pair of spectacles ; and a
mouth comparable to a mill in constant motion. He was short
and stout ; very carelessly attired, and always carried a cane.”

Basurto was the author of “ El Triumplio de la
Virtud y Paciencia de Job” (Rouen, 1646), a poem

Ifat

Bat Kol

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

58S

constructed in various meters and inscribed to the
mother of Louis XIV.

Bibliography: Kayserling, Sephardim , pp. 243 etseq.; idem,
BibUoteca Espaii.-Port.-Jud. p. 26.
g. M. K.

BAT : This well-known winged mammal (in He-
brew Lev. xi. 19; Deut. xiv. 18; Isa. ii. 20)

was considered by the Hebrews as belonging to the
class of birds. The ancients in general considered
it as a creature belonging both to the birds and to
the mammalia, and partaking of the nature of both
classes (Bochart, “ Hierozoicon,” s.v.). Like all
night-birds, the Bat was considered unclean by the
Hebrews. The numerous caves and ruins of Pales-
tine afford shelter to innumerable swarms of bats ;
and Tristram (“Natural History of the Bible,” pp.
45, 46) enumerates no less than seventeen species in-
digenous to that country. Several of these are also
found in Europe and America,
j. jr. I. Be.

BAT KOL (Hebrew, ^lp j-Q ; Aramaic, m2) :
A heavenly or divine voice which proclaims God’s
will or judgment, His deeds and His commandments
to individuals or to a number of persons, to rulers,
communities, and even to whole nations. The
meaning of the word is “sound,” “resonance.” In
this sense it is used in Syriac and in the following
Midrash and Talmud passages: “As oil has no
Bat Kol [that is, gives no sound], so Israel is not
heard of in this world ; but, as it is said in Isa.
xxix. 4, 6, Israel will enjoy great fame in the world
to come ” (Cant. Ii. i. 3). The most significant pas-
sage is Ex. R. xxix., end (compare xxviii., end);

“ Johanan said, ‘When God revealed the Torah, no sparrow
chirped, no bird flew, no ox lowed ; the heavenly Ofanim
[wheels] moved not; the Seraphim did not chant the Thrice
Holy ; man spoke not; the sea roared not; no creature uttered
a sound ; and the world was silent, while God’s voice re-
sounded, “ I am the Lord Thy God.” ’ This is the meaning of
the words, ‘ With a great voice : and he added no more,’ in
Deut. v. 19 [A.V. 221 ('l0' t'-L’i). ‘These words,’ says Simeon ben
Lakisb, ‘are to be taken as follows: If one man calls to another,
his voice has a Bat Kol ; but the voice proceeding from God has
no Bat Kol. If you marvel at this, think of the story of the
prophet Elijah and the priests of Baal. God bade the upper and
the lower world keep silence; and the world became like an
empty desert, as if no living creature existed : there was neither
voice, nor answer, nor attention ’ [I Kings xviii. 29, Hebrew],
For if a sound had been heard, the priests would have said :
* Baal has answered us.’ On Sinai God caused the whole world
to be silent, in order that mankind might know there is none
besides Him.”

It is clear that in this passage Bat Kol does not
mean an echo, as is the general opinion (Lampronti,
“Paliad Yizliak ” ; Levy, “ Neuhebraisclies Worter-
buch”; Kohut, “Arucli Completum,” s.v.); but it
means the reverberation or hum, caused by the mo-
tion of all things, which fills the whole world and
which accompanies the human voice and every other
sound. Of old the belief in the music
Bat J£ol of the spheres was universal ; and the
Not Talmud says (Yoma 206) that the noises
an Echo, of Rome would be heard all over the
world but for the music of the spheres.
Echo is called “ kol habarah ” (R. II. iii. 7 ; Yoma 196).
Nor is an echo referred to in the dispute between the
schools of Shammai and Hillelas to whether a wom-
an may marry if a Bat Kol has been heard saying

that her husband is dead (compare Yeb. 122a ; Tosef. r
Nazir, i. 1). AsRashi remarked in his commentary
(compare Lippman Heller, in “ Tosafot Yom-Tob ” to
Yeb. xvi. 6), the Bat Kol here is more probably the
same as when a voice is heard and no man is seen.
A parallel is afforded in the case of Paul, when he
heard a voice saying: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? . . . And the men which journeyed with
him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing
no man ” (Acts ix. 4, 7 ; compare xxii. 7, 9; xxvi. 14).
On this account Bat Kol wras called a voice which
is heard behind the back (Meg. 32a). The same idea
is expressed in Rev. i. 10: “And I heard behind me a
great voice, as of a trumpet.” In the Greek there
is no adequate expression for Bat Kol [unless the
<j>r/pai fiavTLKa'i in Sophocles’ “ CEdipus,” 723, are com-
parable ; see S. Louis, in “ Trans, of Soc. for Bib-
lical Archeology,” ix. 182 et seq. — K.] ; consequently
the New Testament renders it by <ptovt/, but not by
[see Matt. iii. 17; Mark i. 11; Luke iii. 22; and
John xii. 28: <puvq he tov ovpavov (“a voice from
heaven ”) ; Matt. xvii. 5 ; Mark ix. 7 ; and Luke ix. 35 :
“a voice out of the cloud”; Acts x. 13, 15: “a
voice”; compare Lightfoot to Matt. iii. 17 — K.].

According to the Talmud (Yer. Sotah ix. 246;
compare Tosef., Sotah, xiii. 5) the high priest Jo-
hanan hears a Bat Kol in the sanctuary ; according
to Josephus (“Ant.” xiii. 10, § 3), he hears a tyuvi).

The expression ^ip ri2 (“daughter of a voice”:
that is, a small voice) is intended to distinguish it
from the usual voice. Originally, however, it was
also in the Hebrew called “kol” (voice) as is shown
by the Aramaic N'Ot? p b\>- “ There fell a voice

from heaven, saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to
thee it is spoken: The kingdom is departed from
thee” (Dan. iv. 28 [A. V. 31]); and

A Voice, here and there in the Talmud it is
briefly given as f>ip (“voice”) (Sanh.
966; compare Ta‘anit 216; B. M. 856, Rashi). In
the Aramaic versions of the Bible, in the Midrash
and Talmud, the heavenly revelation is usually in-
troduced with the formula: “A voice fell from
heaven,” “came from heaven,” “ wTas heard,” or
“ proceeded from heaven.” The New Testament has
the same formula, ’H Mev ovv <puvq in tov ovpavov (John
xii. 28; compare Rev. x. 4, 8; xviii. 4, etc.), which
is the equivalent of the Hebrew p Sip 112 HNV'
D'DP’n, and the Aramaic p nSp m2 npSJ-
Through frequent use the formula was abbreviated
into Bat Kol ; and it is not correct to differentiate
between the longer and shorter expressions. The
fact probably is that the fuller form is used gener-
ally in the older sources. Since God permits His
glory to abide in the Temple at Jerusalem, it results
that a voice is also heard from the sanctuary (Yeru-
slialmi and Josephus, l.c. ; Rev. xiv. 14, 17: “the
temple which is in heaven”; ib. 18, “another angel
came out from the altar ”).

The characteristic attributes of the Bat Kol are
the invisibility of the speaker and a certain remark-
able quality in the sound, regardless of its strength
or weakness. A sound proceeding from some invis-
ible source w^as considered a heavenly voice, since
the revelation on Sinai was given in that way: “Ye
heard the voice of the w’ords, but saw no similitude;

589

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bat

Bat Kol

only ye beard a voice ” (Deut. iv. 12). God reveals
Himself to man through his organs of hearing, not
through those of sight. Even Ezekiel,
Revelation who sees many visions, “heard a voice
Through of one that spake” (Ezek. i. 28); Eli-
Sound. jah recognized God by a “still, small
voice,” and a voice addressed him (I
Kings xix. 12, 13; compare Job iv. 16); sometimes
God’s voice rang from the heights, from Jerusalem,
from Zion (Ezek, i. 25; Jer. xxv. 30; Joel iv. 16, 17;
Amos i. 2, etc.); and His voice was heard in the
thunder and in the roar of the sea.

The Bat Kol was loud or soft according to circum-
stances: but the quality of the tone was peculiar.
Rab said: “God roars like a lion, and says: ‘Wo
unto the children on -whose account I have destroyed
My house, and burnt My Temple, and whom I have
■dispersed among the nations.’ ” Jose entered a ruin
at Jerusalem and encountered there the prophet Eli-
jah, who asked him : “ My son, what voice didst thou
hear in the ruins?” He answered: “I heard a Bat
Kol; it murmured like a dove (njV3 nDHJO) and
exclaimed: ‘Wo unto the children,’
Quality of etc.” In the colirse of the con versa-
tile tion God is spoken of instead of the
Bat Kol. Bat Kol (Ber. 3a). Elisha b. Abuyah
heard a voice chirping behind the Tem-
ple (mD\Xl nsvsvo, Eccl. K. vii. 8).

When God wishes to announce harm, He uses the
Bat Kol; but good proceeds from His own mouth
<Targ. on Lam. iii. 38). Nebuchadnezzar hears a
Bat Kol which sounds like the shout of a nation (Ex.
R. xxx. 20). When Moses died, a Bat Kol rang
through the camp of twelve square miles and pro-
claimed: “Moses is dead! ” (Sifre ii. 357 ; Sotali 135,
below, etc.).

Josephus in telling the portents of the destruction
of the Temple says (“B. J.” vi. 5, §3; compare
Rev. xix. 1, 6): “Moreover, at that feast which we
■call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night
into the inner [court of the] Temple, as their custom
was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said
that in the first place they felt a quaking, and heard
a noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a
great multitude, saying, ‘Let us remove lienee.’ ”
Hullin 595 tells of the great strength of God’s
voice. From these passages it is evident that the
strength of the Bat Kol was adapted to circum-
stances, as the divine word of the Ten Command-
ments on Sinai was spoken with a strength that
adapted itself to children, youths, etc. (Tan. on
Deut., in Griinhut, “Likkutim,” v. 1115, 112a: “The
word called from heaven ”). The original conception
undoubtedly was that the heavenly voice whispered
•or chirped, as is indicated by the expression which
Isaiah (viii. 19; compare x. 14, xxix.4, xxxviii. 14)
uses in regard to the veiled voice of the familiar
spirit, and several times in regard to the Bat Kol.

A Bat Kol could come from under the earth and from
the nether world, and is heard on heights (Targ. Yer.
Num. xxi. 6). Since such sounds supposedly came
from the spirit world, Jewish monotheism could
■conceive of it as springing only from heaven, from
the Holy Spirit, from angels, or from God Himself.
All nations regarded such sounds as the voices of
spirits (Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” i. 469; Blau,

“ Altjudisches Zauberwesen,” p. 65, n. 2). The
troubled mind, the soul in despair, would hear
sounds promising comfort in sorrow

Parallel and misfortune. The Arabs tell of
Instances, a voice, “lnitif,” which calls to lost
travelers in the wilderness. The “ mu-
uadi,” a similar voice, came in the solitude of night
to the Persian poet Nizami when discontented
with his lot (Bacher, “Leben und Werke Nizamis,”
p. 11; Goldziher, “ Abhandlungen zur Arabischen
Philologie,” i. 6).

As shown by the name, this heavenly voice was
often considered divine. In the course of the nar-
rative in Ber. 3a, “ God ” is put instead of “ Bat Kol
and not infrequently God, when using the Bat Kol, is
represented as speaking in the first person. Some-
times Bat Kol is identified with the Holy Spirit. In
Sifra, Lev. x. 5 (ed. Weiss, 46a), it is the Holy Spirit
which speaks; while in Ivor. 55 and Hor. 12a, which
give the same account, it is the Bat Kol. “At three
courts of justice the Holy Spirit beamed forth: at
the courts of Shem, of Samuel, and of Solomon. At
the first a Bat Kol cried : ‘ She [Tamar] hath been
more righteous than I’ (Gen. xxxviii. 26); at the
second: ‘ I am a witness’ (Mak. 235, referring to I
Sam. xii. 5) ; and at the third : ‘ She is the mother ’ ”
(I Kings iii. 27 ; Mak. 235; Gen. R. xii., lxxxv. etseq.).

The Bat Kol usually makes its announcements by
means of a passage from the Law or the Scriptures;
and, to judge from the instances that are related, it
was heard oftenest in Biblical times, when the Holy
Spirit rested upon the chosen people. At the death
of Moses a Bat Kol was heard saying: “Fear thou
not, Moses! I myself will care for thy burial”
(Deut. R., end). When R. Bannaa visited the graves
of the Patriarchs, and wished also to see Adam’s
grave, a Bat Kol called out: “Thou
Voice hast seen the likeness of My image,
of the Holy but My image thou mayest not see ”
Spirit. (B. B. 58a). When Israel at Sinai
said : “ We will do and we will hear ”
(Ex. xxiv. 7, Hebrew), a Bat Kol called out: “Who
has revealed to My children the secret which the
angels alone possessed ” ; that is, to do before hearing
(Shah. 88a; compare Sotali 105).

From the foregoing it is evident that the Bat Kol
was identified with the Holy Spirit, even with God ;
but it differed essentially from the Prophets, though
these spoke as the medium of the Holy Spirit. The
Holy Spirit rested upon the Prophets, and the inter-
course was personal and intimate; while those that
heard the Bat Kol stood in no relation whatever to
the Holy Spirit. The Prophets again possessed the
Holy Spirit ; but the Bat Kol could not be possessed :
God spoke through it as He did through the Proph-
ets. For this reason the Bat Kol addressed not only
favored mortals, but sinners, individuals, or multi-
tudes, within or without the Holy Land (B. M. 86a;
B. B. 735, 745). It revealed the higher Will, not in
the unintelligible speech of the Christian gift of
tongues, but in perfectly intelligible words. “ After
the death of the last three prophets, Haggai, Zeclia-
riali, and Malachi, the Holy Spirit departed from
Israel ; but the Bat Kol was yet heard ” (Tos. . Sotali.
xiii. 2, where j'JPOB'O is nearer the original than Sotali
485; Bab. Sanh. 11a, I'K’Ontl'D)- Prophecy was a

Bat Kol

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

590

gift of which not only the prophet but his genera-
tion had to be worthy. A Bat Kol pronounced
Hillel and Samuel the Little to have been worthy
of having the Holy Spirit rest upon
Bat Kol them, were it not for their generation

and ( ib .). From this point of view the

Prophecy. Bat Kol was explained as a lesser gift
to Israel than prophecy, but not, as
some said, as a lower degree of prophecy (Yoma 96;
Pes. R. 160a).

According to rabbinical tradition, the Bat Kol co-
existed with prophecy ; that is, at a time when the
Holy Spirit rested upon Israel, as well as at other
times. When Abraham was beset with doubt as to
whether Isaac had not been rejected because he was
unworthy to be sacrificed, a Bat Kol quieted him
with Eccl. ix. 7 (Lev. R. xx. 2). When Esau thought
that his father would soon die, a Bat Kol proclaimed :
“ The hide of many a foal has served to cover its
dam” (Gen. R. lxvii. 8; compare Pes. 173« and the
parallel passage, Sanli. 52 a, where the words are
quoted as the saying of men, 'C’J’X ’"lOS'l D'YI; and
this gave rise to the erroneous conclusion that by
Bat Kol was meant the same as “vox populi vox
Dei ”). A Bat Kol spoke the words, “She hath been
more righteous than I, ” in the stoiy of Tamar and
Judah (Sotah 106 ; Targ. Yer. on Gen. xxxviii. 26).
When the Israelites, in their flight from Egypt, saw
the Red Sea before them while Pharaoh pressed
close behind, a Bat Kol comforted them with the
words of the Song of Songs ii. 14 (Targ. ad loc.).
When, according to Ps. Ixviii. 17, the mountains dis-
puted with Sinai, a Bat Kol cried out: “Ye are all
deficient as compared with Sinai ” (Meg. 29a). A
Bat Kol pronounced the words (Ex. xxiv. 6): “Here
is the half of the blood ” (Lev. R. vi. 5). A Bat Kol
reassured Moses ami Aaron when they were in doubt
about using the anointment oil too freely (Sifra, Lev.
x. 5, etc.). When Israel was cured by the brazen
serpent (Num. xxi. 8) a Bat Kol was heard morali-
zing (Targ. ad loc.). At the offering of the firstlings
(Deut. xxvi. 2) the Bat Kol said : “ Thou slialt be
able to make an offering again next year” (this al-
ludes to verse 16; Griinhut, “Likkutim,” v. 153a, 7).

At the promulgation of the terrible
Instances threats of Deut. xxviii. , the anxious
of Its Patriarchs who listened were calmed
Action. by a Bat Kol (Targ. Yer. on Deut.

xxviii. 15). When Moses died, a Bat
Kol drew the attention of the world to his suffering
(Targ. Yer. on Deut. xxxiv. 5); and, as already men-
tioned, the Bat Kol is frequently connected with
Moses’ death (Sifre, Deut. 357; Sotali 135; Num. R.
xiv. 10; Yelamdenu, in “Likkutim,” v. 1045; Jelli-
nek, “B. H.” i. 12()-128, etc.). When Saul rea-
soned speciously about his expedition against the
Amalekites, a Bat Kol quoted to him the words of
Eccl. vii. 16 (Yoma 225). A Bat Kol pronounced
judgment in the cases of David and Uriah (M. K.
165) and of David’s attitude toward Mephibosheth
(Shab. 565, above). At the dedication of Solomon’s
Temple, during which the celebration of the Day of
Atonement was omitted, a Bat Kol promised to all
present a portion in the life to come(M. K. 9a; Gen.
R. xxxv. 3; in Shab. 30a the Bat Kol is not men-
tioned). Upon the favorable reception of Solomon’s

offering, a Bat Iyol uttered the verse, Cant. iv. 1
(Targ.); and it used Prov. xxiii. 15 and xxvii. 11 to
approve Solomon’s institution of the ‘Erub and of
the washing of the hands (Shab. 145, below). When
Solomon wanted to place himself on a level with
Moses a Bat Kol warned him in the words of Eccl.
xii. 10 (R. H. 215, below). When Israel separated
from Judah and chose Jeroboam as king, a Bat Kol
gave warning in the words of Micah i. 14 (Sanli.
102a) ; and when Aliab doubted the piety of Obadiah,
the governor of his house, a Bat Kol upheld his
piety, quoting I Kings xviii. 3 (Sanli. 395, below).
It spoke concerning the reason why King Hezekiah
would not be the Messiah and said: “This is My
secret” (Sanh. 94a). When King Manasseli criti-
cized the Torah, it recited to him Ps. 1. 20 (ib.
995). For eighteen years it whispered into Nebu-
chadnezzar’s ears: “Destroy My sanctuary” (Cant.
R. ii. 13); when he said: “I will ascend above the
heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most
High,” it cried: “Into the nether world must thou
go" (following Isa. xiv. 13, 14; Pes. 94a, the dictum
of R. Johanan b. Zakkai). When he waxed arrogant
because he had succeeded in destroying the Temple,
it called to him: “Thou hast killed a people already
dead ; thou hast burned a sanctuary already burned.
Yea, thou hast ground meal already ground ” (Sanh.
965 with reference to Isa. xlvii. 2; but this is lack-
ing in the parallel passage, Yer. Ta'anit 695, above).
When he descended into Slieol, all the inmates feared
that he would tyrannize over them, until a Bat Kol
calmed them with the two Biblical verses: Ezek.
xxxii. 19 and Isa. xiv. 4 (Shab. 1495). When the
water-drinkers (Rechabites) in Jer. xxxv. brought an
offering, a Bat Kol, proceeding from the Holy of
Holies, declared it was acceptable (Mek., Yitro, 2).
When Hainan tested the gallows intended for Mor-
decai, a Bat Kol called out : “ It fits thee ! ” (Targ. on
Esth. v. 14; Estli. R. v. 3). At the feast of Alias-
uerus the wine was served in the vessels carried off
from the Jerusalem Temple, and a Bat Kol warned
the feasters (Meg. 12a). Whenever there is no law,
uo high-priesthood, no Sanhedrin (II Chron. xv. 3),
a Bat Kol cries: “ Strengthen ye the weak hands”
(Lev. R. xix. 5, following Isa. xxxv. 3).

When the men of the Great Synagogue counted
Solomon among those kings who would not have a
portion in the life to come, flames flashed forth out
of the Holy of Holies, and then a Bat Iyol uttered
the words of Prov. xxii. 29: but they did not harken
to this; nor did they abandon their resolution until
the Bat Kol repeated Job xxxiv. 33 (Yer. Sanh. 295;
Num. R. xiv., beginning, and parallels). It hap-
pened that the high priest, John Hyrcanus, heard a
voice from the Holy of Holies, announcing that the
youths who had proceeded against Antioch had
obtained a victory; the hour was noted, and it tran-
spired later that the victory had been won at that
very hour (Tosef., Sotah, xiii. 5 and parallel pas-
sages; Josephus, “Ant.” xiii. 10, §3). A remarkable
parallel to this story is afforded by the legend on the
martyrdom of Polycarp : it is said that on the day
and at the hour that he suffered death at Smyrna,
Irenaeus, who was at Rome, heard a voice like a trum-
pet proclaiming: “Poly carp has become a martyr”
(Weimel, “ Die Wirkungen des Geistes und derGeis-

591

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bat Kol

ter,”p. 166, Freiburg-in-Breisgau, 1899). Once Herod
heard a Bat Kol saying that fortune should attend
every slave who would then rise in re-
Instances hellion against his master; thereupon
in he destroyed the house of the Hasmo-
Talmudic neans (B. B. 3 a). In four cases the Tern-

Times. pie-court itself called out against or in
favor of the priests ministering in the
Temple (Pes. 57a). When Jonathan ben Uzziel trans-
lated the Scriptures into Aramaic, a Bat Kol cried :
“Who reveals My secrets to My children?” And
when he was about to translate the Hagiographa, it
cried : “ Let this suffice, lest he betray the time of the
Messiah ” (Meg. 3a). A Bat Kol announced that the
legal norm should be established according to the
views of the school of Hillel in cases in which they
conflicted with those of the school of Shammai (Yer.
Ber. 36, below and elsewhere). But the Tosefta on
the same question (Yeb. i., end; ‘Eduy. ii. 3) does
not mention a Bat Kol. When a Bat Kol called out
that the views of Rabbi Eliezer should be adopted,
R. Joshua declared ; “ The Torah is not in heaven ;
we pay no heed to the Bat Kol. ” That is to say, the
Bat Kol deserved no consideration in giving legal
decisions (Yer. Hag. lxxxi. 11 ; Bab. B. M. 596; Hul.
44 a, and frequently elsewhere). Hillel devoted his
life to study of the Law, while his brother Shebna,
who was engaged in business, supported him, think-
ing they should share as well everything in common
in the life to come ; but a Bat Kol called out (Cant,
viii. 7): “If a man would give all the substance of
his house for love, it would utterly be contemned ”
(Sotah 21a). “Every day,” says Rab (see Bacher,
“ Die Agadader Babylonischen Amoraer,” p. 11, note
58), “a Bat Kol resounds from Mt. Horeb, proclaim-
ing: ‘Wo unto man, that he neglects the Law!’”
(Ab. vi. 2). A Bat Kol announces; “The whole
world is fed because of the merit of My son, Hanina;
and he himself is content with a peck of locust-
beans from one Friday to another” (Ber. 176, etc.).
While a heretic was with the patriarch Judah, a Bat
Kol called out: “To pronounce the benedictions of
the grace after meals is worth as much as forty gold
dinars” (Hul. 87a). A Bat Kol proclaims daily:
“ This and this maid, this and this house, this and
this field, are destined for such and such a man ”
(Sotah 2a, etc.). Simon ben Yohai and his son had
hidden themselves for thirteen years in a cave. When
they came out, everything on which they turned
their eyes took fire, and a Bat Kol called to them :
“ Have ye come out in order to destroy My world ? ”
When Simon was once watching a bird-catcher, he
heard a Bat Kol saying, as each bird passed: “Let
this bird be caught; let this bird go free ” ; and the
bird wras caught or allowed to escape accordingly
(Shab. 336; Yer. Sheb. ix. 1, p. 39d, and elsewhere.
In later sources the legend is changed).

From these examples it is evident that the Bat
Kol was heard under various conditions — in the in-
terest of a whole nation or of a favored individual ;
either as a plaintive cry or as a voice of admonition.
As a rule, the accounts are mdrely embellishments of
the Biblical narrative: at times they are clearly
legendary in character. The question arises whether
the Bat Kol was not a psychological fact, especially
in those cases in which it was repeated by the person

who actually heard it. The psychological possibility
must be admitted in cases where the imagination
may have been stimulated by the so-
Psycho- litude of a desert or of ruins, or by the
logical impressiveness of the mountain where
Basis. God gave His revelation ; or again by
the overwhelming consciousness of sin,
or, when face to face with death, that great mystery
of man’s existence. An inner voice may have made
itself heard. The same is the case when the voice
of the national and religious conviction impelled
leaders of the people, men beloved and almost wor-
shiped by their fellows, to a martyr’s death. Thus,
the prominent Talmud teacher Elisha ben Abuya,
who became an apostate, told his favorite pupil, R.
Me'ir, that once, when the Day of Atonement fell on
a Sabbath and he was violating both, a voice behind
the sanctuary whispered to him: “Let every sinner
return to Me except Elisha, who knows Me and yet
sins against Me” (Yer. Hag. 776, near end; Bab.
Hag. 136; Ruth R. on iii. 13; Eccl. R. on vii. 8).

Supernatural phenomena are also accompanied by
a Bat Kol. Thus Johanan related : “ Once, when on
a ship, we saw a chest of gems and diamonds in the
water surrounded by fish. When a man sprang into
the sea to get it, a sea-monster was about to swallow
half of him; but he drove it away with vinegar. A
Bat Kol then resounded, saying : ‘ What dost thou
want with the chest in which the wife of Hanina ben
Dosa keeps the purple which the pious will wear in
the future world?’” Rabba bar bar liana, among
his many mythical stories, relates that he saw from a
ship a bird standing only ankle-deep in water. When
the travelers wanted to cool themselves in the sea, a
Bat Kol called out: “Seven years ago a carpenter’s,
ax fell into the water and has not yet reached bot-
tom ! ” Rabba bar bar Hana also tells of a Bat Kol
he heard in the wilderness at Mt. Sinai saying: “ Wo
is Me that I have swrorn to send Israel into exile! ”
(B. B. 736, 74a, 746.) R. Perida having taught his.
pupil one thing four hundred times, a Bat Kol called
to him to choose between two rewards
Bat Kol for his patience ; and God Himself pro-
and Death, claimed that he should receive both
(‘Er. 746). When Joshua ben Levi
wrested the knife from the Angel of Death, the dying
man heard a Bat Kol saying: “Give it back to him;,
for mankind needs it” (Ket. 776). When Judah I.
lay in the agonies of death, a Bat Kol said, in the
words of Isa. lvii. 2: “He shall enter into peace! ”
(Ket. 104a and elsewhere.) The Sabbath was vio-
lated for his burial; but excepting a laundryman
who had failed to do him honor, those present were
comforted by a Bat Kol that assured to all a portion
in the life to come. When, in consequence of this, the
laundryman threw himself from a balcony, the Bat
Kol was again heard, saying that even the laundry-
man was assured of a portion in the life to come (Yer.
Kil. ix. 3, 326).

When R. Jose b. R. Eleazar died, a serpent at the
mouth of his father’s grave prevented the burial,
until a Bat Kol declared : “ The father was no greater
than the son ! ” As Rabba bar Nahmani expired, he
muttered “Clean! Clean!” and a Bat Kol called
out: “Happy art thou, Rabba bar Nahmani, clean
is thy body, clean thy soul! ” At Pumbedita slips.

-Bat Kol
Bata'lyusi

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

592

fell from the skies, bearing the words, “ Rabba bar
Nahmani has been called away,” etc. A Bat Kol
went forth and exclaimed : “Wo! wo! Samuel, son
■of R. Isaac, is dead!” (B. M. 85a, 86a; Yer. ‘Ab.
Zarah 42c.) Simeon ben Lakisli marked the graves
of the rabbis, but could not find R. Hiyya’s. When
he grieved over this, feeling that he had not so keen
an intellect as R. Hiyya, a Bat Kol said : “ Thou art
as keen of intellect as he ; but thou hast not spread
the Torah as he did” (B. M. 85 6; Yer. Kil. 326, be-
low, does not mention a Bat Kol). Those who occu-
pied themselves in mystic teachings heard a Bat Kol
promising them great honor in the future world.
Jolianan b. Zakkai in a dream saw himself and his
colleagues on Mt. Sinai and heard a Bat Kol there
(Yer. Hag. 77a, below; Bab. Hag. 146). When a
drought drove the inhabitants of Palestine to despair,
and R. Eliezer’s prayers did not bring rain, while
Akiba’s did, the rabbis believed there must be some
stain upon R. Eliezer’s character; but they heard a
Bat Kol saying: “ Akiba is not a greater man than
Eliezer, but less severe ” (Ta‘anit 256).

A Bat Kol was often heard at the death of a mar-
tyr. In the story of the mother with her seven sons
a Bat Kol exclaimed, “ A joyful mother of children ! ”
(Ps. cxiii. 9; Git. 576, below.) A Bat Kol blamed
Bar Kokba when he killed Eliezer of Modi'in (Yer.
Ta'anit 68a, below). When at Bar Kokba’s rebel-
lion Hanina ben Teradion was horribly burned, a
Bat Kol called out: “Hanina and the one Roman
who made his death easy are destined to the future
life ” (‘Ab. Zarah 18a, and elsewhere, but a Bat Kol
is not mentioned in Sifre ii. 357). R. Akiba suffered
a dreadful death — his flesh was torn from his body
with brazen tongs. And as with his last breath he
said the final words of the Jewish confession of
faith, “The Lord is one,” a Bat Kol came forth and
said : “ Hail to thee, R. Akiba, that thy soul left thee
with the word ‘ One. ’ ” Then the angels protested,
saying: “Is this the Torah and this its reward?”
Whereupon God replied: “ They have their portion
in the life to come ” ; and a Bat Iyol again resounded
and said: “Hail to thee, Akiba, thou art destined
for eternity ! ” (Ber. 616; two other instances in ‘Ab.
Zarah 106, below, and 17a.) When a Roman official
prevented the execution of R. Gamaliel II. by offer-
ing his own life, the deed was proclaimed by a Bat
Kol (Ta'anit 29a). The Bat Kol spoke to two later
conquerors of Judea as it had once spoken to Nebu-
chadnezzar. When Titus returned to Rome, after
the destruction of the Temple, the sea was stormy,
and he remarked that the God of Israel is strong
only upon the waters, whereupon a Bat Kol said to
him : “ Blasphemer and son of a blasphemer, I pos-
sess an insignificant little creature, a midge ; take it
with thee to the land.” And the midge penetrated
through his nose into his brain (Git. 576). Hadrian
wanted to plumb the ocean: for three and a half
years he tied ropes together until finally he heard
a Bat Kol telling him to desist (Midr. Teh. xciii.
4186).

In later times, the Bat Kol is heard in the syna-
gogue when the devotion lacks harmoniousness ; and
it proclaims, in the words of the Song of Songs,
“Flee away, my beloved,” addressing the Shekinah
(Cant. R. to viii. 14). Regarding the nature of the

Bat Kol it is said (Meg. 32a) that it sounds like a
man’s voice when heard in the city, and like a wom-
an’s in the desert; that it repeats words, like “Yea,
yea,” and “Nay, nay.” According to Sotah 33a, it
was taken to be the voice of angels, particularly of
Gabriel, who knows all the world’s seventy lan-
guages. (See Raslii : “ The divine power [“ middah ”]
residing in the Bat Kol makes its announcements in
each language according as circumstances demand.”)
Maimonides (“ Moreh,” ii. 42 ; see commentaries) com-
pares it with the voice of the angel heard by Hagar
or by Monoah and his wife, it being a
Later degree of prophecy. The same view
Views. is also expressed by Judah ha-Levi, in
“Ouzari,” iii. 11, 41, 73; Nahmanides,
Ex. xxviii. 30 ; Bahya ben Asher toDeut. xxxviii.
7; Tosafot Sanh. 11a explains the Bat Kol as tlia
sound of a voice issuing from heaven, whence the
name “ the daughter of the voice ” (compare Lippman
Heller to Yeb. xvi. 6). In apocalyptic literature,
the Bat Kol is a special being whose function it is
to lead the song of the celestial beings in praise of
the Most High around His throne (see Jellinek, “ B.
H.” ii. 45). Concerning a kind of Bat Kol which,
in view of its aims, falls into the category of omens,
see Augury.

Bibliography : H. Chajes, in Orient, vi. 345, 347 ; Allgemeine
Zeitung des Judenthurns, 1845, pp. 345 et seq.: W. Wessely,
in Basch’s Jahrbuch , 1844, iii. 237 et seq. ; A. Kohut, Aruch
Completion, hi. 212; Hamburger, R. B. T. ii. 92; F. Weber,
System der Altsynagogalen PaUistinensischen Theologie,
pp. 187, 194; S. Louis, Ancient Traditions of Supernatural
Voices: Bath Kol, in Trans. Soc. Biblical Archceology, ix . 18 ;
Pinner, Talmud Babli, Berakhoth, pp. 22-24, where a list of
all Talmudical and Midrashic passages is given ; Bacher,
Agada der Tannaitcn, i. 88, note 3; Agadader Paldstinen-
sischen Amorder, i. 351, note 3, ii. 26 ; and indexes to Bacher’s
Agada der Tannaiten, ii. and Agada der PaldstinensUschen
Amorder, i., ii., iii.

k. L. B.

BAT- SHEBA : A family of printers, in the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries, whose name orig-
inates from the feminine name “ Bath-slieba. ” The
printer Mattathia Bat- Sheba, who died at Salo-
niea toward the close of 1600, is the first known rep-
resentative of the name. His two sons, Joseph
Abraham and Abraham, continued the business
of their father at Salonica from 1592 to 1605. The
printing-establishment was founded with the sup-
port of many patrons in Venice, and numerous im-
portant and beautiful specimens of printers’ work
were issued from it. The mark of the establishment
was a figure, half lion, half eagle, with crowns; and
this sign recurs in the prints at Verona, in the pro-
duction of which Abraham Bat-Sheba participated
( 1594-95). It is probable that the latter subsequently
lived at Damascus. There is a single book published
at Damascus, in 1606, entitled “Kesef Nibliar, ” by
Josiah Pinto; and this was issued from the house of
Abraham ben Mattathia Bat-Sheba. The Bat-Sliebas
who later achieved distinction in Prague were prob-
ably members of the same family. Among the best
known of these was Jacob Bassevi von Treuen-
berg, who in 1622 was elevated to the Austrian
nobility.

Bibliography: Steinschneider. Cat. Bodl. Nos. 7860-7862;
Ersoh and Gruber, EncyklopCidie, ii. 28, 41; Hock, Gal 'Ed.
p. 24.

G. A. F.

593

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bat Kol
Batalyusi

BATALYUSI, AL-HAFIZ ABU MOHAM-
MED ABD ALLAH IBN MOHAMMED IBN
AL-SID AL : Arabian philologist ; born at Badajos
(whence his name Al-Batalyusi = native of Badajos)
in the second half of the eleventh century; died at
Valencia in 1127 (compare Hartwig Derenbourg in
“ Revue Etudes Juives,” vii. 274-279; Steinsclmeider,
“Hebr. Uebers.” § 156). According to the Arabian
biographers, Batalyusi was head of the philological
school at Valencia, where “his lectures attracted
crowds of pupils” (Ibn Hallikan, ed. Slane, ii. 61;
Haji Halifa, ed. Fliigel, vii. 1666, No. 6259). Be-
sides many works on grammar and philology, which
are enumerated by his biographers, there is ascribed
to him a philosophical treatise entitled “ Al-Hada’ik ”
(The Orchard), on the resemblance of the world to an
intellectual circle (“ dairat al-wahami-
Credited yat”). This work, translated from
with Philo- Arabic into Hebrew by Moses ibn Tib-
sophical bon under the title, “Ha-‘Aggulot ha-
Treatise. Ra'yoniyot ” (The Intellectual Circles),
was edited by D. Kaufmann (Buda-
pest, 1880), with a long introduction in which he
attempts to show the traces of Batalyusi’s theories
in Jewish philosophy. In Kaufmann’s opinion, Hai
Gaon used Batalyusi’s work, as appears from a pas-
sage quoted by Moses Botarel in his commentary on
the “ Sefer Yezirah ” (iv. 2). Bahya copied the very
words of Batalyusi in speaking of the numbers (“ Ho-
botha-Lebabot,”viii.). The expression “intellectual
circles ” (m^OClon ni^lHyn) is found in Gabirol's
“ Mekor Hayyim ” (Munk, “ Melanges de Philoso-
phic Juive et Arabe,” iv. 1). Judah ha-Levi ex-
presses himself in a similar way to Batalyusi on
the gradation of the intelligences (“Cuzari,” ed.
Hirschfeld, v. 20). Abraham ibn Ezra, in his com-
mentary on the Pentateuch (Ex. iii. 15), takes the
same view that Batalyusi does on the decimal numer-
ation. Ibn Zaddik speaks also of the
Kauf- symbolic signification of the numbers
mann’s (“ ‘Olam Katan,” ed. Jellinek, p. 49).
Comment. Abraham ibn Daud was influenced by
Batalyusi when he says that the non-
existence of the number one can not even be supposed
(“Emunali Ramah,” ed. Weil, p. 48). The whole
system of the negative attributes, the theory of the
omniscience of God, and the doctrine of free-will
expounded in the “ Moreh ” are borrowed from “ The
Intellectual Circles.” The Jewish philosophers
that directly quoted Batalyusi’s work, or used it
without mention, are Joseph ibn Kaspi, Kalonynnis
ben Kalonymus, Samuel ibn Zarzah, Frat Maimon,
Simon Duran, Joel ibn Shoeib, Moses ibn Habib,
and Isaac Abravanel. Gazzali’s work, “Al-Kistas
al-Mustakim,” is, in Kaufmann’s opinion, a simple
plagiarism of “The Intellectual Circles.” Deren-
bourg, in an article on Batalyusi (“Revue Etudes
Juives,” l.c.), demonstrates that the latter lived in
the second half of the eleventh century, and not in
the tenth century, as Kaufmann thought; conse-
quently Hai Gaon, Ibn Gabirol, and Bahya, in spite
of the parallels, could not have made use of Batal-
yusi’s work.

There are, however, many reasons for believing
that Batalyusi never wrote the work in question.
First, the very fact that none of the Arabic biog-
II.— 38

raphers and bibliographers mention “The Orchard,”
but represent Batalyusi as a grammarian only, is
alone sufficient to cast doubt upon the
Reasons assertion that he was the author of a
Against valuable philosophical work ; while in
His Au- his own field — that is, in his philologic-

thorship. al works, several of which are extant —
he evidences a lamentable mediocrity.
As Kaufmann does not mention that the translator
converted quotations of the Koran and of the Islamic
traditions into Biblical and Talmudical ones — which
would, moreover, be a difficult task, beyond the
power of Moses ibn Tibbon — it must be supposed
that these Biblical quotations are in the original, and
consequently could not have been written by a Mus-
sulman. References to the sacrifices (which occur
in several passages; for example, p. 48) are also en-
tirely of a Jewish character.

Further, the arrangement of the book and the
treatment of the subjects bear a Jewish stamp. But
even if the original had Koranic quotations, it would
be difficult to assign this book to the beginning of
the twelfth century; for it would naturally have
been mentioned by some writer before the thirteenth
century, especially by Ibn Daud, who in using it
would have quoted its author as he quotes Al-Farabi,
Ibn Sina, and others. It may safely be asserted that
this work was written at the beginning of the thir-
teenth century by a Jew, or at least by an Arab,
who, like Al-Tabrizi, was well acquainted with Jew-
ish philosophy, especially with that expounded in
the “ Guide of the Perplexed ” ; and the association
of Batalyusi’s name with this book can be easily
explained.

As Kaufmann states in his introduction, the
greater part of the existing manuscripts of “The
Intellectual Circles” bears the name
Confusion of Ptolemseus (DVO^t33), which Kauf-
with the maim considers to be a corrupted
“Al- spelling of Batalyusi ('OV^E^). Jo-
magest.” sepli ibn Kaspi (born 1280), who was
the first to quote this work, has also
“Ptolemaus” (“‘Auunude Kesef,” ed. Werbluner,
p. 10). The British Museum MS. (Cod. Add.
21, 140) bears at the head, “Book of the Intellectual
Circles of Ptolemasus ” (DVD^03^). and at the colo-
phon, “End of the Book of the Intellectual Circles
of Ptolemaeus or, According to Others, of

Abu Nasr” (Al-Farabi). The doubt concerning the
authorship expressed in this colophon proves that
there were copies which bore either Al-Farabi’s name,
or, what is more probable, no name at all. The fact
that there is not a single word of introduction in the
book by the author seems to confirm the last sup-
position. It is therefore probable that some one, in
superficially examining the book, on finding repre-
sentations of circles, thought of Ptolema?us’ astro-
nomical work, “ Almagest,” and accordingly inserted
the name of Ptolemaeus (DVD^OSb) as author. This
Ptolemreus became later Batalyusi (DV^>03) through
the error of some copyist, who, by chance, knew the
name of the philologist Batalyusi, but not that of
Ptolemreus, and considered the “ mem ” as a repeti-
tion of the “yod” and “waw,” the “mem” being in
many manuscripts easily confounded with “yod”
and “waw.”

Batalyusi

Bath-sheba

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

594

“ The Intellectual Circles ” are treated of in seven
chapters. The leading idea of the first four is this:
The world with all its beings forms a circle of which
God is the point of departure and that of conclusion.
In descending from God, one finds beings in the fol-
lowing order: the nine intellects that govern the
nine spheres; the active intellect, which created the
sublunary world ; the soul ; form ; and
“ The In- matter. By means of form, matter
tellectual became animated, and after having
Circles.” given birth to the four elements and to
minerals, it served for the production
of plants, animals, and, finally, man. The latter by
means of his intelligence, which is his distinctive
attribute, ascends the series of beings, and returns
to God. Consequently the universe is a circle. Fur-
ther, jnan, who is the last of the series of the crea-
tions made by the active intellect, becomes himself,
after his death, an active intellect in ascending the
series of creations.

The mind of man moves in a circle. It takes the
following course: man, animals, plants, minerals,
elements, matter, form, soul, and active intellect,
from the last-named of which man comes and whither
he returns after his death. Consequently, the sphere
composed by the mind of man is a circle.

In the natural order of things, man, as the noblest
being of all sublunary creations, must have been
created before all other beings ; but he was never-
theless the last, in order that he might investigate
and comprehend all that came before
Gradation him. The partial intellect of man is
of able to understand the universal intel-
Creation. lect. Man partakes both of the intel-
lectual and the material world. It is
on account of this fact that he is called “ microcos-
mus,” and that his mind surveys both the intelligi-
ble world and the material.

The series of numbers also forms a circle. It
starts from unity, unfolds itself, and returns to its
point of departure through ten. which is again a
unity. God is the unity par excellence. As the
numerical unity produces all numbers, so God pro-
duces the world.

The fifth chapter deals with God’s attributes.
The author develops there the theory of the nega-
tive attributes, a theory he certainly borrowed from
Maimonides.

The sixth chapter treats of the omniscience of God,
and refutes the arguments of the philosophers that
limit God’s knowledge to generalities alone.

In the seventh chapter the author expounds eight
proofs of the immortality of the soul. The greater
part of this proof has been drawn from Bahya’s
“ Ma'ani al-Nafs” (Reflections on the Soul).
Bibliography : Kaufmann, Die Spuren des Bataljusi in der
Jttdischen Philosophic, 1880; Steinsehneider, He.hr. Uebers.
§ 156 ; H. Derenbourp;, in Rev. Et. Juives, vii. 274-279.

K. I. Br.

BATANAEO. See Bashan.

BATE, JULIUS : English Biblical and Hebraic
scholar; born about 1711; died at Arundel Jan. 20,
1771. He was educated at St. John's College, Cam-
bridge, where he received his master’s degree in
1740. He took unusual interest in Old Testament
studies, and entered with zest into controversy with

Bishop Warburton on his “Divine Legation of
Moses,” and with Ivennicott on the varies lectiones
of the Hebrew text that the latter had published.

Among the works of Bate that call for mention
are: “Critica Hebrsea, or a Hebrew and English
Dictionary Without Points”; “Translation of the
Pentateuch, and of the Historical Books to the End
of the Second of Kings, from the Hebrew,” 1773.

Bibliography : Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, iii. 52 ; Spear-
man, Life of Hutchinson; Dictiona7'U of National Biog-
raphy, ill. 391.

t. E. Ms.

BATH : City, borough, and capital of the county
of Somersetshire, England . Though as old as Ro-
man times — in which it was known as “ Aqua; Solis, ”
from its hot springs — Jews do not appear to have
resided there until quite recently. It is not men-
tioned in the twelfth century; and the French Jew
who recommends a lad to go to England warns
him against Bath as “ clearly at the very gates of
Hell ” (Richard of Devizes, “ Chronicon,” ed. Hew-
lett, p. 436). In the thirteenth century there was
no arclia at Bath, and therefore no Jews could live
there (see Archa). The present congregation was
founded about 150 years ago, but has always been
overshadowed by the more flourishing congregations
of the neighboring city of Bristol. The synagogue
is in Corn street.

Bibliography : Jewish Year Book, 1901, p. 104.

BATH. See Weights and Measures.

BATH-RABBIM : A term found only once in
the Bible (Cant. vii. 4), apparently as the name of a
gate at or near Heslibon. The passage is obscure ;
but of the various emendations that have been pro-
posed— by Grittz," Scliir lia-Schirim” (“Rabbath
Ammon”); by Winckler, “ Altorientalisclie Forscli-
ungen,” i. 293 et seq. (“Helbon”), and by Cheyne,
in “ Jew. Quart. Re v. ” 1899 (“ wood of Beth Cerem ”)
— none is entirely satisfactory.

j. jr. G. B. L.

BATH-SHEBA.— Biblical Data : The daugh-
ter of Eliam (II Sam. xi. 3; but of Ammiel according
to I Cliron. iii. 5), who became the wife of Uriah the
Hittite, and afterward of David, by whom she be-
came the mother of Solomon. Her father is identi-
fied by some scholars with Eliam mentioned in II
Sam. xxiii. 34 as the son of Ahithophel. The real
meaning of the Hebrew form of the name “Batli-
slieba ” is not clear. The second part of the name
appears in I Cliron. iii. 5 as “shua” (compare Gen.
xxxviii. 2).

The story of David’s seduction of Bath-sheba, told
in II Sam. xi. et seq., is omitted in Chronicles. The
king, while walking on the roof of his house, saw
Bath-sheba, who was the wife of Uriah the Hittite,
and immediately fell in love with her. Hearing that
her husband was with the army, David temporarily
abducted her; but fearing the consequence of his
act, he summoned Uriah from the camp as the bearer
of a message. He hoped to hide the consequence of
his own complicity in Bath-sheba’s condition, and
dismissed Uriah to his wife with a portion from the
royal table. But Uriah, being probably unwilling
to violate the ancient Israelitish rule applying to

595

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Batalyusi

Bath-sheba

warriors in active service (see Robertson Smith,
“Religion of the Semites,” pp. 455, 488), preferred to
remain with the palace troops. The king in desper-
ation gave the order to his general, Joab, that Uriali
should be abandoned to the enemy in battle. After
Uriah’s death David was left free to make Bath-sheba
his wife.

According to the account in Samuel, David’s
action was displeasing to the Lord, who accordingly
sent Nathan the prophet to reprove the king. After
relating the parable of the rich man who took away
the one little ewe lamb of his poor neighbor (II Sam.
xii. 1-6), and exciting the king's anger against the
unrighteous act, the prophet applied the case di-
rectly to David’s action with regard to Bath-sheba.
The king at once confessed his sin and expressed
sincere repentance. Bath-sheba’s child by David
was smitten with a severe illness and soon died,
which the king accepted as his punishment.

Bath-sheba soon became the favored wife, and,
with the aid of Nathan, was able to obtain the suc-
cession-rights for her son Solomon (I Kings i. 11-31).

J. jr. J. D. P.

In Rabbinical Literature : Bath-sheba, the

granddaughter of Ahithophel, David’s famous coun-
selor, was only eight years and eight months of age
when her son Solomon was born, while some main-
tain that she was not older than six (Sanh. 695).

The influence of the evil tempter of humanity
brought about the sinful relation of David and Bath-
sheba. Bath-sheba was making her toilet on the roof
of her house behind a screen of wickerwork, when
Satan came in the disguise of a bird ; David, shoot-
ing at it, struck the screen, splitting it; thus Bath-
sheba was revealed in her beauty to David (if). 107 a).
Bath-sheba was providentially destined from the
Creation to become in due time the legitimate wife
of David; but this relation was immaturely precip-
itated, and thus he became Bath-sheba’s partner in
sin (ib.).

Bath-sheba is praised for her share in the success-
ful effort to secure the succession to Solomon. Tims
the verse in Eccl. iv. 9, “Two are better than one,”
is applied to David and Bath-sheba; while “the
threefold cord ” which shall not be quickly broken
(ib. verse 12) is applied to the activity of Nathan the
prophet, who joined in the effort (Eccl. R. iv. 9).
For further details see David in Rabbinical Lit-
erature.

j. sr. II. M. S.

In Mohammedan Legend : The only passage

in the Koran which has been brought into connec-
tion with the story of Bath-sheba is sura xxxviii.
20-25:

“And has the story of the antagonists come to you; when
they climbed the wall of the upper chamber, when they came
in to David? And when he feared them, they said, ‘ Fear not ;
we are two antagonists, one of us hath wronged the other, so
judge justly between us. . . . This my brother had ninety-nine
ewes and I had one. Then he said. “ Give me control of her,”
and he overcame me in his plea.’ David said. ‘ Verily he hath
wronged thee by asking for thy ewe as an addition to his ewes,
and verily most partners act injuriously the one to the other,
except those who believe and work righteous works ; and such
are few.’ And David supposed that we had tried him ; so he
sought pardon of his Lord and fell, worshiping, and repented.
And we forgave him that fault, and he hath near approach unto
us and beauty of ultimate abode.”

From this passage one can judge only that some
echo of Nathan’s parable had reached Mohammed.
The Moslem world has shown an indisposition, to
a certain extent, to go further, and especially to
ascribe sin to David. As the commentator Baida wi
(in loc.) justly remarks, this passage signifies only
that David desired something which belonged to an-
other, and that God rebuked him by a parable. At
the very most, Baidawi continues, lie may have
asked in marriage a woman who had been asked in
marriage by another, or he may have desired that
another should abandon his wife to him — a circum-
stance which was customary at that time. The
story of Uriah is regarded as a slander.

What to Mohammed was probably only a some-
what mysterious exhortation to just dealing was
made the foundation of an extensive legend. The
subject is called emphatically “the Sin of David.”
Filled with spiritual pride, lie asked a trial from
God. One story is to the effect that he wished to
gain the same rank that the Patriarchs had enjoyed,
and that God told him that lie must be tried as they
had been. Another is that he thought he could en-
dure a whole day without sin. God accepted the
challenge, and Satan came upon him and allured
him from his devotions with a dove of gorgeous
plumage. It led him to where he caught sight
of Bath-sheba bulbing. The story then follows
tlie Biblical model, with the following changes:
There is no sin with Bath-sheba before the death of
Uriah, nor is there the episode of t lie return of Uriah
and his sleeping in the king’s house. There is no
child that dies, and in the Koranic narrative the part
of Nathan is taken by the two angels. After the
death of Uriah, David marries Bath-sheba, and she
becomes, according to most sources, the mother of
Solomon.

To Moslem legend Bath-sheba herself is a very
shadowy figure, being generally called simply the
wife of Uriah. See Al-Tha’labi, “ Kisas-aubiyya,”
pp. 243 etseq., ed. Cairo, 1298; and I bn al-Atliir, i.
95e£seg.,ed. Cairo, 1301.

g. D. B. M.

Critical View : Her name, which perhaps

means “daughter of the oath,” is in I Chron. iii. 5
spelled “Bath-shua” (JWTI3), but since this is prob-
ably to be pointed jtVJ’TQ, the form becomes merely
a variant reading of “ Bath-sheba. ” The passages in
which Bath-sheba is mentioned are II Sam. xi. 2-xii.
24, and I Kings i., ii. — both of which are parts of
the oldest stratum of the books of Samuel and Kings.
It is part of that court history of David, written by
some one who stood very near the events and who
did not idealize David. The material contained in
it is of higher historical value than that in the later
strata of these books. Budde would connect it with
the J document of the Hexateuch.

The only interpolations in it which concern the
story of Bath-sheba are some verses in the early part
of the twelfth chapter, that heighten the moral tone
of Nathan’s rebuke of David; according to Budde
(“S. B. O. T.”), the interpolated portion is xii. 7, 8,
and 10-12; according to Schwally (Stade’s “Zeit-
schrift,” xii. 154 et seq.) and H. P. Smith (“Samuel,”
in “ International Critical Commentary ”), the whole

Bathori

Bathyra

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

596

of xii. l-15rt is an interpolation, and xii. 156 should
be joined directly to xi. 27. This does not directly
affect the narrative concerning Bath-sheba herself.
Chronicles, which draws a kindly veil over David’s
faults, omits all reference to the way in which Bath-
sheba became David’s wife, and gives only the
names of her children.

The father of Bath-sheba was Eliam (spelled “Am-
miel” in IChron. iii. 5). As this was also the name
of a son of Ahithophel, one of David’s heroes (II
Sam. xxiii. 34), it lias been conjectured that Bath-
sheba was a granddaughter of Ahithophel and that
the latter’s desertion of David at the time of Absa-
lom’s rebellion was in revenge for David’s conduct
toward Bath-sheba.

j. jr. G. A. B.

BATHORI, STEPHEN: Prince of Transyl-
vania 1571-76; king of Poland 1575-86, in succes-
sion to Henry of Anjou, who had left the kingdom
in order to occupy the throne of France as Henry
III. At this election Solomon Ashkenazi, the physi-
cian and adviser of Sultan Selim II., made his mas-
ter’s influence felt in behalf of Bathori.

Bathori instituted an eminently liberal policy with
regard to the Jews. In 1576 he issued two orders
prohibiting the charges brought against them of
ritual murder and of the profanation of the host. In
1575 he issued a decree abolishing all restrictions on
Jewish commerce, and permitting the Jews to buy
and sell goods even on Christian holidays. In the
same decree he also abolished the older law which
placed Jewish minors under the guardianship of
Christians, and put them instead under that of the
Jewish rabbi and alderman. He enforced the old
decree of Sigismund I. (1506-48), making munici-
palities liable for losses incurred by Jews during
riots He also decreed that the murder of a Jew
should be punished by death, just as the murder of a
Christian.

In the same year, when the Jewish community of
Posen was threatened by a Christian mob, Bathori
sent strict orders to the city council to take measures
for the preservation of order, but without effect.
Three months after the issue of this decree, a riot
broke out in the Jewish quarter of Posen, accom-
panied by pillage and several cases of murder. Ba-
thori imposed a heavy fine on the town council, but
the members testified under oath that they had not
been aware of the contemplated attack, and the fine
was remitted. At the diet of Warsaw, Jan. 2, 1580,
Stephen confirmed the former privileges of the Jews
and granted them some additional advantages in
trade and commerce, instructing the city author-
ities to guard their legal rights.

Further decrees provided that Jews should have
the same rights and privileges in the cities as Chris-
tians; that they should be under the jurisdiction of
the king, except in civil suits; that the citizens
should be warned against disturbing Jews in their
trade and other occupations; that the children and
widows of converted Jews should be warned not to
assail the rights of those heirs who remained in the
Jewish faith ; that Jews should take their oaths only
on the scroll of the Law or at the door of the syna-
gogue: and the courts were forbidden to summon
Jews on Saturdays and Jewish holidays.

Bathori was the last Polish king who maintained
and practised the principle that the Jews constitute
a fundamental element in the population and, being
a class composed mainly of tradesmen and artisans,
should enjoy equal rights with the corresponding
non-Jewish classes of the nation. He deserves great
credit for preserving the spirit and traditions of a
liberal epoch at a time when the Jesuit influence
had already begun to assert itself in Poland.

Bibliography : L. Levanda, Sue Tby Yevreyev v Potshot'
Ryechi Pospolitoi , in Voskhod , Oct. 1886, pp. 10, 11 ; L. Gum-
plowicz, Praivndawstwo Polskie Wzgledem Zyddu\ pp. 64,
65, Cracow, 1867 : Griitz, Gesch. der Juden, ix. 462 et seq. ;
Lelewel, Dzieje Polski, 1863 ; S. Dubnow, Yevreiskaya 7s-
tnria, ii. 304 ct seq., Odessa, 1897 ; Regesty i Nadpisi, Nos.
217, 510, 562, 567, 576-578, 580-585, 590-595, 600-613, 624, 634,
655, 657, 659, 795, 908, 1086, St. Petersburg, 1899.

H. R.

BATHS, BATHING: The clean body as an
index and exponent of a clean soul, and thus of an
approximation to holiness, is so natural a conception
in the human mind that the records of early Jewish
legislation accept the theory without any very defi-
nite exposition asked or given. Thus, when Jacob
prepared his household to visit the shrine of God in
Beth-el, he bade them “purify” themselves (Gen.
xxxv. 2). When the people were bidden to prepare
themselves for the reception of the revelation on
Sinai, they were commanded to “ sanctify ” them-
selves; that is, wash themselves and wash their gar-
ments (Ex. xix. 10). David, anxious to be pardoned
for his transgression (Ps. li. , superscription), prays:
“ Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and
cleanse me from my sin ” (verses 4 [A. Y. 2], 9 [A. V.
7]); and the harlot nation, as Jeremiah designates
J udali , is so deeply stained with sinf ul-
Symbolic ness that though it wash with niter
Sig- “and take much soap,” its iniquity
nificance. is still marked before God (Jer. ii.

22). In all these periods, then, patri-
archal, Davidic, prophetic, the symbolical and spir-
itually puriticative side of Bathing was already
recognized, so that Bathing was ordained in prep-
aration for holy rites, upon recovery from sickness,
etc. When it is considered how valuable water is
in the Orient, and how the average Bedouin of
to-day looks upon the use of water for cleansing
purposes as an extravagant waste of a valuable
necessary of life (see Benzinger, “ Hebrftische Arclifi-
ologie,” p. 108, note), the free prescription of wa-
ter for ritual purposes in this fashion becomes re-
markable.

Turning to enactments of a general character, the
Law ordained that various states and degrees of cor-
poreal defilement (see Ablution) were to be reme-
died by the purification of the bath. So, too, he
who ate of that which was found
In the dead, whether torn of beasts or from
Torah. other causes (Lev. xvii. 15, 16), and he
who had come into contact with a
corpse, a bone, or a grave (Num. xix. 19), were alike
required to bathe themselves in water and become
clean. The priests, who, as it were, approached
closer to the Deity, would naturally be required to
exhibit in eminent degree the virtue of cleanliness
as a means to godliness; there was, therefore, a laver
of brass set in the Tabernacle between the court of
the congregation and the altar, and the priests were

597

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bathori

Bathyra

required to wash hands and feet therein upon en-
trance (Ex. xxx. 18-21). The high priest on the sol-
emn Day of Atonement was required to bathe himself
repeatedly in token of spiritual purification (Lev.
xvi. 24); while the messenger who took away the
sin-laden scapegoat (ib. verse 26), as well as other
attendants at the rite (verse 28), was required to
bathe and be clean after contact with the sin-offer-
ings of the day. For various other cases requiring
Bathing as a purificative rite, see Ablution.

Cognate with the idea of purification prior to
appearing before God is naturally that of cleansing
oneself before visiting a king or person of promi-
nence (Ruth iii. 3; Judith x. 3). Possibly some-
thing of the religious aspect of the practise obtained,
in addition to the material one of bodily refreshment,
when washing the hands and feet was performed
before meals (Gen. xviii. 4, xix. 2; Luke vii. 44).
The dusty soil of Palestine and the customary open
footgear (sandals) necessitated the frequent Bathing
or washing of the feet (Gen. xxiv. 32, xliii. 24;
Judges xix. 21 ; I Sam. xxv. 41 ; II Sam. xi. 8; Song
of Solomon v. 3).

For all purposes of Bathing, the streams and ponds
constituted the usual resort (II Kings v. 10) ; possi-
bly the rain-water supply held by the cisterns in
large cities may have been utilized to some extent
for Bathing purposes, as in II Kings xi. 2, although,
as Benzinger ( l.c .) observes, no traces of bath-rooms
have been found in the houses of the people or even
in royal palaces. In Babylon there were possibly
bathing-pools in the gardens (Susanna 15), though
this passage may refer to simple washing in the open
air. It was only when later intercourse brought the
Jews into contact with Greek civilization that pub-
lic Baths were instituted ; the Hellenic

Public origin of such is clearly discernible in

Bath- such Talmudical words as

Houses. '"0^0 (denoting “ bathing-mas-

ter,” “bathing-attendant,” “bathing-
towel,” etc., derived from the Greek balaneion; see
Jastrow, “Dictionary,” for citations). Some remi-
niscence of the older custom of utilizing rivers and
streams for Bathing purposes is preserved, at least
for the religious or ritual bath, in the ruling regula-
tion that all such Baths must be taken in water that
is continually running and of the minimum capacity
of 40 seahs, about 120 gallons (according to Num.
R. xviii., the seah [= 3 gallons = 700 cubic inches]
was the cubic measure of 144 eggs; according to
Yoma 31a, the cubic contents of a space one cubit
wide, three cubits long, and one cubit deep, the bulk
of the average human body). Some bath-houses were
artificially heated (Yer. Ber. ix. 14/;). Some idea
of the value set upon Bathing in Talmudical times
may be gained from the remarkable comment on
Lam. iii. 17, “I forgat that which is good” (A. Y.
“prosperity”), according to which the especial
“ good ” neglected and referred to by the prophet
was the use of the bath-house (Sliab. 256). The
benefits of the warm Baths of Enunaus (“Ham-
math”), near Tiberias (Josephus, “Ant.” xviii. 2,
§ 3) ; at Callirrhoe, near the Dead Sea (ib. xvii. 6, § 5) ;
and at Gadara, in Persea, were known and appre-
ciated.

In medieval times, Bathing naturally concerned

the Jews, as Jews, from the ritual standpoint only;
and one of the first cares of every community was
to maintain the “mikweh,” as it was
The called. The purificative bath ordained
Mikweh. in Lev. xv. 19-33 was always held to
be one of the most essential of observ-
ances; and great stress was laid upon its punctual
observance by the women, the above-named requi-
sites of running water and sufficient volume being
carefully provided. Indeed, the repeated prohibi-
tions against Jews or Jewesses Bathing in the rivers
(see Abrahams, “Jewish Life in the Middle Ages,”
p. 73, note) necessitated the provision of a special
bath-house. The oldest mikweh now existing seems
to be that of Andernacli, near Coblenz, Germany
(see Andernach, where a good typical description
of the mikweh is given). For diagrams (section and
plan) of the similar institution at Speyer, see Meyer’s
“ Konversations-Lexikon,” 5th ed., ii. 311. plate ii.

Bibliography : Benzinger, Hebrllische Arcliltologie , pp. 108,
168, Fret burp in Baden, 1894 ; Spitzer, Baden und Bader hei
den Alton Hebrde.ru , 1884.

A. F. DE S. M.

BATHYRA : Fortress and city founded by Za-
maris, a distinguished Jew of Babylon, who about
the year 20 crossed the Euphrates with 500 mounted
archers, and requested a dwelling-place from the
Roman governor of Syria, Cn. Sentius Saturninus.
When Herod the Great learned of this expedition,
he assigned to the troop a piece of land in the to-
parchy of Batanea, and in this way Zamaris founded
the city of Bathyra, which he garrisoned. As free-
dom from taxation was granted to the colony, many
people immediately settled there. The fort not only
protected the Jews living in Trachouitis, but at the
same time safeguarded the pilgrims going from
Babylon to Jerusalem against the attacks of the
Trachonites. When the Romans got possession of
the land, they respected the authority of the regent,
but taxed the people.

The brave Zamaris left an equally distinguished
son, Jacimus; and the latter’s son Philip formed a
friendship with Agrippa the younger, and held a
command in his army (“Ant.” xvii. 2, § 3). When
the revolution in Jerusalem threatened to break out,
Agrippa sent the hipparchus Darius and the strate-
gus Philip with 2,000 horse, among whom were
some Batanians, to restrain the people (“B. J.” ii.
17, § 4). The Zealots carried the day, and Philip
was glad to escape in disguise (Josephus, in his
“Vita,” xi., has a more correct and detailed account
than in “B. J.” ii. 18, § 6). Fortunately for him, he
was seized with a fever in a village under his con-
trol near Gamala, probably in territory belonging to
Bathyra. Had he proceeded to Ciesarea Philippi,
over which Varus had been appointed governor by
Agrippa when the latter went to Berytus (not to
Antiochia), Varus (not Noares, as in “B. J.”), who
had designs upon the kingdom, would certainly
have put Philip to death as a faithful adherent of
Agrippa.

Varus, however, entrapped Philip’s countrymen,
the Babylonians of Bathyra (the editions have
“Ekbatana”), killing seventy of them. The inhab-
itants of Bathyra took up arms, and went with their
wives and children to Gamala, a little further north,

Bathyra

Bauer

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

598

where Philip joined them and persuaded them to
remain faithful to Agrippaand the Romans (“Vita,”
l.c.). During the absence of Philip the Gamalites
threatened the Babylonians, killed Chares, and mal-
treated his brother Jesus, because they were rela-
tions of Philip. King Agrippa quickly despatched
Philip with some horse to Gamala, with instructions
to take his relations away and resettle the Babylo-
nians in Batanea (l.c. xxxv., xxxvi.).

The city of Bathyra, which was probably called
after some person of that name, is not mentioned
in rabbinical literature; but probably the eminent
Talmud teachers called by that name were natives
of this city. Ritter (“Erdkunde,” xv. 226) thinks
“ Bathyra” is identical with the “ Bethora ” mentioned
in the “ Notitia Dignitatum ” ; but the B aiOupa, Br/Oupa
found in Josephus is the ancient Beth-Clioron. Ac-
cording to Richter and Schumacher, the name is
still preserved in that of the village Beterre.

Bibliography: Gratz, in Mnnatsschrift, i. 115-120; idem,
Gesch. tier Juden, 4th ed., iii. 199, 480; Boettger, Lexiknn
zu Flavin* Josephus , p. 53; Schumacher, Across the Jordan,
p. 52; Buhl, Geoyr. des Alien Paliistina , p. 246.

G. S. Kit.

BATHYRA (commonly called Betera, Beterah
[KTTQ. nvm]): A family whose name is probably
identical with that of the city of Bathyra. The name
is so rare that all persons called “Bathyra” in the
Talmud and Midrash are included in the one family,
although there are no data to prove their relation-
ship. Bacher remarks that it is one of the most dif-
ficult questions of tannaitic history to distinguish
the several members of this family from one another.
According to Z. Frankel, the following can be distin-
guished:

1. The Children of Bathyra (NVrD ’ID. Pes.
66e) or The Elders of Bathyra (2 'jpf, Yer. Pes.
vi. 33rt) : It is commonly assumed that they ivere
two brothers, heads of the Sanhedrin under Herod I.
But as near relations were not allowed to belong to
the same judicial college, they probably were merely
compatriots; so that the phrase “ Sons of Bathyra ”
was not a patronymic, but a family name ( nomen
r/entilicium). Whether the phrase included two or
more persons can not be ascertained. They, how-
ever, gave a definite character to the Sanhedrin.
Herod favored them probably because they were not
Judeans but Babylonians, perhaps forerunners of the
■colonists for whom the city of Bathyra was founded
under Herod. When their ignorance was revealed
in reference to the question whether the Paschal lamb
may be sacrificed on the fourteenth of Nisan when
that date falls on a Sabbath, they modestly resigned
their position in favor of the more worthy Hillel.
The children of Bathyra who disputed with Johanan
b. Zakkai in reference to the New- Year falling on a
Sabbath (R. H. 295), can not be identical with Hillel’s
opponents, as about one hundred years lie between
them ; the latter must have been descendants of the
earlier leaders of the Sanhedrin who probably still
retained some of their ancestors’ reputation.

2. R. Judah b. Bathyra (also known as R.
Judah Bathyra) : Eminent tanna. He must have
lived before the destruction of the Temple, since he
prevented a pagan in Jerusalem from partaking of
the Paschal offering. Thereupon he received the

message : “ Hail to thee, Rabbi J udali ben Bathyra !
Thou livest in Nisibis, but thy net is spread in Jeru-
salem” (Pes. 3b). Since R. Judah was not present
himself at the Passover in Jerusalem, it nniy be con-
cluded that he was far advanced in years, although
as a citizen of a foreign land he was not bound by
the law which demanded the celebration of the Pass-
over at Jerusalem (Tos. to Pes. l.c.). At Nisibis in
Mesopotamia he had a famous college, which is ex-
pressly recommended together with other famous
schools (Sanh. 32 b).

R. Eleazer b. Shammua, and R. Johanan, the san-
dal-maker, started on a journey to Nisibis in order
to study under him, but turned back when they re-
flected that they were giving preference to an alien
country over Palestine (Sifre, Deut. 80). R. Judah
b. Bathyra himself undertook a- journey to Rome
with some colleagues. No sooner had they landed
at Puteoli than they returned home weeping (ib.).
R. Judah once arrived at Nisibis just before the be-
ginning of the fast of the Ninth of Ab, and although
he had already eaten, he was obliged to partake of
a sumptuous banquet at the house of the chief of the
synagogue (Lam. R. iii. 17, ed. Buber; “Exilarclis”
in other editions is incorrect). The Mislinah quotes
seventeen, the Baraita about forty, Halakot by R.
Judah; and he was also a prolific haggadist. Since
controversies between him and R. Akiba are fre-
quently mentioned, these being chronologically im-
possible, the existence of a second R. Judah b.
Bathyra must be assumed (Tos. to Men. 65 b ; “ Seder
ha-Dorot,” ed. Warsaw, ii. 110), who was probably a
grandson of the former, and Akiba’s contemporary ;
it is possible that there existed even a third R. Judah
b. Bathyra, who was a contemporary of R. Josiali
(Sifre, Num. 123)orof R. Judah I. (Hul. 54 a; Shab.)
130« ; see also Midr. Sam. x.); he also seems to have
lived at Nisibis (Sanh. 96«; but the version “R.
Judah ben Bathyra” is doubtful; see Rabbinowicz,
“ Dikduke Soferim,” ad loc., note 10). It is evident
from the cases quoted in Tosef. , Yeb. xii. 11 (compare
Yeb. 102a), and Tosef., Ivet. v. 1 (Yer. Ket. v. 29(7 ;
Bab. Ket. 58a; compare Weiss, Z.c.,158, and Kid.lOi),
that R. Judah b. Bathyra (probably the earliest one
by that name) did not quite keep pace with the Hala-
kah as it was formulated in Palestine, and represented
rather the earlier standpoint. This R. J udali is proba-
bly also the one who now and again is mentioned
simply as “Ben Bathyra”; compare Tosef., Pes. iii.
(iv.) 8, where R. Judah and R. Joshua dispute with
Ben Bathyra. Here again the first and last names,
“R. Judah” and “Ben Bathyra,” probably belong
together, making one name; so that R. Joshua was
the only other person concerned (compare Zeb. 12a).
In Mislinah, Pes. iii. 3, the editions have “R. Judah
ben Bathyra,” while the Yerushalmi has only “ben
Bathyra.” There is one passage, however, where R.
Judah b. Bathyra and b. Bathyra are reported as
entertaining different opinions (Ta’anit 3a); hence
Maimonides takes “ben Bathyra” to be identical
with “R. Joshua b. Bathyra.”

3. R. Joshua b. Bathyra ; Mentioned in Misli-
nali Shab. xii. 5; Y’eb. viii. 4; ‘Eduy. viii. 1; Parah
ii. 5. The names “R. Judah ’’and “R. Joshua b.
Bathyra” being abbreviated in the same wTay (2"2"'l),
they are often confounded on being written out after

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Bauer

the abbreviation. Frankel has endeavored to distin-
guish the two tannaira on the basis of the inner
peculiarities of their respective teachings. The
chronological difficulties may perhaps best be solved,
not by assuming the existence of two or three men
by the name of R. Judah b. Bathyra, but by sub-
stituting “ R. Joshua ” for the name of the younger
“R. Judah.”

4. It. Simon b. Bathyra : Occurring in ‘Eduy.
viii. 1, somewhat earlier than R. Akiba, since the lat-
ter adds to R. Simon’s words.

5. R. Johanan b. Bathyra: Mentioned in Zeb.
63 a ; probably only a misreading for “ R. Judah b.
Bathyra” (see Rabbinowicz, “Dikduke Soferim,”
note 50), or “ R. Joshua b. Bathyra.”

R. Judah b. Bathyra sent from Nisibis three warn-
ings to the scholars in Palestine or Babylonia
(Sanli. 96«); the same warnings are in part also at-
tributed to Joshua b. Levi (Ber. 86), which again
increases the confusion. The later compilers
(“Pirka” of Rabbi the Holy, ed. Schbnblum, 206,
and“Ma‘asc Torah,” in Jellinek,“B. H.” ii. 95) men-
tion respectively five and four warnings by R. Ju-
dah b. Bathyra. The pseudepigrapha ascribe to R.
Judah b. Bathyra the mystic “Sefer ha-Bittahon ”
(Book of Trust).

The name “Bathyra” or “ Beterah ” is variously
spelled HTTID (Tosef., Naz. v. 1, ed. Zuckermandel);
COmS (Tosef., Oh. iv. 14); "IDS (Naz. 566);
' TltDD or 'TtOS (Tosef., Sotah,v.l3, and vi. 1); NTlHS
(Yer. Shek. iii. 47c).

Bibliography : Z. Frankel, Hodogetica in Mischnam , p. 94 ;

Bacber, Agada der Tannaiten , i. 379-385 ; Weiss, Dor Dor

we-Dorsliaw, i. 156; M. Braunschweiger, Die Lehrer tier

Mischnah , pp. 100-102, 119, 255.

J. SR. S. Kit.

BATLANIM (literally, “unemployed men,”
“idlers ”): Title of the ten men of leisure who, unoc-
cupied by business of their own, devote their whole
time to communal affairs and are particularly relied
upon to attend divine service regularly at the syna-
gogue. Only such places are regarded as worthy of
the name of town as have ten Batlanim for the main-
tenance of the daily service (Meg. i. 3, p. 5 a; Yer.
Meg. i. 706; B. K. 82«; Sanli. 176). Raslii (see es-
pecially B. K. 82«) explains the word in the follow-
ing passage :

“ These ten Batlanim abstained from every other work, being
supported by the community for the purpose of attending to
all congregational work, but especially to be in time for the
regular service an allusion to the saying, “ When on entering
the synagogue God fails to find the ten that form a congrega-
tion of worshipers, His anger is aroused ” (Ber. 6b).

R. Nissim on Alfasi (Megillah) raises objections to
the remark that the Batlanim were supported hy
the community ; but Raslii seems to follow an old
tradition.

In Sanli. 176 they are counted among the hundred
and twenty elect of a city. It is of especial interest
to find that Benjamin of Tudela as late as in the
twelfth century met in Bagdad with the institution
of the ten Batlanim; he states that “they are the
presidents of the ten colleges and are called Batlanim
because their sole occupation consists in the dis-
charge of communal business. They give decisions
on legal and religious questions for all the Jewish
inhabitants of the country, during every day of the

week, except Monday, which is set aside for assem-
blies under the presidency of R. Samuel, master of
the college Gaon Jacob, who on that day dispenses
justice to every applicant, and is assisted therein by
the ten Batlanim, presidentsof the colleges ” (Benja-
min of Tudela, ed. Asher, Hebrew text, pp. 60 et seq. ;
English translation, p. 101). Levy (“ Neuhebraisclies
Worterb.” ii., s.v. p and )b03) correctly identifies
the Batlanim with the “bene-ha-keneset,” (the men
of the synagogue) (Bek. v. 5, p. 366). This would
make them a survival of the Hasideans, the original
founders of the synagogue. Modern times made the
institution of ten Batlanim, receiving some compen-
sation from the congregation for regular attendance
at divine service, again a necessity, in view of the
fact that private men could not always be relied
upon; hence many synagogues adhering to the
olden (“ orthodox ”) ritual employ hired worshipers,
called “Minyan-men.”

Bibliography : Levy, Neuhehr. WOrterb. s.v.; Israel Abra-
hams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages. p. 57, note 4

J. SR. K.

BATOR (BREISACH), SZIDOR : Hungarian
composer; born at Budapest Feb. 23, 1860. He
passed through the realschule and polytechnic in
his native city, and at the same time attended the
National Conservatory and the Academy of Music.
His teacher in composition was Robert Volkmann,
who recognized the musical talent of his pupil and
encouraged him to follow a musical career. Bator
has composed a number of operettas, which have
been successfully performed at the Volkstheater
in Budapest; as also accompaniments to a large
number of Hungarian songs, pianoforte pieces,
ballet music, etc. His works are: “ A Milliomosno,”
operetta, in collaboration with Bela Hegyi; “Uff
Kiraly,” operetta in three acts; “ATitkos Csok,”
operetta in three acts; “A Bor,” ballet in three acts;
songs to the folk-piece “ Az Arendas Zsido ” ;
“ Falun ” and “ Alkonyatkor ” ; ten Hungarian folk-
songs; a string quartet ; a trio; a piano quartet; a
sonata for cello ; and a suite for a stringed orchestra.
Among his more recent compositions the trio for
harp, violin, and cello established his fame in Ger-
many and secured a publisher for him there. In
1901 he published an overture performed at the phil-
harmonic concert in Budapest.

Bibliography: Pallas Lexicon ; Sdgh Zeneszeti Lexicon.

s. M. W.

BATTERY. See Assault and Battery.

BATTLEMENTS. See House.

BAUER, BRUNO: Christian theologian, philos-
opher, and historian; born Sept. 6, 1809, at Eisen-
burg, duchy of Saxe-Altenburg; died April 13, 1882,
at Rixdorf, near Berlin.

While Bauer regarded emancipation from the
thraldom of medievalism as the object of modern
civilization, he had no sympathy whatsoever with
the Jews’ struggle for political, social, and religious
emancipation. At the time when the Jews of Ger-
many strove hard to obtain their long-withheld polit-
ical freedom and equality, and when many, in order
to assert their full claim to citizenship, went so far
as to urge the rejection of every vestige of Oriental-
ism from their religious life, Bauer published an

Bauer

Bausk

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

600

article in the “Deutsche Jalirbiicher,” 1842, on the
Jewish question, afterward republished with addi-
tions, as a separate book under the title “ Die Juden-
frage,” Brunswick, 1843, in which lie sides with the
bitterest enemies of the Jews. He finds the con-
tinual oppression of the Jews by the Christian state
perfectly justified. He declares that by their loy-
alty to their own history they stand in opposition to
the powers that be, because religion and race force
them to live in perpetual separation from the rest of
mankind, and that the fact of their being Jews pre-
vents them from being perfect men. Judaism,
whether it be based on the Mosaic or the Talmudic
law, has, in Bauer’s opinion, no claim to a share in
the world’s progress and freedom; since, by its very
nature, it is “ stability immovable as the hills.” Nor,
indeed, says he, have the Jews ever contributed any-
thing to the work of civilization; Spinoza was no
longer a Jew when he wrote his “ Ethics ” ; and
Maimonides and Mendelssohn were no thinkers at
all. He ridicules the Reform movement among the
modern Jews, and denies them the very right of
modernization. Thus, in his opinion, there is ab-
solutely no salvation for the Jew, not even if he
should join the Christian majority. Bauer’s mode
of dealing with the Jewish question is significant
as an instance of German liberalism. A similar arti-
cle by him in Wagener’s “ Staatslexikon,” reprinted
in pamphlet form under the title “ Das Judentlium
in der Fremde,” Berlin, 1863, is characterized by the
writer of the article on Bauer in Herzog-Hauck’s
“ Real-Encyklopiidie,” 1897, as “ rich in contents and
noteworthy” ; whereas Steinschneider, in his “ Hebra-
isclie Bibliographic,” vi. 6, deplores the fact that
“a liberal man of originally eminent talent could
sink so low as to lend his name to such twaddle. ”

Bauer’s attack on the Jews evoked replies from
Gabriel Riesser in Weil’s “ Constitutionelle Jahr-
biicher,” ii. and iii. ; Samuel Hirscli, “Das Juden-
thum, der Christliche Staat und die Moderne Ivritik,
Briefe zur Beleuchtung der Judenfrage,” Leipsic,
1843; G. Salomon, “Bruno Bauer und Seine Gelialt-
lose Kritik,” 1843; W. Freund, “Zur Judenfrage,”
1843 ; S. Holdheim, in his “ Autonomie der Rabbiner, ”
1843; K. Gruen, “Gegen B. Bauer,” Darmstadt,
1844; and last, but not least, from Abraham Geiger,
in his “ Wissenscliaftliche Zeitschrift fiir Jiidische
Theologie,” v. 199-259, 325-371— a rich literature
which contains valuable material for the history of
Jewish emancipation and reform.

Bibliography : Herzog-Hauek’s Real-Encyklopddie , s. v.
Bauer , Bruno ; Jost, Neuere Gesch. der Israeliten , i. 301-
304; M. Isler, in Gabriel Riesser’s Gesammelte Scliriften ,
1867, i. 364-366. For a very instructive critique by Steinthal
of Bauer’s Philo und Christus, from a Jewish point of view,
see Lazarus and Steinthal, Zeitschr. f iir VOlkerpsychologie
und Sprachwissenschaft , 1878. x. 409-469.

S. K.

BAUER, GEORGE LORENZ : Christian au-
thor of a theology of the Old Testament; born at
Hippolstein, Bavaria, Aug. 14, 1755; died Jan. 13,
1806. In 1789 he was appointed professor of philos-
ophy and Oriental languages at the University of
Altdorf, and in 1805 professor at the University of
Heidelberg, where he died. He was one of the most
scholarly and active advocates of the rationalism
of the “Period of Enlightenment.” He published

twenty-three volumes on Old Testament subjects
alone. These, though meritorious for their time,
were essentially compilatory and lacking in origi-
nal ideas, and consequently did not exert a lasting
influence.

Bauer’s name deserves to be rescued from oblivion
because he was the first scholar to produce a theol-
ogy of the Old Testament. His work, “ Theologie
des Alten Testaments,” appeared anonymously in
1796, and was based on the program of his Altdorf
colleague, Johann Philipp Gabler, “De Justo Dis-
crimine Theologise Biblicae et Dogmatic* Regun-
disque Recte Utriusque Finibus” (1787). It was
followed by “Beilagen zur Theologie des Alten
Testaments (1801) ; “ Hebraische Mythologie ” (1802) ;
“Biblisclie Moral des Alten Testaments”; and
“Breviarium Theologise Biblices,” the last-named
work being a summary of the conclusions contained
in his other works.

Bibliography: Herzog-Hauck, Beni - Encyklopitdie ; All-

gcmeine Deutsche Biographic, ii. 143-145.

T. K. H. C.

BAUER, JULIUS; Austrian humorist; born
at Raab-Sziget, Hungary, Oct. 15, 1853. Bauer was
educated at home until 1873, when he went to
Vienna to study medicine. Being poor, he wrote for
the local comic papers, and, to his surprise, did so
well that he forsook medicine for journalism. For
some time he lived in quiet obscurity, when one of
a series of satirical articles in a Vienna paper, signed
“Don Spavento,” drew attention to Bauer and en-
abled him to gain a firm foothold in the literary
world. In 1879 he became the dramatic editor of
the “Wiener Extrablatt,” in which he published
among other articles a satire on Jokai's “Der Gold-
mensch,” which induced Director Jauner, of the The-
ater an der Wien, to engage Bauer as librettist.

In this capacity he wrote jointly with Hugo Witt-
mann the libretti for Millocker’s “Der Hofnarr”;
“Die Sieben Schwaben”; “Der Arme Jonathan,”
and “Das Sonntagskind ” ; as well as “Die Wie-
nerstadt in Wort und Bild ” (farce); “Zur Hebung
des Fremdenverkehrs ” (farce); “Im Zeitungsver-
schleiss.” He wrote also a number of topical satires
and poems.

Bibliography: Meyer, Konversations-Lexikon, p. 567; Eisen-

berg. Das Geistige Wien, p. 20.

s. E. Ms.

BAUER, MARIE-BERNARD : Chaplain of
the Tuileries, Paris; bom 1829 at Budapest, Hun-
gary; died 1898. Through the Carmelite priest Au-
gustin (whose actual name was Hermann Cohen),
Bauer, after an adventurous youth in which he tried
all sorts of metiers , including painting and photog-
raphy, became a convert to Catholicism in Paris
and a member of the Carmelite Order, which he,
however, left later. He distinguished himself as
a pulpit orator, first at Vienna, where he deliv-
ered a series of addresses, which were published
(1866) under the title “Le JudaTsme Comme Preuve
du Christianisme.” Eventually he attained to the
rank of a bishop. In 1867 he became father con-
fessor to the Empress Eugenie. On Nov. 17, 1869,
he delivered the dedicatory address at the opening
of the Suez canal. After the downfall of the empire,

601

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Bauer

Bausk

Bauer exchanged the bishopric for the turf, and be-
came a fancier of race-horses. Besides the lectures
mentioned, he published a series of sermons, “Le But
de la Vie"’ (1869), and a pamphlet, “Napoleon III.
et l'Europe en 1867.”

Bibliography: Sarnmter, in Ally. Zcit. des Judenthums ,

1896, p. 270 ; La Grande EncycU>pedie , s.v.

S. A. F.

BAUER, MORITZ: Austrian physician; spe-
cialist in vaccination; bom at Vienna Feb. 25, 1844.
He received his education at his native town, where
he attended the gymnasium and university. After
obtaining his doctorate in 1870, he was appointed
physician of the Wiedener Hospital, but resigned
the position in 1872 to engage in private prac-
tise. He was a member of the chamber of aider-
men for the district of Margarethen from 1882 to
1885, and since 1888 has been secretary of the Me-
diziuisclie Doctoren-Collegium. Bauer has paid es-
pecial attention to vaccination, in which field he is
recognized as an authority. He has added to his
local reputation by the establishment of an institute
for animal vaccine. Bauer’s manifold experiences
in vaccination have been embodied in his work “Die
Schutzpocken-Impfung und Ihre Technik, mit, Be-
sonderer Berficksichtigung der Impfsclmden, Hirer
Verhfitung und Beliandlung,” Stuttgart, 1890.

s. F. T. II.

BAUMGARTEN, B. KAROLY; Hungarian
jurist; born at Budapest Sept. 21, 1853, where he
also finished his education ; brother of Isidor Baum-
garten. From 1876 to 1892 he practised law in
Budapest, at the same time editing the technical
journal “Bunteto Jog Tara.” In 1892 he became
judge of the Court of Commerce and Exchange in
Budapest and president of the Appellate Council, in
which capacity he exercised a powerful influence
upon the development of the judicature. In 1898
he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court at
Budapest.

Bibliography: Pallas Lexicon.

s. M. W.

BAUMGARTEN, EMANUEL : Austrian au-
thor and communal worker; born in Kremsier Jan.
15, 1828. In his youth he frequented various yeshi-
bot, acquiring secular learning in private; and in
1848 he went to Vienna, where he devoted himself
to commercial life, at the same time attending lec-
tures at the university. Baumgarten was elected to
the Seclisliaus municipal board in 1861, being one of
the first Jews in Austria to be elected to such an
office ; he was made warden of the temple of Vienna
in 1870; and was in 1872 elected a member of the
board of the Jewish congregation of that city, in
which capacity he displayed a great and beneficent
activity. A prominent part was taken by him in
the foundation of the Bet lia-Midrash in Vienna, in
which such men as Isaac H. Weiss and M. Friedmann
found an opportunity to develop their talents; and
he was one of the founders of the Israelitische
Allianz and represented the congregation in the
state’s boards of education. The emperor honored
him by granting him an order of merit ; and on the
occasion of his seventieth birthday he was the re-
cipient of enthusiastic ovations.

Baumgarten is the author of a Hebrew poem on
the occasion of the escape of Emperor Francis Joseph
from assassination, Vienna, 1853 ; a German transla-
tion of Bahya’s “Duties of the Heart,” with the
Hebrew text, Vienna, 1854; “ Ruth, a Hebrew Epic,”
Vienna, 1865; “Einige Worte fiber den Weinhandel
und die Weinkultur in Oesterreich,” Vienna, 1866.
He edited: “ Blutbeschuldigung Gegen die Juden,
von Christlicher Seite Beurtheilt,” Vienna, 1883;
“Megillat Sedarim,” being Abraham ben Mordecai’s
memoirs, relating the history of the synagogue of
Aussee, which was destroyed because of false accusa-
tions preferred by a Catholic priest, Berlin, 1895;
“Gutmeinung fiber den Talmud der HebrSer von
Carolus Fischer,” Vienna, 1883; Benjamin Israel
Frankel’s “ Yeshu'at Israel,” memoirs relating the
history of the Jews in Moravia during the wars be-
tween Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa, Ber-
lin, 1898; “Maria Theresia’s Ernennungsdekret f fir
den Mithrischen Landesrabbiner Gerson Chajes,”
Berlin, 1899; “Zur Mahrisch-Ausseer Affaire,” Bres-
lau, 1901. He was also a frequent contributor to the
daily press of Vienna and to Jewish periodicals
printed in German and Hebrew.

Bibliography : New Frrie Presse, Vienna, January 14, 1898;

Ha-Zeflrah , Warsaw, Feb. 12. 1898.

8. I).

BAUMGARTEN, ISIDOR: Hungarian jurist;
born March 27, 1850, at Budapest, where he com-
pleted his education. Upon his graduation as doc-
tor of law he resided abroad for several years. In
1882 he was admitted to the bar, and in 1885 became
a lecturer on criminal jurisprudence at the Univer-
sity of Budapest. He later entered the service of the
state as assistant district attorney; and in 1886 was
appointed judge (Gerichtshofrichter) of the Court of
Budapest, and in 1896 district attorney, which posi-
tion he held until 1898, when he received the ap-
pointment of chief of division (Sectionsratli) in the
royal Ministry of Justice. As such he actively par-
ticipated in the formulation of the new process of
legal procedure, particularly distinguishing him-
self in the debates on the projected supplementary
laws to the penal code, and in the organization of
the International Congress on Criminal Procedure,
held at Budapest in 1899.

Baumgarten is one of the most distinguished
jurists of Hungary. His works are: “A Kiserlet
Tana,” 1885, highly praised by the Hungarian Acad-
emy of Sciences; “A Tett Azonossag Kerdesehez,”
1889; “AKettos Hazassag Elevfilesenek Kerdese-
hez,” 1886 ; “ Az Elozetes Letart.oztatas es Vizsgalati
Fogsagrol,” 1890; etc., etc. Baumgarten is also a
frequent contributor to publications on jurispru-
dence.

Bibliography: Pallas Lexicon; Szinnyei, Magyar Irak

Tara ; Magyar Kt'myveszct , 1885-86 , 1889.

S. M. W.

BAUSK or BAUSKE : District town, govern-
ment, of Courland, Russia. According to the census
of 1897 the population was 6,543, including some
three thousand Jews. The principal occupations of
the latter are commerce and handicrafts, Jewish arti-
sans numbering 295. About 150 families yearly re-
ceive alms at Passover. Two government and three
private schools are attended by 50 Jewish pupils;

Bavaria

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

602

the Talmud Torah, by 70 children. Besides, private
teachers give instruction to about 130 children.

S. J.

[The following is a list of the rabbis of Bausk in
the nineteenth century:

1. Rabbi Mordecai ben Abraham Rabbiner.

2. Rabbi Aaron, 1830-33.

3. Rabbi Jacob, 1833-62 ; died at Bausk 1862.
Author of “Zikre Ya'akob,” published in Wilna.

4. Rabbi Mordecai ben Joseph Eliasberg, 1862—
92 ; a descendant of Mordecai Jaffe, and prominent
in the Zionist movement.

5. Rabbi Ezekiel ben Hillel Lifschitz, 1892-95. He
held the office of rabbi at Suwalki and Lublin, and
is now (since 1895) rabbi of Plotzk.

6. Rabbi Abraham Isaac ben Solomon Kook, since
1895. Some of his novelhe on the Talmud are pub-
lished in “Tebunah,”a periodical devoted to Tal-
mudic literature, edited by Israel Lipkin.

Among the other members of the Jaffe family in
Bausk, the most prominent were: Lazar Rosenthal,
the most celebrated cantor (liazan) in Russia in the
last quarter of the eighteenth and the first quarter of
the nineteenth century ; died at Bausk in 1831 ; and
Jedidiah Jaffe, who was awarded a medal by Emperor
Nicholas I. for useful educational work among the
Jews of Courland. See Jaffb Family, h. r.]

BAVARIA : Kingdom in southern Germany.
The settlement of Jewish merchants in Bavaria dates
from the very earliest times. The legend that they
dwelt in certain cities — as, for instance, Regensburg
and Augsburg — before the Christian era, is undoubt-
edly fictitious ; having been invented to prove that
their ancestors had not been among those Jews who
killed Jesus. For, while the old Germanic legisla-
tion of the sixth and seventh centuries abounds with
regulations concerning the Jews, there is not the
slightest trace of such laws in the “ Leges Bajuvario-
rum ” of the same period. The oldest known docu-
ment mentioning Jews is an ordinance in the “Leges
Portorise ” of the year 906 concerning the toll in Pas-
sau. It is not until the eleventh century that they
appear in the arena of history. The

Earliest founder of the present royal house,
References. Duke Otto I. of Wittelsbach, allowed
Jewish settlers, who had advanced him
money for the erection of the city of Landshut, cer-
tain privileges of asylum in recognition of their pub-
lic spirit. But it must be confessed that there is no
other kingdom in Germany where religious hatred
has raged so furiously against the Jews as Bavaria,
and that nowhere else has exceptional legislation
against them been so persistently maintained. In
the Bavarian hereditary provinces, where the Jews
lived exclusively in cities, they were more fre-
quently exposed to sudden outbreaks of popular
fury than in the Franconian bishoprics and free
cities; while their existence was comparatively un-
disturbed in the lowlands, where many Jews lived
in the domains of free lords and under their semi-
patriarchal government.

The first Jewish martyrs in Bavaria fell at the
time of the Crusades; but while only a few separate
communities — particularly those on the Main — suf-
fered then, in 1276 Louis the Strict banished all Jews

residing in the country. This was the first banish-
ment of Bavarian Jews, but it could not have lasted
long; for nine years later 180 Jews, accused of a
ritual murder in the synagogue, were committed to
the flames. The outbreak of 1298, which arose from
a charge of insulting the host, and extended over all
the district from Franconia to the Austrian frontier,
chiefly affected the congregations of Bavaria. Mor-
decai ben Hillel, the well-known author of a halakic
compendium, together with his fam-
Repeated ily, wras among the 628 victims who
Massacres fell in Nuremberg on one day (Aug.

and 1, 1298). Driven from the country
Expulsion, again by Louis the Bavarian in 1314,
the Jews were soon permitted to
return, but only to experience further misfortune.
In 1338, on a charge of insulting the host, the whole
Jewish population of Deggendorf was massacred,
and the agitation spread thence over all Bavaria.
The murderers at Deggendorf and Straubing were
not only pardoned by the duke, but were honored
by an edict of commendation ; and a memorial church
was erected upon the spot, to which, until recently,
pilgrimages were made from all parts of Bavaria.
The whole episode was actually dramatized, and a
representation of the play was given in Regen as
late as the year 1800. At the same time (1336-38)
the communities in Franconia and Swabia were at-
tacked by the peasants led by Armleder, who
claimed to have received a divine call to massacre
Jews.

Ten years later about 10,000 Jews in Bavaria fell
victims to the bloody epidemic of superstition which
accompanied the Black Death. Salfeld’s recently
published “ Martyrologium des Niirnberger Memor-
buchs ” enumerates nearly eighty Bavarian congre-
gations which suffered almost complete extinction at
that time. Numerous churches consecrated to the
Virgin are to-day the standing relics of former syna-
gogues, upon the ruins of which they were erected.
It was not very long, however, before the dearth of
capital in the country made itself felt so severely
that Duke Louis, who had not hesitated to pounce
upon the possessions of the murdered Jews, felt him-
self constrained to issue a special proclamation that
Jews thenceforth settling in Bavaria would receive
particular marks of his favor and protection.

In the fifteenth century it would be difficult to in-
dicate any region where the Jews were not treated
as outlawed aliens. When, in 1442,
The Duke Albrecht, surnamed for this act
Era of Ex- “ the Pious, ” banished them from forty
pulsions, towns and villages of Upper Bavaria,
they found refuge in Lower Bavaria
under Henry of Landshut, who, with his well-known
reputation for accepting gifts from all sides, wel-
comed the Jews and their not inconsiderable con-
tributions: indeed, he is said to have boasted of these
“chickens that laid golden eggs.” Under his suc-
cessor, Louis the Wealthy — sometimes called “the
enemy of kindness and of the Jews ” — their condi-
tion became worse. Louis conceived the idea of
their wholesale conversion to Christianity ; but, after
detaining them for four weeks in various prisons,
and fining them 32,000 florins, he banished them
outright (Oct. 5, 1450). The same fate was meted

603

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bavaria

out to the numerous congregations of the Franconian
bishoprics and free cities, as a result of the inflam-
matory sermons preached by Capistrano and the
baptized Jew Peter Schwartz.

But Jews found even more stringent conditions
elsewhere : and, in spite of all they had suffered, they
again made their way back to their Bavarian homes.
Only the edict of 1551 demanded by the estates and
Issued by Albrecht V. had any lasting effect, —
when the Jew Josel of Roslieim, representing the
German congregations, had to guarantee that Jews
would never again set foot upon the soil of Upper
or Lower Bavaria— an example followed in 1555 by
the upper Palatinate and placed upon the statute-
book. An honorable exception to all this prejudice
was afforded by the town of Sulzbach, celebrated
with Wilhelmsdorf and Fiirth for the large number
of Hebrew books printed there. Its duke, Christian
August, a great admirer of the Cabala, invited the
•Jews who had been expelled from Vienna to settle
•on his domain, and accorded them certain privileges,
which, in view of their services rendered on the oc-
casion of the Austrian invasion of 1541, were repeat-
edly confirmed and augmented.

Meanwhile Upper and Lower Bavaria were for
nearly two centuries free from Jews. When, during
the Spanish war of succession, Jews had again sur-
reptitiously entered the country, and had made
themselves indispensable by their financial connec-
tions, the elector Maximilian Emanuel failed in
•compassing their expulsion, although he alleged that
“ it would accord with Bavaria’s inherited zeal for
religion and deliver his subjects from evident harm.”
The municipal authorities told him plainly that it
■could not be done, because they had guaranteed
immunity to the Jews in return for the employment
•of their funds. In 1756 the county of Sulzbach thus
harbored Jewish families, limited in number, how-
•ever, to thirty ; and when the union of the provinces
in 1777 drew the attention of the government to this
•class of their population, it had already dawned upon
the authorities that the time had come for ideas more
in keeping with the age, and that Jews might be
made useful subjects of the state.

The history of the Jews in Bavaria thus presents
the curious spectacle of a well-defined body of sub-
jects toward whose material ruin both

Jewish Church and state conspired for the
Dis- space of nearly a thousand years. The
abilities, same spectacle, however, modified here
and there by particular enactments, is
presented by the history of the Jews throughout all
Germany. The Jew was not permitted to hold pub-
lic office; admission to schools and universities was
denied him; he was deprived of the honor of bearing
arms and of all burgher rights ; and outside of the
ghetto walls he was made conspicuous by a badge.
He could not help feeling himself a foreigner in a
home which persistently treated him as one. Those
who should have protected him — whether the em-
peror, whose “ serf ” he was called through medieval
times, or the duke or other authority, who “owned ”
him — considered him simply as an object of finan-
cial consideration and as a source of revenue. Soon,
however, the Jews of Bavaria came to exert consid-
erable influence in the sphere of finance to which

their circumstances limited them. Members of the
flourishing congregation of Fiirth (1719) held the
most intimate financial relations with various Ger-
man courts, and busily engaged in trade and manu-
facture. Capital was for the greater part in their
hands; finance and banking — the source of their
prosperity, as also of their misfortunes — were quite
generally controlled by them.

A perverted legislation thus made them the bene-
factors of, and at the same time, as it were, para-
sites upon, the communities in which

Usury. they dwelt. For, whereas the treaty
in 1244 and that of 1255, between the
dukes and bishops of Bavaria, decreed that Chris-
tians might borrow from Jews at 43J per cent in-
terest, the Augsburg law, which was adopted by
Munich and Ingolstadt, declared that every Jew was
obliged to lend upon pledges when they were of
higher value than the loan asked. Such peculiar
circumstances could not fail to lead to economic
troubles of various kinds, to remedy which further
unwise legislation was invoked. Thus the Jews suf-
fered repeatedly from extortion by the official can-
cellation of debts due to them, or by arbitrary reduc-
tion of the rate of interest. In this connection the
frequent financial operations of Emperor Wenzel,
between 1385 and 1390, need only to be mentioned.

There were, however, departments other than
that of commerce in which the Jews of Bavaria dis-
tinguished themselves, in spite of all their unfavora-
ble circumstances. It is even said that
Spiritual aBavarian Jew, Tipsilesof Augsburg,
Life. invented gunpowder. Many masters
of the mint were Jews; physicians are
found in the service of lords and even prelates. The
troubadour Suesskind von Trimberg is said to have
served at one time in the Wilrzburg leper hospi-
tal; and in 1516 a complaint was made in Regens-
burg that people insisted upon engaging Jewish
physicians.

But the special field of Jewish scholarship was
theology. That dialectical treatment of the Talmud,
known as “ pilpul,” had its origin in Bavaria. Speyer
became a seat of this learning and the home of a
school of Tosafists; while the rabbis of Regensburg
were celebrated as early as the twelfth century.
There, too, labored the celebrated mystic Judah lie-
Hasid, author of the “Sefer Hasidim,” whose con-
temporary, Samuel of Babenberg, was a Tosafist and
the teacher of Rabbi Meir of Rotiif.nburg. In
the fifteenth century, besides Israel of Nuremberg,
whom Emperor Ruprecht in 1407 appointed as
“ Hochmeister [chief] overall rabbis, Jews, and Jew-
esses of the German empire,” there lived the follow-
ing scholarly authors of responsa.
Authors. Jacob Weil, in Nuremberg and Augs-
burg; Israel Bruua, in Regensburg;
and Moses Minz, in Bamberg.

In the sixteenth century, besides the author of
“Tosafot Yom-Tob,” who was also a Bavarian, lived
Samuel Meseritz, the author of “Nalilat Sliiba’,” and
Elijah Levita of Netistadt, the celebrated gram-
marian, and instructor of learned Christians in He-
brew and the Cabala. In the seventeenth century
there were, of first importance, Enoch Levi of Fiirth,
who was intimate with Wagenseil, professor at the

Bavaria

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

604

university in the neighboring city of Altdorf, and his
nephew, Barman Frankel, rabbi of Ansbach. Both
of these were of the Frankel family, which rose
into prominence as favorites at the court, and
the most celebrated member of which, Elkan, a
favorite of the margrave of Ansbach, known by his
rivalry with the court Jews of the Model family in
Furtli, met with such a tragic fate. In the eighteenth
century lived the celebrated ichthyologist Marcus
Eliezer Bloch, and the court painter Judah Pinhas. In
their religious affairs the congregations of Bavaria,
in which an ascetic form of piety prevailed, were
autonomous ; and they had their own courts for the
adjudication of civil disputes among Jews. In some
districts, such as Wurzburg and Ansbach, these con-
gregations were united into a corporation ruled by
a chief rabbi, who was regarded as their representa-
tive by the outside world.

The nineteenth century saw the Jews of Bavaria
approaching nearer to their desire — that of being
recognized as full citizens of the country which they
longed to call their fatherland. On Nov. 10, 1800,
the elector Max Joseph announced that thencefor-
ward adhesion to the Catholic Church would no
longer be held an essential requisite for residence
in Bavaria. Unfortunately, however, this act of
tolerance was declared (Sept. 21, 1801) not to apply
to Jews, because, it was alleged, the ordinances of
Judaism contain many observances incapacitating
Jews from civil rights. The ungenerous barriers of
the age could only be removed piecemeal. In 1804
Jews were admitted to the schools; in 1805 they
were allowed to bear arms; in 1808 the Jewish poll-
tax was abolished.

In the new possessions, which formerly belonged
to Franconia or Brandenburg and were afterward
annexed to Bavaria, the Jews remained under the
old laws of these territories. The great increase,
however, of the Jewish population necessitated a
uniform legislation, which was first attempted in
the “ Religionsedict ” of 1809. Under this law the
Jews were considered as a religious so-

Modern ciety ( Privat-Kirche ngesellschaft) , and
Leg- its conditions were regulated by vari-

islation. ous orders, which later on were com-
prised in the edict of June 10, 1813.
This edict pronounced the Jews full citizens of
Bavaria as regarded their duties; but as concerned
their rights, they were only half -citizens. It con-
tained many enactments in the vein of the new spirit
of liberality ; but side by side with them were sur-
vivals of the narrowest medievalism. An example
of this latter was the “ Matrikel-Gesetz ” (registra-
tion-law), in effect an echo of the old Pharaonic law
against Jewish increase in numbers. Whoever had
no “ Matrikel ” (license) could found no family, or, as
it was commonly expressed, for such a one “the
path to the wedding-canopy led only over the coffin
of one who had already been registered.” Excep-
tions were made in favor of agriculturists, artisans,
and manufacturers ; the government desiring to turn
the Jews away from commercial pursuits. Simi-
larly, freedom of residence was restricted. The re-
sult of all this was that one-half of the Jewish youth
of Bavaria emigrated to the United States, where a
great many acquired wealth and at the same time

laid the foundation for the more comfortable circum-
stances of the Jews of Bavaria in the period next
ensuing.

While Rhenish Bavaria enjoyed the liberty dating
from the French occupation, in the other parts of
the country the edict of 1813 remained in force. In
1819, when the first Bavarian Diet assembled, the
larger congregations sent prominent
Efforts men to Munich, under the leadership
for Eman- of Samson Wolff Rosenfeld, rabbi in
cipation. Uelilfeld and Bamberg, author of
many pamphlets on “Emancipation,”
to work for the complete enfranchisement of the
Jews ; and their efforts were not altogether unsuc-
cessful. The delegates themselves expressed the
desire for a revision of the laws governing the Jews,
and the Diet promised compliance with their re-
quest. Unfortunately, however, the succeeding
Diet allowed itself to be influenced by the “ Hep-
hep ” cries of Wurzburg, which spread over all
Franconia and beyond the frontiers of Bavaria; and
it declared, May 13, 1822, that the time for the eman
cipation of the Jews had not yet arrived. Statistics
of the day show that of 53,402 Jewish souls, there
were 252 families supporting themselves by agricul-
ture, 169 artisans, and 839 factory hands.

It was not until the revolution of July that, fol-
lowing the lead of other south German states, the
Bavarian Diet in 1831 again took up the Jewish
question. These debates were immortalized by the
tribute paid to them by Gabriel Riesser (“ Werke,”
ii. 373); viz., that throughout the whole of them not
one voice was raised in hatred against the Jews.
The Diet unanimously called for unrestricted eman-
cipation of the Jews; but the Abel ministry allowed
the matter to drag along until the Jewish claims
were buried in the general reaction which followed.
A convention of Jewish scholars and congregational
representatives, called by the state in 1836, to frame
a general constitution, produced no results. Succes-
sive diets took up the Jewish question, only to dis-
miss it after a little random discussion. The Jews
meanwhile had not been idle among themselves. An
association for industrial and humanitarian pursuits,
founded in Hiirben in 1836, did not accomplish
much ; but a society for the furtherance of the pro-
fessions and manual labor in Munich, which is still
active to-day, was more successful. In 1844 there
were 4,813 artisans and 1,216 agriculturists among
the Bavarian Jews. In 1846 the legislative chamber
again expressed itself most warmly in favor of a re-
vision of the still effective edicts, and of the aboli-
tion of all exceptional laws.

The Revolution of 1848 benefited the Jews not
only by giving them the right of suffrage, but also
by causing the presentation of an eman-
The cipation law to the Diet in that year,
Revolution and the adoption of the same as a part
of 1848. of the constitution. But the Upper
House refused to pass it (Feb. 16, 1850).
Under Maximilian II., however, the remaining bar-
riers were thrown down. A resolution of the Diet,
Nov. 10, 1861, abolished all restrictions with regard
to residence and occupation; but the final decision
of the ministry (June 29, 1863) contented itself with
the most necessary regulation of the ecclesiastical

605

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bavaria

affairs of the Jews, who were still looked upon as
merely a tolerated private religious society. It was
not until the federal law of July 3, 1869, enacted in
Bavaria, April 22, 1872, that the legal enactment of
equal rights for all took place. It is true the reali-
zation of such rights in state and social life still
leaves much to be desired, in spite of the energetic
stand taken by King Ludwig II. against anti-Semi-
tism, and in spite of the fact that, during all this
long period of struggle, the Jews of Bavaria have at-
tained eminent positions in society and in the vari-
ous departments of mental and material activity.

In 1812 the court banker A. E. Seligmann of
Munich, in consideration of services to the crown
extending over a period of forty years,

Jewish. was raised to the hereditary barony
Services to under the title of “Von Eichthal.” In

Bavaria. 1819 the court banker and landowner
Jacob Hirsch of Konigshofen, near
Wurzburg, who in the revolutionary war had raised
and armed a battalion at his own expense, was also
raised to the barony, as was later his son and suc-
cessor, Joseph von Hirsch of Gereuth (1805-85),
father of the celebrated philanthropist of that name.
In 1820 the banker Westheimer of Munich placed
300,000 florins at the disposal of the city to improve
the water-supply. The first Jewish attorney in
Bavaria, Dr. Griinsfeld of Fiirth, was appointed by
King Ludwig I. in 1834 by mere accident; but in
1849 Dr. Karl Feust and Counselor Berlin of Fiirth
were regularly appointed, and both of them later
received the Order of St. Michael. A nephew of the
last-mentioned, Dr. Max Berlin, in Nuremberg, was
the first Jew appointed a judge (1872). In the army
were Major Marx and Captain Henle; while a
banker, Obermaier of Augsburg, lias become major-
general of the “Landwehr” (reserve); and a notary,
Dr. Ortenau of Fiirth, is auditor of a reserve regi-
ment. Non-hereditary nobility has been conferred
upon the two brotlrers Henle, who occupy high
positions in railroad administration, and also upon
Consul von Wilmersdorfer and on “Justizrath”
Jacob Haussmann of Munich.

Among the more eminent Bavarian Jewish families
mention may be made of the philanthropic house of
the banker Konigswarter of Fiirth, and of Dr. Will-
iam Konigswarter (1809-87), honorary citizen of
that town, who constituted it, on his death, sole heir
to his fortune. Among parliamentarians were the
manufacturer Dr. Morgenstern (1814-82) of Fiirth,
who was the first Jew in Bavaria to be elected to the
Diet in 1849 — singularly enough, from a district in
which no Jews resided. In the Diet he successfully
defended Jewish rights, with the result that a prop-
osition to withdraw the suffrage from them was
rejected by a large majority. Fischcl Arnheim
(1812—64), a lawyer of Bayreuth, was another repre-
sentative who valiantly defended his coreligionists in
debate, and also succeeded in securing the passage
of many laws of general utility. Wolff Franken-
burger (1827—89) of Nuremberg, for twenty years a
member of the Bavarian Diet, and leader of the Lib-
eral party, was distinguished as an orator and as an
authority upon railroad and military affairs. It was
through him that the Jewish poll-tax, formerly paid
to the Church, was abolished. He was also for four

years a member of the Reichstag. Other members
of the Bavarian Diet were Maison, a manufacturer
of Munich, and Judge Gunzenliauser of Fiirth.

Among Bavarian scholars are the following:
David Ottensosser of Fiirth, well known as exegete
and Bible translator; Aaron Wolfsolm (1754-1835)
of Fiirth, belonged to the school of
Jewish the “ Meassefim,” and was a founder of
Scholar- the institution known as “Society of
ship. Friends ” in Berlin ; Jacob Herz (1816—
71), who was for twenty-nine years
privat-docent at the University of Erlangen before
he received his appointment as the first Jewish pro-
fessor in Bavaria, was a celebrated surgeon. He so
distinguished himself in two great wars by his
humanity, unselfishness, and skill, that to him was
accorded the honor of a statue erected by public
subscription, the first statue to a Jew in all Ger-
many.

It is a remarkable fact that from the celebra
ted yeshibah of the strictly Orthodox rabbi Wolf
Hamburger in Fiirth (1770-1850), a number of dis-
tinguished scholars have proceeded, who have be-
come celebrated as eloquent representatives of Re-
form. Of these may be mentioned David Einhorn,
M. Lilienthal, H. Hocliheimer, Von Schwabacher in
Odessa, Loewi in Fiirth, Stein in Burgkundstadt and
Frankfort-on-the-Main, Gutmannin Redwitz, Joseph
Aub in Berlin, Adler in Ivissingen and Cassel, Lo-
wenmeyer in Frankfort-on-the-Oder, Griinebaum,
author of the “Ethics of Judaism,” in Landau, and
others. From the same circle proceeded likewise a
pillar of Orthodoxy, Seligman Beer Bamberger, suc-
cessor of Abraham Bing and founder of the Teachers’
Seminary in Wurzburg. Outside of it stood Max
Grunbaum (died 1898 in Munich), at one time in the
Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York, and author
of a Jewish-German and a Jewisli-Spanish chrestom-
athy; also Raphael N. Rabbinowicz, author of the
monumental “Dikduke Soferim.” The latter can
not be mentioned without grateful reference to his
Maecenas, Abraham Merzbacher. In quite recent
times Perles in Munich, and H. Gross in Augsburg,
author of “ Gallia Judaica,” have distinguished them-
selves by scholarship. The brothers Emil and Philip
Feust, prominent as journalists, may also be men-
tioned. In art, Hermann Levi of Munich has labored
successfully for the popularization of Wagnerian
music ; and Toby Rosenthal and Israel, as painters
of Oriental subjects, occupy acknowledged positions
among Bavarian artists.

It is, however, especially in industries that the
Jews of Bavaria have earned recognition. Fiirth,
sometimes called “Little Jerusalem,” owes its pros-
perity to its Jewish inhabitants. Here Gosdorfer
founded his mirror-factory, George Benda his bronze-
foundry, both of which export largely to the United
States. Ullmann (died 1898) founded a large busi-
ness in toys and hardware. The royal lumber in-
dustry of the Bavarian and Alpine forests was til so
organized by a Regensburg Jew of
Jewish the name of Loewi. The Jews of
Industries. Nuremberg, Fiirth, and Bamberg con-
trol the hop business: in the first-
named town, indeed, general export trade has in real-
ity only existed since the Jewish settlement there.

Baynus

Bayonne

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

606

The cattle trade is entirely in the hands of the coun-
try Jews.

The 356 Jewish congregations of the kingdom
contain 53, 750 souls, or about 1 per cent of the total
population.

Bibliography: Aretin, Gesch. der Juden in Bayern , Lands-
liut, 1803; Gotthelf, Historisch-Dogmatische Darstellung
der Rcchtlichen Steiluny der Juden in Bayern , Munich,
1851 ; idem, Die Rechtsverhdltnisse der Juden in Bayern
auf Grundlage der Neuesten Bayerischen Gesetzyebung ,
Munich, 1853; Beitrdye zur Gesch. der Juden in Bayern,
in Die GeOfneten Archive fiXr die Gesch. des Kt'miy-
reiclis Bayern, Speziell fttr Oettingen, 2d series, 1822-23,
p. 280; Taussig, Gesch. der Juden in Bayern, Munich, 1874;
Heimberger, Die Staatskirchenrechtliche Steiluny der Is-
raeliten in Bayern , Freiburg and Leipsic, 1893 ; Himinelstein,
Die Juden in Franken, in Archiv des Historisch.cn Vereim
von Unterfrauken und Aschaffcnburg, xii. 125 et seq.,
Wurzburg, 1853; Heffner, Die Juden in Franken, Nurem-
berg, 1855; Haenle, Gesch. der Juden im Ehemaligen Filr-
stenthum Ansbach, Ansbach, 1867 ; Wuerfel, Nachrichten
von der Judengemeinde Nilrnbery, Nuremberg, 1755; Bar-
beck, Gesch. der Juden in Nilrnberg und Filrth, Nurem-
berg, 1878; Ziemlich, Die Israelitische Gemeinde (Kultus-
yemeinde) Nilrnbery, Nuremberg, 1900; Eckstein, Gesch. der
Juden im Ehemaligen Filrstbistum Bamberg, Bamberg, no
date; idem, Nac.htrilye zur Gesch. der Juden im Ehema-
ligen Filrstbistum Bamberg, Bamberg, 1899; Pfeifer, Kul-
turgesehichtliche Bilder aus dem Jildischen Gemeindclebcn
zu Reckendorf, Bamberg, no date; Zustdnde und Kiimpfe
der Juden, mit Besonderer Beziehung auf die Bayerische
Rheinpfalz, Mannheim, 1843 ; Die Bilrgcrliche Steiluny der
Juden in Bayern : Ein Memorandum, der Ilohen Ram-
mer der Abgenrdneten Ehrerbietigst Vorgeleyt von Dr.
Adler, Distriktsrabbiner in Kissingen, Munich, 1846;
Stigelmayer, Die Bllrgerlicheund StaatsbdrgerUche Gleich-
stelluny der Israelite n mit den Uebriyen Staatsbilrgern,
Munich, 1848; L. Muller. Aus Filnf Jahrhunderten, Bci-
triige zur Gesch. der Jildischen Gemeinden in Riess, Augs-
burg, 1899: Kramer, Zur Gesch. der Juden in Baiern, in
Achawa, 1865.

d. A. E.

BAYNUS (BAYNE), RUDOLPHUS: A Chris-
tian Hebraist of Cambridge; professor of the He-
brew language in Paris about the middle of the six-
teenth century. He was the author of the work
“ Compendium Michlol ” (also with the Hebrew title,
“ Kizzur ha-Helek Rislion lia-Miklol ”), containing a
Latin abstract of the first part of Kimhi’s Hebrew
grammar, and dealing methodically with the let-
ters, reading, nouns, regular and irregular verbs,
prefixes and suffixes (Paris, 1554).

Bibliography : Wolf, Bibl. Hchrcea, i. 308.
t. M. B.

BAYONNE: Fortified city in the department
of Basses- Pyrenees, in the extreme southwest of
France. It is divided into Great and Little Bayonne
and into the suburbs of St. Esprit, which latter is
separated from Bayonne by the rivers Adour and
Nive. A Jewish community existed first at St.
Esprit. It was founded, after the expulsion of the
Jews from the Iberian peninsula, by detached groups
of fugitives from Navarre and Portugal, where in
order to save their lives they had had to submit to
baptism. For this reason on their arrival they were
styled “New Christians” or as being of the “Por-
tuguese nation. ” Outwardly, they conformed strictly
to all the practises of the Catholic religion, but in
their homes they remained true to the faith of their
fathers. No document exists that definitely deter-
mines the time of their arrival in the region about
Bayonne. A certain number of them are known to
have been, at about 1520, in St. Esprit, St. Jean de
Luz, and Biarritz. Several families that had just
settled in Bordeaux were expelled from that city in
1597 at the instigation of their coreligionists, and
established themselves at St. Esprit, Peyrehorade,

Bidache, and La Bastide Clairence, where they re-
mained, although occasionally disturbed by a decree
of expulsion like that of Henry IV., which, how-
ever, was not executed. Their status was regulated
by a series of letters patent from Henry II. (1550,
1574, 1580), which were confirmed by later letters
patent from Louis XIV. in 1654, from Louis XV. in
1723, and from Louis XVI. in 1777. At the begin-
ning of the seventeenth century they relaxed in their
observance of the Christian religion; and in the mid-
dle of the century they discontinued its practise en-
tirely, openly avowing their own faith. After this

Ark of the Law in the Bayonne Synagogue.

(From L£od, “Histoire des Juifs a Bayonne.”)

they were called Portuguese Jews. Up to the
French Revolution they were almost incessantly en-
gaged in quarrels with the city of Ba-
History . youne and in suits against it on account
of its refusal to grant them the right
of sojourn and the permission to carry on retail
trade. The National Assembly in 1789 accorded
them, as well as the Jews of Bordeaux and Avignon,
the rights of citizenship. After this they were in-
corporated into the body of citizens professing other
faiths than the Catholic, and were thus enabled to
settle in Bayonne and acquire property there ; but
the majority continued to reside, and still reside, at
St. Esprit. During the Revolution, when their syn-
agogues were closed, the Jews of Bidache and La
Bastide Clairence left those places to establish them-
selves at Peyrehorade and St. Esprit. In the Assem-
bly of Notables convened by Napoleon I. the Jews
of the department of Landes were represented by
Castro, the younger Patto, and Andrade, rahbi of
St. Esprit ; the Jews of the Basses-Pyrenees, by the

607

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baynus

Bayonne

younger Furtado and Marqfoy of Bayonne. In the
Great Sanhedrin they were represented by Marqfoy
and Andrade. On the organization of the French
consistories the community of St. Esprit-Bayonne
was attached to that of Bordeaux.

When the Jews of Bayonne could devote them-
selves to the untrammeled observance of their relig-
ion, they established rules for the guidance of the
community. The first statutes go back to 1752.
Up to the Restoration the two principal institutions
were: La Hebera, for charity and
Insti- the general administration of the

tutions. synagogue; and the Talmud Torah,
for the elementary and religious in-
struction of the young. New regulations concerning
various institutions were made in 1826. In 1844 the
community was raised to a consistory, with its seat
at St. Esprit, its rabbi receiving the title of grand
rabbi. After the union, in 1857, of the Jews of
Bayonne and St. Esprit, Bayonne became the chief
place for the consistorial circumscription. At this
time the various institutions were reorganized, new
ones were created, and old ones abolished. Hence-
forth the direction of religious matters was en-
trusted to a special administration under the control
of the consistory. The Hebera continued to ad-
minister charity and to care for the cemetery ; and
in 1859 it was charged with the superintendence and
administration of the asylum for the sick, the aged,
and the orphaned, founded that year through
the generosity of the bankers D. Salzedo and A.
Rodriguez.

The Talmud Torah school, which had always been
supported at the expense of the Jewish community,
became a public school in 1848. Its first principal
was M. Moreau, and he was succeeded by M. David
Levy. In 1887, in consequence of a decree secular-
izing all public schools, it ceased to exist as a secular
school, but continued its religious instruction under
the same name. A school for girls, connected with
a day nursery, was established in 1845. Its superin-
tendent in I960 was Mile. Cossid.

In 1894, owing to an appeal by Zadoc Kahn, grand
rabbi of France, and through the initiative of the
grand rabbi Emile Levy, the Association des Etudes
Juives was formed at Bayonne. During the win-
ter it gives lectures on Jewish themes, and places at
the disposal of its members a library on Jewish sub-
jects. La Societe Protectrice de la Jeunesse Israe-
lite was instituted in 1850 by children aged thirteen
years to continue the work of the society Malbish
‘Arumim; that is to say, to provide poor Jewish
children with clothing. The idea of such a society
was conceived by Gersam Leon and Camille Del-
vaille, the latter of whom was still president in 1900.
Not long after its foundation this society consoli-
dated with the Society of Arts and Trades, begun by
Messrs. Moise Salzedo and Yirgile Leon. Despite
initial difficulties, it has gradually extended its
scope, and now prepares boys and girls leaving
school, for either a manual trade or a profession.

The grand rabbi, A. Astruc, with the assistance
of certain ladies, especially of Mme. Hcine-Furtado,
founded in 1889 a creche for children of all sects.
The children are received as infants, and supported
until able to work and maintain themselves. Besides

these there arc divers institutions: to subsidize
scholars and all that work in behalf of religion ; to
provide for boys and girls in apprenticeship; to en-
able workmen to rest on the Sabbath ; and to furnish
dowries to poor young girls.

So long as the Jews of St. Esprit were forced to
conceal their religion, they had to do without a syn-
agogue; and, in order to recite the prayers, they
met in small groups at different houses. The cere-
monies were conducted by the more educated among
them, several of whom had the title of rabbi or of
hakam. There were six such places for prayer-
meetings. The chief one was called the “ yesliibah. ”
The anniversary of its inauguration at the end of
the eighteenth century is celebrated auuually on the
tliirty-third day of the Omer by religious ceremonies,
by the singing of Hebrew and Spanish songs, and
by the distribution of cake among children. The
yesliibah embraced the Talmud Torah school, and
was the meeting-place for scholars who studied and
discussed the Bible and the Talmud. After the
inauguration of the present synagogue in 1835, all
these meeting-places were closed except the Brandon
synagogue, which till 1872 was used for services on
week-days. The new synagogue is simple and im-
posing. It is surrounded with buildings that con-
tain homes for the officers, rooms for
Syn- study, and a mazzot-bakery. It has
agogues a choir composed of thirty volunteer
and members and of twelve children,
Cemeteries, whose songs, ancient and modern,
give impressive coloring to the re-
ligious ceremonies.

After the Jews of St. Esprit began to enjoy a
little .liberty in the practise of their religion, they
ceased to bury their dead in Catholic cemeteries, and
to have their children baptized, and their marriages
solemnized in the Church. In 1654 they bought
a burying-ground, which was expropriated by the
state in 1680. The Jews in the same year acquired
the vast cemetery still in use. In the towns near
Bayonne, at Bidache and at La Bastide Clairence,
the ancient cemeteries are sole witnesses to the ex-
istence of communities now extinct. At Peyre-
liorade there are only six Jewish persons, and in
consequence the synagogue was closed in 1899; but
there are three cemeteries, the first established in
1628, the second in 1737, and the third in 1826.

Since the foundation of the consistory of Ba-
yonne its successive heads have been Auguste
Furtado, Emile Leon, and Virgile Leon. The pres-
ident in 1900 was Dr. Delvaille. Among the early
rabbis there are three of whom only
Repre- the names are known: Isaac Avila,
sentative Isaac de Mercado, Israel Al. Bai'z.
Men. Later came Isaac Costa (died 1729),
author of a book on the conduct of
life, entitled “Via de Salvacion,” 1709; Raphael
Meldola (died 1748), originally from Italy, author of
numerous works, among others a collection of rab-
binical responsa edited by his son David Meldola at
Amsterdam, 1737; his contemporaries, the learned
hazan Daniel Alvarez Pereyre and the rabbi Abra-
ham David Leon, who published sermons on the fes-
tivals, entitled “ Instrucciones Sagradas y Morales,”
1765 : Israel Raphael Abravauel de Souza (died 1748) ;

Bayreuth

Baze

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

608

Jacob Athias (died 1791); Andrade, appointed grand
rabbi of Bordeaux in 1808; David Hezekiali, son of
Jacob Atbias (died 1822); and bis son, Jacob Israel
Atbias (died 1842). His successor was Samuel Marx,
who, at the time of the creation of the consistory of
Bayonne in 1846, was promoted to the dignity of the
grand rabbinate. At his death in 1887, Elie Aristide
Astruc, first a rabbi in Paris, then grand rabbi of
Belgium, was elected. He accepted, but retired
after four years, and was succeeded by Emile Levy,
rabbi of Verdun, who was installed in April, 1892.

The Jewish population of Bayonne numbered 1,100
souls in 1728, 1,000 in 1753, 1,100 in 1808, 1,200 in
1828, 1,293 in 1844. As the result of serious social
and economic disturbances, the population has since
begun to diminish.

Bibliography : Archives du Consistoire de Bayonne ; His-
toire de V Etablissement des Juifs d Bordeaux et d Ba-
yonne Depuis 1550, par le Citoyen L. F.B., Jurisconsulte du
Departement de la Seine, an 8 de la Republique Fran prise ;
Tbeopliile Malvezin, Histoire des Juifs de Bordeaux, Bor-
deaux, 1875; Henry Leon, Histoire des Juifs de Bayonne ,
Paris, 1893.

D. E. Le.

BAYREUTH : Principality and capital city of
the government district of Oberfranken, Bavaria.
Mention is first made of the Jews of Bayreuth in a
document of the year 1343. In that year Kalman
of Bayreuth is spoken of as one of the creditors of
the burgrave Johann von Nlirnberg, and in 1356
Emperor Karl IV. granted the burgrave Friedrich
the privilege of receiving Jews into his territory.

It is also known that during the persecutions at the
time of the Black Death the Jews of Bayreuth suf-
fered considerably. The Jewish community must,
however, have originated in earlier times, and there
are indications that as early as the fourteenth cen-
tury it was of considerable size and importance.

Thus, in 1372, R. Meyer of Bayreuth
Had a Chief was appointed “ Hochineister ” (chief
Rabbi rabbi) of the two principalities of Bay-
in 1372. reutli and Ansbacli, and at the bid-
ding of the burgrave Frederick V.
was endowed with full authority over all the Jews
in those districts; and in 1384 the monastery of
Langlieimowed the Jews of Bayreuth and Culmbach
8,000 pfund heller.* The ghetto in Bayreuth is said
to have been built by six foreign Jews in 1441. It
is mentioned in connection with some buildings in
1448, and in 1453 a citizen is said to have bought a
Jew’s house that had been standing after the Hus-
site wars.

According to the Stadtbuch of Bayreuth, the
ledgers of the Jews were not valid for judicial proof.
They were not allowed to sell anything in secret,
nor could they take in pawn bloody garments, church
utensils, or the armor and weapons of citizens. On
the other hand, tolerably favorable charters were
granted to them by the city of Bayreuth in 1464
and by the elector Albrecht in 1473. According to
the latter, no Jew was obliged to stand and answer
a Christian, except in the former’s home and before
a representative of the prince, two pious Christians,
and two Jews in good repute. For protection, the
Jews paid annually a sum total of 800 florins, and in
addition gave the margravine 700 florins, the eldest
prince 100 florins, and the second 50 florins.

*A heller is an old German coin equal to one-eighth of a cent. |

In the fifteenth century, two Jews acted as physi-
cians to the elector Albrecht I., whose residence
was in Bayreuth. The following century, however,
the sixteenth, brought doubt and uncertainty to the
Jewish community of the principality. The Diet
resounded with complaints of the states against the
dangerous competition of the Jews, and with re-
quests to expel the betrayers and calumniators of
Christianity. Numerous orders of banishment fol-
lowed. As early as 1488 they were expelled from
the dominions of the margraves Fred-
Sixteenth erick and Sigismund, and in 1515 this

Century example was followed by Margrave
Troublous. George the Pious, who, however, al-
lowed the Jews to return in 1528.
Margrave Christian, also, intended to banish them,
and was dissuaded only by his wife, Maria. Most of
these orders were repealed too quickly to have a
serious effect, but those affected by them withdrew
from the cities, where they had been tolerated only
in restricted districts and in limited numbers, and
removed to the territories of the feudal gentry. The
center for all the Jews of the district — who formed
a corporation called the “ Landjudenschaft ” — was
the provincial rabbinate, which had its seat at
Baiersdorf. In 1695 Mendel Rothschild, the rabbi
at Bamberg (and ancestor of the Freiherr von Roths-
child), who officiated at the rabbinate of Bayreuth
and Baiersdorf, drew up letters of protection and of
privileges for all the Jews then living, or thereafter
settling, in the land and the principality. These
letters of protection were afterward withdrawn, and
new ones were granted by Margrave Georg Wil-
helm at his accession in 1712. In 1715, however,
the latter again restricted the Jews’ privileges, and
in 1733 their right of marriage was restricted by
Margrave Georg Friedrich Karl, who had wished to
expel them as early as 1731. The Jews of Bayreuth
were thus dependent wholly on the whims of the
margraves, and this uncertain state would have been
utterly unendurable for them had not some of them
understood how to turn the chronic money difficul-
ties of their rulers to their own and their coreligion-
ists’ advantage.

Of the many Jewish officials and followers in the
princes’ retinues whose names are preserved in his-
tory, the following perhaps deserve to be specially
mentioned: Moses Goldschmidt, a learned man of
Baiersdorf, originally of Hamburg, whom the mar-
grave Georg Friedrich Karl raised to the position
of chief rabbi of the province in 1728; Salomon
Samson, who had been “ resident ” of the prince at
Baiersdorf in 1708, and who, with his brother, Veit
Samson, was appointed warden of the community
by the above-mentioned margrave in 1728; and
Moses Seckel (Seetzel), the court purveyor and
banker, who, in 1759, bought a minor palace belong-
ing to the princely house at Bayreuth.

Palace This building, which is still standing,
Converted be converted into a synagogue and

into a almshouse, where ten Jewish families
Synagogue, obtained residence. In the same year,
1759, Benjamin Hirsch Krambambuli
of Posen was given permission to settle at Bayreuth
and to brew liquors according to the Danzig way;
he made no use, however, of this privilege. Jewish

609

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bayreuth

Baze

chess-players, with a salary as high as 200 florins,
were engaged (1746-47) to provide entertainment at
court, and an annual salary of 300 reichstlialer, paid
from the privy purse of the prince, was given to
the Jewish painter Judah Lmv Pinellas (born in
Lehrberg, 1727), who was appointed court miniature-
painter by Margrave Friedericli in 1753. He must
have been an artist of great merit, for on the recom-
mendation of the margrave’s daughter he was called
to Berlin, where he painted the portraits of Fred-
erick the Great and the Prince of Orange. Bayreuth
can boast also an eminent scholar, the grammarian
and lexicographer Elias Levita (1469-1549), born in
Neustadt-on-the-Aisch, who everywhere, except in
his native land, enjoyed the highest respect as a
teacher of learned non-Jews.

With 1810, when the principality was joined to
the kingdom of Bavaria, the history of Bayreuth as
an independent province ceases.

In 1769 fifty-five families were living at Bayreuth,
and in all of the margrave’s dominions there were
three hundred and fifty families, of
Pop- which one hundred and thirteen were
ulation. at Baiersdorf. A census taken in 1787
shows that their number had risen to
three hundred and fifty-four families, whose wealth
at that time was estimated to be 278,000 florins. In
1805 an enumeration showed 2,276 Jews in the Bay-
reuth province of the Franconian circle. In 1900
the city of Bayreuth had about 420 Jews in a total
population of 27,700, and in 1901 it had 425 Jew’s.

Until 1787 the Jews of Bayreuth w’ere buried at
Baiersdorf, Burgkundstadt, and Aufsess, but on Dec.
20, 1786, they acquired a cemetery of their own.

Among prominent rabbis of Bayreuth the follow-
ing should have special mention : Samson of the
family of Judah Selke of Langenlois, one of the
Austrian exiles of the year 1670, who was rabbi of
Baiersdorf and Bayreuth until 1687 ; David Dispeck
<born 1723; died 1794), author of the homiletic work
“Pardes David,” who was appointed in 1785; his
son Simon, assistant rabbi in Baiersdorf ; the latter's
successor, Wolf Fellheimer, 1806-26; administrator
of the rabbinate, Yeitel, 1828-29; Dr. Joseph Aub
{born at Baiersdorf 1805; died at Berlin 1880), rabbi
at Bayreuth from 1829 to 1852, and editor of “ Sinai,”
a magazine favoring the Jewish Reform movement ;
Dr. Israel Schwarz, 1852-57; Dr. Julius Fllrst, 1859-
73; administrator of the rabbinate, the
Prominent teacher Dachauer, 1873-81; and Dr.

Per- Salomo Kusznitzki, appointed in 1881.
sonalities. Other prominent Jewish personalities
of Bayreuth have been Fischel Am
lieim (Bayreuth, 1812-64), lawyer, honorary free-
man of the city of Hof, and for many years its
representative in the Bavarian Parliament; the well-
known surgeon Jacob Herz of Erlangen, who with
his brother, the engineer Von Herz of Vienna, was
born in Bayreuth; and Hofrath Dr. Engelmann, for
a long period director of the district home for the
insane. Among the living are: Dr. Stein, surgeon-
general; Von Wilmersdorfer, consul general, living
in Munich; and Haarburger, judge ( Obeiiandesge -
richtsrath) and professor in Munich.

Bibliography: Heinritz, Britriige zur Gesch. der Jude n fm
Vormaligen Ftirstenthum Bayreuth, in ArchivfUr Geseh.,

II.— 39

etc., von Oberfranken, 1845, iii. 1 et seq.\ Haenle, Gesch. der
Judcn ini Ehemaligen Ftirstenthum Anshach, Ansbach,
18t>7 : Heinr. Lang, Nruerr Gesch. des FUrstenthums Bay-
reuth, Gottingen, 1798; Heller, Bayreuther Clironik, in
Archiv fllr Bayreutlmche Gesch. i.; Ph. E. Spies, Archi-
vische Nehenarbeiten, i„ Halle, 1783; Cbr. Meyer, Unhenznl-
lernsche Fnrschungen und Quellen zur Alten Gesch. des
FUrstenthums Bayreuth ; Gengler, Codex Juris Munici-
pals, i.; Holle, Gesch. tier Stadt Bayreuth, pp. 5(1, 182, Bay-
reuth, 1833 ; Neustadt, in Monatsschrift, 1884, p. 118; Lowen-
stein, in Zcit. fUr Gesch. der Juden in Deutschland , ii. 95.

G- A. E — A. F.

BAZARJIK, or TATAR BAZARJIK : A

small town of eastern Rumelia, twenty-four miles
from Philippopolis, containing a Jewish community
of 1,700 in a total population of 17,000. It is said
to date from the year 1492. or, according to Bian-
coni, from the expulsion under Philip II. toward
the end of the sixteenth century. There are three
tombs of undoubted antiquity, namely, that of Sam-
uel Behar Abraham, who died in 1644; that of Peni,
wife of Solomon Levi, who died in 1659; and that
of Rabbi Isaac Azriel, who died in 1709. Among
other antiquities may be mentioned a scroll of the
Law, in the possession of the congregation, written
by a certain Rabbi Albo in 5547 (1686); another
scroll, by Hayyim Israel Galipapa, a rabbi of the
seventeenth century; and a set of silver “bells” for
the scrolls, presented to the synagogue in 1774 by
one Abraham Sedi. Strange to say, the Jews of
Bazarjik have preserved no chronicle of any impor-
tant events in their history. The native Mussul-
mans of Tatar origin — hence the name “Tatar Bazar-
jik ” — terrorized Bulgarians and Jews indifferently.
During the Russo-Turkisli war (1877-78), the Jews
of Bazarjik, having been deserted by the Turkish
garrison, made their peace with the Russian general
Gourko.

The present (1902) chief rabbi is Menaliem Finzi,
a man of advanced years. He succeeded his father
Jacob Finzi ( 1773-1848), who was the author of
“Zekut Abot,” a work printed in Belgrade by Moses
Alcalai. This work is a commentary upon the
“ Ethics of the Fathers. ”

Bazarjik has two Jewish schools (one attended by
182 boys and the other by 298 girls), both founded
and supported by the Alliance Israelite Universelle.
The Alliance has likewise cared for the apprentice-
ship of Jewish boys to various trades; so that the
town contains Jewish blacksmiths, saddlers, joiners,
tailors, shoemakers, and tinsmiths. The main busi-
ness, however, in which the Bazarjik Jews engage
is the wholesale commerce in grain. In general the
Jewish residents are in comfortable circumstances,
each family being independent and owning its own
house. Even the buildings occupied by the local
government administration, such as the courthouse,
post-office, telegraph-office, and public bath, are
owned by Jews.

ix M. Fr.

BAZE, ABRAHAM DE : A prominent Jew in
the principality of Orange, Burgundy, at the begin-
ning of the sixteenth century. When the Jews were
forced by a decree of Philibert of Luxemburg (is-
sued at Courthezon April 20, 1505) to quit Orange,
a period of four months was accorded, during which
they could reentei the principality, without, how-
ever, being allowed to pass the night there. Abraham

Bdellium

Beard

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

610

de Baze and Johann Cohen were charged with the
strict enforcement of this regulation.

Bibliography: J. Bauer, Les Juifs de la Principaute

d' Orange, in Revue Etudes Juices, xxxii. 239, 248.

j. G.

BDELLIUM (r6"Q “bedolah”): A precious
stone mentioned in Gen. ii. 12 by the side of gold
and the “shoham” stone as one of the chief products
of Havilali. Since manna is compared in appearance
to Bdellium (Num. xi. 7), it may he concluded that
the latter was generally known among the Hebrews,
and was considered very precious. The meaning of
the word is not quite certain. The Septuagint trans-
lates it in Genesis with a vdpa% (anthrax), in Numbers
with KpvaraXloi (crystal), thus interpreting it as a
precious stone. Similarly, Reland and others regard
it as crystal. Bocliart (“ Hierozoicon, sive de Ani-
malibus Scripturae Sacrte,” ii. 674-683), who places
Havilali on the Arabian coast, interprets “bedolah ”
as equivalent to “pearl,” following Saadia, Kimlii,
and others (compare Lagarde, “ Orieutalia,” iii. 44).
Most plausible seems the statement of Josephus
(“ Ant. ” iii. 1, § 6), who identifies manna with Bdellium
(jiAe'AAiov) . Dioscorides (“ De Materia Medica, ” i. 80)
describes this Bdellium as “the tear of an Arabian
tree. ” It is therefore a resinous substance ; according
to Pliny (“Historia Naturalis,” xii. 35), transpar-
ent, fragrant, resembling wax, greasy to the touch,
and of a bitter taste. Pliny furthermore says that the
tree on which it is found is about as large as an
olive-tree, with leaves like the holm-oak and fruit like
the wild fig ; that it grows in Bactria — where the best
Bdellium is found — Arabia, India, Media, and Baby-
lonia. This description is not sufficiently clear to
enable one to classify the tree; but most probably it
belongs to the BaUamodendron.

Bibliography: See the various commentaries (Delitzsch, Dill-

mann, Gunkel, Strack, etc.) to Gen. ii. 12; Dawson, Medical

Science in Bible Lands , p. 115; Tristram, in Expository

Times, iv. 259.

J. JR. I. Be.

BE ABIDAN (p'3X '3) and BE NAZREFE
or NA?RUFE ('Q1YL 'DIIYJ '3) : Supposed names
of two places where, according to the Talmud, dis-
putations between Jews and non-Jews 'were held.
The location of these places is as much a matter of
dispute as the words themselves — were they really
names of places or merely distorted designations
for certain non-Jewish institutions ? The data given
in the Babylonian Talmud are as follows (the pas-
sages are not found in the Palestinian Talmud); At
the time of Hadrian, Jewish scholars were required
to come to Be Abidan, or to give an excuse for their
absence (‘Ab. Zarah 175; Shab. 152a). It is further-
more mentioned that Abba Arika visited neither Be
Abidan nor Be Nazrefe, while his friend and col-
league, Samuel, freely visited the former place,
avoiding only the latter (Shab. 116a). The “books
of Be Abidan ” (|T3N '33 ’IDD) are also mentioned
(Shab. l.c.) in a way which shows clearly that they
are similar to the DD'D ’TDD, mentioned elsewhere
in the Talmud, being the sacred Scriptures of the
J udteo-Christians.

In view of the fact that one place could not have
served as the seat of disputation both for the Pales-
tinians and, a century later, for the Babylonians, the
following dilemma arises: Either the expressions

“ Be Abidan ” and “ Be Nazrefe ” are merely general
names for places where Jews and non-Jews met to
discuss religious topics, or the Talmud designated
thereby things that were related but not identical,
and transferred Babylonian conditions to Palestinian
soil. Jastrow takes “ Be Abidan ” to be a scornful
appellation for tayVl ’3 (“a place of gathering”),
Joel and Low for DV3N '3 (“house of the Ebion-
ites ”) and “ Be Nazrefe ” for D3YJ '3 (“house of the
Nazarenes”); the two expressions being used for the
gathering-places of the Jewish Christians. This and
similar explanations are controverted by the fact
that Abba Arika and Samuel lived in Babylonia at a
time when the Christians were utterly without in-
fluence; while the passages which mention the dis-
putations at Be Abidan presuppose not Christian,
but pagan opponents. Decisive against this suppo-
sition is the passage in ‘Erubin 80 a and ‘Ab. Zarah
48a, which recounts that the heathen priests brewed
beer from the fruit of a number of trees to supply
the demand on the feast-days at Be Nazrefe ; and it
is evident that this assertion of the Babylonian
amoraim must refer to conditions in their own
country.

It may therefore be assumed with certainty that
Be Abidan and Be Nazrefe were two places, which,
in the first half of the third century — they are not
mentioned in later times — were considered in Baby-
lonia to be the intellectual centers, where Jews and
Persians disputed on religious subjects. They must
have been so important that the Talmud applied the
general name “ Be Abidan ” to those localities where
disputations between Jews and non- Jews occurred,
in the same way that the “ Academies ” of Berlin or
Vienna are spoken of, without reflecting that “ Aca-
demia ” was the garden of Academe in Athens, where
Plato taught. It may be mentioned that an astrol-
oger of the name of Abidas, the Greek equivalent of
Abidan (Epiphanius, “Haires.” i. 56, ed. Migne, i.
990) disputed about the year 200 with Christians in
Persia ; lienee “ Be Abidan ” may mean, linguistically
and actually, the place where Abidas or his follow-
ers had a school. “ Be Nazrefe ” may be referred to
the name of the place Zerifin, which was known to
the Arabian geographers, or to Assyrian “nazraptu ”
(crucible), Be Nazrefe being a place where crucibles
were made.

Bibliography : Anonymous, in Litcraturblatt des Orients, vi.
3-5 ; Delitzsch, in Zeitschrift fUr die Gesammte Lutherische
Theologie, vii. 75-79 ; Joel, BUcke in die Religionsgcschichte,
ii. 91, 92; Funk, Die Haggadischen Element e . . . (Vienna,
1891), note B, who combines “ Be Abidan ” with “ Be Abdin ”
(house of the servants), as the monks used to cal! themselves
"servants of God”; Jastrow, Diet. s.v. p'3N and 'dhsj;
Kohut, Arucli Completum, ii. 45-47; the Persian “Abdan”
means only a busy place, which does not apply here ; Levy,
Neuhehr. Wort erhuch, s.v.; Low, in Ha-Shahar, i„ No. 9, pp.
57-59, and in He-Haluz, ii. 100, 101 ; Rapoport, 'Krek Miliin;
idem, in Ha-Shaliar , i.e.. No. 10, pp. 111-113: Wiesner, Scho-
lien zum Bahyldnisclien Talmud, ii. 230, 231 (his identifica-
tion of "Nazrefe” with "Nicephorium ” is as impossible as
that of “ Be Abidan ” with " Bezabde.” The Greek " K ” is
never x, nor could " z ” be omitted from “ Bezabde ”) .

J. SR. • L. G.

BE RAB (3T u = “ teacher’s house”): A name
which, iu the Talmud, has various meanings and
occurs in a variety of combinations. Its immediate
signification, however, is “academy of a tanuaite
or amora” (compare ‘Er. 73a), for which the Jerusa-
lem Talmud substitutes the fuller form “Bet Kab-

611

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bdellium

Beard

bah ” (house of the teacher ; Yer. Sauh. x. 28a). Tlie
most frequent citations in Talmud and Midrash be-
ginning with the phrase t [’jn] KID, “a tanna
from the academy of Rabbi N. N.” (Hul. 42a, and
frequently), are taken from the collections of the
tannaites Simon b. Yoliai, Eliezer b. Jacob, Ish-
mael, Rabbi, and the semi-tannaim Hiyyali and
Hezekiah. At the same time citations are found
which are designated as emanating from the NmiN
(“Haggadah collection”; Sauh. 57 6); “sifra” (book;
Ber. 116, 186); “she‘ar sifre” (other books; Yoina
79a; B. B. 1246) of the academy, without stating
which academy is meant. So far as Sifra and
Sifre as cited are concerned, however, there can be
no doubt that under these names are meant the well-
know nlialakic haggadic commentaries upon Leviti-
cus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy respectively.

It is doubtful which tannaitic Midrash was meant
by the “ slie’ar sifre.” That it was only another name
for “Sifre” can scarcely be correct: it is far more
likely that the ordinary Mekilta or that of Simon b.
Yoliai was meant, although the quotation in Y oma 74a
agrees verbatim with Sifra, Emor.xiv. 102a, ed. Weiss.
The meaning of the words “ Be Rab ” in these collec-
tions is open to question. That Akiba was not meant,
as some suggest ; that it was not he who was briefly
styled “the teacher,” and that the works mentioned
were not those of this teacher, is evident from the
fact that the principal parts of the Sifre to Numbers
emanated from the school of Ishmael — a school di-
rectly opposed to that of Akiba. Another conjecture
is that the “ Rab ” referred to in “ Be Rab ” is the
celebrated amora Rab (Abba Arika), who is men-
tioned as the last editor of the Sifra. Nevertheless,
despite Maimonides and many modern scholars who
have followed him, the name of this amora can not
be associated with Be Rab. This is evident from the
phrase, “Tanna debe rab,” which is occasionally
cited in the Talmud, where, as Hoffmann shows,
it can have no reference whatever to Rab. The
explanation of “ Be Rab ” given by this scholar, and
based upon Sherira Gaon’s statements, is probably
the only admissible one. “Be Rab,” in all the be-
fore-mentioned instances, means only “academy,”
and “ sifra ” and “ sifre ” are simply the books of this
academy — that is, such books as were officially rec-
ognized— while other baraita (“outside ”) collections
(compare Baraita) were excluded therefrom. An
authority of a tradition found in Sifra (Sliemini, v.
506, ed. Weiss) is quoted in the Talmud as Tana-de-
be rab (Hul. 66a). See Mekilta, Sifra, Sifre.

Bibliography : Epstein, Mi-Kadmoniynt ha-Yehudim , pp. 53,
55; Weiss, Dor, ii. 225-238; Friedmann, in the introduction to
his edition of the Mekilta. pp. 16 et seq., 55 et seq .; Hoffmann,
Zur EinUitung in die Halachischen Midrashim, pp. 15 et
seq., 35 et seq., 40, 47, 52 et seq.; idem, in Berliner’s Magazin,
xvi. 71 : Levy, Ein Wort ilher die Mekilta von R. Simon
(Breslau Seminary Jahresbericht, 1889), pp. 1-3; Levy,
Neuhebriiisches WOrterbuch, i. 215; Kohut, Aruch Com-
'pletum, ii. 53.

j. sr. L. G.

BEACONSFIELD, EARL OF. See Disraeli.

BEAN, B^AN : A tribe destroyed by Judas
Maccabeus (I Macc. v. 4; Josephus, “Ant.” xii. 8,
§ 1) on account of its persistent attacks upon the
Jews.

J. jr G. B. L.

BEANS (“ pol”) : The well-known vegetable,
mentioned twice in the Old Testament. In II Sam.
xvii. 28 it is referred to as a foodstuff along with
wheat, barley, and lentils. How it was prepared
for the table is not known ; it was probably boiled
and roasted. Ezekiel (iv. 9) is commanded to bake
bread from wheat, barley, Beans, lentils, millet, and
spelt, from which fact it may be deduced that Beans
were used as a substitute for corn-meal in times of
famine. The name “ pol ” has remained until to-day
to denote the so-called field-beans ( Vida Faint,
Linn.), that have always been found in all lands in
the vicinity of the Mediterranean sea. It is the
Kbaqos of the Greeks. The bean found in Syria to-
day and known as the garden -bean (Phaseolns) is of
another kind. Its present designation, “lubiyeh,”
is evidence that it was not introduced into Palestine
in olden times.

J. JR. I. Be.

BEAR 311 (“dob ”) : An animal often mentioned
in the Old Testament, and evidently not rare in
Palestine and Syria. Next to the lion, the Bear is
regarded as the most formidable enemy of mankind
(Amos v. 19), although he must be very hungry to
attack man without provocation. The protection
of his flock from the lions and bears constitutes the
shepherd’s most difficult task (I Sam. xvii. 34). The
prophet can therefore appropriately use the meta-
phor of “the cow and the bear feeding together.”
as an emblem of the profound peace of Messianic
times (Isa. xi. 7). The tender love of the female
Bear for her cubs was well known to the Hebrews.
A female Bear that has been robbed of her young is
the picture of ungovernable wrath (II Sam. xvii. 8;
Prov. xvii. 12; Hosea xiii. 8). In the apocalypse
of Daniel (vii. 5) the Bear, on account of its greedi-
ness, is represented as a symbol of the Median em-
pire, greedy for lands. At the present time the Bear
is extinct in Palestine proper, and is only occasion-
ally met with in the Lebanon district.

The Syrian Bear ( Ursus Syriacus) is distinguished
from the ordinary type of brown Bear by a some-
what lighter color and an appreciably smaller
stature. The brown Bear is found almost every
where in the north temperate zone.

Bibliography: Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, p.

46 ; Wood, Animals of the Bible , pp. 28-31.

j. jr. I. Be.

BEARD. — Biblical Data: The modern Oriental
cultivates his Beard as the sign and ornament of
manhood : he swears by his Beard, touching it. The
sentiment seems to have been the same in Biblical
times. According to the Egyptian and Assyrian
monuments, all western Semites wore a full, round
Beard, evidencing great care. Long beards, as found
on later Babylonian and Assyrian sculptures, repre-
senting the highest aristocracy, do not, however,
seem to have occurred among the Jews. [The elder
(“ zaken ”), probably received his name from his long
Beard, as “bene barbatus.”]

The frequent assertion that the upper lip was
shaved is incorrect. According to II Sam. xix. 24
(Hebr. 25), the mustache (“safam”; A. Y. “beard”)
received regular “trimming” (thus A. V., after the
Vulgate; the Hebrew “doing” is as general as in

Beard

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

612

English). Anointing of the Beard seems to be re-
ferred to in Ps. cxxxiii. 2 (contrast the neglect of the
Beard in I Sam. xxi. 14 as a sign of madness). In
II Sam. xx. 9, taking a man by his Beard is, possibly,
a sign of special friendship.

To mutilate the Beard of another by cutting or
shaving is, consequently, considered a great disgrace,
II Sam. x. 4 (“ plucking out,” Isa. 1. 6). Mourners
bring a sacrifice by disfiguring themselves in this
way: see references to cutting off, in Isa. xv. 2; to
clipping, in Jer. xlviii.37 ; and plucking off, in Ezra
ix. 3 (contrast Jer. xli. 5, where shaving is found
even in the presence of the Lord, with the prohi-
bition, Lev. xix. 27, xxi. 5). The latter seems to mean
specially the corners ; i.e., sides, the clipping or
shaving of which produces a pointed Beard. In dis-
tinction from the settled Semites, the nomadic tribes
of the desert wore such a pointed Beard (compare
Jer. ix. 25, xxv. 23, xlix. 32). On Egyptian rep-
resentations, see W. M. Mill ler,“ Asien und Euro pa,”
p. 140. The shaving prescribed for lepers seems

intended to
call public
attention to
this dread -
e d disease
(Lev.xiv.9).

The busi-
n e s s of
the barber
(Ezek. v. 1)
may, out-
side of cer-
e ni o n i a 1
shaving,
have con-
s' i s t e d in
trim m in g
and polling.

In Gen.
xli. 14,
Jose p h ' s

shaving docs not belong to the Palestinian, but to
the Egyptian, custom. The Egyptians of the higher
classes shaved the Beard carefully; fashion allow-
ing only sometimes a small tuft under the chin.
The long, pointed cliin-tuft of the primitive Egyp-
tians (preserved among their Hamitic relatives, the
Libyans and the inhabitants of Punt) was kept as an
artificial Beard, tied to the chin on state occasions
and at religious ceremonies. Of the other nations
coming in contact with Israel, the Hittites and the
Elamitic nations shaved the Beard completely, as
the earliest Babylonians had done (in part?).

Bibliography: Benzinger, HehrHixche ArcJianlngie, p. 110;

Nowack. Lehrbuch (hr Hebritischen Archiiologie , p. 134;

W. M. Muller, Asien uml Etirnpa, pp. 29b et seq.

A. W. M. M

In Rabbinical Literature : That “ the adorn-
ment of a man’s face is his beard” (Shab. 152a) was
a favorite saying among the Jews of Palestine in the
second century of the common era; two centuries
later, the expression “adornment of the face” was
current among the Babylonian Jews as a designation
for the Beard (B. M. 81a). Intercourse with Greeks
and Romans during all this period had evidently not

Captive Jew with Clipped Beard.

(From the British Museum.)

Beard of a Semite of the Upper Class.

(From the tombs of the Beni-H assail.)

modified Semitic esteem for the Beard: indeed, it
had rather the contrary effect; for it led to its con-
sideration as something specifically Jewish (Baruch
vi. 31). The Halakah, accordingly, occupied itself
in early times with
the subject, having
reference to the pre-
cepts in Lev. xix.

27, xxi. 5. These
passages were sup-
posed to contain
two prohibitions,
the removal of the
side-locks (“pe’ot”)
and the shaving of
the Beard. As re-
gards the former,
some authorities
prohibit not only
the total removal of

these locks, but even clipping them (sec Pe’ot). Con-
cerning the Beard, however, the Halakah only for-
bids its removal with a razor, and not even by this
means except when the hair is removed smoothly
and close to the roots (Misknah Mak iii. 5 ; Sifra,
Kedoshim, vi. ; ed. Weiss, 90c).

This modification of the actual Biblical prohibition
was probably due to Jewish intercourse with the
Greeks, as the regulation is expressly
In made by the Rabbis that any one hav-
Talmudic ing constant intercourse with the ofli-
Times. cers of the government might adopt
the heathen tonsure, while to others it
remained strictly forbidden (B. K. 83a). Eliezer b.
Hyrcanus, the representative of the old Halakah,
opposed this innovation (ib. ; the reading “Elazar”
is unsupported; compare Rabbinowicz, “Dikduke
Soferim,” on the passage), and forbade any removal
of the Beard whatever, either with forceps or with
a cutting instrument. Some of the ancients explain
a passage in the Tosefta (Ber. i. 4) as if its removal
were the custom of a heretical sect in the second
century (Tos. of Judah Hasid and Solomon b. Adret,
on Ber. 11a).

Although this
passage admits
of another ex-
planation, Epi-
phanius (“Ad-
versus Hsereses, ”

1 x x . 7 ; e d .

Migne, ii. 765)
mentions that a
certain heretical
sect regarded a
shaven face as a
religious essen-
tial. The “ Apos-
tolic Constitu-
tions,” i. 3, lay
insistence upon
the Biblical pro-
hibition against the removal of the Beard, as does
Clement of Alexandria (“Piedagogus,” chap. iii. ; ed.
Migne, i. 580-592; compare Jerome on Ezek. xliv.
20), and the Jewish sages agree in basing the objec-

Jewish Envoy with Beard.

(From the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser II.)

613

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Beard

tion to such removal on the ground that God gave
man a Beard to distinguish him from woman, and

Beard of an Assyrian King.

(From Botla, “ Monuments de Nineve.”)

that it is therefore wrong to antagonize nature
(among Jewish commentators compare Bal.iya and
Abravanel on Lev. xix. 27). In Palestine, where a
large Hellenic population resided, the clipping of
the Beard (except in periods of mourning) seems to
have been prevalent as early as the third century in
learned circles of Jews, who probably respected the
above-mentioned tannaite Halakah, while the unin
formed people scarcely regarded the distinction be-
tween clipping and shaving (Yer. R. II. i. 576).

In medieval times, as in the Talmudical period, the
custom of the country seems to have been followed
in regard to the Beard. In the East,
In among Mohammedan nations, the Jews
Medieval wore long beards ; in Germany, France,
Times. and Italy, it was entirely removed
with scissors (Levi, “Tisporet Luly -
anit,” pp. 70, 71; Kirnhi to II Sam. x. a; Asheri,
Makkot iii. , beginning; marginal gloss on the Tos.
to Shah. 21>, quoted by Isserlein, “ Terumat ha-
Deshen,” p. 295; authoritative thus for the period
from the twelfth to the fifteenth century). Scrupu-
lous German rabbis, however, sought, as early as
the fifteenth century, to forbid the cutting of the
Beard, doubtless because the majority paid little
attention to the strict letter of the Halakah, and, in-
stead of cutting with the scissors, shaved smooth
with a razor (Isserlein, l.c. p. 9). But this rigor was
too much even for Isserles (Shulhan ‘Aruk, Yoreli
De‘ah, 181, 9).

The Cabalists succeeded where the Talmudists
failed ; they declared even the shortening of the
Beard with scissors to be a great sin, and they related
of their master, Isaac Luria, that he kept his hands
from his Beard lest the contact should cause any
hairs to drop from it (Judah Ashkenazi, “BaCr
Heteb,” on Yoreli De'ah, l.r.). With the spread of
Luria’s Cabala in Poland and the Slavonic lands, any
trimming of the Beard with scissors was gradually
prohibited. The Italians, even the Italian Caba-
lists, still shaved, according to the custom of the
land, one of them even going so far as to demon-
strate cabalistically that shaving off the Beard was
interdicted only in the Holy Land, and that elsewhere
the opposite practise was rather to be recommended
(Shabbethai Bei'r, “ Responsa Be(?r “Eshek,” 670).

In Eastern lands the Jews, like their Mohammedan
neighbors, did not cut their beards; and in 1720 this
led to a violent controversy between Italian Jews
who had settled for business purposes in Salonica,
Turkey, and the rabbinate there, the latter insisting
that the newcomers must wear their beards. The
Italian rabbis, called into the discussion by their
countrymen, could not decide the matter; for the
further question was involved as to the obligation
of sojourners to govern themselves by the rules of
their temporary abiding-place (Joseph Ergas, “ Dibre
Yosef,-’ No. 36. decides against the Italians; in their
favor were S. Morpurgo and Mordecai Zahalon, in
the first responsa collection, “Shemesh Zedakali,”
No. 61). This “cult of the Beard ” had also its op-
ponents, and among them was especially noticeable
Joseph Solomon del Medigo, from whom, or from
whose pupil, Moses b. Meir ]*'to (Metz?), the follow-
ing epigram is extant:

“ If men tie judged wise liy their beards and their girth.
Then goats were the wisest of creatures on earth."

In the second half of the seventeenth century the

Head Showing Beard of a .Judean from Egypt.

(From Sayce, “ Races of the Old Testament.”)

practise arose among the Jews in Germany and Italy
of removing the Beard by means of pumice-stone or

Beard

Beautiful

THE JEWISH EXCYCLOPEDIA

814

chemical agents, which left the face smooth, as if
shaven. This was strenuously, though no doubt
vainly, opposed by two distinguished Talmudists of

Beard as Worn by a Russian Jew.

(From a photograph taken at Jerusalem by Bonfils.)

the time, the Polish rabbi Hillel b. Naphtali (“Bet
Hillel,” on Torch De‘ah, 187) and the Italian Joseph
b. Solomon Fiametta (quoted in his son-in-law’s Re-
sponsa, “Shemesh Zedakah,” No. 61, p. 102d). One
of the questions constantly recurring in the responsa
literature of the seventeenth and the eighteenth cen-
turies concerns the clipping of the Beard on the
“middle days” of the festivals (“Hoi ha-Mo‘ed ”),
because Talmudical law forbids the cutting of the
hair on these days (see the responsa of the Amster-
dam and Venetian rabbis in Moses Hages, “Leket
ha-Kemah,” on Yoreli De'ah, 188).

Trivial as all this question appears, it was impor-
tant in the history of the Jewish Reform movement
in Italy. Isaac Samuel Reggio published (Vienna,
1839) a pamphlet entitled “Ma’amar ha-Tiglaliat,
“ in which he attempted to prove casuistically that
the regulations of the Talmud concerning the cut-
ting of the Beard on the “ middle days ” no longer
had application, on account of the changed circum-
stances. ” This called forth the replies, “ Tiglaliat ha-
Ma’amar ” (Leghorn, 1839) by Abraham Hay Reggio,
and “Tisporet Lulyanit,” by Jacob Ezekiel Levi
(Berlin, 1839). In Italy the influence
Modern of the non-Jewisli population was so
Views. strong that even so zealous a repre-
sentative of rabbinical Judaism as
Samuel David Luzzatto remarked in a private letter
that he no longer concerned himself with the pro-
hibition of shaving, because he thought the Bible

intended it to apply only to priests. In Poland and
in the Slavonic countries, attempts were made,
toward the end of the eighteenth century, to evade
the Biblical prohibition of shaving, much to the
vexation of the leading Talmudists (Ezekiel Landau.
“Nodi’ bi-Yehuda,” ii. ; Yoreli De’ali, 80). Hasi
dism, which just then sprang up in those countries,
restored the Beard to its former dignity ; so that to
day, in all eastern Europe, the complete removal of
the Beard is considered an evidence of a formal break
with rabbinical Judaism (compare Smolenski, “Sim-
hat Hanef,” ed. 1890, p. 46, and the Yiddish satire
“Die Bold” in Michael Gordon, “Yudisclie Lieder, ”
p. 15). Special stress is laid upon the propriety of the
hazan’s wearing a Beard (Joel Sirkes, “Bet Ha-
dash,” on Tur Orali Hayyim, 53; Shabbethai Beer,
“Beer Slieba’,” p. 107), with reference to an old
Talmudical prescription dating from a period when
the absence of a Beard was a sign of juvenility (Hul.
24 b). The fourth council at Carthage (398) similarly
decided “clericus nec comam nutriat, nec barbam
radat” (the clergyman shall not let his hair grow,
neither shall he remove his Beard); and even mam-
centuries later, when the Church found it vain to
oppose the removal of the Beard by the laity, it
still insisted that the clerics should wear a Beard
(Bingham, “Antiquities of the Christian Church,”
I. ii. 15, 16).

Popular imagination also has occupied itself with
the Beard. The following saying, attributed to Ben
Sirach, was current in Talmudical times: “A thin-
bearded man is cunning, a thick-bearded one is a
fool ; but nobody can do any harm to a man with a
parted beard ” (Sanli. 160 h). The Talmud says of

Beard-Trimming.

(From Leusden, “ PhNologus Hebra-o Mixtus,” 1657.)

the Pharaoh of the Exodus, that his Beard was an
ell in length (M. K. 18«).

An oath upon the Beard and pe’ot is customary

615

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Beard

Beautiful

among the Polisli Jews to-day, although generally
employed in an ironical sense (compare Bernstein, in
“Ha-Shahar,” vi. 405). L. G.

BEAUCAIRE (Provencal, Belcaire) : City in
the department of Gard, France. A somewhat im-
portant Jewish community was founded here as
early as the beginning of the twelfth century, whose
members lived among the Christians and enjoyed
the same rights and privileges as they did. In par-
ticular were they protected by the count of Tou-
louse, Raymond V., who admitted them to certain
offices and entrusted them with an important part
of the public administration. About 1195 they were
persecuted, and many of them perished. In 1294
Philip the Fair ordered the seneschal to relegate
them to the rampart which separated the city from
the castle. This special quarter extended from the
rock of Roquecourbe to the gate of Cancel; it disap-
peared entirely in 1578, together with the ruins of
the synagogue, at the general demolition which
Fouquet de Tliolon, seigneur of Ste. Jaille, under-
took in order to isolate the fortress which he was
besieging.

In 1295 all the Jews under the jurisdiction of the
seneschal’s court of Beaucaire were arrested, and the
richest among them sent to the Chatelet at Paris.
At the same time all their possessions were seized,
and the prisoners were released only after having
paid a considerable ransom and stated the amount of
their credit (Menard, “Histoire de Nismes,” i. 412;
idem, “ Preuves,” p. 125). In distributing the assess-
ment of 150,000 livres, which Charles IV. imposed
upon all the Jews of France, the Jews in the district
of the seneschal of Beaucaire were rated 20,500 livres.
On June 2, 1340, Philip VI. canceled all the debts
payable to the Jews that had been contracted by the
Christians (“ Ordonnances,” ii. 71). Butin 1368 the
Jews of the seneschal’s court were again authorized
to collect their debts (ib. iv.). No Jews returned to
Beaucaire after the expulsion of 1394.

A number of scholars may be mentioned, who
either lived at Beaucaire or were born there: The
“prince” Kalonymus and his nephew Judah; Isaac;

the poet Judah b. Nathanael and his
Scholars at five sons, who flourished at Beaucaire
Beaucaire. about 1271, at the time when the poet
Judah al-Harizi visited the city (Gross,
“Gallia Judaica,” p. 120); the two brothers Don
Todros and Jacob b. Judah, the latter being one of
the friends of Abba Mari (Nettbauer, “ Rabbins
Frangais,” p. 682); Sen Moses, who lived at Salon
in the fourteenth century, and is to all appearances
identical with Moses b. Solomon of Beaucaire, the
translator of Averroes’ great commentary on Aris-
totle’s “Metaphysics” (Gross, ib. p. 656); Samuel b.
Judah of Marseilles, imprisoned about 1321 in the
castle of Beaucaire, where lie translated Averroes’
commentary on Aristotle’s “Ethics” (Gross, ib. pp.
121, 380) ; Tanhumb. Moses of Beaucaire, who trans-
lated at Urbanea, Italy, in 1406. Hippocrates' “Prog-
nostica” (Gross, ib. p. 121); Bonjour or Bondia of
Beaucaire, commissioner in charge of resettling the
Jews of Languedoc in 1315 (Saige, “Les Juifs de
Languedoc,” pp. 106, 330); and Bonet du Barry,
who, in 1291, presented to the seneschal of Carcas-

sonne various letters concerning the privilegesof the
Jews (Saige, ib. p. 223).

Bibliography: Gross, Gallia Judaica, pp. 119 et set 3.: Eys-
sette, Histoire de Bea ucaire, i. 400, 462; Bedarride, Lex Ju ifs
eu France, p. 235; Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, vi. 401.

G. S. K.

BEAUCROISSANT : Community of the canton
of Rives, arrondissement of St. Marcellin Is&re,
France, a locality inhabited by Jews in 1337.
Bibliography : Revue dcs Etudes Juives, ix. 241.

g. I. L.

BEAUGENCY. See France.

BEAUGENCY, ELIEZER. See Eliezer of
Beaugency.

BEAUTIFUL, THE, IN JEWISH LITER-
ATURE : To the speculative theory of the beauti-
ful the Jews can not be said to have contributed
fruitful thoughts. In the economy of the humanities
this field fell to the inheritance of the Greeks. This
statement will stand, even though, as is now ad-
mitted, the origin of art in Greece points to Semitic
influences. The impulses in this domain came to the
Greeks neither from the Phenicians nor from the
Egyptians, but from the Assyrians. The cycle of
Cadmus myths may be dismissed as having no evi-
dential relevancy on the problem (see Gruppe, “Die
Griechischen Kulteund Mythen,” 1887). Still, what-
ever power the Assyrian civilization may have exer-
cised to quicken and arouse the artistic genius of the
Greeks, the Hebrews can scarcely be credited with
having cultivated the beautiful. The common dis-
tinction— though resting on one of those sweeping
generalizations for which modern thought is in-
debted, among others, to Ernest Renan — between
the office of the Aryan mind and that of the Semitic
seems to be on the whole beyond dispute. Beauty
is the preoccupation of the Greek soul ; righteous-
ness, that of the Hebrew. The philosophy of art,
therefore, is naturally and nationally under the spell
of Plato’s speculation. His theory of beauty as
“something abstract, divine, with an absolute and
distinct reality quite apart from man,” has sounded
the key-note of almost all the later disquisitions (see
Eugene Veron, “^Esthetics,” English transl., Lon-
don, 1879).

For the Greeks Creation itself became under Pla-
tonic instruction a work of beauty, a cosmos. The
Creator took on the functions of an architect, molding
the shapeless and often stubborn material in accord-
ance with his preconceived and vitalizing ideas.
Philo, the Jewish Platonist, does not hesitate to
adopt the fundamental element of this Greek con-
ception. According to him, the first day in the
Mosaic account of Creation relates to the intelligible
cosmos ; and he proceeds to unfold his
The Greeks meaning by illustrating it with copi-
and ous appeals to the methods of archi-
Beauty. tecture in which the ideal plan created
and existing in the mind of the archi-
tect precedes and controls the execution of the real
in stone or other material (“De Opificiis Mundi,” §§
4, 5). Similarly, the ideal tabernacle was revealed
to Moses as the precreated pattern of the material
one (“De Vita Moysis,” iii. 3). The Septuagint
manifests its dependency upon similar Platonic con-
cepts, when, in Gen. ii. 1, it renders the Hebrew

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616

“ Zeba’am ” by Koapog, a rendition which could easily
be read into the original by a slight change of the
Masoretic “zeba’am” into “zebyonam” (their beau-
ty, R. H. 11«). Moreover, it is more than likely that
in Gen. i. 2 the rendition of the Hebrew “tohu wa-
bohu ” by “ aoparng ical aKaTaanevarog ” is due to sim-
ilar Platonic influences (compare Siegfried, “Philo,”
pp. 8, 9).

In rabbinical Haggadot many instances occur of
similar Platonizing interpretations, worked out ac-
cording to the general method of haggadic exegesis
through appeal to the letters of text, but withal
proofs of the influence attained in the thinking of
the rabbinical homilists by the. conception of Crea-
tion as a process of unfolding beauty. Some of these
analogies have been adduced by Siegfried ( l.c . pp.

148, 149). More characteristic than
Creation those cited by him is the following,
a Work of credited to Judah ben Ila'i: When
Beauty. God was about to create the world.
He consulted the Torah as one would
an artist or architect, and then carried into effect His
preconceived ideal Creation (Tan., Beresliit, 5 [ed.
Buber, p. 4); Gen. R. i.].

The construction of the Tabernacle and the ma-
king of the utensils it contained are in the same man-
ner likened to the procedure which an artist con-
fronted with a similar task would adopt. Heavenly
patterns descended within the vision of Moses; and
these he copied in the practical execution of the
command (compare among others Talk., Cant. 369).
The assumption in Ab. R. N. xiii. that when Moses
was preparing to erect the “ Mishkan ” he refused to
confer with the princes of the tribes, rests on the no-
tion that as the plan had been divinely unfurled there
was no necessity for discussing the work of mortals.

How far the Platonic theory of beauty influenced
Aristotle is a moot question. One might find in the
Jewish Aristotelians — notably Maimonides — indica-
tions of an appreciation of the beautiful. The open-
ing discussion in the “Moreli ” on the significance of
“zelem” as distinct from “demut” would seem to
have a place in this interesting though perilous,
because doubtful, chapter of Jewish speculation.
At any rate, it is plain that the absolute denial to
the Jewish mind of the capacity to appreciate and
realize the beautiful can for good reasons be rele-
gated to the lumber-room of prejudices. Granted
that the principal anxiety of the Jewish conscious-
ness lies in the plane of the religiously ethical, the
artistically beautiful, or esthetics, can not be located
in another plane. There are points of intersection
between the two. In his quest for the harmonies of
life, the Greek evolved also a theory of the harmonies
of character and conduct of no mean range or depth.
And, on the other hand, the Hebrew, in his zeal for
the discovery of the divinely and eter-
The nally true and righteous, could not but
Beautiful perceive that Creation moved to a
in the rhythm of divinely ordered harmonies.
Hebrew The vocabulary of Judaism does not
Vocab- lack terms connoting both the beauty
ulary. of the body and that of the soul. Thus
“yafeli” — applied to men, animals,
things, and countries — signifies “ beautiful in general
outward appearance ” ; “ nehmad ” denotes “attract-

ive to the eye,” with the underlying suggestion of
the “desirability” of the object (Gen. ii. 9), the
corresponding noun “ hemed ” being used in com-
binations (Isa. xxxii. 12; Ezek. xxiii. 6; Amos v. 11);
“naweh,” from the verb “iwah,” also denotes “de-
sirability,” hence “beauty”; “tob mareli” signifies
“good in appearance,” hence “comely.”

The Hebrew also employs paraphrases with nouns;
for instance, “ ‘ez liadar ” denotes “ a tree of beauty
or splendor."

Other combinations with “ ‘lieu” — forinstance, “ba-
‘alat ‘hen ” — imply beauty not so much of the body as
of the soul — grace. In the common proverbial collo-
quial language of the Jews to the present day, “ ‘lien ”
is employed to characterize that undefinable some-
thing which goes far to render its possessor beloved
of men. Loveliness is also expressed in“no‘am."
Besides, the words “ yofi,” “shefer,” “liadar,” “hod ”
(splendor), “hesed” (love), “kabod” (honor) are used
to indicate various manifestations of physical and
spiritual gracefulness and beauty. The highest de-
gree of personal charms or local attractiveness is ex-
pressed by “miklal yofi.”

In the Talmud not only is the same appreciation
of beauty shown by the use of these and similar
terms — as a glance at the various Hebrew and Tal-
mudical dictionaries shows; the Greek word for
“ beautiful ” (nahog) gave rise also to the verb “ kalles ”
(D^p), to declare as beautiful; that is, to praise —
but it is enjoined as a rule “to offer up a benediction
on seeing beautiful creatures or beautiful trees”
(Ber. 586; Tan., Pinhas, 10).

While the Greeks applied the golden mean of pro-
portion and harmonious relations to art, and the Jew
— as Maimonides counsels, and others tacitly prac-
tised— construed his rule of conduct on the reali-
zation of the law of moderation, still the eyes of
the Jew were not blind to the beauty which laughed
out upon him from God’s own world.

There have been times when the Jew was in con-
scious and fanatic revolt against the Greek ideal.
The Maccabean struggle and that against Rome
could not but react in favor of a rigid and unrelent-
ing hostility to whatever in the least smacked of
concessions to Greek or Roman conceits. The ath-
letic games of the gymnasium, the divine honors
paid to the images of the emperors, naturally carried
the pendulum of Jewish thought to the opposite
pole. The result was that, for a while at least, at-
tention to physical culture (of the body) fell under
the ban ; also sensible appreciation of the difference
between idolatry and sculpture came nigh to be
impossible. Nevertheless, evidence abounds that
beauty of the body, both in men and in women, was
regarded as a distinction to gain which was worthy
of the ambition of the best. At all events, it is cer-
tain that the art of ornamenting the body was highly
developed among the Jews at a com-

Appre- paratively early period. The third
ciation of chapter of Isaiah shows that the bou-
Physical doir of the Hebrew woman was well

Beauty. provided with the things she deemed
needftd to enhance her charms. Other
passages prove that house and home were richly em-
bellished (see Nowack, “Hebraische Archaologie,”
pnmm ).

617

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Beautiful

Nor did the art of heightening the natural beauty
of man or woman fall into disuse during the Tal-
mudic era. Fondness for bathing was made the sub-
ject of special note in the case of no less a personage
than Hillel. The use of ointments (Lev. R. xxxiv.);
the attention paid to the toilet of the bride on her
day of joy ; the ornaments which are deemed indis-
pensable to woman (Ket. 48a, 596; B. B. 22a); the
recorded use of artificial cosmetics (“kahal”) to
beautify the eyebrows or the finger-nails; the fond-
ness ascribed to women for fine garments and fine
surroundings in preference even to luxurious food
(Esther R. i. 9) ; the artificial heightening of the fore-
head (“kilkul,” Shab. viii. 4; 806) — these and many
similar particulars, abundantly scattered throughout
Talmudic literature, go far to disprove the popular
thesis of the lack of appreciation for beauty of body
or surroundings among the Jews. “Woman’s at-
tractiveness is her beauty ” ('S ntl'N J’N), said
the fair maidens of Jerusalem at their gathering on
the hills on the Fifteenth of Ab and at the close of
the Day of Atonement (Ta’anit 31a). In fact, the
Jews had a standard of personal beauty which was
largely their own. The acrostic praise of the good
housewife’s virtues in Proverbs throws some light
on the peculiar disposition of the Jewish mind in
this field. Still more telling are the descriptive ad-
jectives and similes of the Song of
Standards Solomon. There is good reason for
and saying that, in the estimation of the
Types of Jews, physical beauty both in the Bib-
Beauty. lical period and during that of the
Palestinian Talmudists conformed to
the requirements which we know to have been con-
sidered indispensable by the Arabs (compare Lane’s
“Arabian Nights,” i. 25). Just as the Bible extols
Sarah (Gen. xii. 11), Rebekah (Gen. xxiv.16), Rachel
(Gen. xxix. 17), Joseph (Gen. xxxix. 6), David
(I Sam. xvi. 12), and Abigail (I Sam. xxv. 3) for
beauty of appearance, so the rabbis mention, as the
most beautiful women that ever lived, Sarah, Rahab,
Abigail, and Esther (Meg. 15a). Another version
gives Vashti in place of Esther, the latter having
owed her seeming beauty to the grace bestowed
upon her by an angel. The sons of Bceri and all
the daughters of the tribe of Asher are said to have
attracted attention by their beauty (Pesik. R. 38 [ed.
Friedmann, p. 1356]). Eve, again, is extolled by the
rabbis as the type of all womanly beauty. A pic-
ture (“ eikon ”) of her, it is said, was traditionally
transmitted to the heads of the generations; but
Sarah is held to have been her superior, while Abi-
shag merely approximated the prototype (Gen. R
xl.). God Himself adorned her before presenting
her to Adam (Gen. R. xviii.). “The daughters of
Israel are all beautiful by nature, only poverty dis-
figures them,” says R. Ishmael (Ned. ix. 10, p. 66a).

In connection with the rabbinical amplification of
Sarah’s adventure in Egypt, it is stated that, in ac-
cordance also with the Shulamite’s words in the
Song of Songs, black or dark complexion was con-
sidered to detract from beauty (ib.). The hair worn
high and coiled back was regarded as an effective
device to increase personal beauty (Cant. R. iv. 1 ;
compare Bacher, “Ag. Pal. Amor.” ii. 385); while
the eyes of the bride, if sparkling and soft, were

held to be sufficient and to free her from the neces-
sity of resorting to other ornaments. In this connec-
tion it is interesting to note that from these passages
it would appear that the hair must have been worn
exposed ; though mention is made of veils and hoods,
which, however, were of such material as to heighten
rather than to conceal the magnificence of the hair.
One of the ways to allure a would-be suitor and to
inflame his passion was the plaiting of the hair (Yer.
Sanli. ii. 20a; Num. R. ix. 24). Child-bearing was
known to be detrimental to the comeliness of the
body ; the matriarchs preserved their beauty so long
because they were childless for quite a time (Gen.
R. xlv.).

Adam is regarded as the type of all manly beauty.
As by the Mohammedans the beard is looked upon
as the sign of manly beauty and is,

Female therefore, ordained by the Prophet as
and Male a mark of the true believer, distinct

Beauty. from the infidel, so among the Jews
manliness and beardlessness were held
to be well-nigh incompatible (Yeb. 806). Abbahu is
mentioned as one of the handsomest of men, not
merely on account of his towering stature, but also
— and in this respect distinguished even beyond
Johanan — for his flowing beard (B. M. 84a); see
Rashi on the expression jpf D'OS nTHT This latter
declaration that the beard constitutes the splendor
of the manly countenance is variously credited to R.
Akiba and to Joshua ben Korha (Eccl. R. x. 7; Shab.
152a). R. Johanan b. Nappaha was so deeply im-
pressed with his own beauty that he used to sit for
hours by the portals of the bathing-establishments, in
order to impress the women with his appearance and
thus influence the looks of their expected offspring
(Ber. 20a; Low, “ Lebensalter, ” p. 63). The desire
to have beautiful children was keen among the
women of Israel; and various devices are on record
employed by them to accomplish this end (Low,
l.c. ), although the father transmits his own beauty
as well as his vigor to the sons (‘Eduyyot ii. 9).

If the attention paid to physical culture was less
insistent or less intense among the Jews than among
the Greeks, it was due to the moral abhorrence of
nudity. The Maccabean era influenced in this di-
rection the habits and prejudices of the Jews for
centuries; while the sad persecutions to which they
were exposed in the Middle Ages deprived them of
the opportunity to cultivate physical beauty. To
the former cause must be ascribed the suspicion with
which athletic sports in the circus and the theater
were regarded. Especially was attendance at theater
and circus performances on the part of Jewish girls
declared to be improper (Ruth R. ii. 1); theaters
could not but be suspected of influences making for
idolatry. Moreover, then as now the stage was em-
ployed to cast ridicule on the Jews (Lam. R., Intro-
duction, and iii. 13). In many ways the contact with
Roman degenerate life had led to practises which
shocked the moral sense of the better Jewish classes.

There is no legitimate reason for holding that the
Jews were indifferent to the cultivation of beauty and
art. In all departments of art they displayed much
ability, if not originality. The Bible shows that they
were adepts in all the domestic arts, in weaving,
spinning, dyeing in purple; they knew howto work

Beautiful

Bebai

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618

in metals, to carve and chisel, to refine the precious
metals, to engrave precious stones and gems, and
were proficient in music and the dance. Dramatic
genius was not theirs; but they shared this want
with their Semitic kinsmen, and, by way of com-
pensation, excelled in story-telling, gnomic wisdom,
and the lyrics. The parable is their preeminent do-
main. And these artistic leanings, clearly brought
out by the study of Biblical civilization, did not
atrophy in later days. The contrary is the truth.
The Jews, with modifications conditioned by their
changed situation, developed them steadily.

It may be doubted whether in architecture the
Jews can be credited with inventive genius. The
Bible seems to indicate that whatever of the building
art they had, had come to them from their neighbors,
the Phenieians. Still, in Alexandria and elsewhere,
unless the law of their rulers interfered, they saw
to it that their public edifices had a dignified, even
a luxurious, character. The Talmud speaks of the
glory of the synagogue in Alexandria (Suk. 516).

That the Jew was ever alive to the appreciation
of beauty may be learned from the fact that the
rabbis did not hesitate to accord the palm in the
strife for the beautiful to the Greek ; so that to them
the Aryan races, the sons of Japliet, were typified
by the Greek as representative of beauty ; nD’ being
explained as nVS'S’ (Meg. %). When Aquila had
finished his Greek translation of the Pentateuch be-
fore R. Eliezerand R. Joshua, they lauded him ; ap-
plying to him the words, “ Thou art fairer than the
children of men ” (Ps. xlv. 3 [A. V. 2]).

On the other hand, the rabbis claimed that nine-
tenths of the beauty of the world were bestowed
upon Jerusalem as the seat of God’s majesty (Kid.
496 ; Yoma 54 b, in accordance with Ps. 1. 2). One
of the highest angels in rabbinical angelology bears
the name of “Yafefiah ” (beauty of God) (Targ. Yer.
to Deut. xxxiv. 6). In fact, it is declared by R. Isli-
mael to be a duty enjoined on the Israelite, in the
fulfilment of any of the ceremonial laws, to aim at
beauty of form, to have a beautiful “lulab,” “suk-
kah,” “ tallit,” or “ tefillin,” wherewith to praise God,
according to Ex. xv. 2 (Hebr.), “This is my God;
I will extol Him ”; that is, “I will make everything
consecrated to His service appear beautiful” (Mek.,
Beshallah, Shirah, 3).

Especial stress is laid on moral beauty and the
avoidance of ugliness in speech and conduct (Yoma
86rt ; Shab. 33 a). It has been asserted that the Jews
were without a sense of the beauties of nature (“ Na-
turgefuhl ”). Yet that very feeling is evinced in al-
most every line of the Psalms, while the descriptions
in the Book of Job and many graphic similes in the
writings of the Prophets challenge comparison with
the best produced by the Homeric poets. It differs,
however, from that of the Greeks in so far as it re-
sponds to the larger totality of the universe, the
might and majesty of nature as a whole. It is not
the individual star, nor the particularized flower,
nor the local sunset, that inspires the Hebrew singer
to articulation ; but it is the heavens as the throne
of God, the mountains as melting under the touch
of His will, the earth in the throes of a God-ordained
destiny, and similar general appreciations of the
sublime and exalted in God’s handiwork that impels

the Jewish bard to sing. Homer’s description of the
bee tribe is offset by that of the ant in the Proverbs.
Rhetorical art certainly reached a high development
among the Jews in Bible days.

Nor, though general opinion to the contrary, is
Talmudic literature barren of literary beauty. The
study of the Midrasli from this point of view has in-
deed never been attempted; but it would be an un-
dertaking full of promise. In their analogies derived
largely from court life, in their illustrations taken
freely from the operations of a builder and the like,
the homilists of the rabbinical age showed a keen
insight into the implications of rhetorical beauty and
ornamentation. Some even in the reported text,
full though it is of corruptions due to the misunder-
standing of the dialect in addition to other failings
of the copyists, must be assigned high place among
the coiners of original phrases through the employ-
ment of the finer methods of literary composition,
such as Alliteration, assonance, and even rime.
Baclier, in his work on the Haggadah, has paid some
attention to this aspect of the subject.

That later Jewish poetry is not unworthy a niche
in the temple of literary beaut}', both on account of
its form and its contents, may be said to be now
recognized by all competent to speak on the mat-
ter (Delitzsch, “Jiidische Poesie”; Winter and
Wtinsche, “Jiidische Literatur”). Emma Laza-
rus’ and other versifications in English or German
of Hebrew originals; Einhorn’s prayer-book, “Olat
Tamid,” and especially his memorial services, are
proofs of this. Modern writers of Jewish extraction
or faith have contributed to the literatures of the
peoples among whom they lived, and whose nation-
ality and language, since the middle of the nine-
teenth century, have been theirs. This is sufficient
proof against the assertion that the Judaism of these
writers has operated to the detriment of the quality
of their style.

As in music so in poetry it has been contended that
the Jew is always beset by the love of the extrava-
gant and the disproportionate ; that his criticism runs
to acid dissolution and sarcasm ; his poetry to the
absurd, baroque, and dissonant. They who have
enriched modern literary canons with this discovery
of the pernicious effect of Judaism on style are igno-
rant of the literature which under the direct inspira-
tion of Jewish thought and ideals took on form and
shape. Only to a very limited extent is their dictum
in accordance with facts. Under the exclusive dom-
inance of the pilpul and owing to the sad conditions
socially and politically prevailing in their European
Egypt — a veritable house of bondage — the Polish
and Russian Jews may with some show of justice be
said to have lapsed into literary barbarism. What
tendency to the same effect there may have been in
the German Jewries during the centuries following
upon the epidemic of the Plague and upon the Cru-
sades was effectually checked by the influence of the
Mendelssolmian era; while the Sephardic Jew never
fell a prey to this disorganization, which anti-Sem-
itism, with a pretense at scientific generalization,
traces to the irraflicable mental bias and inartistic
obliquity of .1 udaism and Jewish association. Giide-
mann’s work on the “Erzieliungswesen und Kultur
der Juden” contributes many significant proofs of the

619

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Beautiful

Bebai

incorrectness of the equation between Judaism and
lack of artistic feelings. Modern Jewish literature,
even the Neo-Hebraic literature preparatory to Zion-
ism, needs not dread inspection from the point of
view of the requirements of the implications of the
beautiful. See Akt, Attitude of Judaism toward.

k. E. G. H.

BEBAI : 1. Name of a family, of whom, accord-
ing to Ezra ii. 11 and I Esd. v. 13, 623 returned with
Zerubbabel. According to Nell. vii. 16, their num-
ber was 628. Twenty-eight more came up with
Ezra (Ezra viii. 11). Four of the Bene Bebai mar-
ried foreign wives (Ezra x. 28; I Esd. ix. 29). A
Bebai signed the covenant with Neliemiah (Neh. x.
15). The name “Biba” has been found on a tablet
from Nippur (see “Cuneiform Texts,” ed. Hilpreclit,
ix. 27).

2. A place mentioned in Judith xv. 4, location
unknown.

g. G. B. L.

BEBAI Biblical form '33. The readings

PT3. pn'2 are copyists’ mistakes for ”3'}; and the
variant fO'3 is a clerical error for : The Pal-

estinian and the Babylonian Talmudim, as also the
Palestinian Midrashim, frequently cite an amora
named Bebai, sometimes as “Rabbi ” and sometimes
as “Rab,” but without further designation; and as
all the data relating to the name refer to the same
age, rabbinic chronologists have always considered
them as applying to one person. What is remarka-
ble in this connection, but has been overlooked, is
the fact that out of nearly fifty’’ subjects treated in
connection with the name, only one appears in both
Talmudim (Yer. Sliek. iii. 47c and parallels; Men.
1036); from which it may be inferred that the doc-
trines and sayings appearing under the name of
Bebai in the Palestinian sources do not emanate
from the Babylonian Bebai, and vice versa. Prob-
ably it was this fact which first aroused Frankel’s
suspicion as to the identity of the Palestinian Bebai
with the Babylonian, and accordingly both Frankel
(“Mebo,” 686) and Bacher (“Ag. Pal. Amor.” iii.
667 et see/.) refer to two Bebais, of Palestine and
Babylonia respectively.

Bebai I., R.: Palestinian amora of the third gen-
eration (third century). R. Zeiral., on his first arrival
in Palestine, heard Bebai repeating a Halakah in the
name of Malluk (Hul. 49a); and the same Zeira re-
fers to a time when he and Bebai sat at the feet of
R. Jolianan (Nid. 25 6, where the patronymic “b.
Abaye ” is undoubtedly a clerical error, inasmuch as
Abaye himself could scarcely have been born before
the death of R. Johanan, in 279). Bebai subsequently
became a disciple of R. Assi II. (Yer. Ta'an. ii. 666;
Mak. 216; Yalk., Dent. 932), although he also ad-
dresses R. Abbahu as his teacher (Yer. Kid. iv. 666).
He seems to have been outranked, however, by his
former colleague, R. Zeira, for he is often found be-
fore the latter in the role of a reciter (Yer. Ma‘as.
Sh. v. 56a; Yer. Kid. iii. 64d); and it is known that
he was once commissioned by Zeira to procure some
cloth from the Saturnalian fair at Beshan (“Beth-
shean,” Yer. ‘Ah. Zarah i. 39c). Probably this was
done with the purpose of affording Bebai some
emolument; for he was poor, as is evident from the

following anecdote: Ii. Bebai was engaged in ex-
plaining a Baraita, when II. Isaac b. Bisna inter-
rupted him with a question on the subject, to which
Bebai gave a peevish reply. R. Zerikan remon-
strated with him; remarking, “Because he asks thee
a question thou scoldest him!” Thereupon Bebai
excused himself; pleading, “I am not master of my-
self ; for, as Ii. Hanan has said, ‘ The Biblical dictum
(Deut. xxviii. 66), “Thy life shall hang in doubt be-
fore thee,” is realized in the one who purchases his
yearly supplies from the market, he having no fields
of his own; “Thou shalt fear day and night,” rep-
resents the condition of him who draws his provi-
sions for the week from the huckster in the market-
place; “Thou shalt have no assurance of thy life,”
may be said of him who is obliged to procure pro-
visions by the day from the shopkeeper,’ as I do”
(Yer. Shah. viii. 1 1« ; Yer. Slick, iii. 47c, viii. 51a;
Men. 1036).

This Bebai is known in the Haggadah as well as
in the Halakah; and while he often transmits the
views of others, he as often advances his own. Ac-
cording to him, the sin of hypocrisy is alluded to
earliest in the Decalogue. Seeing, he argues, that
perjury is explicitly prohibited by the command
(Lev. xix. 12), “Ye shall not swear by my name
falsely,” the prohibition (Ex. xx. 7), “Thou shalt
not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,”
must refer to one who leads a sinful life while
parading such ceremonies of holiness as Tefillin and
Tallit (Pesik. II. 22). The divine order to num-
ber the Israelites (Ex. xxx. 12) lie explains by the
following illustration: “A king once had numerous
flocks. Wolves attacked them and killed many;
whereupon the king ordered the herdsman to num-
ber the remainder, that he might discover how many
were missing. Thus, after the catastrophe of the
golden calf, did the Lord say to Moses, ‘ Num-
ber the Israelites, and find out how many are
missing ’ ” (Pesik. ii,18a; Tan., Ki Tissa, 9). Bebai,
it seems, never visited Babylonia, since we see him
sitting at the feet of Ii. Johanan (who died about
279), studying under Assi II., and attending Zeiral. ;
and Dimi, who emigrated to Babylonia about fifty
years after R. Johanan’s death, reports (Sliab. 74a),
in illustration of a Halakah, an act of Bebai at a re-
ception tendered to Ammi and Assi (Yer. Ber. i. 36;
ib. viii. 12a; Yer. Ivil. v. 30a; Yer. Slieb. i. 336;
Yer. Ter. viii. 45c; Yer. Slick, ii. 46c; Yer. Git. v.
476; Yer. Sanli. i. 18a; Yer. Nid. iii. 50d; Pesik. Ii.
15; Pesik., Hahodesh, 50a; Midr. Teh., ed. Buber,
Index; Frankel, “Mebo,” 686; Bacher, “Ag. Pal.
Amor.” iii. 66 et sec/.).

Bebai II., Rab : Babylonian amora of the third
generation (third and fourth centuries). He was a
disciple of R. Nahman (Hag. 226; Yeb. 126; B. M.
236), and, it seems, a fellow-pupil (“ talmid-haber ”)
of 11. Joseph (‘Er. 236, 756). Adda b. Ababa's host,
a proselyte, and Bebai had some litigation about a
certain public office to which both laid claim. They
personally appealed to R. Joseph; and he decided
that, as Bebai was a great scholar, he was entitled to
the superintendence of the religious affairs of the
community, leaving the management of the munici-
pal affairs to the other (Kid. 766). Elsewhere it is
stated that to settle a scholastic dispute between

Bebai

Beck

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

620

Bebai and others as to whether Rab (Abba Arika)
had indorsed or disapproved a decision of R. Muna,
R. Joseph threw the weight of his opinion on the
side of Bebai (Meg. 186).

Of his private life an interesting incident is pre-
served in the Talmud (Shab. 806; M. K. 96). Bebai
was in the habit of using wine or beer at his meals
— a luxury rarely indulged in by the Babylonian
Jews — and he is also reported to have employed a
certain paste to ipiprove his daughter’s complexion.
A Gentile neighbor of Bebai tried the same experi-
ment on his own daughter with a fatal result ; where-
upon he said, “Bebai has slain my daughter.” R.
Naliman, hearing of the case, remarked, “Bebai in-
dulges in strong drinks; therefore, his daughter needs
skin-improving pastes: we are more abstinent; con-
sequently we need no such cosmetics for our daugh-
ters” (Ket. 39c/ ; Kid. 81«; B. B. 866).

.r. sit. S. M.

BEBAI B. ABAYE : A Babylonian scholar of
the fourth and fifth amoraic generations (fourth
century), son of the celebrated Abaye Nahmani, and
presiding judge in Pumbedita (Yeb. 756; Ket. 85a),
where his father had directed the academy. 'Some
rabbinic chronologists (J. Schorr, “ W a’ad Haka-
mim,” 246; Bacher, “Ag. Pal. Amor.” iii. 667, note
5) suggest his identity with Bebai II., which, how-
ever, is chronologically incorrect (compare Heil-
prin, “ Seder lia-Dorot,” ii. , s.v. “ Bebai b. Abin ”), the
latter having been a fellow-pupil of Rab Joseph,
whereas Bebai b. Abaye was a contemporary of
Nahman b. Isaac, Kahana III. (Ber. 66; ‘Er. 90//),
Pappi, and Huna b. Joshua. As Abaye was a scion
of the priestly house of Eli, which was doomed to
premature death (I Sam. ii. 33; see R. II. 18//), both
Pappi and Huna b. Joshua frequently taunted
Bebai with being descended from frail (short-lived)
stock, and therefore with uttering frail, untenable
arguments (‘Er. 256; compare “ Dikduke Soferim ”
a.l. ;B. M. 109a; B. B. 1376, 151a; compare Jastrow,
“Diet.” 794//, s.D. “Mammulae”). Bebai b. Abaye
seems to have led a contemplative life; and legend
relates some curious stories about him (Hag. 46;
Ber. 6//; Ber. 86; ‘Er. 8//; Shab. 36, 4//; Hul. 436;
Ker. 36; Zeb. 107//.).

j. SB. S. M.

BEBAI B. ABBA, It. : A Palestinian haggadist,
of uncertain date and rarely cited, whose name ap-
pears also as “Bebai Rabbali,” “Beba Raba,” and
“Beba Abba” (Lev. R. xxix. 9; Yer. Ta'an. ii. 65/7;
Pesik. Bahodesh, 154//; Yalk., Lev. 645). He is
cited (Lev. R. iii.) as having commended the follow-
ing form of confession for the Day of Atonement,
which is [tartly adopted in the ritual for the evening
service of that day: “I confess before Thee all the
evil I have committed. I have indeed stood in the
path of evil ; but as I have done, I shall do no more.
May it please Thee, O my God, to forgive all my
sins, pardon all my iniquities, and remit all my er-
ror's ” This, Bebai states, is in accordance with
what the prophet teaches in saying (Isa. lv. 7), “Let
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts,” etc. (compare Yer. Yoma viii.
end, 45c).

In the Wilna (1878) edition of the Midrash the

patronymic is “ Abia”; in the ed. Warsaw (1850) it
is “Abaye.” “Yuhasin” and “Sed. lia-Dor.,” how-
ever, read “Abba”; and Heilprin (“Seder lia-Dor.,”
s.v.) suggests the identity of Bebai b. Abba with
Bebai b. Abin, identifying the latter with the Bebai
generally cited without patronymic. But “Abin”
seems to be a misreading of “ Abaye. ”

J. sr. S. M.

BEBAI, BEN : A priestly family or gild having
charge of the preparation of wicks for the Temple
lamps (Shek. v. 1; Yer. Shek. v. 48/7; Yer. Peah
viii. 21//). The name is derived from the first per-
son appointed to that office after the return from
the Babylonian captivity (Tiklin Hadtin to Yer.
Shek.). At a later time, owing to the double mean-
ing of the word “peki‘a,” used in the Mislinah, an
erroneous opinion was set forth that the family Ben
Bebai had the supervision of the straps used for
the chastisement of negligent priests (Yoma 23//).

,r. sr. S. M.

BEBRI (also BERBI), MOSES BEN JU-
DAH : Ambassador from the sultan Mohammed
IY. to King Charles XL of Sweden ; died May 29,
1673, at Amsterdam, where he was buried with
great honors. His son. Judah Berbi, succeeded
him as ambassador, and returned from Amsterdam
to Constantinople.

Biiu.iography : D. L. de Barrios, Hishnria Universal Ju-
daica, Amsterdam, 1683; D. H. de Castro, Keur von Graf-
steenen , pp. 95 et seq.

p. M. K.

BECHER : 1. Son of Benjamin, mentioned in
Gen. xlvi. 21 and in the genealogical list of I Chron.
vii. 6, 8, butdoesnot occurinthegenealogiesofNum.
xxvi. 38 and I Chron. viii. 1. 2. Son of Ephraim and
eponym of the Bachrites (Num. xxvi. 35)

,r. jr. G. B. L.

BECHER, ALFRED JULIUS : Austrian jour-
nalist, musician, and revolutionist; born at Man-
chester, England, in 1803 (or 1805) ; died at Vienna
Nov. 23, 1848. He was a son of the founder of
the Rhenish-West India Company, and studied law
at Heidelberg, Gottingen, and Berlin. It was not
long before he conceived ultra-socialistic ideas that
led to his arrest. On his release shortly after, he
went to Elberfeld, where he practised law for a
time. His restless spirit would not permit him to
pursue his profession, so he went to Cologne to as-
sume editorial supervision of a trade paper found/ d
and published by his father. Restless again, Beefier
decided to study painting and music, and accord-
ingly went to Diisseldorf, where he formed lasting
friendships with Mendelssohn Immermann, Uetritz,
and Grabbe, continuing, liowrever, his adhesion to
radical socialism. There fie remained until 1838,
wfien he was appointed professor of the theory /if
music at the university at The Hague. For nearly
two years he labored at this, until an injudiciously
worded criticism led to his departure for Loudon,
where fie became professor of music in a private
academy. His stay in the English capital was very
short, however, for litigation with an English noble
man forced Beclier to leave the country.

Then began the last act in his eventful life. In
1841 fie appeared at Vienna as a performer in his

621

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bebai

Beck

own composition, “Monologue at the Piano.” He
also wrote a pamphlet, “Jenny Lind, eine Skizze
Hires Lebens,” and a quartet. Of the last-named
composition Grillparzer declared: “It sounds as
though a man were splitting wood with an ax, the
while two women sawed a cord of wood.”

Beclier was perennially poor, and eked out a pre-
carious existence writing for the “ Sonntagsblatt ”
and the “Wiener Musikzeituug.” He was a stanch
champion of the classical school of music, and espe-
cially of Mendelssohn and Berlioz.

In the spring of 1848 Beclier became the practical
head of the radicals, then fomenting a revolt in the
Austrian capital. He became a member of the cen-
tral committee and assumed editorial charge of the
revolutionary organ, “Der Radikale.” While the
revolution lasted and during the siege of Vienna by
Prince Windischgriitz, Beclier was a popular hero.
When, however, the tide of war turned, and Vienna
fell into the hands of the imperial troops, Beclier
was forsaken by his whilom friends and tried for
treason. He was found guilty, and early in the
morning of Nov. 23 was taken before the Neuethor,
where a battalion of Jaegers shot him.

Bibliography : AUgctneine Deutsche Biographic, 1i. 200-201 :
Augsburger AUg. Zeit-.. Supplement, Dee. 3, 1848 : Moniteur
den Dates. 1866, p. Oil; ih.. Appendix, p. 21 ; Meyer, Konver-
sations-Lexilwn, ii. 654.

s. E. Ms

BECHER, SIEGFRIED : Austrian economist ;
bora at Plany, Bohemia, Feb. 28, 1806 ; died at Vi
cnna March 4, 1873. He studied at the universities
of Prague and Vienna, receiving from the latter the
degree of Pli.D. In 1831 he entered the state serv-
ice; in 1835 became professor of geography and
history at the Vienna Polytechnical High School;
in 1848, councilor in the Ministry of Commerce under
Minister Dobbihoff. He was charged with various
missions to Germany and Belgium (1849), and re-
ceived the title “Kaiserlicli Ivoniglich Hofrath."
During the revolutionary period Beclier was the
head of the ministry until relieved by Baron Brack.

Beclier published the following works: “Beitrfige
y.ur Oesterreicliisclien Handels- und Zollstatistik
von 1831-42,” part I. Stuttgart, 1844 (the only part
published); “ Die Organisation des Gewerbewesens,”
Vienna, 1851 ; “ Die Bevolkerungsverhaltnisse der
Oesterrcichischen Monarchie, ” Vienna, 1846; “Die
Deutschen Zoll- und Handels verbal tnisse,” Leipsic,
1850; “Ergebnisse des Handels- und Zolleinkom-
mens der Oesterreicliisclien Monarchic im Jalire
1842,” Leipsic, 1845; “Handbuch zur Vorbereitung
fiir das Historische Gesammtstudium und Literatur
Desselben,” Vienna, 1833; “Handelsgeographie,"
vol. ii , Vienna, 1837 ; “ Ideen zu einer Vernunftigen
Erziehung,” Vienna, 1835; “Das Oesterreichische
Mlinzwesen vom Jalire 1524 bis 1838,” vol. ii., Vi-
enna, 1838; “ Statistisclie Uebersicht, der Bevolke-
rungder Ocsterreiebisclien Monarchie nach den Er-
gebnissen der Jalire 1834-1840,” Stuttgart and Tu-
bingen, 1841 ; “Statistisclie Uebersicht des Handels
■der Oesterreichiselien Monarchie mit dem Auslande
Wahrend der Jalire 1829 bis 1838,” ih., 1841 ; “Die
Volkswirthscliaft,” Vienna, 1853.

Bibliography': JUdiSches Athenttum, 1851, p. 4; Wurzbach,
Biographisches Lexiktm des Kaiserthums Oesterreicli, i.
208; Mever, Kom'ersatwus-Lexiknn, s.v.

G. S.

BECHER, WOLF : German physician and med-
ical author; born at Filehne, province of Posen.
Prussia, May 6, 1862 He received his education at
the gymnasium of his native town and at the Uni-
versity of Berlin, whence he was graduated as doc-
tor of medicine in 1889. After having been assist-
ant physician at the Litten’schen Poliklinik fiir
Innere Krankheiten at Berlin from 1889 to 1892, he
engaged in private practise in that city in 1893.

Beclier has written several essays, among which
may be mentioned: “ Choleraverschleppung, ” in
“Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift,” 1892;
“Cholera und Binnenschifffahrt, ” ih. 1893; “Ex-
perimentelles liber Anwendung des Rontgenverfah-
rens in der Medizin,” ih. 1896 (jointly with R.
Lehnhoff); “Ueber Korperform und Lage der Nie-
ren,” ih. 1898.

Bibliography: Pairel, Biographisches Lexikon, s.v., Vienna,

1801.

s. F. T. II.

BECHOR SCHOR, JOSEPH. See Joseph
ben Nathan Bekok Shor.

BECHORATH : An ancestor of Saul, and son of
Aphiah (I Sam. i.x. 1).

j. JR. G. B. L.

BECK, ADOLF : Austrian physician arid pro-
fessor of physiology at the University of Lemberg;
born Jan. 1, 1863, in Cracow, Galicia, of poor par-
ents. During bis academic career Beck supported
himself as a private tutor. Upon graduating with
distinction from the gymnasium of his native city
in 1884, he entered the University of Cracow. In
1888, while still a medical student, Beck gained the
prize of the university by a paper on the excitabil-
ity of a nerve, afterward published under the title,
“O Pobudliwos’ci Rozuych Miejsc Tego Samego
Nerwu ” (On the Excitability of a Nerve at Different
Points). In 1890 he received the degree of M.D.,
and in the same year published the results of his
extensive research on electrical processes in the
brain. His papers on this subject, “Die Bestim-
mung der Localisation des Gehirn- und Riicken-
marksfunctionen Vermittelst der Electrischen Er-
scheinungen,” 1890, and “Weitere Untersuchungen
liber die Electrischen Erscheinungen des Hirnrinde
der Affen und Hunde,” 1891 (in collaboration with
Cybulski), attracted wide attention in Germany,
France, and England, and won for him a prominent
position among students of physiology.

In 1889 Beck was appointed assistant in the phys-
iological laboratory of the University of Cracow ;
and he remained in this position until 1894, when
he became privat-docent on the presentation of his
thesis “ Ueber die Physiologic der Reflexes.” In the
folloYving year he xvas offered a chair of physiology
as associate professor in the newly created medical
department of the University of Lemberg, and
in 1897 was appointed professor in the same insti-
tution.

Beck has received many marks of distinction from
medical societies in recognition of his scientific in-
vestigations. His numerous contributions, pub-
lished in German and in Polish, belong almost ex-
clusively to the domain of physiology. Among his
papers, besides those already referred to, may be

Beck

Bed

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

622

mentioned : “ Researches on the Sense of Taste in a
Tongueless Human Being ” (in collaboration with
Cybulski), in Polish, 1887 ; “ Die Strome der Ner-
vencentren,” 1890; “On the Present State of the
Theory of Localizing the Functions of the Brain,”
in Polish, 1892; “Hermann Helmholtz,” 1894; “On
the Vital Processes and Methods for Their Investiga-
tion,” in Polish, 1895: in collaboration with Cybul-
ski, “ Further Investigations on the Electrical Proc-
esses in the Brain,” in Polish, 1896; “Dreams and
Their Causes,” in Polish, 1896; “Die Erregbarkeit
Verschiedener Nervenstellen,” 1897; “Zur Unter-
suchung der Erregbarkeit der Nerven,” 1898; “On
Color-Blindness, Artificially Produced,” in Polish
and in German, 1899. To the investigations repre-
sented by the foregoing should be added the exten-
sive work of research conducted on similar lines in
the Physiological Institute of the University of Lem-
berg under Beck’s immediate supervision.

s. A. S. C.

BECK, JACOB BEN ENOCH : Dayyan and
sliohet at Leipnik, Moravia, at the end of the eight-
eenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth
He was the author of “Zibhe Sbelamim ” (Sacrifices
of Peace-Offerings), containing the laws concerning
the slaughtering of animals and the examination of
the lungs. The work is arranged in questions and
answers. It was published by the author himself
at Brunn in 1795, and was so much appreciated for
the convenience of its method that it was reprinted
several times.

Bibliography : Sulamith , ix. 42 ; Benjacob, Ozar lm-Sefarim,

p. 152.

S. I. Br.

BECK, KARL: Austrian poet; born May 1,
1817, at Baja, Hungary; died April 10, 1879, at

Wahring, a suburb of
Vienna. Although of
Jewish parentage, he
was brought up in
the Protestant Church.
Upon his completion
of the high - school
course in Budapest, he
entered the University
of Vienna with the
I view of devoting him-
self to the study of
medicine; but in 1833
ill health compelled him
to abandon his scientific
pursuits, and he then
attempted to follow his father’s commercial career.
Barely six months had elapsed when he suddenly left
the parental home and registered at the University of
Leipsic as a free student in the course of philosophy.
In Leipsic he found his true calling. Induced by his
friend Gustav Kiiline, then editor of the “Zeitung
fiir die Elegante Welt,” he published his first poems,
“Naclite. Gepanzerte Lieder,” Leipsic, 1838, which
met with great success. Gutzkow predicted for the
author the fame of a Byron. Encouraged by the suc-
cess of his first work, he soon followed it up by an-
other, “Der Fahrende Poet,” Leipsic, 1838, consist-

ing of four songs: “Hungary,” “Vienna,” “ Weimar.”
and “Die Wartburg,” the first of which is a splendid
picture of Hungarian life and customs, and contains
some of the best lines in the entire work. The “ Stille
Lieder,” which appeared later (Leipsic, 1840), are
the very antithesis to the author’s “Gepanzerte
Lieder,” and were greeted with the same unqualified
favor.

Beck's next attempt was at drama; but his tragic
play, “Saul” (Leipsic, 1841), produced in Budapest,
although a model of poetic diction, and abounding
in spirited and brilliant lines, was totally wanting in
dramatic action. With his masterpiece, an epic poem
entitled “Yanko, der Ungarische Rosshirt ” (Leipsic,
1842; 3d ed., 1870), Beck returned to his proper ele-
ment; in no other work did he paint a truer picture
of his native land and its people.

In 1843 Beck took up his abode in Vienna, where
he formed an intimate acquaintance with the poet
Lenau, whose style, it is said, he imitated in his
works. Another year, however, found him back in
Berlin, engaged in preparing a complete collection
of his poems, which was first published in Berlin in
1844 and has since run into several editions. This
work brought him into conflict with the Prussian
government, which at first suppressed the entire
edition. Later, however, the author’s appeal to the
Higher Court of Censure ( Obersensvrgericht ) released
all but two of his poems from the interdiction.

The social and political movements in which the
poet took part during this period called forth his
“Lieder vom Armen Mann,” Berlin, 1848, 4th ed.(?),
and another series of “Gepanzerte Lieder,” Berlin,
1848. The Hungarian insurrection of 1848 drew him
again to Vienna, and in an eloquent poem entitled
“An Franz Joseph ” (Vienna, 1849, two editions), he
pleaded for a general amnesty in behalf of his de-
feated fellow-countrymen.

In Vienna, Beck was for some time attached to the
editorial staff of the ministerial organ “ Lloyd,” oc-
casionally contributing to its literary columns; but,
disconsolate at the death of his wife, which had oc-
curred only a few months after their marriage, he
seized the opportunity of a change of scene, when
he was offered the charge of a new journal devoted
to art and literature, “Frisclie Quellen,” founded in
Budapest. Only a few numbers of this publica-
tion were issued; and Beck soon returned to the
Austrian metropolis, where he spent his remaining
years.

Despite a tendency to allow ulterior motives to
influence his writings, Beck remained a true poet.
His inspired enthusiasm and passionate sympathy
for dowutrodden Judaism lifted some of his crea-
tions to an almost prophetic height; while the
fiery zeal with which he embraced the cause of
suffering humanity lent to others of his poems a
touch of pathos and reality. But it was in the
soul-stirring descriptions of the singular, wildly
passionate life of his native land and people that
Beck reached the sublime. His superb epic poem
“Yanko” seems, however, to have exhausted the
fire of his genius. His later works — “ Aus der Hei-
math,” Dresden, 1852; “Mater Dolorosa,” a novel,
Berlin, 1854; “Yadwiga,” an epic poem, Leipsic,
1863; “Still und Bewegt,” a collection of poems.

623

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Beck

Bed

Berlin, 1870 ; Monatsrosen, ” Berlin, 1848 ; and others
— are but feeble echoes of his earlier inspirations.

Bibliography : Biblinthek tier Deutschen Klassiker , Hild-
burghausen, 1861! ; Freundesgruss, dedicated to Beck by
Moriz Carriere, in Zeitung fllr die Elegante Welt, 1837, No.
233; Silhnuetten Oestcrreichiscber Diebter und K Hustler,
in Iris, Gratz, 1850-51: Jildisches Athentlum: Gallerie
Berilhmter Manner JUdischer Abstammurig, Leipsic, 1851 ;
Der Komet: Beilage fllr IAteratur, Kunst, etc.. Leipsic,

1838, No. 1 ; 0. von Wurzbach, Biographisches Lexikon ties
Kaisertbums Oesterreich, s.v.: Broekhaus, Konversatiom-
Lexikon, 14th ed.; Meyer, Konversations-Lexikon, 5th ed.;
BWtter filr Litterarische Unterhaltung, 1838, pp. 903, 967 ;

1839, Nos. 225-228; 1841, Nos. 14, 358, 359, Leipsic; Zeitung
fllr die Elegante Welt, 1837, No. 254; 1838, No. 224, Leipsic;
Litterariscbe und Kritisehe Blatter der BOrsenhalle, 1838,
pp.211, 219; 1841, Nos. 36, 37, Hamburg ; Schmidt, Gesch. der
Deutschen IAteratur im 19. Jahrhundert, iii., Breslau, 1855;
La Grande Encyclopedic, s.v.

S. A. S. C.

BECK, KLINOS : Hungarian singer; born in
1868 at Budapest, where he attended commercial
schools. He received the elements of a thorough
musical education from Abranyi Kornel, whose pu-
pil he remained throughout his career at the National
Musical Academy, where he also studied the piano
with Sandor Nikolics, and composition with H.
Gobbi. At the age of nineteen he began his studies
as an operatic singer, and against the wishes of his
father went to Paris in order to prepare himself for
the stage. At the Conservatoire there he obtained
a free scholarship and two prizes. In 1892 he re-
turned to Budapest, where, under the management
of Count Gera Zicliy, he made his debut in Thomas’
“Hamlet” with such success that he was at once
engaged at the opera. He still (1902) retains the
position of one of the leading operatic artists of
Hungary.

Bibliography : Pallas Lexicon.
s. M. W.

BECK, MATTHEW FREDERICK : German
Orientalist and divine; born May 22, 1649; died Feb.
2, 1701. He studied Oriental languages under Vos-
sius in Jena, and settled as a preacher at Augsburg.
He published a translation of the Targum on Chron-
icles, 1630-33, and translated, but did not publish,
several other works from the Hebrew; e.g., the trav-
els of Benjamin of Ttidela and Pethahiah of Regens-
burg, and Abravanel’s commentaries on two of the
Prophets. Among his published works was also
“ Mouumenta Antiqua Judaica August* Vindelico-
rum Reperta.”

Bibliography : Wolf, Bihl. Hehr. No. 395, iii. 543, 956 ; Stein-
schneider, Hehr. Bibl. ii. 52 ; Allgemeine Deutsche Biogra-
phic, ii. 2i8.

G. J.

BECK, MIKSA, DE MADARAS : Hungarian
financier; born at Bacs-Madaras, 1838. His parents
settled at Budapest when he was still a child ; and
it was there that he completed his commercial edu-
cation. In 1864 he became the business manager of
the banking-house of J. J. Cohen. In 1870 he be-
came chief director of the Hungarian Eskompte-
bank ; and when, in 1899, Koloman von Szell became
president of the Hungarian cabinet, Beck was ele-
vated to the presidency of the bank. He is one of
the leading financial authorities of Hungary ; and
under his circumspect leadership the Eskomptebank
has become one of the most important in Hungary.
In 1894 Beck received the Order of the Iron Crown,

and was elevated to the Hungarian nobility with
the title of “ De Madaras. ”

Bibliography : Pcsti Hirlap.

s. M. W.

BECK, MORITZ: Rumanian editor and school -
director; born at Papa, Hungary. He is the editor
of a bimonthly called “Revista Israelita,” and au-
thor of an educational work in the Rumanian lan-
guage, entitled “Vocabular Analytici Ebraico- Ro-
manise,” 3 vols., Bucharest, 1882. At present (1902)
Beck is a school -director at Bucharest, Rumania.
He takes a great interest in the amelioration of the
political and social conditions of the Jews of Ru-
mania, devoting much time to education.
Bibliography: Lippe, Bibliograpbiscbes Lexikon, i., s.v.

s. S. R.

BECK, NANDOR, DE MADARAS: Presi-
dent of the Hungarian Hypotheken-Bank ; born
1840 at Bacs Madaras; a younger brother of Miksa
Beck. He was educated in Pest. In 1867 he ob-
tained a position in the Anglo-Hungarian Bank,
and in 1871, when only thirty-one years of age, was
elected director-general of the Hungarian Hypothe-
ken-Bank, which position he held until 1899, when
he was unanimously elected president of the insti-
tution. Recontributed greatly to the prosperity of
the bank, which, under his leadership, has now be-
come one of the leading financial institutions of
Hungary. In 1893 he received the Order of the
Iron Crown of the third class, and in 1895 was ele-
vated to the nobility with the title of “De Madaras.”
Bibliography : Pesti Hirlap, 1899.

s. M. W.

BED: In early as in later times the Bed of the
poor was the bare ground, and the bedclothes the
simple gown worn during the day, which was
wrapped about one at night (Ex. xxii. 25, 26; Deut.
xxiv. 13). Hence a pledge of the “simlah” (gar-
ment) had to be returned before sunset. When a
man was on a journey such a Bed was the most
natural one, and a stone served the purpose of a
pillow (Gen. xxviii. 11). The mat upon the floor
was an advance. It was placed near the wall and,
later, put on an elevation; hence the expression,
“going up” to the Bed (Gen. xlix. 31). The Bed
itself was built upon supports and was of different
forms, as may be inferred from the variety of names
for it; e.g.: (1) “Mitah,” 27 times, Gen. xlvii. 31,
xlviii. 2, xlix. 33; Ex. viii. 3; I Sam. xix. 13, and
elsewhere. (2) “Mislikab,”45 times. Gen. xlix. 4,
etc. (3) “ ‘Eres ” (compare the Assyrian “ ershu ”),
10 times, Song of Songs i. 16; Prov. vii. 16; Ps.
xli. 4, etc. (4) “Maza‘,” once, Isa. xxviii. 20. (5)

“Yezua',” 5 times, I Chron. v. 1; Job xvii. 13; Ps.
lxiii. 7 [A. Y. 6], cxxxii. 3; Gen. xlix. 4. It is im-
possible to state just what was the difference be-
tween these names, but in time the simple Bed of
Deut. xxiv. 13 gave way to a more luxurious article,
and in post-exilic days beds of fine wood are found,
and pillows of costly materials elaborately em-
broidered (Judith x. 21; Esth. i. 10; Cant. iii. 10).
Among the rich, couches also were used (Amos iii.
12, vi. 4).

Among the poorer classes there was no separate

Bedad

Bedersi

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

624

sleeping-room ; but when there were two floors, the
second was set aside for sleeping. Both “ mislikab ”
and “mitah” have a somewhat figurative meaning,
signifying the final resting-place, and similarly the
‘“eres,” or couch, of the king of Og (Deut. iii. 11)
may refer to his sarcophagus.

Bibliography : Benzinger , Hebrllische Arcliiiologie , p. 123;

Novvack, Hebrllische Archtiologie, i. 143.

j. jk. G. B. L.

BEDAD : Father of Hadad, one of the early
kings of Edom (Gen. xxxvi. 35, and corresponding
list I Cliron. i. 46).

j. jr. G. B. L.

BED AN : 1. A judge mentioned by Samuel in
his farewell address (I Sam. xii. 11) among the
judges that delivered Israel from their enemies.
Though referred to along with Jerubaal, Jephthah,
and Samuel, the name “Bedan” is not found in the
Book of Judges. The Targum, following the To-
sefta II. H. ii. 3 [1], identifies “Bedan” with “Ben
Dan”; i.e., Samson. Raslii follows this supposi-
tion, and so does Kimhi. Ewald proposes “ Abdon ”
as a correction from Judges xii. 13; but it is rather
strange that a judge like Abdon, who appears to be
of minor importance, should be mentioned with
Jerubaal and Jephthah. Nor can it be supposed
that Samuel is giving the name of a new judge, for
it is unlikely that Judges should have left out so
important a judge as the connection indicates. The
LXX. leads “Barak,” and this reading Wellhausen,
Budde, Moore, and Smith (commentaries to Judges
and Samuel, ad loc.) support. On the whole, the
latter is the most probable view. 2. A Gileadite,
sou of Alam, and a descendant of Machir (I Cliron.
vii. 17).

j. jr. G. B.L.

BEDARESI, JEDAIAH. See Bedersi.

BEDARRIDE, JASSUDA : French juriscon-
sult; born at Aix, in Provence, in 1804; died there
Feb. 4, 1882. He studied law at the Aix Univer-
sity ; and with great promise began in 1825 the
practise of law in his native town. In 1847 he was
made leader of the bar (batonnier) of Aix. After
the Revolution of 1848 he was appointed mayor of
Aix and counselor-general of the department of
Bouches-du-Rhone. But he soon gave up his pub-
lic functions to devote himself to writing. Under
the general title “ Droit Commercial, Commentaire
du Code de Commerce,” he published, between 1856
and 1867, a series of treatises on commercial law,
in eighteen volumes, which constitute a. complete
account of all the matter found in the Commercial
Code. BGlarride’s other works upon law are:
“ Traite du Dol et de la Fraude en Mature Civile et
Commerciale,” 3 vols., 1852; “Republique, Monar-
chic,” 1873; and “Commentaire de la Loi du 14
Juin. 1865, sur les Cheques,” 1876.

Bedarride was also greatly interested in Jewish
history, and contributed especially to the “Archives
Israelites.” His writings upon Jewish topics includes:
“Les Juifs en France, en Italic, et en Espagne,”
1859, being researches into the condition of the Jews
from their dispersion to the present time, with re-
gard to legislation, literature, and commerce (this
passed through two editions); “A Study of the Tal-

mud,” in the “Memoires de l'Academie de Montpel-
lier”; and “Du Proselytisme et de la Liberte Re-
ligieuse,” published by his sou in 1875.

s. J. W.

BEDARRIDES, GUSTAVE EMANUEL :

French magistrate; born at Aix-les-Bains Feb. 20,
1817 ; died at Paris June 5, 1899. Graduating from
the University of Paris, he entered public life in
1840 as substitute counselor at the tribunal of Aix.
Three years later he discharged the same function
at the court of the same town, and became succes-
sively “avocat-general ” and president of one of the
sections at the same court. In 1862 Bedarrides was
appointed “ proeureur-general ” at Bastia, Corsica;
in 1864 he was summoned to the Court of Cassation
as avocat-general to the section of penal jurisdic-
tion ; and in 1875 he was promoted to be first avocat-
general.

The ability which he displayed in these capacities
gained for him the post of president of the Cliainbre
des Requetes in 1877. In 1890, when the first pres-
ident of the entire court resigned, the government
had the idea of appointing Bedarrides as his succes-
sor. This idea, however, was not carried out, prob-
ably on account of Bedarrides’ age — he was then
seventy -three — but when, two years later, he had to
retire under the age regulations, a presidential de-
cree conferred on him the title of honorary first
president.

Bedarrides took great interest in Judaism, and in
1867 he was elected to represent the Jewish commu-
nity of Marseilles in the central consistory of France.
In 1872, when Adolphe Franck retired, Bedarrides
was elected vice-president of the consistory, which
office he held until his death.

Two of Bedarrides’ works have been published :
“ Eloge de Fr. Decormis ” ; “ Du Perier et le Droit
Provencal.”

Bedarrides was a commander of the Legion of
Honor.

Bibliography: La Grande Encyclovedie , v. 1124; Univers

Israelite , 1899, No. 38.

s. I. Br.

BEDDINGTON, ALFRED H. : English com-
munal worker; born 1835; died in London Jan. 23,
1900. He was connected with the management of
several Jewish institutions in London, and was inti-
mately associated with the Central Synagogue, of
which he and his brothers were founders, and of
which, in 1877, he was elected warden. Bedding-
ton took a deep interest in Jewish educational mat-
ters. He was a member of tire committee of the
Jews’ Free School, and was also on the committees
of Jews’ College, the Jewish Middle-Class School
for Girls, and the Jewish Association for the Diffu-
sion of Religious Knowledge.

Bibliography : Jewish Chronicle and Jewish World, Jan. 26,

1900.

j. G. L.

BEDDINGTON, EDWARD HENRY: Eng

lish communal worker ; born 1819 ; died Oct. 31, 1872
He was a member of the council of the United
Synagogue and of the committees of several char-
itable and educational institutions. He rendered
services to the community as chairman of the Build-

625

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bedad

Bedersi

ing Committee of the United Synagogue and as
treasurer of Jews’ College, more especially in his
connection with the erection of the Central Syna-
gogue, London. Beddington originated the propo-
sal for the acquisition of a new Jewish cemetery at
Wiliesden, and he, with three other members, made
himself responsible for the purchase of the ground.

Bibliography: Jewish Chronicle , Nov. 1, 8, 15, 1872; Jewish

World , Nov. 8, 1872.

J. G. L.

BEDDINGTON, MAURICE: English com-
munal worker ; born in 1821 ; died at Carshaltou Sept.
9, 1898. Throughout his life he was identified with
most of the London communal institutions. He was
one of the original members of the Board of Guard-
ians and chairman of the Investigating Committee
of the Board. He was a founder of the Central
Synagogue and a life member of the council of the
United Synagogue. He served as chairman of the
Building Committee, and was a vice-president of the
Jews’ Hospital and Orphan Asylum, to which insti-
tution he was a very generous benefactor. He was
a member of the committee of the Anglo-Jewish
Association, the Indigent Blind Society, and the As-
sociation for the Diffusion of Religious Knowledge.
Beddington was a justice of the peace both for the
county of Surrey and the county of London, besides
being a founder of the City Liberal Club, and serv-
ing on the Political Committee.

Bibliography : Jewish Chronicle , Sept. 16, 1898.

J. G. L.

BEDERSI or BEDARESI, ABRAHAM
BEN ISAAC : Provencal poet ; born at Beziers
(whence his surname “Bedersi ” — native of Beziers).
The dates of his birth and death have not been as-
certained. An qlegy which he composed during his
youth, upon the “Confiscation of the Books of the
Law,” is supposed by some scholars to refer to the
burning of the Talmud in Paris about the year 1242 ;
by others, to the confiscation of the Talmud in Aragon
in 1264, as the direct result of the Barcelona contro-
versy. If the latter view be correct, Bedersi may
well have flourished about the year 1240 (Zunz,
“Z. G.” p. 413).

As appears from the letter sent by Bedersi to Don
Vidal Solomon (“Hotam Toknit,” p. 4), he went
early (perhaps in 1273) to Perpignan, where he at-
tended the lectures of Joseph Ezubi. He returned
often to Perpignan and took an active part in its com-
munal affairs. A number of his letters, contained in
MS. cviii (72) of the Vienna Hofbibliothek, are writ-
ten to prominent Jews in Barcelona, asking them to
aid their less fortunate coreligionists. At one time
he lived at Arles, and in 1285, during the war of
France with Roussillon, lie took refuge in Narbonne.
He seems at one time to have been rich, for in a poem
he declares that he is independent and writes for his
own pleasure. The compiler of his diwan relates
that Bedersi sent money to the wandering poet
Gorni (Luzzatto, Intro. to “Hotam Toknit,” p. 4).

Bedersi was a prolific writer. Several collections
of his poems are still extant in manuscript in vari-
ous libraries. The most complete manuscript is
that in the British Museum, Add. No. 27,168. This
contains an elegy on the death of his relative, David
II.— 40

of Cabestan ; several poems and letters addressed to
Todros Abulafia and his companion, Abu al-Hasan
Saul ; poems dedicated to the physician of the king
of Castile, Aim al-Hasan Mei'r ibn al-Harit; and the
elegy mentioned above.

Two of Bedersi’s works were published, with an
interesting introduction by Luzzatto, by G. Polak,
Amsterdam, 1862: (1) “ Hereb ha-Mithapeket (A Re-
volving Sword), a poem of 210 strophes, according to
the numerical value of the word = 8 -j- 200 — |- 2.

The author in this poem gives a brief account of
Jewish poetry, the decadence of which he deplores.
He praises the “ makaniat ” (poems) of Hariri, which
he probably knew through the translation of several
by Al-Harizi. (2) “Hotem Toknit” (Who Seals the
Sum; compare Ezek. xxviii. 12), a treatise on He-
brew synonyms. Another poetical work, entitled
“Bakashat ha-Lamedin,” published at Frankfort-on-
the-Oder, 1812, was attributed to Abraham Bedersi;
but it is probable that this poem was written by his
son Jedaiah.

Bedersi’s poetical works are the best proof of the
decadence of Jewish poetry at that time. His style
is stiff and unintelligible, though he possessed a
thorough knowledge of Hebrew.

Bibliography: Zunz, Z. G. p. 462; Munk, in Archives Is-
raelites, 1847, p. 67 ; Kcrem Hemed , iv. 57 ; Griitz, Gesch.der
Juden, 3d ed., vii. 97 ; Renaii-Neubauer, Les Rabbins Fran-
qais. pp. 710 et seq. ; Gross, Gallia Jndaica, p. 100 ; Berg-
mann, Arts den Brief en Abraham Bedersi's , in Monats-
schrift.xiii.5ffi et seq.; one of Bedersi’s letters was published
in 1765 by Solomon da Piera as an appendix to bis collection
of Hebrew synonyms, entitled Mashim/ot Kesef.

G. I. Bit.

BEDERSI or BEDARESI, JEDA.IAH BEN
ABRAHAM, surnamed the Orator (ptan) : Poet,
physician, and philosopher; born at Beziers (whence
his surname Bedersi) about 1270; died about 1340.
His Provencal name was En Bonet, which probably
corresponds to the Hebrew name Tobiah (compare
“Olieb Nashim” in the “Zunz Jubelschrift,” He-
brew part, p. 1); and, according to the practise of
the Provencal Jews, he occasionally joined to his
name that of his father, Abraham Profiat (Bedersi).
In his poems lie assumed the appellation “Penini”
(Dispenser of Pearls), and because of this appellation
the ethical work “ Mibhar ha-Peninim ” of Solomon
ben Gabirol has been erroneously ascribed to Bedersi.
Bedersi was a precocious child. He was scarcely
fifteen years old when he published
Early Life, his work “Bakkashat ha-Memim ”
(The Mem Prayer), a hymn of 1,000
words, each of which begins with the letter “mem ”
(translated into Latin and German). Bedersi’s fa-
ther, very much pleased with those evidences of
his child’s precocity, expressed his approbation in
a short poem which in many editions is given at
the end of the hymn. The work contains only mere
quibbles on Biblical passages, and is often very ob-
scure; but, considering the age of the author, the
facility with which he handles the Hebrew vocabu-
lary is astonishing.

Bedersi’s Talmudical knowledge must have been
equally extensive; for, as may be seen in the intro-
duction to his commentary on the Haggadali of the
Talmud, lie was but fifteen years old when he en-
tered the Talmudical school of R. Meshullam. At
the age of seventeen he produced his ethical work.

Bedersi

Bedikah

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

626

“Sefer ha-Pardes” (The Book of the Garden). This
treatise, first published at Constantinople in 1515 (?)

and reproduced by Joseph Luzzatto in
“ Sefer ha- “ Ozar ha-Sifrut,” iii. , is divided into
Pardes.” eight chapters : (1) on isolation from the
world, and the inconstancy of the lat-
ter; (2) on divine worship and devotion; (3) on in-
struction, and the sciences that men should acquire
after having familiarized themselves with their re-
ligious obligations; (4) on the laws and the conduct
of the judge; (5) on grammar; (6) on sophism; (7)
on astronomy; (8) on rhetoric and poetry.

At eighteen he published a work in defense of
woman, entitled “Zilzal Ivenafayim ” (The Rustling
of Wings) or “Oheb Nasliim” (The Women-Lover).

In the short introduction to this trea-
‘ ‘ Oheb tise, Bedersi says that he wrote it
Nashim.” against Judah ben Shabbethai’s “ Sone
ha-Nasliim” (The Woman-Hater). The
young poet dedicated this composition to his two
friends, Mei'r and Judah, sons of Don Solomon Dels-
Enfanz of Arles. It was written in rimed prose,
and has been edited by Neubauer in the “ Zunz
Jubelschrift,” 1884.

These poetical productions of Bedersi’s youth
were followed by a number of works of a more
serious character, among which were: (1) A phil-
osophical commentary on the Haggadali of diverse
parts of the Midrashim, such as Midrash Rabbali,
Midrash Tanhuma, Sifre, Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer, and
Midrash Tehillim (copies of this commentary are still
extant in manuscript in several European iibraries).
(2) “Iggeret Hitnazzelut” (Apologetical Letter),
addressed to Solomon ben Adret, who, at the insti-
gation of Abba Mari, had pronounced
“Iggeret an anathema against the works and
Hit- partizans of Maimonides and against
nazzelut.” ;cience in general. Bedersi, after
having expressed his respect for the
upright and learned rabbi of Barcelona, remarked
that he and his friends were not indignant about
the ban, because science was invulnerable. Their
grievance was that Ben Adret should have branded
the Jewish congregations of southern France as
heretics. From time immemorial, science had been
fostered by Jewish scholars on account of its impor-
tance for religion. This was true in greatest meas-
ure of Maimonides, who studied philosophy, mathe-
matics, astronomy, and medicine by the aid of the
Greek writers; in theology, however, he was guided
by tradition, submitting even in this to the investiga-
tions of philosophy. He, Bedersi, therefore, entreats
Solomon ben Adret to withdraw the excommunica-
tion for the sake of Maimonides — whose works
would be studied in spite of all excommunication —
for his own (Ben Adret’s) sake, and for the good
name of Provencal Jewish learning. The “ Iggeret
Hitnazzelut” has been incorporated with Solomon
ben Adret’s Responsa, § 443. (3) A commentary on

the “Sayings of the Fathers” (Pirke Abot) and on
the Haggadali of the Talmudical section Nezikin.
This work, which is still extant in manuscript (Es-
curial MS. G. iv. 13), refers often to commentaries
of Bedersi on treatises belonging to other sections.
It is therefore probable that he wrote commentaries
on all the Haggadot of the Talmud.

(4) “Beliinat lia-‘01am” (The Examination of the
World), called also by its first words, “Sliamayim
la-Rom ” (Heaven’s Height), a didactic

“Beliinat poem written after the banishment of
ha- the Jews from France (1306), to which

‘ Olam.” event reference is made in the eleventh
chapter (compare Renau-Neubauer,
“Les Ecrivains Juifs Frangais, ” p. 37). This poem
is divided into 37 short chapters, and may be sum-
marized as follows:

“ The sage, though the highest type of humanity, is liable to
the vicissitudes of fortune. He is not exempt from any of the
evils which assail humanity ; and the sword of death stabs alike
the philosopher and the boor. But, if this view be dispiriting,
there is another which is consoling. The soul which lives
within him, when man is bereft of this world's goods, will ac-
company him beyond the grave. Still, to the shame of hu-
manity, man does not care to improve this noblest part of him-
self. He is entrapped by the perfidious charms of the world;
and his years roll away in search of illusions.

“And yet the world is nothing but a tempestuous sea ; time is
naught but a bridge thrown over the abyss connecting the ne-
gation that preceded existence with the eternity that is to follow
it. The slightest inadvertence can precipitate him who crosses
this bridge into the abyss. Are worldly pleasures, then, worth
seeking ? After their enjoyment follows despair, a vacuum
never to be filled. Unfortunate are they who give way to their
enticements. Can one be heedless when so many agents of
destruction are suspended over his head ; when the stars that
roll above him and survey his fate bring about, in their rapid
courses, unforeseen but inevitable events, that the decree of the
Eternal has attached to their movement.

“But do not, child of man, accuse the Author of nature of the
evils that overwhelm thy short and frail existence. The evils
thou complainest of are of thine own making. As for the
Eternal, His words are all wisdom and goodness. Man aspires
in vain to understand them ; they are beyond his intelligence.
All that may be conceived of Him is that He is inconceivable.
Celestial by origin, the human soul, so long as it is attached to
the body, groans under a shameful slavery. The occupation
worthy of its noble extraction is therefore to direct all its facul-
ties toward the worship of its Creator, the happiness of its
fellow-creatures, and the triumph of truth. This result can be
attained only in keeping the commandments of God.”

Bedersi concludes his poem by expressing his ad-
miration for Maimonides:

“ Finally, turn neither to the left nor to the right from all that
the wise men believed, the chief of whom was the distinguished
master Maimonides, of blessed memory, with whom no one can
be compared from among the wise men who have lived since
the close of the Talmud ; then I shall be sure that thou, enriched
with all the knowledge of religion and philosophy, wilt fear the
Lord thy God.”

This poem enjoyed the greatest success. Pub-
lished first at Mantua by Estellina, wife of Abraham
Conat, between 1476 and 1480, it was republished 67
times (compare “Bibliotheca Friedlandiana,” ii. 139),
with many commentaries, among which are those
written by Moses ibn Habib, Jacob Frances, and
Yom-Tob Lipmann Heller. Four commentaries
written by Isaac Mongon, Jacob (of Fano?), Leon of
Mantua, and Immanuel of Lattes the Younger are
still extant in manuscript (MSS. at St. Petersburg
and at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Nos. 502 and
1404). The poem was translated into Latin by
Uchtman ; into German by Isaac Auerbach, Hirsch
ben MeTr, Joel ben Joseph Faust or Wust (Dtf’lNll),
Simson Hamburger, Auerbach (who made use of
a translation of parts iv. and v. by Mendelssohn), J.
Levy, Joseph Hirschfeld, and (ip verse) by Stern,
preceded by an interesting Hebrew introduction by
Weiss; into French by Philippe Aquinas and Michel
Beer; into Italian in “Antologia Israelitica,” 1880.

627

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bedersi

Bedikah

pp. 334 et seq. : iuto English by Tobias Goodman;
and into Polish by J. Tugendhold.

According to Luzzatto (“Hotam Toknit,” Appen-
dix, p. 5), Bedersi was also the author of the poem
“Bakkasliat, ha-Lamediu ” (The Lamed Prayer), or
“ Bet El ’’(The House of God), or “ Batte
Minor Nefesh ” (Tablets), a prayer composed
Works. of 412 words in which only the letters
from “alef ” to “lamed” occur. This
composition is commonly attributed to his father,
Abraham Bedersi. Another poem, entitled “Elef
Alfin ” (Thousand Alefs), composed of 1,000 words,
each of which begins witli the letter “alef,” also at-
tributed to Abraham Bedersi, seems to have been
written by Jedaiah. In this poem the author be-
wails the sufferings and the exile of the Jews, which
can only refer to the banishment of the Jews from
France in 1306 (compare Luzzatto, l.c. ; “Sheinha-
Gedolim,” ii. x.v. ; Gratz,“ Gescli. der Juden,” vii. 206).

Bedersi also wrote a large number of treatises on
philosophy, several of which are quoted by Moses
ibn Habib in the introduction to his commentary on
the “ Beliinat lia-‘01am.” Seven of these works are
still extant in manuscript; (1) “Annotations on the
Physics of Averroes” (De Rossi MS. No. 1398); (2)
“ Annotations on the Canon of Avicenna ” (MSS. Ox-
ford, Nos. 2100, 2107, and 2121, 6); (3) “Ketab ha
Da'at ” (Treatise on the Intellect), a modification of
the Hebrew version (entitled “Sefer ha-Sekel we
lia-Muskalat ”) of Alfarabi’s Arabic work, “ Ivitab al-
‘Akl we al-Ma’akulat ”;*(4) ‘IIa-De‘ot be-Sekel ha-
Homri ” (The Theories Concerning the Material Intel-
lect), in which Bedersi gives the diverse opinions on
the Passive Intellect as expounded by Aristotle in
“De Anima” (compare Alexander of Aphrodi-
sias) ; (5) “Ha-Ma’amar be-Hafoke ha-Mehallek”

(Treatise on the Opposites in the Motions of the
Spheres), explaining a passage in the commentary of
Averroes on Aristotle’s “DeCoelo,” i.
Phil- 4; (6) “Ketab lia-Hit‘azmut ” (Book
osophical of Consolidation), in which Bedersi
Works. answers the objections made by a
friend of his to the theories ex-
pounded in the preceding work ; (7) a dissertation,
bearing no title, on the question whether individuals
of the same species, diverse in their “accidents,”
differ also in their essential form ; or whether form
is inherent in the species and embraces it entirely, so
that individuals differ solely by reason of their “ac-
cidents.” In Bedersi 's opinion there are two forms:
a general one embracing the whole species; and a
special individual form which is essential and can
not be considered as an “accident.” In this disser-
tation is quoted another work of Bedersi’s, his
“Midbar Kadmut” (The Desert of Antiquity), con-
taining a commentary — no longer in existence — on
the twenty-five premises given by Maimonides in his
introduction to the second volume of the “Guide of
the Perplexed.” It is probable that Bedersi wrote a
supercommentary on the commentary on Genesis by
Ibn Ezra (compare Steiuschneider, “Cat. Bodl.” col.
1283), and that he was the author of the philosoph-
ical poem on the thirteen articles of belief of Mai-
monides (compare Luzzatto, “Hotam Toknit,” p. 2).

Bibliography: Wolf, Bihliothcea Hehrcva , i. 304, iii. 287;
Zunz, Literaturgcseh. p.498; idem, Z. G. pp. 250, 383,402,

467 ; Dukes, in Literaturblatt des Orients , 1851, p. 369; Car-
moly, ibidem, 1850, p. 271 ; Luzzatto, ibidem, 1850, p. 817 ;
Joseph Weiss, in Stern’s edition of the Behinat ha-'Olam ;
Munk, in Archives Israelites, Jan., 1847 ; idem. Melanges,
pp. 495, 496; Sylvestre de Sacy, in Magaxin Encyclopedique,
iii. 315-357 ; Steiuschneider, Cat. Bodl. cols. 1281-87 ; idem,
Hebr. Uebers. p. 110; Neubauer, Yedaya de Beziers, in
Revue Etudes Juives, xx. 244 et seq.-, idem, in ZunzJubel-
schrift, pp. 138-140; Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, vii. 269; Ben
Chanu a/u, 1864, p.636; Renan-Neubauer, Les Ecrivai ns Juifs
Francais, pp. 2-57 ; Gross, Gallia Judaica, pp. 101-103 ; Chotz-
ner, Yedaya Bedaresi, in Jewish Quarterly Review, viii. 414
et seq.

G. I. BR.

BEDFORD : Borough and capital of the county
of Bedfordshire, England; situated on the River
Ouse. The earliest notice of Jews at Bedford is en-
tered on the pipe-rolls of 31 Henry I. (1185), when
Solomon and Jacob, Jews of Bedford, paid a large
sum to the king to recover a debt (Jacobs, “Jews
of Angevin England,” p. 85). From this time on-
ward the names of Jews from Bedford occur spo-
radically in the records, some of the Jews migrating
to other places, as Hitchin, Thetford, and Essex.
Seven Jews of Bedford contributed £1 8*. in 1194 to
the “donum” of the Jews of England toward the
ransom of Richard I. (Jacobs, ih. p. 163); and among
the names mentioned in the Bedford list was that of
a Jewess named “Fleur de Liz.”

In 1202 a curious charge was brought against
Bouefand, a Jew of Bedford, for the “ementula-
tion ” of Richard, nephew of Robert of Sutton, by
which the death of the same Richard was caused.
The case was brought before a jury of the hundred
and the Jew was acquitted. It seems probable that
this was a case of conversion to Judaism on the part
of Richard (Tovey, “ Anglia Judaica,” p. 66).

Throughout the thirteenth century Bedford con-
tinued to be one of the centers of the English
Jewry: it was one of the twenty -six towns where
anARCHA or chest was kept in which all chirographs
involving indebtedness of Jews were registered and
preserved, so that the king might know exactly how
much each Jew was worth, and could thus claim his
share of his property either at death or on occasion
of tallage (“ Papers of the Anglo-Jewisli Historical
Exhibition,” p. 187). The Jews of Bedford appear
to have lived in High street, as at the expulsion in
1290 there fell into the hands of the king two mes-
suages in that street, formerly belonging to Cok Fil
Benedict and Pictavus, Jews of Bedford. From his
name the latter would appear to have been an immi-
grant from Poitou. He had two sons: one of them,
Benedict, was baptized at Ely : the other, Jacob, was
hanged for felony : and the messuage in High street
belonging to him was given by the king to the crier
of Newnham (“Transactions of the Jewish Hist.
Soc.” ii. 86).

In more recent times, since the return of Jews to
England, very few of them have settled in Bedford ;
those that have thus settled have been declared by
legal process not entitled to the benefits of the Bed-
ford charity, though Sir Philip Magnus is now one
of the governors.

Bibliography : Jacobs, Jews of A ngevin England, pp. 85, 97 ;
Jacobs and Wolf, Bibliotheca AngloAudaica, No. 641.

BEDIKAH, np'“t3 (“examination,” “investiga-
tion,” in ritual law): Term employed in the Talmud
and ritual codes denoting the rigid scrutiny by means

Bedikah

Beelzebub

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

628

of which the fitness or unfitness of a person or ob-
ject, according to the requirements of the rab-
binical law, is ascertained. The term is employed
chiefly in the following cases:

1. Bedikat ha-Sakkin (“the examination of the
knife ”) : The Mosaic law, as interpreted by the Rab-
bis, requires that animals whose flesh is to be used
as food be slaughtered according to the method en-
joined by tradition and known as Shehitah. The
throat of the animal must be cut with a perfectly

keen and smooth knife, of a prescribed
Condition size, which must be drawn to and fro
of Knife, across the throat, with a swift and
uninterrupted motion, and in such a
manner as to sever at least the larger portion (“ rob ”)
of both the esophagus and the trachea; except in
the case of fowls, when only one of the tubes needs
to be cut. Although the act of shehitah may be per-
formed by any person, the appointment of a profes-
sional slaughterer, or “sliohet,” has at all times been
customary, and this official must be a well-informed
and religious man. The slaughterer, whoever it
be, is in duty bound carefully to examine the knife
before the slaughtering to see that it be perfectly
keen and smooth (p^ni in), without dent or rough-
ness, and to repeat the process after the slaughtering.
Should the knife be dented (“pagum,” having a
“ pegimah ”) or become so during the slaughtering,
the flesh of animals slaughtered therewith is ren-
dered ritually unfit for food (Huh 17J; Maimonides,
“ Yad,” Shehitah, i. 23 and 24; Shulhan ‘Aruk.Yoreh
De'ah, 18, 1-12).

2. Bedikat ha-Simanim (“the examination
of the parts,” the esophagus and trachea, that re-
quire to be severed in slaughtering) :

Inspection After the animal has been slaughtered,
of Parts, the sliohet’s next duty is to im-
mediately inspect the simanim to see
whether they have been properly severed. Neglect
of this procedure would render the flesh ritually un-
fit for food (see Shulhan ‘Aruk, Yoreli De'ah, 25, 1).

3. Bedikat ha-B.eah (“the examination of the
lung”): After the sliohet has satisfied himself that
the act of slaughtering has been properly performed,
it becomes his duty to examine the lung of the ani-
mal to see whether it is in a perfectly sound condi-
tion or is tainted with any of the blemishes specified
by the rabbinical law as making the flesh prohibited
for use as food. This is the most important exami-
nation in connection with the slaughtering of ani-
mals for food, and must be performed with the
utmost care and scrupulous conscientiousness.

The sliohet, who, in his capacity as inspector or
examiner, is called “bodek,” scrutinizes the lung
most carefully in order to see whether it contains
an}r one of numerous fatal defects. A puncture
in the lung (“ nekeb ”), the absence of any part
thereof (“ liissaron ”), a softening (“ nitmasmes ”), or
drying (“yabesli ”)of the tissue, the presence of hard
spots (“ atum, ” “tinre”), or the hardening of the en-
tire tissue (“kasliah ke‘ez ”), blisters or tubercles
(“bu‘ot ”), filaments filled with pus (“sirkot”), and
an unnatural and unwholesome color (“ mareli pesu-
lah ”) are the chief defects in the lung which may
render the flesh of an animal forbidden. The ex-
amination is conducted in various ways: by insert-

ing the hand into the body before the lung is re-
moved and feeling it (“mislimush”); also by put-
ting the lung into lukewarm water, through which
hard spots may become soft ; and by inflating the
lung (“ nefihat lia-reah ”). By the last-mentioned
procedure the presence of a puncture can be at once
detected. The result of this careful inspection is
that flesh passed as “ kosher ” or fit is almost certain
to be pure and wholesome as food (see Shulhan
‘Aruk, Yoreli De‘ah, 35-39; Maimonides, “Yad,”
Shehitah, viii. , based on Mislinah Hul. iii. 1, and
Gem. 46a et seq.).

4. Bedikat Hamez (“the search for leaven”) is
the name of a ceremony performed on the evening
of the thirteenth of Nisan, when the master of the
house examines, with the aid of a candle, all the
corners, chinks, and remote places of the house for
the purpose of discovering and removing any stray
morsels of leavened matter. The object of this
search is to obtain the assurance that the house is
entirely free from leaven during the continuance of
the Passover festival, as commanded by the Mosaic
law. Any leavened matter found, unless otherwise
disposed of, is required to be burned about ten
o’clock on the following morning. As at present
performed the search is rather perfunctory, the main
reliance being upon the housewife, who sees to it
that the house is thoroughly cleansed of leaven and
put into a proper condition for the festival. The
chief purpose of the formal search is to give a religio-
legal sanction to the actions of the housewife.

For “Bedikat lia-islishah” (the examination of
women) see Niddaii. For “Bedikah le-gadlut”
(the examination concerning maturity) see Matu-
rity, and also Vows and Nedarim. For examina-
atiou of witnesses see Accusatory and Inquisito-
rial Procedure. For “Bedikah le-mumim” (the
examination concerning defects in relation to mat-
rimony) see Marriage Among Hebrews. For
“Bedikah li-netinat get” (examination concerning
the capacity of giving a bill of divorce) see Divorce.
For “ Bedikat lia-metim ” (examination of the dead)
see Death. For “ Bedikah le-yohasin ” (examina-
tion concerning purity or legitimacy of descent)
see Yihus.

Biui.iograph y : Ex. xii. 19, xiii. 7 ; Deut. xvi.4; Mislinah Pcs.

i. 1 ; Gem. Hi et seq.; Maimonides, Yadha-HazaVah, Hilkot,

Hamez u-Mazzah, i.— iii.; Shulhan ‘Aruk, Oral) Hayyim ;

Deinbo, Das SchUchten, Leipsic, 1894 ; Wiener, Die JU-

(Usclien Speiseyesetze , Breslau, 1895 (the latter takesa rather

antagonistic view).

K. B. D.

BEE : A honey-gathering insect frequently re-
ferred to in the Bible. Bee-keeping dates very far
back, and it is quite probable that the ancient He-
brews were engaged in it, although there is no direct
testimony on the subject either in the Old or in the
New Testament. Isaiah vii. 18 is usually quoted in
evidence, and the phrase “ the Lord shall hiss . . .
for the bee ” is explained as a technical term of api-
culture, meaning to entice the bees to the hive; but
the correctness of this supposition may be ques
tioned. It would be more justifiable to quote II
Chron. xxxi. 5, where reference is made to the first-
fruits of honey. Philo is the first to mention bee
keeping, and the Talmud often refers to it. What-
ever age, therefore, is to be assigned to apiculture

629

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bedikah

Beelzebub

among the Hebrews, in any case wild bees abounded
in Palestine ; the phrase “ the land flowing with milk
and honey ” (Ex. iii. 8) vouches for this fact. In Gen.
xliii. 11, and also in Ezek. xxvii. 17, honey is named
as an article of export; and in other passages of
the Old Testament the abundance of wild honey is
often spoken of (Deut. xxxii. 13; Judges xiv. 8; I
Sam. xiv. 25 et seq. ; Ps. lxxxi. 17 [A. V. 16]; Prov.
xxv. 16; Matt. iii. 4). In Hebrew cookery, honey
plays an important part (see Honey). The Bee is
also often mentioned ; and a swarm of wild bees is
compared to a hostile army (Deut. i. 44 ; Isa. vii. 18
et seq. ; Ps. cxviii. 2). The small, unpretentious
work of the Bee, that yet gives such sweet produce,
is praised in Ecclus. (Sirach) xi. 3; compare the sen-
tence added in the Septuagint to Prov. vi. 8, where
much the same is said of the Bee as the Hebrew text
says of the ant. From the word “Bee” is derived
the popular name “ Deborah ” (Bee). To-day api-
culture is carried on to a considerable extent in Pal-
estine, and not only is Palestinian honey exported in
large quantities to Europe and America, but even
the bees of Palestine are sent to other countries.
The beehives consist of hollow cylinders, made of
earth mixed with chopped straw, about 39 inches
long and ten inches wide. The beehives in ancient
times could hardly have been more primitive.

Bibliography : Tristram, Natural History of the Bible , pp.

322^-326; Hart, Animals of the Bible , pp. 32-33.

J. JR. I. Be.

BEELEN, THEODORE JOHANN: Profes
sor of Oriental languages at the Catholic University
of Louvain, Belgium; born at Amsterdam at the
beginning of the nineteenth century. He devoted
himself early to the study of Hebrew literature, es-
pecially rabbinical, and acquired much learning in
this subject. Beelen is the author of a work, di-
vided into three parts, entitled “ Abne Hefez [Pre-
cious Stones] , Chrestomathia Rabbinica et Caldaica
cumNotis Grammaticis, Historicis.Theologicis, Glos-
sarioet Lexico Abbreviaturarum.quae in Ilebr. Script.
Passim Oceurent,” Louvain, 1841. The first part,
which is the most important — the other two being
a mere supplement to it — is divided into ten chap-
ters with the following headings: (1) Acute et Sa-
pienter Dicta; (2) Sententiie et Proverbias; (3) Fa-
bulse et Parabolae ; (4) E pistol® Familiares; (5)Selecta
Historiacarum ; (6) Grammatiei et Lexicographi ; (7)
Scripturae Interpretes; (8) Philosophi et Theologi;
(9) Talmudica; (10) Poeta. The author drew only
to a slight extent from Plautavitius’ “Florilegium
Rabbinicum” and from Buxtorf — the greater part
being taken from Jewish sources, such as Sefer
Toledot ha-Kabalali, Seder ‘Olam, Sifra, Mekilta, etc.
In the poetical part the author made use of Abraham
ibnEzra, Moses ibn Ezra, Judah lia-Levi, Gabirol, etc.

Bibliography: I/iteraturblatt des Orients, ii. 540; Stein-

schneider. Bibliographisches Handbuch ; idem, Cat. Bodl.

col. 783 ; Fiirst, Bibliotheca Judaica, p. 19.

T. I. Br.

BEELIADA (“Baal knows”): A son of David
(I Cliron. xiv. 7), who in II Sam. v. 16 and I
Chron. iii. 8 is called “ Eliada. ” This is due to an in-
tentional change by the scribe, to whom the name
“Baal” was hateful, and who therefore substituted

“El” in its place. For other instances of disgui-
sing the name “Baal,” see Bosheth.

J. JR. G. B. L.

BEELZEBUB or BEELZEBUB : Name of a
demon mentioned in the New Testament as chief of
the demons (Matt. xii. 24-27; Mark iii. 22; Luke xi.
15-18). When the Pharisees heard (of the cures
performed by Jesus), they said: “This man doth
not cast out demons but by Beelzebul, the prince of
the demons”; whereupon Jesus answered: “If Satan
casts out Satan, he is divided against himself ; how
then shall his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelze-
bul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast
them out? But if I cast out demons by the spirit of
God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.”
On another occasion Jesus said to his disciples: “If
they have called the master of the house [that is,
himself] Beelzebub, how much more (shall they so
call) them of his household ” [that is, the disciples]
(Matt. x. 25). The name “Beelzebub,” written also
“Beelzebul,” which occurs nowhere else in Jewish
literature, is a variant form of “Baal Zebub,” the
god of Ekron, whose oracle King Ahaziah consulted
during his illness, provoking thereby the wrath of
God (II Kings i. 2-16); the name is commonly ex-
plained after the Septuagint and Josephus, “Ant.”
ix. 2, § 1, as the “Lord of Flies” (see Baal-zebub).
Plagues being often ascribed to the influence of flies
(Ex. xxiii. 28; Ecel. x. 1; Pliny, “Historia Natu-
ralis,”x.28, 75; Pausanias, “ Description of Greece,”
v. 14, 1; Aelian, “Natura Animalium,” v. 17, xi. 8;
Usener, “ Gbtternamen,” p. 260), the god who dis-
pelled flies (Apollo Apomyios) probably retained his
popularity long after he had ceased to be an object
of worship. In fact, the fly was regarded by the
Jews in particular as more or less impure and de-
monic. “The evil spirit [“yezer lia-ra‘”] lies like a
fly at the doors of the human heart,” says Rab, with
reference to “the flies of death” in Eccl. x. 1 (Ber.
61n and Targ. Yer. to the passage). “A fly, being
an impure thing, was never seen in the slaughter-
house of the Temple ” (Abot v. 8), nor did one cross
the table of Elisha; which fact, according to Rab,
gave proof to the Shunammite woman that he was
“a holy man ” (II Kings iv. 9; Ber. 1(M). The devil
in German folk-lore also appears in the shape of a
fly (Simrock, “Deutsche Mythologie,” 1874, pp. 95,
479).

Geiger (“ Urschrift,” p. 53) thinks that Baal Zebub,
in his capacity as god of the hated Philistines, be-
came the representative of the heathen power and
consequently the arch-enemy, the foe par excellence,
and therefore the name “Baal debaba” (“debaba”
being the Aramaic form corresponding to Hebrew
“Zebub”) acquired the meaning of “hostility,” the
verb 231 with the sense of “hostile action” being
derived from it. But neither this opinion nor a sim-
ilar one expressed by Doderlein and Storr, and re-
vived in Rielim’s “ Realworterbucli,” seems accept-
able, as “ Beel debaba” is the ordinary Aramean word
for “calumniator.” (Brockelmann, “Lex Syrise. ”)

What renders the name still more problematic is
the form “Beelzebul,” which the older manuscripts
present, and which has given rise to a number of
other conjectures, among them the following: (1)

Beer

Beer, Benjamin

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

630

It lias been suggested that the appellations Beelze-
bub and Baal Zebub are corrupt forms of what was
originally “Baal Zebul ” (Baal of the heavenly man-
sion, 7i3f, Movers, in “Journal Asiatique,” 1878, pp.
220-225), and afterward “Baal of the nether world.”
(2) The word “Zebul” (from “zebel,” dung) is a
cacophonic corruption of “Zebub,” in order to give
the name the meaning of “god of the dung." It is
more likely that t he name “Beelzebul ” is a dialectic
variation of “ Beelzebub, ” as “ Beliar ” is of “ Belial ” ;
Jerome read and translated the name as“dominus
muscarum ” (lord of flies).

Bibliography: Cheyne, Encyclopaedia Biblica , s.v. : Has-
tings, Diet, of tlic Bible, s.v.; Lightfoot, Bora: Hebraicce on
Matt, x Ii. 24 ; Movers, Die Phoenizier , 1841, i. 286; Winer,
Realwt'rrterbuch , s.v. Beelzebub and Fliegen ; Riehm, Beal-
wOrterbueh ; Baudissin, in Hauck-Herzog, Real-EncyldopU-
tlie, s.v. ; Holtzinann, Handcommentar zum Neuen Testa-
ment, Die Synoptiker, p. 136; Meyer, Commentary on
Matt. x. 25.

BEER (“well”); 1. A halting-place of the Is-
raelites near Arnon, in Moab, where they stopped
during their wanderings in the desert (Num. xxi.
16). On the finding of the well a song was com-
posed (Num. xxi. 17, 18); one of the earliest poetic
pieces of the Bible. See an article by Budde in
“The New World," March, 1895.

2. A place to which Jotham fled from his brother
Abimelech (Judges ix. 21). This place has not been
identified, though so much appears probable, that it
was within the territory assigned to Manasseli.

j. jr. G. B. L.

BEER, AARON : Chief cantor of the Jewish
congregation of Berlin; born 1738; died Jan. 3, 1821,
in the fiftieth year of his official capacity as cantor.
He possessed a well-trained tenor voice of extraor-
dinary compass and rich and powerful quality ; and
such was his fame, about 1770, that music-lovers
gathered from far and near to hear him. The Royal
Library at Berlin contains a fine picture which rep-
resents him as a young man, holding in his hand a
title-page with the motto “Immer Besing Ich des
Ewigen Huld” (Ps. lxxxix. 2 [A. V. 1]).

Bibliography: Mendel, Musikalisches Konversa t ions-Ler i-
kon.

s. J. So.

BEER, ADOLF : Austrian historian and educa-
tor: born at Prossnitz, Moravia, Feb. 27, 1831.
While still young he came under the influence of
men like Gideon Breciieu and Hirsch Bar Fassel,
and received a careful education in the high school
of his native city. Thus prepared he went abroad
in quest of a higher education and attended the uni-
versities of Berlin. Heidelberg, Prague, and Vienna,
training himself for a political career. To this am-
bition he sacrificed his Jewish religion and embraced
Christianity. Having graduated as Ph.D., he was
first appointed teacher of history at the high schools
of Czernowitz, Prague, and Vienna, then in 1857
assistant professor of Austrian history at the Law
Academy of Grosswardein, Hungary. In the fol-
lowing year he was promoted to a professorship of
history at the Commercial Academy of Vienna. In
this position he remained for ten years, when, in
1868, he was transferred to the Technische Hoch-
schule of, that. city.

At that time his ambitions began to materialize.
He entered the Ministry of Public Instruction as
councilor, doing yeoman service in the cause of
popular and higher education; and in 1873 he was
elected member of Parliament, which election has
since been renewed without interruption. His lucid
parliamentary speeches, founded on a comprehensive
and deep knowledge of educational, commercial,
and financial affairs, won him the respect of his col-
leagues and opponents. In the political dealings
between the conservative and liberal elements con-
sequent upon the fall of the Taaffe ministry on Oct.
30, 1893, Beer was proposed as state secretary of
education, but his Jewish descent thwarted all his
hopes of entering the cabinet.

Beer is of a conservative disposition, appeal-
ing rather to the reason than to the emotions of his
audience. His numerous writings show the wide
range of his knowledge. They embrace commerce,
finance, foreign politics, education, and modern his-
tory. As far back as 1872 Leopold von Ranke
praised Beer’s facility of expression and wide sweep
of historical view.

Beer is the author of the following works: “Ge-
schichte des Welthandels,” 1860; “ Fortschritte des
Unterrichtswesens,” 1867; “Die Zweite Theilung
Polen’s,” 1867; “Joseph II., Leopold II., und
Kaunitz,” 1873; “Leopold II., Franz II. , und Katlia-
rina von Russland,” 1873; “Finanzen Oesterreicli’s
im 19. Jalirhundert,” 1877; “Zehn Jalire Oester-
reichischer Politik 1801-10,” 1877; “ Staatshaushalt
Oester.-Ungarns seit 1868,” 1881; “ Aus-Tegetlioff’s
Nachlass,” 1882; “Die Orientalisclie Politik Oester-
reiclis seit 1774,” 1883; “Die Oesterreichische Hau-
delspolitik im 19. Jalirhundert,” 1893.

Bibliography : Miinz, in Nation, Berlin, Marcli 16, 1901 ;

Meyer, Konversations-Lexikon , s.v.

s. M. B.

BEER, ADOLPH : Austrian colonel ; born
1833 in Prossnitz, Moravia; died Oct. 2,1888, at Lei-
bacli, Carniola. He entered a school for military ca-
dets. On leaving it with the rank of lieutenant, he
was appointed professor at the military academy in
Weisskirchen, Moravia. Later Beer held a similar
position in the military school of Cracow. During the
Austro-Prussian war (1866) he greatly distinguished
himself in the defense of the frontier fortress of
Olmutz and by preventing its surrender, when the
Prussians unexpectedly appeared before it at night.
Beer was one of the first Jews in the Austrian army
to attain the grade of colonel.

Bibliography : Jewish Chronicle, Oct. 26, 1888, p. 9.

s. ‘ B. B.

BEER, ALEXANDER : Religious teacher
and author in Munich, who wrote in 1826, under
the direction of Abraham Bing, rabbi of Wurz-
burg, and with the approbation of the “bet din ” in
Fiirth, and other rabbinical authorities of Bavaria, a
catechism in the German vernacular under the title
“Lehrbuch der Mosaischen Religion” (Munich,
1826), and in an abridged form “ Hauptlehren der
Mosaischen Religion ” (ib. 1826), for the use of the
Jewish schools. The same was indorsed by a re-
script of King Ludwig I. of Bavaria, and was pub-
lished at the expense of the government, with the

631

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Beer

Beer, Benjamin

view of introducing systematic religious instruction
in modern form among the Jews.

The book is therefore of historic interest as being
the result, on the one hand, of governmental initia-
tive in the direction of improved religious education
of the Jews, and, on the other, of conscientious labor
on the part of the conservative rabbis of Bavaria,
who were eager to harmonize modern culture with
the ancient faith and practise. By placing the He-
brew quotations from the Bible, Talmud. Maimon-
ides, Moses of Coucy (Semag), and Aaron ha-Levi
(Hinnuk) alongside of the German text, the author
displayed pedagogical tact combined with loyalty
to the traditional method of the past. The first part
deals, in 32 paragraphs, with the Thirteen Articles
of Faith; while the following part deals in 115 par-
agraphs with duties toward God, in 9 paragraphs
with duties toward oneself, and in 49 paragraphs
with duties toward one’s fellow-men; an appendix
treating also of the marriage laws and of the Aaron-
ites. There is afoot-note on p. 57 of special signifi-
cance by the rabbinate of Fiirth, stating that the
omission of circumcision does not exclude the Jew
from the Jewish community or release him from
all oilier obligations devolving upon the Jew. On
account of its conservative tendencies, the book was
attacked by an anonymous writer in a pamphlet en-
titled “ Die Reform der Juden und das Beer’sehe
Lehrbuch,” 1827 (Jost, “Neuere Geschichte der Is-
raeli ten,” i. 127). Beer also published “Siddur Te-
fillot” (Prayer-book), with German translation,
Munich, 1827.

s. K.

BEER, AMALIE (nee Amalie Wolf) : Ger-
man philanthropist and communal worker ; died at
Berlin Juue 22 (24), 1854. She was the wife of the
banker Jacob Herz Beer, dauglier of Liebmanu
Meyer Wolf (known as “the Berlin Croesus”), and
great-granddaughter of Lipmann Wolf Taussig. She
was very charitable, and an active member of the
Woineu’s Aid Society for Wounded Soldiers, which
was conducted under the patronage of Princess Will-
iam of Prussia. In consideration of her valuable
services, she received from the king the Order of
Queen Louise, being the first Jewess to be so distin-
guished. In order, furthermore, not to offend the
pious Jewess, who was averse to wearing a cross,
the king decreed that she should wear the ordinary
decoration of the first class in the form of a medal-
lion attached to a ribbon. Her hospitable home in
the Thiergartenstrasse, Berlin, was one of the most
brilliant salons of the time, and was honored occa-
sionally by the king’s presence. Amalie Beer was
the mother of the poet Michael Beer, of the com-
poser Giacomo Meyerbeer, and of two other sons,
Heinrich and Wilhelm.

Bibliography: Kohut, Gesch. der Deutschen Juden, p. 775

( portrait, ib. p. 780) ; Attgcmeine Deutsche Biographic, xxiv.

642 (s.v. Jlcyerheer).

s. A. F.

BEER, AUGUST: German mathematician;
born at Trier July 31, 1825; died at Bonn on the
Rhine Nov. 18, 1863. Beer was educated at the
technical school and gymnasium of his native town
until 1845, when he went to Bonn to study mathe-
matics and the sciences under Plucker, whose assist-

ant he became later. In 1848 he won the prize for
his essay, “De Situ Axium Opticorum in Crystallis
Biaxibus,” and obtained the degree of Ph.D. Two
years later he was appointed lecturer at the Univer-
sity of Bonn. At the same time he began publish-
ing the results of his scientific labors, writing in
1854 “Einleitung in die Hohere Optik,” which ob-
tained a wide reputation. He followed this with a
series of scientific articles in Poggendorff’s “An-
nalen.” In 1855 he was appointed professor of
mathematics at Bonn. Beer also wrote “Einheit in
der Electrostatik,” published two years after his
death.

Bibliography: Klilnische Zeitung, May 1, 1864; Poggen-
dorff, Biographiscli-Literarisches HaridwOrterhuch ; All-
gemeine Deutsche Biographic , ii. 245, 246.

S. E. Ms.

BEER, BENJAMIN BEN ELIJAH HA-
ROFE ; An Italian, doubtless an artist, who lived
in Italy, probably at Ferrara, during the fifteenth
century. On a bronze medal discovered at Lyons,
France, in 1656, Beer’s name appears in acrostic in
the Hebrew legend encircling the head. The medal
measures about six inches in diameter, and has on
the obverse an artistically stamped head crowned
with a laurel wreath. The legend is as follows:

*nyn dse^ ^3 Dm too pmo 'tv urn: mm
nrwm pnnNi ppn lru'tr' tin ttni nnvn
t ^mN inns n^yNi doikh vNtrn 'on 'bn
.']} yi ni "i i-6di

Outside the circle, on both sides of the head, oc-
curs Bna p j'o' p in Vn sty yn m "o and below,
“umilitas, ra ilpoaic," the latter a misspelling of
-aneivoais. The reverse of the medal represents a
dark ground around which runs the legend, “Post
teuebras spero lucem felicitatis judex dies ultimas
D.III.M.”

Menestrier the Jesuit, in his “ Histoire de Lyon ”
(1696), was the first to describe the medal and to en-
deavor to interpret the legend. In his opinion the
figure represents Louis le Debonnaire,
Erroneous and the legend expresses the gratitude
Opinions of the Jews toward this king, who
Concerning permitted them to build a synagogue.
Medal. This opinion respecting the head was
held by many, among whom were
De Boissi (“ Dissertation Critique ”), S. Lowisolin
(“ Vorlesungen ”), and Carmoly (“ Memoire sur une
Medaille en l’Honneur de Louis le Debonnaire”);
they differ only in the interpretation of the legend.

It was only in 1836 that Gerson Levi called atten-
tion 1o the fact that the figure could not be that of
Louis, because there existed no medal with the
effigy of any French king earlier than Charles
VII. Zunz (“ Israelitische Aunalen,” 1840, Nos. 17,
18) pointed out that the dotted words from the be-
ginning to rtol contain in acrostic: T~innt333 J'Dm

(ni3iDt nm D'Jty n'n'=) 1 -i cm ssnn iN3 vt6n.

“Benjamin, son of my respected preceptor, the
learned Rabbi Elijah Beer, the physician. May he
live many happy years.” Both father and son are
known to have lived in Italy in the fifteenth cen-
tury : and the “ D.III.M.” on the reverse of the medal

Beer, Benjamin
Beer, Berthold

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

632

may represent the year (1503) in which the legend
was written. Zunz believed that there was no con-
nection between the figure and the leg-
Zunz’s end ; that Benjamin was interested in
View. astrology, and that believing he had
discovered the date of the coming of
the Messiah, he engraved it on the medal.

L. Loewe, in “ Memoir on the Lamlein Medal ”
(“Numismatic Chronicle,” 1857, vol. xix.), goes still
further. He expresses the opinion that Benjamin
was an adherent of the pseudo-Messiah Asher Liim-
lein, who lived at that time, and that the words

are an abbreviation of 'Dll 'Ylri' ItyK

(“ Asher Lamlein, the Roman Jew ”). The first eight
of the eighteen letters with which the legend con-
cludes he believed to be the initials of Job xix. 25

(A. v.) mp' “isy by jnriNi 'n 'njn' 'm which

is thus rendered by Loewe : “ I knew it, my Redeemer

been paid to the reverse of the medal, which serves
to explain both the legend and the head. It bears
the same head as the obverse, with the exception
that in the former the head is turned to the left and
has no laurel wreath, while rays diverge from the
top. The features are represented indistinctly in
order to picture the darkness out of which light is
beginning to dawn. Benjamin, who probably was
an artist, symbolized by this medal Judaism, past,
present, and future.

The following are interpretations of the legend,
according to Zunz, Loewe, Geiger, and the present
writer:

Zunz: “By the decree of the divine Disposer,
praised be He ! by the mercy of the Eternal, whilst
all judgment ceases and the image perishes, I be-
hold Thy light at the time when redemption will
take place, and I reflect on the providence of my

The Lamlein Medal.

(From ‘‘Zeit. der Daulschen Morgenl.-Gesellschaft.”)

liveth; the last on earth will confirm it.” The other
letters are abbreviations of j'D'n rn'ro 'T '&yyo
D'pi 'n r6nm ra^ D'uy nns^oo 'rosy 'i p

“The work of my hand, the writing of Benjamin,
the son of R. Shabbethai of the Anavim family.
Praise and glory I render to the living and ever-
lasting God ! ”

According to Geiger, the figure represents Ben-
jamin himself, and the legend expresses his belief
in the immortality of the soul. As
Loewe and to the eighteen letters, Geiger ex-
Geiger on plains the first eight as Loewe did, and
the Medal, in the remainder he finds the initials
of Job xiv. 13, 'jjQVn SlNElO |D' 'D

'nurni pin rwn “idk nit? ny 'jvnDn. “Oh,

that thou wouldest . . . keep me secret until thy
wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set
time, and remember me ! ”

But this interpretation also is forced, and it is im-
possible that Benjamin should have represented his
own head with a laurel wreath. No attention has

God. O Romans, guard their trace! Thus I shall
rejoice, waiting for Thy deliverance, O God, al-
mighty Ordainer and Forgiver.”

L. Loewe : “ By the decree of Him who is the
Guide [of the Universe], blessed be He! By His
eternal will. When all justice ceased and consider-
ation failed, I beheld the length of that period
reaching the appointed end of exile [and no redemp-
tion had yet taken place] ; but, reflecting on the
ways of Providence as by Eli Romi, [I perceived]
that he caused the spiritual traces of them yet to re-
main, and I rejoiced, I fully hope, in the redemption,
O eternal, omnipotent God, who art great and for-
giving! ”

Geiger: “By the decree of the Guide, who is
above volition (that is, above the mutability of
changing resolutions) ; of the Eternal even when the
process of the divestiture of forms ceases (the change
of forms which are withdrawn from matter through
aTrooTEprjoig, in order to make place for others), I saw
a fixed term for the time (the temporal) when the

633

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

end should come. And I reflected on the providence
of my God, my height. He left [however] their
traces [of the temporal and finite]; and I rejoiced.
I am waiting,” etc.

A better translation would be the following : “ By
the decree of the Kuler, blessed be He ! through the
will of the Eternal; while all justice [to the Jews]
has ceased, and the image fails [as represented on
the reverse], I behold Thy light [expressed by the
rays on the top] at the time when redemption shall
take place. And I consider as the effect of the provi-
dence of my God that the Romans left their traces
[of the Jews], and I rejoiced,” etc.

Bibliography : Geiger, in Z. D. M. G. xii. 680 et seq.; idem,

in JUd. Zeit. iv. 171-174; Zunz, Gemmmelte Schriften, iii.

87-97 ; Loewe, in Numismatic Chronicle , 1857, xix. 173 etseq.

G. I. Br.

BEER, BERNHARD: German author; born
July, 1801, at Dresden; died there July 1, 1861.

His father, llirscli
Beer, and his mother,
Clara, belonged to the
Bondi family, which
migrated about the
middle of the eight-
eenth century into
Saxony, and which
was intimately con-
nected with the Jewish
congregation of Dres-
den from its beginning.
Bernhard was an only
son. While a youth he
was much influenced
by his relative, Dr. M.
Bondi, author of the
lexicographical work
“Or Esther.” As the
narrow spirit then reigning in Saxony made attend-
ance at public schools disagreeable to Jews, Beer
was never a pupil at one of them ; but, by the aid of
private teachers and by self-study, he acquainted
himself early and thoroughly with the ancient and
modern classics. Herder, Mendelssohn, and Hart-
wig Wessely were his favorites. In 1824 he formed
a society of young men for the discussion of the
Bible and other Hebrew literature, and, above all,
the works of the exegetes and philosophers of the
Middle Ages.

Beer was the first to introduce sermons into the
German language. With the permission of the chief
rabbi of Dresden, A. Lowy (died April 28, 1835),
Beer, although a layman, preached at the high
festivals.

Beer was not only a volunteer preacher; he was
also a volunteer educator of his poor coreligionists,
who were unable to pay the fees of private teachers
(access to public schools being very difficult and not
without humiliation to Jewish children). In 1829,
on the one-liundredth anniversary of Mendelssohn’s
birth, Beer, with the cooperation of E. Collin, a
Dresden physician, founded the Mendelssohn- Verein
for the advancement of trade, art, and science among
Jews; and several members of the congregation at
once declared themselves willing that their boys
should learn a trade. This was accomplished only

Beer, Benjamin
Beer, Berthold

with great difficulty. Up to this time there had
been no Jewish teachers of handicrafts; and Chris-
tians had been forbidden to take Jewish apprentices.

Beer fought also as a journalist for the emanci-
pation of his coreligionists in Saxony. An essay of
his, published in “Die Biene,” 1820, No. xxxvi., at-
tracted public attention. In 1833 he drafted the
petition which the Jewish congregation of Dresden
addressed to the Saxon Parliament, protesting against
a law which excluded the Jews from the rights of
full citizenship. The result was favorable to the
Jews.

After this, Beer went back to his favorite studies.
— history, philosophy, and Bible exegesis. His
knowledge of the Jewish religion, and especially of
the religious philosophy of the Middle Ages, was re-
markable; and he collected a very valuable library.
In 1834 Beer received the degree of Ph.D. from the
University of Leipsic; and in the same year he mar-
ried Bertha Bondi, who, by her great intelligence
and pleasing manners, made his house one of the
spiritual centers of Dresden ; among others, Karl
Gutzkow, Berthold Auerbach, and Julius Hammer
frequently resorting thither. In 1842, after a serious
illness, he made a tour through Italy and Switzer-
land. He also visited most of the important libra-
ries of western Europe; enriching his library, when
possible, with manuscripts and incunabula.

Beer was by nature a theologian. He endeavored
to systematize Jewish theology, and presented his
ideas on the subject in various magazines and special
publications, such as Fiirst’s “Orient”; Frankel’s
“Zeitschrift fur die Religiosen Interessen des Juden-
tliums”; Frankel’s “Monatsschrift”; “Jahrbuch
der Deutsehen Morgenliindischen Gesellschaft ” ;
Wertheimer’s “ Wiener Jahrbiicher ” ; “Kerem Ho-
med ”; “ Jcschurun,” etc. His principal works are;
(1) “Die Freie Cliristliche Kirclie und das Juden-
thum,” 1848 (open letter to Ronge); (2) A transla-
tion of Solomon Munk’s “La Philosophie cliez les
Juifs” into German, under the title “ Philosophie
und Philosophische Schriftsteller der Juden,” 1852;
(3) “Jiidische Literaturbriefe,” originally published
in Frankel’s “Monatsschrift,” 1853, 1854; later, in
book-form, Leipsic, 1857; (4) “ Abel, ” in “ Literatur-
blatt des Orients, ” iv. ; (5) “Aaron,” in Wertheimer’s
“Wiener Jahrbiicher,” 1855; (7) “Leben Mosis ” (a
fragment in manuscript found at his death).

In memory of Beer, the congregation in Dresden
founded a scholarship in art and science ; and two
others were instituted by the committee of the Bres-
lau Jewish Theological Seminary, which received
the greater part of Beer’s library, the remainder
being bequeathed to the University of Leipsic.

Bibliography: Z. Frankel, B. Beer, in Monatsschrift, xi.
41-56, 81-161, 131-143, 174-191, 345-366, 387-313, 335-344. 365-
391, 405-430; K. Gutzkow. Unterhaltunqen am Hduslichen
Herd, 1861 ; Deutsches Museum, Aug., 1861.

BEER, BERTHOLD ; Austrian medical writer;
born at Briinn, Moravia, April 24, 1859. Educated
at the high schools of his native city, first at the
realschule, then at the gymnasium, he left for Vi-
enna, where he attended the university and gradu-
ated in 1885. For several years he was physician
at the “ Allgemeines Krankenhaus” (General Hospi-
tal), making neuropathy a specialty. His scien-

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

634

Beer, Jacob
Beer, Rachel

tific researches were published in various Vienna
medical journals, and in the “Journal of Anatomy,”
London; “The Lancet,” London; “Nature,” Lon-
don; “Science,” New York; and especially in
“ Wiener Medicinische Presse,” of which he is editor.
Bibliography: Eisenberg, Das Geistige Wien, ii. 18.

s. M. B.

BEER, JACOB LEYSER. See Meyerbeer,
Giacomo.

BEER, JULES : Composer ; son of Michael Beer,
and nephew of Giacomo Meyerbeer; born 1833 in
Paris, where he still (1902) resides. His first attempts
at composition were two one-act comic operas, “ En
Etat de Siege ” and “ Les Roses de M. de Males-
herbes,” which were respectively performed before a
private audience in 1859 and 1861. His next work
was an opera entitled “La Fille d'Egypte,” which
was produced at the Theatre Lyrique April 23,
1862. He then attempted works of greater mag-
nitude; and in March, 1871, “Elisabeth de Hongrie,”
a grand opera by him, in four acts, was given at the
Theatre de la Monnaie at Brussels. Beer has since
produced several other operatic works, none of which,
however, lias met with marked success. In addition
to the foregoing, he has set to music Psalm cxxxvii.,
a work of colossal proportions for soli, chorus, and
orchestra, which was performed for the first time on
Jan. 23, 1868, at Paris, with Manduit, Caron, and
Warot as the principal soloists.

Although these works are somewhat deficient
when judged from a high artistic standpoint, they
nevertheless deserve to be ranked far above the
usual standard of amateur productions. Among the
pianoforte compositions of Beer may be mentioned
“La Marguerite,” “Le Chant des Feuilles,” and sev-
eral other morceaux de salon.

Bibliography: F. F. Felis, Bingraphie Universelle des Mu-

sdciens.

s. J. So.

BEER, MAX JOSEF : Austrian pianist and
composer; born at Vienna Aug. 25, 1851. He stud-
ied with Dessoff, and was still very young when, on
the recommendation of Hanslick, Dessoff, and Her-
beck, he on three different occasions received emolu-
ment from the Austrian government for the composi-
tions “ Ariadne auf Naxos,” “ Die Auferweckung des
Lazarus,” and a number of songs. Beer, who in 1901
was living at Vienna, is the composer of the follow-
ing operas: “Otto der Sclnitz”; “Der Pfeifcrko-
nig”; “Friedel mit der Leeren Tasclie,” performed
at Prague, 1892; “Der Streik der Schmiede,” one-
act opera, first performed at Augsburg, 1897. He
also wrote the operetta, “ Das Stelldichein auf
der Pfahlbriicke ” ; the cantata, “ Der Wilde Jager ” ;
the lyrical pieces, “ Abendfeier,” “ Eichendorffiana,”
“ Haidebilder, ” “ Spielmannsweisen,” “Was sicli der
Wald Erziililt”; a pianoforte-suite; and several
books of songs. Of these works, “ Der Streik der
Schmiede ” is generally considered the best. In this
little opera, which was also successfully performed
at the Theater des Westens in Berlin, Beer dis-
plays a tine mastery of vocalization. The prize
operetta, “Das Stelldichein auf der Pfahlbriicke,”
has likewise met with favorable recognition. Among
the literary productions of Beer may be mentioned a

contribution to Wagnerian literature entitled “Eva
Pogner. ”

Bibliography: Kohut, Berlihmte Israelitische Manner und

Frauen ; Riemann, Musik-Lexikon, 1900 ; Baker, Bing.

Diet. of. Musicians, 1900.

S. J. So.

BEER, MICHAEL: German poet; brother of
Giacomo Meyerbeer, the composer, and of Wilhelm
Beer, the astronomer ;
born Aug. 19, 1800, in
Berlin ; died at Munich
March 22, 1833.

At the W erder Gym-
nasium, Berlin, where
Beer was completing
the education he had
received at home, he
early showed a marked
preference for the tra-
gedians among the
classical writers of an-
cient Greece and Rome.

At the age of eighteen
he wrote his first
tragedy, “ Klytemnes-
tra,” which was pro-
duced at the Hofthe-
ater, Berlin, Dec. 8, 1819,
impression

Michael Beer.

and made a favorable
After this youthful attempt — which
revealed the weak points of his insufficient train-
ing, while the success of the play encouraged him
in the pursuit of a literary career- — he plunged with
renewed fervor into his interrupted studies, follow-
ing courses in history, philology, the natural
sciences, and philosophy at the universities of Berlin
and Bonn.

Beer’s extensive travels through European coun-
tries contributed much to the liberal character and
thoroughness of his education. From his second
journey to Italy he brought home a new tragedy,
“ Die Braute von Aragonien,” suggested by Goethe’s
ballad, “ Die Braut von Korintli.” It was published,
simultaneously with “ Klytemnestra, ” in Leipsic
in 1823.

The most successful of Beer’s works was the one-
act tragedy “DerParia.” With remarkable stage-
craft, which is lacking in his later productions, he
concentrated into a single act a story rich in con-
tent and full of stirring incident. It was produced
for the first time Dec. 22, 1823, in Berlin, and re-
ceived an ovation, Goethe himself adding warm
praise to the plaudits of the audience. The author
pictures in vivid colors the momentous struggle
which a noble nature undergoes in a conflict with
the depressing influence of degrading circumstances.
It is an eloquent and bitter outcry against the op-
pression of the Jews in Europe.

In 1824 Beer moved to Paris, where the large cir-
cle of acquaintances and the growing fame of his
brother, Giacomo Meyerbeer, threw open the doors
of every salon to the young German poet. He soon
learned to know intimately a number of eminent lit-
terateurs, artists, and statesmen in Paris, and before
the end of the year he felt as much at home in the
French metropolis as at his father’s home in Berlin.
He rarely returned to his native city in after days,

635

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Beer, Jacob
Beer, Rachel

spending the rest of his life in Paris, on t lie Rhine,
or in Munich, where he succumbed to neurasthenia
at the age of thirty-two.

The largest and best, if not the most successful,
of Beer’s works was his “ Struensee,” a tragedy in
five acts, dedicated to King Ludwig of Bavaria,
and produced for the first time March 27, 1828, in
Munich. It was very favorably received; and
Count de St. Aulaire, with whom Beer became inti-
mately acquainted while in Paris, made it known to
the reading public in France by his translations of
several scenes from the tragedy, which appeared
in the “ Revue Franpaise.” The whole work, pub-
lished originally in Stuttgart, 1829, was later trans-
lated into French by Ferguson (Paris, 1834, simul-
taneously with a translation of “ Der Paria,” by
Xavier de Marmier). A fine edition of this tragedy,
with an introduction by Joseph Kurscliner, is to be
found in Kitrschner’s “ Deutsche Nationalliteratur,”
cxxxvi., 1889.

Beer was also the author of some excellent poems,
among which may be mentioned his “Elegies,” writ-
ten in Italy (1826). A complete edition of Beer's
works was prepared two years after his death by his
friend and admirer Eduard von Schenk, the noted
Bavarian poet and statesman (Leipsic, 1835).

Bibliography : Brockhaus, Konversa tions-Le.eikon, 14th ed„
s.v.; Meyer, Konversations-Lexikon , 5th ed.; La Grande
Encyclopedic; AUgem cine, Deutsche Biographic ; Michael
Beer's Gesammeltc Werke, ed. E. von Schenk, Leipsic, 1835.
s. A. S. C.

BEER, MOSES SHABBETHAI : An Italian
rabbi; born at Pesaro; died in Koine, May 6, 1835,
where he officiated as rabbi from the year 1825. On
Dec. 18, 1829, he was admitted to an interview of
forty minutes with Pope Leo XII., in order that he
might plead on behalf of his community. This was
the first time in the history of the Roman Jews that
one of their representatives was permitted to appear
in person before the pontiff.

Bibliography: Berliner, Gesch. der Juilen in Bom (Index),
s. M. B.

BEER, PETER (PEREZ) : Austrian education
alist; born Feb. 19, 1758, at Neubydzow, Bohemia;

died Nov. 8, 1838, at
Prague. After having
received his early train-

Peter Beer.

mg m Bible and Tal-
mud, and — wliat was
unusual in those days
— inGerman and Latin,
he entered, at the age
of fourteen, the yesli
ibah at Prague, and
four years later that
of Presburg. When
twenty -one he began
his career as a teacher

in a Hungarian village ;
but the desire for study
soon brought him to

Vienna, where for a time he attended the university.

As a teacher in his native town, and from 1811
at the Jewish school at Prague, Beer displayed
great activity in reforming the methods of instruc-
tion. By a well-arranged system of teaching He-

brew, Bible, and religion, he, like his contemporary
Herz Homberg, fostered the spirit of progress which
during the reign of Emperor Joseph II. , and through
the impulse given by Moses Mendelssohn, had been
kindled among the Jews of Austria. As an advocate
of radical reform in religious matters Beer was con-
siderably in advance of his time.

Beer was the author of several pedagogical works
which were used in Jewish schools for many years.
The principal ones were : (1) “ Toledo! Yisrael ” (The
Generations of Israel), a Biblical history in Hebrew
and German, Prague, 1796; Vienna, 1810, 1815; and
revised editions, Vienna, 1843, 1854; Prague, 1875;
the Hebrew text with translation into Russian by B.
Segal 1, Warsaw, 1870 ; 4tli ed., Odessa, 1881; 5th ed.,
with additions by S. J. Abramowitsch, Odessa, 1883;
by Abraham Solonowitsch, 3d ed., Warsaw, 1881;
with translation into Polish by Simon Dankowicz,
Warsaw, 1862. (2) The “Tolpdot Yisrael ”(vol. ii.),

post-Biblieal history, appeared at Vienna in 1808,
reprinted in “Musar Hasekel” (“Kiryat Sefer,”
ii.) by Baruch Schonfeld, Prague, 1831. (3) “Dat

Yisrael ” (Statute of Israel), religious text-book,
Prague, 1809-10. (4) “Emet we-Emunah ” (Truth

and Faithfulness), elementary religious manual,
Prague, 1810. (5) “Handbuch der Mosaischen Re-

ligion filr Studiercnde,” Prague, 1818.

Besides these school-books he wrote ; (6) “Gebet-
buch fur Gebildete Frauenzimmer Mosaisclier Reli-
gion,” Prague, 1815; 3d ed., Vienna, 1845; (7) “Gebete
der Israeliten auf das Gauze Jalir. In Gemeinschaft
mit Joseph Jakob Balliii Bearbeitet,” Aurich, 1818;
(8) “Geschichte, Leliren, und Meinungen Aller Be-
standenen und nocli Bestehenden Religiosen Sekten
der Juden und der Geheimlehre oder Kabbala,” two
parts, Brunn, 1822-23; (9) “ Handworterbuch der
Deutschen Sprache,” two vols., Vienna, 1827; (10)
" Reminiscenzen, Bezuglieh auf Reorganisation des
Oeffent lichen Gottesdienstes bei den Israeliten,”
Prague, 1837; (11) “Ein Wort an Rabbinats- und
Predigtamts-Oandidaten,” in “Zeituug des Juden-
thums,” 1839, pp. 496 et seq. \ (12) “Leben und
Wirken des Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, Gewohnlieh
Rambam, auch Maimonides Genannt, Prodrom, und
Einladung zur Subscription auf eine Deutsche Ueber-
setzung des More Nebocliim. Nebst eiuem Probe-
bogen.” Prague, 1834 This translation was not
published, probably in consequence of Joseph
Derenbourg’s criticism in Geiger’s “Jiid. Zeit.”
(1835). i. 97-123, 210-224, 414-427. Another criticism
bv I. Bukofzer, “ Maimonides im Kampf mit Seinem
Neuesten Biographen Peter Beer,” appeared at Ber-
lin in 1844.

An autobiography of Beer was published at
Prague in 1839, extracts of which are given in
“Allg. Zeit. des Jud.” 1839, p. 101. Some of his
Hebrew poems appeared in the “Meassef ” and “Bik-
kure ha Tttim,” and several essays in the “Sula-
mith” and “Jedidja.”

Bibliography: Jost, Gesch. tier IsraeUi.cn, ix. 102, 143,151;

Furst. Bibliotheca Judaica, i. 97 ; Steinschneider, Cat. Both.

col. 7S4 ; Zeitlin, Bill. Hebr. Post-Mendels, pp. 16, 348.

s. S. Man.

BEER, RACHEL: English journalist; daugh-
ter of Sassoon 1 ). Sassoon. She was educated private-
lv and spent two years in hospital training. Since

Beer, Wilhelm
Beeroth

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

636

Oct., 1893, she luis managed and edited the “ Sunday
Times,” of which she is proprietress. Mrs. Beer is
a member of the Institute of Journalists, and also of
the Institute of Women Journalists. She has com-
posed and published some piano and instrumental
music. She married Frederick Arthur Beer, editor
of the “Observer,” London.

Bibliography: Jacobs, Jewish Year Book, 1900.

J. G. L.

BEER, WILHELM : Astronomer ; brother of
Giacomo Meyerbeer, the composer, and of Michael
Beer, the poet; born in Berlin Jan. 4, 1797; died
there March 27, 1850. Wilhelm shared with his
brothers the advantages of a liberal and modern edu-
cation. At the age of sixteen he joined the ranks
of the volunteers and took part in the campaigns
of 1813 and 1815 against Napoleon. He did not
remain long in the military service, but entered
the banking-house of his father, whom he suc-
ceeded after the death of the latter in 1826. His
leisure hours were devoted to the study of astron-
omy under the guidance of his friend J. H. Madler,
with whose assistance lie erected and equipped an
excellent private observatory at his villa in the
Tliiergarten, Berlin.

Beer and Madler together made a number of ob-
servations of the planet Mars during the oppositions
of 1828, 1832, 1835, and 1837, and published the re-
sults of the first series under the title “ Physische
Beobaclitungen des Mars in der Erdnalie,” in 1830.
Their most important work was a map of the moon,
“ Mappa selenographica totam lunse hemisplueram
visibilem complectens observata,” in four sheets
(Berlin, 1834-36). This map was incomparably su-
perior to anything of its kind previously attempted,
being executed with the utmost care and repre-
senting years of laborious micrometric measure-
ments. Each landmark discovered on the moon’s
surface was noted with great precision, and 919
spots and 1,095 determinations of the heights of lu-
nar mountains were measured by the two astrono-
mers, who described the results of their work in
“ Der Mond nacli Seinen Kosmisclien und Individu-
ellen Verhaltnissen, Oder Allgemeine Yergleichende
Selenographie ” (two vols., with maps, 1837). The
map of Beer and Mitdler — which is extremely rare
to-day — remained for a long time a standard work
in selenography.

Another valuable contribution to astronomy by
Beer and Madler appeared in 1841 ; namely, the
“Beitrage zur Physischen Kenntniss Himmlisclier
Korper im Sonnensystem.” This was the last as-
tronomical work in which Beer participated. His
friend Madler accepted a call from the University
of Dorpat to take charge of the observatory there;
and Beer, without altogether losing interest in the
science for which he had done so much, gradually
drifted into politics. In 1846 Beer was elected to a
seat in the Prussian Chamber of Deputies, and pub-
lished his political ideas and sentiments in a number
of pamphlets, among which was “ Die Dreikonigs-
verfassung in Hirer Gefalir fur Preussen,” Berlin,
1849.

Bibliography : Broekbaus, Knnversations-Lexiknn, 14th ed.:

s.v.; Meyer, Konversatinns-Lexikon , 5th ed.; La Grande

Encyclopedic, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographic.

e. A. S. C.

BEER-BING, ISAIAH; French journalist;
born at Metz in 1759; died in Paris July 21, 1805.
He entered early upon a literary career, and at the
age of twenty-five published a French translation of
the “ Phaedon ” of Moses Mendelssohn, under the
title “Traite sur l’Ame.” In 1788 he attracted the
attention of Abbe Gregoire, Mirabeau, Lafayette,
and Roederer, by his pamphlets in behalf of the
Jews, and especially by his “ Lettre,” in which he
defended his coreligionists against the attacks of
Aubert Dubayet. Notwithstanding his various lit-
erary occupations, he did not neglect the Hebrew
language, and translated Mendelssohn’s “Phaedon ”
into Hebrew, with a preface and commendatory
verses written by the poet Hartwig Wessely (Ber-
lin, 1786). Beer-Bing was, however, obliged to in-
terrupt his literary career, because of the necessity
of securing means to provide for his large family,
and he obtained the position of administrator of
the salt-works in the eastern part of France.

Bibliography : Gratz, Gesch, der Juden, 3d ed., xi. 1T7, 178;

Zeitlin, Bibliotheca Hebvaica Post-Mendelssohnia na. p. 31.

S. I. Br.

BEER ELIM : A Moabite town mentioned in
the lament for Moab (Isa. xv. 8). It is probably to
be identified with the Beer of the desert wanderings
(Num. xxi. 16).

J. JR. G. B. L.

BEER LAHAI RO’I : Name of a well in the
desert south of Palestine on the road to Sliur (Gen.
xvi. 7 et seq.), known as the stopping-place of Isaac
(Gen. xxiv. 62, xxv. 11). According to the rather
artificial and not at all lucid explanation of Gen.
xvi. 13 et seq., the name means “ the well of him that
liveth and seeth me.” In order to find the true ety-
mology of the word, Wellliausen (“Prolegomena,”
4th ed., p. 330) proposes to read “lelii,” jawbone
(compare Judges xv. 17 et seq.), which among the
Arabs is a name given to any prominent crag; and
to interpret “ ro’i ” as the name of an animal. In
Arabic such a place is found bearing the name “ cam-
el’s jawbone.” The spring lay between Ivadesii and
the otherwise unknown Bered (Gen. xvi. 14). The
Bedouins worship the spring in Muweilih, twelve
miles to the northwest of Kadesh, as the well of
Hagar. From this it would appear that the tradi-
tional well of Hagar, already mentioned by Eusebius,
may be sought here; but the exact site of the well,
which is thus bound up with questions regarding
Hagar’sliome, can not be fixed upon such testimony.

j. jr. F. Be.

BEER-SHEBA : A place situated on the south-
ern boundary of Judea (compare Judges xx. 1; II
Sam. xvii. 11; I Kings xix. 3) which was allotted
to the tribe of Simeon (Josh. xix. 2). It is referred
to in Gen. xxii. 19 as the dwelling-place of Abra-
ham ; and according to Gen. xxi. 31, Abraham and
Abimelecli made a treaty there, whence it derives its
name Beer-sheba, the “ well of the oath.” Accord-
ing to Gen. xx vi. 23 et seq., the place derived its
name from the fact that Isaac and Abimelecli made
a treaty there. Isaac also built a shrine at Beer-
sheba; and again, according to Gen. xxviii. 10 and
xlvi. 5, it was Jacob who sojourned there for a time.
As early as the days of Samuel, Beer-sheba was an

637

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Beer, Wilhelm
Beeroth

important place, since it is stated that the sons of
Samuel “ were judges in Beer-slieba ” (I Sam. viii. 2).
Amos (v. 4 et seq., viii. 14) speaks of the shrine and
of its impure ritual. The importance of the place is
further shown by the fact that the mother of King
Jehoash came from Beer-slieba (II Kings xii. 1). In
post-exilic times Beer-slieba is mentioned in Nell. xi.
27, JO. Later, it belonged to that part of the coun-
try held by the Idumeans. At the time of Eusebius
and Jerome, Beer-sheba was an important garrisoned
city. After this, however, it fell into decay ; and
now nothing remains of it but the well, the name
■“Bi’r es-saba,” and some unimportant ruins.

The Wells of Beer-sheba.

(After a photograph.)

BEERAH.— Biblical Data : A descendant of
Reuben, and head of the tribe at the time it was
taken into captivity by Tiglath-pileser (I Chron. v. 0).

J. JR. ’ G. B. L.

In Rabbinical Literature : Beerah, the

prince of the tribe of Reuben, is identical with
Beeri, the father of the prophet Hosea and himself
a prophet (Lev. R. xv.). lie was called mK3
(“well ”) because he was a well-spring of knowledge
and scholarly attainments. God caused him to die
in the Assyrian captivity, in order that his piety
might be of service to his fellow-exiles who died

In the Old Testament, as already mentioned, the
name is said to mean “ the well of the oath others,
as Stade, explain it as meaning the “seven wells.”
But grammatically this is questionable on account
of the order of the words; and according to care-
ful investigation of travelers (see especially Gautier,
“ Souvenirs de la Terre Sainte,” pp. 149 et seq. ; “ The
Expository Times,” x. 328), there are only three wells
on the site.

Bibliography: G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of the
Hull/ Laud, pp. 279-286; Robinson, Biblical Researches ,

i. 2rft; Guerin, Judee, ii. 278-283: Hull, Mount Seir, Sinai,
and Western Palestine.

J. JR. F. Bu.

BEERA : An Asherite (I Chron. vii. 37).

j. ,ir. G. B. L.

there, and that he might lead them to Palestine at
the Resurrection.

Bibliography : Pesihta , ed. Buber, xxv. 159 h.

,T. SR. ' L. G.

BEEROTH (“ wells ”) : One of the cities of the
Gibeonites (Josh. ix. 17) which after the conquest
fell to the lot of Benjamin (Josh, xviii. 25). This
possession, however, seems to have been but tempo-
rary: for in II Sam. iv. 3 we find that the inhab-
itants fled to Gittaim. The name is again found in
the post-exilic list of those that returned with Ze-
rubbabel (Ezraii. 25; Neb. vii. 29; “Beroth” I Esd.
v. 19). It is the modern El-Bireli (Baedeker-Socin.

Beet

Begging-

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

638

p. 325; Buhl, “Geographic ties Alten Pal&stina,”
p. 173).

j. jr. G. B. L.

BEET : This well-known biennial root-plant is
not mentioned in the Bible; according to De Can-
dolle, it was not cultivated before the sixth or
fourth century is. c., although Wonig claims to
recognize it in an Egyptian picture from the Beni
Ilassan (XII. dynasty). Its name in the Mislinah
appears to be a foreign one ; its Syrian-Arabic appel
lation sikelos, extensively known in Europe, is ac-
cepted as the equivalent of “Sicilian.”

Both the white and red Beet, Beta vulgaris or rapa-
cea grow wild in Palestine (Post, “ Coast, Jordan Val-
ley, and Dead Sea Valley,” p. 679). Both the white
Beet and Beta vulgaris , or cicla, are to-day called
“silk” in Arabic (Asclierson and Schweinfurth,
“ Flore d'Egypte,” p. 125; Boissier, “ Flora Orient,”
iv. 898). In Syriac it is “ selka ” ; in the Babylonian
Talmud, Np^D; hut in the Mislinah, a different
word, pnri (plural), Kil. i. 3. Jerome gives it as
“ toret ” in Syriac, evidently having in mind the Mish-
naic term piin, and not, as Mandelkern states, s.v.,
the Mishnaic riNTl- Brockelmann (“Lexicon Syri-
acum ”) wrongly registers a Syriac word, “tarida.”
There is no such word in Syriac, while Sachs’s deri-
vation (“Beitrilge,” i. 107) of a Babylonian word,
NT~in. — from “ bliteus ” (a tasteless, silly person), is
not tenable, because there is no support for it in
Aramaic, and because the reading N1N1D has better
authority. The Mishnaic word p*nn is used as
late as 309 by R. Hisda of Sura, in a Hebrew
saying.

Like all biennials, the Beet develops in the first
3'ear a very short stem, crowned with a rosette of
leaves, and provided with a thick and fleshy root in
which the plant-food is stored up. When active
life is resumed in the second year, an upright stalk
is sent up, with leaves and blossoms, which are fed
out of this reserve source in the root (Kerner,
“ Ptlanzenleben,” i. 717). These stems are the
p-nn (niD^n. nis^n) of the Mishnah, which
were eaten after preparation like those of asparagus,
the white variety being preferred (Sell uchardt, “Ge-
mliseund Salateder Alten, ”p. 51 ; perhaps Kavkurov in
“Atlien.” ix. 317«). See passages in ‘Uk. i. 4; Yer.
Ter. xi. 47d ; ‘Orlah iii. 7 ; and parallel passages,
Bezali 3 5; Yeb. 815. If this stem be pinched off
Dip), the roots start to grow again (Sliab. 735).

The cultivation of beets is spoken of in Git. 695;
B. M. 109i»; they are crushed in a mortar (Shall.
745); remain fresh only one day (Yer. Pes. iv. 31c,
2); can not be eaten raw (Yer. Ma‘as. Sh. ii. 535, 44;
compare ‘Er. 285) ; when boiled, according to R.
Hisda, are very beneficial to the heart and eye, and
as well to the intestinal tract. They are therefore
boiled with other vegetables (according to Pliny
xix. 133, with lentils and beans), or steeped (Ter. x.
11; Ber. 385); and the broth (piin 'D. Yer. Ter. xi.
47 d, 43) is wrongly identified by Rabba b. Samuel
with ( uvoyapov , though it should be mentioned that
beets boiled and eaten with oil, yapov , fish-milt, and
a little carbonate of soda, according to “Geoponica,”
xii. 15, serve to soften and purify the body (N'O
Np^'DI. Ber. 355; Krauss, “Lehnworter,” ii. 73).

Basing his statements upon an utterance by R.
Huna, a Babylonian teacher once laid stress on the
use of beets and rice on the evening of Passover
(Pes. 1145; compare Yer. Pes. x. 37d, 10, ^300 31
pnn3). Beets are used to this day in Slavic coun-
tries in the preparation of a “ sour ” soup for Pass-
over called “borscht.” They are also reckoned
among the foods of propitious omen to be eaten on
New-Year’s Day (Ker. 6 a\ Hor. 12«), based, accord-
ing to Ilai Gaon’s apt explanation, upon the play of
words (Vp'J'lJJ lp^nDb “ May our sins depart ! ” Np^D
= beet) (Responsa of the Geonim, “Hemdali Genu-
zah,” No. 166, in “ Shibbale ha-Leket,” p. 266, lppID'
lTnuty). Not so apt is its derivation from the
phrase U'S’IN lp^HD’, “ May our enemies depart ! ”
pertaining to days of persecution (Tur and Shulhan
'Aruk, Orali Hayyim, 583, 1). In Italy, beets are
to-day still roasted in ovens or upon hot ashes, con-
stituting the “barba di biesola” (Lenz. 446), con-
cerning which Raphael Meldola gave his opinion in
Pisa (“Mayyim Rabbim,” ii. 15, 17), as to whether
they might be eaten when roasted by non-Jews.

Beets are recommended as a remedy (Git. 69a, 5 ;
‘Ab. Zarali 285; Ber. 575). R. Hanina b. Hama
taught that the Babylonians were free from leprosy
because they ate beets and drank a liquor made
from lupins, or, according to R. Jolianan, because
they ate beets and drank this liquor and bathed in
the Euphrates (Ket. 775; Bacher, “ Ag. Pal. Amor.”
i. 3, note). Both Greek and Latin authors ascribe
medicinal virtue to the Beet (Schucliardt, l. c.
p. 53).

Bibliography: Low, A r. Pflanzennamcn , p. 273.

J. JR. I. Lb.

BEETH, LOLA : Austrian operatic singer; born
Nov. 23, 1862, at Cracow, Galicia. The daughter
of a well-to-do merchant, she spent her youth in
tranquil prosperity; but her father's subsequent
failure in business impelled her to earn her own
livelihood. She had received a good musical edu-
cation at home, but at first her work was con
fined to the piano. Her patroness, Princess Sapi
eha, discovered her talent for singing and acting;
and her training in these branches was continued at
the school for singing conducted by Marie Luise
Diistmann at Vienna. One year’s instruction under
Mine. Viardot Garcia at Paris brought her art to
such a state of perfection that she was able to
appear as Elsa in “Lohengrin” at the Berlin Royal
Opera on March 25, 1882. Her great success secured
her position at the German capital, where she re-
mained for six years, appearing in not less than
thirty-six roles. On May 1, 1888, she connected
herself with the Imperial Opera at Vienna, then
directed by Jalin, and has since lived in that city.

Beetli’s favorite parts are the difficult roles of the
Wagnerian heroines — Elizabeth and Venus in “ Tann-
hauser,” Elsa in “ Lohengrin,” Sieglinde in the “ Wal-
kiire.” Though she herself testified to the keen
appreciation of her Vienna audiences, she has not
confined her performances to that city, but has ap-
peared at Berlin, Leipsic, Paris, and New York;
and everywhere her great gifts have made a brilliant
impression. O. F.

639

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Beet

Begging

BEETLE : English equivalent in A. V. for the
Hebrew “hargol” (Lev. xi. 22; R. V. “cricket").
It is here mentioned as a kind of locust, together
with ‘“arbeh," “ sal ‘am,” and “hagab.” According
to the Talmud the hargol has a tail, and a hump
on its head. In Shah. vi. 10 it is stated that a har-
gol’s egg is hung on the ear as a cure for earache.
It is impossible to say now with which of the known
species of Beetle the hargol is to be identified; but
it has nothing in common with the ordinary Beetle
(compare Dillmann on Lev. xi. 22). See Locusts.

j. jit. I. Be.

BEGGING AND BEGGARS ; Although it has
made ample provision for the relief of the poor, the
Mosaic legislation does not contain any prescription
with regard to beggars ; nor has the Biblical Hebrew
a specific term for professional beggary, the nearest
expression being “to ask [or seek] bread ” and “to
wander” (see below). Wherever the Bible com-
mends charity, or even “ gifts ” to the needy (Esther
ix. 22), it does not mean such as are urged by an in-
truding or supplicating mendicant, but such chari-
table deeds as are practised spontaneously by the
giver — whenever there is a need for them. Thus
the Bible praises a worthy woman with the words :
“She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she
reacheth forth her hands to the needy ” (Prov. xxxi.
20; compare Deut. xv. 7; Isa. lviii. 7).

This omission of all care for beggars wandering
from door to door is not without reason, but lies in
the very nature of the Mosaic law. The distribu-
tion of the Holy Land among all the
Unknown children of Israel in equal parts corre-
to sponding to the number of the mem-
the Bible, hers of each family ; the manifold
provisions for the relief of families or
individuals impoverished by misfortune or disease;
the strict prohibition of every kind of usury; the
cancellation of all debts in the sabbatical year; the
restoration of all the destitute landowners to their
former estate at the recurrence of the jubilee year;
and, finally, the provision that a poor Hebrew who
sold himself to his wealthier brother should serve
him until the jubilee only, without becoming de-
prived of his citizenship, and that liis master was
forbidden to treat him as a slave (Lev. xxv. 39 et
seq.) — all these laws, as far as actually practised,
must have rendered the existence of beggars quite
impossible.

In somewhat later times, however, with the devel
opment of larger cities, begging seems to have been
known to the Jews, either as occurring among them
or among neighboring nations. This may be in-
ferred from Ps. cix. 10, where the children of the
wicked are cursed with beggary in contradistinc-
tion to the children of the righteous, who will never
have to seek bread (Ps. xxxvii. 25; for the Hebrew
expression corresponding to “ begging,” compare Ps.
lix. 1(5 and cix. 10).

The first clear denunciation of beggary and alms-
taking is found in Ecclus.(Sirach) xl. 28-30, where the
Hebrew word for “begging” (according to the edi-
tion of Cowley and Neubauer, Oxford, 1897) is as in
Ps. cix. 10 (compare Ecclus. [Siracli] xxix. 23 ctseq.).
Here, as well as in Tobit, and especially in the New

Testament, where beggars are frequently mentioned
(Mark x. 46; John ix. 8; Acts iii. 2, 3), the word
kleTjfiocvvrj has already assumed the
In the specialized sense of alms given to lieg-
Apocrypha ging poor (Tobit iv. 7, 11, 16, 17 ; xii. 8-
and N. T. 11; Ecclus. [Siracli] iii. 14, 30, 33; vii.

10-12; xvi. 14; xxix. 11-13; xxxi. 11 ;
Matt. vi. 2-4; Luke xi. 41; xii. 33; Acts ix. 36; x.
2, 4, 31; xxiv. 17).

The existence of house-to-house begging in Misli-
naic and Talmudic times may be inferred from Peah
viii. 7; Sliab. I. 1, 1515; Meg. 155 (with this passage
compare Targ. Estli. ix. 14); Ket. xiii. 3; B. B. 9« ;
and Sifre, Deut. 116. By these passages, however,
it can not be decided with certainty whether there
were only itinerant mendicants, or also resident beg-
gars. The expression used in Peah viii. 7, “ ‘ani ha-
‘ober mi-makom le-makom,” probably alludes to the
first class, while the other terms, “mahazir ‘al lia-
petahim ” and the Aramaic “ahadore appitha ” may
include both classes. Women did not
Women Did beg from house to house. The sup-
Not Beg. port of a needy woman was, there-
fore, thought preferable to that of a
needy man (Hor. iii. 7; Maimonides, “Yad,” Matte-
not ‘Aniyim, viii. 15; Shulhan ‘Aruk, Yoreli Dc‘ah,
251, 8). Professional beggars were a despised class;
and it was forbidden to support them from the gen-
eral charity fund with more than small alms (B. B.
9 «; see Rashi on the passage; Yoreli De'ah, 250, 3,
and the annotations of Shabbethai Cohen, according
to which private benefactors may also observe the
same rule). But it was also forbidden to drive a
beggar away without giving him any alms (B. B.
l.c. ; Yad ha-Hazakah, l.c. vii. 7). Non-Jewish beg-
gars were also recommended for support with food
and garments (Tosef., Git. v. [iii.] 4; Yad ha-Haza-
kah, l.c. vii. 7; Yoreli De'ah, 251, 1, gloss); but
Jews were prohibited from receiving alms publicly
from non-Jews, unless they were in danger of life
(Sanli. 265, see Rashi; Yad ha-Hazakah, l.c. viii. 9;
Yoreli De'ah, 254, 1). Allusion is also made to a class
of professional mendicants who feigned diseases or
deformities in order to attract the sympathetic no-
tice of passers-by. Such beggars were looked upon
with contempt and aversion (Peah viii. 9; Tosef.,
Peah, iv. 14; Yer. Peah vii. 215; Ket. 68n). Among
the Samaritans there were many professional beg-
gars, and the Midrasli (Lev. R. v. 8; Midi'. Teh. xix.)
describes in a very amusing way the methods of
these Samaritan mendicants.

To what extent begging was practised among the
Jews of post-Talmudic times up to the eleventh cen-
tury, is a question which can not be decided with
certainty, since Hebrew sources of this
Post- period of Jewish history are very
Talmudic scanty. Judging from the undoubted
Times. fact that one of the chief forms that
Jewish charity assumed was to dis-
countenance begging from door to door, it is almost
certain that before t lie period of the ghetto, and es-
pecially in smaller towns, there were no Jewish
beggars at all (Abrahams, “Jewish Life in the Mid-
dle Ages,” p. 309, Philadelphia, 1896).

The fact that the Jews formed distinct communi-
ties in the midst of contemptuously indifferent or

Begging-

Behalah

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

640

actively hostile environments, caused them to draw
closer to one another, and tended to soften and bridge
over the differences of poverty and position. Hence
in most Jewish communities before the thirteenth
century, though the inroad of itinerant mendicants
was a grievous burden on Jewish benevolence, the
number of settled, resident beggars was very small
(ib.).

This was changed with the beginning of the
ghetto age, when Jews were restricted to certain
streets or quarters. Within the ghetto the Jews
formed one large family, and house-
Ghetto to-house begging was carried on witli-
Ag-e. out publicity. Thus the system re-
ceived a new impetus in the ghetto
centuries, and reestablished itself in Jewish life.
But the begging was restricted to Fridays and the
middle days of festivals (Vogelstein-Rieger, “Gesch.
der Juden in Rom,” ii. 315). Begging in the streets
of the ghetto or in front of the synagogue was, how-
ever, sternly forbidden (Berliner, “Gesch. der Juden
in Rom,” ii. 2, 56 et seq.). The system of house-to-
house begging was occasionally favored by wealthier
Jews, but the ordinary middle class were opposed to
it; and their view carried the day (Yoreh De'ah,
250, 5).

In the seventeenth century the system was re-
vived; aud especially on Fridays and on the eves of
festivals the Jewish poor went about
Seven- from house to house gathering alms,
teenth In modern Jewish life this system be-
Century came a full-grown abuse; and irre-
Onward. pressible crowds of pushing beggars
assembled about the synagogue doors
(Abrahams, l. c., p. 310). To-day the Jewish beggar,
the so-called “scliuorrer,” is a persistent and trouble-
some figure in modern Jewish society.

As another kind of begging must be regarded the
collections made for the Jewish settlers in Palestine.
See also Alms, Charity, Halukkah, Russia, and
SCHNORREIL

Bibliography: Yarl ha-Eazakah, Mattanot 'Aniyim ; Tur,
Yoreh De'ah ; Shulhan ‘Ardlt, Yoreh De'ah, Zedakali ; F.
D. Miehaelis, Mosaisches Recht, ii. § 142; Jos. L. Kaaischutz,
ArclUlolnyie der Hebriler , ii. cb. Ixviii., lxx., Konigsberg,
1855-56; Hamburger, Realcncyklopddie, i„ under Almoseh,
Anne, ArmenfUrsorge ; Riehm, Eanduinterbuch zu den
BUehern des A. T., s.v. Almosen ; Hastings, Diet. Bible,
and cheyne and Black, Encyc. Biblica, under Alms; Abra-
hams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ayes, ch. xvii., xviii.,
Philadelphia, 1896.

J. SR. H. M.

BEGIN, EMILE AUGUSTE; French physi-
cian and historical writer; born at Metz April 24,
1802 (according to some sources, April 23, 1803);
died in Paris May 31, 1888. Meeting with ditficul
ties in his preparation for the polytechnic school, he
turned to medicine. Begin served in the army, and
was, during the Spanish war, attached to the hospi-
tal of Barcelona. Upon his return to France in 1828
he received the doctor’s degree upon contributing
the thesis “Influence des Travaux Intellectuels sur
le Systeme Physique et Moral de l’Homme,” Stras-
burg. He then settled in his native city, where in
1830 he founded a weekly journal, called “L’lndi-
cateur de l’Est,” which was, however, discontinued
on Jan. 1, 1832. In 1850 Begin removed to Paris
and engaged in literary and archeological pursuits.

Among other activities he participated in the works
of the commission charged with the collection and
publication of the correspondence of Napoleon I.
In 1869 Begin was appointed librarian of the Lou-
vre, and in 1874, of the Bibliotlieque Nationale,
Paris, serving at the same time as physician at this
institution. Besides being a member of many acad-
emies and societies, he was also attached to the
Commission of Historical Monuments of the Moselle
department.

In the field of medicine he published, in addition
to his doctorate dissertation : “ Counaissance Phy-
sique et Morale de l’Homme,” Nancy, 1837; “Let-
tres sur l’Histoire Medicale du Nord-Est de la
France,” Metz, 1840; “Le Buchan Fran^ais: Nou-
veau Traite Complet de Medecine Usuelle,” 2 vols.,
Paris, 1836 ; “ Lettres 3, M. Littre sur QuelquesPhleg-
masies Muqueuses Epidemiques Qui Out Regne
DepuisDeux SiSclesdans le Nord-Est de la France,”
Metz, 1842; and others. In literary and historical
fields he displayed a still greater productivity, the
chief works of which are: “Histoire de Napoleon,
de Sa Famille et de Son Epoque au Point de Vue de
l’lnfluence Napoleonienne sur le Monde,” 6 vols.,
Paris, 1853-54; “Biographic de la Moselle,” 4 vols.,
Paris, 1832; “Melanges d’Archeologie et d’His-
toire,” Metz, 1840; “Dithyrambe Compose pour
Ilonorer la Memoire du General Foy,” in “ Couronne
Poetique du General Foy,” by Magalon, Paris, 1826;
“Guide de l’Etranger it Metz et dans le Departe-
ment de la Moselle,” Metz, 1834; “Education Lor-
raine Elementaire,” 3 vols., Metz, 1835-36; “Guide
de l’Etranger a Nancy,” Nancy, 1837 ; “ La Moselle
d’Ausone,” translated into prose, Nancy, 1839;
“Metz Depuis Dix-Huit SiScles,” 3 vols., Metz,
1846 ; “Voyage Pit.toresque en Espagne et en Portu-
gal,” Paris, 1852; “ Voyage Pittoresque en Savoie et
sur les Alpes,” Paris, 1852; “Musee Mediomatri-
cien,” Metz; “Eloges”; “Histoire des Sciences, des
Lettres, des Arts et de la Civilisation dans le Pays
Messin Depuis les Gaulois Jusqu’it Nos Jours,”
Metz, 1829 ; “ Histoire des Duclies de Lorraine, de
Bar, et des Trois EvSches : Meurthe, Meuse, Moselle,
et Vosges,” 2 vols., Nancy, 1833; and a large num-
ber of articles and treatises in periodical publications,
especially in “ Austrasia,” of which, he was one of
the founders. Of particular interest to Judaism are
his researches on the history of the Jews in France,
“ Recherches pour Servir a l’Histoire des Juifs dans
le Nord-Est de la France,” published in “ Revue Ori-
entale,” Brussels, vols. i. and ii. ; aud on Jewish
physicians in Alsace and some other provinces, pub-
lished in the form of letters to E. Carmoly, editor of
the “Revue Orientale” (“Lettres Messines,” ib. ii.).

Bibliography: Julius Fiirst, Bibliotheca Judaica, Leipsic,

1863, i.; Gubematis, Dictionrmire International des Ecri-

vains du Jour. Florence, 1888; La Grande Encyclopedic;

Vapereau, Dictionnaire Universel des Contemporains,

Paris.

s. B. B.

BEGIN, LOUIS JACQUES : French surgeon
and author; born at Litlge, Belgium, Nov. 2, 1793;
died in Gorriquen, near Lacrouan, Bretagne, April
13, 1859. He studied medicine at the Military Hos-
pital of Metz and in Paris. During the wars of Napo-
leon I. he served as assistant surgeon in the cam-
paigns against Russia and Germany, 1812-14: and

641

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Beg-gring-

Behalah

upon returning to his country continued with great
success his studies at Strasburg and Val-de-Grace,
receiving the highest rewards. In 1821 Begin was
appointed instructor of physiology as applied to
gymnastics at the military gymnasium of Metz;
obtained his doctorate at Strasburg in 1823; and in
1832 was made lecturer to the School of Strasburg,
on anatomy, physiology, and surgery. His educa-
tional and literary activity soon attracted attention.
Upon arriving at Paris in 1835 lie rapidly gained the
highest degree in the civil and in the military med-
ical service. Begin was a member of the French
Medical Academy since its foundation in 1823, and
its president in 1847; surgeon-in-cliief and first pro-
fessor at the Hopital de Perfectionnement of Val-
de-Grace; member in 1842, and subsequently presi-
dent from 1850 to 1857, of the Sanitary Council of
the French armies ; commander of the Order of the
Legion of Honor in 1851 ; and member of many
learned societies — French and foreign. An ardent
adherent of Broussais, he defended his theories with
remarkable talent. Begin's friend, Dupuytren, con-
fided to him and Sauson the publication of the new
edition of Sabatier’s “ Medecine Operatoire ” ; and in
his will charged him with the publication of his
unfinished “Traite de la Taille.” In 1857 Begin re-
tired from the public offices he held.

Besides contributions to sanitary and medical pe-
riodicals, Begin published the following works:
“Principes Generaux de Physiologic Pathologique
d’Apres la Doctrine de M. Broussais,” Paris, 1821;
“Considerations Pathologiques et Therapeutiques
sur les Maladies Chirurgicales Aigues,” doctorate
thesis, Strasburg, 1823; “Application de la Doc-
trine Physiologique a la Chirurgie,” Paris, 1823;
“ Nouveaux Elements de Chirurgie et de Medecine
Operatoire,” Paris, 1824, in 2 vols. — the 2d ed. in 3
vols. in 1835; “Traite Therapeutique Redige Sui-
vant les Principes de la Nouvelle Doctrine Medi-
cale,” 2 vols., Paris, 1825; “Memoire sur la Devia-
tion du Rachis,” Paris, 1826; “Traite de Physiologie
Pathologique,” 2 vols., Paris, 1828; “Memoire sur
1'GOsophagotomie,” Paris, 1833; “Etudes sur le Ser-
vice de Sante Militaire en France,” Paris, 1849;
“Memoire sur la Gynmastique Medicale,” Paris,
1823; “Supplement au Traite Ilistorique et Dog-
matique de la Taille, de J. Descliamps,” 1826;
“Memoire sur l’Hemorragie a la Suite de l’Opera-
tion de la Taille par la Methode Perineale,” etc.,
1842 ; “ Quels Sont les Moyens de Rendre, en Temps
de Paix, les Loisirs du Soldat Franpais Plus Utile a
Lui Mthne, al’Etat, etal’Armee?” 1843; “ DesPlaies
d’Armes a Feu,” 1849; “Principales Maladies des
Yeux, de Scarpa,” 1821.

Bibliography : Julius Fiirst, Bibliotheca Judaica , i„ Leipsic,

1849; Allred Dantes, Dictionnaire Biographique , Paris,

1875; La Grande Encyclopedic; G. Vapereau .Dictionnaire

Universel des Contemporains, Paris, 1858, 1863.

S. B. B.

BEHAIM, MARTIN. See Zacuto, Abraham.

BEHAK, JUDAH : Russo-Hebrew writer ; born
at Wilna Aug. 5, 1820; died at Kherson Nov. 14,
1900. He was the last of the champions of prog-
ress in Russo-Hebrew literature, known under the
name of “ Maskilim.” Owing partly to the influence
of Elijah of Wilna, and partly to the progressive
II.— 41

spirit of the epoch of Moses Mendelssohn, a circle of
pioneers of Jewish culture was formed in Wilna, the
leading spirits of which were Behak, M. A. Guenz-
burg, A. B. Lebensohn, Benjacob, S. I. Fuenn, and
others. Its object was the revival of Biblical He-
brew and the diffusion of secular knowledge among
the Jewish masses by the cultivation of the Hebrew
language and literature.

Behak entered the literary field at the age of
twenty, and engaged mainly in philological re-
search, studying the Aramaic translation of the Bi-
ble and rational exegesis. He soon attracted atten-
tion by his scholarly articles in the Hebrew period-
icals “ Pirhe-Zafon ” and “Ha-Karmel.” When the
Rabbinical School was established at Wilna in 1848,
Behak was invited to occupy the position of in-
structor in the Talmud of the advanced classes. This
post he continued to hold until 1856, when he re-
moved to Kherson, where he retired into private life.
In commemoration of his eightieth birthday (Aug.
5, 1900), some of the prominent members of the
Jewish congregation of Kherson founded, under the
name of “Bet-Yehudah,” a school in which all sub-
jects were to be taught in Hebrew.

Behak corresponded extensively with most of the
Hebrew scholars of the second half of the nineteenth
century. Two of his letters (to A. Dobsevage and
Palei) appeared in “Ha-Modia’ la-Hadasliim,” No.
5, New York, 1901.

Besides numerous articles in various Hebrew peri-
odicals, Behak published notes on the “Biurim
Hadashim ” to the Pentateuch, to be found in
the first volume of the Bible edition published by
Lebensohn and Benjacob, Wilna, 1848-53; ‘“Ez-
Yehudah” (Judah’s Tree), a treatise on the prophet
Samuel and on the twenty-four places in the Bible
where the priests are also called Levites, Wilna,
1848; notes to Ben-Ze’eb’s “Talmud Lesliou Ibri,”
Wilna, 1848 and 1857; notes to Solomon Loewi-
sohn’s “Mehkere Lashon,” Wilna, 1849; “Tosephet
Milluim ” (Additional Notes), a commentary on the
Aramaic translation of the Pentateuch, Wilna, 1898.

Bibliography: Voskhod , 1900, No. 87; Ha-Meliz, 1900, No.

254.

H. R.

BEHALAH (“ terror ” or “ panic ”) : A name com-
monly bestowed on several periods of great excite-
ment in Lithuania and Poland, when, for various
reasons, Jewish parents thought it prudent to have
their children married at the earliest possible age.
Early marriages were customary in those times, and
therefore those which occurred in the behalahs, be-
ing exceptionally early, were contracted for children
of very tender age, sometimes not more than seven
or eight years, in order to save them from some sup-
posedly impending danger. There is reason to be-
lieve that there was a Behalah as early as 1754
(Ephraim Solomon Margoliot, “Bet Ephraim,” part
“Eben lia-‘Ezer,” No. 41, Lemberg, 1818); but the
first about which there is positive information oc-
curred in 1764. It is described by Ezekiel Feivel of
Dretschin, in his “Toledot Adam ” (1st ed., Dyhern-
furth, 1801, 11a), in the name of R. Hayyim of Volo-
zliin, who describes how, in that year, terror was spread
among the Jews of Lithuania by a report that Jew-
ish girls were to be prohibited from marrying before

Behalah

Behr

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

642

the age of thirty, and boys before twenty-five.
Many of the Jews then hastened the marriages of
their children, even of the youngest. Then, natu-
rally, soon arose the question of the legality of such
marriages, and a discussion of it is found in a re-
sponsum by Raphael Cohen of Hamburg (then at
Pinsk), dated 1705.

The second Behalah occurred in Poland between
1780 and 1793. It is mentioned in a responsum in
Ezekiel Landau’s “Noda‘ bi-Yehudah,” part “Eben
ha-‘Ezer,” No. 43, which is preceded by the remark
that this question from Poland came before Joseph of
Posen “ in the time of the great excitement before the
issue of the severe law [“gezerali”] about mar-
riages, when a rumor was spread . . . and they were
marrying little boys to little girls, and now they re-
pent. ...” As Joseph came to Posen in 1780, and
Ezekiel Landau died in 1793, this Polish Behalah
must have taken place between those dates.

The next Behalah occurred in 1833. It was caused
by some wild rumors of enlisting Jewish girls in the
army, and other absurd reports about terrible geze-
rot, spread before the promulgation of the regula-
tions concerning the Jews, in the year 1835. Section
17 of these regulations prohibits marriages among
Jews before the bridegroom has reached the age of
eighteen, and the bride that of sixteen. Bogrov, in
his “Zapiski Yevreya,” p. 3, gives a vivid account
of this Behalah.

The latest belialahs took place between 1843 and
1848 at various Russian towns, and were merely pre-
cautions taken by some fanatical Jews to save the
unmarried children from being forced to attend the
schools, then about to be established in various
Jewish communities. The last Behalah was rather
insignificant, and has been traced to a poor school-
master who had a houseful of grown-up daughters
for whom he could not provide any dowries, and
whom, in the excitement which he helped to cause,
he succeeded in marrying to little boys. Accord-
ing to the reports of people still living (1902)
who remember that period, the account of the last
Behalah, in a novel of Peter Smolenskin, is highly
exaggerated.

Bibliography : Responsa (No. 9) appended to Raphael ben

Yekutiel Cohen’s Torat Jekutiel, Berlin, 1772; Perles, Gesch.

derJuden in Posen , in Monatsschrift, xiv. 261 ; Smolenskin,

Ifa-Toch Bedarhe ha-Hayyirn, 3d ed., part 2, p. 169, Vienna,

1880; Levanda, Svornik Zakonov, p.362; private sources.

H. R. P. Wl.

BEHAR, JACOB JOSEPH HA-ROFE :

Chief rabbi of Bagdad about 1843, and author of
two Hebrew works; viz., “Shir Hadash,” a com-
mentary upon the Song of Solomon, printed at Cal-
cutta, 1843, by Eleazar Mari Aaron Saadia Araki,
and “Na’awah Tehillah,” a commentary upon the
Psalms, Jerusalem, 1845.

Bibliography : Livret Hazan.

s. M. Fr

BEHAR, MOSES SHABBETHAI : Rabbi
and author; lived in Salonica at the beginning of
the nineteenth century. Author of a Hebrew book,
“ Torat Mosheh ” (Salonica, 1802), a collection of
responsa.

s. M. Fr.

BEHAR, NISSIM : Palestinian educator ; born
at Jerusalem, 1848. His father, Rabbi Eliezer Be-
liar, having migrated from Rumania to Palestine,
instructed Nissim, when but five years old, in the
Talmud. Distress forced the family to leave Jeru-
salem in 1863 for Constantinople, where Behar was
admitted to the Ecole Camondo. Adolf Cremieux,
visiting that school, took an interest in the young
man, aqd sent him in 1867 to Paris, where lie en-
tered the Ecole Orientale and was prepared for
a pedagogical career. Having finished his studies,
he returned to the East, and with the financial aid
of the Alliance Israelite Universelle organized ele-
mentary schools at Aleppo in 1869, in Samacoff
(Bulgaria) in 1874, at Galata (a suburb of Constanti-
nople) in 1875, and finally in 1882 at the Technical
School of Jerusalem, the opening of which brought
upon Behar severe persecution from ignorant Jews
of that city. After twenty -eight years of educa-
tional work, fifteen of which were passed as head-
master of the Technical School, Behar was pen-
sioned in 1897.

A whole generation of young men owe their men-
tal development and success in life to the devotion
of their master, Behar. In 1899 he commenced the
propaganda in favor of the Alliance Israelite Uni-
verselle, traveling in Western Europe and in the
United States of America. He is now (1902) a resi-
dent of the city of New York, furthering the inter-
ests of the Alliance Israelite.

Behar is the author of a small biography, in Ju-
daeo-Spanish, of Adolf Cremieux (Constantinople,
1879).

s. F. T. H.

BEHEADING. — Biblical Data: As a regular

capital punishment, Beheading does not seem to
have been known to the Israelites before the time of
the Greek dominion. Only cutting off the head of
a slain or disabled enemy (I Sam. xvii. 51 et seq.) for
atrophy occurs (I Sam. xxxi. 9; practised by the
Philistines). Soldiers sent to kill anybody usually
brought his head as proof of the faithful execution
of their mission (see II Kings vi. 31, 32; II Sam.
xvi. 9; xx. 21, 22). The Babylonian and Assyrian
monuments abound in representations of such tro-
phies. The Egyptians, however, seem to have em-
ployed this mutilation very rarely, except in the
earliest times (first and second dynasties). Their
belief that life has its seat in the head, and that Be-
heading means, therefore, a destruction of the soul’s
second existence — Beheading thus was reserved for
the worst criminals as bringing double and eter-
nal death — may possibly furnish a clue for the im-
portance attached to the head as a trophy, among
ancient nations. See Capital Punishment.

j. jr. W. M. M.

In Rabbinical Literature : According to rab-
binical opinion, Beheading was one of the accepted
modes of execution in the Bible (Mishnah Sanh. vii.
1). Murder and idolatry (when committed by a
whole city, Deut. xiii. 14) were the crimes punish-
able with Beheading (Mishnah Sanh. ix. 1; Mek.,
Mishpatim, 4 ; Sifre, Deut. 94). Punishing a slave
so severely that death followed within twenty-four

643

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Behalah

Behr

hours, was accounted murder; and the guilty mas-
ter was punished capitally (Mek., Mishpatim, 7).

The mode of procedure in Beheading is a matter
of dispute, even as early as the Tannaites of the
second century, some of whom maintained that the
criminal’s head was struck off with a sword, “the
way the government does ” ; while, according to R.
Judah ben Ilai, the neck of the victim was placed
against a block, and the head hewn off with an ax
(Mishnah Sanh. vii. 3). This discussion between
R. Judah and his opponents (Tosef., Sanh. ix., end;
Gem. ib. 52 b) reveals the fact that Beheading, as a
mode of execution, must have been adopted in late
years from other nations — Assyria or Persia, Greece
or Rome. The very question, whether ax or
sword should be employed, is intelligible only on
the supposition that Beheading was a foreign proce-
dure, and one, therefore, not determined by law or
custom. It is known that the Roman emperors
adopted the use of the sword in lieu of the ax.
For the same reason, Beheading was the only mode
of execution which a Jewish king might employ,
other current modes mentioned in Scripture being
reserved for the established courts of law; a king
may only claim, as royal privilege, that which kings
customarily demand (Maimonides, “Yad ha-Haza-
kah,” Sanh. xiv. 2; ib., Melakim, iii. 8, following
the Tosefta, Sanh. vii. 3; Yer. Sanh. vii. 24 b).

Beheading was accounted one of the least painful
modes of execution; according to the view of R.
Simeon, it was the least painful (Mishnah, ib. vii. 1).
It was customary to have two different burial-places
for executed criminals : one for those who had suf-
ered death by stoning or by fire ; the other, for those
beheaded or strangled. The punishment was con-
sidered a measure of the crime; and it was not
deemed right to bury criminals of a minor degree
among those of greater wickedness (Tosef., Sanh. ix.
9; Mishnah, vi. 5; Gem. 476).

Bibliography : Duschak, Mosaiscli-Talmudisches Strafrccht,

pp. 10, 11, 41.

J. SR. L. G.

BEHEMOTH. See Leviathan.

BEHR, ISSACHAR FALKENSOHN : Lith-
uanian poet ; born in 1746 at Zamosc, government of
Lublin, Russian Poland, or, according to Recke and
Napiersky, at Salaty, a village in Lithuania, near
the Courland frontier. Behr received in his native
town no education beyond that afforded in small
country schools, and was married at an early age,
according to the custom of that time. He engaged
in retail trade, and while he was at Konigsberg,
Prussia (about 1767), his whole stock in trade, con-
sisting of a piece of velvet, was stolen from him.
Ashamed to return, and in the hope of bettering his
condition and that of his family, he sought to be-
come a student at the university, though possessing
no funds and having no knowledge of German.
Finding this impossible, he left Konigsberg and
tramped to Berlin, often contemplating suicide in a
nearby stream. Arrived at the Prussian capital
(1768), he looked up his relative and countryman,
Israel Zamosc, who, as tutor, came in contact with
the leading Jewish families of the city. Through
the influence of his relative and of Daniel Jafe he

was introduced to Moses Mendelssohn, whose house
was at that time the rendezvous of men of talent and
genius. With the assistance of his new friends,
Behr was enabled to acquire an education, studying
German, French, and Latin (being forced to start,
however, with the rudiments of each language),
and later natural science, philosophy, and medicine.

As soon as Behr had mastered German, he com-
menced to write poetry, using as models the poems
of Ramler, Wieland, and Herder. During this time
Boie wrote to Knebel, the friend of Goethe : “ The
poems of the Lithuanian are said to have appeared
in print. Youarc right: the Jewish nation promises
much after it is once awakened ” (translated from
“ Literarisclier Nachlass und Briefwechsel Karl Lud-
wig von Knebel’s,” ed. Varnhagen von Ense and
Th. Mundt, ii. Ill, Leipsic, 1840).

In 1771-72 the “Gedichte eines Polnischen Juden,
mit Anhang ” were published in Mitau and Leipsic.
Goethe himself reviewed them in the “Frankfurter
Gelehrte Anzeigen ” of 1772. “First, we must ad-
mit, ” he says, “ that the superscription of these pages
has made a very favorable impression upon us.” He
continues by saying that he had expected something
new, and had hoped to note the impression made by
German habits and customs upon a foreigner — and
this foreigner a Polish Jew entirely unacquainted
and unused to the country — but that he finds him-
self sorely disappointed: “Only mediocrity, hated
of gods and men.” He concludes his review with
these words; “We hope that we may one day meet
him again in those parts, where we seek our ideals,
and in a more intellectual mood” (Goethe’s “Voll-
standige Ausgabe Letzter Hand,” xxxiii. 38 et setj.,
Stuttgart and Tubingen, 1830).

About this time Behr left Berlin for Halle, and
completed at the university of that city his studies
in medicine, graduating in 1772. The title of his
thesis was “ Animadversiones Qusedam ad Illustran-
dam Phrenitidis Causam ” (Halle, 1772). The same
year he went to Ereslau. Kayserling, in his “Issa-
cliar Falkensolm Behr,” says that, according to a
manuscript, Belir’s coreligionists, fearing that, like
many others, he would change his religion, placed
him in custody. Of his further history nothing is
known, except that he practised medicine in Hasen-
potli, Courland, and removed to Moliilev on the
Dnieper about 1775. It is doubtful whether he went
thence to St. Petersburg, as stated by Fischer in
Hupels’ “Nordische Miscellen,” iv. 15. According
to Kayserling, Behr was the father of Rabbi Jeru-
ham, who published “Ozar Nelimad,”a commentary
on the “ Ouzari ” by Israel Zamocz ; if this were so,
then Behr died before 1796.

Bibliography: Goethe’s fVerlte, as above: letters of Karl G.
Lessing to Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, in Lessing’s Gesanunelte
Scliriften. xiii. 305-306, Berlin, 1840; Literarischer Nachlass
und Briefwechsel Karl Ludwig van Knehel's, as above;
Kayserling, in Wiener Jahrhuchf Ur Tsraeliten, 1862, pp. 1
et kg.-. Fiirst, Bibliotheca Judaica. s.v. Fedkemsoh n, Leipsic,
1863; Kayserling. Der Dichter Ephraim Kuh (Appendix,
Issacha/r Falkensohn Bela ), pp. 43 ct s eq.. Berlin, 1864 (who
mistakes Karl G. Lessing for Gotthold Ephraim Lessing);
Karpeles, Gesch. der JUdischen Lileratur. ii. 1094, Berlin,
1886 (who calls him “Isachar Bar Falkensohn ”); Fuenn,
Kcneset Yisrael. p. 186, Warsaw, 1886-1890; Winter and
Wiinsche, Jlldische Litcratur , iii. 881, Berlin, 1897 ; Recke
and Napierskv, AUgemeines Schriftsteller- und Gelehrten-
Lexikon. i. 92, Mitau, 1827: H. Rosenthal. Toledot Amhe
Sliem bc-Kurland , in Ha-Meliz, Odessa, 1862.

Behrend

Behrends

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

644

BEHREND, FRIEDRICH JACOB: German
physician ; born at Neu-Stettin, Pomerania, June 12,
1803; died at Berlin May 30, 1889. He was edu-
cated for a mercantile career, and became a clerk at
Konigsberg, East Prussia, in 1819, but resigned the
position in 1821 to prepare himself for his academic
studies. In 1823 he entered the University of Ko-
nigsberg, and three years later was graduated as
doctor of medicine. Spending the following two
years in travel, he settled as physician in Berlin in
1829. There he was employed by the city depart-
ment of police as medical examiner of prostitutes,
becoming in 1876 chief physician of the “Sittenpo-
lizei,” with the title of “Geheimer Sanitatsrath.”

Behrend was the editor of the following medical
works and journals : (at first with Moldenhauer,
later alone) “ Allgemeines Repertorium der Medizi-
nisch-Chirurgischen Journalistik des Auslandes,” 22
vols. , Berlin, 1829-35; “ Bibliothek von Vorlesungen
der Vorzuglichsten und Beruhmtesten Jetzt Leben-
deu Aerzte, Wundarzte und Geburtshelfer des Aus-
landes fiber Medizin, Chirurgie, und Geburtshilfe,”
23 vols., Leipsic, 1833-41; “ Syphilidologie oder die
Neuesten Erfahrungen, Beobachtungen, und Fort-
schritte des Inlandes und Auslandes liber die Er-
kenntuiss und Behandlung der Venerisclien Krank-
heiten,” Leipsic, 1838-40; (with A. Hi'.debrandt)
“Journal ffir Kinderkranklieiten,” Berlin and Erlan-
gen, 1843-72; (with Henke) “Zeitschrift fur Staats-
arzneikunde,” 1850-64.

He was also the author of the following books:
(1) “ Ikonograpliische Darstellung der Nichtsypliili-
tischen Hautkranklieiten,” Leipsic, 1839 ; (2) “ Ikono-
graphisclie Darstellung der Beinbriiche und Yerren-
kungen,” Leipsic, 1845; (3) “Prostitution in Berlin
und die Gegen die Syphilis zu Nehmenden Massre-
geln,” Erlangen, 1850; (4) “ Die Oeffentliclien Bader
und Wasclianstalten, Ihr Nutzen und Ihr Ertrag,”
ib. 1854 ; (5) “ Die Kanalisirung der Stadt Berlin in
Gesundheitlicher Beziehung,” Berlin, 1866.

Further, Behrend has contributed many essays
to Rust’s “Magazine,” Hufeland’s “Journal der
Praktischen Arznei und Wundarzneikunde,” Hen-
ke’s “Zeitschrift fur die Staatsarzneikunde,” etc.,
and translated medical works of foreign countries.

Bibliography : Fiirst, BOA. Judaiea , s.v., where a book writ-
ten by Israel B. Behrend is wrongly credited to Frederick
Jacob Behrend: Hirsch, B ingraph isches Lexikon, s.v., Vi-
enna, 1884; Pagel, Biographisch.es Lexikon , s.v., Vienna,
1901.

s. F. T. H.

BEHREND, GUSTAV : German dermatolo-
gist, medical writer, and professor of medicine at
the University of Berlin; born at Neu-Stettin, Prus-
sia, Jan. 10, 1847. He attended the gymnasium of
his native town and the University of Berlin, ob-
taining his doctorate in 1870. During the Franco-
German war he was assistant physician at the Re-
serve Lazaretli in Berlin, in which city he established
himself as a physician in 1872, becoming a well-
known specialist in dermatology and syphilis. In
1882 he was admitted to the medical faculty of the
University of Berlin as pri vat-docent, and lectured
on dermatology and syphilis. He also treated of
the subject of prostitution. He became titular pro-
fessor in 1897, and chief physician of the Municipal

Dispensary for Sexual Diseases in 1891. Behrend is
the author of about sixty books and articles, the
more important of which are: (1) “Ueber Erythema
Exsudativum Multiforme Universale,” Berlin, 1877;
(2) “Pemphigus, Syphilis Hsemorrliagica, ” etc., ib.
1879 ; (3) “ Ueber Pityriasis, zur Lehre von der Verer-
bung der Syphilis,” etc., ib. 1881; (4) “Ueber Kom-
plikation von Impetigo Contagiosa und Herpes Ton-
surans,” ib. 1884; (5) “Wirkung des Lanolin bei
Hautkranklieiten,” etc., ib. 1886; (6) “Ueber An-
thrarobin,” ib. 1888; (7) “Nerveulasiou und Haaraus-
fall,” ib. 1889; (8) “Ueber die Gonorrlioebeliandlung
Prostituirter,” ib. 1898. His “Lelirbuch der Haut-
kranklieiten,” ib. 1883, is well known. He is also
a contributor to the “ Handworterbuch der Medizin ”
and to Eulenburg’s “ Realencyklopadie der Medi-
zin.” For the latter he has thus far written about
thirty articles.

Bibliography : Pagel, Biographisclies Lexikon Hervorra-

gender Aerzte des NeunzehntenJahrhunderts , s.v., Vienna,

1901 ; Hirsch, Biographischcs Lexikon der Hervorrcigendcn

Aerzte Alter Zeiten und VOlker , s.v., Vienna, 1884.

s. F. T. H.

BEHREND, HENRY : Physician and com-
munal worker; born in Liverpool in 1828; died in
London Nov. 28, 1893. After completing a brilliant
academical career, he studied for the medical profes-
sion at University College Hospital, London, and
continued his studies at Manchester. In 1850 he
was elected a member of the Royal College of Sur-
geons of England ; became a licentiate of the Royal
College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1859, and a
member of the same in 1868. At first Dr. Behrend
practised in Liverpool, where he was appointed
honorary physician of the Liverpool Dispensary and
other institutions. He also acted for some time as
surgeon to a Lancashire regiment of militia. Later
on he practised in London, where he was widely
patronized. Dr. Behrend contributed many arti-
cles to the medical journals; a series of papers on
“The Late Cholera Epidemic” to the “ Lancet, ” in
1852; an “Essay on the Post-Biblical History of the
Jews,” 1850. His articles on the “ Communicability
of Diseases from Animals to Man” were translated
into several continental languages. Dr. Behrend
wrote also in defense of sliehitali and the regula-
tions of the Mosaic code. In the “ Nineteenth Cen-
tury ” he published an article entitled “ Diseases
Caught from Butchers’ Meat ” ; and other contribu-
tions on the same subject were later reprinted in
book form. He also lectured before learned socie-
ties on medical and archeological subjects.

Dr. Behrend rendered his greatest service to the
London community in his connection with the Jews’
Hospital and Orphan Asylum, Norwood, of which
he was elected chairman of the committee in 1868,
vice-president in 1869, and president in 1871. This
last office he filled with conspicuous ability, help-
ing to make the charity one of the best-managed
orphan asylums in the United Kingdom.

Bibliography : Jewish Chronicle and Jewish World, Dec. 1,

1893.

J. G. L.

BEHREND, ISRAEL B.: German physician
and writer on medical subjects; born at Witten-
burg, Meckleuburg-Schwerin, 1804; died at Ros-

645

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Behrend

Behrends

lock, March 13, 1867. Educated at the gymnasium
and the university at Rostock. In 1827 he received
the degree of doctor of medicine from the latter insti-
tution, and the same year he established himself as a
physician in Rostock. He followed the profession
in that city for forty years, until his death, and built
up a large practise.

Of Behrend’s works the following are the most
important : “ Ueber die Anwendung des Brecli-

mittels gegen die Cholera,” Schwerin, 1831 (in-
teresting for its information on the treatment of
cholera at that time) ; “ Febris Intermittens Stationa-
ry,” Wismar, 1853. Some of his essays treating on
homeopathy, neuralgia facialis, fever, etc., were
published in “Hufeland's Journal,” vols. lxx. xciii. ;
‘‘Hennemann’s Beitrage,” vol. i. ; “ Mecklenburger
Medizinisches Conversationsblatt,” vol. i. et seq.

Behrend was deeply interested in the political po-
sition of his coreligionists in Mecklenburg, and em-
bodied his opinions in his work, ‘Eine Schrift ilber
die Juden in Mecklenburg uud Ikre Burgerliclie
Gleichstellung,” 1843.

Bibliography : Panel , BioQraphisches Lcxikon , s.v.; Hirsch,

Biographischcs Lcxikon , s.v.

s. F. T. H.

BEHREND, JACOB FRIEDRICH : German
jurist; born at Berlin Sept. 13, 1833; finished his
studies in his native city at the university. He be-
came “ Gerichtsassessor ” in 1859 ; but, deciding
upon a scholastic career, he became pri vat-docent at
the Berlin University in 1864. The first-fruit of his
research was the “Magdeburger Fragen,” edited by
him, and published in Berlin, 1865. This 300-page
treatise is a critical treatment of the manuscripts
which are in existence under this name, and are
traced by him to a Prussian origin of about the pe-
riod from 1386 to 1402, and dealing with the
“ Schatfen-Recht. ” The next product of his indus-
try in the same direction was "Em Stendaler Ur-
tlieilsbucli aus dem 14teu Jalirhundert,” Beilin,
1868. This consists of thirty -one decisions of the
“Magdeburger Schoffenstuhl, ” published for the
first time from a manuscript in the Royal Library,
Berlin. Each decision is furnished with an exhaust-
ive commentary. It was received by juridical
scholars as a perfect model of such work.

Behrend became associate professor of jurispru-
dence at Berlin University in 1870. In the follow-
ing year he assumed the editorial management of
the “Zeitschrift fur die Deutsche Gesetzgebung und
filr Einheitliches Deutsches Recht.” In 1873 Felix
Dahn was associated with him in this magazine, the
title of which was changed in 1875 to “Zeitschrift
filr Gesetzgebung uud Rechtspflege iu Preussen.”
A treatise by him, “Zum Prozess der Lex Salica,”
appeared in the “Festgaben filr A. W. Heffter,” Ber-
lin, 1873 ; and in the same year he issued his masterly
contribution to the literature of the law of stock cor-
porations, “Ein Gutachten ilber die Aktiengesell-
schaften,” which was published in the “Schriften
desVereins filr Social-Politik,” Leipsic, 1873. That
year was memorable, too, for his having received a
call from the University of Greifswald as professor
of jurisprudence, which he accepted.

His next important production, and probably his

most substantial contribution of permanent value, to
legal literature is the “Lex Salica, Nebst den Capi-
tularien zur Lex Salica, Bearbeitet von Alf. Boretius,”
xxiii. 164, Berlin, 1874. The scholarly and exhaust-
ive manner in which Behrend proposed the task of
editing critically the manuscripts of this code of
laws of the early Franks is attested by the fact that
a revised and enlarged edition was issued twenty-
three years later; viz., at Weimar in 1897.

Iu the year 1880 the publication of Behrend’s
“ Lehrbucli des Handelsrechts,” designed to be com-
prised in two volumes, was begun in serial form by
the issue of the first “ Lieferung ” of 192 pages. Its
great importance was immediately recognized as be-
ing the first comprehensive scientific exposition of
German commercial law. The production of this
vast undertaking was, however, a slow process. In
sixteen years six parts were issued, completing the
first volume of nearly 1,000 pages. Another of
Behrend’s works worthy of mention is “Anevang
und Erbengewere,” Berlin, 1885. In 1888 he re-
ceived the appointment of “ Reiclisgericlitsrath ” in
Leipsic, a judicial position in the highest court in
Germany. The Order of the second class of the
Red Eagle was conferred upon Behrend in Oct.,
1900.

Bibliography: Meyer, Konversations-Lexikon, 1897.

s. M. Co.

BEHRENDS, LEFFMANN (LIEPMANN
COHEN) : Financial agent of the dukes and princes
of Hanover; born about 1630; died at Hanover Jan.
1, 1714. His honorable position is lauded by Man-
nasseh b. Israel iu his “Hope of Israel.” Behrends
frequently used his influence in favor of his core-
ligionists. His father, Issachar Barmann by name
(died Aug. 23, 1675), was the son of the Talmudic
scholar Isaac Cohen of Borkum; and the name
“ Behrends ” was adopted by Liepmann in honor of
his father. His first wife, Jente (died 1695), was a
daughter of Joseph Hamelu, president of the con-
gregation ; his second, Feile (died 1727), a daughter
of Judah Selkele Dilmann. Liepmann had the fol-
lowing children by his first marriage: Naphtali
Hirz (died 1709), who became president of the con-
gregation ; Moses Jacob (died 1697), praised as a
Talmudic scholar and philanthropist; Gumpert and
Isaac, who, in 1721, were accused of an attempt at
fraudulent bankruptcy, iu consequence of which
they were compelled to leave Hanover (1726). Beh-
rend’s daughter Genendel became the wife of the
chief rabbi of Prague, David Oppenheimer. She
died at Hanover June 13, 1712.

Behrend’s services as president of the congrega-
tion, in his endeavors to preserve the congregat ional
cemetery, and to secure a special rabbinate and other
privileges for Hanover, were valuable in the extreme.
In 1683 Duke Rudolph August appointed him chief
supervisor of the bleaclieries of his community in
the Harz. He stood in close relation to a number
of princes, assisted Talmudic scholars, and estab-
lished a “bet ha-midrash ” in his own house. The
library of his son-in-law David Oppenheimer, which
he had himself enlarged, and which his son-in-law,
owing to the censorship and other reasons, did not
wish to keep at Prague, was removed by Behrends

Behrens

Beirut

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

646

to Hanover, thus enabling the pastor Johann Chris-
tian Wolf of Hamburg to avail himself of it in
preparing the “Bibliotheca Hebrsea.” Together
with his son Naphtali Ilirz, Liepmann in 1703 had a
new synagogue erected upon the site of the old one,
which, constructed by order of the duke of Hanover
in 1609, had been torn down four years after its erec-
tion. The fate of Liepmann 's two sons Gumbert
and Isaac is related in a family “megillah,” pub-
lished by Jost in the second volume of the “Jahr-
buch fiir die Gescliiclite der Juden.”

Bibliography : Wiener, Liepmann und Seine SOhne, in

Monatsschrift , xiii. 161 et seq.; idem, in Hannoversches

Magazin , 1863, i.-ii. ; idem, in Berliner’s Magazin , 1879,

pp. 48-63.

G. A. F.

BEHRENS, SIR JACOB : Municipal worker
at Bradford, England ; born at Pyrmont, Germany,
Nov., 1806; died at Torquay April 22, 1889. His
father, removing to Hamburg in 1815, became a suc-
cessful merchant; and Jacob began his career by en-
tering his father’s firm. In 1834 he left Hamburg for
England and took up his residence in Leeds. Here
he entered into business as merchant, and in a short
time extended his operations to Manchester. In
1838 he finally settled at Bradford, and the history
of the development of the worsted trade of that
town is inseparably associated with his name. He
took an active part in the municipal life of the
town, was the founder of the Bradford Chamber of
Commerce, and was regarded as an authority upon
questions of tariffs and of commercial treaties. He
was also an expert statesman, occupying himself in
that capacity mainly with obtaining statistics on
trade, the tribunals of commerce, the bankruptcy
laws, and the Yorkshire Joint Tariffs Committee (of
which he was president). Mr. Behrens appeared be-
fore a commission at Paris as a witness from the
English worsted district, in reference to the commer-
cial treaty with France. In recognition of his serv-
ices on this occasion, he was knighted by Queen
Victoria Oct., 1882. Sir Jacob was an advocate of
free trade, and rendered much assistance to Richard
Cobden in the intricate negotiations which led up to
the French treaty of 1861. He was active also in
philanthropic movements, held a prominent place in
the Bradford Philosophical Society, founded the Eye
and Ear Hospital at Bradford ; and was a member of
the Anglo-Jewish Association, although he took no
further active part in Jewish communal affairs.

Bibliography : Jewish Chronicle and Jewish World, April

26, 1889.

j. G. L.

BEHRMANN, LAZAR JAKOVLEVICH :

Russian teacher and editor; bom in Friedrichstadt,
Courland, Sept. 26, 1830; died at St. Petersburg
April 27, 1893. He received his early education in
the heder and in the district school of his native
town, where he began his vocation as private
teacher. In 1854 he settled in Mitau, where in 1861
he opened a private school for Jewish boys. The
Jewish community of St. Petersburg invited him in
1864 to found its first Jewish school, which remained
under his management until his death. From 1869
to 1882 he was instructor in the Jewish religion at
the Kolomenskaya Women’s College in St. Peters

burg. In 1879 he founded there the weekly Russo-
Hebrew periodieal “Russki Yevrei,” which he pub-
lished and edited conjointly with II. M. Rabinovich
until 1883, and after that with L. O. Kantor to the
end of 1884.

Belirmann is the author of “ Osnovy Moiseyeva
Zakona,” which was recommended by the Ministry
of Public Instruction as a manual for all high schools
where the Jewish religion was taught and of “ Sankt-
Peterburgskiya Yevreiskiya Uchilisliclia.”

Bibliography : Vengerov, Kri t iko- U iografi ch esk i Slovar, ill.,

St. Petersburg, 1892.

H. R.

BEHRMANN, VASILI LAZAROVICH :

Russian lawyer; son of Lazar Jakovlevich Belir-
mann; born in Mitau, Russia, Sept. 15, 1862; died
at Cairo, Egypt, March 18, 1896. He received his
early education at his father’s school in St. Peters-
burg, passed through the gymnasium, and then
studied law at the University of St. Petersburg,
whence he graduated in 1885. While at the uni-
versity he edited the foreign news department of the
periodical “Russki Yevrei ” (Russian Hebrew), pub-
lished by his father. After the anti-Jewish riots
in South Russia in 1881 he became an ardent Zion-
ist, an active promoter of the Palestine movement
in Russia, and a useful collaborator of the Society
for the Promotion of Education Among the Jews
of Russia.

In 1884 Belirmann published a collection of arti-
cles entitled “Palestina,” and in 1892 another collec-
tion, Sion (Zion). In 1894 he visited England on
a mission to collect information about the English
emigration system. He left in manuscript a work
on “ How to Regulate Russian-Jewish Emigration.”

Bibliography : Vengerov, Kritiko-Bioqraficheski Slovar, iii.

91, St. Petersburg, 1892 ; Ahiasaf, p. 301, Warsaw, 1896 ; and

private sources.

H. R.

BEILIN, ISAAC WULFOVICH : Russian
teacher and physician ; born in the first quarter of
the nineteenth century ; died at Wilna March 9, 1897.
He was graduated from the Rabbinical School of
Wilna, and subsequently held the position of senior
teacher there for seventeen years, until the school
was closed by order of the government. He then,
at the age of forty, began to study medicine, and,
after being graduated from the Academy of Medi-
cine of St. Petersburg, was appointed military phy-
sician to the 107th Troitzky Regiment, which posi-
tion he held until his death. He contributed some
valuable articles on the Jewish question to the
“ Yevreiskaya Biblioteka” and to “Razsvyet.”
Bibliography : Nedelnaya Khronika Voskhoda, 1897, No. x.

ii. n. V. R.

BEIM, SOLOMON BEN ABRAHAM: Ka-
raite hakam and hazan at Odessa ; born there about
1820. Having received a good education from his
father, who was an excellent Hebrew scholar, Solo-
mon devoted himself to the instruction of his core-
ligionists, and founded many schools in Odessa and
in the Crimea. He published in Russian at Odessa in
1862 a memorial work on the chief seat of Karaism
in the Crimea— viz., Chufut-Kale — entitled “Pam-
jato Chufut-Kale,” in which he endeavors to de-
monstrate the great antiquity of the Karaite sect and

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Behrens

Beirut

goes so far as to trace the settlement of the Karaites
in the Crimea back to the time of Cambyses.

Bibliography: Gottlober, Dikkoret le-Toledot ha-Keraim ,

1885, p. 200.

K. I. Br.

BEIRUT, SYRIA(ancient Berytus) : City in
Plienicia, at the mouth of the river of the same name,
on the Mediterranean between Byblus and Sidon.
In the El-Amarna texts (Winclder, “ Altorientalisclie
Forschungen,” i. 309,436; “Monatsschrift,”1898,xlii.
480) the city is called “ Birutu ” (“ Biruna ”). At a
very remote period it was also called “Beroa,” like
another town in the vicinity (“ Rev. Archeol.” v.549),
and only in historic times was it called by the Greeks
“Berytus.” According to Stephen of Byzantium, the
word B i/pvrog is derived from fivp (1N3), a well, or
rather from its plural nilJO (Muss- Arnolt, in “ Trans-
actions of the Am. Phil. Assoc.” 1892, xxii. 48).
Modern scholars derive the name from Aramaic tyrn
and Syriac NJTn3 (XJT12), “ cypress,” the name of the
whole country, fyoivinr/, being similarly derived from
the palm. The form N'm3 is found on monuments
(it is an adjective meaning “Berytic”; see Cook, “A
Glossary of Aramaic Inscriptions,” s.v.), hence the
similarly sounding word in the Talmud (Men. 286,
63 a) must be translated as “ apples of the Berytians ” ;
another passage (Yer. Pes. 30«) mentions cakes from
Berytus.

Several places of the name of “Beeroth ’’are men-
tioned in the Bible. Some exegetes have erroneously
identified Berytus with Berotlia (Ezek. xlvii. 16),
which was near Hamath and on the northern bound-
ary of Palestine. Just as all places of the name of
“ Beeroth ” are to-day called in Arabic “ El-Bireh,” so
Berytus bore (according to S. Krauss) in Talmudic
times the name “ Beri ” or “ Biri ” ; this is clear from
a passage in Yalkut (Nutn.729), where Beri is located
between Sidon and Antiochia as a port; compare
Sifre, Num. 84. As Sidon is called in the Bible (Josh,
xi. 8, xix. 28) “great Zidon,” so Berytus is called in
Yer. Slieb. 36c “ great Beri ” (the name is corrupted in
the parallel passages Tos. Slieb. iv. 11 ; Sifre, Dent.
51), to distinguish it from other places of the same
name. In any case the city lay within the jurisdiction
of the Jews, for the Sibylline Books (vii.) also men-
tion Berytus, and Jews, of course, were living there.

It is impossible to tell at what time the Jews com-
menced to live at Beirut, as very little is knowrn
about the city in Phenician and Seleucid times. In
the year 15 b.c., it became a Roman colony, receiv-
ing the name “ Colonia Julia Augusta Felix Berytus ”
(Schilrer, “Gesch.” i. 340). It was for this reason
that the Herodian house did so much to build it up.
Herod erected cloisters, temples, and market-places
(“Ant.” xvi. § 11, 2; Josephus, “B.
Becomes a J.” i. 21, § 11 ; i. 27, § 2), and the em-

Roman peror Augustus ordered the court to

Colony. sit here that examined into the charges
made by Herod against his sons, Alex-
ander and Aristobulus, whom he aftenvard exe-
cuted (Josephus, “Ant.” xvi. 11, § 2; “ B. J.” i. 27,
§ 2). After Herod’s death (4c.e.) the citizens of
Beirut placed 1,500 auxiliaries at the disposal of
Quintus Varus to assist in suppressing the robbers
that infested Judea (“Ant.” xvii. 10, § 9; “B. J.” ii.
5, § 1). Agrippa I. (41) also paid particular atten-

tion to the city, and erected a sumptuous theater,
baths, and porticoes (“Ant.” xx. 9, §4). At the
dedication of these buildings 400 malefactors were
ordered to take part in the gladiatorial fights (“ Ant.”
xix. 7, § 5). Agrippa II. (50-100) continued to em-
bellish the city at a great expense, and to the serious
displeasure of his Jewish subjects, who objected to
so much money being spent upon a heathen city
(“Ant.” xx. 9, § 4). It wras to this heathen city that
Titus came after the destruction of Jerusalem (70)
and, at the games, put to death a great many of the
Jews taken captive in the war (“B. J.” vii. 3, § 1).
The same atrocities are probably referred to in Pesik.
R. (xxviii. 1356, ed. Friedmann), where, liow’ever,
the Berytians are called “children of Bari ” (orBeeri).

No information can be gotten about Beirut from
Talmudic literature. Bartuta, the birthplace of R.
Elazarben Judah (see the passages in “Seder ha-Do-
rot,”ii. 63«, Warsaw, 1878), is not to be identified with
it, as Isaac Helo (see below) maintains. For many
centuries lit tie mention is made of the Jews of Beirut.
The story that they dishonored a picture renowned
in ancient times (Athanasius, “ De Passione Imaginis
Christi ”) is declared by Wulfer to be a fable of the
monks (“ Animadversiones zum Jud. Theriak,” p.
135). One of the earliest facts known in regard to
the Jew's of the city is that in 502 their synagogue
was demolished by a great earthquake which des-
troyed several cities in Syria (Assemani, “Bibl.
Orient.” i. 272; “Joshua the Stylite,” ed. Wright, ch.
xlvii.). Benjamin of Tudela, about 1173, says in
his “Itinerary” that he found there fifty Jews,
among whom were Rabbis Solomon, Obadiah, and R.

Joseph. Syria at this time wTas in the
First hands of the Seljuk Turks. There
Mention of are no historic data to show whether
Jews. the Jew's of Beirut suffered as did
those of Acre when the sultan Malik al-
Ashraf (Khalil) captured the city from the last Cru-
saders in 1291. During the fourteenth century Isaac
Helo left Aragon and went with his family to live
in the Holy Land. In his itinerary (“Shebile Yeru-
shalayim,” in Carmoly’s “Itineraires de la Terre
Sainte,” p. 249) he mentions Beirut, but says nothing
of any Jews living there. The same is true of the
anonymous traveler in 1495, who speaks of the com-
merce of Beirut with Venice in gold, silver, copper,
tin, and stuffs (Neubauer, “Zwrei Briefe Obadjah’s,”
1863, p. 97). In 1522 an anonymous Italian Jewish
traveler (see “ Shibhe Yerushalayim,” ed. Leghorn,
1785), embarking at Venice, landed at Beirut, trav-
ersed the wdiole of Palestine, and reembarked again
at Beirut. But neither in coming nor in going does
he mention any Jews in that city. In 1799 another
Italian Jewish traveler explored Palestine, and
claimed to have met at Beirut four Jews from Bag-
dad. This is all that the chroniclers give concerning
this city ; but if the local traditions may be credited,
the large synagogue of Beirut, as well as the Jewish
cemetery, are 600 years old; and the oldest tomb-
stone, dating back five centuries, is that of R. Ab-
talion Bouezo. In his book, “Nacli Jerusalem,”
Ludwig August Frankel speaks of the old Jewish
cemetery at Beirut, and of a tombstone about four
centuries old, but he does not give an exact date.
When Sir Charles Napier bombarded the city on

Beirut

Bekorot

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

648

Sept. 11, 1840, and it came again under Turkish
rule, not more than twenty -five Jewish families were
living there.

The great rabbis of the nineteenth century were :
Moses Yedid Levi, died about 1811; K. Alfandari,
died about 1850; Aaron Moses Yedid
The Last Levi, died about 1870; Jacob Buk’ai
Century’s ('J?p3), died about 1899; R. Joseph
Rabbis. ben Sefior, appointed hakam bashi by
an imperial firman, resigned after a
year to return to Smyrna, his home. In 1889 the
Jews of Beirut numbered 1,500 in a population of

20.000. In 1901, numbering 5,000 in a population of

180.000, they had for their spiritual leader Moses
Aaron Yedid Levi, and for their official represent-
ative Hayyim Murad Yusuf Dana. They have a
large synagogue and twelve “midrasliim ” (meeting-
houses), called generally after their founders. The
names of the midrasliim are as follows: (1) Midrash
Hakam Shem-Tob; (2) Midrash Raphael Stambuli ;
(3) Midrash of the Damascenes; (4) Midrash Diarne
(founded by Jews from Dair-el-Kamar, in the Leb-
anon mountains, who had fought with the Chris-
tians against the Druses in 1860 and had been forced
with them to leave the mountains. They are re-
nowned for their physical strength and are dyers by

trade); (5) Midrash Joseph Picciotto;
Midrashim (6) Midrasli of the Society Misgab
and Ladak; (7) Midrash of Isaac Mann;
Modern (8) Midrash Ruben Iddy (H Jl) ; (9) Mid-
Schools. rash Samhaji; (10) Midrash of the
Ashkenazim; (11) Mjjlrashof the Jew-
ish Alliance; (12) Midrash Menahem Yedid.

The first to open a Jewish school upon modern
European methods was Hakam Zaki Cohen. A
school for girls was established in June, 1878, by
Emma Rosenzweig, and was taken over by the Alli-
ance Israelite Universelle. In 1899 it had 237 pupils.
In 1879 a boys’ school was founded by the Alliance,
and in 1899 it had 290 pupils. In 1890 a manual-
training school was founded, from which a number
of good workmen have been graduated, especially
carpenters and smiths. In 1899 this school had 16
pupils. But on the whole the Jews of Beirut follow
commerce rather than trade. Aside from some
Syrian Jews, the greater number have come from
Smyrnaand Constantinople, and lately
Families from Russia. Among the most pros-
and perous families are: the Anzarut
Societies. (nnTJJJ), Hayyim Murad Yusuf Dana,
Isaac Mann, the brothers Iddy, Joseph
Rubben, and Joseph Picciotto.

There are two benevolent societies at Beirut : the
Bikkur-Holim, founded in 1890 for assisting the sick
poor; and the Misgab-Laddak, founded in 1896 for
placing youths in apprenticeship. Although not far
from Damascus, where Jewish studies are still pur-
sued, Beirut has neither a body of rabbis nor any
Jewish writer of importance. Yet in the Midrash
Stambuli there is a room set apart for study, the
yeshibah, where old men and pious Jews meet daily
to read from the Zohar, the Talmud, etc.

Three young Jews of Beirut have published works
in Arabic: (1) Selim Mann, author of four graded
school-readers, entitled “Minhaj ”; (2) Selim Cohen
(son of Hakam Zaki Cohen), author of twenty

plays; (3) Raphael Cohen (brother of Selim), a trans-
lator. Among other works he translated from
French into Arabic a novel of Richebourg, “ Jcau-
Loup. ”

Bibliography : Geographic de la Syrie et de la Palestine , ed.
Cherbuliez, Geneva, 1888 ; Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encykloiiii-
dic der Classischen Alterthumsivissenschaft , v. 321 ; Bul-
letin de V Alliance Israelite Universelle , 1878 (2), p. 16 ct
passim ; Bochart, Geogr. Sacra , col. 743: Ritter, Erdkunde ,
xvii. 55-59; Bottger, Lexihon zu Flavius Josephus, p. 57;
Badeker-Socin, Pallistina, p. 455; W. Bacher, in Monats-
schrift, xli. 604-612; S. Kranss, ibid. 554-564; idem, Letin-
worter, s.v.; and private sources.
g. S. Kr.— G.

BEISER, MOSES : Austrian physician and
philanthropist; born in Lemberg April 7, 1807 ; died
in the same city Oct. 12, 1880. At twenty he en-
tered the University of Vienna, and was graduated
as M.D. in 1835. He began the practise of medicine
as house physician to a noble family in Gwazdziec,
near Kolomea, Galicia.

In 1845 Beiser removed to Kolomea, where his
advice was much sought. He showed his sympathy
with the Liberal movement at that time by offering
his house to exiles from Russo-Poland, and was him-
self a deputy of the Roda Narodwa, or People’s
League. This attracted the attention of the Aus-
trian government, and Beiser was banished from
Kolomea to Zolkiev.

After two years the interdict was removed and
Beiser resumed the practise of medicine in Lemberg.
When in 1855 the cholera broke out, he was chief
physician of the military hospitals. It was in Lem-
berg especially that he became , noted as a philan-
thropist; going among the poor, and giving pecu-
niary assistance in addition to medical advice. His
services soon came to be recognized, and in 1876 he
was made honorary citizen of Lemberg. In 1877
Beiser was unanimously elected to the Municipal
Council ( Gemeinderath ), in 1878 to the Board of
Education (Cultusrath), and later to the Jewish Hos-
pital Council (Israelitische Spitalsrath).
s. M. M. K.

BEIT, ALFRED: South African financier ; born
of a well-known Hamburg Jewish family in 1853.
Beit went to Kimberley during the early days of the
diamond “ rush” (1875), and in company with Barney
Barnato, Cecil Rhodes, H. J. King (Friedlander),
J. C. Wernher, J. B. Robinson, and a few others
gradually obtained control of the diamond-mining
claims in the Central, Dutoitspan, and De Beers
mines; Beit, who had formed a partnership with
Wernher, furnishing the money necessary for the
exploitation of the company. In return for this serv-
ice, Beit was made a life governor of the De Beers
mines. This was the foundation of his ultimate
fortune. Just before the consolidation of the
diamond-mines, gold had been discovered on the
Bezuidenhout farm in the Witwatersrand district,
Transvaal, about thirty -five miles south of Pretoria.
Beit and his associates, realizing the limitations of
Kimberley, sent emissaries into the new gold dis-
tricts to stake out claims wherever there appeared
any trace of gold. So assiduous were these repre-
sentatives that the Kimberley financiers, 90 per cent
of whom were Jews, soon had practical control of
the Rand district.

Beit was the first to see the possibilities of the

649

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Beirut

Bekorot

gold district as the base of stock-company exploita-
tion. With Barnato, Rhodes, King, and others, he
floated company after company, each one heavily
capitalized. Shares rose from no value to absurdly
high prices; and by the summer of 1889 Beit,
through judicious selling, had accumulated an im-
mense fortune.

In that year, however, nature interfered with the
Kimberley speculators; for no rain fell for so long
that the gold-mines were forced to shut down. In
consequence the share market broke, and Beit was
enabled to buy many of the better-class shares at
comparatively low figures. In this manner he in-
creased his fortune considerably.

Another phase of Beit’s life was his connection
with the Jameson raid, about which he testified be-
fore the Parliamentary Commission, and later with
the so-called “Uitlander protest,” which was the
direct cause of the South African war.

Beit is a director of the Rand Mines, Rhodesia
Railways, Becliuaualand Railway Trust, Beira Rail-
way Company, the Consolidated Company, the Bult-
fontein Mines, and a shareholder in almost every
company whose interests center in South Africa.

Bibliography: Harper's Weekly, Jan. 30, 1000; Minneapo-
lis Tribune, April 23, 1901 ; Daily Mail, London, March 30,
April 26, 1901 ; Die Speaker, new series, i. 390 et seq.: W. T.
Stead, The Scandal of the South African Commission,
1S99; British Colonial Office Report, 189!), Correspondence
Relating to the Claim of the South African Republic for
Damages on Account of Dr. Jameson's Raid.

J. E. Ms.

BEJA : City in Portugal that had, next to San-
tarem, the oldest Jewish community in Portugal.
In a foro (charter) granted to the city of Beja toward
the end of the twelfth century, it was enacted that
every Jew passing through the town should pay a
toll of one maravedi (about one-fourth of a cent).
The Jews in Beja, and probably also in other towns
of the country, took the oath on the Torah in the
synagogue in the presence of the rabbi and of an offi-
cial of the municipality. A Christian might pay his
debt to a Jew only in presence of Christians and Jews.

After the expulsion of the Jews from Portugal,
Beja became the dwelling-place of a number of Ma-
ranos. It was the birthplace of the physician and
poet Moses Duarte Rosa Lopez, and of the learned
Abraham of Beja, who, by order of Juan II., trav-
eled to Cairo with Jos. Zapateiro.

Bibliography: For the foro of Be.ia, see Kayserling, Gescli.
der Judcn in Portugal, pp. 340 et seq.

d. M. K.

BEJA, ABRAHAM OF. See Abraham of
Beja.

BERIIN (Hebrew |']Tp3. f’iTpS *1D3. j'JTpD) : A
small town in Palestine, between Jabneli and Lydda.
It is mentioned as the seat of a Talmudical school
founded by R. Joshua ben Hananiali during the reign
of Gamaliel II. (Bab. Sanli. 325; Yer. Hag. i. 75d;
Tosef., Sotah, vii. 9).

Bibliography: Neubauer, La Gcographie du Talmud, p. 81.
G. I. BR.

BEKKAYAM, MEIR. See Bikayim.
BEKOR SHOR, JOSEPH BEN NATHAN.

See Joseph ben Nathan Bekor Shor.

BEKOR SHOR, SAADIA: Alleged son of
Joseph Bekor Shor, and reputed author of a fre-

quently published poem on the number of letters in
the Bible. This poem is mentioned in a Masoretic
work written in the fourteenth century in southern
Arabia, and is there attributed to the gaon Saadia b.
Joseph (Derenbourg, “Manuel du Lccteur,” p.
139). Shem-Tob b. Gaon, a cabalistic writer of the
fourteenth century, also speaks of the gaon Saadia as
its author (Munk, “Notice sur Aboulwalid,” p. 42).
The same assertion is made by Elias Levita in the
appendix to his “Masoret ha-Masoret” (ed. Gins-
burg, p. 289). In a work which appeared in 1629-
31 (“Ta’alumot Hokmali,” by Samuel Aschkenasi),
Saadia b. Bekor Shor is for the first time mentioned
as the author of the poem, instead of Saadia b. Jo-
seph. From this, Zunz (“Z. G.” p. 75) and Dukes
(“Beitrage,” ii. 75) concluded that Saadia, the au-
thor of the Masoretic poem, was the son of Bekor
Shor, the well-known exegete. Steinschneider also
adopts this theory (“Cat. Bodl.” col. 2225). In no
other place, however, is there found the slightest
trace of the existence of a Saadia ben Joseph Bekor
Shor. On the other hand, there is no tenable argu-
ment against the tradition that the gaon Saadia b.
Joseph was the author of the poem. It would be
best, therefore, to strike “Saadia b. Joseph Bekor
Shor” from the list of Jewish authors (compare
Derenbourg, “Manuel du Lecteur,” pp. 234-241).

L. G. W. B.

BEKOROT (lTn)33, in Biblical Hebrew “Beko-
rim,” “the first-born”): Name of the fourth treatise
— according to the order of the Mislinah — of Seder
Kodashim (“ Holy Things ”). The law concerning
the first-born is repeated in the Pentateuch several
times (Ex. xiii. 2, 11-15; xxxiv. 19-20; Num. xviii.
15-18; Deut. xv. 19-23). The first-born of man is
redeemed by giving five shekels of silver (15s., ac-
cording to London usage; compare Zunz, “Z. G.”
pp. 535 et seq.) to a priest; the first-born of clean cat-
tle, if a male, was given to the priest, who sacrificed
it, if it was without blemish, or killed it in the ordi-
nary way, if it had any blemish; the first-born of
unclean cattle — of an ass — was redeemed by a lamb
or killed. The treatise is divided into nine chapters,
seven of which treat of the first-born. These nine
chapters are divided as follows: Chap.

The i. on the first-born of an ass. Chap-

Mishnah. ters ii.-vi. on the first-born of clean
cattle; namely, on cases of exemption
through partnership with a non-Israelite (ii.); on
cases of doubt whether an animal is first-born or not
(iii.); on first-born cattle having a blemish (iv„); on
cases of blemishes wilfully caused by the owner (v.) ;
a list of blemishes (vi.). Chapter vii. treats of the first-
born son and regulations for his redemption. Chap-
ter viii. treats of blemishes that disqualify a priest
for the sacrificial service; and chap. ix. contains
the regulations concerning the tithe of the cattle
(“ ma'aser behemah”)— a subject which has many
things in common with the “first-born” (see Zeba-
him v. 8).

Besides the two chapters vii. and ix., there are a
few digressions in the treatise : i. 7 speaks of the op-
tion between redeeming the first-born of an ass and
killing it, and recommends the former course; a
few parallels are introduced of option between two

Bekorot

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650

courses, of which one is recommended. The exam-
ination of the blemishes of the lirst-born animal had
to be done gratis (iv. 5, 6), but an exception is made
in favor of a professional veterinary surgeon, as Ila
(or Ayla ; in Tosef., Bek. iv. 11, Amlah). In the same
chapter another veterinary authority is named, —
Theodos, the physician (iv. 4).

To take payment for giving a decision in religious
matters was considered unlawful and it rendered the
decision invalid (iv. 6). When unqualified persons
caused loss through their decision, they had to com-
pensate for the loss; not so in the case of qualified
persons (iv. 4). Transfer of property is generally
reversed in the year of Jubilee; but what the first-
born obtains by his birthright remains his forever.
Parallel cases are given in viii. 10.

In the Tosef ta the treatise Bekorot has likewise
the fourth place, and is divided into seven chapters.

Chap. i. corresponds to the first cliap-
The ter of theMishnah; chap. ii. toii.-iii. ;

Tosefta. chap. iii. to iv.-v. ; chap. iv. to vi. ;

chap. v. to vii. ; chap. vi. to viii. ; chap,
vii. to ix. The Tosefta differs greatly from the Misli-
nah in the enumeration of the blemishes and in their
names.

The Palestine Talmud does not include Bekorot,
but the Babylonian Gemara has, in
The addition to the full discussion of the

Gemara. laws mentioned in the Mishnah, the
following interesting digressions:

Rabbi Johanan and Resh Lakisli discuss the
question whether those first-born of the cattle that
were born in the wilderness had to be treated as
animals sanctified to the Lord. R. Johanan an-
swers in the affirmative ; his opponent in the neg-
ative (p. 4 b, et seq.).

In the course of discussions on physiological
conditions of pregnancy in animals, the story is
told how Ciesar challenged Rabbi Joshua, son of
Hananiali, to show his superior wisdom and skill in
a discussion with the old men of Be-Atliuna (Athens,
or an Athenian school). He did so, and completely
defeated his opponents (p. 8b).

Teaching, judging, giving evidence, etc., must
be done gratis; and if a person can not find a
teacher that would teach him gratis, he is recom-
mended to act in accordance with Prov. xxiii. 23,
“ Buy truth ” ; but as regards teaching others he is
warned, “and do not sell” (p. 29a).

Regulations as to the admission of new members
to the Society of Haberim — persons who undertake
to observe strictly the laws concerning clean and
unclean (p. 306).

In the Babylonian Talmud the treatise has the
third place in the Seder.

Bibliography: Manrtelstamm, Hnrce Talmudicas , i.; Unhid

Jos. b. Hananiah, Berlin ; Z. Frankel, Hoclegetica in Miscfi-

nam , etc., 1859; Nahmanides, HiUcot Bekorot wc-Hallah.

Warsaw, i8H3: Maimonides, Yad hct-Hazalsah, ix.; Kor-

banot , xi.; Slmlhan ‘ Aruk , Yoreh DeLah, 305-321.

J. sr. M. F.

BEL. See Ba'al.

BEL AND THE DRAGON : An Apocryphal
tract, placed, in the Septuagint and Tlieodotion,
among the additions to the Book of Daniel (see
Apocrypha). It consists of two separate stories:
one relating to Bel; the other, to the Dragon. In

the former, Daniel, by a clever device, exposes the
trick by which the priests of Bel made it appear that
the idol consumed the food and drink set before it.
In the latter, Daniel slays the Dragon-god by putting
into its mouth cakes made of pitch, fat, and hair,
after eating which it bursts asunder. Daniel is
thereupon cast into a den of lions, but remains un-
harmed by the beasts, and is fed by the prophet
Habakkuk, who is miraculously brought from Judea
for that purpose by an angel.

The purpose of the stories is to ridicule idol-wor-
ship, and to extol the power of God, who preserves
His faithful servants in all perils. The material is
drawn from current ideas and legends. Bel was the
central figure of the Babylonian idola-
Origin. try (Isa. xlvi. 1 ; Jer. li. 44), and the
Exile the type of heroic struggle. The
myth of the contest between God and the Dragon
(Tannin, Rahab, Leviathan) occurs throughout the
old post-exilic literature (Gunkel, “ Schbpfung und
Chaos”); and the way in which Daniel destroys the
Dragon is similar to that in which Marduk destroys
Tiamat (Delitzscli, “ Das Babylonische Weltscliop-
fungsepos”; compare Noldeke, “ Gescliiclite des Ar-
tachsir i Papakan,” 1879, p. 55). Marduk drives a
storm-wind into the dragon and thus rends it
asunder; and Marshall (in Hastings’ “Dictionary of
the Bible ”) suggests that the “ pitch ” of the Greek
(Aramean, NDff) may have come from an original
term for “storm-wind” (Aramean, xsyf).

How the prophet Habakkuk came to be introduced
into the story is hardly possible to explain (see Ha-
bakkuk). The title to the Septuagint text reads;
“From the prophecy of Habakkuk, the son of Jesus
[Joshua], of the tribe of Levi.” There was in exist-
ence, probably, a work ascribed to Habakkuk; but
of its nature nothing is known. Legends relating
to Daniel circulated, doubtless, in a great variety of
forms, and were constantly modified by scribes.
From such legends there are independent selections
in Daniel and Bel and the Dragon. The tone and
contents of the latter work show that it was not
taken from Daniel.

The Greek work exists in two recensions, (1) that
of the Septuagint and (2) that of Tlieodotion, both
of which are given, with various readings, in
Swete’s “Old Testament in Greek.”
Greek and The two, though substantially iden-
Aramaic tical, differ in a number of details.

Texts. Thus, in the Septuagint, besides the
reference to a prophecy of Habakkuk,
Daniel is called a priest, the son of Ilabal, and is in-
troduced as a person previously unknown ; while
the name of the king of Babylon, whose friend he
was, is not given. In Tlieodotion the king is Cyrus,
who is said to be the successor of Astyages; Daniel
is not called a priest; and nothing is said of a proph-
ecy of Habakkuk. The style of the Septuagint is
simpler and more Hebraic; Tlieodotion is fuller,
more dramatic, and more polished. It may be in
part a revision of the Septuagint; but it appears
also to follow other authorities, or to be based on a
different version of the stories from that given in the
Septuagint. The question arises whether the Greek
recensions are derived from other written sources;
that is, whether the stories were originally com-

651

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Belais

posed in Aramaic. Aramaic forms of the legends
do, in fact, exist. Raymund Martini (1250), in his
“ Pugio Fidei ” (at the end of the book), cites from a
Midrash on Genesis a part of what is contained in
the Greek text. His accuracy has been called in
question, but Neubauer (in his “Tobit”) gives, from
a manuscript in the Bodleian Library (the Midrash
Rabba de liabba) a Syriac text with which that of
Martini is identical, and a parallel extract from the
Bereshit Rabbati.

From another manuscript in the same library, M.
Gaster has published a text of the Dragon story
that confirms the correctness of Martini’s quotation.
The Aramaic text of this manuscript is printed in
the “Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Arche-
ology” for November and December, 1894; and the
English translation of a long paraphrase is given by
Gaster in his “ Chronicles of Jerahmeel,” 1899. In
the Introduction to the latter work, Gaster discusses
the relations of “Jerahmeel” to “ Yosippon,” “Sefer
lia-Yasliar,” and the “Antiquities” of Pseudo-Philo.
The Jerahmeel Aramaic text is nearer to Tlieodotion
than to the Septuagint; though it sometimes accords
with the latter or with the I atin against other forms,
and sometimes differs from all others. But in the
present state of knowledge it seems better to reserve
opinion as to its antiquity. Gaster thinks it is the
text after which Theodotion’s version was revised,
and Marshall regards it as ancient. The occurrence
of the stories in the Midrasli makes it probable that
there w as an Aramaic original; but it is not clear
that this is preserved in the texts cited. The fact
that the Jerahmeel text agrees here and there with
some one of the ancient versions does not prove its
originality; for in the course of centuries various
readings may have crept into it from sources un-
known; thus it has, in common with “ Yosippon,”
the statement that Daniel put iron combs into the
•cakes that he gave the Dragon — a natural embellish-
ment of the story. It is possible that some diver-
gent readings in the two Greek recensions may be
•explained as the result of the misunderstanding or
misreading of Aramaic terms. A few cases of this
sort are suggested by Marshall, and they undoubt-
edly go to show originality in the Aramaic text ;
but they are neither clear enough nor numerous
enough to be decisive.

The booklet appears to have been regarded in
Alexandria as belonging in the class of sacred wri-
tings; but it was never so regarded by
Canonicity. the Palestinian Jewish leaders. It is
quoted as the work of the prophet
Daniel by Tertullian and other early Christian wri-
ters, and its claim to canonicity is defended by Ori-
gen (“Epistola ad Africanum”); it wTas not, how-
ever, formally accepted as canonical by the early
Church. In modern times it has been included
.among the canonical books by the Roman and the
Greek churches, and excluded by Protestants.

Bibliography : O. F. Fritzsclie, Kurzgefasstes Exegetisehes
Handbuch zu den Apncryphen dcs Ait. Testaments , 1851 ;
E. Reuss. La Bible , 1879; idem, Das Alte Testament. Ein-
gcleitet and Erlliutert, Brunswick, 1894; E. C. Bissell, Apoc-
rypha of the Old Testament, ; C. .1. Ball, in H. Ware’s
Apocrypha, 1873-88 ; E. Schiirer, History of the Jewish
People, etc., Eng. transl., 1891 ; idem, in Herzog-Hauck,
Real-En cyklopiiii ie, i. 839 et seq. ; E. Kautzsch, Die Apokry-
phen nnd Pseudepigraphen des Alien Testaments, 1898, i.
178, 189-193 ; Delitzsch, De Habacuci Prophetce Vita Atqve.

TEtate, 1843; Zunz, Die Gottesdienst lichen Vortrtlge, 2d ed„

1893; A. Neubauer, 27ie Book of Tobit, 1878. The Greek

text is given by Fritzsehe ( Libri Vet. Test. Pseudepigraphi

Selecti) and Swete; the Syriac by Walton, Lagarde, and Neu-
bauer. See also Gaster’s works mentioned above.

BELA: 1. An early king of Edom, having his
royal seat at Dinhabah; son of Beor (Gen. xxxvi.
32, 33; I Cliron. i. 43, 44). The name “Dinhabah”
occurs in Palmyrene, Syria, and in Babylonia (Dill-
mann, “Genesis,” ad loc.); and, since it has not been
encountered in Edom, the conclusion has been drawn
by critics that Bela was a foreigner who conquered
Edom while retaining his own capital as the seat of
government. Targum Yerushalmi calls him “Ba-
laam ben Beor”; while the Septuagint reads “ Ba-
lak.” But while the close resemblance of “ Bela ” to
“ Balaam ” is rather curious, there is no real reason
for regarding the two personages as identical.

2. A son of Benjamin (Gen. xlvi. 21, A. V.,
where the name is spelled “Belah”; Num. xxvi.
38; I Chron. vii. 6). The names of his children vary
in the different accounts.

3. A Reubenite, son of Azaz, living in Aroer and
as far as “the entering in of the wilderness from the
Euphrates” (I Chron. v. 8).

4. One of the five cities attacked by the in-
vading army under Amrapliel, Hammurabi (Gen.
xiv. 2). In the two passages where “Bela” occurs
a gloss adds “it is Zoar” (Gen. xiv. 2, 8), which es-
tablishes its identity with that city. Its location
was probably at the southern end of the Dead Sea.
In Gen. R. xlii. 5 the name “Bela” is fancifully as-
sociated with the Hebrew stem “ bala ” (to swallow
up), and explained as due to the circumstance that
“her citizens were swallowed up,” with reference,
no doubt, to the convulsion which befell Sodom.

j. jr. G. B. L.

BELAIS (&S”j£o), ABRAHAM BEN SHA-
LOM : Rabbi and poet ; born in Tunis 18th of Ah,
1773 ; died in London 1853. An eccentric personality,
he had a curious career. First rabbi in Tunis and
treasurer to the Bey, being pressed by his creditors,
he left his home and went to Jerusalem. In 1817 he,
who had hospitably received at his home in Tunis
many messengers from Palestine, made a trip through
Europe to collect alms for himself. Wherever he
went he received valuable gifts. King Victor Em-
manuel I., at an audience in Turin, presented him
with 1,000 francs. According to the “Gazette of
the Netherlands,” Oct. 1, 1827, he was a candidate
for the rabbinate of the Portuguese synagogue of
Amsterdam; and had papers of recommendation
from several Italian ministers, bishops, and arch-
bishops. In France, Belais was encouraged by the
ministers of Charles X., and especially by the Vi-
comte de Larochefoucauld, director-general of fine
arts: he even received a Hebrew letter from the
duke of Sussex. He was rabbi of the congregation
of Nice for some years; but from 1840 to 1853 was
attached to the yesliibah connected with the Span-
ish and Portuguese congregation at Bevis Marks,
London.

The works of Belais arc nearly all in Hebrew, and
treat of morals and exegesis. The principal ones
are: (1) a collection of notes on the Bible and Tal-

Belais

Belgium

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

652

mud, entitled, “Sefer Tebuot Yekeb,” after Jacob
Carinona Bechor, at whose expense it was printed,
Leghorn, 1820; (2) “Sefer Be’er Lahai Ro’i” in
Hebrew, Italian, and French, Turin, 1826; (3) “Yad
Abishalom,” a commentary on the “Orah Hayyim,”
Leghorn, 1829; (4) “Petal.i lia-Bayit,” a commentary
upon “Tur Orah Hayyim,” together with answers
in reference to congregational questions in London,
and “Peri Ez Hayyim,” seven funeral orations de-
livered in Mogador, Tunis, London, and Leghorn,
1846; (5) “ ‘Afarot Tebel ” (The Dustof the World),
a commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes, in He-
brew and English, London, 1850. Besides these
books Belais composed occasional poems: an epi-

Abraham ben Shalom Belais.

(From Belais, “ ‘Afarot Tebel.”)

thalamium on the marriage of Baron de Rothschild,
in Hebrew and English (Paris, 1824) ; an ode in honor
of Louis XVIII., in Hebrew and French (Paris,
1824); an ode in honor of George IV., in Hebrew
and French (Paris, 1824) ; a funeral ode on the deaths
of the three monarchs Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia,
Louis XVIII. of France, and Ferdinand of Naples,
Nice, 1825; an ode and Hebrew prayer translated
into French by L. Wogue, 1835; Hebrew ode trans-
lated into French, followed by the Eighteenth Psalm,
in honor of Louis Philippe, king of France, the duke
of Nemours, the duke of Joinville, and the French
army, on the capture of Constantine in Algeria (Paris,
1837).

Bibliography : Caz£s, Antes Bibliograph iques sur la Litter-

ature Juive-Tunisien ne, pp. 20 et seq.; Zedner, Cat. Hebr.

Books Brit. Steinschneider, in Hebr. Bihl. xx. 61 ;

Jewish Chronicle , Sept. 2, 1853.

j. M. K.— J. W.

BELASCO, ABRAHAM (commonly called
Aby Belasco) : English pugilist; born in Lou-
don, England, April 9, 1797 ; died there. Belasco
entered the prize-ring in 1817, when he defeated
Cribb’s “ Coal-Heaver,” a pugilist patronized by Tom
Cribb, champion of England (1805-20). During that
year he fought four other battles, in two of which
he was defeated. In the first of these four — that
took place at Woolwich, Kent — he met and defeated

Josh Hudson after a two hours’ battle. His next
encounter — with Jack Payne — took place at Moulsey
Heath, Surrey, April 3. It terminated in the six-
teenth round. On July 23, at the same place, Be-
lasco was defeated by Tom Reynolds, a potato-sales-
man, after fighting one hour and twenty minutes.
He was again defeated — this time by Jack Randall
— at Shepperton Range, Surrey, Sept. 30, in seven
rounds. Soon thereafter Belasco accompanied Dan-
iel Mendoza on an exhibition tour.

He returned to the ring at Rickmansworth, June
10, 1818, and was defeated in nine rounds by Cyrus
Davis, a butcher’s apprentice. Later in the year he
defeated the Winclicomb champion in twelve min-
utes on the race-course at Cheltenham, Gloucester-
shire ; and Joe Townshend in twenty-four minutes
at Coventry, Warwick, on Dec. 9. Belasco was
matched against Phil. Sampson, Feb. 22, 1819, at
Potter’s street, Essex ; but the fight terminated in a
wrangle, and the stakes were awarded to Belasco.

On three other occasions he was matched against
Sampson ; and met and fought him in the first of
these in London, Feb. 29, 1820, when, after nine
rounds, the contestants were separated. Both the
second fight — which occurred at the Tennis Court
in Windmill street, London, on Dec. 21 — and the
third — Aug. 25, 1823, fought on Crawley Downs in
Sussex — ended in the defeat of Belasco. Next Be-
lasco was matched against Pat Halton, an Irishman.
This encounter, which took place April 8, 1823, on
Harpenden Common near St. Albans, Herts, was in-
terrupted on a foul claimed against Belasco, who, it
was said, had hit his opponent in the face with his
knee as the latter went down hi the eleventh round.

Not desiring to retire from the ring defeated, Be-
lasco fought George Weston, May 25, 1824. Miles
describes this encounter as a burlesque in which
Weston was knocked all over the ring, surrendering
after three rounds.

Shortly thereafter, Belasco retired from the prize-
ring and opened a gambling-house. Step by step
he sank lower in the social scale until, continually
brought into conflict with the officers of the law, he
lost all his friends, and died in almost abject poverty.

Bibliography : Miles, Pugilistica, vols. i. and ii.; Egan,

Boxiana ; Belasco’s portrait was painted by Sharpello and

engraved by Cooper.

j. F. H. V.

BELASCO, DAVID : American dramatist ; born
in San Francisco in 1858 of English parents. He is
of the same family as the English actor known
on the stage as David James. Belasco began his
dramatic work in early youth. His boyhood was
passed in Vancouver, B. C., under the tutelage of a
Catholic priest, and he was afterward graduated at
Lincoln College, San Francisco, California. In 1878
he became stage-manager of the Baldwin Theater,
San Francisco, and at various times held the same
position at the Metropolitan Theater, the Broad
Street Theater, and the Grand Opera House in that
city. During this period he was also the stage-
director of many important dramatic companies.
While perfecting himself in stage-management, he
was at work writing and adjusting plays and dram-
atizing novels.

His first play, given at Mozart Hall in San Fran-

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Belgium

cisco in 1872, was called “Jim Black; or, The Regu-
lators’ Revenge.” In 1880 Belasco went to New
York to take charge of two productions at the Madi-
son Square Theater; and it was there that he made
his first pronounced success as a dramatic author.
This was achieved in 1884 with “May Blossom,” the
most famous of the Madison Square plays of that
period. When Daniel Frohman left the Madison
Square Theater to take charge of the Lyceum Thea-
ter in 1885, Belasco went with him and became di-
rector of the productions
there. Forming a lit-
erary partnership with
Henry C. de Mille, their
first joint work was “ The
Wife.” Twootliercollab-
orations, “The Charity
Ball ” and “ Lord Chum-
ley,” followed, in which
E. H. Sothern gained his
first triumph as a star.
The three plays were
produced at the Lyceum.
Then Belasco and De
Mille wrote and pro-
d u c e d “Men and
Women” for Charles
Frohman at Proctor’s
Theater, Twenty-third
street. De Mille having died, Belasco, in collabo-
ration with Franklin Fyles, wrote “ The Girl I Left
Behind Me.” In 1891 his English version of “ Miss
Helyett ” was produced. Four years later he
brought out “ The Heart of Maryland.” During the
last decade Mr. Belasco has taken rank at the head
of American dramatic authors, and has written and
produced “Zaza,” “Madame Butterfly,” “La Belle
Russe,” “Valerie,” and, with James A. Herne,
“Hearts of Oak” and “Du Barry.”

a. ' E. Ms.— H. Ve.

BELASCO, DAVID. See James, David.

BELASCO, ISRAEL: English pugilist; born
in London in 1800; a brother of the better-known
Abraham or “ Aby ” Belasco. His first appearance
in the prize-ring was on July 23, 1817, at Moulsey
Heath, England, where after a battle of thirty
rounds he was defeated by Ned Brown, commonly
known as the “Sprig of Myrtle.” In his second en-
counter, which was with Kit Barber at Tarbury
Common, Sept. 15, 1819, Belasco was more fortu-
nate. At the end of forty-one rounds Belasco was
declared the winner of the £50 staked by his oppo-
nent. Two years later (Oct. 30, 1821) he defeated
Saunders iu fourteen rounds at Moulsey Heath, but
on March 19, 1823, at the same place, matched
against A. Matthewson for £25 a side, he was de-
feated in forty -four rounds.

Bibliography : T7ie American Jews' Annual.

J. F. H. V.

BELFAST : Chief town of the county of An-
trim, province of Ulster, Ireland. The Jewish
community — a comparatively prosperous one — num-
bering some 400 or 500 souls, is of recent date; its
foundation being due to M. A. Jaffe, who arrived
there in 1851. A synagogue was established in 1870 ;

and the Revs. J. Cliotzner and J. E. Myers have suc-
cessively filled the post of minister. Of recent years
a number of Russian Jews have settled in the place ;
and it has been found necessary to establish a board
of guardians (1893), and a Hebrew ladies’ foreign
benevolent society (1896), while iu 1898 a Hebrew
national school was founded for the training of their
children.

Sir Otto Jaffe was mayor of Belfast in 1899.
Bibliography : Jacobs, Jewish Year Book, 1900-1, pp. 104-
105’ J.

BELGIUM : One of the smaller states of western
Europe. Under the Romans it formed one of the six
provinces of ancient Gaul and bore the name “Gallia
Belgica” (Gibbon, “Decline and Fall,” vol. i. cli. i).

There are no authentic records of the date of the
earliest immigration of Jews to Belgium. Accord-
ing to a widely spread legend, their first settlement
in this rich and fertile country occurred as early as
the second century. Jewish merchants are said to
have carried on at that time a considerable commer-
cial intercourse between different parts of Asia Minor
and the central countries of Europe. They followed
the Roman legions in their path of conquest. In the
wars of Vespasian and Titus a considerable num-
ber of Jewish captives found their way either will-
ingly or unwillingly to Gaul and the Iberian penin-
sula. The defeat of Bar Kokba completed the
dispersion of the Jews in the West;
Early and the number of Jewish settlements
Settlement, in Gaul and Spain increased. In the
fourth century their existence is his-
torically attested. The original settlements were iu
the immediate vicinity of the Roman military posts,
which formed a chain of communications extending
all the way to Britain. Tongres and Tournai, in
actual Belgian territory, are mentioned among the
first places where Jews settled. They were also es-
tablished in the chief seats of the provinces. At
that period they appear to have enjoyed a consider-
able degree of freedom and prosperity. They were
admitted to rights of citizenship; the tribunals
treated them on a footing of equality with other
citizens, and they shared and participated in the
common duties and benefits of the state.

The irruption of the Vandals did not affect, to any
appreciable degree, the position of the Jews. They
lived on in a state of complete tranquillity, undis-
turbed by adverse religious enactments and unhin-
dered by commercial restrictions. The Frankish
kingdom, founded by Clovis (486), included the
whole of Belgium and embraced all the country be-
yond the Somme, and between the Meuse and the
sea. The fortunes of the Belgian Jews were, there-
fore, for some centuries interwoven with those of
their brethren in France. Like their
Under sister communities, they were condi-
Frankish tioned by the political and religious
Rulers. movements of the time. In general
their state was exceedingly prosper-
ous. They engaged in commerce, agriculture, and
all forms of industry ; and their argosies were seen
in the rivers and on the seas. Nor was the profes-
sion of arms denied them ; for they took a prominent
part at the siege of Arles (508) in the war between
Clovis and the general of Theodoric. Their condi-

David Belasco.

Belgium

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

654

tion changed but little till Cliilperic (561-584), whose
seat was at Soissons, conceived the idea of forcing
his Jewish subjects to embrace Christianity. This
zeal of a prince, whom Gregory of Tours designated
as "‘the Nero of the Franks,” met with little success.
The Jews, despite these efforts, remained faithful to
the religion of their fathers.

Under the early Carlovingians the Jews likewise
enjoyed tranquillity. They were treated with hu-
manity, and the favor accorded them by Pepin (751-
768) attracted a vast number to his dominions. Their
power and influence increased still more during the
reigns of Charlemagne (768-814) and Louis le Debon-
naire (814-840). Nor was their condition less pros-
perous under Charles the Bald (843-877). Between
them and the Christians an almost perfect equality
reigned.

This period of wise toleration and protection
ceased, however, with the rise of the feudal regime.
On the dismemberment of the empire of the Franks,
Belgium was partitioned into separate counties,
duchies, and independent cities, in each of which a
despotic sovereignty without regard
The Feudal to law or humanity prevailed. The

Regime. Jews were handed over to the caprices
of rulers who knew no other law but
their passions. They were soon reduced to a de-
plorable condition. Restrictions without number
were placed upon them, and they were robbed, de-
spoiled, and massacred on every occasion and oppor-
tunity. The chronicles of the times abound with
many tales of arbitrary and cruel deeds. Melart, in
his history of Huy, relates how Ogier, count of Huy,
on his return from the war waged by Otho the Great
against Louis d’Outremer, found among his prison-
ers a rich Jew, upon whom he fastened an absurd
charge of having secretly favored the invasion of the
Normans. He was first tortured and then put to
death, all his property being confiscated — a measure
which was immediately followed by the expulsion
of all the Jews from Liege and its province. It was
always the wealth of these unfortunates that consti-
tuted their sole crime. With singular naivete, Ever-
ard Kints (“ Helices du Pays de Liege ”) observes that
the justice and piety of this prince rose superior on
this occasion to his political interests, for, as he after-
ward discovered, the whole commerce of the coun-
try, which had formerly been carried on by the
Jews, received its death-blow on their expulsion.
The clergy, too, who looked upon them as deicides,
threw the weight of their influence against them.
In 1160 Gauthier de Castillon, provost of the chapter
of Tournai, wrote a diatribe in three books against
the Jews, which excited the populace by its calum-
nies and imputations. It must, however, be said
that not all the Belgian clergy were animated by a
similar spirit of intolerance. On the contrary, many
prelates were favorably inclined to the Jews, among
others Wazon, bishop of Liege, who treated them
kindly, and was on terms of great friendship with
the Jewish physician of Henry III.

The epoch commencing with the thirteenth cen-
tury was more favorable to the Jew's of Belgium.
They were subjected to less harsh and arbitrary
treatment, and in the law's affecting them a spirit of
fair discrimination appears to have been adopted.

In a decree of Henry III. issued at Louvain, Febru-
ary, 1260, expelling the Jewish usurers, a distinction
is drawn in favor of those engaged in honest trades,
who were permitted to remain. This just distinc-
tion was not often made in those days; and more
than once the whole of a Jewish population wras.

held responsible for the crime of an
Prosperity individual. Under the shadow of this.

Under protection the Belgian Jews recovered
Henry III. somewhat their former prosperity.

Commerce again flourished among
them ; and they engaged particularly in the study
and practise of medicine. But the right to pursue
these avocations had to be dearly purchased ; and
often the fruits of their industry became the prey
of the exchequer.

After the death of Henry III. of Brabant (1261)
his widow, Alix, upon whom the government de-
volved, finding herself in need of money, consulted
the famous Dominican, Thomas Aquinas, on the
question whether she could, without violation of
conscience, draw upon her Jewish subjects for extra
taxation, and, if need be, confiscate their goods. In
itself this letter of the duchess is a proof that some
sentiment of equity and humanity prevailed for
the Jews of Brabant, and that they were under the
shadow of some legal protection. The answer of
Thomas Aquinas is a fine example of mingled casu-
istry and courtier- like subservience struggling against
the better sentiment of religion. He argues that
since much of the worldly possessions of the Jews
represented the gains of usury, it would not be un-
lawful to deprive them of it: but he pleads that they
should not be entirely despoiled ; sufficient should
be left to enable them to live. How the duchess
acted in this matter is not known ; but the Jew's
continued to reside and traffic in Brabant during the
long and glorious reign of her son, John I. At that
time flourishing Jewish communities existed not
only at Brussels, but at Mechlin, Antwerp, Bruges,
Ghent, Binche, Peronne, Ath, Tournai, Mons, Liege,
Louvain, etc. A considerable accession to their num-
bers was made at the commencement of the four-
teenth century, when Philippe le Bel expelled the
Jews from France. William, count of Hainault,
Vauthier of Enghien, and John II. of Brabant hospi-
tably received them. The last-named prince accord-
ed them special privileges and allow'ed them to estab-
lish banks for public credit. This charter was,
however, revoked in 1307, Pope Clement Y. absolv-
ing the prince from the oath which he took to grant
this privilege in perpetuity. It is likely that the
cancelation of the bank charter was due to a fresh
influx of Jew's in 1306, which must have disturbed
the economic equilibrium, for the duke remained
their stanch protector till his death.

In 1321 the Jews were again expelled from France,
and for a second time sought refuge within the bor-
ders of Belgium. The newcomers wrere
Resettle- allowed to settle in Mons, where a dis-
ment in trict was assigned to them for resi-
Belgium. dence. They were permitted the free
exercise of their religion and the right
to pursue their avocations. Moreover, William re-
fused to countenance an effort that w'as made to
convert them.

655

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Belgium

In 1337 William II. succeeded to the sovereignty
of the state of Hainault. Following the example of
his father, he confirmed the Jews in their privileges.
These, however, had a considerable money value for
the state. A document is extant (see below), dated
Valenciennes, 1337, which grants to thirty Jews for
five years a safe-conduct (“sauf-conduit”) for a
money charge of 2,000 florins. In the neighboring
duchy of Brabant the Jews were no less fortunate
under John III., who inherited all his father’s good-
will for them. Unhappily, the Jews of Belgium at
this time were, like their brethren all over Europe,
persecuted on charges of having desecrated the host,
of having killed infants, and of having poisoned
wells. The storm that swept over the Jews of Bel
gium annihilated them; and so completely was the
work of destruction done that scarcely a trace of
their existence has remained. A series of massacres
appears to have taken place during a period of
twenty years, which finally culminated

Brussels in the Brussels massacre of 1370. In
Massacre the Metz Memorbuch, Brabant is men-

of 1370. tioned as one of the lands in which
Jewssufferedin 1349 (“ Monatsschrift,”
xiii. 36; Salfeld, “Martyrologium,” pp. 270, 286).
The particulars of these tragedies are involved in a
good deal of obscurity. The following narrative in
connection with the Black Plague is taken from Li
Muisis, a contemporary historian (“Chronique Ma-
nuscrite de la Bibliotlifique de Bourgogne,” No. 13,-
076; see Carmoly, “Revue Orientale,” 1841, p. 169):

“In the city of Brussels, in the duchy of Brabant, where the
duke had his seat, a large number of Jews resided, at the head
of whom was a very rich man, said to be the treasurer of John
III. The former was on very friendly terms with the duke.
When the Flagellants arrived, carrying red crosses wherewith
to inflame the people against the Jews, the treasurer hastened
to the duke and entreated his protection. The latter assured
him that no ill would befall them. But the people, already ex-
cited by the denunciations of the Flagellants, approached the
duke’s eldest son, demanding that they should be allowed to
put all the Jews to death, and obtained from him a promise that
he would intercede with his father, the duke, that no punish-
ment should follow their action. They thereupon rushed with
fierce cries to the. Jewish quarter, destroyed the houses of the
Jews, dragged their unfortunate victims through the streets,
and without distinction of age or sex massacred them. Five
hundred, it is said, perished on this occasion. Nor was the
duke’s treasurer spared. Taken alive and put to the torture,
he was made to confess that he was engaged in the plots to
poison the wells and to defile the consecrated host. He was
burned alive. Similar butcheries occurred in other towns in
the duchy, more particularly at Louvain, where the Jews were
all delivered to the flames (1349 and 1350).”

Whether this narrative refers to a separate event,
or is identical with the massacre of the Jews at
Brussels on May 22, 1370, is open to doubt. The de-
tails of both are strangely similar. In each case the
number of Jews that perished is given at 500. The
principal Jew that figures in both narratives is the
banker of the duke. The charges against the Jews
are similar, and the mode of death is the same in
both accounts. There can, however, be no doubt of
the massacre at Brussels on May 22, 1370. The
event has been locally signalized as the miracle of
St. Gudule, and was commemorated by a periodical
fete-day. Eighteen tableaux, representative of the
various incidents of the piercing of the host and of
the miracle of the blood spurting forth, were painted
for the church, and are to this day an evidence of

the blind fanaticism which wrought such dreadful
havoc among innocent men, women, and children.
But one solitary document in reference to this dread-
ful catastrophe has been unearthed in the treasury
of Brabant. It is a receipt signed by Godefroi de
la Tour, receiver-general of Brabant, who therein
acknowledges the payment of the an-
Brabant nual tax imposed on Jews living in
Tax Brabant. This is, in all probability,
in 1370. a page, or a fragment, of a collection
of similar receipts. The following is
a translation (see Carmoly, “ Revue Orientale,” 1841,
p. 172):

“ Received from the Jews who this year resided in Brabant,
payment of their annual tribute and also of goods belonging to
them received after they had been burned on Ascension Day,
1370. Accomplices in the crime of piercing the host: first,
Wynand de Pondey, 14 francs; Arnold the Jew, 14 francs;
Medey de Sallyn, 14 francs and 11 sheep : Medey Willacs, 22
francs; Simon Claere, 14 francs; Mestam, Joseph Wazoel, and
Leonec, nothing, because they had left and were not residing
this year at Brussels ; the same of Wynandus the Physician, for
he had not made payment of his tribute this year, although he
resided at Brussels.”

No other references to this massacre have come to
light, either in the national archives or in the annals
of local historians. “ The neglect of the historians
of that century,” says Foppens, in Ins “ History of the
City of Brussels,” “has been the cause why neither
the edict nor the names of these sacrilegious Jews
nor their sentences have been preserved.”

On the Jewish side, the Memorbuch of Mayence
commemorates the Jewish martyrs of Brabant. An
elegy written in Hebrew in honor of the martyrs lias-
been published by Carmoly, who lias translated it
into French (“Revue Orientale,” 1841, p. 172). The
Memorbuch of Pfersee, near Munich, recalls the mar-
tyred Jews of Flanders (pU^l), and so does Joseph
lia-Kohen (“ ‘Emek lia-Baka,” p. 55). “The Jews
of nniN'D,” says the latter, “were accused of pro-
faning the host and adjudged to die. Many, how-
ever, saved themselves by conversion ; and their de-
scendants are still to be found numerously in that
country.”

Few records have survived respecting the Jews
who resided in the Middle Ages in the various states
which comprised the Catholic portion
Arche- of the Pays-Bas and of the Liege coun-
ology and try, the greater part of which was for-
An- merly the territory of Belgium and
tiquities. of the grand duchy of Luxemburg.

Nearly all that is known has been pub-
lished by Baron de Reiffenberg, Carmoly, and Emile
Ouverleaux. Koenen (“ Geschiedenis der Joden in
Nederland ”) lias written of the middle countries of
the Pays-Bas, and Felix Hachez of the Jews of Mons
and of Hainault (“Essai sur la Residence a Mons”),
while Ralilenbeck has given an account of the Jews
at Antwerp (“Les Juifs a Anvers,” in “Revue de
Belgique,” 1871, pp. 137-146). But altogether there
is a singular dearth of records both in Jewish and
Belgian annals of the thousand-year-long stay of the
Jews in Belgium. The materials for a full history
of their social, intellectual, and religious condition
are wanting. Benjamin of Tudela (“Itinerary,” i.
106) has a passing reference to them, and the “Ma-
haril ” (niTO^ it 12a) speaks of the religious customs

.Belgium

Belgrade

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

656

of the Jews of Flanders. They do not seem at any
time to have attained, like their brethren in Spain
and France, any importance in the world of learning
and science, but appear to have been successful as
physicians, bankers, and handicraftsmen. There is
no mention of any scholars of note among them or
of persons rising to positions of influence in the state
•except one or two financiers. Since, however, every
vestige of written record has been swept away, it is
impossible to say what their status really was.

Yet, despite this almost total ignorance concern-
ing the Belgian ghettos, many traces of their exist-
ence in every part of the country are still to be
found. This is especially the case with the street
nomenclature of nearly every Belgian town, which
usually includes a “ Jodeustraat” or “ Rue des Juifs.”
Of those in ancient Brabant are the “ Joden Trap-
pen ” or “Escaliers des Juifs,” a group of five small
streets situated near the hill De la Cour in Brussels ;
the “ Jodenstraat ” in Antwerp and in Louvain, and
streets of like name in Cumpticli, Tirlemont, Mons,
Wasmes, Grosage, Bavai, Maroilles, Sains, Ghent,
Looz, Spalbeek, Eupen, etc. In Tirlemont the Cas-
tel, formerly “ Joden-Castel,” was, without doubt,
the ancient synagogue. A reminiscence of Jonathan,
the banker, who was the head of the Brabant Jews
at the time of the massacre in Brussels, is the Mai-
son de Jonathas in the middle of Enghien. A vast
plain situated outside the walls of that city also
bears his name — Jardin de Jonathas. Many other
localities and buildings with Jewish associations ex-
isted, the traces of which have nearly disappeared.
Such are the “ Jodenpoel,” a fishery of the Jews of
Brussels; the “Jodenborch” (synagogue) of Lou-
vain, and the Chateau des Juifs in the Jodenstraat
at Wommerson, near Tirlemont. Foulon, the his-
torian of Liege, states that the Chinstree of that
town— i.e.. Dog street — and a street of similar name
in Huy derived their appellation from the former
residence of Jews there, the name being evidently
■one of derision.

The same fate of oblivion which has befallen their
records has also attended the burial-places of the
-Jews of Belgium. The only memorial of that far-
olf past has come to light in the shape

Scarcity of a white stone with a Hebrew in-
of Records, scription found in 1872 in the grounds
of a hospital at Tirlemont. Consider-
ing its age, the epitaph is well preserved; it reads
&s follows:

nnniao

navj torn *rnx px
nn npm mo tyx-6

DKO mOBJK' nt?D '1
D'e6n nti’on rot?
trisb ~it?j? ntrt?i
py pa nni:i

“ This stone is inscribed and placed at the head of
Mistress Rebekah, daughter of R. Moses, who passed
away . . . in the year 5016 (1255-56). May she rest
in the Garden of Eden ! ” The word “iriN is evidently
a misreading for nnN- The only other trace of a
Jewish cemetery is mentioned by the Abbe d’Echter-
nach, Jean Bertel, who, in speaking of the “ Juden-

pforte” of Luxemburg, declares that, before the
extension of the city on that side, the remains of a
Jewish cemetery existed in its vicinity. Neither the
archives of the various Belgian states and duchies
nor the writings of local antiquaries and historians
have yielded much toward any fuller elucidation of
the history of the Jews of Belgium. The documents
extant referring to them are exceedingly few. One,
the safe-conduct edict, to which reference has al-
ready been made, is interesting for the names that
it gives:

Elie de Maroel : Eliot, his valet ; Douce ; his cousin and son ;
Abraham-le-Mirre de Binche; Benoit, his son; Benoit, his son-
in-law; Le Maistre des Juifs; Maistre Deie-le-Sire ; Jacob
Baron, Joie ; Salomon de Doullers ; Isaak de Peronne ; Bele-
vigne, his son-in-law ; Maistre Sause ; Jacob de Miekegnies ;
Michel de Pons ; Amendanc, his uncle; Maistre Sause; Amen-
danc ; Jacob de Foriest ; Hagins de Peronne ; Abraham de Nue-
ville ; Sause de Crespin ; Maistre Lyon d’Ath ; Abraham de
Foriest; HasttSe ; Oursiel (brother of Lyon d’Ath); Floris de
Mons (daughter of Maistre Elie).

The list includes a rabbi and five physicians; the
rest were merchants and bankers.

The other documents comprise deeds and charters
of the usual kind obtaining in the Middle Ages, and
relate to the sale of property and to bonds for debts.
M. Van Even (in “ Louvain Monumental ”) cites a
passage from a charter of the Abbey d’Averbode,
dated 1311, wherein Rabbi Moses sells to Jean Van
Rode, advocate, a house situated in the “Jews’
street, ” near the cemetery of St. Peter of Louvain :

“ Moyses Judeus, Judeorum presbyter, cum debita effestuca-
tione tradit domum et curtem cum suis pertinentiis sitam in
vico in quo Judei nunc commorantur juxta atrium S. Petri,
Johanni de Rode Causidico.”

The only Hebrew document discovered in the royal
archives is a memorandum on the margin of a bond
contracted Oct. 26, 1344, to which Wilhemote delle
Porte de Rosieres Notre-Dame, debtor, and Master
Sause, a Jew of Blaton, creditor, subscribe their
names. The memorandum is a summary of the
terms of the deed :

Dmnn nr
N'Y'nn m ndmbH
'r ny ioo yns Nim
-iDian av"m 'moy
D'jty D^nn P avm
D’yacon pa
NDYia^n nx^nx niyi
'jo Dmnn nr bv 3Mn
D'crnp'r n»m D’rjo
tys-iaon -isinpr f>”!p
■nnya

The archives of the Coted’Orof Dijon contain two
registers of Hebrew documents relating to transac-
tions carried on by an association of Jews in France,
Germany, and Belgium ; and those of Luxemburg,
notably of the castle of Clairvaux, have likewise
many documents dealing with money transactions
between Jews and the aristocracy.

It does not appear that any formal decree of ban-
ishment was issued against the Jews of Belgium;
and it is very likety that after the massacre of 1370
there were fugitive Jews and their families who

657

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Belgium

Belgrade

managed to settle again in the several communes.
Not, however, till the middle of the fifteenth century
do they reappear in Belgian history. One of their
number, it is said, was chosen by the citizens of
Luxemburg to treat with Philip le
Fifteentli Bon in 1444 for the surrender of the
and castle. This would imply that there
Following were some who even exercised an
Centuries, influence on public affairs. But their
position was at all times of a pre-
carious nature. They possessed no legal status, and
under the houses of Burgundy and Hainault they
were subjected to heavy and special taxation. The
right of residence had to be dearly paid for. Every
Jew who entered Luxemburg had to pay, if on
horseback, a sum of 5 sols, and if on foot sols.
Any one leaving the duchy was mulcted in 3f sols.
Besides all manner of other restrictions, the Jews in
many parts were compelled to wear a distinctive
dress. Under the pressure of these influences it is
no wonder that the native Jews gradually disap-
peared from the Belgian provinces.

In 1477, by the marriage of Mary of Burgundy to
the archduke Maximilian, son of Emperor Frederick
IV., the Netherlands became united to Austria, and
thereafter its possessions passed to the crown of
Spain. The whole country, owing to the cruel per-
secutions of Philip II. of Spain and his attempt to
establish the Inquisition, became involved in a series
of desperate and heroic struggles. There is no doubt
that the Jews played some important part in those
stirring times. At the beginning of the sixteenth
century a number of Maranos from Spain and Por-
tugal began to arrive in the country. They were
looked upon with suspicion, and Charles V., whom
Cardinal Ximenes had prejudiced against them, re-
fused them asylum, but they nevertheless managed
to obtain a footing and to live there. They were
rich and possessed of talent and enterprise, and evi-
dently ingratiated themselves with the people, with
whom they sided in their struggle against the hate-
ful Spanish domination. Several attempts were
made to expel them. In 1532 and 1549 and again in
1550 decrees were issued by the court against har-
boring Maranos, and citizens were bidden to inform
the authorities of their presence ; but this utterly
failed of effect.

The duke of Alva, the Spanish governor, was es-
pecially severe in the repression of Jewish books.
His edict of Feb. 15, 1570, ordered the expurgation
of all errors from heretical books. On the advice of
Arias Montanus and others, a list was prepared of
such passages as ought to be expurgated, and a
commission at Antwerp compiled an “Index Expur-
gatorius,” the first of its kind (June 1, 1571). The
Trent Index was published at Liege (Popper, “ Cen-
sorship of Hebrew Books,” p. 55). The number of
secret Jews who entered the country increased daily.
They, moreover, took an active part in the uprising
of the Pays-Bas, the happy issue of which wras to
establish forever the principle of liberty of con-
science in the United Provinces. The Jews labored
assiduously in the cause of the people, and together
with their brethren in Holland, who already enjoyed
the right of publicly professing their faith, contrib-
uted materially to the success which crow'ned their
II.— 42

efforts. They were strenuous supporters of the
House of Orange, and in return were protected by
it. But in that part of the Pays-Bas which remained
under the dominion of Austria, the Jews, in contrast
to their brethren in the Dutch Netherlands, were
subjected to all the old restrictions and to hateful
and discriminating enactments. In the treaty of
peace (concluded April, 1609) between Albert of
Austria and the States General it was stipulated that
the subjects of either, excepting Jews, should be
free to pass between the two countries. The intoler-
ance of the archduke affected those only who pub-
licly professed their faith, like the Jews of Amster-
dam. In 1670, when the Comte Monterey succeeded
the Duke de Feria, the Jews of Amsterdam petitioned
for admission to the Pays-Bas. The count was at
first disposed to grant the request; but clerical in-
terference prevented its adoption.

There are few facts to relate concerning the Jews
during the eighteenth century. They were still
subjected to special imposts and harassing enact-
ments; but, for the most part, that did not prevent
them from growing in numbers and in prosperity.
Many families of position and standing came from
Germany and Holland and settled in the principal
towns of Belgium. Among them were the Landaus,
the Fttrths, the Lipmans, the Hirshes, and the
Simons, and to the last-named family belongs the
chevalier Jean Henri Simon, a distinguished artist
who had an adventurous career in the French Revo-
lution. Under the influence of the Revolution, many
Belgian writers and publicists took up the cause of
the Jews. The most distinguished of these was the
Prince de Ligne, who published a memoir defending
them from the attacks of Voltaire, and eulogizing
their virtues and character. He predicted for them
a great destiny if admitted to full civil and political
rights. A deep impression was made by this pub-
lication; and the Jews were soon placed on an equal
footing with their fellow-citizens.' In 1815 they ob-
tained their full freedom. Thenceforward their po-
litical and social advancement and religious develop-
ment proceeded on similar lines to those of their
coreligionists in western Europe. For the history
and condition of individual communities in the vari-
ous towns of Belgium, see Antwerp, Brussels,
Ghent, Mons.

The Jews of Belgium number about 12,000, and
by imperial decree dated March 17, 1808, were di-
vided into consistorial circumscriptions of nine de-
partments, each comprising a synagogal district.
The seat of the Central Consistory is at Brussels;
and official communities exist at Antwerp, Arlon,
Ghent, Liege, and Namur.

Bibliography: Griitz, Gescli.der Juden. v. 43: Carmoly, Re-
vue Orientate , i. 42 ct seq.; Emile Ouverleau, Notes et Docu-
ments sur les Juifs de Belgique sous VAncien Regime , in

Rev. Et.Juives , vii. 117 et seq.. 252 et seq.. viii. 206 et sea., ix.

264 et seq.; Monatssc.hrift, i. 499 et seq., 541 et seq., ii. 270 et

seq.; Gross, Gallia Juddica, p. 124.

D. — G. J- Fr.

BELGRADE : Capital of the kingdom of Servia,
situated at the confluence of the Save and the Dan-
ube. After Sultan Sulaiman the Magnificent had
captured the city from the Hungarians in 1522, the
Turks remained in possession until 1867, when they
withdrew their garrison. The House of Austria

Belgrade

Belilla

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

658

took the city from them three times within as many
centuries, retaining it each time about one or two
years. Probably a Jewish community existed at
Belgrade before the Ottoman conquest. In any case,
a large number of Jews established themselves in the
city during the reign of Sulaiman, owing to the influ-
ence of Joseph Nasi, who obtained similar privileges
of residence for his coreligionists in Bosnia. These
facts are evident from the responsa of the learned
rabbi of Salonica, Samuel of Medina, a contempo-
rary of the events.

The community of Belgrade pursued a quiet ex-
istence. At an early date a printing-press was es-
tablished, from which many works were issued.
Toward 1620 the learned Talmudist Asher Zebulun
lived there, and later removed to Sarajevo. About
1658 the chief rabbi of Belgrade was Simhah Cohen,
son of Gershom Cohen. An “approbation” bear-
ing his name is placed at the head of a work, “ Na-
halat Zebi,” by the Polish rabbi Zebi ben Samson of
Cracow (G. Bragadino, Venice, 1658). Some years
later a Talmudist of Salonica, Joseph Almosnino,
grandson of the renowned Moses Almosnino, was
chief rabbi of Belgrade. He died at Nikolsburg,
Moravia, in 1689. The community suffered greatly
when the imperial troops captured the city Sept. 6,
1688. Many Jews were sold as slaves, but were re-
deemed by charitable coreligionists.

On Feb. 9, 1788, Emperor Joseph II. of Austria
declared war against Turkey, and seized Belgrade,
which he held until Aug. 4, 1789. Many Jews then
emigrated to the neighboring cities, especially to
Vienna, Rustcliuk, etc. In 1792 Belgrade again
came under Turkish rule. The new governor, Topal
Osman Pasha, imprisoned many Jews; and in con-
sequence a number of others left the city. From
1807 to 1813 the Servians were in a state of revolt
against the Turks. Many Jews perished during
those disturbances, others lost their possessions, and
the synagogue was destroyed.

When Servia became a principality (1826), and
civic rights, though with some restrictions, were
conferred upon the Jews, those of Belgrade began
to take part in the political life of the country.
During the Turco-Russian war (1876-78) four Jews
of Belgrade distinguished themselves and were deco-
rated; viz., Dr. Samuel Pops, physician of the Jew-
ish community, and Dr. Samuel Brtill, both of whom
received the Order of the Cross of Tacovo; Benjamin
Russo, who received a silver medal for his courage
during an attack at the Gamada ; and Michel Oser,
cornetist of the squadron of the department of Bel-
grade, and a veteran of eight battles, who, later,
distinguished himself at Shumatowaty, was deco-
rated on the field of battle, and elevated to the rank
of brigadier. Another Jew of Belgrade, Abraham
Oser, was a member of the Servian Parliament in
1877.

Like the rest of the population of Belgrade, the
Jews suffered when that city was bombarded by the
Turks in 1862. About this time they aggregated
2,000 souls. In consequence of laws restricting
Jewish commerce, the number decreased to 1,000 in
1867. The president of the community at that time
was David B. Russo. The Jews were then living in
the ghetto of Belgrade. By 1880 the numbers had

again risen to 2,000, and by 1890 to 4,652 in the
whole of Servia.

Bibliography : Isid. Loeb, Situation des Israelites de Tur-
quie, Serhie, et Roumanie, Paris, 1877; Kayserling, Biblin-
teca Espan .-Port. -Jud a ic a, p. 10, Strasburg, 1890 ; Andree,
Zur Vulkskunde, p. 272; Jacobs, Jewish Year Book , 1900,
p. 29.

d. M. Fr.

BELIAL. — Biblical Data : A term occurring
often in the Old Testament and applied, as would
seem from the context in I Sam. x. 27; II Sam.
xvi. 7. xx. 1; II Chron. xiii. 7; Job xxxiv. 18,
to any one opposing the established authority,
whether civil, as in the above passages, or religious,
as in Judges xix. 22; I Kings xxi. 10, 13; Prov.
xvi. 27, xix. 28; Deut. xiii. 14, xv. 9; II Sam.
xxiii.6. A somewhat weaker sense, that of “ wicked ”
or “worthless,” is found in I Sam. i. 16, ii. 12, xxv.
17, xxx. 22. The use of the word in II Sam. xxii.
5 is somewhat puzzling. Cheyne explains it as
“rivers of the under world,” while more conser-
vative scholars render “destructive rivers.”

The etymology of this word has been variously
given. The Talmud (Sanh. llli) regards it as a com-
pound word, made up of “beli ” and “ ‘ol ” (without
a yoke). This derivation is accepted by Rashi (on
Deut. xiii. 14). Gesenius(“Dict.”s.v.) finds the der-
ivation in “ beli ” and “ yo‘il ” (without advantage ;
i.e., worthless). Ibn Ezra (on Deut. xv. 9), without
venturing on an etymology, contents himself with
the remark that “Belial” is a noun, and quotes the
opinion of some one else that, it is a verb with a
precative force, “May he have no rising.” Cheyne
(“Expository Times,” 1897, pp. 423 et seq.) seeks to
identify Belial with the Babylonian goddess Belili
(Jastrow, “Religion of Babylonia,” pp. 588, 589).
Hebrew writers, according to this view, took up
“ Belili ” and scornfully converted it into “ Belial ” in
order to suggest “worthlessness.” Hommel (“Ex-
pository Times,” viii. 472) agrees in the equation
Belial = Belili, but argues that the Babylonians bor-
rowed from the western Semites and not vice versa.
This derivation, however, is opposed by Baudissin
and Jensen (“Expository Times,” ix. 40, 283).
j. jr. ' G. B. L.

In Rabbinical and Apocryphal Litera-
ture : In the Hasidic circles from which the apocalyp-
tic literature emanated and where all angelologic
and demonologic lore was faithfully preserved, Be-
lial held a very prominent position, being identified
altogether with Satan. In the Book of Jubilees
(i. 20), Belial is, like Satan, the accuser and father
of all idolatrous nations : “ Let not the spirit of Belial
[“ Beliar ” corrupted into “ Bellior ”] rule over them
to accuse them before thee.” The uncircumcised
heathen are “the sons of Belial ” (ib. xv. 32). In the
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Belial is the
archfiend from whom emanate the seven spirits of
seduction that enter man at his birth
In Apo- (Reuben ii. ; Levi iii. ; Zebulun ix. ;

calyptic Dan. i. ; Naphtali ii. ; Benjamin vi.,

Literature, vii. ), the source of impurity and lying
(Reuben iv., vi. ; Simeon v. ; Issachar
vi.-vii. : Dan. v. ; Asher i., iii.), “the spirit of dark-
ness” ILevi xix.; Joseph vii., xx.). He will, like
Azazel in Enoch, be opposed and bound by the

659

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Belgrade

Belilla

Messiah (Levi xviii.), “ and cast into the fire forever ”
(Judah xxv.); “and the souls captured by him will
then he wrested from his power.” In the Ascen-
sio Isaise, Belial is identified with Samael (Malkira
[Dan. v.] ; possibly Malak ra = the Evil Angel [i. 9]),
and called “ the angel of lawlessness” — “the ruler
of this world, whose name is Matanbuchus ” (a cor-
rupt form of “ Angro-mainyush ” or Ahriman ?) (ii.
4). In Sibyllines, iv. 2 (which part is of Christian ori-
gin) Belial descends from heaven as Antichrist and
appears as Nero, the slayer of his mother. In the
Sibyllines, iii. 63 (compare ii. 166) Belial is the
seducer who, as the pseudo Messiah, will appear
among the Samaritans, leading many into error by
his miraculous powers, but who “will be burned up
by heavenly fire carried along by the sea to the land
[an earthquake ?] to destroy his followers,” “at the
time when a woman [Cleopatra] will rule over the
world.”

In regard to the meaning and etymology of the
word “ Belial ” there has always been a wide differ-
ence of opinion. The Septuagint, in translating it
“ lawlessness ” — dvopr/ga (Deut. xv. 9), avogta (II Sam.
xxii. 5), or n apavopog (Deut. xiii. 14; Judges xix. 22;
and elsewhere) — follows a rabbinical tradition which
interpreted it as “beli ‘ol ” the one who has thrown
off the yoke of heaven (Sifre, Deut. 93; Sanli.
1115; Midr. Sam. vi. ; Talk, to II. Sam. xxiii. 6; so
also Jerome on Judges xix. 22, “absque jugo.”
Belial was accordingly considered the opponent of
the rule of God ; that is, Satan, or the antagonist of
God (see Antichrist). Aquilas (LXX. , I Kings xxi.
13) translates it d-noaraaia — sedition, in the same
manner that the “nahasli bariah,” or dragon ( =
Satan), is described as the apostate. The various
modern etymologies, taking the word as a combina-
tion of “beli yo‘il ” (without worth) (Gesenius),or of
“ beli ya'al ” (never to rise) — that is, never to do well
(lbn Ezra, Lagarde, Hupfeld, Fiirst) — are alike re-
jected by Moore as extremely dubious (commentary
to Judges, p. 419). Theodotion to Judges xx. 13,
lbn Ezra (Deut. xv. 9), and so Luther and the A. V.
occasionally take Belial as a proper noun. It was
Biithgen (commentary to Ps. xviii. 5) who first
translated Belial, “the laud from which there is no
return, ’’and then Cheyne (in “Expositor,” 1895, pp.
435-439, and in the “Encyc. Bibl.” s.v. “Belial”).
They proved it to be the exact equivalent of the
Assyrian “matu la tarat” (the land without return).
Tiamat, the dragon of the abyss, having been iden-
tified with Satan, thus gave rise to the various uses
of the word, and the legends of Belial Antichrist.
Baudissin, in Ilauck-Herzog’s “ Realeucyklopadie,”
x. t. , still takes a skeptical attitude as to the myth-
ical character of Belial in the Old Testament, with-
out, however, explaining the peculiar history of the
word. Compare Satan.

Bibliography : T. K. Cheyne, The Development of the Mean-
ings of Belial, in The Expositor, 1895, i. 435-489; idem, in

Encyc. Bil/I. s.v.; Bousset, Antichrist, 1895, pp. 86,99-101;

Charles, The Ascension of Isaiah, li.-lxxii. and pp. 6-8 ;

Riehm and Hauck-Herzog’s Realencyklopildie, s.v. Belial.

,1. SR. K.

BELIAS (BELIASH, CW^Q), SAMUEL : En-
voy from Morocco in 1608. He delivered to Mau-
rice of Nassau, governor-general of the Netherlands,
credentials from Muley Zaidan, sherif of Morocco,

testifying Belias to be “ministrum Regiae nostrae
sublimis, qui negotiis ej us diligenter incumbit, resque
ej us curat.” It was possibly a descendant of his,
G. Belias, who published at Constantinople, in
1855, a Spanisli-IIebrew dictionary under the title
tnpn nan -IVIN (“ Diccionario de la Lengua
Santa con la Declaracion en Lengua Sephardi ”).
Bibliography : Steinschneider, Hebr. Bill. xvi. 61.

g. M. K.

BELID (or BELITUS), SON OF ALEGRE ;

Prominent French Jew; lived in Toulouse at the be-
ginning of the thirteenth century. His name figures
in many deeds of conveyance with the title “ Domi-
nus,” which implies a superior rank. On several
occasions his wife, termed Domina Montaniera, had
to give her consent to the sale.

Belid must have been the possessor of immense
property. In July, 1202, he and his brother Abra-
ham became the holders of lands belonging to the
Templars; while on April 2, 1203, and again in 1207,
the Knights of St. John sold them properties belong-
ing to the seigniory of Pierre and Ponce du Pin.
Belid’s estates were several times confiscated by
Raymond VII. ; but he always managed to recover
them.

Bibliography: Snige. Lex Juifs de Languedoc, pp. 53, 58,

83, 141, 142, 159, 167-169, 178-184.

G. I. BlI.

BELIEF. See Faith.

BELILHOS (or BELILLOS), DANIEL:

Preacher and teacher at Amsterdam. He had a
thorough knowledge of Biblical and rabbinical lit-
erature, was a facile Hebrew poet, taught the third
class of the Talmud Torah, and officiated as preacher
of the charitable societies Maskil el - Dal and Te-
mime Derek. Besides the oration at the obsequies
of his father-in-law, Isaac da Fonseca Aboab, Be-
lilhos, on Nisan 14, 5453 (1693) delivered a memorial
sermon in honor of the latter. It is still extant
in manuscript. Belilhos’ publications comprise:
“Sermoens Pregados . . . na Esnoga de Talmud
Torah,” Amsterdam, Moseh Dias, 1693; and a more
voluminous poetical work in Hebrew, describing
Adam in Paradise, “Toledot Adam ” (The History
of Adam), which also is extant in manuscript.

Bibliography : Kayserling. Bihl. Espafi.-Port.-Jud. p. 26;

idem, in Monatsschrift, xii. 312 et seq.

L. G. M. K.

BELILHOS, JACOB : Relative of Daniel Be-
lilhos; rabbi at Venice about 1680. He wrote “Bin-
yan Ne'arim ” (Edification of Youth) in refutation
of Samuel Aboab ; it was, however, never published.
Bibliography : Nepi-Gliirondi, Toledot Gedole Yisrael, p. 203.

I,, g. M. K.

BELILLA, DAVID : One of the leading Jews
in Oranganore, sixteen miles north of Cochin, south-
ern India, about the middle of the sixteenth cen-
tury. Together with Samuel Castiel, Ephraim
Salah, and Joseph Levi, he built a synagogue in
Cranganore during the year 1568. According to an
anonymous Hebrew chronicle giving the history of
the Malabar Jews, and now preserved in the Uni-
versity Library at Cambridge, England, his grand-
father had come from Jerusalem; though this state-
ment is perhaps not to be taken literally, as the white

Belin

Belkovsky

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

660

Jews in Cochin are sometimes called “Jerusalem
Jews” (“ Jud. Lit.-Blatt,” xix. No. 25, p. 95; “Jew-
ish Quarterly Review,” i. 23). The same chronicle
mentions a Hayyim Belilla (hazan), who had come
from Safed.

Bibliography: Kayserling. Gesch. der Juden in Portugal,
p. lots ; Schechter, in Jewish Quarterly Review, \ i. U3.

j. G.

BELIN (or BLIN), ELIJAH BEN MOSES

I.: German commentator and liturgical poet of the
fifteenth century. He was rabbi, cantor, and teacher
of Talmud and Rabbinic literature at Worms, 1490.
According to Zunz, he lived before this at Bingen-
on -the-Rhine. Belin wrote a supercommentary on
Rashi’s commentary on the Pentateuch; and Simon
Asclienburg incorporated some of his explanations
into his own compilation and supercommentary
“ Debek Tob ” (Venice, 1588), mentioning the fact
in the preface. In the collection of manuscripts
at the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Neubauer, “Cat.
Bodl. Hebr. MSS.” No. 672), there are three Hebrew
poems by Belin.

Bibliography: Zunz, L. G. p. 107: Michael, Or ha-Haggim,
No. 367 : Brill, in Bet Ozar ha-Si/nit, i. 31, 32.
l. g. I. Bek.

BELIN (or BLIN), ELIJAH BEN
MOSES II.; German Talmudist; died at Worms
Feb. 26, 1587, having taken an active part in the
affairs of the Jewish community in that city. A
manuscript copy is extant (Neubauer, “Cat. Bodl.
Hebr. MSS.” No. 2184) of a disputation in the form
of question and answer which Belin had with Napli-
tali Herz ben Gersom of Worms. The controversy
dates from 5338 (= 1578), and is partly transcribed in
Judseo-German.

Bibliography : Kaufmann, R. Jair Chajjim Bacharach, etc.,

p. 12.

L. G. I. BER.

BELINFANTE FAMILY : A Sephardic Jew-
ish family who trace their ancestry to Joseph Cohen

Joseph Cohen Belinfante

Me'ir

Joseph, fl. about 1596

Me'ir Cohen Belinfante,
Sofer ” at Spalatro, Dalmatia

Joseph,

Hazan at Belgrade, Servia

Me'ir=Reina Aben Danon,
d. 1721 in Amsterdam

Belinfante, a fugitive from Portugal to Turkey in
1526. The family included a number of writersand
divines, the most eminent of the latter being Zaddik
Cohen Belinfante, chief rabbi of Amsterdam toward
the end of the eighteenth century. The annexed
sketch-pedigree gives the chief members of the fam-
ily up to the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Bibliography : American Hebrew, Feb. 25, 1881.

BELINFANTE, ISAAC COHEN : Poet and

preacher at the great synagogue ‘Ez Hayyim,
Amsterdam; died in that city Sept. 7, 1781; son of
Elijah Cohen Belinfante. In an approbation to the
work “ Dibre David ” he enumerates the following
political works written by him which are still extant
in manuscript in the Bodleiau Library (Nos. 5 and 6
of the old Michael collection) and in the Montesinos
library at Amsterdam ; (1) “Shefer Tehillim ” (The
Beauty of the Psalms), poems on the preachers of
Amsterdam ; (2) “ ‘ Ateret Paz ” (The Golden Crown),
a collection of 87 satirical poems (“ Paz ” = 87); (3)
“ Berit Kehunat Yizliak ” (Alliance of the Priesthood
of Isaac), poems in honor of his friends ; (4) “ Abne
Segullah ” (Precious Stones), a collection of poems
dedicated to some fellow-writers ; (5) “ Siah Yizliak ”
(The Prayer of Isaac), a catalogue of printed books
and manuscripts, with extracts and biographical
notes on the authors, especially the Spanish and Por-
tuguese Jewish writers of London and Amsterdam.
A specimen of his work was published by Gabriel
Polak in “Ha-Maggid,” 1869, Nos. 10, 11.

Beliufante’s printed works are : (1) “MinliatNe-
dabah ” (A Free Offering), a poem in honor of the
poet David Franco Mendes (Amsterdam, 1764); (2)
“Gilali we-Ranen ” (Joy and Singing), an epithala-
mium (Amsterdam, 1777) ; (3) “ Kinah” (Lamentation),
elegies on the destruction of the Temple, inserted in
the prayer-book “Mislimerot ha-Layelali” (Amster-
dam, 1768); (4) two sermons in Portuguese, “Sermilo
do Nada Moral” (Amsterdam, 1761); “Sermilo Moral
Sobre o Temor Heroyco ” (Amsterdam, 1767) ; and
a number of Hebrew odes (“shirim”), which are
printed in other works written and published at
Amsterdam.

From one of his poems, “Iyinyan Torah” (The
Possession of the Law), it appears that Belinfante
wrote many works on Talmud, grammar, ethics,
cabala, and philosophy. He revised the prayer-
book of the Sephardic rite printed at Amsterdam,
1726, by S. Rodrigues Mendes, and other works
printed in that city.

Zaddik,

1675-1750

Joseph,
fl. 1678

Elijah Hezeklah,

b. 1699= Rachel da Costa, London

Moses Cohen,
at The Hague

Isaac, d. 1780,
Amsterdam

Zaddik, d. 1804,
London

Zaddik

Cohen Belinfante,
chief rabbi,
Amsterdam,
b. 1732, d. 1786

Moses Cohen Jacob Cohen

Belinfante, Belinfante

b. 1761, d. 1827

Bibliography : Fuenn, Keneset Y Israel, p. 596 ; Ha-Karmcl,
vi.. No. 32; Ha-Maggid, 1869, Nos. 10, 11: Kayserling, Bihl.
Espan.-Pnrtug.-Jud. pp. 26, 31, 90; M. Roest, Bet ha-Sefcr,
p. 350, Amsterdam, 1868; Fiirst. Bihl. Jud. i. 99; Catalog der
. . . Rosenthal' schen Bibliotheh, i. 284 (list of occasional
poems).

I. Br.

BELINFANTE, MOSES BEN ?ADDI£
HA-KOHEN : A Judoeo-Dutch journalist, trans-
lator, and writer of school-books; born at The
Hague Sept. 24, 1761 ; died there June 29, 1827. He
founded in 1806 the first Judieo-Dutch paper,
“ Sulamith, ” devoted especially to the interests of the
Jewish community of Amsterdam. This paper was,
however, discontinued in 1808. Belinfante published
the following works: (1) “ Israelitischer Almanack.”

061

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Belin

Belkovsky

32 small vols., 1796-1827; (2) a translation from
Hebrew into Dutcb, of Shalom Cohen’s Hebrew
catechism, “Shoraslie Emunah,” Amsterdam, 1816;
(3) “ Geschenk noor de Israelitche Jeugd” — an ele-
mentary work, 4 vols., The Hague, 1809-34; (4)
“ Parabelin ’’—parables and legends extracted from
the Talmud, 2 vols., Amsterdam, 1822 ; (5) “ Moda‘
li-Bene Binali ” (A Friend of the Intelligent Youth) ;
a Hebrew reader, recast from Moses Philippsohn’s
German work, with a Dutch translation and addi-
tions, Amsterdam, 1817; (6) The Portuguese prayer-
book, translated into Dutch in collaboration with T.
Saruco, 4 vols., The Hague, 1791-93.

Bibliography : Fiirst, Bibliotheca Judaica, p. 90 ; Winter and
Wiinscbe, JUdische Literatur , iii. 873; Zeitlin, Bibliotheca
Hebraica , p. 60.

S. I. Bit.

BELINSON (or BEILINSON), MOSES
ELIEZER: Russian publisher and scholar; born
at Odessa about 1835. He devoted himself chiefly
to the study of the genealogy of old Russian Jewish
families, to one of which he belongs. He wrote on
this subject two works, “Megillat Yuhasin ” (Scroll
of Genealogy), and “ Yalkut Mislipahot ” (Collection
of Families), published at Odessa, 1892-94. These
works, although of no great literary value, contain
interesting contributions to the history of Jewish
families in Russia.

In 1865 Belinson edited “‘Ale Hadas” (Myrtle
Leaves), a periodical containing literary and scientific
articles by the most eminent Russian scholars of the
day, and issued a second edition of the “ Sefer Elam ”
and “ Ma'yan Gannin ” of Salomon Joseph del Me-
digo, with notes and a biography of the author.
Two other periodicals, “ Yagdil Torah ” (Magnifying
the Law), and “Mekilta de Rabbanan ” (The Rabbis’
Study), dealing with questions concerning the Ha-
lakah and the exposition of the Talmud, were edited
by Belinson (Odessa, 1871-81 and 1886-87); but, as
in the case of the “ ‘Ale Hadas,” only a few numbers
appeared. He published also (Odessa, 1898) “She-
lome Emune Yisrael ” (The Perfectly Righteous Men
of Israel), a collection of letters on literary subjects.

Belinson contributed to many Russian and Hebrew
periodicals, and was very active in disseminating
the Neo-Hebrew literature through his printing-
office, from which were issued numerous works of the
Russan “maskilim. ”

Bibliography: Vnskhod, 1893, No. 50; Zeit. filr Hebr. Bihl.
iii. 100 ; Zeitlin, Bihl. Hebraica, p. 19.

H. K. I. Br.

BELISAMO, MIRIAM MENDES ; English
authoress and teacher; born in London about 1820;
died there 1885. She was a granddaughter of Isaac
Mendes Belisario (see Lyson, “Environs of Lon-
don,” iii. 429), and with her sisters for many years
kept a girls’ school in which numerous members of
the Sephardic community were educated under her
direction. She compiled a “Hebrew and English
Vocabulary ” for a selection of the daily prayers
(1848), and wrote “ Sabbath Evenings at Home ”
(London, 1856); the latter being in the form of dia-
logues upon the spirit and ordinances of the Jewish
religion.

Bibliography: Jacobs and Wolf, Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica,
Nos. 2093, 2105.

BELKIND, ISRAEL : Russian Hebraist and
teacher; born in 1861 at Logoisk, government of
Minsk, Russia; educated at the high school of Mo-
hilev on the Dnieper, and at the University of Khar-
kov. After the persecution of the Jews in Russia
in 1881, when colonization committees were formed
in the large Jewish centers of Russia, some of which
favored the establishment of agricultural colonies in
America, and some in Palestine, Belkind became an
ardent follower of the Palestinians, and he founded
at Kharkov a society of Jewish students, under the
name of “Bilu ” Ci^3). With the aid of some of its
members he established the colony Ghederah or
Katra, near Ekron (see Agricultural Colonies in
Palestine).

The enterprise was not successful; and Belkind,
after many hardships, removed to Jaffa, where he
became a teacher of Hebrew. Later he occupied a
similar position in Jerusalem. To supply the want
of Hebrew text-books he wrote the following: On
arithmetic, “Assefat Sheelot ha-Hesbon,” Jerusa-
lem, 1896; on geography, “Reshit Yedi’at Ketibat
ha-Arez,” Jerusalem, 1898, 2d ed. 1899; on general
history, “ Dibre Yeme lia-Amim,” vol. i., Jerusalem,
1897. Israel’s father, Meir Belkind, held the office
of rabbi at the Ghederah colony, and his sister. Olga
Belkind, who practised midwifery at Jaffa, wrote
articles in Hebrew. H. R.

BELKIS, QUEEN OF SHEBA. See Sheba,
Queen of.

BELKOVSKY, GREGOIRE : Russian political
economist; born at Odessa 1865. While a student
he joined the Jewish nationalists of Odessa, and lec-
tured at the Sabbath free school of Low and Suss-
man. For his treatise “ Zalog po Rimskomu Pravu,”
he was honored with a gold medal. Graduating
from the university in 1889, a proposition for a pro
fessorship was made to him, but as one of the condi-
tions was that he embrace Christianity, lie declined
the offer. Four years later he was invited to lecture
at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria, on political
e.conomy and the history of Roman law. At Sofia he
published (in the Bulgarian language) his “History
of the Roman Law,” 1895; “Political Economy,”
1896; “Exchange in Bulgaria,” 1895; and “Credit
and Banking in Bulgaria,” in vols. xv., xvi., and
xvii. of the magazine of the Ministry of Public In-
struction. At this time Belkovsky became active
in the spread of Zionism, and published “Appel an
das Judenthum und Seine Getreuen Soline ” (anony-
mous, Sofia, 1897, in German, French, Hebrew, and
Spanish). He has been a prominent supporter of
the Zionist movement, and since 1899 one of the
Russian representatives in the larger “Actions-
Committee. ”

In 1897 Belkovsky returned to St. Petersburg,
where he still lives (1902), and continues his propa-
ganda of Zionism. Besides the above-named works
he contributed articles on agriculture, political econ-
omy, and industrial subjects to the “Entziklope-
diclieski Slovar” of Brockhaus and Efron, to the
“Sudebnaya Gazeta,” and other periodicals. On
the Jewish question, he wrote “ O Zemle Dyeltslies-
kikli Fermakh, Kako Razsadnikye Proizvoditelnavo
Truda,” “ Slovo o Pinskerye ” ; “ Die Lage der Juden

Bella

Belmont

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

662

in Bulgarien ” ; and a series of articles on the Jewish
Colonial Bank.

h. r. S. J.

BELLA, wife of Joshua FALK : A woman
of Talmudic learning ; born at Lemberg about the
middle of the sixteenth century ; died at a very
advanced age at Jerusalem. She was a daughter
of the philanthropist and head of the community at
Lemberg, Israel Edels, and wife of the vvelLknown
Talmudist Joshua Falk ha-Kolien, author of the
“Sefer Me’irat ‘Enayim.” Supported by his father-
in-law, Falk carried on his studies privately, and
'sonductedaTalmudicliigh school atLemberg. When
he died, in 1614, his wife, Bella, removed to Jerusalem.

Bella had a strong inclination toward Talmudic
studies, and gave some decisions on certain difficult
halakic cases. One of these was that on festivals
the festive blessing over the lights should be said
before and not after the lights are kindled (see
Ezekiel Landau, “Dagul me-Rebabali ” to Shulhan
‘Aruk, Orah Hayyim, cli. 12).

Bibliography: Kayserling, Die Jildischen Frauen , pp. 177,
358; Azulai, Slicm ha-Gedolim, s.v. Vaw, No. 7; Buber,
Anshe Shem, pp. 80-82; Gratz, Gesch. dev Juden , x. 58 (from
which the year of her birth may be approximately deter-
mined; the dale of her death is unattainable); J. London, in
Ha-Modia' la-Hodasliim , i. 115.
l. g. I. Bek.

BELLCAYRE : City in Catalonia, Spain ; had
Jewish inhabitants in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries. It was the birthplace of David of Bell-
cayre, the richest Jew of Barcelona, who owned in
the ghet to of the latter city the finest houses, with
eight large stores. In 1391 he accepted baptism,
changing his name to Michael Lobet; a family of
the name of Lobet stiil lives at Barcelona. Senton
(Sliem-Tob) de Bellcayre, another Jew of Barce-
lona, called himself after baptism Arnaldo Ferrarli.

Bibliography : Amador de los Rios, HisUrria dc Ins Judins cn
Espana, ii. 408; Revue Etudes Juives, iv. 59, 61.

D. M. K.

BELLE- ASSEZ or RACHEL : A daughter of
Solomon ben Isaac, called “Kashi” (1040-1105,) and
wife of R. Eliezer. Belle-Assez (not “Bellejeune,”
“ Belle, ’’ “ SeliOn, ” see Jacob Tam, “ Sefer lia- Y asliar, ”
ed. N. Rosenthal, p. 44, note), like the other daugh-
ters of Rashi, was very well versed in Hebrew and
rabbinical literature. It was at one time thought
that Belle-Assez or at least one of Rashi’s daughters)
used to take down his responsa on juridical ques-
tions (Gratz, “ Gescliichte, ” vi. 82), butZunz showed
that this was due to a misreading of the original text
which referred only to Rashi’s grandson (“Zur Ge-
scliichte,” pp. 172, 567). From a responsum of her
nephew Jacob Tam (l.c.) it is learned that she was
unhappy in her married life, and that she obtained a
divorce from R. Eliezer.

Bibliography: Griitz, Gesch. der Juden, vi. 82; Kayserling,
Die Jildischen Frauen, p. 116.

L. G. I. BR.

BELLELI, LAZARUS (MENAHEM);

Greek polyglot writer and philologist ; horn in
Corfu, Greece, Oct. 31, 1862. In 1877 he edited
“ ‘Atteret Bahurim ” (The Crown of the Young), be-
ing a Hebrew-Greek vocabulary for the Book of
Genesis, supplemented by a sketch of Hebrew
grammar, and afterward contributed to the “Ves-

sillo Israelitico,” the “Famiglia Israelitica,” and the
“Mose.” Bel leli matriculated in the University of
Athens. A controversy of an anti-Semitic character
caused him to leave for Italy; and when a student
in the Istituto di Studi Superiori at Florence he was
appointed principal of the Jewish schools at Leghorn.

Belleli in 1890 resigned his principalship, which
allowed him little time for study, and paid a lengthy
visit to Paris, whence he returned to Greece after
having contributed “ Deux Versions Peu Connues du
Pentateuque ” to the “ Revue des Etudes Juives, ” vol.
xxii.,and “Une Version Grecque du Pentateuque
du Seizieme Siecle ” to the “ Revue des Etudes
Grecques,” vol. iii. In the following year Belleli
graduated in Florence as doctor of philology with a
special certificate in Hebrew and Aramaic.

Shortly after graduating, Belleli was a witness of
the Corfu outbreak against the Jews which followed
the murder of the Jewish girl Rubina Sarda ; and he
reported for the Alliance Israelite Universelle the
trials which in that connection came before the
Patras assize court.

The spread of anti -Jewish literature induced Bel-
leli to undertake the translation into Greek of Th.
Reinach’s “Histoire desJuifs,” and the work was
published at Athens in 1895.

In 1897 Belleli, while in England, contributed to
the “Revue des Etudes Juives,” vol. xxxv., an ar-
ticle severely criticizing D. G. Hesseling’s transcrip-
tionof the Constantinople Neo-Greek Pentateuch.

Belleli in 1899 represented the Greek government
at the twelfth Congress of Orientalists.

Bibliography: Harris, Jewish Year Book, 1901, p. 244.

BELLERMANN, JOHANN JOACHIM :

Christian Hebraist and professor of theology at Ber-
lin University; born at Erfurt Sept. 23, 1754; died
at Berlin Oct. 25, 1842.

On graduating from the University of Gottingen
Bellermanu accepted a position as teacher at Reval,
Russia, where he remained for four years. On his
return to Erfurt in 1782, he became “ Magister le-
gens ” in the gymnasium, and later assistant profes-
sor of theology and philosophy in the University of
Erfurt. In 1804 he was appointed director of the
Gymnasium zum Grauen Klosterat Berlin, and pro-
fessor of theology at the university in that city.

Bellermaun was one of the earliest students of
Hebrew epigraphy. Among his numerous writings
on various subjects, the following works are of spe-
cial interest to Jewish scholars: (1) “De Inscriptio-
nibus Hebraicis Erforditc Repertis,” printed in the
Gymnasium Program, i.-iv., 1793-94; (2) “ De Duo-
decim Lapidihus in Jordanis Laveo Erectis,” 1795;
(3) “De /Enigmatibus Hebraieis,” Prog, i.-iv., 1796-
1800; (4) “De Usu Paheographiae Hebraic® ad Ex-
plicanda Biblia Sacra, cum Tribus Tabulis JEri In-
cisis ” ; (5) “ Ueber den Kunstvollen Plan im Buche
Hiob, ” 1813 ; (6) “ Versucli einer Metrik der Hebraer, ”
1813 ; (7) “ Geschichtliche Nachricliten aus dem Al-
tertlium fiber Essaer und Tlierapeuten,” 1821; (8)
“ Die Urim und Thumim, die Aeltesten Geramen ; ein
Beitrag zur Alterthumskunde,” 1824.

Bibliography : Aiigemeine Deutsche Biographic, ii. 307-310;

Fiirst, Bibliotheca Judaica, i. 100.

T. I. BR.

663

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bella

Belmont

BELLETTE (Hebrew E'^2, 0^3) : Daughter
of Menahem, and sister of Isaac ben Menabem called
“ the Great ” ; lived at Orleans in the middle of
the eleventh century. She is cited by Rashi, in a
responsum, as an authority on a ritual question
(Pardes, 4 6; Assufot, MS. Halberstamm, 486).

Bibliography: Ozar Nehmad; ii. 10; Zunz, Zur Gesehichle

mid Lite.ra.tur, j>. 172; Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, 3d ed., vi.

50, note 3 ; Gross, Gallia Judaica, p. 33.

ij. g. I. Br.

BELLS : The use of Bells for summoning seems
to have arisen in the Far East, and was not custom-
ary in countries bordering the Mediterranean until
late Roman times (Sittl, “Archaologie der Kunst,”
p. 246). Small disks, however, were generally at-
tached to pet animals, which, being struck together,
emitted a sound supposed to frighten away the evil
spirits (L. Mortillet, “Etude sur l'Emploi des Clo-
chettes ehez les Anciens,” Dijon, 1888).

The only use known to the ancient Hebrews simi-
lar to this was the attachment of Bells and pome-
granates to the lower hem of the high priest’s
ephod (Ex. xxviii. 38), the object of which was that
he might be heard on entering the high place, or,
according to Sirach xlv. t), “for a memorial to the
children of nis people.” It is probable that the sound
was caused by the Bells striking against the ad-
jacent pomegranates, and not by a clapper. The
two together form an ornamental design resembling
that of the lotus and bud border, used in Egyptian
decorative art. According to the Rabbis there were
seventy-two Bells. In Talmudic days Bells were
used to summon people. (See Naz. vi. 1, where a
distinction is made between the outer shell of the
bell and the clapper.) In Shah. 546 is a reference
to a bell stuffed with wool so that it could make no
sound. Mention is also made of cattle-bells and door-
bells (Tosef Kelim, B. M. i., at end). Small Bells in
the form of a ball with a split in it have been found
in the excavations at Tell el-IIesy.

The word “ bells ” was also used in the A. Y. to
translate in Zech. xiv. 20, where the correct

translation is probably “bridles” as in the margin.
Since they were necessarily inscribed with the
words “Holiness to the Lord,” there were probably
flat pieces of brass attached for ornament to horses,
as in the East at the present day (Rosenmtiller,
“ Morgenletndische Forschungen,” iv. 411), and cor-
responding to (Isa. iii. 18; Judges viii. 21).

Bibliography: Winer, Bibl. Lexicons, v. Schellen ; Levy,

Neuhehrli.isches WOrterbuch, s.v. jit ; Jahn, Biblische

Arcliiiologie, § 96.

A. J.

BELLS OF THE LAW. See Crown of the
Law.

BELLSOM. See Moses of Narbonne.

BELLUCIA, ASCARELLI. See Ascarelli.

BELMONT : Jewish family in Alzey, Rhein-
Hessen. It traces its origin to Isaac Simon, who at
the end of the eighteenth century took the family
name of Belmont. His father, Ephraim Simon (d.
1742), was the son of Joseph Jessel, “ Vorsteher der
Juden in Ampt Alzey” (d. 1738), who is probably
the person mentioned in a document dated 1700
(Lowenstein, “Juden in der Kurpfalz,” p. 146). This
Jessel was the son of Simhah ben Ephraim (d. 1685),

who was buried in Sobernheim. The son of Isaac
Simon mentioned above was Simon Belmont, who
died March 16, 1805. Of his four children, the
eldest, Aaron Isaac (m. Gertrude Lorch of Frank-
fort), was the great-grandfather of August Bel-
mont. Johanna, a sister of Aaron Isaac, married a
Mr. Reinach of Mayence ; and Joseph Florian, the
younger brother of Simon, had a daughter who
married Ludwig Bamberger. August Belmont had
a second cousin, Charles Frederick, who remained
in Alzey. Of the issue of the latter, some live in
Alzey, some in Frankfort-on-the-Main, and others
in Philadelphia. Simon had a daughter, Babette,
who married Stephan Feist of Frankfort, from whom
the Feist-Belmonts are descended.

The family was probably the most important Jew-
ish family in Alzey. Isaac Simon Belmont left that
city 30,000 florins, 20,000 of which were converted
(1790) by his four children into a fund, called the
“Belmont Stiftung,” for defraying certain congre-
gational expenses and providing dowries for poor
girls. A similar “Belmont Stiftung ” exists in the
city of Mayence. Simon Belmont (1789-1859) was a
prominent member of the Jewish congregation in
Alzey, the minutes of the board of trustees for a
number of j ears being signed by him.

There is little doubt that the Belmont family of
Alzey is descended from the Belmontes of Amster-
dam. Probably some member of the latter family
wandered either from Amsterdam or from Hamburg
down the Rhine, ultimately settling in Alzey; and
when the Jews were forced by the government to
take family names, his descendants revived the
name which by tradition they knew to have belonged
to their family. The accompanying sketch-pedi-
gree shows the relationship of the chief members of
this family :

Simhah ben Ephraim (d. 1685)

Joseph Jessel (d. 1738)

Isaac (d. 1712) Ephraim Simon
(d. 1742)

r~ i

Elias Simon Isaac Simon B.

(d. 1795) (d. 1805) m. Rosa (d. 1786)

Aaron Isaac B. Simon Lob Isaac Johanna Im. —
(m. Gertrude Lorch) Isaac B. Reinach in Mayence)

Simon B. (1789-1859) Joseph Florian B.

m. Frederika Elsass (1791-1870)

(d. 1821) |

Elizabeth

(m. Ludwig Bamberger)

August B. Babette

(d. 1890) (m. Stephan Feist)

BELMONT, AUGUST : American financier;
born in Alzey, Germany, in 1816; died in New
York city, Nov. 24, 1890. He was educated at
Frankfort-on-the-Main, and, after serving several
years in the Rothschild banking offices in that city
and at Naples, settled in New York (1837) as the
American representative of his former employers.

Belmont

Belmonte

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

664

He was consul-general for Austria in New York city
from 1844 to 1850, and resigned on account of his
disapproval of the treatment of Hungary by Aus-
tria. In 1853, lie was appointed United States
charge d’affaires at The Hague, where he was min-
ister resident from 1855 to 1858 While holding
this appointment, he negotiated an important con-
sular convention and rendered other diplomatic serv-
ices for which he received special thanks from the
United States State Department. In 1860 he was
chosen chairman of the Democratic national commit-
tee, serving until 1872, when he resigned. He was

name of the city and to transmit it to his posterity.
In 1522 Don lago married Andria Mascarenhas. Of
his five sons, the one called Bartliolomeu Sampayo
Belmonte (b. 1525), who married Anna Lancastre,
was sent in 1551 on a political mission to the Neth-
erlands, where he changed his name to “Van Scko-
nenberg.”

The family history shows that some of the mem-
bers returned to the Jewish fold, while others re-
mained Catholics (neo-Christians). A number occu-
pied influential positions in the diplomatic world,
while others .were prominent in the Amsterdam

Belmonte Family.

Don lago y Sampayo (Belmonte) (m. Andria Mascarenhas, 1522)
Bartliolomeu Sampayo B. (b. 1525 ; m. Anna Lancastre)

lago Antonio de Schonenberg (b. 1554) Aurelio (Joseph) de S. (b. 1558)

Bartholomeu Farro de Schonenberg (b. 1582) |

Pedro de S. (b. 1603)

Guido (Emanuel) de S. (b. 1560)

Barthol. (Abraham) de S. (b. 1630; m. 1651 Dona
Violante Carvalho [Sarah])

Andrde B. Emanuel B. Rachel

(d. 1704) (m. Diego Ximenes)

Sarah Ximenes B. (m. Isaac Levi Ximenes)
I

Gracia Ximenes B. (m. Moses Samuel Curiel, alias
Jeron. Nunez da Costa)

Pedro (Jacob) de S.
(b. 1652)

Francois de S.
(b. 1653)

Elvira (Rachel) de S.
(b. 1655)

(

Solomon (b. 1675 ; m. Rachel da Costa)
Jacob B. Schonenberg (b. 1726 ;

5 other sons
married 1756

Violante Curiel (b. 1727 ;
m. Mord. Franco Mendes)

Esther Franco Mendes)

Jacob B. [Francois Ridder van Schonenberg] (b. 1757 ; m. Simhah da Costa)
Hannah (m. 1800 Isaac da Costa)

II.

Jacob Belmonte (1570-1630 ; m. Simhah [Gimar Vaz])

Sarah (1608-1632 ; Rachel (1610-81 ;
m. Abraham Querido) m. Aaron Querido)

I 1

Abraham Q. Simhah

(1647-76; m. (1645-1704; m.

Deborah da Fonseca) Abraham da Fonseca)

David (b. 1612 ;
m. Esther Rachoa)

Joseph (b. 1614; Solomon (1621-64;

m. Sarah Vaz de Oliveyra) m. Rachel da Fonseca)

Jacob B. (b. 1635;
m. Gracia Ergas

David B.

(b. 1657;
Rachel Gaon)

Simhah
(b. 1656 ;
m. Abr. Escapa)

~1
4 other
children

Isaac de F. (b. 1669 ;
m. Rachel de
Lapara)

Angela (b. 1671;
m. Aaron
Pereyra)

Deborah (b. 1674; Aaron (b. 1675; Daniel (b. 1677; Sarah (b. 1682 ; 5 other

m. Joseph m. Judica m. Esther m. Abraham children

Pereyra) Abarbanel Zousa) Franco Mendes) Franco Mendes)

a delegate from New York to every Democratic na-
tional convention from 1860 to 1884. Belmont was
widely known as a patron of art, and he possessed
one of the finest collections of paintings in New
York. He was president of the American Jockey
Club, and did much for thoroughbred racing.

Bibliography : Appleton's Cyclopaedia of Biography ; In-
ternational Cyclopaedia.

G. M. W. L.

BELMONTE : Portuguese Dutch Marano fam-
ily, which traced its descent from Don lago y Sam-
payo, to whom in 1519 King Manuel of Portugal
gave the city of Belmonte, allowing him to take the

Jewish community. The great-grandson of Bar-
tholomeu, Pedro de Schonenberg, returned to the
Jewish faith ; taking the name of Abraham, and his
wife that of Sarah. The name of his son Pedro
was changed to Jacob, and that of his daughter El-
vira to Rachel. A third son, Francois de Schonen-
berg, was brought up as a Catholic by relatives in
Madrid; and in 1709 was made a marquis of Bra-
bant. A son of Pedro, Solomon (b. 1675), married
Rachel, the daughter of Abraham da Costa. Tlieir
son, Jacob Belmonte, married Esther Franco Men-
des, who had issue, Jacob Belmonte, alias Francois
Ridder van Schonenberg (b. 1757). His daughter,

665

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Belmont

Belmonte

Hannah, married in 1800 Isaac da Costa, the author
of “‘Israel and the Gentiles.”

Two of the children of Bartliolomeu Sampayo
Belmonte returned to the Jewish faith in 1004;
Aurelio (b. 1558) taking the name Joseph, and
Guido (b. 1560), that of Emmanuel. From Aurelio
are descended the Elgas Belmontes, Pereyra Bel-
montes, Brandao Belmontes, Sarfatino Belmontes,
and the Abeudana Belmontes. The Abendana Bel-
montes emigrated to Hamburg; a number of the

tombstones of this
family can still be seen
in the Portuguese-
Jewisli cemetery at
Altona. Guido was the
ancestor of the Xi-
menes Belmontes. His
grandchildren were
probably Don Andree
de Belmonte and Baron
Manuel de Belmonte,
both agents of the
Spanish crown in the
Netherlands. Their
sister, Rachel, married Diego Ximenes, whose grand-
daughter was the wife of Moses Solomon Curiel.
The granddaughter of the latter, Esther Franco
Mendes, married Jacob Belmonte mentioned above.

A second branch of the same family in Amster-
dam takes its rise with Jacob Belmonte, who came
to that city in 1620 from the island of Madeira. He
was one of the founders of the Portuguese commu-
nity in Amsterdam, and his descendants intermar-
ried with the Queridos, da Fonsecas, Pereyras, etc.
Descendants of the Belmonte family still live in
Amsterdam and in Hamburg. The accompanying
two sketch-pedigrees show the relationship of the
principal members of the family.

BELMONTE, B. E. COLACO : Lawyer and
writer in Surinam, Dutch West Indies, about the
middle of the eighteenth century. He published
“ Over de Hervorming van bet Regeringostelsel in
Nederlandsch West-Indie ” (Leyden, 1857); “Werk-
zaamheden der Surinamsche Maatsehapij van
Weldadiglieid ” (Paramaribo, 1858); “NeMands
West-Indie in z. belangen en Dr. W. R. v. Hoevell
in zijn ‘Slaven eu VTijen’” (Leyden, 1855).

J. G.

BELMONTE, BENVENIDA COHEN: Po-
etess; lived in London at the beginning of the eight-
eenth century. She was a sister of the Maecenas
Mordecai Nunez Almeyda, and was among those
who sang the praise of Lopez Laguna’s “Espejo
Fiel de Vidas” (London, 1720). She also wrote a
poem in honor of Samuel Nassy of Surinam.

Bibliography: Kayserling, Sephardim , p. 251; idem, Bihli-

oteca Espan.-Pnrtufi.-Judaica , p. 55: idem, in Jewish

Quarterly Review, xii. 715 ; idem, JUdische Frauen, p. 174 ;

Koenen, Geschiedenis der Joden in Nederland, p. 297.

j. G.

BELMONTE, FRANCISCO DE XIMENES :

Dutch diplomat; lived at Amsterdam during the
first half of the eighteenth century. He was a
nephew of Baron Manuel de Belmonte, whom he

succeeded in 1706 as resident of the king of Spain
in the Netherlands. The office of resident was
abolished when the Bourbons ascended the Spanish
throne.

Bibliography: Resolution van Holland, Jan. 15, 1706; Koe-
nen, Geschiedenis der Joden in Nederland, p.207 ; Da Costa,
Israel en de Volkcu, 2d ed., pp. 287, 431.

D. G.

BELMONTE, ISAAC NUNEZ (’DJICih D'JU):

One of the most prominent of Oriental casuists; son
of Moses Nunez Belmonte; lived in Smyrna at the
end of the eighteenth century, and at the beginning
of the nineteenth. He published a commentary upon
the first and second parts of Maimonides’ Mishnah
Torah under the title “Sha'ar ha-Melek ” (The
King’s Gate), Salonica, 1771; 2d ed., with notes by
Baruch ben Jonah Jeiteles, Brunn, 1801-8; 3ded.,
with notes by Joseph Saul Nathanson, Lemberg,
1859 (the work is one of the most important produc-
tions of Oriental casuistry, and was introduced into
Germany and Poland by Jeiteles in the second edi-
tion); “Derek ha-Sha’ar” (The Gateway), an ora-
tion contained in Raphael (Isaac) Maggio’s “Darke
lia-Yam,” Salonica, 1813.

Bibliography; Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, ii. 686, Vienna,
1864: Steinscbneider, Cat, Bodl. Nos. 5404, 6800 ; Roest, Cat.
der Rosenthal'schen Bihliothek, i. 909 ; Benjacob, Ozar ha -
Sefarim, p. 600, No. 1014 ; Zedner, Cat. Hchr. Boohs British
Museum, pp. 515, 617.

g. L. G.

BELMONTE, ISAAC NUNEZ (Don Manuel

de) : Dutch statesman ; born in Amsterdam ; died
there in 1704. He was not a son of Jacob Bel-
monte who came from Madeira in 1614, as no men-
tion is made of a son Isaac in the records of the Por-
tuguese community at Amsterdam. From the year
1664 he was agent general, and from 1674 resident
of the king of Spain to the Netherlands. He was
created “Comes Palatinus” in 1693 by the German
emperor, and did much to conserve friendly rela-
tions between Spain and the Netherlands. His cor-
respondence with the Spanish government between
the years 1667 and 1691 is preserved in the Biblio-
teca Nacional at Madrid (MS. cc. 50, Nos. 899 and
900).

Nunez was of a literary turn of mind. He wrote
a poem on the martyr Abraham Nunez Bernal; in
1676 he founded the poetic academy Los Sitibun-
dos, and in 1685 the Academia de los Floridos.
In 1683 De Barrios dedicated to him and others his
“Triumpho del Govierno Popular”; in 1689 David
Pardo, his “Compendio de Dinim” (see “Catalogue
. . . de feu M. Isaac da Costa,” No. 2306); and in
1693 Isabelle de Correa, her translation of Babtiste
Guarini’s Italian pastoral “ Pastor Fido” (De los Rios,
“Etudes . . . sur les Juifs d’Espagne,” p. 585).

The beautifully carved tombstone of Isaac Nunez
is still to be seen in the cemetery at Oudekerk near
Amsterdam. It is probable that his son was the
Baron de Belmont who in 1700 addressed a memorial
to Sir William Beeston, governor of Jamaica, con-
cerning the extraordinary taxes levied upon the
Jews of that island (“Proc. Amer. Jew. Hist. Soc.”
ii. 165; Kayserling, in “Jew. Quart. Rev.” xii. 712).

Bibliography: Resolution van Holland, 12 Aug., 26 Sept.,
26 Oct., 22 Dec., 1673 : 9 March, 25 April, 1679: Koenen,
Geseh iedenis der Joden in Nederland, pp. 184,207 ; Da Costa,
Israel en de Volken, 2d ed., pp. 287, 431, 524 ; Kayserling,

Arms of the Belmonte Family.

Belmonte

Belshazzar

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

666

Sephardim, p. 291 ; idem, Bihl.-Espan.-Poi t.-Jud. p. 27 ;
idem, in Rev. Et. Juives, xxxii. 88.

BELMONTE, JACOB ISRAEL: One of the

founders of the Portuguese-Jewish community of
Amsterdam, his colleagues being Jacob Tirado and
Solomon Palache ; born on the island of Madeira in
1570; died at Amsterdam Dec. 4, 1629. He mar-
ried Simhah (Gimar) Vaz, whose picture by her son
Moses is to be found in David Franco Mendes’
“Memorias do Estabelecimento . . . dos Judeos
Portuguezes,” preserved in manuscript in the ar-
chives of thePortuguese congregation at Amsterdam.
Jacob Israel came to Amsterdam on Jan. 13, 1614.
He wrote a poetic account of the Inquisition in one
hundred octaves, which he called “Job.” Of this,
De Barrios (“Rev. Et. Juives,” xviii. 282) says:

“ Contra la Inquisicidn Jacob Belmonte
Un canto tira del Castalio monte
Y comico la Hlstoria de Job canta.”

Together with Raliel Yeshurun and Joseph Israel
Pereyra, Belmonte drew up the articles of incorpo-
ration for the newly acquired burial-ground of the
community in Oudekerk, Jan. 13, 1614. At his
death Morteira founded a yesliibah in his honor.
He left ten children: Sarah i., Sarah ii., Rachel,
David, Rebecca, Joseph, Benjamin, Moses, Solomon,
and Samuel.

Bibliography : De Castro, in Nieuwe Isr. Weekhlaad, 17 Jan.,
1873, No. 26 ; idem, De Sgnagnge der Portug.-Israel.-Ge-
meente te Amsterdam, p. 7 ; idem. Kcur van Grafsteenen,
p. 53 ; Kayserling, Sephardim, pp. 289 (quotes an octave from
his Job), 359 ; idem, Bibl.-Esp. Port.-Jud. p. 27.

BELMONTE, MOSES: Poet and translator;
eighth child of Jacob Belmonte; born 1619; died at
Amsterdam May 29, 1647. He was a pupil of Saul
Morteira, whose sermons (“ Gib'at Slia’ul,” 1645) he
edited together with Benjamin Diaz. His poem
“ Argumenta Contra os Noserim ” has been reprinted
by De Castro in his “ Keur van Grafsteenen,” p. 58.
He translated the Song of Songs into Spanish. It
was published in Hebrew characters in several edi-
tions of the Bible printed at Venice ; then in Amster-
dam, 1644, under the title “Paraphrasis Caldaica en
los Cantares de Selomo con el Texto; Traduzida en
Lengua Espanola.” He also translated the Pirke
Abot into Spanish (“Perakym,” Amsterdam, 1644).

Belmonte founded the society Gemilut Hasadim
in 1639.

Bibliography : Kayserling, Sephardim, pp. 290, 359; idem,
in Revue Etudes juives, xviii. 284; idem, Biblioteca Espan.-
Pnrtuq.-Judaiea, pp. 27, 72; De Rossi-Hamburger, Hist.
W/irterhueh, p. 55 ; Steinschneider, Cat.. Bndl. No. 6434 ; De
Castro. Keur van Grafsteenen op de Nedcrl.-Portug.-Isracl-
Bcgraafplaats te Oudekerk, p. 56.

BELMONTE, MOSES BEN JOSEPH: Wri-
ter in Amsterdam during the first half of the eight-
eenth century. He was the author of a poem in
Hebrew prefixed to the edition of the Pentateuch
and Haftarot published by S. Rodrigues Mendes
(Amsterdam, 1726), and of “Calendario Ebraico
desde el ano 5485 = 1724 hasta el de 5700 = 1940”
(Amsterdam, 1724), an appendix to the “ Seder lia-
Tefillot ” published in the latter year.

Bibliography: Kayserling, Bihlioteca Espan.-Portug.-Ju-
daica, p. 27 ; Cat. . . . de feu Isaac da Costa, No. 2101.

BELMONTE, SOLOMON ABENDANA :

Jurist; born in Hamburg 1843; died there March
19, 1888. He was educated at the Johanneum and
the gymnasium in that city ; then studied law at the
universities of Berlin, Heidelberg, and Gottingen;
and practised as an advocate in his native city, in
conjunction with Dr. Banks (1864), whom he suc-
ceeded in the management of the firm after the
latter’s death, and as director of “Die Reform.” In
his professional career Belmonte displayed consider -
able oratorical gifts, and he became a very popular
counselor.

In 1887 Belmonte was elected deputy to the Ham-
burg Btirgerschaft, and remained a member of that
assembly up to his death. He took part in the work
of many Jewish charitable institutions, and was a
member of the Prison Commission and of the Med-
ical College. For a short time Belmonte held the
office of assistant public prosecutor.

Bibliography: Jewish Chronicle, March 30, 1888, p. 13.

g. B. B.

BELORADO (the old Bilforado; also called
Belorado de la Rioja) : A city in the Spanish
province of Burgos, which had Jewish inhabitants as
early as the end of the eleventh century. Thofuero,
or charter of the city, granted by Alonzo el Bataila-
dor in 1116, and confirmed two hundred years later
by Fernando IV., contains the enactment: “No dif-
ference shall be made between Je5v or Christian in
the matter of adjudging injuries inflicted on each
other.” In 1291 the community of Belorado paid
8,500 maravedis poll-tax and 2,001 maravedis mu-
nicipal tax, about as much as the districts of Aguilar,
Albelda, and Alfacel ; and therefore Belorado had as
many Jewish inhabitants as the districts named.

In Belorado, Jews were required to dwell apart
from the Christians, the quarter of the former being
in the vicinity of the Torre del Homenage. Ac-
cording to the command of King Alfonso X., issued
in 1325, they were allowed to trade with Christians
only on Monday, the market-day ; and eight years
later even this privilege was withdrawn from them,
as well as from the Moors dwelling in the city. The
Jews in Belorado were not only traders, but, like
the Christians, were occasionally cattle-breeders. In
1408 Ayn Meromet or Vidal (Hayyim) de la Cuesta
complained, in the name of the community, that
though they were compelled by the Christians to
sweep the streets and open places, and to repair the
Avails of the city from the Torre del Homenage to the
Arco de D. Blanca, they were nevertheless forbid-
den to drive their herds on the common pasture-
grounds or to hew wood in the mountains. To in-
vestigate this matter the infanta Don Fernando
appointed a commission in which the Jews were
representedb y Ayn Meromet mentioned above, and
by Don Carruel ibn Tropabe, who was probably a
physician. It was agreed, on the one hand, that the
Jews should repair the city walls, and that on Thurs-
day of every week two Jews should have the streets
and open places cleaned alternately ; on the other
hand, it was agreed that the Jews should be al-
lowed to drive their herds into the common pasture-
grounds anil to hew wood.

Gradually the number of Jews in Belorado de-

667

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Belmonte

Belshazzar

creased. While in 1291 they paid 10,500 maravedis
in taxes, in 1474 only 1,500 maravedis were paid by
the community of Belorado together with the Jews
of Ochacastro, Bergano, Villaharte, Quintanar, Villa
de Pozo, Val de San Vicente, San Garcia, and Es-
tordeche. After the expulsion in 1492 the houses
of the Jews were sold at low prices, and the former
Jewry received the name “Barrio Nuevo,” which it
still bears.

Bibliography : .1. Amador de los Rios, Histnria de los Judina
de Expand, ii. 539, iii. 591; Boletin Acad. Hist. xxix. 338
et scq.

G. M. K.

BELOV AR: Town in Croatia, Austria. The
Jewish community of Belovar was founded about
1877, when some fifty Jewish families settled there.

While in Belovar, Moritz Gri'inwald published
there the “ Judisch-Literarisches Centralblatt.” The
community now (1902) numbers about 300 families,
and is the seat of a district rabbinate, the present in-
cumbent being S. D. Tauber. See Croatia,
e. c. A. F.— G.

BELSHAZZAR. — Biblical Data: King of
Babylon mentioned in Dan. v. and viii. as the son
of Nebuchadnezzar and as the last king before the
advent of the Medes and Persians. The Greek
form Ba/lrdfap is used both for the Hebrew “ Bel-
shasar,” or less accurately, (ib. vii. 1), and

for “ Belteshazzar ” Dan. i. 7). The

name appears also in Baruch i. 11 as “Balthasar”
(R. V. “Baltasar”). There can be no doubt, how-
ever, that the allusions to this personage in Baruch
and elsewhere in extracanonical literature are all
based on the data given by Dan. v. and viii.

It is stated in Dan. v. that Belshazzar gave a ban-
quet to the lords and ladies of his court, at which
the sacred vessels of the Jerusalem Temple, which
had been brought to Babylon by Neb-
Bel- ucliadnezzar at the time of the Judean
shazzar’s captivity in 586 b.c., were profaned
Festival, by the ribald company. In conse-
quence of this, during the turmoil of
the festivities, a hand was seen writing on the wall
of the chamber a mysterious sentence which defied
all attempts at interpretation until the Hebrew sage
Daniel was called in. He read and translated the
unknown words, which proved to be a divine men-
ace against the dissolute Belshazzar, whose kingdom
was to be divided between the Medes and Persians.
In the last verse we are told that Belshazzar was
slain in that same night, and that his power passed
to Darius the Mede.

J- JR. I. M. P.

In Rabbinical Literature : The chronology

of the three Babylonian kings is given in the Tal-
mud as follows: Nebuchadnezzar reigned forty-five
years, Evil-merodach twenty-three, and Belshazzar
was monarch of Babylonia for two years, being
killed at the beginning of the third year on the fatal
night of the fall of Babylon (Meg. lift).

The references in the Talmud and the Midrash to
Belshazzar all emphasize his tyrannous oppression
of his Jewish subjects. Several passages in the
Prophets are interpreted as though referring to him

and his predecessors. In the passage, “As if a man
did flee from a lion, and a bear met him ” (Amos v.
19), the lion represents Nebuchadnezzar, and the
bear, equally ferocious if not equally courageous,
is Belshazzar (Esther R., Introduction). The three
Babylonian kings are often mentioned together as
forming a succession of impious and tyrannous mon-
arclis who oppressed Israel and were therefore fore-
doomed to disgrace and destruction. The verse in
Isa. xiv. 22, “And I will rise up against them, saith
the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon name
and remnant and son and grandchild, saith the
Lord,” is applied to the trio. “Name” refers to
Nebuchadnezzar, “remnant” to Evil-merodach,
“son” is Belshazzar, and “grandchild” Vashti (ib.).
The command given to Abraham to cut in pieces
three heifers as a part of the covenant established
between him and his God, is thus elucidated, “And
he said unto him, take unto me three heifers” (Gen.
xv. 9 [A. V. “a heifer of three years old ”]). This
symbolizes Babylonia, which gave rise to three
kings, Nebuchadnezzar, Evil-merodach, and Bel-
shazzar, whose doom is prefigured by this act of
“cutting to pieces” (Gen. R. xliv.).

Belshazzar’s feast, in the course of which the sa-
cred vessels of the Temple in Jerusalem were put to
sacrilegious use (Dan. v.), is traced by the Rabbis
to his miscalculation in chronology. He well knew
that the period of Jewish exile in Babylonia, accord-
ing to Jeremiah’s prophecy, was not to exceed sev-
enty years (Jer. xxix. 10). Belshazzar’s starting-
point was the accession of Nebuchadnezzar, who
reigned forty-five years. To this he added the reign
of Evil-merodach, which, according to tradition,
continued for twenty-three years, and his own reign
of two years, making in all seventy. “Jeremiah
must be wrong,” argued Belshazzar, “for the limit
has been reached, and since the Jews have not yet
returned to their land, they probably will not return
any more.” Emboldened by this erroneous calcula-
tion, he made impious use of the sacred vessels at
the royal feast, where the sound of revelry mingled
with hymns to the heathen gods. The miraculous
handwriting on the wall, the fall of Babylon, and
the king's violent death on that fatal night soon
followed. Aliasuerus also erred in his calculation
as to the period of the Babylonian exile, though his
starting-point is shifted to a later date than that of
Belshazzar. The Rabbis assert that the true basis
for this reckoning is the destruction of Jerusalem.
For the famous prophecy of Jeremiah is properly
understood by Daniel when he says (Dan. ix. 2),
“In the first year of his [Darius’] reign, I Daniel
understood by books the number of the years,
whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the
prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in
the desolations of Jerusalem ” (Meg. 116 et seq.).

The Midrash enters into the details of Belshaz-
zar’s death. It is stated that Cyrus and Darius were
employed as doorkeepers of the royal palace. Bel-
shazzar, being greatly alarmed at the mysterious
handwriting on the wall, and apprehending that
some one in disguise might enter the palace with
murderous intent, ordered his doorkeepers to behead
every one who attempted to force an entrance that
night, even though such person should claim to be

Belshazzar
Bemidbar Rabbah

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

668

the king himself. Belshazzar, overcome by sickness,
left the palace unobserved during the night through
a rear exit. On his return the doorkeepers refused
to admit him. In vain did he plead that lie was the
king. They said, “ Has not the king ordered us to
put to death any one who attempts to enter the pal-
ace, though he claim to be the king himself V”
Suiting the action to the word, Cyrus and Darius
grasped a heavy ornament forming part of a cande-
labrum, and with it shattered the skull of their
royal master (Cant. R. iii. 4). See Daniel, and
Nebuchadnezzar in Rabbinical Literature,
j. sr. H. M. S.

Critical View: The name “ Belshazzar ” was

previously held to have been invented by the author
of the Book of Daniel, which has long been recog-
nized as a Maccabean production (see Daniel). Since
the discovery and decipherment of the cuneiform in-
scriptions, however, “Belshazzar” is now generally
admitted to be the Hebrew-Aramaic equivalent of the
Babylonian form “ Belsharusur ” (Bel preserve the
king), which has been found in the cuneiform docu-
ments as the name of the eldest son of Nabonidus
(Nabuna’id), the last native king of Babylon (555-
538 b.c.). The most important allusions to Belshar-
usur in Babylonian literature are clearly those in
the two inscriptions of Ur (Nabonidus) (see Prince,
“Daniel,” p. 36), and in the so-called “Annals of
Nabonidus ” (see Mene), which is the chief document
relating to the fall of Babylon at the hands of the
Persians. In the Ur records Naboni-
The Name dus prays that his son may live long
“Bel- and piously, although it is not stated
shazzar.” why special mention should be made
of the prince here. It may be conjec-
tured, with Tiele (“Gesch. Assyrieus,” p. 463), that
Belshazzar was governor of Ur; or it is possible that
the king, who was noted for his strictness in relig-
ious matters, may have attached some special impor-
tance to the cult of the moon-god practised in Ur.
The petition that the king’s son may not incline to
sin may also imply that Belshazzar had in some
way offended the religious classes, who, as is well
known, supervised the preparation of the inscrip-
tions. The allusion to the prince in the “ Annals of
Nabonidus ” shows plainly that he remained with
the army in northern Babylonia, most probably in
the capacity of commander-in-chief, while his father
was living in Tema apparently free from the cares
of government and applying himself to his favorite
study of religious archeology. In the “Annals” the
name “ Belsharusur ” does not occur, the reference
being merely to the son of the king; but there can
be no doubt that the first-born is meant. The refer-
ences in the contract, literature to Belshazzar throw
no further historical light on his career (see Prince,
ib. pp. 263, 264). That the name was not an un-
usual one is seen from the fact that certainly two
other persons are called by it in the
Contrast Babylonian inscriptions (Prince, ib. ,
with pp. 11, 29, 35).

History. The following important differences
between Belsharusur and the Belshaz-
zar of Daniel are patent. The former was the son
of the last king of Babylon, but never reigned,

except possibly as coregent with his father; while
the latter is distinctly called the last king and the
son of Nebuchadnezzar, both of which statements
are undoubtedly made in perfectly good faith by
the author of Daniel.

It can not be shown that the Belshazzar of Daniel
was intended, as some scholars have supposed, for
Evil-merodach, son of Nebuchadnezzar, and was
used by the Biblical author as a secondary name.
Had the author meant this, he would never have
made Daniel declare to the Babylonian monarch that
his kingdom was about to pass to the Medes and
Persians. The prophecy was evidently intended for
the last king, as there would have been no point in
such a warning delivered a generation before its ful-
filment. Besides this, had the author regarded his
Belshazzar as Evil-merodach, he would have delib-
erately passed over in silence the reigns of several
Babylonian kings between the death of Evil-mero-
dach and the foreign supremacy. This will ap-
pear plainly from an examination of the list of the
last kings of Babylon: Nebuchadnezzar, 604-561;
Amel-Marduk (Evil-merodach), 561-559 ; Nergalsliar-
usur (Neriglissar), 559-555; Labashi-Marduk, 555,
reigned only nine months; Nabonidus, 555-538; Cy-
rus captures Babylon, 538. There can be no doubt
then that the author of Daniel regarded Belshazzar
as the last native king of Babylon.

While it is historically possible that Belsharusur
may have been coregent, it is clear that the writer of
Daniel could not have thought this, as he would
hardly have given him the unqualified title “king
of Babylon ” without further elucidation; compare
chap. viii. , where there is no mention of any over-
ruler.

Finally, the statement that Belshazzar was the son
of Nebuchadnezzar shows conclusively that the his-
torical data of the Biblical author were at fault. It
is impossible also to reconcile this

Illustra- assertion with the facts by supposing
tions from that “ sou ” here is to be translated
Cuneiform “descendant” or “grandson” (so Pu-
Doc- sey, “Daniel,” p. 346), which is of

uments. course grammatically permissible.

The way, however, in which Nebu-
chadnezzar is referred to in chap. v. shows conclu-
sively that the author could have had no knowledge
of the intervening kings, but that he really consid-
ered Nebuchadnezzar to be the actual father of Bel-
shazzar. The narrative of the fifth chapter follows
directly on the chapters about Nebuchadnezzar, and
begins with the statement that Belshazzar was the
son of that king; and, furthermore, the remark of
Belshazzar in verse 13, “Art thou that Daniel . . .
whom the king my father brought from Jewry?”
would have had no force if the king were referring to
an ancestor. Had such been the author’s meaning,
the name “Nebuchadnezzar ” would certainly have
been repeated in order to show to which “father”
the king was alluding. In addition to all this, there
is no evidence that Belsharusur was in any way
related to Nebuchadnezzar. Nabonidus, his father,
was the son of a nobleman, Nabu-balatsu-ikbi, and
was probably a usurper against the older house of
Nebuchadnezzar. There is nothing to show that he
was connected by blood or marriage with any of the

669

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Belshazzar
Bemidbar Rabbah

preceding kings. It is interesting to observe in this
connection that in the Chaldean legend given by
Abydenus, of doubtful date, the last king of Baby-
lon is spoken of as a son of Nebuchadnezzar (com-
pare Schrader, in “ Jahrbttcher fur Protest. Tlieolo-
gie,” 1881, pp. 618-629).

It should be remarked that the force of the narra-
tive of the fifth chapter of Daniel would have been
materially weakened had the author known and
made use of the names of the kings

Aim of intervening between Nebuchadnezzar

Daniel v. and the last king. The whole point of
the fifth chapter is a comparison be-
tween the great Nebuchadnezzar, the real founder of
the Babylonian monarchy, and the insignificant last
king who suffered the reins of government to slip
from his feeble hands, with a prophetic emphasis
on the coming stranger people who should divide
among them the empire of Nebuchadnezzar.

There can be no doubt that the son of Nabonidus
was the prototype of the Biblical Belshazzar The
author of Daniel simply did not have correct data at
hand. We must not be surprised at the incongruity
between the historical inscriptions and the Book of
Daniel in this instance, but should rather note the
very evident points of agreement : first, that while
the Belshazzar of Daniel is represented as being the
last king, the original of the tradition — whose name
is etymologically equivalent to “Belshazzar” — -was
actually the son of the last king ; and secondly, that
the son of Nabonidus probably met his death at the
time of the capture of Babylon, as has recently been
established (compare Prince, ib. p. 103), in partial
agreement with the Biblical account of the final feast
of Belshazzar.

That such a festival really took place on the eve
of the capture of Babylon is not improbable. Al-
though there is no parallel account in the inscrip-
tions, it certainly seems significant that both Herod-
otus and Xenophon allude to a feast at this time.
Thus, according to Herodotus, i. 191, Babylon was
captured while the besieged were off their guard
during a festival; and Xenophon, alluding to the
capture of Babylon, states that Cyrus had heard that
a feast was going forward (“ Cyropsedia,” viii. 5,
15). See Daniel, Mene, Nebuchadnezzar.

J. JR. I. M. P.

BELTESHAZZAR : The name given to Daniel
by the chief of the eunuchs (Dan. i. 7). The writer
of the Book of Daniel sees in the first syllable the
god Bel, but it is more probable that the name is to
be explained as the Babylonian “ balatsu [or “ bal-
atusliu ”]-usur,” “May [Bel] guard his life” (Schra-
der, “0. I. 6. T.” ii. 125; compare Kohler, in “Zeit.
fiir Assyriologie,” iv. 49). George Hoffmann, how-
ever, translates the name “ May Belit guard the king ”
(“Zeit. fiir Assyriologie,” ii. 56).

g. G. B. L.

BELTRAN, DIEGO DE HIDALGO: Poet;
Spanish Marano of the seventeenth century ; son of
a Jew from Murcia. He was noted as an editor and
commentator of Spanish popular poetry. The fol-
lowing charming example of the redondilla (rounde-
lay) is from his pen :

“ O no mirar 6 morir

decis, pensainiento amando ?
mas vale morir mirando
que no mirando vivir.”

Ilnu.iooRMMiY : Amador de los Rios, Estudins Histbricos,

Politicos y Liter arios sohre Los Judios de Expand, pp. 551

G- M. Iv.

BEMAH. See Almemar.

BEMIDBAR (“in the wilderness”): The He-
brew name for the Book of Numbers.

J- JR- G. B. L.

BEMIDBAR RABBAH : The Midrash com-
mentary upon Numbers, called in the editio princeps
of Constantinople (1512) “Bemidbar Sinai Rabbah,”
and so cited frequently by Nalimanides and others.
It is the latest component of the “ Rabbot ” collection
upon the Pentateuch, and as such was unknown to
‘Aruk, Rashi, and Yalkut. It consists of two parts,
which are of different origin and extent. The first
portion, sections i.-xiv. (ed. Venice, 1545, parashah
“Bemidbar,” fol. 135 a to 145c; parashah “Naso,”
fol. 145c to 1785) — almost three-quarters of the whole
work — contains a late liaggadic commentary upon
Num. i.-vii. ; the second part, sections xv.-xxxiii.
(fol. 1785 to 194d, ed. Venice), reproduces the Midrash
Tanhuma from Num. viii. almost word for word.
The consideration of the second portion will there-
fore be found in the article Tanhuma. There also
the form of the homilies of the Tanhuma Midrash,
their halakic introductions, their proems, their ex-
position covering in each case only a few verses of
the text, their regular formulas of conclusion, are
more appropriately considered. Suffice it to state
here that the second portion of Bemid-
Relation to bar Rabbah follows closely those read-
Tanhuma. ings of the Tanhuma which are famil-
iar from the oldest edition (compare
Buber’s Introduction to his edition of the Tanhuma,
pp. 38 aetseq.)- and that M. Beneviste, in the preface
to“Ot Emet” (Salonica, 1565), drew attention as
early as 1565 to the fact that Tanhuma and Bemidbar
Rabbah are almost identical from the section “ Be-
ha'aloteka ” onward. Buber gives a list of the varia-
tions between the two (ib. 39u etseq.). The passages
drawn from the Pesikta Rabbati (Zunz, “G. V.” p.
259, note) are to be found exclusively in the first
or later part of this Midrash. This is true also,
with the exception of the interpretation of the nu-
merical value of the Hebrew word for “fringes,” of
the other passages pointed out by Zunz as origina-
ting with later, and notably French, rabbis. This
numerical interpretation just mentioned forms a part
of a passage, also otherwise remarkable, at the end
of the section “ Korah ” (xviii. 21), which, taken from
Bemidbar Rabbah, was interpolated in the editio
princeps of the Tanhuma as early as 1522 (Constan-
tinople), but is absent from all the manuscripts.
Another long passage, ib. 22, which belongs to the
beginning of “ Hukkat,” as in Tanhuma, is errone-
ously appended in the editions to the same section,
“Ivorah.”

The halakic exordium at the beginning of the sec-
ond part, on Num. viii. 1, is cut down to its conclu-
ding passage; the Paris MS., Cod. No. 150, and a MS.
in the possession of Epstein, contain the exordium

Bemidbar Rabbah
Ben-A vigdor

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

670

complete with its customary formula, 1JUT
as usual in Tanhuma, which formula reappears
throughout this portion of Bemidbar Rabbah, while
in the editions, in section xv., Nos. 11, 17; sec. xvi.,
Nos. 1, 26; xvii. No. 1; sec. xx. Nos. 21, 22; sec.
xxi. No. 2; xxii. No. 7 ; xxiii. Nos. 1, 7, the formula
is changed to lu section xxi., beginning, and

Nos. 16 and 23, the exordiums of Tanhuma, Pinhas,
Nos. 12 and 15 (Nos. 11, and 13, Buber) have been
omitted, as also in section xxii., beginning, Nos. 1
and 2 (compare Buber, pp. 476, 516).

The portions of Numbers to which there are Tan-
huma homilies in this portion of Bemidbar Rabbah
arc intended for public worship according to the
divisions of the cycle of the sedarim and the Pesikta.
The well-known variations existing in the division
into sedarim probably explain why some of the old
sedarim, as Num. xi. 23 (xvii. 16), xviii. 25, xxiii. 10,
xxviii. 26, xxxi. 25, are here without these homilies,
while such are appended — or at least fragments of
such — to the passages, Num. viii. 5, xiv. 26, xv.
37, xx. 7-13, xxiv. 3. In an article in the “ Monats-
schrift,” 1885, p. 351 et seq., upon “ the Midrashim to
the Pentateuch and the three-year cycle
For of Palestine ” (to which reference may
Synagogue be had for many details omitted here),
Recitation, the undersigned has registered 32 or
33 sedarim in Numbers (see “Monats-
schrift,” 1886, p. 443), while the rabbinical Bible of
Venice, 1617, contains a note stating that, according
to some codices, Numbers contains 28 sedarim.

It is evident that in this portion of Bemidbar
Rabbah, as in its source, the Tanhuma, the collected
homilies have been considerably metamorphosed and
disjointed. Many are quite fragmentary, and others
so discursive that they treat of the whole seder in
extenso , contrary to the usual practise of this Mid-
rash. Although the marking of the parashiyot at
their beginnings and in marginal superscriptions is
a departure in the Venice edition (in the editio pr in-
ceps, the expression SIT'D P'^D stands only at the
end of section v.), the sections of the second part are
indicated according to the usual notation of the
parashiyot. With the exception of sections 16 and
17, which belong to “ Shelah Leka,” each section con-
tains a parashah of the one-year cycle, which was
already recognized when Bemidbar Rabbah was
compiled ; there are even Tanhuma Midrashim extant
with divisions according to the parashiyot, while the
Tanhuma, in its earliest editions, is alone in using
the original arrangement based on the sedarim-cycle.
In Bemidbar Rabbah, even in the newest editions,
the divisions according to separate homilies are no
longer recognizable. The following conspectus of
the contents of this second part may therefore, be
interesting: (1) section xv. 1-10, upon Num. viii. 1;
(2) ib. 11, 12, upon Num. viii. 5; (3) ib. 13-16, upon
Num. x. 1; (4) ib. 17-25, upon Num. xi. 16; (5) section
xvi. 1-11 (= Tanli., “Shelah,” 1-7, Tanli. ed. Buber,
1-11) upon Num. xiii. 1 ; (6) ib. 12-23 (= Tanli. 8-13;
Tanli. Buber, 12-25, is not in the Vatican MS.) com-
ment upon Num. xiii. 17 to xiv. 23; (7) ib. 24, 25
(Tanli. Buber, addition, 1-6, Vatican MS.) homily
upon Num. xiv. 11; (8) ib. 26-28 (compare Tanli.
Buber, addition, 7-14, Vatican MS.) upon Num. xiv.
26 ; (9) section xvii. 1-4, upon Num. xv. 1 ; (10) ib. 5,

6, upon Num. xv. 37; (11) section xviii. 1-20, upon
Num. xvi. ; (12) ib. 21, an addition ni^lDD nvniK,
contained in none of the Tanhuma MS. ; (13) ib. 23,
a fragment of a homily on Num. xvii. 16; (14) ib. 22
and section xix. 1-8, on Num. xix. 1 ; (15) ib. 9-14,
commentary on Num. xx. 7-13; (16) 15-33, contin-
uous exposition of Num. xx. 14-xxi. 35; (17) sec.
xx. 1-20, explanation of Num. xxii. 2-xxiii. 24; (18)
ib. 21, upon Num. xxiv. 3; (19) ib. 22-25, upon Num.
xxv. 1 ; (20) section xxi. 1 and 3-7, upon Num. xxv.
10; (21) ib. 8-13, upon Num. xxvi. 52; (22) ib. 2 and
14, 15, upon Num. xxvii. 15; (23) ib. 16-22, upon
Num. xxviii. 1; (24) ib. 23-25, on Num. xxix. 35;
(25) section xxii. 1, upon Num. xxx. 2; (26) ib. 2-6,
upon Num. xxxi. 1; (27) ib. 7-9, upon Num. xxxii.
1 ; (28) section xxiii. 1-4, on Num. xxxiii. 1 ; (29) ib.
5-12, on Num. xxxiv. 1; (30) ib. 13-14, upon Num.
xxxv. 9.

Since the second part of Bemidbar Rabbah, addi-
tions excepted, is derived from the Tanhuma Mid-
rashim, the question arises whether it and part 1
(sec. i.-xiv.) are to be ascribed to one author. That
the author of the comparatively late commentary on
the parashiyot “ Bemidbar ” and “ Naso ” — supposing
that the Midrash upon these two is

Author- the work of a single author — should
ship. have deliberately rounded out his in-
complete work with the Midrasli Tan-
huma is certainly highly improbable. According
to Epstein (“Beitrage zur Jiidischen Alterthums-
kunde,” p. 70) some unknown author wrote the
Midrash upon the parashah “Bemidbar” in order to
complete the Sifre, which commences with Num. v.
1 ; another then continued it with the commentary
on “Naso,” and in order to complete the work for
the remainder of Numbers, the commentary for the
remaining parashiyot was drawn from Tanhuma. It
must also be mentioned that Cod. Hebr. 149 of the
Paris National Library, dating from the year 1291,
contains only the parashah “Bemidbar,” while the
Munich Cod. 97, 2 (Steinschneider), dated 1418,
covers only this and “Naso.”

Even the first part contains much that is taken
from the Tanhuma: “ but a copious stream of new
Ilaggadah swallows the Midrash drawn from this
source and entirely obscures the arrangement of the
Yelamdenu” (Zunz, “G. V.” p. 260). In the para-
shah “Bemidbar,” the outer framework of the orig-
inal composition is still recognizable. There are five
sections, containing five homilies or fragments of
such, taken from the Tanhuma upon Num. i. 1, ii. 1,
iii. 14, iii. 40, and iv. 1 7, which are expanded by some
very discursive additions. As Tanhuma only treats
of the first verses of each chapter, no doubt the au-
thor’s intention was to supply haggadic commen-
tary to the others. But in the section upon “ Naso,”
which is more than three times the volume of that
preceding, there are long passages which have no
relation to the Tanhuma homilies, based as they are
upon the sedarim-cycle, and commencing in “Naso ”
with Num. v. 11. Sections vi., vii., viii., x., which,
like the other lengthy sections in which the material
derived from the Tanhuma is overwhelmed in a flood
of new Haggadot, show even more clearly the en-
deavor to supply homilies and continuous exposi-
tions for all sections of “Naso.” Very truly has

671

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bemidbar Rabbah
Ben-Avig-dor

Zunz (“ G. V. ” p. 261)said: “Instead of the brief ex-
planations or allegories of the ancients, instead of
their uniform citation of authorities, we have here
compilations from halakic and haggadic works, in-
termingled with artificial and often trivial applica-
tions of Scripture, and for many pages continuously
we find no citation of any source whatever.” Never-
theless, most remarkable indeed was the industry of
the unknown author of this imperfect work— a frag-
ment, no doubt, of his original purpose. The skill
calls for wonder and appreciation, which enabled
him (sections xiii. and xiv. on Num. vii.) to give a
different interpretation to each one of the twelve
passages enumerating the offerings of princes of the
tribes — identical in all but the name of the prince
(“Monatsschrift,” xxxv., p. 44o).

This portion of the Bemidbar Rabbah shows all
the marks of the late haggadic age ;

Ap- there is much which can be referred
proximate to R. Moses ha-Darshan, and which
Date. reveals a connection with Midrash
Tadshe. The work is, according to
Zunz, hardly older than the twelfth century.

Bibliography: Zunz, G. V. 1st ed.. pp. 258-262: Weiss, Dor
Dor ive-Dorshaw, iii. 266 et sec/.; Epstein, BcitrUyc, z. JIM.
Alterthumsltunde , Vienna, 1887, pp. 70-76; idem, rump
Nmron.n, p. li; winter and Wunsche, Jlld. Literatur , i. 510
et seq. For translation see Wunsche, Midrasch Bemidbar
Rabba. See also Bibliography to article Berkshit Kabbah,
etc.

J. SB. J T.

BEMO?A’E MENU?AH (IHTOD \SVm3):

The “ pizmon ” of the “selihot ” on the first Sunday
in the octave preceding the New-Year, and therefore
honored witli a special melody. The first verse of the

BEN-ABINADAB : Commissariat officer of Sol-
omon who married a daughter of his royal master.
He was stationed in the district of Dor; that is, the
modern Tanturah (I Kings iv. 11, R. y.).

J- JE- G. B. L.

BEN ADRET SOLOMON B. ABR. See
Adret.

BEN AMI. See Rabinovich, I. M.

BEN-AMM1 (“son of my people”; “son of
Ammi ): Son of Lot, and ancestor of the Ammonites
(Gen. xix. 38).

G- G. B. L.

BEN ASHER. See Aaron ben Moses ben
Asher.

BEN-AVIGDOR (pen-name, Abraham Leib
Shalkovich) : Russian Hebrew novelist and pub-
lisher; born in Zlieludok, government of Wilna, in
1867. He received the usual Biblical and Talmiid-
ical education, and was expected by his parents to
become a rabbi ; but he was attracted by modern
Hebrew and Zionism, and engaged in writing and
publishing as a vocation. In 1891 he was called to
Warsaw to become secretary of a Zionist society.
There he began to publish a popular “library,” or
series of original short stories under the name “ Sifre
Agurah ” (Penny Books), and in the following four
years brought out thirty -one numbers. They inclu-
ded six novels and novelettes by himself, the others
being by the best-known Hebrew writers of the day,
such as Friscliman, Perez, Taviov, and Brainin.
Later he was one of the founders, and for three years
the manager of the publication society Ahiasaf,
which has accomplished much in spreading and

BEMOZA’E

Andante assai.

0 i

3s -s | =i n

=t q

IS \ S-

Be - mo -

-l — i —

’e . . . .

• 1-0 0 • 0 ' 0 0

me - nu - bah, Kid - dam

nu - ka

—0 0^0

te - bil -

As comes to end... the Day of Rest, To stand be - fore Thee each one es -

9t b >

-p . * ys -V

—

-1 *—*-—-0 -rt-0 — 0

SZ~ J ^

S — 0 — 0 — m — m—

~i - -

lab Hat oz - ne - ka mim-ma - rom, yo - sheb.. te - hil - lab,

says.... In - cline Thine ear to us be - low, 0 Thou.. en-tlironed in praise,

p Refrain.

■S— >

~Z^~\

largo.

_ v- >

1 S |j

-e? —

1— si 1—

—m -m—

-50—

-E

P- — F* — 1

t? * *

-=* 0 H

Lish - mo

_ _ _

a‘ el

rin -

nah

w’el hat - te -

fil - lab.

And hark

en to

the

pray -

and to the

praise.

hymn is also chanted in some German congregations
(Minhag Ashkenaz) in the closing service of Atone-
ment. The melody itself, by no means ancient,
shows some antique characteristics of Hebrew mel-
ody in tonality and in structure. As customary in
such piyvutim, which are largely centi of Biblical
phrases, the refrain is a text; viz., a part of I Kings
viii. 28.

popularizing the newly revived Hebrew literature.
When he left the Ahiasaf company he founded a
similar publishing-house, called “ Tushiah ” (Sound
Knowledge), of which he is the editor and, with
M. Balascher, manager. It has published various
scientific works, both original and translations, and
numerous works of fiction, and is one of the most
potent agencies for the diffusion of knowledge
among the Hebrew reading public.

F. L. C.

Ben ‘Azzai
Ben Chananja

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

672

As a writer, Ben-Avigdor is original and lias
considerable power of description and expression.
Some of his longer stories — e.g., “Leali Mokeret lia-
Dagim ” and “ Menahem ha-Sofer ” — attracted much
attention. Other stories of his and some articles
gave occasion for interesting polemics. He was at-
tacked not only for his ideas as a Nationalist, but also
for his style, which he modeled after the so-called
“new direction,” caring more for being understood
than for the purity of Biblical Hebrew. Some of
his stories were published in the Aliiasaf annuals.

Bibliography : Ha-Meliz , 1889, Nos. 82-86 : Ha-Axif, 1894,
pp. 213-224 (review of liis two works); Lippe, BibUogra-
phisches Lexikun , new series, Vienna, 1899, p. 32: private
sources.

H. It. P. Wl.

BEN ‘AZZAI : A distinguished tanna of the
first third of the second century. His full name
was Simon b. ‘Azzai, to which sometimes the title
“ Rabbi ” is prefixed. But, in spite of his great learn-
ing, this title did not rightfully belong to him ; for
he remained all his life in the ranks of the “tal-
midim ” or “ talmide liakamim ” (pupils or disciples
of the wise). Ben ‘Azzai and Ben Zoma were con-
sidered in the taunaitic school-tradition as the high-
est representatives of this degree in the hierarchy of
learning (Tosef., Kid. iii. 9; Bab. Kid. 496;Ber. Kid.
576; Yer. Ma'as. Sli. ii. 53 d; Bab. Sanli. 176). Ben
‘Azzai is especially named as an eminent example of
a “pupil who is worthy of the liora’ah,”of the right
of independent judgment in questions of religious
law (Hor. 26). Ben ‘Azzai stood in close relation
to the leaders of the school of Jabneh. He handed
down, “ from the mouth of two-and-seventy elders,”
who were present on the occasion, a halakic decision,
which was accepted in Jabneh on the day when
Eleazar b. Azariali was elected presi-
Connection dent in the place cf Gamaliel II. (Yad.

with iv. 2; Zeb. i. 3); also another resolu-
the Canon, tion of the same day, declaring the
books Kohelet and Shir lia-Shin i to
be as sacred as the other Scriptures, where' / the
collection of the Biblical writings, or the canon, was
officially closed (Yad. iii. 5).

Chief among Ben ‘Azzai’s teachers was Joshua
b. Hananiah, whose opinions lie expounded (Parah i.
1), proved to be correct (Yeb. iv. 13), or defended
against Akiba (Yoma ii. 3; Ta'anit iv. 4; Tosef.,
Sheb. ii. 13). Akiba himself was not really Ben
‘Azzai’s teacher, although the latter occasionally
calls him so, and once even regrets that he did not
stand in closer relation as pupil to Akiba (Ned. 746);
and he expressed the same regret in regard to Ish-
mael b. Elisha (Hul. 71a). In his halakic opinions
and Biblical exegesis, as well as in other sayings,
Ben ‘Azzai follows Akiba; and, from
Relations the tone in which he speaks of Akiba
with in the discourses that have been
Akiba. handed down, the Amoraim concluded
that his relations with Akiba were
both those of pupil and of colleague (Yer. B. B. ix.
176; Bab. ib. 1586; Yer. Sliek. iii. 476; Yer. R. H.
i. 56d).

Ben ‘Azzai’s most prominent characteristic was
the extraordinary assiduity with which he pursued
his studies. It was said of him afterward, “ At the
death of Ben ‘Azzai the last industrious man passed

away ” (Sotah ix. 15). A later tradition (Midr. Hallel)
says of the zealous studies of Ben ‘Azzai and Akiba
— by way of reference to Ps. cxiv. 8 — that in their
perceptive faculty both had been as hard as rock;
but, because they exerted themselves so greatly in
their studies, God opened for the man entrance into
the Torah, so that Ben ‘Azzai could explain even
those things in the Halakah that the schools of
Shammai and Hillel had not understood. His love
of study induced Ben ‘Azzai to remain unmarried, al-
though he himself preached against
His Piety celibacy, and even was betrothed to
and Akiba’s daughter, who waited for
Devotion to years for him to marry her, as her
Study. mother had waited for Akiba (Ket.

63«). When Eleazar b. Azariah re-
proved him for this contradiction between his life
and his teachings, he replied: “What shall I do?
My soul clings lovingly to the Torah; let others
contribute to the preservation of the race ” (Tos.
Yeb. viii. 4; Bab. ib. 636; Gen. R. xxxiv. ; compare
Sotah 46).

Another characteristic of Ben ‘Azzai was his great
piety. It was said, “He who has seen Ben ‘Azzai
in his dreams is himself on the way to piety ” (Ber.
576). Thanks to this piety he could, without injury
to his soul, devote himself to theosophic specula-
tions, when he, like Ben Zoma, Elisha b. Abuyah,
and Akiba, entered, as tradition has it, into the
garden (“ pardes ”) of the esoteric doctrine. Tra-
dition (Hag. 146) says of him: “He beheld the mys-
teries of the garden and died ; God granted him the
death of His saints” (Ps. cxvi. 15). With reference
to this verse, Ben ‘Azzai himself had taught that
God shows to the pious, near the hour of their
death, the rewards awaiting them (Gen. R. lxii. ).
Other sayings of his concerning the hour of death
have been handed down (Ab. R. N. xxv.). Accord-
ing to a tradition not entirely trustworthy, Ben
‘Azzai was among the first victims of the persecu-
tions under Hadrian ; his name, therefore, is found
on a list of the “ ten martyrs ” (Lam. R. ii. 2).

Ben ‘Azzai’s posthumous fame was extraordinary.
The greatest amora of Palestine, Johanan, and the
greatest amora of Babylonia, Rab,
His Repu- each said, in order to mark their au-
tation. tliority as teachers of the Law: “Here
I am a Ben ‘Azzai” (Yer. Bik. ii. 65a;
Yer. Peah vi. 19c). The name of Ben ‘Azzai is ap-
plied in the same sense by the great Babylonian
amora Abaye (Sotah 45a; Kid. 20a; ‘Ar. 306) and
Raba (‘Er. 29«). A haggadic legend of Palestine
relates of him the following: “Once, as Ben ‘Azzai
was expounding the Scriptures, flames blazed up
around him, and being asked whether he was a stu-
dent of the mysteries of the ‘Chariot of God,’ he
replied: ‘I string together, like pearls, the words
of th 3 Torah with those of the Prophets, and those
of the Prophets with those of the Hagiographers;
and therefore the words of the Torah rejoice as on
the day when they were revealed in the flames of
Sinai’” (Lev. R. xvi. ; Cant. R. i. 10).

Under Ben ‘Azzai’s name, traditional literature
has preserved many sentences, with and without Bib-
lical foundation. Two of these have been taken
over into the sayings of the Fathers (Ab. iv. 2, 3).

673

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ben ‘Azzai
Ben Chananja

After a saying of Ben ‘Azzai, at the beginning of
the third chapter of “ Derek Erez Kabbah,” this lit-
tle book — which began originally with that chapter
— is called “Perek Ben ‘Azzai” (Kashi to Ber. 22a;
Tos. to ‘Er. 53 6). In a sentence that recalls a fun-
damental thought of Akiba, Ben ‘Azzai gives the
characteristic features of a kind of deterministic view
of the world : “ By thy name they shall call thee, at
the place where thou belongest shall they see thee,
what is thine they shall give to thee ; no man touches
that which is destined for his neighbor ; and no gov-
ernment infringes even by a hair’s breadth upon the
time marked for another government” (Yoma 38a
et seq. ). Following Hillel, Akiba had declared the
commandment “tlioushalt love thy neighbor as thy-
self” (Lev. xix. 18) to be the greatest fundamental
commandment of the Jewish doctrine; Ben ‘Azzai,
in reference to this, said that a still greater principle
was found in the Scriptural verse, “This is the book
of the generations of Adam [origin of man]. In the
day that God created man [Adam], in the likeness
of God made he him” (Gen. v. 1; Sifra, Kedosliim,
iv. ; Yer. Ned. ix. 41c; Gen. R. xxiv.). The com-
mandment to love God with all the
The soul (Deut. vi. 5), Ben ‘Azzai ex-

Greatest plained in the same manner as Akiba;

Principle. “ Love him even to the last breath of
the soul!” (Sifre, Deut. 32). Several
of Ben ‘Azzai’s liaggadic sentences, having been
called forth by those of Akiba, are introduced by
the words, “ I do not wish to oppose the interpreta-
tion of my master, but will only add to his words ”
(Sifra, Wayikra, ii. ; Mek., Bo, Introd.).

Ben ‘Azzai’s observations on sacrifices (Sifre,
Num. 143) are obviously directed against Gnosticism.
As against the doctrine of the Gnostics, that the
part of the Law containing the rules of sacrifice
could have originated only with a secondary god,
the demiurge, who is merely just, not beneficent,
Ben ‘Azzai maintains, that in connection with the
sacrificial laws, not any one of the various names
of God is there used, but precisely the distinctive
name, the Tetragrammaton, in which especially the
goodness of God is emphasized, in order that the
“ minim ” (disbelievers) might not have an oppor-
tunity to prove their views by the Bible. Ben ‘Az-
zai’s symbolic interpretation of the first word of
Lamentations (ns'N) is also polemical and probably
directed against Pauline Christianity. He holds that
in the numerical value of the four letters of this word
is indicated that the Israelites did not go into exile
until after they had denied the one God ({4), the ten
commandments ('), the law of circumcision, given
to the twentieth generation after Adam (3), and the
five (ri) books of the Torah (Lam. R. i. 1).

j. sr. W. B.

BEN BAG-BAG : An early tanna. At the end
of the Mishnah Abot (v. 22, 23) two sentences are
given concerning the study of the Torah; one by
Ben Bag-Bag, the other by Ben He-H6. Both sen-
tences are also ascribed to Hillel (Ab. R. N. xii.) ; as
indeed in their pithy language as well as Aramaic
wording they are similar to the well-known Aramaic
sentences of Hillel. Tradition reports two exegetical
questions, which Ben He-II® asked of Hillel (Hag.

11.-43

96). Ben He-He and Ben Bag-Bag may, therefore,
be considered disciples of Hillel ; or, as is even more
likely, both names represent one and the same person.

The peculiarity of these names may be explained
by the following anecdote (Sliab. 31a): Hillel once
convinced a proselyte of the truth of the oral law by
proving to him, in a lesson on the Hebrew alphabet,
that even a knowledge of the phonetic value and of
the order of the letters of the alphabet is not possible
without a belief in their oral transmission from age
to age. If this proselyte is identical with the disci-
ple of Hillel quoted under the above pseudonyms,
then the one name, “Ben HS-He,” may have been
chosen to indicate that “ He ” is always pronounced
“He," as the tradition shows; and the other name,
“Ben BG-BG,” to show that in the alphabet the
sequence bet gimel is fixed by tradition. That
Ben He-Hfiaud Ben Bag-Bag are identical is appar-
ently an old tradition, mentioned by Abraham Za-
cuto in “ Yuhasin.”

In Tos. to Hag. 96 Ben Bag-Bag and Ben He-
ll® are also considered to be proselytes, although
the symbolic meaning of their names is differently
accounted for. Several halakic interpretations of
Scriptural passages by Ben Bag-Bag have been trans-
mitted: of Ex. xiii. 13 (Bek. 12a); of Lev. xix. 11
(Sifra, Kedosliim, ii. 2; Tosef. , B. K. x. 38; Bab.
B. K. 2 76); of Num. xxviii. 2 (Pes. 96a; Men. 496;
‘Ar. 136; anonymously stated in Sifre, Num. 142,
and in the name of ‘Akiba in Meg. Ta'anit i.); of
Deut. xiv. 26 (Sifre, Deut. 107 ; ‘Er. 276).

There is another rabbi distinct from this elder Ben
Bag-Bag who was never cited with a given name.
He is Johanan ben Bag-Bag, possibly the son of
the former. Nothing is known about him except
that he sent to Nisibis a halakic question to Judah
b. Betera, a contemporary of Akiba, who in his re-
ply referred to Ben Bag-Bag as one noted for being
“ familiar with the chambers of the Law” (Tosef.,
Ket. v. 1; Yer. Ket. v. 29 d; Bab. Kid. 106; Sifre,
Num. 117).

j. sr. W. B.

BEN-BAflAIJ : 1. A man, at the time of the
teachers of the Mishnah (“ ‘Aruk,” s.v. spUS), whose
fist, being about the size of an adult’s head, was used
as a standard of measurement (Kelim xvii. ; Bek.
376; compare hip-bone of the giant kingOg, Tosef.,
Oh. ixv. 4).

2. The son of the sister of Johanan b. Zak-
kai, who, as one of the ringleaders of the Zealots,
burned the granaries at Jerusalem in order that the
Jews shoi 1 have to fight more desperately (Lam.
R. i. 5; Ecei It. vii. 11; Yalk., Eccl. 975). In Git.
56a the name “ Abba Sakkara ” (or, as others read,
“ Abba Sikra ” = leader of the Sicarii) occurs. Many
think that the two persons are identical (see Abba
Sakkara, Athronges).

j. SR. S. Kr,

BEN CHANANJA : 1 . A periodical published
by Leopold Low at Leipsic in 1844 with the sub-
title “Blatter fur Israelitisch-Ungarische Angelegen-
heiten.” It was an octavo containing sixty-four
pages, including four introductory ones.

2. A periodical devoted to Jewish theology, also
edited and published by Leopold Lftw, rabbi of

Ben Dama
Ben Judah

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

674

Szegedin, Hungary. It appeared at Szegedin from
1858 to 1867, covering ten volumes. Its form and
subtitle underwent various changes: the first thee
volumes were in octavo ; the last seven, in quarto.
The subtitle was at first “ Monatsschrift fur Jildische
Theologie”; in the third volume it reads “Zeit-
schrift,” etc. ; from the fourth to the ninth, “ Woclien-
blatt,” etc. , and from the thirty -eighth number of
the ninth volume to the end of the tenth, “Zeitschrift
fur Jiidische Theologie und fur Jtid. Leben in Ge-
meinde, Synagoge, und Schule.”

The ten volumes of this journal contain important
information concerning the history of the Jews in
Hungary during the period of its existence, espe-
cially in relation to the Reform movement, in which
its editor was heartily interested. Two supple-
ments containing valuable contributions by eminent
scholars appeared occasionally from 1866 to 1867.
The one, a homiletic review, was entitled “ Homile-
tisclie und Didaktisclie Beilage ” ; the other, for spe-
cial scientific research, bore the title “ Forschungen
des Wissenschaftlich-Talmudischen Vereins.” A
separate treatise, “ Der Judeneid Betrachtet vom
Mosaisch - Religiosem und Humanitarem Stand-
puukte,” by I. C. Soppron, was attached to vol. vii.
An index to both supplements was prefixed to the
tenth volume. Among notable contributors were
N. Briill, Carmoly, Criezenach, Dukes, Jost, Kohut,
Munk, Neubauer, and other able scholars.

The erudite articles contributed by the editor to
the magazine throughout its course were reissued in
his “Gesammelte Schriften,” edited by his son, Im-
manuel Lbw, chief rabbi of Szegedin.

Bibliography: M. Roest, Catalog der Hehraiea und Judaica

aus der L. Rosenthal' sclien Bibliotheh , i. 741-742, Amster-
dam, 1875.

g. G. A. K.

BEN DAMA (or DAMAH; full name,
ELEAZAR B. DAMA[H]): Tanna of the begin-
ning of the second century ; a nephew of Ishmael
b. Elisha. His inclination toward Hellenism and
the Judseo-Christians contrasted with the attitude
of his uncle, whom he once asked if he should study
“Greek Wisdom,” since he had finished the study of
the Torah. The answer of Ishmael was: “Study
the Torah day and night and ‘ Greek Wisdom ’
when it is neither day nor night.” Ben Dama died
of a snake’s bite, and the following account is given
of his last moments:

Jacob of Kefar Sama (Sakonya), a Judaeo-Cliris-
tian, wanted to charm away the deadly effects of
the bite by formulas in the name of Jesus; but Ish-
mael did not believe in such charms and would not
allow him to come in. Just as Ben Dama es-
sayed to prove to his uncle that there could be no
objection to the cure from a Jewish standpoint, he
died, and Ishmael exclaimed, “ God has shown thee
mercy in that thou didst depart in peace and didst
not transgress the law of the sages” (Tosef., Hul. ii.
22, 23; ‘Ab. Zarah 276; Yer. ‘Ab. Zarah ii. 40d).

It is not improbable that Ben Dama’s inclination
toward the Judseo-Christians was the reason that
nothing written by him was transmitted either by
the Halakah or by the Haggadah, and that neither
the Babylonian nor the Palestinian Talmud gives
him the title “ Rabbi.” His title and full name have

been preserved by the Tosefta (Hul. l.c.), which
contains a lialakic controversy between Ben Dama
and Ishmael (Sheb. iii. 4).

Bibliography: Heilprin, Seder ha-Dnrot. ed. Warsaw, 1882,

ii. 84 ; Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, 3d ed., iv. 81.

K. L. G.

BEN DAVID. See Messiah.

BEN-DA VID, ABRAHAM: Chief rabbi of
Serres, European Turkey, for 16 years (1825-41);
born 1788, died 1841 ; author of a volume of respon-
sa, “Tiferet Adam” (Man’s Beauty), Salonica, 1861.

s. M. Fr.

BEN -DER AR : Commissariat officer of Solomon,
whose district in northern Dan included Makaz,
Shaalbim, Beth - shemesh, and Elon - Beth - hanan
(I Kings iv. 9).

J. JR. G. B. L.

BEN DURAND : Diplomat and intermediary
between Abd-el-Kader and the French government ;
died at Algiers in September, 1839. Clauzel and
Valee, French governors of Algeria, also availed
themselves of his services.

s. M. K.

BEN ELASAH : A rich and prominent Pales-
tinian of about the middle of the second century.
He was the son-in-law of R. Judah ha-Nasi I., aud
is chiefly known in the Talmud as having been
made a butt of on various occasions by Bar Kap-
para (Ned. 51a; Yer. M. K. iii. 81c). It was also
said that Ben Elasah paid a large sum of money to
a barber to have his hair cut after the fashion of the
high priests (Ned. l.c. ; Sanh. 226). From these
stories it appears that Ben Elasah was merely a
rich man ; and it is highly improbable that he was
identical, as Heilprin asserts, with the R. Elasah
mentioned in Midr. Teh. ix., wdiere the following
conversation is reported as having taken place be-
tween R. Elasah and a philosopher:

“ The philosopher asks the rabbi when the prediction of the
prophet Malachi (i. 4), that the Edomites would build in vain,
would be fulfilled ; to which Ben Elasah replies that he inter-
preted the passage to mean that the evil intents of Edom [Rome]
against the Jews are frustrated by Providence. The philoso-
pher thereupon admits that the Romans annually plan to destroy
Israel, but that ‘ an aged one ’ [a wise counselor] always comes
to defeat their counsels.” [Compare Pes. 785 ; ‘Ab. Zarah 10b],

The last words are very obscure and possibly con-
tain an allusion to Antoninus, a contemporaneous
emperor, whose friendship for the Jews is a frequent
topic in Talmudic legends (see Antoninus in the
Talmud). Assuming this to be true, there would
be some, but by no means conclusive, reason for the
identification of R. Elasah with Ben Elasah.
Bibliography : Heilprin, Seder ha^Dorot, ed. Maskileison,

ii. 70.

j. sr. L. G.

BEN ELIEZER. See Behrmann, V. L.

BEN-EZRA, SOLOMON : Chief rabbi of the
Jewish community of Smyrna, Asia Minor, in the
second half of the eighteenth century, having suc-
ceeded his father, Abraham Ben-Ezra; died in 1782.
He was the author of a series of Hebrew sermons,

“ Yad Shelomoh” (The Hand of Solomon), Salonica,
1826, and of two other works, “ Bet-Metabahia ” (The
Slaughter-House) and “Bet-Abtinas ” (The House of
Abtinas).

s. M. Fr.

675

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ben Dama
Ben Judah

BEN-HADAD.- Biblical Data: A name that
would seem to mean simply “the son of Hadad,” a
well-known appellation of an Aramean and perhaps
also of an Edomite deity (see Hadad). As found in
the Old Testament, the name is applied to at least
two distinct kings of Damascus; some expositors,
however, say three. Of these, Ben-hadad I., son of
Tabrimon, son of Hezion, was subsidized by Asa of
Judah to aid him in his attack on Baaslia of Israel
while the latter was building the fortress of Ramah
(I Kings xv. 18; II Cliron. xvi. 2). The allies suc-
ceeded in their campaign ; and Asa, removing the
building material of Ramah, constructed with it
Geba and Mizpali. Ben-hadad engaged later in a
war with Aliab and unsuccessfully besieged Samaria
(I Kings xx. 12; see Ahab). The campaign re-
sulted happily for Israel, as the Syrian was over-
whelmed at Apliek, in spite of his numerous allies.
On his attacking Samaria again, his army fled with-
out giving battle, owing to a rumor that the king
of Israel had entered into an alliance with the Hit-
tites and Egyptians (II Kings vii. 6, 7).

The relations between Ben-hadad and the Assyr-
ian king Shalmaneser II. are very clear. The Syrian
forces were utterly defeated at Karkar on the Orontes
in 853 b.c., in spite of the enormous armament which
the Damascene had brought to his aid.
Ben-hadad The inscriptions of Shalmaneser in one
and Shal- passage give the number of the slain
maneser. as 20,500. With 120,000 men in 845
b.c. Shalmaneser again entered Syria
and overthrew Ben-hadad and a large army of allies.

According to II Kings viii. 7-15, Ben-hadad fell
ill and sent Hazael to the prophet Elisha — who was
then in Damascus — in order to inquire whether he
would recover. Elisha prophesied that Hazael
would be king in Ben-liadad’s stead and would do
much evil to Israel. On Hazael’s return to his mas-
ter he smothered Ben-hadad with a wet cloth and
declared himself king (see Hazard). When, in 841,
the Assyrian king once more encountered the forces
of Damascus, his chief foe was Hazael, who, it is
known, was Ben-liadad’s successor, so that the lat-
ter must have died between 845 and 841 b.c.

Some expositors deny the necessity of assuming
that the events just described should be divided be-
tween two kings named Ben-hadad, on the ground
that the period between Ben-hadad’s alliance with
Asa and Ben-hadad’s death — which, as just shown,
could not have been earlier than 845 — is too long for
the reign of one king. It is suggested, in answer to
this, that Tabrimon, the father of Ben-hadad, may
have been contemporaneous with Baaslia and Asa
for a long time, so that really not more than forty
years need have passed between Ben-hadad’s al-
liance with Asa and the death of the former.

The son of Hazael also is called “ Ben-hadad ” in
II Kings xiii. 24, 25, where he is mentioned as an
oppressor of Israel and as a contem-

Hazael porary of Jehoahaz ben Jehu (814-798
Ben-hadad. b.c.). Joash of Israel met and de-
feated this king three times and recov-
ered from him a number of cities. This Ben-hadad
II. is probably the same as “ Mari ” alluded to in
Rawlinson, “Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western
Asia,” i. pi. 35, No. 1, 1. 15, as resisting Rainman-

nirari III. between 826 and 803. The Assyrian form
“Mari ’’may possibly be an attempt to reproduce
the Aramaic title “Mare” (lord, possessor) which
may have been applied as a subsidiary name or title
of nonor to this king. This is Schrader’s view
(“C. I. O. T.” p. 212) and appears the most reason-
able, but Cheyne suggests that “ Mari ” was the cor-
rect name of the king as against “Ben-hadad.”

The name “ Ben-hadad ” in the late passage, Jer.
xlix. 27, is not a general term for the kings of Da-
mascus, but is simply an allusion to Ben-hadad I.,
son of Tabrimon, and not to Ben-hadad II., son of
Hazael. The passage in Jeremiah is probably bor-
rowed from Amos i. 4.

,r. jr. J. D. P.

In Rabbinical Literature : When Ben -hadad

demanded that Ahab should surrender, in addition
to his gold, silver, wives, and children, alsolcriD ^3
■pry (“ whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes ”)
(I Kings xx. 6), the haggadists affirm that he meant
by this expression the sacred scroll of the Torah,
which the Syrian king wanted to take away from
Ahab. Although a sinful king, Ahab would not be
responsible for such an act, but convoked the elders,
who advised him to refuse compliance with the wish
of Ben-hadad. As a reward for thus honoring the
Torah, it was granted to Ahab to reign for twenty-
two years (as the Torah is written with an alphabet
of twenty-two letters) and to conquer Ben-hadad
(Tan., Shemot, 29; ed. Buber, 26; Ex. R. iii. 8;
Sanh. 1026).

j.sr. L. G.

BEN h£. See Ben Bag-Bag.

BEN-HESED : Commissariat officer of Solomon
with residence in Aruboth in Judah (I Kings iv. 10,
R. V.). His district was Hepher and Socholi. There
being several places of the name “Socholi,” it is not
easy to decide which one is meant. The context
speaks in favor of the one near Hebron (Josh,
xv. 48).

j. jr. G. B. L.

BEN HINNOM. See Gehinnom.

BEN -HTJR : Commissariat officer of Solomon “ in
the hill country of Ephraim” (I Kings iv. 8, R. V.).

j. jr. G. B. L.

BEN JUDAH, ELIEZER: Palestinian editor;
born at Luzliky, government of Wilna, Jan. 7, 1858;
son of Judah Perlman — hence his name “Ben
Judah.” He received his early Talmudic education
at theyeshibah of Rabbi Joseph Bluckerat Polotzk,
afterward was graduated from the gymnasium of
Dvinsk (Diinaburg), and later went to Paris to
study medicine. He married in Vienna, and settled
in Jerusalem, 1881, where he has resided ever since.

After three years of hard study iu the medical col-
lege at Paris, Ben Judah developed symptoms of
consumption, and his physician ordered him to the
warmer climate of Algeria. The national idea of
the Zionist movement then absorbed all his thoughts.
He wrote a letter, dated Algiers, Dec. 21, 1880, to
the“Ha-Shahar,” expounding his political views on
Zionism, and taking exception to those of the editor,
P. Smolensky, on the Jewish problem; namely, that
Jews can foster their national spirit and the Hebrew

Ben Judah
Ben Naphtali

TIIE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

676

language in other countries than Palestine. Ben
Judah declares that it is only possible to revive the
study of Hebrew as a living tongue in a country al-
most entirely inhabited by Jews.

In the same strain he wrote in the “Habazelet,” a
weekly paper edited in Jerusalem by
Is Assist- Frumkin, with whom Ben Judah made
ant Editor arrangements to become assistant
of “ Ijlaba- editor. In one article he bitterly com-
?elet.” plains of the Alliance Israelite Uni-
verselle for encouraging and assist-
ing Russian-Jewish emigration to America, which
he calls the final burial-place of Judaism (“Habaze-
let,” 1882, xiv., No. 2). After his arrival in Jerusa-
lem Ben Judah met Michel Pinnes, an ardent Zion-
ist and Hebrew scholar, in whom he found a fellow-
enthusiast of his scheme to make the Hebrew a living
language. He made it the language of his house-
hold. The example he set was soon followed by the
colonists in Palestine, and has been successfully in-
troduced in many of the Alliance schools.

In 1884 Ben Judah began to edit and publish the
monthly supplement to the “Habazelet,” called
“ Mebasseret Zion ” ; but it did not long survive, as
his new doctrines were out of harmony with the
views of the editor-in-chief of the journal. Ben
Judah made futile attempts to obtain from the
government a firman to publish a Hebrew paper of
his own, and at last he succeeded in making use of
Hirshenson’s firman, and commenced
Es- to publish “Ha-Zebi.” His first ef-
tablishes fort was to promote the circulation of
“Ha- the new paper among the poor, who
IJebi.” could ill afford to purchase the high-
priced “Habazelet.” The first issue
(1885) was a four-page quarto and was sold for a
quarter-piaster (one cent) in the streets of Jerusalem.

The paper contained a summary of general news
and particularly Jewish topics. The editor’s princi-
pal object, however, was to propagate the settle-
ment of the Holy Land by the persecuted Russian
Jews. He also endeavored to counteract the zeal
of the English missionaries in promoting Christian-
ity among the Jews in Palestine; and to this end he
helped to organize the society called “ ' Ezrat Neda-
him.” He combated the system of the Halukkah,
which gave support to the idle poor in preference to
the industrious colonists.

These attacks naturally called forth strong oppo-
sition from all sides; the Halukah faction nick-
naming him “the leader of the Philistines.” At
length his enemies succeeded in their machinations.

The pasha suspended the paper for
“Ha-?ebi” a time and ordered the arrest of its
Suspended; editor. Even the colonists accused
Ben Judah Ben Judah of being prejudiced against
Arrested, them, owing to his connection with
the Rothschild administration, which
subsidized his paper.

Ben Judah may be regarded as the originator of
the modern type of New Hebrew, which he claims is
a necessity for the regenerated nation. Most of his
new vocabulary is coined either from the Talmudic
literature or from the Arabic, such as; “penknife” =
“buckle” = DT2N. “sympathy ” — mnN. “re-
flection ” = His adoption of the era from the

destruction of Jerusalem, by which he dates all his
writings, is not altogether new. See Responsa,
“Benjamin Ze’eb,” § 50, p. 1045, Venice, 1539.

Ben Judah’s works are: (1) “Erez Yisrael” (The
Land of Israel), a physical and geographical descrip-
tion, Jerusalem, 1883; (2) (jointly with Beer Lip-
schiitz) “ We-Yada‘ta lia-Yom ” (And Know To-day),
a Hebrew calendar for the year 5644 (1884) with
Jewish historical notes, Jerusalem, 1883; (3) (with
D. Jellin) “ Ha-Mikra le-Yalde Yisrael,” a reader for
Jewish children, with notes, 2 vols., Jerusalem,
1889; (4)“ Kizzur Dibre ha-Yamim, etc.,” an abridged
history of the Jews during their national existence
in the Holy Land, 2d ed., Jerusalem, 1894; (5)
“Milon Ivelali,” unabridged Hebrew dictionary,
with French and German translation, including all
New Hebrew words, pts. i. ii. , published Jerusalem,
1896-1900.

Bibliography: N. Sokolow, Sefer Zikkarnn, pp. 188-192,

Warsaw, 1889; Ha-'lbri, 1894, iv.. Nos.’ 14-16. copied from

Sokolow, with the addition of Ben Judah’s portrait.

d. .T, D. E.

BEN KAFRON or IBN C APRON : One of the

three disciples of Menahem ben Saruk (last third
of tenth century) who defended the honor of their
teacher against his critic, Dunash ben Labrat. Ju-
dah ben Sheshet, a disciple of Dunash, wrote a vio-
lent polemic against this controversial treatise of
the disciples of Menahem, in which he mentions the
authors of the treatise by name, and among them
mentions Ben Kafron. Moses ibn Ezra also speaks
of an Isaac ibn Kafron (Geiger, “ Jiid. Zeitschrift,” i.
238), who doubtless is identical with the Ben Kaf-
ron of Judah ben Sliesliet’s polemic. The name is
derived from the Latin caper , goat; and Judah b.
Sheshet continually and tauntingly alludes to this
name of his opponent. For the polemic of Meua-
hem’s disciples, of which Ben Kafron was joint au-
thor, and which was printed by S. G. Stern at the
same time as the refutation of Judah ben Sheshet
(“Liber Responsionum,” Vienna, 1870), see Mena-
iiem.

E. g. W. B.

BEN EALBA SABBTJA* : A rich and promi-
nent man of Jerusalem who flourished about the year
70. According to the Talmud (Git. 56«), he ob-
tained his name from the fact that any one that came
to his house hungry as a dog (Kalba), went away
satisfied (Sabbua1). He was one of the three rich
men of Jerusalem (the other two being Nakdimon
ben Goryon and Ben Zizit lia-Keset), each of whom
had in his storehouses enough to provide the be-
sieged city with all the necessaries of life for ten
years. But as these three favored peace with Rome,
the Zealots burned their hoards of grain, oil, and
wood, thus causing a dreadful famine in Jerusalem
(Git. ib. ; Lam. R. i. 5; Eccl. R. vii. 11 ; Ab. R. N.,
ed. Schechter, vi. 31, 32, in which Ben Kalba Sab-
bua1’s wealth is described as still greater).

Although the details of this account are hardly
supported by historical evidence, there is no reason
to doubt the existence of the three rich men. But
the account in the Babylonian Talmud, according
to which Akiba ben Joseph was the son-in-law of
Ben Kalba Sabbu'a, is probably without any histor-

677

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ben Judah
Ben Naphtali

ical foundation ; nor is there any reference to it in
the Palestinian sources. It tells of the secret mar-
riage of Ben Kalba’s daughter; that she was turned
away by her father; and that lie finally became rec-
onciled to her (Ned. 50« ; Ket. 626 et seq.). Compare
Akiba in Legend.

A grave, alleged to be that of Ben Kalba Sabbua',
to which the Jews pay great respect, is pointed out
about half a mile north of Jerusalem. It is men-
tioned by Benjamin b. Elijah, a Karaite who trav-
eled in Palestine (compare T. Gurland, “Ginze Yis-
rael,” i. 53). Recent excavations show that there
actually are graves on this spot; but the statement
that an inscription bearing Ben Kalba Sabbua' ’s
name was found there has not been proved (Gur-
laud, ib. p. 68; “Ha-Maggid,” viii. 28).

Bibliography : Derenbourg, Ess ai sur VHistnire de la Paten-
tin', p. 281, note ; Gratz, Oesch. dcr Juden , 3d ed., iii. 527,
528 ; Luncz, Jerusalem, pp. 92, 93.

J. sh. L. G.

BEN KOSIBA. See Bar Kokba.

BEN LA‘ANAH : Author of an apocryphal
book. The name occurs only once in Yer. (Sanh. x.
28a), where it is said that among the apocryphal
books (“sefari in ha-hizonirn”) mentioned in the Misli-
nah (Sanh. x. 1) as forbidden to be read, the works of
Ben Sira and of Ben-La‘anah are included. “Ben
Tagla,” in Eccl. R. xii. 12, is probably only a variant
of Ben-La‘anali, since this Midrashic passage is
taken from the Jerusalem Talmud. An author at
the beginning of the sixteenth century writes the
name “Ben Ya'anah ” (njJT), remarking that he has
the latter’s apocryphal works before him, and finds
them full of riddles [fables] and stupidities (David
ben Judah, Messer Leon’s manuscript commentary
on “ Moreh,” in Steinsclineider, “ Hebr. Bibl.” vii.65p
It may be inferred from the above-mentioned pas-
sage of the Talmud that Bcn-La'anah’s work was
not reckoned among the profane books, but was, like
the book of Beu Sira, included by some authorities in
the Scripture, and that for this reason the Mishnali
protested against reading it, or, more correctly,
against including it in the canon (compare Akiba b.
Joseph). M. Joel thinks that this apocryphal book
was apocalyptic in nature, whence the name “ Ben-
Tagla” (from “galali,” to reveal), and that Ben-
La’anali characterized it as a work in which the word
“wormwood” (= “La'anah ”) played an im-
portant role. Fi'irst, on the other hand, who emends
the text of the Jerusalem Talmud, takes “Ben-
La'anah ” to be a corruption of “Apollonius,” that
is, of Tyana, the well-known pagan philosopher,
and identifies Ben-Tagla with Empedocles. Perles
takes “Ben-Ta'ala” to be the original form, from
which the corruptions “Ben-Tagla” and “Bcn-
La’anali ” arose. But “ Ben-Ta'ala ” means “ the
fox”; hence the book of Ben-Ta'ala would corre-
spond to “ Mishle Shu'alim ” (The Fables of the Fox),
which are also mentioned in Jewish sources. These
are only a few examples of the various etymological
explanations to which the names “ Ben-La'anah ”
and “Ben-Tagla” have given rise.

Bibliography: Furst, Canon den Alt en Testaments, pp. 97-
99; Joel, Blicke in die Religionsphilasophie, i. 75; Kanf-
mann, in Revue Etudes Juives, iv. 161 ; Perles, ib. iii. 116-
118.

J. SR.

BEN LEB B. ZADIK. SccIbnLebbenZaddik.

BEN MEIR : Palestinian nasi in the first half
of the tenth century. His name was brought to
light some twenty years ago by several fragments
discovered in various genizoth. The fragments
contain an account of a controversy on the calendar
between Ben Mei'r and the academies of Babylon.
Introducing a new rule in the fixation of the
“ Molad ” of Tisliri, Ben Mei'r had decreed that, in
the year 922, Passover and the other Jewish feasts
should be celebrated two days before the date pre-
scribed by the traditional calendar. Saadia. who
was at that time staying at Bagdad, joined his pro-
test to that of the Babylonian academies. Ben
Mei'r, however, refused to yield to their injunctions,
denying them any authority in astronomical matters;
and, owing to his own reputation and that of his
family, won the confidence of Jews in many coun-
tries. A letter was then addressed by the exilarch
David ben Zakkai and the Babylonian notables to
Ben Mei'r, imploring him not to cause a schism and
showing him the fallacy of his calculations with
regard to the calendar. Ben Mei'r answered in an
arrogant fashion, and was then excommunicated by
David ben Zakkai and the academies. Circular let-
ters were also sent to various parts of the world,
warning the Jews against Ben Meir’s teachings.
In this manner an end was made of this agitation.

Such are the facts of this affair, which remained
unknown to the Jewish historians until the present
time. The aim pursued by Beu Mei'r in this agita-
tion is obvious. He conceived the project of trans-
ferring the dignity of the exilarch from Babylonia
back to Palestine, and he endeavored to deprive
the exilarchate of one of its most important prerog-
atives, which was the calculation of the calendar.
The moment chosen by Ben Mei'r was very propi-
tious. The exilarch David beu Zakkai had no
authority, being neither a learned man nor a very
scrupulous one ; and of the two academies at Sura
and Pumbedita, the former had no head, and the
latter was directed by the ambitious Cohen Zedek.
Ben Mei'r’s failure was chiefly due to the interven-
tion of Saadia, whose opinion on the subject of dis-
cussion, expounded in his “ Sefer lia-Mo'adim ” writ-
ten for that occasion at the request of the exilarch,
became authority. The exilarch later rewarded for
the services rendered to him by Saadia by appoint-
ing the latter gaon at Sura, notwithstanding the
disinterested advice to the contrary by Nissim Na-
harwani, who, knowing Saadia’s impartiality and
uprightness, foresaw the collisions that could not
fail to occur between the gaon and the unscrupu-
lous exilarch David ben Zakkai.

Bibliography: Harkavy, Zikarnn b. Rishnnim, v., part i., p.

212; Neubauer, iu Jeu\ Quart. Rev. ix. 36; Poznanski, ib. x.

152 ; Israel Levi, in Revue Etudes Juives, xl. 261 ; E. N.

Adler, I. Broyde, and Israel Levi, ib. xli. 224 ; Epstein, ib.

xlii. 173 et seq.

I. Br.

BEN MELAK. See Solomon ibn Melek.

BEN NAPHTALI; Masorite; flourished about
890-940 c.e., probably in Tiberias. Of his life little
is known. His first name is in dispute. Some me-
dieval authorities called him “Jacob ” ; two Tclnifut-
Kale manuscripts have “Moses b. David”; a third

L. G.

Ben Naphtali
Ben Sira

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

678

contains his autoepigraph, which unfortunately is
incomplete, only “ Ben David ben Naphtali ” re-
maining.

Ben Naphtali wrote a Bible with vowels, accents,
and Masorah, wherein he differed in some respects
from his contemporary and rival, Aaron b. Moses
ben Asher. . This Bible codex has not been pre-
served, but the differences between its author and
Ben Asher are found in more or less complete Maso-
retic lists and in quotations in David Kimhi, Norzi,
and other medieval writers. These lists are printed
in the rabbinical Bibles, in the texts of Baer-De-
litzsch and of Ginsburg, and in the latter’s Masorah,
vol. iii. The differences between Ben Naphtali and
Ben Asher number about 875, nine-tenths of which
refer to the placing of the accents JHO and N’JJS- The
remaining ones have reference to and 'S"V to
vowels, accents, and consonantal spelling. The vari-
ations may be classified as follows, Ben Asher being
referred to as B. A. and Ben Naphtali as B. N. :

(1) The proper name “13313” constitutes the first
point of difference. B. A. vocalizes
Differences it 13W', B. N. has For the

Between reading of B. N. in this case, various

the Two. sources give different accounts.

(2) Certain forms of the verb ^3b
(“ to eat ”). According to B. A. , wherever a form of
this verb occurs with a suffix and the ^ has “segol,”
the 3 has “ hatef-patah,” except in one instance
(Ecc-1. v. 10); whereas B. N. always points it with
simple “sheva.”

(3) Some forms of the verb pro (“ to drive away”).
Wherever the forms of this verb occur with a
suffix and the 3> has segol, B. A. points the ~\ with
hatef-patah, with the exception of hichl'l (Ps.
xxxiv. 1), where the 31 has “sere”: while B. N. al
ways points the “l with simple sheva.

(4) The “ dagesh ” in the n in the forms of the
word DTO. when it has two accents. According
to B. A., this word luis extra dagesh only in two
instances (Deut. vi. 11 ; I Cliron. xxviii. 11); accord-
ing to B. N., there are more instances where it has
two accents and has the extra dagesh in the n ; viz.,
Ex. ii. 7, viii. 7; Deut. vi. 11; I Cliron. xxviii. 11;
II Chron. xxxiv. 11. The term “extra dagesh”
probably means “dagesh forte,” as both consider the
dagesh in the word D'n3, whenever it has only one
accent, as a “dagesh lene.”

(5) The prefixes 3 and ^>, in words which begin

with a ’ having the vowel i. To B. A. this pre-
fix takes sheva and the ' retains its vowel. Thus
he would vocalize B. N. asserts

that the prefix takes the vowel of the ’ and the latter
loses its consonantal force; e.g.,

a feature analogous to the usage of the Syriac lan
guage. As this is also the method of the Easterns
(compare Masorah), the statement of E. Levita is
confirmed that the Westerns follow B. A. and the
Easterns B. N.

(6) The presence or absence of the dagesh in the
letters nQ3"l32 under certain conditions.

(7) Individual cases of orthography and textual
readings; e.g., B. A. reads HJ3” (I Kings iii. 20),
B. N. spells nP3” ; B. A. reads “|jnt (Isa. xxx. 23),

B. N. -jyitt ; B. A. nt3D3’ nvtn (Ez. xiv. 16), B. N.

rvnn took'.

The differences between the two Masorites do not
represent solely personal opinions; the two rivals
represent different schools. Like the
Relation of Ben Ashers there seem to have been
Both. several Ben Naphtalis. The state-
to Received mentof E. Levita (“Mas. ha-Masoret,”
Text. ed. Ginsburg, p. 144), that the West-
erns follow Ben Asher, and the East-
erns Ben Naphtali, is not without many exceptions.
Thus, for instance, in the difference concerning I
Kings iii. 20 (see above, No. 7), the Westerns are said
to agree with Ben Naphtali, while the Easterns fol-
low Ben Asher. The rule of Ben Naphtali given
under No. 5 is followed in all MSS. and printed edi-
tions, in the words Tprni|j>,3 (Ps. xlv. 10) and Drip'!?
(Prov. xxx. 17), etc. The Masoretic lists often do
not agree on the precise nature of the differences
between the two rival authorities; it is, therefore,
impossible to define with exactness their differences
in every case ; and it is probably due to this fact
that the received text does not follow uniformly the
system of either Ben Asher or Ben Naphtali. The
attempt is likewise futile to describe the one codex
as Western or Eastern.

Bibliography : Dikdulfe lia-Te'amim , ed. Baer and Strack,

p. 11; Harris, Jew. Quart.' Rev. i. 250; Ginsburg. Intro-
duction to the Masoretico-Critical Edition of the Hebrew

Bible , pp. 241 etseq.

L. G. C, L.

BEN NAZAR. See Odenathus.

BEN-ONI (“child of my affliction ”) : A play upon
the name “Benjamin.” According to Gen. xxxv.
18, it was the name given by the dying Rachel to
her son Benjamin. See Benjamin.

j. jr. G. B. L.

BEN PORATH. See Manasseh ben Joseph
of Ilye.

BEN SIRA, ALPHABET OF (NS^N 1DD

NTD |3T XIVD) : A small book containing a double
list of proverbs — twenty-two Aramaic and twenty-
two Hebrew — alphabetically arranged, and a hag-
gadic commentary on them, enriched with fables
and legends. Corresponding to their linguistic dif-
ference, there are differences in their contents and
origin ; consequently the two collections must be
treated separately. Following is a list of the Ara-
maic proverbs, concerning only four of which defi-
nite statements of origin can be made:

1. “ Honor the physician before thou hast need of him ” (see
Ecclus. [Sirac.h] xxxviii. 1 : cited also in the rabbinical sources
as a genuine saying of Ben Sira; compare Schechter, in “Jew-
ish Quarterly Review,” iii. 694, 703).

2. " If a son do not conduct himself like a son, let him float on
the water.” This means “ deliver him up to his owrn fate.”
For another explanation, see Reifmann, in “ Ha-Karmel,” ii.
126.

3. “Gnaw the bone that fails to thy lot whether it be good
or bad.”

4. “ Gold must be hammered, and the child must be beaten.”

5. “ Be good and refuse not thy portion of good.”

6. “Wo to the wicked man and wo to his companions.”
This proverb is frequently cited in rabbinical literature ; com-
pare Dukes, “Rabbinische Blumenlese,” p. 91.

7. “ Cast thy bread upon the waters and upon the land, for
thou sbalt find it after many days” (Eccl. xi. 1, with the addi-
tion of the word Rnts’irsi, " and upon the land ”).

679

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ben Naphtali
Ben Sira

8. “ Hast thou seen a black ass ? [Then! it was neither black
nor white.” (Addressed to a continued liar whose very state-
ment is a proof against itself.) [Cowley and Neubauer, p. 29,
read : “ Hast thou seen white and black ? ”]

9. “ Bestow no good upon that which is evil, and no evil will
befall thee.” The rabbinical sources characterize this as a say-
ing of Ben Sira, though it does not occur in Ecclesiasticus [it is
a slight scribal variation of Ben Sira, vii. 1] ; compare Schechter,
ib. pp. 694, 703; Cowley and Neubauer, “The Original Hebrew
of a Portion of Ecclesiasticus,” Introduction, p. xx.

10. “ Restrain not thy hand from doing good.” According to
the MS. reading in Cowley and Neubauer (ib. p. 29), the prov-
erb rans, “ Never restrain thy hand from chastising a child.”

11. " The bride enters the bridal chamber and, nevertheless,
knows not what will befall her.”

12. “ A nod to the wise is sufficient ; the fool requires a blow.”
This is cited as a maxim in Prov. R. xxii. 15.

13. “ He who honors them that despise him is like an ass.”

14. “ A fire, when it is kindled [Neubauer, ib., suggests
“little” instead of p'Sl “kindled”], burns many sheaves”
(compare James iii. 5).

15. “An old woman in the house is a good omen in the house”
(‘Ar. 19a, according to which toa in the present passage is the
status absolutus of NP3D, and is to be translated by “old
woman ” ; compare Rashi on Lev. xxvii. 7) .

16. “ Even a good surety has to be applied to for a hundred
morrows ; a bad one for a hundred thousand.”

17. “ Rise quickly from the table and thou wilt avoid dis-
putes.”

18. “ In thy business deal only with the upright.”

19. “If the goods are near at hand, the owner consumes
them ; but if they are at a distance, they consume him.”

20. “ Do not disavow an old friend.”

21. “ Thou mayest have sixty counselors, but do not give up
thy own opinion ” (Ecclus. [Sirach] vi. 6; compare Cowley and
Neubauer, ib. p. 20) .

22. “ He that was first satisfied and then hungry will offer
thee his hand ; but not he that was first hungry and then satis-
fied.” For the proper reading and signification of this proverb
see below.

The parallel citations from rabbinical literature
show that only five of these twenty-two proverbs
are known to Talmudic-Midrashic literature ; conse-
quently they can not be regarded as being drawn
from it. It is noteworthy that two of them, Nos.

17 and 22, agree almost literally with

Origin of two of Ahikar’s proverbs, Nos. 43
the and 71 (in the Syriac). A compari-

Proverbs. son reveals the fact that No. 17 is to
be read 3”"lD NYinD 103, in

which the four d’s make a paronomasia. Similarly
No. 22 of the Alphabet shows that the manuscript
reading of No. 71 of Ahikar is correct in omit-
ting “not.” The meaning of No. 22 is that one
grown suddenly rich is accustomed to the niggardly
ways of his poverty, and is not free in giving; but
a rich man grown poor will remain true to habits of
generosity.

Since the book of Ahikar is very probably de-
rived from Jewish sources, its agreement with the
proverbs of Ben Sira is not particularly remarkable;
for although Ben Sira is not the real author of the
Alphabet, the proverbs are undoubtedly olden cur-
rent Jewish adages. This is evident especially from
the language in which they are written, which is far
from being a learned imitation of a later style, but
is of archaic Aramaic character. As Aramaic rendi-
tions of the real Ben Sira (compare Zunz, “G. V.”
2d ed., p. 110) existed at the time of the Amoraim,
and probably earlier, it is possible that the Alphabet
may have sprung from an Aramaic collection ; that
is, a later author may have made an alphabetical list
of proverbs from the many genuine and spurious
sayings of Ben Sira.

The accompanying Hebrew commentary, which
explains every proverb, and illustrates its correct-
ness with legends and tales, is much more recent.
It is true that, with the exception of the mythical
Uzziel and Joseph (p. 8 has R. Jose, probably the
same as Joseph), the son and the grandson of Ben
Sira (compare Joseph ben Uzziel), no authorities
are cited by name ; yet there is no doubt that the
commentary availed itself of the Talmud and the
Midrasliim.

Thus the commentary begins with a citation from
Sanli. 446; and the whole section following is but
an elaboration of this Talmudic pas-

The Com- sage and of B. B. 1216. More than a

mentary. dozen such citations can be pointed
out. An especially interesting fact
concerning the commentary is that it combines the
fable told in Eccl. R. (v. 8) of the lion and the grass
that revives the dead (on Nos. 7, 9 ; ed. Venice, pp.
56, 7), with a totally distinct one. The author in-
deed betrays a general inclination to give stories
from the Talmud and the Midrash in a modified form,
which, no doubt, in many cases was that current
among the people. Moreover, the author in all like-
lihood drew upon Midrashic sources now unknown ;
and this would account for many differences be-
tween the Haggadah in its present form and the Hag-
gadah of the Alphabet.

It is impossible to determine the date at which the
commentary was written, but it was probably about
1000, the end of the gaonic period. Concerning the
locality of its composition there is no doubt. In the
first place, the stress laid upon never omitting the
formula Dt^n *1TU DN, “ if God wills ” (on No. 11 ; ed.
Venice, pp. 96, 10a), shows that it originated in a
Mohammedan country; for the use of formulas was
introduced to the Jews by the Mohammedans. In
the second place, the exact words of an Arabic prov-
erb are cited (on No. 22; ed. Venice, p. 16a) with
the phrase “ There is a proverb among the ‘ goyim ’ ”
(Gentiles); and a writer living among Christians
would not refer to the Mohammedans as “goyim.”
Moreover, the commentary alludes to the arbitrari-
ness of the Mohammedan ruler (No. 8; ed. Venice,
p. 6), and in another passage denounces the divorces
frequently occurring among the Arabs and their
Jewish countrymen.

The author combats exaggerated piety, the in-
dulgence of children, and yielding to enemies (on
Nos. 5, 9, 13; ed. Venice, pp. 4, 6, 7, 10, 11). The
virtues which he particularly recommends are pray-
ing (on No. 1), almsgiving (on Nos. 7, 10; ed. Ven-
ice, pp. 46-6, 76-9a), respect for the aged (on No.
15; ed. Venice, pp. 12a, 13a), exclusive intercourse
with the upright, and constancy in friendship. The
manner in which the author imparts moral instruc-
tion at the end of the proverbs by a happy combina-
tion of Haggadah and legend shows him to be a
clever writer, and one who knows how to treat his
subject. Some of the notions may seem strange to
the modern mind ; but this is the case with many
Midrasliim.

The so-called second Alphabet of Ben Sira is quite
different in character from the other, and belongs to
a much later period. It consists, as stated, of twen-
ty-two Hebrew proverbs with a commentary upon

Ben Sira
Ben-Ze’eb

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

680

them. Half of the proverbs are borrowed from the
Talmud ; aud it is clear that some of
The Second them are divided into several proverbs
Alphabet, in order to preserve the desired num-
ber of twenty-two, the number of
letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The other half con-
sist of platitudes whose form and contents betray a
lack of literary training. But the proverbs them-
selves are of secondary interest for the author, whose
main purpose is to use them as a basis for the legends
which he not unskilfully groups about the person of
Ben Sira.

The account begins with the remarkable birth of
Ben Sira. He is represented as the son of Jeremiah,
and was born with the physical and mental powers of
an adult. In fact, the proverbs were made by him
when as a one-year-old child he was sent to a teacher,
and was taught the alphabet by him. As his teacher
began to say the alphabet, Ben Sira interrupted him
by giving a proverb which corresponded to the let-
ter about to be taught him. His fame for wisdom
reached Nebuchadnezzar, who sent for him, and at
whose court Ben Sira gave many proofs of his wis-
dom, which are described by the commentator.

The alleged intercourse between Ben Sira and
Nebuchadnezzar is the invention of the author,
while the miraculous birth and early history of Ben
Sira are a Jewish echo of a Christian legend, in which
Jesus Ben Sira is made to play the part of Jesus of Naz-
areth. According to the “ Evangel of the Childhood
of Jesus,” a pseudepigrapli written in Arabic (Thilo’s
“Codex Apocryphus Novi Testam.” i. 122 et seq .),
Jesus spoke to his mother (chap, i.) while he was
still in the cradle, and said: “I, whom thou hast
brought forth, am Jesus, the son of God.” Ben
Sira, likewise, had teeth when he was born and
could talk, for he at once told his mother who he
was, whence he came, his name, and what he would
accomplish (ed. Venice, 17a, 4). Furthermore, just
as the “Evangel” chap, xlviii.) mentioned above
narrates that Jesus, while a schoolboy, astonished
his teacher by explaining the names, form, and order
of the Hebrew letters — in this book Ben Sira is said
to have done the same. The story of the extraordi-
nary conception of Ben Sira by his mother, p. 164,
is evidently a parody of the familiar Christian
dogma.

The chief interest attaches to the animal fables,
which are of great value for comparative folk-lore.
The following may serve as an instance: At the crea-
tion of the world God consigned a male and a female
of every kind of animal to the sea. When the Angel
of Death (“Malak ha-Mawet”), who was charged
with the duty of sinking them in the water, was
about to take the fox, that animal began to cry.
The Angel of Death asked him why he did this.
The fox answered that he wept because his friend
had been condemned to live in the water; and going
to the shore, he pointed to his own image in the
water. The Angel of Death, believing that a fox
had already been sunk, allowed him to go. Levia-
than, the ruler of the sea, now tried to lure the fox
into its depths, because he believed that if he could
eat the heart of so cunning an animal he would gain
in ■wisdom. One day, while the fox was walking
by the sea, some fishes came and spoke to him. They

told him that Leviathan was nearing his end and
wanted the craftiest of animals to be his successor.
The}" promised the fox to carry him to a rock in the
sea where he could erect his throne without fear of
the surrounding waters. When he reached the high
seas the fox knew that for once he had been tricked;
but he did not lose his self-possession. “What!”
said he. “It is my heart you want, is it? Well,
why did you not say so before? I would then have
brought it here; for usually, you know, I do not
carry it with me.” The fish quickly conveyed him
back to the shore, and in exultation lie leaped about.
The fish called to him to fetch his heart and come
with them ; but the fox replied : “ To be sure, I went
with you when I had no heart ” (the ancients consid-
ered the heart the seat of wisdom) ; “ but now I have
my heart, I’ll stay here. I got the better of the
Angel of Death; how much easier, then, to fool
stupid fish ! ” (Ed. Venice, pp. 27a-284 ; partly given,
according to the MS. version by Schorr, in “He-
Haluz,” viii. 170, 171.)

A comparison of this fable with the Indian fables
as given in the “ Pancliatantra ” and “ Kalila and
Dimna,” shows that the author fused three into one.
Evidently the story of the fox and the Angel of
Death has no connection with the story of the fox
and the fish. The latter is identical with the Indian
fabler of the ape and the crocodile (“Pancliatantra,”
iv. 1 ; French translation by E. Lancereau, pp.
271-278, Paris, 1871), which corresponds to the fable
of the ape and the turtle in “ Kalila and Dimna ”
(Hebrew version, ed. Derenbourg, pp. 128-138, Paris,
1881 ; Syriac version, ed. Bickell, pp. 49-52, Leipsic,
1876). The end of the fable, as told in the Alpha-
bet, does not belong to this fable, but to the Indian
one of the lion, the jackal, and the ass (“Panclia-
tantra,” iv. 3, 285-288; “Kalila and Dimna,” He-
brew, pp. 139-142; Syriac, pp. 52, 53). The author,
however, did not draw upon the “Pancliatantra,”
but upon some version of the “Kalila and Dimna,”
as is evident from the fact that in the latter the two
fables are joined, while in the “ Pancliatantra ” there
is no direct connection.

It is difficult to decide which version of Bidpai
Ben Sira drew upon, since the date of the compo-
sition of the Alphabet has not been
Date. determined. The earliest authority
who cites the little book is the author
of the ‘Aruk, s.v. ed. Koliut, vi. 450; but it

is doubtful in what form he knew it; and there is
reason to suppose that it underwent changes— in-
sertions and elaborations — in the course of time.
Yet it is probable that Abraham ben Nathan in the
second half of the twelfth century was acquainted
with the legends and fables of the book as it now is
(compare the citations from the manuscript of Abra-
ham ben Nathan in “Jewish Quarterly Review,”
iii. 685). Maimonides did not know of the book ; for
the remark in his Mislinah commentary on Sanli. x.
1 shows that he obtained his opinion of Ben Sira
from the Talmud (l.c. 100).

In spite of Maimonides’ disparaging opinion of
the book, it has survived; and, to judge from the
many manuscripts, both the Alphabets and the com-
mentaries had a certain popularity, though mostly
among the unlearned. The commentary on the sec-

681

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ben Sira
Ben-Ze’eb

one! Alphabet is really nothing more than a collec-
tion of legends and fables common among the Jews
of the Middle Ages. It is to be expected that such
a book should be full of absurdities; and it is not
just in Reifmann, Epstein, and Neubauer to stigma-
tize it as an intentional “ mockery of Jewish litera-
ture.” Oriental popular books — and the second part
of Ben Sira came from Arabia or Persia — contain
much that is vapid together with good specimens of
popular wit and charming fables.

Bibliography : Editions, Manuscripts, and Translations :
First ed., Salonica, 1514, not known to the bibliographers, but
of which one copy is in possession of Elkan N. Adler, and
another of L. Schwager in Husiatyn ; second ed., Constanti-
nople, 1519; only one complete copy known, that in the Brit-
ish Museum; the Bodleian copy is defective; third ed.,
Venice, 1544, very rare; most later editions are based on
this one, hut are, however, badly mutilated. Steinschneider
published a reprint of this edition with a comparison of the
MS. with a MS. at Leyden, under the title Alphaheticum
Syracidis , Berlin, 1854. The Bodleian Library has several MSS.
with some variations from the printed text. The proverbs have
been translated into Latin, French, and German ; in Cowley
and Neubauer, The Original Hebrew of a Portion of Eccle-
siasticus , Introduction, pp. 38, 29, the First Alphabet has
been translated into English, and the whole book has been
translated several times into Judieo-German, and once into
Judaso-Spanish. Compare Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. cols.
303, 206 ; Van Straalen. Catalogue , p. 24. Literature : Ep-
stein, M i-K ad m onit /o t ha-Yehudim , pp. 119-124 ; Reifmann,
in Ha-Karmel (monthly), ii. 124-138 (in this work there are
many errors along with some good observations); idem , in
Keneset Yisrael , ii. 135, 136 ; Dukes, Rahbinische Blumen-
lese, pp. 31, 32, 67-84 ; Zunz, G. V., 2d ed., p. 11 ; Schorr, in
He-Haluz, viii. 169-173; Jellinek, in Monatssclirift, ii. 430;
idem, in his Introduction to B. H. vi. 11-13.

T. L. G.

BEN TEMALION : A demon mentioned in the
Talmud. When the Jewish sages, with Simon b.
Yohai at their head, went to Rome to obtain the
revocation of certain edicts hostile to the Jews, the
demon Ben Temalion appeared before them and of-
ered his services. He proposed to enter into the
body of a princess of the imperial house, and not to
leave her until Simon b. Yohai was asked to cure
her; for in her madness she would call for him. On
Simon b.Yoliai’s whispering the name “ Ben Tema-
lion ” into the ear of the princess, he would leave her,
and as a sign of his departure all the glass in the
palace would break. At first the sages did not wish
to make use of his services ; but as they could think
of no other means of obtaining favor for their re-
quest, they could not dispense with his help.

Everything then took place as Ben Temalion had
predicted. As a reward for the princess’ cure, Simon
b. Yohai received permission to take whatever he
wished from the imperial treasure-house. He found
the anti-Jewish edicts there, and, taking them, tore
them up (Me'ilali 17ft). In the Talmud this legend
occurs only in shortened form; but a more elaborate
version is given in the “Halakot Gedolot,” ed. Hil-
desheimer. pp. 603, 604; in the apocalyptic Midrash,
“ Tefillat R. Simon b. Yohai ” ; in Jellinek, “B. H.”
iv. 117, 118; and in a MS. printed in ib. vi. 128, 129.
Rashi also, in his commentary on the passage in
Me'ilali, cites a Haggadali which gives the legend in
a form essentially varying from the one in the Tal-
mud. R, Gerslion, in his commentary on the pas-
sage, and the so-called Rashi, in Habib’s “ ‘Eu Ya'a-
kob ” on the passage, give an Aramaic version, which
is probably the older form of the legend.

In more than one respect this legend is of great
interest for comparative folk-lore, occurring, as it
does, also in the Christian legends of the saints and

in Buddhist tradition. It is related of the apostle
Bartholomew that he went to India and there freed
the daughter of the king from a devil which pos-
sessed her. Instead of accepting a reward, he caused
a devil to enter an idol and then bade it leave the
statue. Thereupon this statue and all others in the
temple were broken (Fabricius, “Codex Apocry-
phus N. T. ” i. 674 et seg. ; Tischendorf, “ Acta Apos-
tol. Apocrypha,” 246 et seg. ; Migne, “ Dictionnaire
des Apocryplies,” ii. 153-157).

The kinship of this with the Jewish legend can
not be denied. Yet it is highly improbable that
the names of the demon Ben Temalion and Bar-
tholomew are the same, the saint in the one story
becoming the demon in the other. Such a metamor-
phosis, indeed, is not impossible; but, in this event,
the demon would be expected to be hostile and not
friendly to the Jews; and the fact that other ety-
mologies suggested for the name “ Ben Temalion ”
are hardly acceptable, provides no argument in favor
of its identity with “ Bartholomew. ” The Buddhist
legend, which is probably the source of the Jewish
and Christian legends, is as follows; A demon, de-
siring to please a man, promises to enter into a prin-
cess and not to leave her until bidden to do so by
certain words spoken by the man. This happens;
the man obtains the princess as his wife and receives
one-half of the king’s realm (“ Panchatantra,” ed.
Benfey, i. 520; ed. Lancereau, p. 20).

The French Jews considered Ben Temalion a
kind of “lutin” (goblin or brownie), who in French
folk-lore is friendly and helpful to man, but teases
him. The Tosafists (on Me'ilali l.c.) remark that
Ben Temalion has the appearance of a child and is
wont to have his sport with women. Whether this
was the original representation of Ben Temalion is
very questionable.

Bibliography : Griinbaum, in Z. D. M. G. xxxi.332: HaKwy,
in Revue Etudes Juives, x. 60-65; Israel Levi. ill. viii. 300-
202, x. 60-73; Lebreeht, in Geiger’s JUd. Zeit. xi. 273-278 (he
holds that Ben Temalion was originally the name of a Senator
friendly to the Jews); Schorr, in He-Haluz, viii. 123.

J. SR. L. G.

BEN-TIGLA. See Ben-La'anah.

BEN UZZIEL. See Hirsch, Samson Ra-
phael.

BEN YASUS. See Isaac ibn Jasos ibn

Sartar.

BEN ZAKKAI. See Johanan b. Zakkai.
BEN - ZE’EB, JUDAH LOB : First Jewish
grammarian and lexicographer of modern times;
born near Cracow 1764; died at Vienna March 12,
1811. He received the religious education common
to the Jews of Poland in those days. He married at
a very early age and settled in Cracow in the home
of his wife’s parents, where he spent his days in
studying Talmud, and his nights in clandestinely
acquiring the knowledge of Hebrew philology and
of secular subjects. The financial embarrassment
of his family compelled him to seek
Admitted his fortune in another land, and he
to the naturally gravitated toward Berlin,
Haskalah. which was then the center of the “ Has-
kalah”; i.e., the movement to spread
enlightenment among the Jews by means of Neo-He-
braic and German studies. Ben-Ze’eb was soon ad-

Ben-Ze’eb

Benaiah

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

682

mitted to the galaxy of brilliant scholars and pioneers
■of Haskalah, who were to some extent considered as
the disciples and successors of Moses Mendelssohn.
Later, for about ten years, he lived in Breslau, where

he wrote and published
his Hebrew grammar,
“Talmud Leshon
‘Ibri,” in 1796. Two
years later he pub-
lished his Hebrew trans-
lation of Ecclesiasticus,
or Ben Siracli, which
is called by Delitzsch
(“Zur Geschichte der
Judischen Poesie,” p.
110) a masterpiece of
imitation of Biblical
gnomic style. Ben-
Ze’eb returned from
Breslau to Cracow, and
later settled in Vienna
as corrector in the Hebrew printing establishment of
Anton Schmid, where he remained till his death.

Ben-Ze’eb is the author of many valued works;
his Hebrew poetry is marked by the purity of its
diction and is not devoid of originality and profun-
dity (Delitzsch, ib.). He was the first to systematize,
in the Hebrew language itself, Hebrew grammar,
to arrange it methodically and to facilitate the mas-
tery of a good style by introducing logic, syntax,
and prosody as part of grammatical studies. This
accounts for the great success of his “Talmud
Leshon ‘ Ibri,” which work is an immense improve-
ment over former Hebrew grammars and a step
toward the introduction of Western methods in He-
brew literature. It has since been republished with
additions, annotations, and commentaries more than
fifteen times, and is still the most popular Hebrew
grammar in use among the Jews of eastern Europe.
The Wilna edition of 1874, with the commentary
“ Yitron le-Adam ” by A. B. Lebensohn, is the most
improved, and has been republished several times.
His second great work, the “Ozar ha-Shorashim,”
a Hebrew lexicon (based on a similar work by David
Kimhi), in which the roots are translated into Ger-
man, went through six editions up to 1880, and has
helped tens of thousands to become
Gram- familiar with the German language
matical and with secular knowledge. It is
Works. true that Ben-Ze’eb was not strictly
scientific in the modern sense, and that
his works do not come up to the standard of Western
Hebraists, even of his own time ; but great numbers
have been taught by him to understand the lan-
guage of the Bible and to express their thoughts in
it, in localities and under circumstances in which
other and more scientific means were not available.

Ben-Ze’eb is easily the foremost grammarian among
the Galician Hebraists, the latter never attaining
great prominence in the study of Hebrew (see Weiss-
berg’s “Die Neuhebraische Aufkliirungsliteratur in
Galizien,” p. 30, Leipsic and Vienna, 1898). His
clear and logical style, added to his exactness and
thoroughness, renders him a favorite with lay read-
ers and students alike. Ben-Ze’eb is the author also
of “ Melizah le-Purim,” a collection of mock-prayers

and selihot for Purim, which contain many clever
parodies on familiar texts. This work has been
often published with Kalonymus ben Kalony-
mus’ celebrated Talmudical parody, “Maseket
Purim. ” In his “ Mebo ” — introduction to the Bible
(which, since its first publication, has appeared in
several editions of the Bible), Vienna, 1810 — Ben-
Ze’eb follows the theories mainly of Johann Gott-
fried Eichorn. Ben-Ze’eb’s “Mesillat lia-Limmud,”
for elementary scholars in Hebrew, has been trans-
lated into Italian by Leon Romani, Vienna, 1825;
and into Russian by A. J. Papirno, Warsaw, 1871.
“Torat Leshon ‘Ibri, Hebraische Sprachlehre” is a
German revision of his Talmud by S. J. Cohen, of
which the first part appeared in Berlin in 1802, and
three parts in Dessau in 1807. Five more editionsap-
peared up to 1856. Ben-Ze’eb also contributed to the
“ Meassefim” over the signature “ J. L. C. ” (Judah LOb
Cracow). The memory of Ben-Ze’eb is abhorredby
the Hasidim, who attribute to him the same miserable
death which orthodox Christians assigned to Arius.

Bibliographv : Fiirst, Bibl. Jud. i. 105, 106; Zeitlin, Biblio-
theca Hebraica , pp. 22-26 ; Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael , p. 392 ;

Gratz, Gesch. der Juden , 2d ed., xi. 122 ; Jost, Annalen.

1840, ii. 62, 63. •

L. G. P. Wl.

BEN ZITA. See Eleazar ben Zita Abu al-
Sari.

BEN ZOMA : Tanna of the first third of the sec-
ond century. His full name is Simon b. Zoma with-
out the title “ Rabbi ” ; for, like Ben ‘ Azzai, he re-
mained in the grade of “pupil,” and is often
mentioned together with Ben ‘Azzai as a distin-
guished representative of this class (see Ben ‘Azzai).
Like Ben ‘Azzai, also, he seems to have belonged to
the inner circle of Joshua b. Hananiah’s disciples;
and a halakic controversy between them is reported
in which Ben Zoma was the victor (Naz. viii. 1).

His erudition in the Halakali became proverbial ;
for it was said, “Whoever sees Ben Zoma in his
dream is assured of scholarship ” (Ber. 575). He
was, however, specially noted as an interpreter of
the Scriptures, so that it was said (Sotah ix. 15),
“With Ben Zoma died the last of the exegetes”
(“darslianim”). Yet only a few of his exegetic
sayings have been preserved. The most widely
known of these is his interpretation of the phrase,
“ that thou mayest remember the day when thou
earnest forth out of Egypt ” (Deut. xvi. 3), to prove
that the recitation of the Biblical passage referring
to the Exodus (Num. xv. 37-41) is obligatory for
the evening prayer as well as for the morning prayer.
This interpretation, quoted with praise by Eleazar
b. Azariah (Ber. i. 5), has found a place in the Hag-
gadah for the Passover night. In a halakic inter-
pretation Ben Zoma explains the word “ naki ” (clean)
in Ex. xxi. 28 by referring to the usage of the word
in every-day life (B. K. 41<x; Kid. 565; Pes. 225).

The principal subject of Ben Zoma’s exegetic re-
search was the first chapter of the Torah, the story
of Creation. One of his questions on this chapter,
in which he took exception to the phrase “God
made” (Gen. i. 7), has been handed down by the
Palestinian liaggadists (though without the answer),
with the remark, “This is one of the Biblical pas-
sages by which Ben Zoma created a commotion all
over the world ” (Gen. R. iv.). An interpretation of

Judah Lob Ben-Ze’eb.

683

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ben-Ze’eb

Benaiah

the second verse of the same chapter has been
handed down in a tannaitic tradition (Tosef., Hag.
ii. 5, 6; compare Hag. 15a), together witli the fol-
lowing anecdote: Joshua b. Hananiali was walking
one day, when he met Ben Zoma, who was about
to pass him without greeting. Thereupon Joshua
asked: “Whence and whither, Ben Zoma?” The
latter replied : “ I was lost in thoughts concerning
the account of the Creation.” And then he told
Joshua his interpretation of Gen. i. 2. When speak-
ing to his disciples on the matter, Joshua said, “Ben
Zoma is outside,” meaning thereby that Ben Zoma
had passed beyond the limit of permitted research.

As a matter of fact, Ben Zoma was one of the four
who entered into the “ garden ” of esoteric knowledge
(see Ben ‘ Azzai). It was said of him that he beheld
the secrets of the garden and “ was struck ” with men-
tal aberration (Hag. 146). The disciples of Akiba
applied to the limitless theosopliic speculations, for
which Ben Zoma had to suffer, the words of Prov.
xxv. 16, “Hast thou found honey? eat so much as
is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith,
and vomit it” (Tosef., Hag. l.c. ; Bab. Hag. l.c. ;
compare Midr. Mi side on xxv. 16).

Even the few sentences of Ben Zoma that have
come down to us show the depth of his thoughts;
as, for instance, his reflections on seeing large crowds
of people (Tosef., Ber. vii. [vi. ] 2; Ber. 58a):

“ Ben Zoma, seeing the crowds on the Temple mount, said,
‘ Blessed be He who created all these to attend to my needs.
How much had Adam to weary himself with ! Not a mouthful
could he taste before he plowed and sowed, and cut and bound
sheaves, and threshed and winnowed and sifted the grain, and
ground and sifted the flour, and kneaded and baked, and then
he ate ; but I get up in the morning and find all this ready be-
fore me. How much had Adam to weary himself with ! Not a
shirt could he put on before he sheared and washed the wool,
and liatcheled and dyed and spun and wove and sewed, and
then he clothed himself ; but I rise in the morning and find all
this ready before me. How many trades are anxiously busy
early in the morning : and I rise and And all these things be-
fore me ! ’ ”

Also liis reflections on man as the guest of God in
this world (ib.) :

“ A grateful guest says, ‘ That host be remembered for good !
How many wines he brought up before me ; how many portions
he placed before me ; how many cakes he offered me ! All that
he did, he did for my sake.’ But the ill-willed guest says,
‘ What did I eat of his ? A piece of bread, a bite of meat. What
did I drink ? A cup of wine. Whatever he did, he did for the
sake of his wife and his children.’ Thus the Scripture says [Job
xxxvi. 24], ‘Remember that thou magnify His work, whereof
men have sung.’ ”

Again, take bis fourfold motto (Ab. iv. 1) on the
truly wise, the truly rich, the truly powerful, and
the truly esteemed. In the closing words of Eccle-
siastes, “for this is the whole man,” he finds the
thought expressed, that, the pious man is the crown
and end of mankind ; the whole race (“ the whole
world”) was created only to be of service to him
who fears God and respects His commandments
(Ber. 66; Shah. 306; see ‘Aruk, s.v. DT1V. 5). Ben
Zoma is also the originator of the beautiful sentence,
“Hast thou, in repentance, been ashamed in this
world, thou wilt not need to be ashamed before God
in the next” (Ex. R. xxx. 19).

Bibliography: B&cher.AgadaderTannaiten.i. 429; Frankel,

Darke ha-Mishnah , pp. 134-136 : Graetz, History of the Jews ,

ii. 358, 381 ; Weiss, Dor , ii. 126 ; Braunschweiger, Lehrer der

Mischnah , pp. 257-259.

j. sr. W. B.

BENAIAH (Hebrew, “Benayahu” or “Bena-
yah,” “ the Lord hath built ”). — Biblical Data : 1.
One of the Bene Parosh who took foreign wives
(Ezra x. 25); in I Esd. ix. 26 he is called “Baauias.”

2. One of the Bene Pahath-moab in the same list
(Ezra x. 30), called “Naidus” in I Esd. ix. 31.

3. One of the Bene Bani in the same list (Ezra x.
35); he is called “Mabdai ” in I Esd. ix. 34.

4. One of the Bene Neboin the same list (Ezra x.
43); he is called “Banaias” in I Esd. ix. 35.

5. A Simeonite chief (I Chron. iv. 36).

6. Son of Jeiel, and grandfather of the Jaliaziel
who brought a message of encouragement to Jehosh-
apliat (II Chron. xx. 14).

7. Father of Pelatiah, the prince of the people
denounced by Ezekiel (Ezek. xi. 1, 13).

8. The Pirathonite, one of the thirty valiant men
of David (I Chron. xi. 31 ; II Sam. xxiii. 30), com-
manding the army in the eleventh month (I Chron.
xxvii. 14).

9. A Levite singer (I Chron. xv. 18), who also
played in the Temple service (I Chron. xv. 20, x vi. 5).

10. A priest, one of those who “did blow with
the trumpets before the ark” (I Chron. xv. 24,
xvi. 6).

11. A Levite in the reign of Hezekiah, who as-
sisted in keeping the offerings brought to the Tem-
ple (II Chron. xxxi. 13).

12. Son of Jehoiada, a priest (I Chron. xxvii. 5)
who distinguished himself in military affairs under
David, and later on in Solomon’s reign. Three of
his exploits are particularly mentioned: (1) the
slaughter of the two Ariels of Moab; (2) the killing
of a lion that had been trapped in a pit: Benaiah de-
scended into the pit and there battled with the beast;
(3) the overthrow of an Egyptian or a Mizri. from
whom he wrenched his weapon and slew him with it
(II Sam. xxiii. 20-22 = I Chron. xi. 22-25). Officially
Benaiah held various positions. He commanded the
Cherethites and Pelethites (II Sam. viii. 18, xx. 23);
was placed by David over the guard (I Chron. xi. 25;
II Sam. xxiii. 23); and commanded the army in the
third month (I Chron. xxvii. 5). In Adonijah’s at-
tempt at the kingship, Benaiah sided with Solomon (I
Kings i. 8 et seq.) and took part in proclaiming the
latter king. On the death of David, Benaiah, by
order of Solomon, put Joab and Adonijah to death
(I Kings ii. 25). Later Benaiah succeeded to the
supreme command of the army (I Kings ii. 35).
Along with the other priest Abiathar, Benaiah acted
as one of the counselors of King David (I Chron.
xxvii. 34; the reading “Jehoiada ben Benaiah” is
evidently wrong).

j. jr. G. B. L.

In Rabbinical Literature: The Rabbis taught

that'Benaiah was president of the Sanhedrin under
David (Ber. 4a). His position as leader of the Jew-
ish scholars is declared to be indicated in II Sam.
xxiii. 20, the verse being expounded as follows:
Benaiah was a man, Tl ty’N p (“son of a valiant man,”
A. Y. ; Hebr., “son of a man living ”), who could be
called “alive” even after his death; “who had done
many acts ” ; of “ Kabzeel,” i.e. , he was very active in
behalf of the Torah (“kabaz,” he collected; “el,” for
God). “ He slew two sons of Ariel.” There was no

Benamozegh

Benash

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

684

one like him either at the time of the first or of the
second Temple, Ariel, “lion of God,” being a sym-
bolic name for Temple. “ He went down and slew
a lion in the midst of a pit in the time of snow,” may
be interpreted either that he broke the ice in order
to perform prescribed ablutions, or, figuratively,
that he studied on a winter’s day the great and
abstruse book, Sifra (Ber. 186 ; Targ. II Sam. l.c.).

Benaiah also occupied an eminent position under
Solomon, being his chancellor and best friend.
When the queen of Sheba was coming to visit Solo-
mon, the latter sent Benaiah, whose beauty resem-
bled the morning star, to meet her; he shone among
his companions like Venus among the other stars
(Targ. Sheni on Esther i. 2; ed. Munk, p. 9). When
the queen saw him, she thought him Solomon, and
was about to fall on her knees before him ; when he
told her who he was, she said to her companions :
“ Although ye have not seen the lion, ye have seen his
den; judging by Benaiah, ye may form for yourselves
an idea of Solomon ” {l.c. p. 10). When Solomon re-
turned to Jerusalem after his long wanderings (com-
pare Solomon in Rabbinical Literature), he at
once went to Benaiah and reminded him of the times
past, giving such details that the latter could not
doubt that he was talking with Solomon (Midrash
“ Shir lia-Shirim,” ed. Grtinliut, p. 30«; compare Git.
686; see also Jellinek, “B. H.” vi. 124-126). In the
cabalistic literature Benaiah is counted among the
thirty pious ones who exist in every generation in
order that the world may continue (Zoliar i. 1056;
compare i. 66).

j. sr. L. G.

BENAMOZEGH, ELIJAH: Italian rabbi;
born at Leghorn in 1822; died there Feb. 6, 1900.
His father (Abraham) and mother (Clara), natives

of Fez, Morocco, died
when Elijah was only
four years old. The
orphan early entered
school, where, besides
instruction in the ele-
mentary sciences, he
received tuition in
Hebrew, English, and
French, excelling in the
last-named language.
Benamozegh devoted
himself later to the
study of philosophy
and theology, which he
endeavored to recon-
cile with each other.
At the age of twenty -
Elijah Benamozegh. five he entered upon

a commercial career,
spending all his leisure in study; but his natural
tendency toward science and an active religious
life soon caused him to abandon the pursuit of
wealth. He then began to publish scientific and
apologetic works, in which he revealed a great at
tacliment to the Jewish religion, exhibiting at the
same time a broad and liberal mind. His solicitude
for Jewish traditions caused him to defend even the
much-decried Cabala. Later, Benamozegh was ap-

pointed rabbi and professor of theology at the rab-
binical school of his native town ; and, notwithstand-
ing his multifarious occupations from that time, he
continued to defend Jewish traditions by his pen
until his death.

Benamozegh was the author of the following
works: (1) “Emat Mafgia' ” (The Fear of the Oppo-
nent), a refutation of Leon de Modena’s attacks upon
the Cabala, in 2 vols., Leghorn, 1858; (2) “Ger
Zedek ” (A Righteous Proselyte), critical notes on
Targum Onkelos, ib.t 1858; (3) “Ner le-David ”
(Lamp of David), commentary on the Psalms, pub-
lished together with the text, ib., 1858; (4) “Em la-
Mikra ” (Matrix of Scripture), commentary on the
Pentateuch containing critical, philological, arche-
ological, and scientific notes on the dogmas, history,
laws, and customs of the ancient peoples, published
together with the text under the title “Torat
Adonai,” Leghorn and Paris, 1862-65; (5) “Ta'ani
la-Shad ” (Arguments for Samuel David ), ref-
utation of Samuel David Luzzatto’s dialogue on the
Cabala, Leghorn, 1863; (6) “Mebo Kelali,” general
introduction to the traditions of Judaism, published
in “ Ha-Lebanon,” 1864, pp. 73 etseq.\ (7) “Storia
degli Esseni,” Florence, 1865; (8) “ Morale Juive et
Morale Chretienne. Examen Comparatif Suivi de
Quelques Reflexions sur les Principes de l’lsla-
misme,” Paris, 1867; (9) “Teologia Dogmatica ed
Apologetica,” Leghorn, 1877; (10) “Le Crime de la
Guerre Denouce a PHumanite,” Paris, 1881 (this
work won for its author a medal and honorable
mention from the Ligue de la Paix, on the propo-
sition of Jules Simon, Edouard Laboulaye, and
Frederic Passy); (11) “Ya'aneli be-Esh” (He Will
Answer Through Fire), discussion of cremation
according to the Bible and the Talmud, Leghorn,
1886.

Besides writing these works, Benamozegh con-
tributed to many periodicals, his more important
articles being : “ Spinoza et la Kabbala, ” in “Univers
Israelite.” xix. 36 etscq.-, “La Tradition,” ib. xxv.
20 et seq.-, “Intorno alia Cabbala,” in “II Vessilo
Israelitica, ” xli. 3 etscq . ; “II Libro di Giobbe,” in
“ Educatore,” ix. 325 et seq. ; “ Dell’ Escatologia,” ib.
xxv. 203 et seq.

Bihi.iography : Lattes, Vita ed OperediElia Benamozegh,

Leghorn, 1901; Fuenn, Keneset Tisrael, p. 100; De fiuber-

nafis, Dizionarin Biograhco, p. 135 ; Zeitlin, Bibl. Hebraica,

p. 19.

s. I. Bn.

BEN ARY, FRANZ FERDINAND : German

Orientalist; born at Cassel March 22, 1805; died at
Berlin Feb. 7, 1880. The exact date of Benary’s
conversion to Christianity has not been ascertained,
but it is known that, after studying theology and
philology at the University of Bonn, he continued
his theological studies at Halle (1824-27), where his
attention was first turned by Gesenius to the Orien-
tal languages. In 1827 he went to Berlin, and in
addition to the theological courses there, of Hegel,
Sclileiermacher, Neander, and Marheineke, he at-
tended Bopp’s lectures on Sanskrit, by which he
was deeply impressed.

While acting as privat-docent of Oriental lan-
guages at the Berlin University (1829-31), he pub-
lished the old Hindu poem “ Nalodaya ” (1830).

685

THE .JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Benamozeg-h

Benash

In 1831 lie became assistant professor of theology.
His lectures were principally on Biblical literature
and exegesis, Semitic languages and paleography.
Among his writings on these subjects, published
chiefly in the “Jahrbiiclier fur Wissenschaftliche
Kritik,” should be mentioned his treatise “De He-
bneorum Leviratu,” Berlin, 1835, which won for
him the degree of D.D. from the University of Halle.

Bibi.iography : RrocKhaus, Conversations-Lexikon, 13th ed.;

I.e Roi, Gesch. der Evangelischcn Judenmission.

BEN ARY, KARL ALBERT AGATHON :

German philologist; born at Cassel 1807; died 1860;
brother of Franz Ferdinand Benary. He received
his education at the gymnasia of Gottingen and
Erfurt, studied classical philology (1824-27) at the
universities of Gottingen and Halle, and obtained
his degree of Pli.D. with the thesis “De/Eschyli
Prometheo Soluto.” While teacher at a Berlin gym-
nasium, he continued, together with his brother, his
philological studies at the university under Bopp.

From 1833 until his death Benary was professor
at the so-called Colnische Realgymnasium at Berlin,
and at the same time lectured in the university.
He was one of the first linguists who applied the
methods of comparative grammar to Latin and
Greek. Unfortunately his work “ Die Romische Laut -
lelire Sprachvergleichend Dargestellt, ” 1837, vol. i.,
remained a torso. Most of Benary ’s essays were
published in the Berlin “Jahrbucher fur Wissen-
schaftliche Kritik,” and in Kuhn’s “ Zeitschrift fur
Yergleichende Sprachforschung. ” In 1848 he sided
with the Liberal party. Like his elder brother, lie
•embraced Christianity.

Bibliography : AUgemeine Deutsche Biographic, vol. ii. ; I.e

Roi, Gesch. der Evangelischen Judenmission , 1899, p. 210:

Sctiulnaehricliten des COlnischen Realgymnasiums, Berlin,

1801.

BENAS, BARON L.: English communal
worker; born in Liverpool, England, 1844. Has been
throughout his life a leading figure in the Liverpool
Old Hebrew congregation, of which he is one of the
trustees.

During the Russian emigration of 1882 he helped
to found the Liverpool branch of the Russo-Jewish
committee, on which was thrown most of the or-
ganizing work connected with the emigration
from Russia through England into the United
States.

Outside the community he has been president of
the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society,
to the transactions of which he has contributed many
papers on economic, social, and antiquarian topics,
including one on the history of the Liverpool com-
munity, 1900.

Bibliography : Harris, Jewish Year Bonk, 1901, p. 245.

BENASH (or BENUSH), BENJAMIN:

Cabalist of the beginning of the eighteenth century ;
son of Judah Lob Cohen of Krotosehin, Prussia.
He wrote the “ Shem-Tob Katan ” — extracts from al-
leged works of Isaac Luria and Moses Nahmanides,
and containing various prayers and formulas illus-
trating the practical application of the Cabala.
Among others there is a prayer by Moses Nahmani-
des for making oneself invisible to robbers while on
a journey — the writer adds that he tried it himself
and found it efficacious — and another prayer for ex-
tinguishing a conflagration. Conceived in the same
spirit is his other book, “ Amtahat Binyamin ” (Ben-
jamin’s Bag).

Bibliography: Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. p. 790; Benjacob,

Ozarha-Sefari/m , pp. 44a, 592.

K. P. B.

END OF VOL. II.

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